New York New York

Snap

East Village, very cool. St Marks's Place, off East 8th St, and all round there is v quirky and cool. Some great bars and pubs around there. Love it.

The Grey Dog, University place, in W Village does a spot on and reasonable breakfast. Massive Guitar Center round the corner too (12th and 5th I think, or 13th and 5th, can't remember)

The High Line is worth it, and in the v cool meatpacking district.

Envious, its such a smart place

sev112

What’s with the smoke alarm posts?

zepp76

sev112 said:

What’s with the smoke alarm posts?

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/145962/chirping-noise-every-32-seconds-fml/p1

RMJ

Fuck me it's freezing here. Literally the coldest I've ever experienced. Doesn't stop anyone though. It's a public holiday and it's busy. 

Amazing place. Love it

Dominic

CarpeDiem said:

Helicopter tour, taking Central Park and Ellis Island. It's not cheap, but it's unforgettable.

Yeah,thinking about it you're right..........I forgot how good this was

Phil_aka_Pip

I've never been, and am unlikely ever to go. But I wonder if the places that Dylan, Baez et al used to haunt are still there and do they have any attraction for nostalgia freaks?

Emp_Fab

@RMJ Come on then.... why do you love it ?  I've never been but I rather fancy the idea.  What's thrilling you about NY ?

RMJ

Emp_Fab said:

@RMJ Come on then.... why do you love it ?  I've never been but I rather fancy the idea.  What's thrilling you about NY ?

Architecture, atmosphere, people, history. It's just a really cool place to walk around and experience. YMMV of course. 

I spent some time on the west coast on my honeymoon a few years back. I prefer NYC to anywhere I went then, including San Francisco.

stickyfiddle

Emp_Fab said:

@RMJ Come on then.... why do you love it ?  I've never been but I rather fancy the idea.  What's thrilling you about NY ?

Pretty much everything. It's a treasure trove of pop culture references and TV & movie locations. The food is among the best I've had anywhere, from the cheapest right up to the fine dining stuff. 

Despite the "Grumpy New Yorker" reputation the people are most much more friendly than your average Londoner or Parisian. 

Central Park is just the easiest place to relax and unwind. 

The museums are uniformly world-class. The Met in particular is easily in my top 3.

The Intrepid Air & Space is on an aircraft carrier and has both an SR71 and a Space Shuttle. 

It's brilliant for entertainment - between Broadway and a bazillion music venues you can always find something to go see on any given night. Every decent band stops there on every single US tour. 

I could go on - that's about 10% of what I can think of in 5 mins but I need to do other stuff!

Snap

RMJ said:

Emp_Fab said:

@RMJ Come on then.... why do you love it ?  I've never been but I rather fancy the idea.  What's thrilling you about NY ?

Architecture, atmosphere, people, history. It's just a really cool place to walk around and experience. YMMV of course. 

I spent some time on the west coast on my honeymoon a few years back. I prefer NYC to anywhere I went then, including San Francisco.

I think SF is very over hyped tbh. Its alright, but for me not a patch on NYC. A lot of SF is just, well, a bit dull. Plenty of it is really good, but overall it was a bit average. Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf - both really crap. Filmore, Divisadero, Polk - yeah they are OK, but still, not as interesting as East London. Upper Haight (ashbury) is quite cool, but again arguably not as vibey as Camden and around. North SF is alright for a walk about. Downtown is not bad for a big city. Saying all that, we go to California again this summer, and land in SF, so will have a bit of time there before heading south. We will go to the Mission and The Castro. Botanical Gardens and Golden Gate Park, out towards the coast are nice. The GG bridge is a sight, but its just a bridge, albeit a more scenic version of the Humber Bridge, ha!

NYC is just alive. So much of it seems familiar because of the amount of films you've seen, but it really has a buzzing feel to it. I would say that if you don't like big busy cities, like London, I'm not sure you'd like New York. I think London is busier, more frenetic though. Times Sq, and around is a bit naff, can't say that was my thing really. Its a good city to walk around as well, very easy and Manhattan is not prohibitively big, and there is always something to see on your strolls.

