Traveling through the movies – Premium Rush (NYC)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Premium Rush keeps ahead of the yellow New York cabs

My trip to New York has me still in a mental holiday spirit and with memories of the city still clear, I bring you an excellent movie filmed on the streets of New York. Premium Rush is about a bicycle courier, Wilee,  who has to deliver a ticket to a location in Chinatown but the ticket is also worth a lot of money to a dirty cop, a gambling addict whose debts will be forgiven in exchange for this ticket.

The ticket which is a receipt, was purchased by a Chinese immigrant and it proves her payment which will allow her son and mother to come to the US aboard a ship that is used to smuggle immigrants out of China.  The dirty cop chases Wilee through the streets of New York and Wilee, with the help of his ex girlfriend and courier rival must get the ticket to it’s intended recipient by 7 p.m.

It’s a pretty good thriller and the movie was shot on the streets of New York, mostly from a low level so you really feel like you are part of the action, in the middle of the traffic with Wilee, or zipping along the paths of Central Park. There are streams of yellow cabs, lots of traffic and great shots of the shops and streets, most of which are not lined by skyscrapers as the action starts in the upper west side of Manhattan at Columbia University and traverses through to Chinatown by the end of the film.

Also interesting to me is the star of the movie, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I was surprised to find out this is the actor that played the younger lad in the great comedy Third Rock from the Sun. I think I probably have seen him in a few movies since then but it never struck me who he was.

Anyway, watching this film really puts you on the streets of New York City, mostly the Upper West Side and some of Central Park,  the streets of everyday working people rather than the famous tourist sites. I would love to go back!

More Streets of New York in Premium Rush. The camera work is shot from street level and you really feel part of the action

A Word a Week Challenge – Face

Face can mean so much. This week’s challenge can go many ways. The most obvious is people’s faces but you can face challenges, you can face forward or backwards, face the truth, do an about-face, be two-faced. A face represents things or people, not just literally but figuratively too.

I’ve just returned from New  York City and I’m going to post a few photos that represent the Face of New York to me. It’s not just the famous and iconic symbols, it’s the details that will remind me of New York even more than remembering the awesome view from the Empire State Building or watching the skyline go by as we cruised around the tip of Manhattan or getting soaked on the top of the tour bus. Those memories are important, but the little things that make New York as a city stand out are these:

New York is famed for theatre, film, and tv. Thousands of people make the trek there every year. If they can “make it” in New York, they can “make it” anywhere, as the song goes. But you have to support yourself until you get that big break so you will find actors and performers waiting tables, working on construction crews, guiding tours and working in offices. The Stardust Diner on Broadway is a singing restaurant and all the staff take turns singing for you in between taking orders and delivering food.

Singing for her tips.

Advertising is everywhere. Neon, billboards, signs in windows and banners on buildings. But what struck me is the ads painted right on the brick and concrete of the sides of the buildings. There are loads of them in New York, many faded over time but they still do it. We were told that they use a sort of paint by numbers template to do it.

New York buildings have ads painted right on the brick.

There are 13,000 yellow cabs in New  York City. There are streams and streams of them on the streets and avenues. New York wouldn’t be New York without them.

Yellow cabs in New York

People here, like everywhere, have pets. But so many people work that they pay someone to walk their dogs. You see dog walkers leading up to 6 or 7 dogs on leads sometimes.

Dog walkers in New York.

Another thing I saw that I have never seen anywhere else (mind you, I haven’t been all that many places in the grand scheme of things) is the vertical parking. They raise the cars up on lifts to the parking bays. Man, parking is expensive in New  York and obviously, not that convenient but using this type of parking, you’re pretty sure you’re car won’t get stolen!

Vertical parking in New York

This is just the kind of street view I like. People doing everyday things, taking a quiet moment out of a hectic day, finding a peaceful spot in a noisy city and chilling with a coffee and newspaper. This was taken on the 41st St. side of the New York Public Library.

