Day 73: Aw Frap

Really all I want today is:

And I know I will have niether.

Day 72: Where’s That Smile You Always Have?

Last day of photoshop trial…

Day 71: To Claim Our Baggage

Day 70: Who-Da-Baby

We had to wake up bright and freakin’ early in order to get the chance to go back to New York City for some unfinished business (Carlos’ at least). We took the train to Grand Central Station. First order of business, we ate breakfast. We decided to go to this Europa Cafe over Mc Donalds, which was not all that good. The service was not the best, I think because the employees had that stereotypical New York attitude! The cafe was in Time Square, so we hung around there for a while. At some point we were able to take a peak at ABC’s filming of Good Morning America; an interview with a certain cast I am not familiar with was taking place. We then walked ourselves to the Fox News Building, were Carlos wanted to sit down and take a 10 minute nap. After that, we went to Bryant Park to talk about what we were going to do. We decided from Bryant Park we would walk all the way to Uniqlo. I was happy about this because I really love walking, and now I was able to see more of Manhattan.

The first interesting part of the walk was seeing this street musician perform the guitar and blow in the horn thing while doing so. He was playing some native music probably from South America, which was pretty rad. The next interesting thing was seeing a scene from the hit NBC show, Ugly Betty. The moment Carlos, Daniel, and I stopped to inspect what was going on with the set, as soon as I blurted out, “Oh, this is for Ugly Betty!” so many people started to watch as well. Lizzie Smith’s character Betty is talking to a man in front of this hot dog stand called the Taj Ma Hot Dog. Then there was a really sad point during the walk; while waiting for a crosswalk, I saw a woman holding up a sign for money while playing this small accordion- this was sad to me because she was fairly young, and had two pets with her, a dog and a rat. So out of pity I gave some money. She seemed to appreciate it much; I certainly hope more people gave to her and she was able to feed herself, and her pets. :[ After passing great architecture and cool little shops, we finally arrived to Uniqlo. Carlos returned his shirts and bought more clothes for himself and Jessie. I was pretty much his shopping assistant though, telling him which materials were what and why they were “special” and telling him what would go with what. I was so pissed off the whole time I was there though, mainly because I didn’t have any money; the only money I had was money I could only use for a taxi. Thank god I have supertalk to hook up the Uniqlo when I need it.

After Uniqlo, I navigated the way to Dave’s Quality Meat and Autumn Skate Shop. The journey for those was pretty long too. We ended up heading for DQM first, at which point we came across St. Marks again, so I had time to walk around it. I wanted to go to this store along the street called Search And Destroy; from the window it had some pretty interesting/freaky stuff, very punk though. We would’ve had to wait 10 minutes for it to open, and I didn’t really want to wait for it, so we ended up not going to it (I regret this badly). We walked a while before arriving at DQM. It is a pretty legitimate sneaker shop, decked with unique Nike and Vans shoes. They also carried their house brand, Huf, and other brands I can’t name because I didn’t look in terms of clothing. I don’t understand why Carlos didn’t like any of the sneakers there! I totally would have gone for the Nike Dunk Hi’s DQM exclusive with the Suede and air holes. We headed off to the Autumn Skate Shop next which was about another 30 minute walk. Before arriving there we stopped by at Giant Robot NY (which was actually right across the street from the skate shop). I’m lucky to have remembered the shop because they were having a Jon Burgerman Gallery! It turned out Invisible Man was right next to Autumn, so we popped inside that too. Very clean space, and very small too. Lots of good stuff; pretty much the Commissary of New York. The Autumn Skate Shop was pretty crappy in my opinion, it just had generic Nike SBs and Vans, along with a collection of skater clothing. The only thing that would be worth my money would be the Pentagram Thrasher t-shirt, which just plain rules in my opinion. It was really hot and humid inside the store, and it was just full of sweaty smelly skater kids.

