ajcarpinelli.com

Coney Island has always fascinated me. It has been involved with some of the most memorable scenes in movies/music for me. "The Warriors," "Requium for a Dream,"  "Grand Theft Auto IV." There are also good Lou Reed and Amy Correia songs. Despite this love, when I was in New York City for a few days, Coney Island was not on my agenda of places to hit. We were trying to get as much stuff in as possible, and through random wanderings and not paying a great amount of attention, we ended up in a subway car we thought was going to the Statue of Liberty... The car we got in was going no where, because it was at the end of the line. However, as we soon learned, it was the express to Coney Island. We eventually decided to stay on the train and visit Coney Island. It was fun. We had foreign drinks and walked the beach. There was also the Jennifer Connelly pier to visit, and just everything was made absurd by the fact it was cold, gray, and March in New York. Everyth...

Getting to go to Les Halles was a big deal for me, and the start of an epic evening in my eyes (it was followed up by a Cabaret and spider-man). I am a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain, and he is executive chef here, we won't go into what that means. Before going, I stopped at the Virgin store in Time Square, and got a Ramones T-shirt to wear. While we were there, I got a cookbook autographed by Bourdain, and ordered a thing I call the Slaughterhouse (pictured above on the cutting board with all the various meets and chips), as well as some Escargot. All the food was amazing, as was the atmosphere. The most amazing thing is that the restaurant is in no way about Bourdain.

Time Square, often seen as the poster child for what is possibly the most famous city in the world. This was my first stop in the city (only because our hotel was right in the center of it. It is probably one of my least favorite spots in the city because it is crowded with pushy tourists. Yeah, it has lights. Who cares? I was happy to see the Virgin Store though... which was closing. We got a lot of great stuff there for dirt cheap though. Also, I got my first dirty water hot dog there. The thing is, I hate hot dogs. I love those though. There was also a Peruvian Flute Band, and it made me think of South Park. These are my memories of Time Square.