Loz Blog: Home of the Ghotsbusters

CELEBRITY SIGHTING STRAIGHT OFF THE PLANE !!! Well, I’m not sure how much of a celebrity he is to Australians, but as we were waiting for a cab at JFK Airport, the bloke in front of us in the line was English boxer Chris Eubank. I’ll admit, his boxing prowess had nothing to do with me recognising him. It was due to the Louis Theroux documentary I had coincidentally watched a few months ago. But I would still call that kicking things off with a win.

Chris Eubank: File Photo

To quote my third favourite Golden Girl, “Picture it…” New York, March 24, 2010, me and my mum (Mary) both hit America for the first time ever and after our Eubank spotting, we’re in a cab heading to our Manhattan apartment. I don’t want to say this dude was a bad driver, because the truth is, I have no idea what sort of a driver he would be if he actually tried. But since driving seemed to be about fifth or sixth on his list of priorities that day, he was a little all over the shop, not unlike a mad woman’s shit.

Our apartment was awesome. We were staying on 46th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues, pretty much over the road form the United Nations. I think this put us in Midtown.

(Click on photo for the full, hi-res version)

U.N.

Since we didn’t get to the apartment until after 7pm, we didn’t have much time to see anything that night, but we did go for dinner at a nearby diner. The food was great, but the best part was their Complimentary Pickle Bar. I don’t think I had ever eaten a pickle in my life, but those things are awesome. Unfortunately, that was the only Complimentary Pickle Bar I would see on the trip.

For me and Mary, the number 1 goal for New York was to see a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. I checked online and the best way to get last minute tickets is to show up at the Ed Sullivan Theatre around 9am most mornings. So on out first full day in NYC, that was our plan. That was cool because it also meant our first venture into Times Square. I’m sure a lot of people dismiss Times Square because it’s so full of tourists, but I loved it… Because I was a tourist. If you’re only in New York for a short time, it has everything you need to make sure you tick all the big things off your list. Tours, souvenir shops, Letterman, comedy clubs, Broadway shows, famous gear to take photos of etc.

But back to Letterman, we got to the theatre only to find a sign saying the show was on hiatus and the earliest you could tickets was Saturday for the following week’s taping. So now that our only goal for the day was an impossibility, we were at a bit of a loss. Luckily, New York has a few things to do… And dudes selling bus tours on every single corner. So we bought a package of tours that would take us Uptown, Downtown, a night tour, Brooklyn and a cruise around the entire island of Manhattan.

Then, it was off to Rockefeller Centre / NBC Studios, home of 30 Rock and formerly Late Night with Conan O’Brien. We did a studio tour which was really cool. They guarantee you will get to walk on the set of 2 shows. Like everyone, I was hoping for Saturday Night Live, but we got the Nightly News and The Today Show. The Today Show set was actually really cool though, it’s the one with the windows to the street where people stand with signs and stuff. We also did Top of the Rock, which is the observation deck at Rockefeller Centre.

That night we did the first of our tours with the Night tour. It took us though Downtown, then across the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn to get a view of the Manhattan skyline at night.

Dowtown Manhattan from Brooklyn

Brooklyn Bridge and Midtown Manhattan

The next day, we did the cruise around the island. This was pretty awesome with great views of the Statue of Liberty, all of Manhattan, New Jersey, Yankee Stadiun in the Bronx, Ground Zero and the spot in the Hudson River where old mate landed that plane. This was also the day when the weather turned. The first day had been sunny and warm. This day was over cast and cold and it basically got worse by the day until we left.

Ellis Island

That afternoon we did the Uptown Tour around Central Park and through Harlem. Speaking of Harlem, I didn’t feel like I could be shot at any moment. I’m sure New York still has plenty of dodgy parts, but I couldn’t believe how clean it was and how polite the people were. There was one subway stabbing while we were there though.

