NYC.

tuesday morning arrived, and we found ourselves parked up at the holiday inn in secaucus new jersey, just on the outskirts of new york city. i guess shane ate a bad cheese steak in philly, because he painted the sidewalks outside the bus after the show, and was checked out for our day off in the city. because of shanes illness, we had to cancel the in store acoustic show we had planned that evening in long island.

jon, paul and i headed onto the shuttle from the hotel to penn station, to get started on some radio interviews for the day.





immediately, i saw that NYC doesn't fuck around with their bikes. i think over the course of the day i saw just as many fixed gears as geared bikes, and plenty of bike messengers.



the enemy.




some more NYC architecture.




at about 2pm, we were all done for the day, so i parted ways with jon and paul, and headed down to the lower east side to 154 attorney st (the nyc canadian consulate / home of aileen and katiebrown). aside from seeing aileen when i got there, it turned out that the majority of our crew had bussed in to 154 attorney as well.



cheapie, aileen and i decided to jump the subway to get to red bamboo (my favourite restaurant in the country), post haste.






i ordered one of my classic favourites, the soul chicken parmesan hero, as well as the cajun fried shrip and a pistachio shake!



cheapie digs into a dijon chicken sandwhich.



on the walk back to the subway, we stopped in at urban outfitters, where aileen, in attempt for those rainy days in "the shit" on warped tour, did her best rambo impression.



fixed gears everywhere!



i opted to break away from the pack and head uptown to the shepard fairey art exhibit at the jonathan levine galleries. unfortunately, this was about as far as i could get with my camera. the exhibit was absolutely amazing! the detail and textures in the prints were something that can only be experienced fully in person with the original print. my mind was fully blown.



more bikes!



i kind of got lost on the walk back to 154 from the subway. i found out that this actually happens in new york, and not just in the movies.



another bike!



back to 154, the crew were all hanging back and relaxing (some more than others)



we watched some tv (new entourage, so amazing) and hung around before getting the gang together and walking a few blocks to a bar.





we headed to angels & kings, a new scene bar in the city run by one of the dudes from fall out boy, or something. we ran into a bunch of friends including the kids from armor for sleep and plain white t's, as well as rob from midtown (djing that evening).

here's plain white dave laughing at my moustache.



DJ rob



johnny cash making an appearance on the wall.



aileen and i!



palmer and pauly.



154's tribute to nu metal enthusiast, danny delprincipe.



kevin is still drinking!




i passed out to the loving embrace of lux the stuffed puppy.



the next day we had to get up real early to get back up to time square for a photo shoot. i think i was actually up at something like 6am refreshing the UPS tracking screen to see when my bike was going to arrive. we left around 11 to head to the venue, still no bike. after the photoshoot, i headed back to 154 to find the bike had arrived. unfortunately i was too excited while putting it together to take any pictures, but now that it is pretty much together (need to add a few more obey decals) i'm going to get some solid photos today. after putting it together, i needed to find a pump to fill one of the tires, and even though i found a rad shop right around the corner, it was closed wednesdays. the trusty google maps helped me find a shop, and i was off to the races of riding the busy streets of NYC.

i road back over to red bamboo for a second serving with my friend pulin from PETA2 and his friend joe. i got the bamboo tofu club and butter pecan shake, which were all delicious! there is actually a little blog about that on their site.



pulin and i hopped the subway back up to the venue, as my 50 block bike ride "parade" was officially rained on (litterally). after the show (which was great) mary and i hopped back on the subway to 154, where she needed to pick up clothes, and i needed to grab the bike suitcase that i left back because i couldn't carry it on my bike.

to be honest, yesterday we were in hartford ct, which was pretty sketchy, so i didn't really bring out my camera or bike. i did find a decent juice bar close to the venue, and made it there and back alive, which was unexpected.