 

Taking a few chill out moments

Even more than the famous buildings in New York like the Chrysler, the Empire State or the new Freedom Tower, this tower kept popping up in my view and in my photos. It’s the tallest residential building in the city apparently and was designed by Gehry. It looks like someone crumpled it and I really like it a lot.

Gehry tower

Here’s another view of it

Another detail that says “New York” to me is the fire escapes zig-zagging down the sides of the buildings. They’re mainly on the older buildings. The tall modern architecture doesn’t have exterior fire escapes. That’s kind of scary really but they probably have more than one inner staircase for emergency exit.

Balconies in SoHo and lovely window detailing

I could post a lot of photos that show the architectural details I saw on buildings in New  York but that’s not really unique to New York in my mind. I look for that and find details  everywhere I go in various cities.  I’m sure many cities have similar fire escapes but I haven’t seen them so to me, they’ll always remind me of New York. Another thing I particularly remember is that there are so many Irish themed pubs in New York! I know the city, historically, has had many Irish immigrants but they must still be arriving because in each that we patronized, the waitress serving us had an Irish accent.

There are always things that remind you of a particular city, that will, in your mind and memory, be the “face of ” that city, over and above the famous sights.  You see the Eiffel Tower,  you think of Paris, but do you recall the horse chestnut trees everywhere lining streets and boulevards or all the sidewalk cafes? I do. You see the Colosseum and you think of Rome, but I remember the golden colours that wash the walls of the buildings, the many shades of oranges, yellows and  the pinks and all the Vespas buzzing about.  Copenhagen brings to mind the outdoor tables and chairs, complete with a little blanket to wrap around your shoulders if it’s chilly. London has the ubiquitous black cabs, even if they’re painted all colours with advertising, and the signs painted on the streets at intersections to remind you which way to watch for oncoming traffic!

These are the faces of some of the cities I’ve been to. What kinds of details do you remember about places you’ve been, above and beyond the notable sights?

The hellish side of travel

No Love for United Airways

I don’t know whether the seventh level of hell it was to get out of Newark Liberty airport was due to a United Airways check in clerk’s screw up or the way I had booked my tickets but either way, I am extremely reluctant to fly through that airport ever again.

I had used my Aeroplan points to book two return tickets from Halifax to Newark (New  York). The airline we were given was United Airlines on the way down and for the return journey, it was United to Boston and changing to Air Canada for the hop to Halifax. The flight to Newark that we were booked on was delayed several hours but they got us on an earlier flight. Coming back it was a different matter. Was it me? Was I making bad decisions? Were the travel Gods punishing me for some unknown slight?

Talk about one bad decision and/or screw up after another, it was one thing after another until I was in tears several times. I couldn’t check in online. It just didn’t work and it hadn’t worked trying to get here earlier in the week either. I have no idea why. We couldn’t check in online before we left as a result. We grabbed a take-out from the café a few doors from the hotel and walked around to Port Authority bus terminal to try to find somewhere to sit and eat but nothing was there. Not one bench or chair to be had in the terminal where the shops were. Perhaps there were some by the bus bays but we didn’t need to go through that labyrinth as the airport bus picks up on the street. The wrong street where we went first. We went to where it dropped us off on 42nd St. though I wasn’t sure it would pick up there and when I asked someone, found out we had to go back to 41st street. We stood on the sidewalk and ate our snacks and then dragged ourselves back through the terminal to the other street and luckily the airport bus was right there and boarding.

We put our bags in the hold and got comfy. When we got to the airport we attempted to get out at the wrong terminal. Fine. Climb back on and get to the right one. Check in was another nightmare. The kiosks wouldn’t take my reference number so one of the United staff checked us in but then we still had to put the details into a keyosk right in front of her. She doesn’t actually give out the boarding passes, just the luggage sticker.

