Day 10 - New York - Street Photography Tour and Offspring Concert

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We didn’t start today too early. We got ready and jumped on the train down to Café Gitane at the Jane Hotel in the West Village. I’d seen food photos from this café on the internet so had been wanting to go. It was a really cool café in a very quiet part of town. There was lovely furniture from many different eras but it all worked together. I got waffles with bananas, strawberries and blueberries, Nick got the organic beef, mashed potatoes cheese and salad and we shared a breakfast smoothie. Marnee got vegemite toast with a breakfast smoothie. From there we had about an hour to fill in so explored more of the West Village and into Greenwich Village. We walked up Jane St and onto Hudson St and stopped off (for Nick to use the bathroom) at the Bleecker Park where the kids, even at this time of the morning were playing in the fountain because it was already quite hot. We continued down Bleecker St where we came across The Magnolia Bakery from the Sex and the City franchise, took some photos and continued on our way. We passed Bleecker Street pizza and a branch of the NYPD before crossing on to The Avenue of Americas and turning onto West Houston St to walk down to the Crate and Barrel on the corner of Broadway which was the meeting point for my five hour walking photography tour with James Maher. We headed south through Soho where we stopped to experiment with taking photos of people coming toward me at a busy intersection. James explained the trick to make people think that you aren't taking a photo of them is, when they are coming toward you, take the photo but don’t then pull it away from your eye, just keep it in the photo taking position until they have walked past you. So we tried this for a while but it was quite daunting. So from there we move on toward Canal Street for another stop to do the same. From there we continued on to what is considered to be one of New York's dodgiest alleyways. It's usually used in a heap of scenes in movies for places where people get murdered, and was even just the night before being used in filming for TV show Gotham. From there we walked passed the Mudd Club then came across Mmuseumm; this really cool thing that you would honestly walk past if you didn’t actually know it was there. It was two big black metal doors that when you got closer to them saw there was a slot in each, at eye height that had clear perspex in them. When you looked through the slots inside it was an abandoned elevator shaft that had been transformed into mini museum. It was covered with shelves that were lined with different items. Some of these items include crudely counterfeited cash, rocks from Mars, tip jars, and one of the shoes thrown at George W. Bush by an Iraqi journalist in 2008. Under each item was a number. There is also a haunting row of bulletproof children's backpacks, which sold particularly well after the Newtown shootings in December 2012, which lies near bars of soap carved into swastikas by a convicted Alaskan murderer who killed his cellmate for talking too much. As it turns out, the doors of the museum are open on a Saturday and Sunday and you don’t have to look through the slots, but as it was Monday, the slots had to do. James explained that under each item it had a number and that you call an 800 number and type in that number and it would tell you what the item was. It's located at 4 Cortlandt Alley between Franklin and White Streets. From there we moved in the direction of the New York City Supreme Court. The steps of the law courts can be seen in so many films but most notably used in Law and Order. We went over the road to The Office of the City Clerk: Marriage Bureau. Out the front there was a guy selling flowers, and inside they had the area where you sign a marriage certificate. The area is set up with various different backgrounds to have your wedding photo taken, fascinating. We then went in the direction of the municipal building but detoured to a little café to get a drink and use the restrooms. We then went back out, took some more photos, one which included the comparison of the Woolworths building built in 1913 standing next to the Freedom Tower (One World Trade Center) built in 2014, 101 years later. After this we ventured to through Columbus Park, next to Chinatown to see all the Chinese men and women playing cards and various other games. James explained that there were certain groups that didn’t like their photos being taken and others that didn’t care. We took quite a few pics here before moving into Chinatown itself. We headed up Mosco St, onto Mott St then Pell St to finally come across Doyers St. James wanted to show me this as it is quite a prominent street in Chinatown. This was because for some time, its sharp curve earned Doyle Street the nickname of “Bloody Angle,” as it was the site of numerous gang street battles and murders. An alleged network of tunnels connecting several buildings also made for easy getaways. From there we walked back to get some dumplings at a place on Mott St called Shanghai Asian Manor. The dumplings were fantastic and it was a good break from the heat outside. After dumplings we made our way through more of Chinatown toward the Manhattan Bridge. It was so good getting to work through the streets without having to be somewhere, being able to take in the city rather than just hustling past it. We walked out onto the bridge, getting a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge further south down the river. We walked along the bridge while James pointed out different things along the way; like a roof top that the building owner keeps painting white and within a few days it’s completely covered in graffiti again, or the people just sitting having a chat on a rooftop, and even just how cool the buildings look from this angle with all the old looking, iconic fire escapes on the outside. We walked halfway across and took some more photos before heading back in the direction of the bowery and the lower east side. We came across the Germania Bank Building 190 Bowery, on the northwest corner of the intersection with Spring Street. It was built in 1898–99 and designed in the Renaissance Revival style^]by architect Robert Maynicke. In 1966, the bank sold the building to Jay Maisel, a commercial photographer, who purchased it under the name Archival, Inc. – Him, his wife and child are the only ones to live in the building to this day. Apparently Jay, being an artist is a bit of a hoarder and each spare room of the house had a theme with different stuff in it. From there we finished off with a quick walk to infamous Katz Deli then finished up the tour on 1st Avenue at 6:00pm. I said my thankyous to James and walked to the nearest subway and jumped on the train back to the hotel. When I arrived back at the hotel Nick and Marnee filled me in on their doings for the day which included visiting the World Famous Madison Square Garden where they did a tour and learnt all about it. They said they had gone and got pizza after the tour then headed back to the hotel and snuck in a nap. They were basically ready to go so I quickly got changed and we caught the train down to West 56th to see The Offspring performing at Terminal 5. Terminal 5 is a New York City music venue in Hell's Kitchen. It has a multi-level event site with five distinct room environments. It has a capacity of 3,000 people. The supports were Bad Religion and Pennywise. We found a good viewing spot at a raised spot behind the sound guy but conveniently right in front of a bar. It wasn’t to squashy up there, much better then down on the floor. The Offspring were amazing, just as I remembered them from years ago playing at the Soundwave Music Festival. After the gig we walked up to McDonalds to grab a bite to eat then decided it was too early to head back to the hotel so called in at a pub called Lincoln Park Bar and Grill. Lincoln Park Bar and Grill was a lovely little pub where Nick and I had a cider and Marnee got her bourbon and coke. We had a good laugh about our time working at McDonalds. Eventually it was home time and we walked up to Columbus Circle station to catch the 1/2/3 line back to the hotel. What a fantastic day it was.

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