By this time Carlos and Daniel were sick of walking around the city, and wanted to take the cab. I didn’t want to take the cab because I loved walking around, and I guess I wanted to pass by that woman again to give her more money. We ended up taking a damn cab to Time Square though and eating lunch at Mc Donalds. We had two more hours to kill before we had to leave, so I suggested we finally visit Central Park. What a lovely place to just relax! The park is large and very recreational; couples snuggling in the grass, parents running around with their kids, tourist taking a break from walking the city, and street performances. I wish we had time and 2/3rds of us had the urge to go further into the park. I really would have loved to rent a bike and ride it around the park!An interesting thing I did today: when a woman was passing out fliers talking about 666 and how it is a system of government, just some religious paranoia, I proceeded to stick out my tongue, put up the devil horns with my finger, and say,”Woo, 666!”

Day 69: Your Shorts Are Too Short

Today was just hanging around New Haven again with only Carlos this time. We first went to Enclave because Carlos wanted to check out the SB’s they had. He didn’t end up buying anything. We had the “famous” New Haven pizza; it was either that or some (probably) crappy burrito. The pizza was okay; for some reason we had to sit in the “Slice Bar” instead of the regular tables because we only ordered one slice of pizza each. The place occupied only other customers, so I fail to see how the guy could have cut us some slack. The pizza was okay, I would still rather order up a pie of Papa John’s. We went to a small little grocery store, that probably catered mostly to the Yale students. We should have eaten there instead, because it had a buffet full of so much better food (from what it looks like). We just bought some candy ice cream bars, which were really good. While walking around, we passed the Yale School of Architecture- I really wish I had the qualifications and the guts to even apply to Yale. The YSA building is just amazing and i’m sure its an awesome place. We got some Dunkin’ Donuts and walked back to the bookstore where we just chilled reading magazines and such. I was about to purchase a book, a documentary on the history of American Hardcore, but it was too late to since Po Po was waiting to pick us up. On the way back home, Po Po dropped his knowledge on religion. He says that no one should be afraid of Satan, spirits, etc. if you’re tight with God- which pretty much make sense. Some superstitions are just out of control! A little motivational speech too, on how one should develop their body and mind and their fullest. Listening to that speech made me realize how unproductive I am. I don’t think I push myself hard enough; I should be a more productive person, in everything I do.

This lego thing is pretty cool:

Day 68: Shoot The Freak

Uncle Steve took us around New York City today, which was overall awesome. We first parked in a parking garage, which was quite upscale, and then walked to the subway. Just as soon as we went outside I already saw some amazing buildings, which I think my photos will not do them justice! We took the subway to the New York University area, and as we were walking to the campus, we found a record shop! This record shop had  a far better collection than the last two, probably because this was New York. The punk collection was 1000x better; still failing to have any Misfits/Samhain/Danzig original pressing though. I did see a 7 seconds We Walk Together We Rock Together record that caught my eye, but I thought I had better things to buy. I enjoyed the general feel of the area, it was urban but had a certain charm to it. Uncle Steve explained that the area used to be dangerous, but now cleaned up. The park in the campus was sort of ill-taken care of, but it was still pretty nice. You could see the concrete hills that were exclusive for skateboarding, BMX, and those sorts of activities, and there was even an Arc De Triumph there for some reason. There was also a man bathing in the fountain…

The first shop that we decided to walk to since it was near the NYU Campus was the Uniqlo NY Flagship store. I swear, that has got to be one of the best stores I’ve ever been to. After being greeted by a door person, you see a large display case full of actively posed mannequins that are decked out in the latest season. The walls are lined with columns of clothing, and the floor is just filled. Both the men’s and women’s selection was fine, and the best part of Uniqlo is that the products are of great quality and are affordable. This leather jacket was only $50, a blank shirt was around $5, and Italian leather belts were only about $20. The graphic t-shirts there are of course pretty awesome as well. There are three floors for the store! The top being exclusively men’s, the middle being both men and women, and the bottom floor being for women. The denim selection is at it’s finest- a little cheaper than Levi’s but way better quality. My only disappointment in the store was that there were no short sleeved oxford shirts available. I was able to snap a few picture of the store before I was asked not to. The store extremely exceeds H&M, American Apparel, and Gap; I have a few friends that would totally love it there. I sadly did not purchase anything, because we did not get to go back to the store. Carlos and I are trying to work out a plan on getting us back there tomorrow.

