Dec 13, 2016

I woke up earlier than I expected to coming off a couple of nights without a lot of sleep. I went to pick up Becca and got on the road to New York. We started off by stopping at Terri to pick up a chickpea melt and meatball sandwich along with the butterfinger milkshake that I haven't had in a long time. Definitely a good choice. We spent a while trying to find parking near the Brooklyn Bridge and sat there eating before walking out across the bridge. Becca had never done it and it was a gorgeous day. Lots of people on the walkway, but not the worst I've seen. It was a perfect day to walk around.

We planned on going to Torst, but we happened upon a little brewpub around the corner that caught our eye. I half expected it to be a bit boring, but it was such a great place! The bartender was super friendly, jovial, and energetic. There was '90s music on the radio, she was dancing, and, to my surprise, the beer was fantastic! They have an IPA that's amazing, a decent sour, and probably one of the best English bitters I've ever tried. Well done, Keg & Lantern Brewery. Thanks for giving us great beer and a place to sing Britney Spears and Savage Garden. As it turned out, Torst didn't have anything on the menu that seemed enticing for once so I'm glad we found it.

It was probably good that we didn't have more beer anyway because we had a pretty long rush-hour drive across the Queensboro Bridge to the west side of Manhattan. We stopped at Vinnie's Pizza first for dinner carbs that made us both a little sleepy. Still worth it. I got to the meeting place in Hell's Kitchen quite early so I could get all my gear set up and prepare my questions for the interview. Once I was satisfied we sat in the car while I played Battleship and crosswords on my phone until Lucinda arrived.

I met Lucinda at La Bergamote, a French cafe, where she had gotten me a coffee. She was amazingly sweet and we had a great little chat to get to know each other before we started filming. It was a perfect way to break the ice and calm the nerves on both sides. I want to integrate that into future interviews. Once that was out of the way we headed off to the secret location where we climbed 10 flights of stairs and set up the cameras in the stairwell because we needed the lighting. It was a little awkward, but I think we made it work.

The interview itself went really well for the most part. I felt like I could improve a bit by not sticking to my pre-planned questions as much and rolling with the conversation. Lucinda told some great stories and I think we got good stuff. After that we climbed up the ladder to the roof where she has done many photo shoots to get a nice view of the city and shoot a couple last things and talk about how we mysteriously ended up following each other on Snapchat. We descended the stairs, stopping to use the sink for hand washing at an apartment party along the way, and then said goodbye. It was a really fun time. Becca and I had a good drive back home, but I was ready to pass out in bed once we got back.

Oct 23, 2010

Jeff, Sam, Jordan and I met up in the morning and headed to New York. On the way up we played Mad Libs and stopped a few times along the way until we got to the train station.

We went into Brooklyn and found our way to the Brooklyn Brewery. We had to wait for the next tour so everyone grabbed a beer and stood around taking pictures and trying to get the attention of the cat sitting on the bags of wheat.

It started to get really crowded just before the hourly tour was going to start and we followed the crowd out when they announced our group.

We went to another part of the brewery where we could see a few kegs and some construction equipment inside. We were informed by our "tour guide" that the place was being renovated so we can't go see anything but instead he'd tell us about the history of the brewery. So he did. And that was all he did. That was the tour. It was as anticlimactic as it sounds.

Speaking of anticlimactic, we went to get food after the big tour and decided to call the venue to find out what time Me First and the Gimme Gimmes would be playing so we knew how much time we had to get there. It turned out they weren't playing until 11:30 and there was no way we'd be able to see them and make it back before the last train. After some deliberation we decided to sell our tickets in front of the venue, which only took about a half hour, and then go to some bars. It was kind of annoying since we came up for that show but we made the best of it.

After a few drinks at a small bar we returned to Brooklyn Brewery so they could use the rest of their beer chips. We got there just as they called last call and had our beer while listening to a playlist from the late 90's.

We stopped at a place on Bedford called Mug's where they had a giant beer list. It was a lot of really good beer too. Everyone else got food and I ate the leftovers. Jordan had a veggie burger that tasted like stuffing. Not in a bad way; I liked it.