Dana Barret's apartment from Ghostbusers, Central Park West

Friday night, I was in the apartment and had just finished my last stubbie. Mary was in bed and I though I would pop next door to buy another 6 pack. As I was getting dressed, I thought, “This is possibly the only Friday night I will ever have in New York… I should go out”. So I left a note for Mary and asked the door man where the nearest bar was. The first 3 or 4 I went to were all a bit boring and I only stayed for 1 drink. But the next one really paid off. I was at the bar having a drink and started talking to a girl. After a little while, a friend came looking for her. Turns out they were at a wedding reception and the friend was the Groom. Me and him got to talking and by the end of the night, I was leaving their wedding reception some time after 3am. Good times.

The next day we did our Brooklyn tour. Brooklyn is definitely my kind of town. Apparently they hate that they’re part of New York and see themselves as a separate entity. I like that attitude. And it just seems like it has all the good tuff about Manhattan with nowhere near as many people to get in your way.

Saturday was finally Letterman Ticket Application Day. Again, we got up early and schlepped all the way up to Broadway to line up for tickets. Well, not even tickets. We lined up to apply for tickets. We’d have to wait an entire day before we knew if we were successful or not.

After that, we did the Downtown tour. Downtown seems pretty boring with all the Business District stuff, but it did have 2 cool things. Chinatown, which I admit, I only saw from the bus, but it looked awesome. And Tribeca / Greenwich Village. I only stumbled across Tribeca because I was looking for the firehouse from Ghostbusers (Mission: Accomplished), but it was a really cool place. It was the only place I saw in Manhattan that had a real “neighbourhood” type feel. We also saw Ground Zero that day which is juts a construction site these days.

Battery Park

A piece of the World Trade Centre, now in Battery Park

Ground Zero

Who you gonna call ?

Sunday, we made the call in the afternoon and we had scored Letterman tickets for the next day !!! That night, I headed to a comedy show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre called Asssscat 3000. Asssscat is a really popular, really successful improv show. Usually, I think improv is the laziest form of comedy, but UCB has a lot of actors and comedians I really like, so I gave it a chance. As I was waiting in line for the show, I piece of paper was blowing down the footpath towards me with a girl chasing it. Being the awesome dude I am, I thought I’d help. So I picked it up as it blew past me. As I bent / squatted down to get it, I heard my pants split. Not in the back, but down the front, parallel with my fly. Now, I don’t want to say it was a big rip, but it was handy to finally be able to accurately measure the distance between “Asshole” and “Breakfast Time”. But by this stage, I had already lined up for almost 2 hours to get tickets, and was now lining up again for the actual show, so I wasn’t going anywhere. As long as I kept my hands in my jacket pockets, I could pull the jacket down low enough to cover the tare. And it was worth it. The show was awesome and had 2 of my favourite sitcom actors from 2 of my favourite sitcoms. Jack McBrayer (Kenneth from 30 Rock) and Amy Pohler (Lesley from Parks and Recreation). The show also included Horatio Sanz from Saturday Night Live (who use to suck on SNL, but was great in this show) and Joe Randazzo, Editor of the Onion. It was a long subway ride home though covering my torn duds.

Amy Pohler: File Photo

Jack McBrayer: File Photo

Monday, it was time for the main event, Letterman !!! Word of warning, if you want to see Letterman, you have to put aside half a day. We were told to be at the studio between 3.30 and 4.30. We got there early and were still at the back of the line that went all the way round the corner to the Hello Deli (reference for Letterman fans). Then after an hour, we get inside. Not to watch the show, but to collect our tickets. We have to come back in another hour to line up for the actual show. Which we did and finally got into the studio for the taping around 6.30. The guests that night were Nathan Lane and Zooey Deschanel’s band, She and Him. The show was awesome, Dave was hilarious and I managed to download the episode when I got home.

Nathan Lane: File Photo

She and Him File Photo

Screens Shots From the Actual Episode

On our last day in New York, we finally got to 2 spots we’d been trying to see all week, Central Park Zoo and Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial in Central Park. A great last day in a great town.