We got coffee at a small coffee place down the street from the apartment called, Piccalo's Cafe. It was small, with wood paneling throughout the walls, floors, and tables. I remember for just a split second looking at the people sitting at these wood tables and thinking, "These people live in New York City. They are having coffee in New York City and they get to LIVE here." Since the heat, while for me was an enjoyable escape from that rainy hell dimension of Portland, was still in fact very much hot, I got iced coffee, and Serge, Jason, and I walked down to Union Square.
I had told Serge before I got to the city that one of the things I had wanted to see was the Andy Warhol Monument located near Union Square(next to one of his old apartment buildings, which is now unfortunately a Petco)so we headed in that direction walking through the Farmer's Market that was taking place there that day. Along the way I was stopped by a young girl who after complimenting my outfit asked if she could take a couple of pictures of me. I learned that she was a fashion student, and she asked me where I got each piece of clothing. The Brad glasses were from Naked City on Hawthorne in Portland, the Basquiat shirt was from Buffalo Exchange, the shorts were from Kohl's, and the socks were from Sock Dreams. With this information she then took two photos of me, where I tried to pose in such a way that wouldn't make me look fat in the actual pictures. After she left I ran up to Serge and exclaimed with excitement that that girl wanted my picture!! Already my first day in New York and I'm getting immortalized in someone's fashion project. I texted Brendan what had just happened and he texted me back saying that New York had claimed one of its own.
Once we reached the Andy Warhol statue I took a few pictures of it, and admired it's plastic tin-like silver shining in the sunlight. Warhol's expression a near smirk while holding a bag that read: medium brown bag. A couple of people were also taking pictures, which made me smile. The three of us sat down in one of the several umbrella shaded tables that took up a section of the street. While we sat Jason told me about Mayor Bloomberg and the many things he was working on doing for the city, once of which was the tables in the streets. While I still don't know much about Bloomberg, I do appreciate his street table ideals.We started to walk around the area a little bit more, making pit stops along the way at the cell phone store, Duane Reade(which I guess could only be described as the New York City version of Rite Aid) and the most fancy McDonald's I had ever seen.
We walked into Strand bookstore. Looking back, it was nowhere near as big as Powell's City of Books in Portland, but at that moment of going inside it felt as big as that one. Perhaps it was the bookstore's labyrinthine rows and rows of books. Serge took me upstairs where all the art/film/photography books were. It was here that one of the Strand employees saw my Totoro bag and said, "I love your bag...that's all." And then she walked away. For years many people, New Yorker's included, told me that most New York city dwellers are often rude. And so in that moment I figured this woman was still trying to keep her angry, rude demeanor while at the same time being unable to resist complimenting my delightfully fun bag. Looking back of course I feel differently, but I'm curious as to why she felt the need to say that was all. Eventually Serge decided to buy a Montgomery Clift postcard. While we waited in line to pay for it downstairs, I ended up talking to a very attractive young black gentlemen. He was wearing a bowtie made from green domino pieces that lit up in the center. I told him I loved his bowtie and he told me that he had made it himself. He then told me that he liked my Basquiat t-shirt, so we talked about Basquiat for a few seconds. It seemed as though he was flirting with me, though I've never been good at disecting such actions. And I can't remember if I told him I was from out of town or not, but the next thing I knew we left Strand and him behind. As with every adventure to a new place one has certain regrets of chances not taken and places not visited. Of the variety of things I regret not doing while I was in New York, one of them is not getting that guys number and having passionate sex with him.
We went to a few other places that which Serge said he never had excuses to go into. We went to a comic book store called, "Forbidden Planet." I had been in places like it but only in California. They had some pretty fun stuff, including the Barbara from Night of the Living Dead action figure that I had only ever seen online. I didn't buy anything though, and them not having any Poison Ivy things of any sort helped that. We also went to a costume shop, walked through St. Mark's, and visited a tiny little vintage store that Serge and Jason's friend Ruby worked at. She made a hilarious statement about teenage Asian girls coming into her store to take pictures of dresses that they were going to buy and then cut up to show off their vagina's. This statement became even more hilarious when as we were leaving an Asian girl walked in.
After walking buy a guy at a bustop with his shirt open to proudly show off his enormous pube patch, the three of us went to have lunch at a place in St Mark's called, Yaffa Cafe. Described on Facebook as, "Buddha meets Elvis," this was my first New York City restaurant. Based on that fact alone, it was destined to become one of my favorite restaurants in the city. But in addition to being the right place at the right time, I fell madly in love with the decor of dark reds, and Meddeteranian atmosphere. Paintings of large flowers and bullfighters adorned in plastic fruit that hung from the ceiling. We sat at a table next to the window that faced the back patio area. Jason and Serge sat beneath a painting of chrysanthemums and I took their picture. Having not eaten since the Iggy's pizza the night before I was quite famished. I ordered the mushroom and onion crepes with brie. To drink I ordered almond soda, which I had never tasted but since I was a fan of almond milk and eating in such an exotic setting I had to try it. The almond soda was quite tasty, as were the crepes. Nothing quite beats brie and mushrooms, I do say.
We left Yaffa with one of Jason's friends who met up with us there. He had a tattoo of a dagger going through the skin on his right arm. Jason had a similar tattoo on his arm as well, which I discovered the night before. Essentially all three of us had the same tattoo. Which I found amusingly strange.
We went to a beer store where the shop lady was very nice and waved goodbye while stating, "Enjoy the beer!" Once again I was surprised to see a New Yorker exude pleasantness. It was here that Jason left Serge and I on our own. We walked around for a bit, and during our walk I discovered of all things a Buffalo Exchange store!! The clothing exchange store that's all the rage with the Portland hipsters. Even though I had no desire to buy anything I simply had to go inside this little slice of home. The store itself was rather small, almost boutique like. Serge had a little bit on anxiety when it came to clothing stores but was quickly taken in by the cheap prices Buffalo had to offer. I talked with some of the workers and told them about how I was from Portland and how Buffalo Exchange was one of my favorite places to buy clothes. I noticed that behind the registers was a dress labeled, Gucci. Or maybe it was Versace...Oh you know, it was one of those fancy expensive clothing lines. And I thought to myself, why of all places would someone sell that dress at Buffalo Exchange? I hope whoever it was got good money for it.
When we got back to the apartment, Serge showed me some of his films in preparation for the one I was going to star in that he was currently filming. My favorite was a short film called, "Trashtasia." This was to be the film of Serge's that I would go on to quote on many a drunken party nights. As the night went on we watched many a film/t.v. show. We started with Pedro Almodovar's first film, "Pepi, Luci, Bom." Being always and ever so much the passionate Almodovar fan, I was excited to see his first film that was damn near impossible to find elsewhere. Though I was also a little weary since most of his early films while still truly original and inspired often fell to the amateurish wayside. But the film was wonderful. And begs for a soundtrack release in addition to a DVD release. After this we watched Bridesmaids, which halfway through Jason came back. I hadn't seen Bridesmaids yet but was a big Kristen Wigg fan and was delighted to see such familiar faces as Matt Lucas from Little Britain and Roy from The I.T. Crowd. A young woman named Rebel Wilson who I had never heard of before was also in the film. Having told Serge and Jason that I had never heard of her before, once Bridesmaids was over, they showed me a show that she was in called, "Bogan Pride." A hilarious Australian show I would also go on to quote multiple times while drunk or sober.
At some point through all of this Serge made Tater Tots and gave me a Popsicle. Which I chose red for.
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