After Uniqlo, we headed off to the Supreme store. However, I was absolutely bummed out to arrive to it and find out it was being closed for renovations! The reason I didn’t purchase anything at Uniqlo was so I could see if I needed to buy anything at Supreme! The sign said the shop would re-open September 3rd, and sadly I’ll be in the West Coast by then. At least I missed the risk of being treated like dirt.

After that little cut of disappointment, we took a 45 minute subway ride to Coney Island! We were hungry so the first thing we did was eat at Nathan’s. Ian recommended the hot dogs over there, and we really had to believe him because he said he really liked the hot dogs there, and he doesn’t even like hot dogs! The line was a bit long, but it moved quickly. Ian was right- the hot dogs were amazing! I even ate this one slowly, to savor the taste. I wish I ate two instead of just saving room for a Halal push cart (which we never got to anyways). Coney Island is a pretty fun place for families; along the board walk there are rides, games, karaoke, fun food and a beach! The only game I played was this one called Shoot The Freak. Its such a great idea, getting to shoot a live moving human target with a paintball gun. Of course the person was well protected! The largest and fastest ride they have is a roller coaster called The Cyclone, which sort of looks like the roller coaster at Bellmont Park.

The next stop was the Museum of Modern Art. We took the subway back to Manhattan, where we then went to the Rockerfeller Center. Unfortunately, MOMA closed at 5:30 pm and we arrived at the Rockerfeller around 5:00 pm. It would take only five minutes to walk there, but the museum is so large we weren’t sure if it would be worth it; so we decided not to go. Daniel was just mad about seeing the Nintendo World Store, so we went there. The store wasn’t as great as expected it to be, basing off of the website. Sure there was some cool merchandise, but it was just not as cool as I hoped it would be. Next we went to the M&M store on Time Square, which was pretty cool. They have colors of M&M’s I’ve never even seen before.

The rest of time square was pretty much just full of LCD screen advertisements, free hugs, and people dressed up in costumes. I saw a cookie monster costume, and these people usually have a velvet felt bag in them for money; I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t the cookie monster rather have cookies than money?” We tried to find the naked cowboy, but he was not present at the time. From the window I saw the massive Toys R Us store; the place has a ferris wheel inside of it! We decided to go back to the parking garage and get the car, so we could go to downtown later to make some quick stops. We drove through St. Mark’s st, a street famous for being active within the punk scene in the past. When we first arrived to it, Uncle Steve and I were shocked by how clean it was, and how it lost that edge and punk charm… we were just in the wrong part of it though. When we found the right part of the street, it still had the Punk edge to it, and it was pretty awesome. I didn’t want to step out of the car because there was no place to park. The street had obscure punk rock shops, tattoo parlors, and bars. The last stop of our non-micro NYC trip was Toy Tokyo. This place was freakin’ amazing! It was just cases and cases and cases filled with toys! I am mad at myself that I didn’t spend all of my money there, because after I purchased a Takara Henshin Cyborg ($40) I found out that we weren’t going to be able to go to Uniqlo again! The only thing I would have to change about Toy Tokyo is the fact that they have a lot of Chucky toys (well, too many in my opinion). I remember walking into the section with the Japanese toys, and BAM, a Chucky toy was there for some reason. I jumped when I saw it! The thing about Toy Tokyo is there prices are sometimes over retail for pieces, which does upset me a bit. At least I was able to get the Henshin Cyborg for an okay price. We headed back home with a little disappointment, not being able to go back to Uniqlo and all. Carlos was really disappointed that we couldn’t go back, and that we didn’t visit Dave’s Quality Meat for him to buy shoes. The drive back was met with traffic and storm-like rain. Overall though, even if I’m not satisfied with how much I purchased, I still had an awesome time! I can’t wait to apply to NYU.

WAYWT 7 inside Uniqlo

Day 67: Popsicle Shoes

A storm brewed here in Connecticut. I woke up around 4:30 am to the intense crashing of thunder and heavy rain; we got the message that we weren’t traveling to Boston today. :[ For a while I couldn’t sleep so, we ate some cereal. Then we knocked out again for about 3 hours. I ate breakfast again when I woke up; eggs, sausage, and toast! We decided to just head to downtown again so Carlos could finally purchase the hoodies he wanted to. Today was a slow day- the highlight of it was probably the Thai Food, and the fact that Carlos pretty much petted a squirrel. Here’s “I Wanna Destroy You” by the Circle Jerks.

