if New York can die so can London

[wektor]

Rudewhy had that great post about Legowelt being to the Netherlands what Burial is to London.

so far I can agree. London is grimey, dirty, here the colours are warm but things feel sterile, sensibilities adjacent to those of scandinavia.
I do not know much of the dutch for now, only people I have met who speak dutch are flemmish or belgian, but I live in the centre and it seems there is a large population of turkish/moroccan who speak dutch slang. as many white amgs blasting bashment/dancehall as you would find on london. less so amapiano or drill somehow. no white vans blasting happy hardcore, i think the gabber things long long gone by now, it might have been exorcised as a nasty working class feature, or perhaps the hague is not industrial enough. a business city, ive heard.

 

[shakahislop]

@wektor when you say 'moving to den haag', do you mean you're being tried for war crimes. its a very polite way to put it.

 

[shakahislop]

do the new yorkers have any non-typical recommendations? I'm going for about 10 days in august and will be free to roam anywhere pretty much every day

literally none of the tourist stuff is actually good.

if you want to see what queens is like, walk from long island city to flushing park, underneath the 7 line. definitely a non-typical recommendation, no-one does that, but it's the perfect way to have a look at non-gentrified immigrant nyc if that's of interest. the other long walk that i like is going from the top of manhattan to the bottom. it's long though.

get a bike and ride from red hook to greenpoint

chelsea galleries are still the best place in the city to see art i think, and conveniently are all stuffed in together on about five streets

i always tell people to avoid manhattan between 14th and 110th street because its both boring and a bit inhospitable. no-one ever listens to me though. at a minimum stay out of midtown if you can.

if you want to go out i'd say go to nowadays basement or paragon. definitely don't go clubbing anywhere in manhattan

the jazz thing is still very much a thing, mezzrow and smalls are good, but there's loads

the stone, issue project room and roulette for weird wire music

earth room and broken kilometer are cool

get out the city and go up to beacon on the train, dia:beacon is killer

le monte young's dream house is still going

pizza slices, diners and bagels are the best trad things to eat

 

[maxi]

thanks so much for that

 

[sus]

do the new yorkers have any non-typical recommendations? I'm going for about 10 days in august and will be free to roam anywhere pretty much every day

Wander around Flushing, at the end of the 7 line, grab dumplings

Hit Coney Island; me and the missus opt for Staten Island beaches because they're quiet and empty but I'm assuming you'd like a little more life, and Coney will provide

Try hitting the Russian Baths on Wall Street or near Tompkins square park

Grab borscht and pierogi's at B&H Dairy for $5, best deal in town

North Central Park is prettier than south Central Park. Prospect park is gorgeous and where younger people go. Good 20/30-something people watching in the north bowl near Grand Army Plaza

Ruben Museum has free Friday nights if you like Indian and Himalayan art

Do Or Dive bar in Bed Stuy gets pretty sceney and sells $3 beers

Both botanical gardens are nice (Bronx, Brooklyn) if you're into that sorta thing

I've heard the Drift masthead hangs at Sharlene's, and Artforum folk staked out a table at Lucien's for a few years, not sure if still

Film Forum has good showings. IFC by the W4 station has midnight showings of cult classics. Metrograph is the artsy pick. Wash Square Park is a permanent cannabis farmers market.

Floyd Bennett Park is a big abandoned air strip where you can walk around and camp

Ridgewood is hip; check out Windjammer, Norma's, Topos Cafe/Bookstore

People go out to Nowadays, Basement, Bossa Nova, Elsewhere, Public Records

 

[sus]

Oh nice Shaka beat me to Flushing.

Bar Bayeux in Prospect Lefferts Gardens (Brooklyn) is a great spot to hear jazz if you want something low key and non touristy and without a cover

 

[IdleRich]

if you want to see what queens is like, walk from long island city to flushing park, underneath the 7 line. definitely a non-typical recommendation, no-one does that,

Wander around Flushing, at the end of the 7 line, grab dumplings

Are you taking the piss out of Shaka or is this one of the "noone does it" things that everyone does?

 

[shakahislop]

Are you taking the piss out of Shaka or is this one of the "noone does it" things that everyone does?

going to get food in flushing is a thing for sure, although its only a thing for people that live here rather than tourists. walking all the way there is something i've never heard of people doing though. it's like two or three hours and there's no particular sights to see. it is good though coz you get to have a look at a load of immigrant bits of the city.

the whole city makes a lot more sense once you've got to grips with queens a bit i think. all the workers coming into manhattan every day. the backbone of the whole thing.

 

[ghost]

I say, wake up early, see the Cloisters (okay, people do this) and then walk the isle of manhattan, top to bottom (people do this but only very weird people). 14 miles, will take you about five hours if you don't stop (which you should.) Perfect way to spend a day, will give you the most important commodity (being able to describe places as being like street numbers).

 

[IdleRich]

going to get food in flushing is a thing for sure, although its only a thing for people that live here rather than tourists. walking all the way there is something i've never heard of people doing though. it's like two or three hours and there's no particular sights to see. it is good though coz you get to have a look at a load of immigrant bits of the city.

the whole city makes a lot more sense once you've got to grips with queens a bit i think. all the workers coming into manhattan every day. the backbone of the whole thing.

I remember getting lost in Queens for hours, not by design though so it was kinda frustrating. Saw all these Jewish homes storing wood on the balcony cos they gotta live outside or something for a bit at some point... is that right?

