Papa's got a brand new bag

I'm moved back over to my own webhost at http://www.hitormiss.org.

Ipod Mania

"Maybe I'm a horrible elitist, but when I pass [really hot gay guys with discmans] I think "How quaint of them to be using discmans." They may be gorgeous, they may be rich, they may be cultured, they may have just gotten gang-banged by 20 guys in the back room of Roxy last night, but I have an ipod" - Jon Collins.

Exactly the reason I'll probably buy an Ipod next month instead of groceries.

Subway Poll

Should the MTA wire the subway for cell phone reception? I don't know why they'd bother, since you can't hear anything down there over the squeal of the subway cars (right now, the majority have voted NO).

Drinking like a New Yorker

"It's official: for the very first time in my life, I just used a straw to sip soda from a bottle. Previously, whenever I was given a straw, I'd discard it. Today, the bottle I purchased smelled so rancid and disgusting (while the contents tasted perfectly fine), I decided to take the plunge. Midwesterners drink their pop right out of a dirty can. New Yorkers sip with a straw. After 2 years, I've become a convert" - Aaron / 601am.com.

I made fun of Mike the first time I saw him drink a coke with a straw, but he quickly impressed upon me the importance of doing so. Which I will do, as soon as I get over the cost of buying a can of coke in this city.

Now I feel like a real New Yorker

Forget going to the Statue of Liberty or a show on Broadway... tonight I went to the hip little Zipper Theatre and caught David Yazbek. I don't think I've ever been in a room with so many Jews before. Yazbek's between-song-patter and was hysterical and he played most of my favorite songs (albeit in some bizarre arrangements). After Patrick Wilson (who I ran into in the restroom afterwords) sang a bland song from the upcoming musical version of DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, Yazbek joked that the rest of the score consisted simply of "You con me, I con you..." Honestly I wasn't terribly impressed with the other new material, but he played a fantastic throw-away number ("Stupid Song") as the rest of his band tried to sort out a malfunctioning amp. And I don't want to sound like a starfucker, but I'm pretty sure Jason Robert Brown was there seated across from me.

SesameSeventies.com

A cool site dedicated to one of my favorite records growing up (the other was my copy of the Partridge Family Album).

Searching for a web host

Since it doesn't look like I'll be able to host my website on my own server anymore (New School won't let me through the campus firewall), I'm looking for a web host. I can't believe how many different feature sets and pricing structures there are out there. Mike recommended Myacen, which looks great except that they don't have telnet/shell access (I'm too much of unix junkie to be happy without it). Basically, I'm looking for Perl, PHP, MySQL, telnet/shell access, cron jobs, and support for 2 or more separate domains.

AIDA

My friend Melissa is in town visiting NYC and we meet up last night night for dinner and saw AIDA. I've been wanting to see it ever since hearing the original Elton John demo recording and seeing photos of the striking sets. Toni Braxton just joined the cast in the lead role, but suffice to say she is no Heather Headley. Apparently diction and enunciation are no longer requirements for starring in a Broadway show. Her performance was pretty wooden, but I think that was a directorial choice. I'd much prefer to see someone like Vanessa Williams in the role.

The two week mark

It's been two weeks since I moved to NYC and so far my fabulous New York life has been a dud. I thought I'd be living the high life, experiencing art and culture; but most of the time has been spent shopping for innocuous items like laundry detergent and socks. My new futon was finally delivered today (after the delivery men unloaded the first one at the wrong apartment building and then accidentally dropped it down an elevator shaft yesterday -- don't ask). I've given up on the idea of having a hip, suave NYC bachelor pad -- I'm too much of a cheapskate and at this point I'll be happy just finding certain items for purchase, let alone attractive ones. Currently, I'm looking for an inexpensive, basic black TV cart on casters so I can wheel my TV/TiVo back and forth between my living room and bedroom. As far as my job is concerned... it's too early to tell. Managing this apartment building is going to be a significantly different experience than what I've done in the past -- and I'll probably be better for it even if it may not have been quite what I was looking for. What's not really surprising is how alone I feel. Like Sondheim wrote, NYC can be a city of strangers. There's an unbelievable number of hot, impossibly cool guys of every stripe around, but I haven't got the first clue how to go about meeting them. I've really enjoyed hanging out with Mike, but it would be nice to have a few friends in my neighborhood (unfortunately, it doesn't seem like a whole lot of people live in the Wall St area). All in all, I'm not sorry that I moved here. The alternative would have found me just as sad and alone in northern Wisconsin right now. At least here, I can get Thai food next door. UPDATE: Okay, so maybe my life isn't so dull after all. I'm wildly excited about seeing David Yazbek on Wednesday night at The Zipper. Word is he's debuting songs from his upcoming album and his new musicial version of DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS.