I think she did something wrong. She seemed to have checked G. through to Halifax but not me. I kept asking why. She kept saying it was a different ticket, yes… but why didn’t mine get checked through? We were booked the same way. Kept getting the same answer. When we navigated the touch screen check in, again, mine only gave me paperwork to Boston, not through to Halifax unlike G.s process. I couldn’t seem to get the woman to understand and she kept assuring me it was ok, I was checked through to Halifax but all the paperwork said otherwise. It just didn’t make sense that he would get two boarding passes and a luggage receipt to Halifax and I only got one boarding pass and a receipt for the luggage to Boston. It was futile trying to get any further explanations or answers so I walked away in tears of frustration, worried about whether I should collect my bag in Boston and how do I then get a boarding pass?

We went through a pain in the arse at security, having to actually stand by our trays until they went through the conveyor. I was scanned and then had to be body searched/patted down anyway even though I didn’t hear any beeps in the machine. I probably looked ultra-stressed and that probably ticked an alarm box or something.   G. didn’t have that indignity. We finally got through all that and got ourselves back together and sat at the first café we found. Guess what? They had lots of different kinds of tea but no normal plain orange pekoe so I suffered Earl Grey instead. It just felt like I didn’t make one decision that ended well today and it was so frustrating!! I’m in tears again and G. is saying don’t let it get to you. Well, clearly it has already.

We got to the gate and there was another assistance desk so I asked there about the confusion. The man said I was only checked in to Boston and would have to retrieve my luggage there and re-check in. We had suspected that might be the case but it’s good to know so I didn’t leave my luggage behind in Boston. If I’d trusted that witch that checked us in, that’s what I would have done.

One good thing, our seats were near the front of the plane and they had buckets of leg room, a ‘United Plus’ type of thing. One bad thing, we weren’t sitting together. The United clerk checked us in, and we were clearly traveling together,  and when we went through the keyosk check in process for my ticket, it seemed like the seat beside me was empty. We tried to change his seat to one next to mine. Guess what? They’d have charged 14 dollars. As it was they charged 25 to check the bags. Nickel and diming you to death, right? To top it all off, the person that did sit beside me changed her seat just before takeoff so he could have changed and sat with me had he known but by then I was just zoning out to try to take the stress levels down a bit so I didn’t try to get over to him to tell him and he hadn’t looked back to notice until we were almost ready to land. It was only a 30 minute flight so it wasn’t really that big a deal but why didn’t she just put us together in the first place?

I did go and get my bags which came off the plane without going missing. From there we had to figure out where we had to be, which was Terminal B.  It was quite a hike to get there, long hallways and a dash across a parking garage level for some strange reason. Maybe it’s a short cut.  But there were the Air Canada desks with a one-”stall” security check beside them. It felt like AC was hidden away in a back room secret closet!

Over to the AC desk, and I explained my problem. The desk gal checked my details and said I was indeed already checked in to the flight and we were already sitting together.  She didn’t know why I wasn’t issued a boarding pass back in Newark like G. was.  I told her I had had such a horrible day to that point but that when I saw the Air Canada desk, I knew everything was going to be OK! She laughed and agreed with me, of course! I have a boarding pass in my hot little hand and have rechecked the bag so I didn’t have to mess around with it. These planes are so small that they make you put the bag in the hold at the gate anyway. Might as well check it to start with. We went down the hallway a bit to find a restaurant and got some hot food inside us and lots of cold fluids.

Since I had been traveling with a laptop and didn’t want to check that in the baggage, I had it in a shopping bag. The bag was heavy paper and the handles were sort of a twine kind of thing. The laptop was a bit heavy for the bag and one of the handles slipped off. I had a feeling that would happen but never mind. There’s free Wi-Fi in Logan so we logged on and I made sure my nephew had the flight details for picking us up tonight with the rental car.

Feeling much better now, we headed back to security which was much less of a hassle even though we still had to take off shoes and belts etc. That’s standard stuff these days. The security area led right straight to and area with three gates. That was all, and the gates were right there, no further walking needed.  There is nothing on this side of security except a little concession stand, not even duty free shops. There was a small duty free place outside security and I noticed when we boarded that there was someone there to hand out your duty free purchases at the gate. They do that in Halifax, too, even though the duty free is already inside security at Stanfield Airport in Halifax. .