Another US city that I think is really disappointing is Boston. Small, a bit full of itself, and a bit boring. You could do most of it in 2 days. There are much better cities in the UK and it feels like a sanitised version of a good UK city. I have been a couple of times and have always felt a bit meh about it. Really expensive too. Not a patch on New York or London. Boston Common and The Public Garden - small and nowhere near as nice as Hyde Park, St James' Park, and definitely nothing near Central Park (which is massive and really, really interesting, worth a whole day)

Jalapeno

Off there next month, expect it to be freezing, but excited to go back there.  I WILL be looking at the vintage guitar porn in Rudy'd (again)

RMJ

Heading home early tomorrow. Wow. Amazing trip. Today was my 40th birthday and one I will remember for a long time. 

Started off going to top of the rock. Unbelievable views across new York. Was genuinely breathtaking. 

We visited the 911 memorial after that. An amazing memorial and museum. It was upsetting but important to see. I remember watching events unfold on TV in 2001. The resilience of New York to not only deal with the loss, but create such a beautiful place where such devastating events occurred, is remarkable and very inspiring. They put roses next to the names of people who died on their birthday. I spotted 3 roses out if the 3000 or so names. 3 people who share the same birthday as me. Very surreal and powerful experience. 

Took a cruise down the Hudson this afternoon to statue of liberty then up the East River. Spectacular views of Manhatten skyline.

Feel very lucky to have been here. Wonderful place. 

Caffeine_Vampire

Have a night at Marie’s Crisis and then hit the ballroom at the Jane on 14th st and get laid with the young and decedent. 

Foster

New York? There's nowt wrong with the old one! It's got a better tone and finish

fandango

Bebopper said:

Guitar shops:
Rudy's Music in Soho. A stunning display of vintage D'Angelico and D'Aquisto arch tops on the upper level. http://rudysmusic.com
Retrofret in Brooklyn. http://www.retrofret.com
Carmine Street Guitars. Home of luthier Rick Kelly and his awesome reclaimed pine guitars. http://www.carminestreetguitars.com
TR Crandall Guitars. https://trcrandall.com
Rivington Guitars. https://rivingtonguitars.com
Matt Umanov Guitars. https://www.umanovguitars.com

If you like jazz,
Smoke. Uptown. Check out Mike LeDonne's Groover Quartet on Tuesdays for some of the best Hammond organ playing. It's guitarist Peter Bernstein's regular gig when he's at home. If he's not on the gig, it'll be another monster like Dave Stryker or Paul Bollenback.
Bar Next Door at La Lanterna. Intimate room that books great guitarists most nights. Can't go wrong with anyone there, but Jonathan Kreisberg and Peter Mazza are both there regularly.
55 Bar. Legendary bar with a couple of bands every night. Mostly leans towards jazz, fusion and blues. Popular room with guitarists. Wayne Krantz and Mike Stern both have regular gigs there if they're in town.
Smoke and Mezzrow are both run by the same team and across the street from each other. Two of the best rooms for jazz in the world.
The Village Vanguard. Legendary jazz venue.

Jim Campilongo plays every Monday night at Rockwood Music Hall. If he can't do it on a Tele, it can't be done!

Sorry late to the party....

 but how can you talk about jazz in NY without mentioning Blue Note?????? FFS. 

.... and why not mention Guitar Centre? The large store in the basement on 44th is massive and isn’t anywhere near intimidating like UK stores. 

fandango

Having having a pop about not mentioning blue note and guitar centre, I’ve calmed down and say my visit to NY a year and a bit ago, I would say it’s a place that draws you in. Didn’t go in winter, so it wasnt cold, but walking around isn’t as bad as you think. One place no one ever mentions is the MET Cloisters in north Manhattan. I’ll let you look it up, but spent a whole morning there in awe before hightailing down to Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island and then back to catch Chick Corea & Steve Gadd at the Blue Note. That was all on a milestone birthday for me. Statue of Liberty is over rated, but Ellis Island so worth visiting for its historical significance to the USA. 

To the OP, I’m glad you had a great time. 

Axe_meister

Smalls is a great little Jazz club