Subway fire sparks escape concerns

Just when I started to think that living in NY and riding the subway was pretty safe, I read about this. I haven't been paying attention at all to emergency escape routes during the past 2 weeks.

PVRBlog

Matt Haughey has created a great new TiVo / PVR weblog. Some of the recent choice links include a review of TiVo's closed-captioning handling for deaf people (I watch every show with CC on so I can fast-forward past the slow parts and read the dialog) and a report on how gay people are twice as likely to own TiVos (it seems like every gay blogger I read has one, which is soon to include Mike).

Maps

Using Yahoo Maps to try to find the locations of different businesses in NY (in relation to my apartment), I've realized that a killer web application would be a mapping service that would plan out your trip including which subway terminals and lines to use.

Out to lunch

So far, I've only been to a couple of restaurants (to break the monotony of peanut butter sandwiches and ramen). Burritoville: All natural ingredients, made fresh everyday (or so they say). Actually quite tasty, customizable, and pretty cheap. Daikichi Sushi: Relatively inexpensive and only 2 or 3 blocks away. I think it'll make a great lunch stop. Lemongrass Grill: I think this is the one I went to with Mike on Saturday. It's actually a chain around the city (including right next door to my residence hall). I haven't had a lot of Thai before, but I'm eager to sample more. Sadly, the "restaurant" I've frequented the most since moving here a week ago is Burger King. There's one up from the Sushi place on Broadway where you can get a Whopper Jr. meal for only $3.25 with tax (the cheapest meal I've been able to find in NYC). On the list of places to hit in the near future: Pret a Manger, Rice, and Peanut Butter & Co.

Weekend in NY

My first weekend in NY is drawing to a close. After going to see Avenue Q on Friday night with Mike, the two of us schlepped out to Queens yesterday to visit Dan and his partner Stephen for a leisurely afternoon tea and wonderfully engaging conversation. Then Mike and I watched A Letter to Three Wives. And today I continued unpacking and cleaning. All in all, a great end to my first week in NY.

The Brown let me down Part 3

The last of my UPS boxes finally arrived today (after getting separated and misdirected from the others). Of course this was the box with my Swifter and dust pan/brush and other assorted cleaning supplies. Before I start unpacking any of the other boxes, my apartment needs to be thoroughly cleaned. I'm glad I was as anal as I was preparing the boxes (taping every possible seam and corner of every single box). By the time they all arrived, they looked like they had flown to China and back -- they was bowed, smashed up, and covered in grime. Thankfully nothing seems to have broken en route, but these boxes will never be usable again (which horrifies a packrat like me).

Avenue Q

Last night, Mike and I went and caught the opening preview for Avenue Q (yeah! My first Broadway show!). It was just as brilliant as Mike's original review of the off-broadway run said (though curiously, they must have cut the moment Mike leads with in his review). And my favorite song from the demo recordings they used to have on their website, "Tear It Up and Throw It Away" was cut. Anyway, I hope it has a long and healthy run and I'd love to see it again. But I wonder if it will produce some South-Park-like controversy when the Tony Awards roll around -- all the best material is entirely inappropriate for broadcast TV.

LowerManhattanMap.com

Developed to help promote businesses in Lower Manhattan after 9/11. It helped me find the MIA Burritoville (which their website still lists at 20 John St, even though it's now at 80 Nassau).

Doing vs. Blogging

There's so much I want to write down, so that I'll remember my first impressions of New York. The chaos of the subways, the heat and the brief afternoon downpours, the sunburn on my face after spending an afternoon walking around the Financial District, and the impossible number of hot guys of all types everywhere you look. But for now, I'm still trying to find my footing - both at my job and at home. After the rest of my UPS boxes arrive today, I should be able to make myself more comfortable and settle into more of a routine. But hopefully that routine will not prevent me from continuing to explore the city. And the last thing I would want is for the act of blogging about what I've done to keep my from doing more.

Hello New York

I finally made it to NYC last night around 11pm after boarding my 1pm flight at 3pm and then sitting on the runway until 7:30pm before we were allowed to take off (stupid weather). There was no food and we made it through 2 movies before even taking off. But no matter, I am here now. It still hasn't quite sunk in yet that I actually live here. Aimlessly walking around the Financial District today, I felt a little like a tourist as I bounced from Ground Zero to the South Street Seaport (most importantly, I found the downtown TKTS booth). The distances are much shorter than I imagined, but I guess the Financial District is pretty compact (I still haven't been uptown further than 14th Street yet). My apartment is a little bare for now (my computer should arrive tomorrow and the rest next Monday), but it's a roof over my head and that's all that's important for now.

Goodbye Midwest

It's hard to believe that in less than 24 hours, I will be living in New York City. I don't know when I'll have internet access again, so it may be a few days before I post again.

Advice from Sparky

Dan posted the great NYC advice email he sent me on his weblog.