The flight is about an hour and 20 minutes so it was  fairly quick and easy. I was never so glad to get to the end of a travel day in my life. Even that long delay and subsequent rerouting through Toronto back in January wasn’t as bad as this, stress wise. I know others have had far worse experiences trying to get places but this, for me, was my worst to date.

Luggage Gods still kind, but the Travel Gods must have been off duty or else they have a grudge against United who have been notorious of late anyway so I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Tripping over the lights fantastic

42nd Street at night

When last we spoke, I had taken a bus tour of tv and movie locations. The rain had stopped and the sun was trying hard to come out. That night, we saw Rock of Ages at the  Helen Hayes Theatre, a few short blocks from the hotel. It is quite possibly the most fun you can have at the theatre! It’s all cheesy 80s rock, lots of great jokes, with talented actor/singers (unlike the film of the same name!) and musicians. The theatre is not large but that means everyone has a great seat. The theatre staff were very anal about people taking photos of the stage set before the show, claiming copyright. Seems a bit petty to me. Banning photos during the performance is something I can certainly understand and get on board with. Well, even when they hollered at people for taking photos, they didn’t take the camera or make them delete it, not that I saw.

We walked back from the theatre and thought the better of walking over to Times Square as our feet were hurting but we could see the lights along 42nd street and some of the other streets leading over to Times Square. That’s good enough.

Friday was a beautiful day, warm and sunny. We  had been told that the queues at the Empire State building were very light in the morning. Probably, it was earlier than we got there which was about 10:20 or so. It took us pretty much one hour from the time we entered the lobby to the time we walked out on the Observation Deck of the 86th floor, through four different lineups but for the most part, it wasn’t really that bad. The longest one is the queue for security and it moved quickly. The slowest was the one for the elevator which only takes you to the 80th floor first where you can see an exhibit about the ESB. Then there’s another wait for the lift up the last 6 floors though you can climb steps if you wish. We didn’t wish.

The observation deck was pretty busy but people seemed to be easy going and willing to move away from the view points to let others in. The sky was blue and the views were spectacular. When we left, the line up to get in was right out onto Fifth Ave.!

We had a drink and then attempted to get a cab. We had no luck. There are 13,000 cabs in New York and all of the streams of them that flowed past us were occupied. We walked, stopped, tried to wave one down, repeat. Finally a guy cycling a pedi-cab wheeled over. I asked how much, showed him where we were going and hopped in. Our destination is the Intrepid Air and Space and Sea museum on the Hudson River and it was a fair little walk from Fifth Avenue without a subway station all that near, not without a further walk. The pedicab was an unusual perspective to transport through the streets of New York. Yes, it was a huge tourist trap, as are the horse drawn carraiges but it was something different at least.

We enjoyed the Intrepid museum, a museum of, on and in an aircraft carrier that is nearly as long as the Chrysler building is high! They had lots of planes and helicopters on the long flight deck including a space shuttle which was closed due to some damage to it’s canopy from a hurricane not long ago. They have a submarine docked as well, one that was one of the first to carry nuclear and cruise missiles. The hangar deck had a couple of space capsules, an American one and a Russian Soyez. It was all really cool, we both like that sort of thing.

We could have spent more time there but we needed to get something to eat in the cafe and get to the next pier to take the Circle Line cruise around the island of Manhattan at 4. There was a very long queue there as well which wasn’t moving for the first half hour. I wasn’t sure all those people were even going to get on one boat but the boats are very big and everyone fit! We sat on the outside deck though not out at the edge of the boat. We were in the center of it so we had a lot of heads in our photos. Most people were pretty good about staying in their seat but a couple of times many of the tourists got excited over the Statue of Liberty and stood up to shoot pictures and stayed up for awhile. It’s annoying when the boat is going to come around and give everyone a good view of the Statue of Liberty.

Sailing up the East River under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges was nice too. I like boat cruises as you get a different view of a city and it’s great for skyline type photos. It stayed nice and sunny all day and even out on the water it wasn’t very chilly or windy.

