“The Ramones own the fountain of youth. Experiencing us is like having the fountain of youth” Joey Ramone
Friday August 29th 8am. Another amazing day and night yesterday. From the eclectic Coney Island to the trendy East Village to the grandeur of the Empire State Building. The East Village is full of bars, tattoo shops and restaurants full of gorgeous young things. All I wanted to do is find Joey Ramone Place, a street named after the late lead singer of The Ramones. Well we walked everywhere and asked a heap of locals, most of them too young to know what I was talking about. We got clear directions from one woman about our age but we still couldn’t find it. I’ve just checked Google and there is no doubt we were right there. Problem is, the street sign is the most stolen sign in NYC! They even raised it 20ft to stop the theft so we wouldn’t have seen it anyway. This is what I was after!
Anyway it was fun walking the backstreets of East Village. Found a fantastic punk and vintage clothing store where Lynda found a beautiful retro summer dress, which was the only thing not made of leather, studs and denim. We also went to Katz’s Deli, famous for the scene in “When Harry Met Sally”. Magic place and so rich with history. The tables are formica and the place is run like a machine. The walls are literally covered in photos of the owner and celebrities. We had a signed Bill Clinton photo at our table. No chance of knocking it off without dying first.
We shared a pastrami sandwich the size of my left arse cheek, some fries and a salad which we urgently needed to avoid scurvy developing the way I’ve been eating. Never had pastrami before so the waiter sensing we were from out of town went and got us a taster of all the meats on the menu to help us decide. It was very tasty, but the trouble with these sandwiches is you can’t eat one on your own. Doggy bags are all the go. Oh..and we still found time for a slice of NY Cheesecake and coffee before we left. I disgust me.
From there back on the subway and a short trip to the Empire State. Got there about 11pm and still plenty of people around (go home to bed everyone!). Apparently the queue for the Empire State is insane during the day so this was a good suggestion by Lynda and it gave us a chance to see the city at night. All up it still took 25 mins to get thru the queue and security, and we stayed for about an hour up the top. I was shit scared to be frank, but Lynda was in her element having scaled glaciers and mountains in The Rockies and Alaska in the past. The viewing platform itself is quite dark and I kept bumping into people. Imagine trying to propose on one knee up there? “Darling, will you…aww watch it mate..dickhead.” “You talkin’ to me?” and next thing you’ve got a full blown brawl at 86 stories!
Got home about 1.30am. Starting to push the boundaries now! Not bad for a couple of oldies eh? So many people still operating like it’s 8pm. The NY versions of the milk bar are all open. I love them and not just because they have featured so much in films like Taxi Driver but it’s their ingenuity with their product merchandising that is so astounding. There isn’t much you can’t buy from one of these places that are all the size of a shoebox. No space is wasted and if it’s not displayed he’s probably got it behind the heavily reinforced fortress that makes up his service counter.
“Hi, could I have a packet of gum, a AA battery, an outboard motor and a box girder bridge please?”
“No more bridges till tomorrow, here’s the gum, battery and motor. $35.”
“Thanks very much.”
“Grunt”
Left to Right: 1 & 2 – Katz’s Deli including the sign that show’s where the infamous scene in “When Harry Met Sally” was filmed 3. Mural in East Village 4. Punk and Vintage Shop East Village 5,6 & 7 – Top of Empire State 8&9 – Lobby of Empire State
Newman: I’m a United States postal worker.
Jerry: Aren’t those the guys that always go crazy and come back with a gun and shoot everybody?
Newman: Sometimes.
Jerry:Why is that?
Newman: Because the mail never stops. It just keeps coming and coming and coming. There’s never a letup, It’s relentless. Every day it piles up more and more, but the more you get out, the more it keeps coming. And then the bar code reader breaks. And then it’s Publisher’s Clearinghouse day.
Jerry: All right, all right!!
8pm back in Brooklyn and absolutely stuffed. Had our first real negative experience at the local post office. We had to send some stuff back to Melbourne like gifts for the kids, family etc and I swear the US postal worker who was on duty made Newman from Seinfeld look like Mary Poppins! Define poor customer service any way you like…this guy had it in spades. I won’t go into too much detail but we and the rest of the customers lining up were so annoyed with his complete contempt for all of us. Nearly 2 hours later our stuff was in the mailbox! I was so close to making a smart arse comment but my fear was he would wait till we had gone and turn the word Australia on the address to Austria with some white out! Anyway we had some laughs with the locals in the queue at the Post Office Nazi’s expense.
