NYC
Evidently it sucks to be in business in Times Square... but I'll spare you the rant on that one, because I'm in a happy mood.
This town gives me the strangest set of feelings- you really just can't help but love it and hate it at the same time. In my 5 days here so far, I've seen the most amazing street art, as well as the most pointless and brutal street fights of my lifetime.
And just to clarify while I'm thinking about it- people here aren't really so much rude as they're just in a hurry. Nothing's really personal at all.
I'm staying right on Times Square, which, like most everything else here, is both good and bad. I'm less than a block from nearly anything I could ever want, 24/7. Of course, that also kind of means that there are people in the street raising hell all the time, as well.
You probably don't want to see any dumb cliche pics of the square, so let's move right along.
I had the day off on Sunday, so I took advantage of the opportunity to see the city. Central Park, if you've never seen it, is HUGE. Just huge.
It was an angle I didn't really intend on the bee, but it kind of worked nonetheless....
Located on one side of the park is Strawberry Fields, which is a small garden dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. It was beautiful, and there were a LOT of people there bringing flowers. I didn't want to cheapen the moment by being a photo-tourist. Hope you guys understand....
Then was a quick taxi ride over to Greenwich Village, where I did some window shopping and checked out the street market. Lots of cool stuff from all over the world. I totally shoulda taken more pics.
There was some world-class graffiti, as well.
Then I bounced on over to SoHo and did some window shopping in a bit higher-rent district. Visited the Apple store (a weird place) and gawked at the sexy stuff at Agent Provocateur.
There are some really cool older building in that district, for sure.
Work has been kind of a bitch this week- the only union with a contract at the convention center has for some reason decided to put the hammer down on us, so it seems we can't scratch our asses without being told it's the union's job. While I fully and completely symphatize and understand the raison d'etre behind the union, it's really the foremen and the suits that seem to be the real dicks. It almost seems like legal extortion- we pay $200 an hour for a guy who knows absolutely nothing about audio, just so I can stand around all day and teach him how to do my job. I'm not ALLOWED to touch anything, because HE PAID dues to the union- it's HIS job. Whether he's any good at it or not. If I try to say anthing, here's what I get: "You know, I'm the electrician. This plugs into electricity. It's my job. What if you plug it in wrong and mess up my circuit? This is my job. I come to work here every day, and you want to come in and take my job? How will my kids eat? You wouldn't take money from my kids' mouths, would you?"
And THEN the foreman comes over in his suit.... with 4 BIG linebacker-style tattooed, scar-faced cronies. He says something along the lines of, "We hear you're not pleased with our service. We're the only union with a contract at this hall, and thus, we are the only electrical provider. You aren't required to have electrical in your booth, and since this business relationship is obviously not pleasing either one of us, maybe it would be a better idea if you didn't have any electricity at all in your booth.... and by the way, if you do, we're gonna have to charge you time and a half, because it's after 3PM now."
All this after we've paid $100k to put on an event for two and a half days.... and they continue to attempt to extort a little more out of us at every opportunity. It's pretty safe to say we will NOT be back at this event next year. Some events we just don't have a choice, but we're the anchor vendor at this one.... if we leave, the whole event will probably fall apart, so guess what? We're going to take our million-dollar ball and go home.
Rant off.
Anyway, I'm in high spirits nonetheless. I always am... just happy that this show will be over on Thursday, and on Friday, I'll be back in Indy for the weekend before making it home first of next week.
And you know what I'm going to do first thing when I get home??
That's right- I'm gonna ride.
-t
This town gives me the strangest set of feelings- you really just can't help but love it and hate it at the same time. In my 5 days here so far, I've seen the most amazing street art, as well as the most pointless and brutal street fights of my lifetime.
And just to clarify while I'm thinking about it- people here aren't really so much rude as they're just in a hurry. Nothing's really personal at all.
I'm staying right on Times Square, which, like most everything else here, is both good and bad. I'm less than a block from nearly anything I could ever want, 24/7. Of course, that also kind of means that there are people in the street raising hell all the time, as well.
You probably don't want to see any dumb cliche pics of the square, so let's move right along.
I had the day off on Sunday, so I took advantage of the opportunity to see the city. Central Park, if you've never seen it, is HUGE. Just huge.
It was an angle I didn't really intend on the bee, but it kind of worked nonetheless....
Located on one side of the park is Strawberry Fields, which is a small garden dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. It was beautiful, and there were a LOT of people there bringing flowers. I didn't want to cheapen the moment by being a photo-tourist. Hope you guys understand....
Then was a quick taxi ride over to Greenwich Village, where I did some window shopping and checked out the street market. Lots of cool stuff from all over the world. I totally shoulda taken more pics.
There was some world-class graffiti, as well.
Then I bounced on over to SoHo and did some window shopping in a bit higher-rent district. Visited the Apple store (a weird place) and gawked at the sexy stuff at Agent Provocateur.
There are some really cool older building in that district, for sure.
Work has been kind of a bitch this week- the only union with a contract at the convention center has for some reason decided to put the hammer down on us, so it seems we can't scratch our asses without being told it's the union's job. While I fully and completely symphatize and understand the raison d'etre behind the union, it's really the foremen and the suits that seem to be the real dicks. It almost seems like legal extortion- we pay $200 an hour for a guy who knows absolutely nothing about audio, just so I can stand around all day and teach him how to do my job. I'm not ALLOWED to touch anything, because HE PAID dues to the union- it's HIS job. Whether he's any good at it or not. If I try to say anthing, here's what I get: "You know, I'm the electrician. This plugs into electricity. It's my job. What if you plug it in wrong and mess up my circuit? This is my job. I come to work here every day, and you want to come in and take my job? How will my kids eat? You wouldn't take money from my kids' mouths, would you?"
And THEN the foreman comes over in his suit.... with 4 BIG linebacker-style tattooed, scar-faced cronies. He says something along the lines of, "We hear you're not pleased with our service. We're the only union with a contract at this hall, and thus, we are the only electrical provider. You aren't required to have electrical in your booth, and since this business relationship is obviously not pleasing either one of us, maybe it would be a better idea if you didn't have any electricity at all in your booth.... and by the way, if you do, we're gonna have to charge you time and a half, because it's after 3PM now."
All this after we've paid $100k to put on an event for two and a half days.... and they continue to attempt to extort a little more out of us at every opportunity. It's pretty safe to say we will NOT be back at this event next year. Some events we just don't have a choice, but we're the anchor vendor at this one.... if we leave, the whole event will probably fall apart, so guess what? We're going to take our million-dollar ball and go home.
Rant off.
Anyway, I'm in high spirits nonetheless. I always am... just happy that this show will be over on Thursday, and on Friday, I'll be back in Indy for the weekend before making it home first of next week.
And you know what I'm going to do first thing when I get home??
That's right- I'm gonna ride.
-t
posted by tjayswift at 12:47 AM
3 Comments:
Those are so my initals on the Greenwich Village graffiti. Top right corner. Not that you care. Pervert.
Those are your initials?? OH MY GOD I THINK I KNOW YOU....
No. Not those. The other ones. Top RIGHT corner. Sheesh.
Post a Comment
<< Home