The cruise takes about two hours for the “semi circle” which doesn’t go completely around the island. We walked over to 9th Ave. from the piers (on 12th at 42nd St.) where there are lots of restaurants. We had a most excellent Thai meal at a place called Yum Yum! It was certainly appropriate.

After four days of walking and sightseeing, we’re done in. It may be Friday night in a happening city but we’re worn out and are very happy to have a relaxing evening at the hotel. Just as well. Trying to get out of the damn city was a pain in the ass. But that’s something for another blog post. Stay tuned.

 

New York in the sunshine and New York in the rain

The arch in Washington Square, New York City

We’ve seen both sides of the weather this week. We arrived in NYC on Tuesday morning on an earlier flight than planned, as if 7:30 departure wasn’t bad enough! We arrived at the airport to discover that flight was delayed until noon but they got us on one leaving at 6:30 a.m. Thank you Travel Gods!

Naturally it was too early to get into the hotel room so we parked the bags and went out to find breakfast. We could have had it for free at the hotel but it was a madhouse so we skipped that and had it at a nearby pub that was open. We headed to Gray Line and hopped on the Hop On Hop Off tour bus heading downtown. The sun was beaming and our guide Dominic was ace! We got off at Chinatown and walked around there and headed downtown, thinking we would eventually get to the Staten Island Ferry. Things never go as planned. By the time we got there, after a nearly futile search in a department store for a toilet and a stop for lunch at one of the hundreds of Irish pubs in New York, we were just too sore and tired. We had been up since 4 a.m. and it was catching up with us.

We found the tour bus again and took it around the rest of the loop and then trudged our way to the hotel for a rest, nipping out later for a meal.

Yesterday the rain started. Hell. We did brave breakfast in the hotel but between the stress of the crowds and the meh-ness of the food, we decided not to do that again. By that time, the rain had stopped for awhile so we trudged over to where we had to book the Tv and Movie tour for Thursday. Finally found that and since the weather seemed to be holding off, decided to do the uptown loop of the HOHO tour and get off at the Guggenheim.

Cold. damp. windy. crap guide (well, he knew his stuff but the wind was interfering with the microphone and when people continued to complain he got cranky). Then the heavens opened and we skipped down into the inside of the bus to the exclaims of the guide “It’s only water!” Stuff that.

We were unimpressed with the Guggenheim which turned out to be far more heavily balanced in favour of modern art than is our taste. The building was cool though. Stopped for a cold drink and decided we needed to eat. Tried to get a cab down to Rockefeller Center in case we decided to do the NBC tour, but food first. We ended up in one of the restaurants around the Rock. Centre plaza where you skate in winter. If you think that was probably expensive, you’d be right. We decided it would be our splurge meal and it really was good, that’s for sure.

By the time we were done, we thought it was a bit late for the tour but browsed in the NBC shop for a bit and then went in to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for a look. Most of it us under scaffolding unfortunately but the back part around the altar and some side chapels and behind the altar was viewable as was a few of the windows. Very nice!

Sore and tired and sweaty by now and we really were done in. We got a cab back to the hotel, picked up some sandwiches for later and chilled the rest of the evening.

Today the rain continued and we got quite wet even though we tried to share the umbrella. Thought getting a quick breakfast at a nearby takeout cafe would do. I enjoyed it but Graham didn’t much. Another cab, this time over to Times Square where we are going to meet the bus for the On Location tour later. Turns out the cafe where we were meeting the bus would have been perfect for breakfast if a bit over the top. It’s a singing restaurant with all the wait staff taking turns singing various songs. Only on Times Square!!! We did have a hot drink and a bagel while we waited.

The tour was good though it was difficult to take pics out the rainy windows. They show clips of various movies and tv shows as you go by many of the locations and buildings. It’s quite good. The guide we had, Deo, is an actor and comedian and kept us entertained as well. We stopped in Soho for a half hour to stretch our legs. The rains seems to have stopped. Will it last? Well, yes it did for the most part. The sun even came out for the rest of the tour.

