STARSANDSHITES

Philly

2009-09-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia was a fucking strange place. Really depressing. The city centre was pretty much just one road and 'the ghetto' pretty much just radiated out for miles and miles around.

I was called 'Honky' for the first time in my life, and told to spit on the Courts of Justice, so it qualified as a pretty 'real' experience, but I think one day was enough. I went to the Mutter Museum, which is full of medical curiosities, or at least casts of medical curiosities (they confiscated my camera so i couldn't take any pictures)... and Eastern State Penitentiary, which was fucking amazing... Oh, and the set of a new Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson film which is as yet untitled, but looked pretty good. All-star cast for sure. And all that in 24 hours too, so it was actually a pretty good day.

This is the super-scary Eastern State Pen - some different kind of prison you know.

Film set (i got closer than this, but photography was definitely frowned upon much closer than this point):

(Rocky statue by 'the steps' - i haven't even seen Rocky so i could be wrong on some or all of this assumption)

New York - Hats

2009-09-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

Wearing a hat is a very New York thing. Trilbys, bowlers, fedoras, porkpies, baseball caps... Only in New York do people wear these things on a regular basis. We figured we should hit up a big hat emporium to check out what's big on the streets of NY:

Black never goes out of fashion. Leather is equally timeless. Admittedly, the only people I've seen wearing black leather baseball caps are homeless guys who stink of shit on the Tube, but in New York this little number is big, big, big!! Wear it forwards, sideways, or even back to front.

Just as every Yin has it's Yang, so the black baseball cap has the white... cowboy hat?? I'm too new to the game to ask an assitant what this one's called (the embarassment of not knowing!!), but suffice to say, it looks G-R-E-A-T and is really blowing up Stateside. I can't think of a single situation where this hat wouldn't be appropriate. I'm literally kicking myself now for not buying it.

There was also this one for real health and safety freaks who want to advertise the fact they've got TB. Very considerate of them, but I doubt it'll catch on in the fashion world.

On a more 'cultural observation' note, the shop sold toy paedophiles (which I'm told are very cool right now). So refreshing to see a country that's not completely hysterical about the issue. It looked like a pretty intimate game so we thought it would be best to leave it be rather than have to explain it at Customs.

THE LADS

2009-09-09T17:27:00.001-07:00

The Lads left on Sunday. On Saturday we drew this postcard of each other.

Miss 'em already.

New York - Eating Out

2009-09-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

"OMG, the food in New York is, like, the best.."

Is what most people will tell you about eating in New York. And they're right, there's pizza everywhere (nice thin stuff), tons of independent places that have spent the last 30 years perfecting a menu of dishes and building up a local reputation, and tons more besides.

What people won't tell you about eating in New York is that you shouldb't be sucked into eating a big American breakfast. As tasty as it looks, it is guranteed to make you feel like your world is about to end:

It will also leave you counting up big green stacks before you've even thought about what to do that day.

All the best meals are saved for later on in the day in order to let you go straight to bed once you've finished them. And whatever you do, when you order Dr Pepper with your meal and the waitress says they don't sell it but they do sell Dr Brown's Root Beer (which is pretty much the same thing), don't believe her. It's really nothing like Dr Pep, and everything like Listerine (literally - it tastes so much like Listerine I don't know how they get away with it).

Basically, New York's biggest tourist trap is not 42nd St or the Statue of Liberty, it's letting your greed get the better of you and eating far more than you can stomach / afford everyday. If you can avoid doing this 3 times a day, you'll be a lot less noticable as a tourist and probably won't get mugged or anything, you won't even have to wear a money belt you'll be looking like such a slick 'New Yoiker'.

Ps, Why did the New Yorker go to sleep under his car?

He wanted to wake up oily.

First Things First

2009-09-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

If you ever even think about going to America, DO NOT BUY this book, unless you are an utter BALLER. The thing doesn't even have anything close to a hostel in it. Cheapest recommendations are like $150 a night, even for Philadelphia.
Had to ditch it and pick up a Lonely Planet (which I always thought were for squares) pretty quickly. Turns out that just because most squares also carry copies of the Lonely Planet, there's nothing meaningful to the correlation.

I take My Shits... on Route 66

2009-02-05T06:47:00.001-08:00