New York City

Jesus, New York is a beautiful place.

This weekend was a long weekend, so I took the bus over from Boston, where Berklee is, to New York City to stay with friends and see the city. I also had my faith restorted in ebay/humanity, courtesy of a free ticket to the Yankees game. It was Bernie William's last home game, so that was neat to see. He is a class act, a great player, a Yankee lifer, and last but not least, a great guitar player.

I don't know what intrigues me so much about the Big Apple. Trust me, I'm a southern boy and I bleed sweet tea, but something about New York, espescially Manhattan, really gets to me. Maybe it's Central Park, the "Manhattan Countryside," as I like to think of it. Maybe it's the fact that I grew up in suburbia, which was screaming for something bigger, something with more life. That's probably why I drifted down the interstate to Atlanta most of the time. And New York is the ultimate city, the ultimate urban experience. Maybe it's the sense of history I get when I'm there, or maybe it's the fact that I live in Boston, which tries so desperatley to be New York City. In fact, the real name for the Boston Garden is "Boston's Madison Square Garden." I think Sox fans hate the Yankees out of jealousy.

But anway, the City has been really good to me. I found 20 bucks in Washington Square Park, and like I said before, I scored a free Yankees ticket on eBay. It was a single seat, so it sold for 5 bucks, and they guy emailed me the ticket, so he said he wasn't worried about getting paid for it.

I think all this is God's way of feeling sorry for me for the raping that all my teams endured this weekend. Tennessee got things off with a bang by losing, at home, to Georiga. Then, the Falcons lost in the last 20 seconds by an Adam Vinateri field goal. I don't even want to think about what happened in baseball. But I keep watching the replays of that Brad Ausmus home run, thinking that maybe, by some miracle, one replay would show Ryan Langerhans catching it and the series headed back to Atlanta. But 'taint so, and I have to get over it.

That doesn't mean I will.

Anyway, back to the city. Times Square is really cool. I wonder how much the dude who makes Cup Noodles paid for that big, illuminated Cup of Noodles up there. It's amazing to me, al lthe lights and colors and stuff. Big chain restaurants like ESPN Zone share city blocks with small; family run places like Edison Cafe. I keep expecting to run into Jerry Orbach or Jesse L. Martin one of these days when I'm over there, watching them keep the streets safe. The subway system is great, I've never waited more than 5 minutes for a train.

The only thing is there are no public bathrooms. I swear I walked 40 blocks before I finally found a Starbucks that had one, and by that point, I was almost back to my friend's dorm. But still, in GA it's a law that if you serve food you need a bathroom. In New York, it's almost like a law that you can't have one.

Anyway, I've done a lot more playing. Lots of two things: chickin pickin and bebop. Now this might seem like a weird combonation, but it's what I do. Mo owns people with the high heat and breaks your bat. I play country and bebop. I listen to shit like Pat Metheny, the Yellowjackets, Jimmy Bruno, as well as all that stuff.

I have intense conversations with my roomate.

Him: "TONY IOMMI IS GOD"

Me: "You're retarted."

Him: "JIMI HENDRIX IS GOD."

Me: "Shut up, I'm watching baseball."

Him: "BILLY IDOL IS GOD"

Me: "Go practice or something."


This provides a nice segue into doing what I do to avoid Berkleefolk...I hit the gym. I swear most people here are allergic to air or something. The gym is the one place where there's a 100% chance of me not finding a stereotypical Berklee kid. Speaking of the gym, I'm headed there now. So, later, yall take care.


John