Someone got shot on the street we were on - but then again same thing happened the day I got back to Hackney so I can't read too much into it.

 

[Pearsall]

Saw all these Jewish homes storing wood on the balcony cos they gotta live outside or something for a bit at some point... is that right?

that's for a festival called Sukkot; traditionally they would build these huts outside, but a lot of the time they just build them on balconies, since it's not always possible to do it on the street

Sukkah - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Pearsall]

going to get food in flushing is a thing for sure, although its only a thing for people that live here rather than tourists. walking all the way there is something i've never heard of people doing though. it's like two or three hours and there's no particular sights to see. it is good though coz you get to have a look at a load of immigrant bits of the city.

the whole city makes a lot more sense once you've got to grips with queens a bit i think. all the workers coming into manhattan every day. the backbone of the whole thing.

I used to live in Queens (many years ago ...) and i used to walk from Astoria to Jackson Heights sometimes, just for the sake of walking. Always good food around the Jackson Heights - Roosevelt Avenue station, that was always a fave spot of mine.

IMO Queens has a lot of the best food in the city.

 

[IdleRich]

that's for a festival called Sukkot; traditionally they would build these huts outside, but a lot of the time they just build them on balconies, since it's not always possible to do it on the street

Sukkah - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Yeah that's it

 

[shakahislop]

I used to live in Queens (many years ago ...) and i used to walk from Astoria to Jackson Heights sometimes, just for the sake of walking. Always good food around the Jackson Heights - Roosevelt Avenue station, that was always a fave spot of mine.

IMO Queens has a lot of the best food in the city.

i was there today, we biked out to corona and then banged back down along roosevelt ave to come back. mad traffic and trains overhead raining a kind of AC refuse mist. that station felt like the epicenter of the whole thing. that whole bit is great territory for walking and generally exploring. there's a lot to see. and it has a particular look as well, the queens housing look. roosevelt ave and the whole 7 train corridor has an aesthetic thing going on too

 

[maxi]

just got back from my trip, NYC is fucking incredible still. wanted to say thank you again so much for the recommendations @shakahislop and @sus . I did quite a few of them

the walk from long island city to flushing park was definitely one of the highlights for all the reasons mentioned. the first hour and a half was pretty eventless except for this bizarre doggy day care centre with a huge window on the street. about 40 different breeds running around in a room together like a weird social experiment

when it slides into the hispanic area things livened up intensely. I went on a hot saturday and there was tons going on in the street. people with huge grills cooking giant slabs of meat on the fire even on quite a narrow sidewalk, music everywhere.

then transitions to the asian area and eventually the most chinese chinatown ive ever seen. a lot of the storefronts were fully chinese with no english signs anywhere. there are chinese buskers doing this really soppy but endearing ballad music, and hardly any tourists around. I ate at Shanghai You Garden and it was some of the best food I had in nyc, which is saying a lot

 

[maxi]

but the best food I had was at Stamatis in astoria which I went to with a couple of greek friends who took charge of the order. unbelievable skordalia and fried eggplant

Matzo ball soup with challah at B&H Dairy was great but kind of blundered the order apart from that, should've got the mac & cheese

Best pizza slice I had was the vodka slice at Norm's Pizza in park slope

 

[maxi]

the dive bar scene is one of the great things about new york compared to london. went to about 25 over the course of a week and a half lol. Do or Dive, 101 Wilson, Birdy's, Farrell's, Welcome to the Johnsons, The Magician, are some of the names I remember. Found it weird that they all have only one lone toilet but it's always free cos americans don't drink that much and the bars are less busy than pubs here. Pool halls were also fun

Comedy Cellar was amazing and aziz ansari showed up unannounced. Andrew Schulz killed it with a routine about suspecting his doctor is trying to impregnate his wife

I saw Le Monte Young's dreamhouse and the earth room (literally just a room full of earth, quite boring). -- Moma was the best art for me really. was kind of blown away by how much incredible 20th century art they actually have there, had to go a second time for a whole day. Moma PS1 was mostly rubbish but they put on fun parties there, just missed DJ sliink cos he was late and had to go to that greek place

Coney Island was extremely fun. went on the cyclone and got a nathan's hot dog. bit of a weird vibe cos I had to go on my own that day but still enjoyed it haha

saw some insanely crazy shit on the subway multiple times which I won't even go into lol

 

[maxi]

another highlight I need to mention: on my first day I went to a free block party in the Bronx and saw Public Enemy live. Sounds like a joke, I couldn't believe it was happening. It was a 50th anniversary of hip-hop party on Sedgewick Avenue where Kool Herc first played

 

[maxi]

I also like how new yorkers seem to talk to themselves in public more. not nutters, just normal people. like a guy standing on the corner going 'I got some damn chococlate chip cookies!" Like GTA non playable characters

 

[maxi]

one of the things in new york parks compared to london is everyone is doing some kind of activity. there's less just lazing around cos obviously no drinking. so you see stuff like rap battles, guys riding bikes balancing tyres on their heads, kite flying, volleyball, football, even cricket and loads of sports going on in one area, huge cookouts, motorbikes and scooters going thru the park, etc.

there's also weed absolutely everywhere now, and smoke shops on every street that sell weed openly - didn't realise it had got that far yet. corner shops sell pre-rolled joints