Day 66: Sorry, Not On Sale Items

Yale University has quite them awesome campus. Its just at the edge of Downtown New Haven, and it has a lot of cool hangout spots for students. Not to mention the freakin’ world known merit of the school. It seems like this time there were more building undergoing restorations and maintenance than last time I was there, a lot of towers were covered with blue plastic, and frame and stair structures. Before hitting the campus though, we stopped by at Dunkin’ Donuts for a little breakfast. I only ate one donut, but it was good enough (chocolate with rainbow sprinkle). Carlos and I have been wanting to eat there for a while now. Po Po says the coffee does not compare to the Connecticut Exclusive Paul Newman Mc Donalds coffee though- I believe him even though I haven’t tried a cup of Newman yet.

The first thing we visited on-campus was the massive Yale book store (in partnership with Barnes & Nobles). The bookstore is about 3 stories; one top, middle, and underground. The listed genres are much more specific than other B&Ns. We spent most of our time in the Architecture section (thanks to me). The souvenir shop right across from the book shop was pretty nice. The only thing was… the tuition isn’t the only thing expensive at Yale. The merchandise had ties with big brands such as Nike, Champion, and Ralph Lauren Polo, so it was a bit more expensive. I guess this should be expected when you go to an upscale ivy league university. I did not purchase anything from there.

I assumed the campus wasn’t just a place of sticking your nose into books, because there was a wall plastered with show fliers, and there are a lot of nice “hang out” places like local cafes, noodle shops, etc. The architecture is very nice, mostly Neo-Gothic. The most modern piece of architecture there I believe was the Rare and Aged books archive. I geeked out when I got a peek of the school of architecture; I saw models and little desk, it all looked so cool! The most kind of people I observed at the university were nerdy Asian students who probably got accepted, and dreaming Asian parents who will hope that their children could get in. Probably the most interesting place i’ve ever been to within Yale was the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The place inside is just compiled with so many rare and old pieces of literature- they even have a copy of the Gutenberg Bible! This time when we went though, a majority of the building was undergoing reconstruction, so we only saw the first floor.There was a slight incident in one of the libraries, where Carlos accidentally broke a pretty old book. No one knows.

By the time we had enough of seeing beautiful libraries and awesome colleges (the Yale School of Music and Architecture to be in particular), we decided to shop. On campus, there were some pretty cool stores and some alright ones: J.Crew, Cutler’s Compact Disc, Enclave, Urban Outfitters, and American Apparel. Those are all of the ones I could think of. At Enclave I purchased a pair of Nike Air Structure Triax 91’s. I had such a difficult time deciding if I should purchase the pair or not, because as cool as they were, I wasn’t so sure at the time if I would have things to wear with them. However, I see fit that these can actually be very versatile. The J.Crew store was probably one of the best stores, I didn’t buy anything though because I needed to save some money. We walked into the Urban Outfitters before I bought the Air Structures, because I was still thinking about whether I should buy them or not during that time. I pretty much dislike 80% of what Urban Outfitters has to offer- the only good things that I would probably buy were the Vintage Nike Blazers (I picked the Air Structure’s over these because they were much more comfortable than the Blazers) and the Sperry shoes. Their shoe set up is such a mess, I’m not sure if the employees are just too lazy to set it up right, or whether they’re just trying to go for that look. I’ll give it to them that they have a two story shop though (bottom women’s, top men’s. Probably the coolest store I’ve ever been to in a while was Cutler’s CDs. It first caused me to rush into the store when I saw a “we sell vinyl records” sign right outside. They had quite the collection of things, but sadly they did not have much punk or hardcore records (from what I saw). I inquired to the shop keeper about punk and hardcore 7″s, and Misfits original pressings. He for sure knew that he didn’t have any of the Misfits, but he was a bit unsure about the punk and stuff. I could imagine that he wouldn’t really know since there are so many records it is impossible to keep track of 100% of the stock. So I just looked as hard as I could but could only come up with a hand full. He called another record shop for me, saying that they might have more there. So we decided to head there. It was about 5-6 miles away from New Haven, in the city of Hamden. The record shop, Replay Records, was 95% used records, so I figured I would be able to get at least something there. There were more punk records, but I didn’t buy any because they didn’t have the ones I was really really looking for. I’m sure if I was a local I would have bought more. I just bought two records for friends as souvenirs- hopefully they would prefer this over something from a city (I know I would). Driving back home, the rain was so heavy, so I’m pretty sure a storm is going to be hitting us soon.

