A visit from Tolch and a few trips around the city....

My good buddy Mark Tolch was up here visiting for the last few days. Good timing on his part as this week has proven to be job-searchy whereas last week I was pretty much free the entire time. That lead to highjinks! Here's a play by play.....

Thursday - Mark arrives. We pick him up at LGA and head back to the apartment. Alison has to stay home so she can get her son from the bus so Mark and I head into the city to find the 'Paul's Boutique Corner.' That's right. We're nerdy enough that we searched out the corner used for the cover art on the Beastie Boys' second LP. We found it. It's now a falafal shop and the finest menswear in Brooklyn was nowhere to be found. It's also not in Brooklyn, it's in Manhattan. Regardless, we made the best of it by wandering around and hitting a couple of nifty pubs in town. We also saw a building being demolished that had an old truck in the middle of it for some reason. Later that night we came back to Queens and Mark was kind enough to take us to dinner at the Cavalier where I ate chicken cordon bleu and had a strange conversation with a drunken and very effeminite man about the movie stars of yore. Oh, and someone fell off of their bar stool (not someone in our party, mind you). When we got home we watched The Warriors HD-DVD and geeked out.

Friday - Mark and I prowl the Village in search of cheap beer and quirky DVDs. Despite the rain, our mission was successful. We did some shopping and got soaked. At one point, some guy came tearing out of an Irish Pub in front of us, turned to some strange looking dude standing in a doorway and said 'Hey! Crazy Eddie! Wut's with de fuggin' rain?' Which was very amusing in a foul mouthed Tony Danza sort of way. Later that night we met Horace and John from the board at Manitoba's for a few beers. Alison arrived shortly after to make sure we all got home safe and sound. Handsome Dick Manitoba was actually tending bar that night, he told Mark that he loved Canadians and tried to get us to buy some Super Bowl Squares for his football pool.

Saturday - We took the train over to Forrest Hill (birth place of the Ramones) and had lunch. Then we took in a late afternoon showing of Rambo. That was simply rad. Ridiculous and bloody as bloody can be, it was still a fun time at the movies despite some failed attempts at some sort of semi-serious social commentary. See this one if you wanna see Stallone mow down a few hundred badguys with a machine gun and rip out a man's throat. From there we went back to Jackson Heights for dinner at Mario's. Tasty Columbian food. Yum.

Sunday - Mark's last full day in NYC was a good one. We went into town and he got to grab some souvenirs for his family. Saw the NBC Building, Rockefeller Center, Radio City, the big Disney Store and FAO Schwartz. From there we wandered through Central Park and marvelled at the break dancers and roller skaters. After that we found The Dakota (by accident), the hotel were John Lennon was shot. Walked from there to The Outback which was empty, probably because of the Superbowl. After dinner we hit 53rd and 3rd but the Ramones were nowhere to be found, it was disappointingly very none rock and roll. Came home and watched some TV. Heard the neighbourhood errupt when the Giants beat the Patriots, then crashed.

Took him to the airport yesterday and said goodbye. It was a fun trip and a good excuse to get out and see some more of the city. A few random pictures in no discernable order.....