Southern Pride – Northern Manners?
Kristin had never been to New York before two weeks ago. She’d seen the pictures, seen the movies portraying the city, even read books set there, but never actually been involved in the culture that is New York City. I’d been a few times for work. Nothing more than a day or two there to walk around and catch as much as I could in the short time I was there. Certainly not long enough to capture the entire ‘vibe’ of the city.
Now, as far as the ‘stereotype’ for New York goes, we all know it right? Rough, hurried, self-centered, rude… the list goes on right? I mean, I could be wrong, but from an outside perspective I think we’d all agree that New Yorkers are considered to be a certain way, right? Funny thing is, not many of those characteristics are similar to what we’d call ‘Southern Hospitality’ right?
Kristin and I took the subway several times in the couple times we were in the city and there were a couple things that jumped out at me on those short rides. Now, I’ve been on public transportation in tons of major cities in America and typically (especially in San Francisco) the insides of the cars are usually decorated with all sorts of ads. Since sex sells here in America most of these ads are pretty provocative or at the very least pretty suggestive. So naturally it took me back to see that in the middle of New York City the ‘ads’ that are covering the subway car walls were pretty different.
One stated “Bring Manners Back To The City: Give an elderly person or pregnant woman your seat”. This one had a picture of a guy in a suit standing up and offering a pregnant woman his chair on the subway.
The second was a picture of a man with a dirty face and jacket. Under his picture it said this: “Help the homeless.” Then beneath that in the small print it said something like, “help the homeless or if you see someone in need dial 311 and we’ll send someone out to help”. Not the exact wording but you get the idea. Pretty striking difference than what we’d expect from such a “rough” city. Sure, there are rough areas, and I’m certainly no expert on the city of New York, but that certainly jumped out.
Fast forward about 15 hours as we’re pulling into the “Bible Belt” south of East Tennessee and we are greeted with none other than the Confederate Flag waving proudly in the sky. Now, we’ve had some pretty great conversation about the flag, the meaning of it, as well as the perception of it, but I have to be honest. Going from what is stereotypically a rude, self-centered, rough place publicly promoting manners and caring for others, to the Bible Belt and what is stereotypically generous and “hospitable” waving such a “controversial” icon struck me as a little weird.
And here’s the thing. I’m not claiming to be some culture expert and certainly have no idea what each person in the world thinks about homeless or manners or racism or hate, but I do, however, have eyes. And I have perception. And like every one else in the world I have questions about it all. So, I know there’s not really a point to this rambling, but I’m curious what you think about all this.
10th Anniversary
We had an amazing time this past week. It was sort of a whirlwind East Coast roadtrip and was exactly what we needed. I can’t believe it’s been ten years since Kristin and I got married. It’s been too long since we have been alone for this amount of time.
We left Monday morning and drove to Raleigh to meet up with the Renstroms. The next day we drove to Washington DC and hung out there for the rest of the day. The next morning we drove up to New York and stayed there for two nights. I don’t know if I’ve ever walked so much in four days, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Here’s a couple of my favorite pictures. My camera is in the shop so these are all from my phone.
Ten Years In New York
August 5th Kristin and I will have been married ten years. What? Where did ten years go? Anyway, next week we’re taking a roundabout trip to New York to celebrate. Now, when I say roundabout, that means we are driving but we’re working our way there through North Carolina and Washington DC. Kristin has never been to any of these places and we’ve been working on this trip for a while. My parents have been awesome enough to come out and stay with the boys so we’ll have a little time to just take it in. Then for our actual anniversary day, we’ll be in New York. We’re still not sure of the details of what we are going to do there, but does it really matter?
So this next week we are tourists. I absolutely can’t wait to be with just Kristin for a couple days. For eight of these ten years we’ve had kids and not taken more than a couple hours to get away on a date. After eight years, I think we’ve earned it.
So what’s the absolute ‘must do’ stuff on the way to or in New York. I’ve been there a few times and we’ll do some of the tourist-y stuff, but anyone have any recommendations?
Closet Hip Hop Fan
I’m a closet hip-hop fan. No, seriously. I love it. I like the ‘swagger’. I like the beats. I like the way it makes your head lean back and forth. I like it all. Well, okay, I might not like it all, because I don’t like the fact that 90% of good hip-hop can’t be played in the car while my kids are there, but other than that it’s pretty awesome.
Now if you were to ask anyone around me what ‘my music’ was, it most definitely wouldn’t be hip-hop. I mean let’s face it, I don’t even really know if there’s supposed to be a hyphen between the hip and the hop. Most likely there’s not, but I’m geeky enough to put it there…. definitely not very hip-hop of me.
