So yeah, we went on one of those open top tourist bus rides yesterday. "hop on, hop off" so they say, so we got off at the Empire State Building after catching the bus at Times Square and rode 89 floors to the top of the highest building in Manhattan. Bit of an Anti-climax actually, after the Rockefeller building, but it had to be done I suppose. It is REALLY high, but you spend so much time queuing to go up there AND to get back down as well. I can't imagine how romantic proposing to someone up here could be. It would be like, "Will you, sorry, excuse me, marry, HEY - WATCH IT! - marry me?". Fuck that.
So we're making our way out of the Empire State and some guy stops and makes us listen to some of his hip hop. It's not bad. Pretty well produced and we tell him so. We ask him about Music Venues, he re-affirms what we'd already heard about the Knitting Factory in the Tribeca area.
We get back on the bus and make our way downtown until Greenwich village, passing some 9/11 commemoration/tribute tiles on the way. We're informed by our guide that these will eventually be moved to the site of the new WTC once it's finished. It's actually quite a moving sight to behold...
At the village we disembark and continue to Tribeca on foot. It's a bit of a hike, but we eventually find the Knitting Factory. It's deserted at this time of day, but the guy manning the box office gives us a copy of 'The Village Voice' so we can see what else is on (and where) this week. We make our way back to an archetypal NYC diner that we passed on our way, and peruse our newly aqcuired copy of 'The Voice'. Turns out there's not a lot on at all, apart from some hardcore band that are actually playing the Knitting Factory on Thursday night - so I'll let you know how that goes later in the week.
We make our way back uptown, through Chinatown and Little Italy (making a note to revisit this area for food at some point - some of the Italian cuisine we saw people munching on looked delicious - and it's quite reasonable too price-wise). Anyway, we head up to Allen St & Delancey, cos the handy bus route map suggests there's a pick up spot there. After two busses drive past we figure the 'Hop on/off' slogan on the map is a tad misleading, so we walk up first avenue to 34th and cross over to the hotel.
After freshening up we head out to Alphabet City, to the club we were recommended on Sunday night, HIFI. It turns out to be pretty cool. We try some different beers, the jukebox is some kind of Internet-aware, Mac driven monster, packed with loads of Indie/Rock music. It played some 'Quicksand', a band I am destined to fall in love with, but somehow keep avoiding. I may try and find some of their stuff while we're here...
After about 4 pints we go to Manitovas, a bar owned by a member of punk band whose name escapes me right now, suffice to say they probably weren't that big in the UK, but the place is decorated with loads of cool pictures of Bowie and The Ramones etc. Nice place, but a bit quiet, so we head over the road to another place I can't remember the name of, but they serve this 'Banana Beer' and... well, it's all a bit foggy after that, but I remember having some long chats with some of the regulars. And I have all these contact details in my pocket now.
Oh yeah, and I'm still reeling after almost losing my passport. That could have so easily been a total disaster. Just as well we had no intention of leaving at a reasonable time. As I was saying to JC earlier, "Just because the bars are open 'til 4am doesn't mean we have to stay there 'til 4am". Doh. My head hurts.
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