New York makes you gay

Not really, but NYC does get pretty gay and interestingly, is probably part of the reason why it's so vibrant. It's only from this perception that you understand the big hullabaloo in Singapore about getting in the pink dollar and why there's a "need" to create vibrancy to do so - although personally I think it's really a chicken and egg thing in terms of vibrancy leading to more attractive place for "alternative" lifestyles leading to creation of more vibrancy, etc etc.

Day 3 was perhaps the least satisfying bit of my time in NY (thus far and let's hope it stays this way) - a result of bad luck (admittedly, testing my luck at every juncture) and just generally wandering around on 2.5 hours of sleep. Why 2.5 hours of sleep? Well, yours truly wanted to go get some standby tickets for a NYC fixture...yes, ladies and gentlemen, live from New York, it's Saturday Night Live!

Or not. Waking up at 5:30am makes you realise that when you try to take the subway early in the morning on a Saturday, you really want to make sure you find a way to not miss the train. Because if you do, IT'S A FUCKING LONG WAIT. Personally, I must have spent half an hour waiting for a train ride that takes about 12 minutes. Like, WTF, man. Anyway, arriving outside Rockefeller Centre, where NBC Studios is located, at the ungodly hour of 6:45am makes you realise that there are way too many clowns who like SNL despite the trash that it's sorta become (I blame Jimmy Fallon).


Mad about SNL.

I did manage to get myself a standby ticket, numbered at only 62 for the 'live' taping of the show. Considering there are 300 seats, that meant yours truly needed about 20% of the people with seats to give up theirs before one could stand a chance (guests for this week: Jack Black and Neil Young). So naturally, much later in the day, I decided to screw this and not watch the damn thing.

Stevie, one of the British exchange kids, was supposed to meet up with me but like all Brit guys who spent the previous day getting plastered (apparently David, another one of the Brit kids, was busy stealing bottles of vodka at a private party for the Brits - see yesterday's entry), couldn't wake up. So after receiving a wake-up call from your correspondent, we ended up meeting nearby and heading to an Irish pub to watch his beloved Aston Villa against Manchester United. Unfortunately, Villa sucked (sucks? - sorry Stevie, it's the truth) and the final result was 2-0, but John, Stevie's brother who was in town, seemed a pretty happy lad (along with the usual random bar 'expert', a rabid Man U fan who was bitching about having to sell out his stake to Malcolm Glazer). I had my first taste of a 'Irish Country Breakfast' - good thick bacon, toast, potatoes, sausages, eggs and black and white pudding. To quote a certain Frankie Valli, grease IS the word.

So I bade farewell to a heartbroken Stevie and met up with Candice, one of the Singaporean UVa kids who was in town, and we proceeded to try our hand at the lottery tickets for Avenue Q (there are 12 given out, and everyone gets a choice of either 1 or 2). This being Broadway, the person who gave out the tickets was obviously very gay - when someone asked for 1 ticket and got picked, he asked if anyone was willing to take 1 ticket and abandon their friends. Some lady did and naturally his reaction was "Oh, you're a cold-hearted bitch."

Not much success for the afternoon queue and unfortunately the same story with the dinnertime lottery tickets (Saturday afternoon matinee performance had actually a small set of people trying for the lottery tickets). What makes these tickets really interesting is the fact that you pay something like $21.25 for each ticket and you get FIRST TWO ROWS seating. Possibly some of the best seats in the house (or worst, depending on stage elevation) but why they do this is almost beyond me. It's good fun, though, particularly if you win it. You really should see the audience cheering on when someone isn't present during the draw and he gets picked - a forfeited pick, in reality. Anyway, yes, audience - bunch of cold-hearted bitches, to quote our favourite gay Broadway ticket dealer.

So amidst this failure, we headed to Chinatown for lunch (Candice and I, not all the cold-hearted bitches). Some searching for a dim sum place brought us to a place creatively named Oriental Food Restaurant. Not much of a spectacular affair but very typically Chinatown - guys who only speak Cantonese (but somehow understood our mandarin and of course our orders of har kau and siew mai), table-sharing and service without a smile.

"
"Why am I paying so much for this pau?"

Post lunch, our destination was Ground Zero, where Candice wanted to check out Century 21 (hidden agenda...women and shopping...). Ground Zero is actually very near Brooklyn Bridge, the bridge which connects Manhattan to Brooklyn (no shit). Despite being pretty far south of Manhattan, it's really quite a lively area and pretty scenic too.


The area around Brooklyn Bridge is just as built up, despite being the link to the world outside of Manhattan.


Okay, so I just might be in need of a haircut...

Ground Zero is obviously an important historical site. I've not had the luck to be in New York prior to this and I think it's difficult to comprehend the deep sense of loss Americans, but particularly New Yorkers, would feel. You see a pretty vast area of emptiness but the thought that 2 magnificent structures of modern architecture used to be there just doesn't seem to be plausible - it's just so very empty. I don't know about most others but for me, many of these historical sites just seem to carry such a sense of poignance that standing there and soaking it in almost gives you the ability to relive a bit of that history.


Ground Zero and surrounding architecture, Part 1


Ground Zero and surrounding architecture, Part 2


America: Home to conspiracy theories.

Otherwise, today was relatively boring - did some shopping at Century 21 (huge but I can't stand shopping for more than 1 and a half hours at a go - was ready to kill someone at the end of it all) and bumped into quite a number of the NY BSM kids from SMU, including Divya, Kairen, Dot and Faizal. They were spread out over Chinatown and Century 21 no less (and those who know Dot and Faizal can imagine where they were). Shower time - part 2 of today's post coming up next.