Day 65: London Gave Me 20

It was a great surprise when we found out we would actually make a micro trip to New York City to go see the Statue of Liberty today, since it turned out Aunt Barbra could stay home to watch my little cousin. It was about a 2 hour drive to NYC- I was sleeping most of the time. I didn’t wake up until we arrived at a place to drop off our car. We were right in front of Battery Park, where you could take a ferry to either the Statue of Liberty, or Ellis Island. The park was very green, but the grass was a bit shoddy. Every where you looked you would see NYC souvenir vendors, and artist trying to persuade you to get a self portrait from them. I feel sad for those “artist” who can draw, but waste their talent begging people to let them do a portrait. This goes back to my idea of how just because you can draw well, does not mean you are a good artist. Correct anatomy with mediocre concepts do not do anything (for me at least). I would rather have off-anatomy with interesting concepts! Anyways, we bought our tickets and waited for about an hour to get on the ferry. There are so many tourist that come to NYC; if I was a local I would get so annoyed. While waiting in line there were street performers playing music with Steel-pans. They would ask tourist where they were from, and play a familiar tune; when we said we were from California, the pannist went ahead and played the Beverly Hills Cop theme song “Axel F.” It turns out people outside of Mira Mesa think I’m Filipino; another pannist asked which ethnicity I was, and guessed Filipino. When we passed security, we went straight on the boat. Many different people were present, mostly tourist, and oddly mostly French from what I saw. A lot of cute French women! The boat was pretty dirty, but I guess that comes from the use of 1000’s of people a day. When we arrived to the island, I was surprised that the statue wasn’t as big as I imagined. We just walked around a took pictures for about an hour. There were these interesting sculptures of artist that I really liked. The thing with the photos I took of the Statue of Liberty is I bet there were a bunch of people before that took the exact same photo as I did. Carlos was talking about how the layout of the place is true to the Grand Theft Auto game, and how he killed a hot dog stand guy in a certain area during the game. When we headed back we stayed to watch a street performance of really strong acrobats and dancers. They were just holding each other up and stuff- I was really mad when I was about to take a picture of one guy jumping over 11 people, and some random guy just stepped in front of my camera ruining the shot! I donated about $10 for their hard work, and donated $1.75 to a youth basketball team to fund their Disney World trip (I am so cheap). we stopped by at Starbucks to cool down with a drink- the sun was beating on us the whole day since it was about 90 degrees outside. On the way back home we stopped by Mc Donalds, where I had my first Big Mac (which was not that good). I cannot wait to go to NYC again Saturday and hopefully Monday. I bought a souvenir for someone today and I hope to do more shopping for myself when we go again.

Day 64: Sea Everything

Today we took a 1 hour and 46 minute drive to Mystic, a village in New London Country, CT. The area is situated around south-east Connecticut, a predominately white-and-rich environment. The town was also where the 1988 film Mystic Pizza starring Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, and Lili Taylor.  Dense trees, winding roads, and mid hills accommodate the well spaced out Victorian-style homes (majority style- I think I saw a Spanish looking house too). Carlos advised me to take a motion sickness pill before we went on the road, but I refused. I would have to pay for this mistake later when by the end of the car ride my head was spinning due to the winding roads and many turns. Before sight seeing, we decided to eat at a local Seafood restaurant: Go Fish (?). I ordered a Tuna Salad Sandwich because it was one of the cheapest things on the menu. After we finished dining, we headed off to the seaport. I bought a few trinkets for people as souvenirs, and sampled some awesome fudge! I have never heard of creamcicle fudge before. We didn’t get to tour the rest of the seaport because it turns out you have to pay to do so! I think its pretty outrageous that one would have to pay to just walk around and enjoy some stunning scenery- so I didn’t want to pay for it. A bird with a boot!?