We ended the tour near a pub used as inspiration for a sitcom, How I Met Your Mother and we ate lunch in there as we got a 15% discount with the tour ticket. We walked back, picking up a few souvenirs and some sandwiches for later after the theatre.

I guess that’s enough for now. Our adventures will continue! I’ll do more of a “what we thought of New York” after i finish all the travelogue bits!

Weekly Photo Challenge – From Above

Oh this is a good challenge this week, WordPress’s weekly challenge,  there’s nothing I love more than to find a high place to look down on a new city. The only problem is trying to decide on the photos! I ended up deciding on just a few.

From Blackpool Tower, England

Down through the glass floor of the CN Tower, Toronto

 

Double spiral staircase, Vatican Museums, Rome

And there are a load of photos from the top of the CN Tower, the London Eye, the observation wheel in Paris, looking over the Niagara Falls and the Montmorency Falls, looking down from castle walls, or the Oxo tower over the Thames, the top of the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the upper floor of a new library overlooking Amsterdam… You must be starting to see a trend, yes? It’s one of my favourite perspectives next to looking up at details on buildings and windows.

Last but not least, not a travel photo but a photo of two cats looking very stealthy.

Stealth Ginger

 

Sociable

Halifax harbour bridges: The “Old” Bridge in the foreground, the “New” bridge behind.

The WordPress weekly writing challenge wants to know about local or regional slang. For those of you planning to visit Halifax or the Maritime provinces of Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island…the Atlantic provinces are the same but include Newfoundland), here are a few expressions you may want to tuck away for future use.

Being Sociable

When drinking in the local pubs and listening to a band play on stage, you may hear one of the band members, while in between songs, call out to the crowd: “Sociable!!!!!!” You will probably sit and look around you, mystified, as the room full of assorted drinkers stops in mid-conversation, raises their glass and hollers back “Socialble!!!!!” and then takes a very sociable drink. I’m not sure if it’s to be found outside of Halifax though I suspect Cape Breton pubs are full of sociables.

Old vs New

In Halifax, the harbour is crossed by two suspension bridges, the Angus L. Macdonald bridge and the A. Murray MacKay bridge. Nobody local who has lived here a long time calls them that. the MacDonald bridge, opened in the mid 1950s is the “Old” bridge and the MacKay, opened in the early 1970s is the “New” bridge. So if someone gives you directions and suggests that the new bridge is the better route, you will know to go to the north end of the city and take that bridge rather than the one closer to the downtown core.

Which way was that?

There are a lot of people who were born and raised in Cape Breton Island who are now living and working in Halifax. Lots of them visit their home towns. They go “down home” to CB on the weekend but they are traveling “up” to Cape Breton. Hmmmm. We may travel “up” to Toronto or Ottawa or we can also go “out west”. Up seems to refer to the direction as looking on a map though Cape Breton is techincally east of Halifax and perhaps a little higher on the latitude grid. We also think of the south shore of the province of Nova Scotia as “down” as it does point a bit lower than the geographical point of Halifax on the map. The Annapolis Valley is “down” but you go “up” to Truro and Amherst, both north in the direction of New Brunswick and the rest of Canada.

And then Buddy said…

A common way to talk about someone you don’t know is to refer to them as “Buddy” but it’s always a man, never a woman. And you don’t call him Buddy to his face either, it’s only in the third person. You could be telling someone about “buddy driving the bus” or “and then buddy says (or does…)”. It’s all in how you use the word. If it isn’t used correctly, it sounds awkward. The narrative is generally in casual conversation, of course. You never ask “who’s Buddy” because, of course, we don’t know. That’s the point. It’s much nicer to call a stranger Buddy than to say “this guy”. This isn’t restricted to Halifax, you’ll hear this used all over the Maritimes and Newfoundland.

And the last thing that comes to mind is the Maritime reference to the province of Prince Edward Island. We almost never call it that. We nearly always go “over to the Island”. We *may* sometimes refer to it as PEI (pee-ee-eye). That’s as close to it’s proper name as we might get. Everyone knows what you mean and you don’t have to ask “which Island”?