First stop Times Square to collect our tickets to the Harlem Gospel tour on Sunday morning. Looking forward to that but will need to look smart for a change if we are going to get in the church. It’s also Labor Day weekend this weekend and there is an annual festival going on at the park up the road. According to the locals it starts at 4am and goes all day! This part of Brooklyn is heavily Jamaican so it should be a colourful day.
After getting the tickets we went to The Natural History Museum. Spent a couple of hours there and it was very nice. The highlight for us was the stuffed animals behind glass. I much prefer them moving but you couldn’t help thinking they were alive and taking us for fools. No wonder the movie Night at the Museum was so successful.
Anyway we decided that we would do a bit of hunting down some sights from our favourite movies and TV but first an awesome salad in Times Square. My lower intestine won’t know what hit it! All week it’s been lying on a banana lounge watching hot dogs and donuts flying past so it’s time to get to work and start distributing some goodness!
We started with Taxi Driver of course. The map we had, said a spot in the Upper West Side. The map doesn’t tell what scene or anything so you need to work it out. We got there and to me it looked like the electoral office where Sybil Shepherd worked, but it’s now a bank. I went into the bank and asked a bank man in a suit, “Sir is this where Taxi Driver was made?”. “Not sure what you mean sir”. “You know, the movie. I think this is the electoral office. Can I take some photos from inside? I recognize this view.” “Certainly not sir”. By this time he is signaling to the cop inside the bank that “we’ve got a live one”. Then I grab Lynda from on the pavement and drag her in! “Look! This is it! I know those windows”, and Lynda starts walking towards the window to get a closer look. Little do we know that there are staff at their desks working and Lynda is now in their workspace! I could feel the cop gently reaching towards his “safety” and I quickly grabbed Lynda and bolted out the door. This behavior isn’t all that different to Travis Bickle in the actual movie when he goes into the building to ask for an explanation as to why Sybil rejected him. Not good.
From there it was further uptown, still upper west side, to a spot on the map for one of my favourite films of all time let alone NYC movies, Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters. Not sure what we were looking for as the only clue was the words, “Pomander Walk”. We had no idea but found a local elderly couple who told us that it’s a small former lane to some small houses. I still won’t know the significance till I get home and watch it for the 10thtime but we found it! Lynda did her best to look all Mia Farrow for the photos in her new vintage dress!
Across 110th Street
Pimps trying to catch a woman that’s weak
Across 110th Street
Pushers won’t let the junkie go free
Across 110th Street
Woman trying to catch a trick on the street, ooh baby
Across 110th Street
You can find it all in the street, oh
(Across 110thSt, Bobby Womack)
Then it was onto Seinfeld! Firstly we got on the wrong subway line and ended up in Harlem at 110thSt, popped up to street level and were surrounded by black guys who looked a tad more menacing than our Brooklyn locals. We looked like 2 worms popping up waiting to be snatched by a magpie! A lovely local lady confirmed we were lost and we decided to get a cab because you have to wait 15mins to use your subway card again. 15 mins was enough time for the locals to hog tie and perform a range of despicable acts on us with little resistance so we took the cab option.
Then it was to the sight of Monks café in Seinfeld! Ok it’s not where they filmed it but it’s real and the balustrades have the 4 names on them. Lynda did her best Elaine dancing impression which got laugh from a local! Inside we had pie and coffee just like George and Elaine! How old are we…15? Ahh who gives a stuff we loved it! Seinfeld quotes have been flying at high speed since we got here so we really lapped up the experience. Just for an hour in our lives, we WERE George and Elaine!
Quiet night tonight. Hope all’s well at home. Cheers, Willow and Lynda
Left toRight: 1 to 5 – Museum of Natural History 6 – The electoral office from Taxi Driver. Now a bank! 7 – Lynda in front of the place where Hannah and Her Sisters was filmed 8 – The real thing 9 – 16 Monks Cafe the home of Seinfeld