We talked about Sam and Jeff's wedding plans and the things we might plan to do for the bachelor party. I didn't mention it on here yet but I was officially asked to be the best man at the wedding. I'm kind of a big deal now.

We got on the subway and came back to Manhattan where we found this bar at Union Square. We had a couple more drinks there and got into some deep conversations.

After we left we decided to walk back to Penn since it was such a beautiful night. The weather was perfect for a walk in the city. I stopped to take a few shots but I mostly just enjoyed the atmosphere.

We caught a train just before it left and got back to the car. The ride home seemed long because I was so tired. I fell asleep for a while in the backseat and got right back to it once I was dropped off.

Jul 9, 2010

After a breakfast of sugary cereal followed by an egg and cheese sandwich I hopped on the train in Rahway to New York. I did some reading on the train. It makes me wish I took trains more often.

I met up with Jackie and saw her Chelsea apartment. Pretty nice. We hung out for a while as I cooled down from the balmy weather outside and then decided to head to Brooklyn.

We walked the streets of Williamsburg for a while, checking out some overpriced shops, watching a student film crew shoot some scenes and getting a smoothie to keep it cool.

Any questions? Ask beer. That's what I do. We went to the Brooklyn Ale House to escape the heat and have a few afternoon drinks to kill some time.

A few drinks turned into a few more and then a few shots and then we were drunk. It all happened so fast. The Genessee Cream Ale was really good though. The shots of Honey something or another Wild Turkey were also not bad. The honey really masks the whiskey taste.

We met a couple at the bar who we struck up a conversation with. The girl was a model so Jackie had things to talk to her about and her husband was really funny so we had something in common too... right? We had a good time talking and they posed for some shots. Not too bad for drunk photographer in a poorly lit bar, eh?

They decided we should go back to their apartment and hang out so we ended up in a cab, laughing all the way back to their place. Simon had an amazing vinyl collection of old punk music so we threw on some Bad Religion and hung out having some more drinks. A NOFX album or two later, we decided it was time to head back out.

I have no idea where this bar was but we walked there I think. It's a little blurry at this point. We met a few of Simon's friends from the neighborhood there and had more beers. Ah, more beers, what a great idea! I don't even know what we were drinking at that point. I just said, "I'll have one of those, too!" after someone ordered.

Simon was there some of the time.. I'm not sure where he disappeared to randomly but I was amongst his friends who were either laughing with me or at me. It could have been either at that point. At one point I decided it was time to be sober so I started eating breadsticks and drinking water. It didn't really work.

After losing contact with most people I recognized I started walking to Jackie's apartment only to realize I was in Brooklyn and she lives in Manhattan. I only got about half a block before I came to this realization, by the way. So I came back, sat with people I knew until Jackie got there and we stayed a little longer while I drank more water and then took a nice walk to the train station.

Do I look drunk? I am. I was so tired and felt so bad when I got back. It felt like it should be almost dawn but it was not too long after midnight. That's what happens when you start drinking in the afternoon. I just drank water and fell asleep, waking up every now and then. Oh, what a night! It really was pretty great though.

Jul 6, 2009

I got up early to drive Nathan back to Brooklyn with some of his things he needed for the apartment. The drive was surprisingly quick since we didn't hit any traffic.

We unloaded his stuff and carried it up to his room before heading out to look for lunch.

I got a really great (and cheap) falafel sandwich from a little place down the street and went to Prospect Park to sit and eat. It was nice and peaceful in the park. I had never been there but I'm going to have to come back, maybe with my bike now that Nate has his up there.

After walking around the park for a short time we headed back to his place and I headed home. Besides a little bit of traffic on the Turnpike, it was a smooth drive home as well.

I waited for a little while and when it was cooler I went out for a ride. I didn't plan on going that far but I ended up riding to Bridgeton to my mom's new house and back. It was a little over 21 miles altogether. Not bad. The route I was looking at from AC to Philly was only 62.

I was ready to relax for a while when I got home so I watched some How I Met Your Mother before going to bed so I could get up early again..