But that’s what’s awesome about music. There is not right and wrong. There’s no ‘my opinion is better than your opinion’. You might hate hip-hop and I’m guessing most of you didn’t even watch the whole video, and that’s okay. Most likely what’s in your car right now isn’t something that I’d listen to.
And a quick side note, if you did stick around for the video, how ridiculous is that stage setup and video in behind him?
So here’s my question for you. What are you a closet fan of? Horror movies? Opera? Romance Novels? There’s something you’re afraid to say you love, and we want to hear it.
Ready? Go.
*PS – I have no idea what the deal is with the person behind Beyoncé at 4:19.
Morimoto NYC
Remember that twenty-three hour drive I was on yesterday? Well, about eighty miles outside of New York, Billy decided that we should all take a little detour and go to dinner in the city since we were so close and ahead of schedule. Fair enough. He’s the boss right?
Well, he decided on a place called Morimoto and I knew I had heard the name before but couldn’t place it until I looked it up online. The Iron Chef. Now I remember. As we pulled into the city all the guys who had been on a bus a day and a half started wondering what you wear to something that says on the website the attire is “Casual Chic”. Turns out they knew we were a band so I think they were a little more lenient on the dress code thing.
Well, since this could possibly be the only time in my life I would eat at an Iron Chef’s restaurant, I had no intention of getting a cheeseburger or something like that, and I wanted to try something appropriate with the environment. Meaning, I wanted something weird, or something that was specific to that place. That first picture up there was my dinner. Some spicy tuna rolls, some other salmon looking things, some shrimp, some more tuna things, a clam and some cake type stuff that was actually made with shrimp. I’m sure it all has really fancy names, but I don’t remember any of them and probably wasn’t paying attention when the waitress told me.
That picture in the bottom left is oysters that Billy talked me into trying. While I’m glad I gave it a shot, I can’t say that I was a huge fan. The bottom right is a little hard to see, but it’s sort of an appetizer thing. The big square in the back is actually a tray of salmon paste type stuff that you scrape out and dip in the various things up front. You know wasabi, avocado, and some other things. That black dot is some caviar. Pretty good but a very different texture. There was a ton of other stuff all over the table but I felt weird running around taking pictures.
All in all we had a great time. It was fun to experience something like that. And a massive thanks to Billy for picking up the tab. When you walk into a place and they offer you three different types of water it’s typically a little over my price range.
Today we are in Maine, and I heard there’s lobster for every meal in catering, but haven’t been in to check it out. I guess this is the trip of awesome food. So here’s a question. What’s the fanciest place you have ever been to eat? City? Name of restaurant? Anything. I just experienced mine last night.
Ready? Go.
Blow Stuff Up In The Valley
Well, I can say this. Rednecks in New York know how to blow stuff up, that’s for sure. This is a little sample of what went on last night once the show was over at Jam In The Valley in Varysburg, NY. I’ve never seen anything like it in person, and while I still would have rather been home with the fam, this was pretty impressive.
Now, this is the first video I have made with my iPhone so it was a little bit of a test to see what it could do. Not too bad eh? Anyway. I hope you all had a great Fourth. I’m almost home and taking the rest of the day to blow up some stuff myself.
A Day In New York
So, today I woke up parked outside Madison Square Garden and had an entire day to hang out in the city. Several people had told me about a place called Bubby’s and the plan was to go there for breakfast. As soon as I stepped off the bus I realized how close we were parked to the Empire State Building and knew what my plan for the day was.
We all crammed into three different cabs and drove a few miles to breakfast, which happened to be one of the best breakfasts I have ever eaten, by the way, and Barry even bought me a souvenir mug. After breakfast Mike and I needed to run to Guitar Center so we had a few blocks to walk. We grabbed what we needed and started the walk back. We ended up stopping in several different places on the way back to the venue, but eventually made it back.
I was able to meet up with my friend Seth and hang out on the bus for a little while and then a group of us finally made our way to the Empire State Building. It didn’t take us too long to get to the top, and it’s a pretty amazing view from up there, but you already knew that. Eventually we made our way down, Seth had to take off and Jim and I walked around looking for more places to take pictures. We ended up stopping in the middle of the road for a while to try some different settings on our cameras and Jim took this picture.
Not bad huh? Eventually I might use this for something but I thought it was pretty cool.
Anyway, we made our way back to the show and the guys played while I took some more pictures and hung out a bit with The Katinas. The show ended and the guys and I walked down to Times Square to find some pizza and take more pictures. It was a pretty photo-filled day. After that we made it back to the busses and I’m currently sitting in the back of the bus watching some old baseball movie with Robert De Niro. It’s not very good, so I think I am off to bed.
I get to be home for the next couple days, and I’m pretty excited to see Kristin and the boys. Then it’s off to Texas next week. So that was my Sunday folks. Yes, my stats still sucked, but it was a pretty cool day in the city. See you tomorrow.