Life without a car

Watching my parents drive away with my car today brought a few tears to my eyes. Sure, it was great to see them if just overnight, but the thought of losing my wheels made me feel like I'd lost of level of independence. So now I'm dependent on the kindness of my friends for the next 2 days (including a ride to the airport on Monday). One of my major motivations for moving to NYC was the opportunity to make use of public transportation. But all of a sudden, over the past couple of days I started to enjoy driving a car for the first time in my life. Maybe it was just the realization that it gave me the power to chart my own direction whenever I felt like it. Now I'll just have to learn to work within the limitations of the subway and bus system.

Life without TiVo

Life without TiVo is unbearable. I watched 4 hours of TLC last night (While You Were Out and What Not To Wear) because I didn't have a remote control to change the channel on the old TV I dragged out of a storage closet. Because I missed the UPS pickup time on Thursday, most of my boxes (including my TiVo) won't ship out until Monday (damn July 4th), meaning they won't arrive in NY until probably the following Monday. But I'm not moving to New York to watch TV, right? -- although it looks like my cable system has a pretty bitchin' channel lineup.

SingleShots.com

Portraits for online personals. Since I've never been pleased with any photo of me, I may have to look into this (because my personality is not going to win me any dates).

The Brown let me down Part 2

Just as I was getting ready to take a second load of 8 boxes to Walmart to ship, the UPS drop-off place called me to let me know my TV was too big to ship (why they couldn't tell me that when I dropped it off, I don't know). So now I'm selling it on the cheap to a friend and I'll have to keep my eyes open for a new TV when I get to New York. My parents are coming up today (and will be arriving much sooner than I planned) to get the rest of my stuff to put into storage and to also take my car (meaning I won't have wheels for the next 2 days). I'm not having second thoughts about accepting this job in NY, but I'm hoping I damn well like it because there's no way I'm moving again anytime soon.

The Brown let me down

Yesterday I took the first load of my boxes (TV, PC, server, monitor) to UPS to ship them to New York (so I wouldn't overload their mailroom receiving them all at once). After checking the UPS website for the location, I discovered my local office is only open from 5-5:30pm M-F. I borrowed a friend's truck, went there right at 5pm, and got in line behind the two people already there. Already hot and dehydrated from packing, I had to stand outside of the minuscule receiving area dripping sweat in the last of the afternoon sun. The crotchety old man at the front of the line was trying to return something he'd ordered through the mail and didn't seem to understand the UPS guy's explanation that he should have contacted the company and had them send him a return shipping label. The man argued with the UPS guy for approximately 23 minutes as a line of customers formed behind me. Finally he left and then the other guy in front of me took like only 30 seconds to ship his one box. When he threw down a $20, I noticed for the first time that there was no credit card machine next to the cash register. I asked and discovered they only took cash or check (neither of which I had brought). With only 5 minutes for the office to remain open, I had to load all my boxes back into my friend's truck. If it hadn't been for the crotchety old man, I could have driven home real quick and gotten my checkbook. The UPS guy suggested I try the HyVee or Walmart to see if I could ship the boxes from their UPS pickup locations. I hit HyVee first and discovered they only had a tiny scale, which wouldn't accommodate any of my boxes. Ready to burst out into tears, I tried Walmart and found that their scale could hold up to 75 pounds. Fortunately, my TV (the heaviest of the boxes) topped out at 72 pounds. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like it's significantly more expensive to ship from the Walmart (and it's open all day), so I'll most likely take rest of my boxes there today and tomorrow.

Magazine subscriptions

Changing all my magazine subscriptions today really reinforces the reality of my moving to New York. There's so much to do beyond simply packing. Packing has commenced, but there's a long road ahead. And, I'm realizing what I'll probably want to buy at Walmart and ship up before leaving (new shower curtain, lightweight plastic plates, Glade plug-in refills, etc).

How to get a replacement Social Security Card

Somehow I've managed to misplace mine while packing. And I'm probably going to need one to get set up for my new job, get a NY driver's license, etc...

Packing

I'm trying to figure out what I should take to NY when I fly out next Monday (and what I should put into storage at my parents). I figure I'll pack my clothes, my computer, my TiVo, and my CDs. But otherwise, I don't know what is easily (and cheaply) bought in NY vs. what I should try to ship out there. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Temporary blog location

So, while I'm packing and moving everything (including my server), my blog will be temporarily located at http://mattkingston.blogspot.com (hitormiss.org should redirect here soon) -- because some lame-o who only posted once 2 years ago claimed http://hitormiss.blogspot.com. When I set my server up again (if I can use my ethernet connection to host my site), I'll transfer all these posts into my own CMS.

Moving to NYC

I officially accepted a job today at New School University in Manhattan. I'll be the director of a 17 floor apartment building at 84 William Street (down in the Financial District).