New York City, Day 1

A few of us at Forest Fire are spending the next week in New York City. We will be here until the 23rd, so please check back often for updates on our trip.

We arrived at JFK on a Virgin America A320. Since the last time I flew with Virgin, the in-flight entertainment system was considerably more bug-free and they've added free Boing Boing TV episodes to their list of "premium" TV shows. This is a very cool addition, even if each episode is only a few minutes long. The satellite TV on-board still has a lot of problems. Most of the time, the reception was down or the image would freeze up. Still, Virgin has a pretty satisfactory selection of music that more than makes up for the spotty television (Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk, to name a few). Listening to "Star Guitar" while taking off is as great as watching the Michel Gondry's music video for the song.

I'm typing this up at the Broadway Hotel & Hostel, a seven-story building in the Upper West Side. The surrounding area isn't the most happening place, but it has a good selection of restaurants (from Mexican to Thai) and the neighborhood doesn't seem too "dodgy," as a lot of the British/Australian travelers staying here would say. The bathrooms and rooms are clean, with hot running water (very important). On the first floor, there's a nicely furnished lobby with plenty of couches, tables and flat-screen TV's playing Woody Allen and gangster movies. There are also vending machines and computers with Internet access. Service, for us, has been good, although later at night while sitting on a couch, I overheard the lobby receptionist speaking rudely to a customer. Every question she answered had a tinge of annoyance to it. I don't know if it's a New York thing, but it was more than a little bitchy.

For lunch, we ate at Jerusalem Restaurant, one of those small family-owned restaurants that make up the character of city-dining. They serve up lamb, gyro and grape leaf falafels straight from the grill. The price was reasonable for New York City and the meal was good.

In the evening, we headed out to Arturo's for New York-style pizza. We ordered a large sausage/mushroom pizza for $19. Despite the slow and somewhat negligent service, the pizza was delicious. The sauce wasn't heavy, the cheese was melted just right and the dough was baked thin in the signature New York style. We arrived at dinner time on a Saturday night, which probably explains the slow service. The jazz pianist and drummer were nice additions to the interior, where it's dimly lit and furnished with pieces from the restaurant's 50-year history.

Every station we hit up, I notice that New York City is a very musical town. Today alone, I heard Spanish guitar, a Bob Dylan cover, a pots and pans percussionist, an accordionist and an a capella duo that sang the kind of pop/R&B fare you'd hear at a high school choir show. But they had the balls to sing in front of a tough audience, so I give them that.

It's snowing right now in the city. We briefly walked through Washington Square Park, which isn't the same without people playing guitar or just hanging out at the steps. At night, we saw a few belligerent homeless people and some tourists. But the Washington Arch is beautiful as always, especially at night with all the lights.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, we hit up Central Park and the Met.

Jerusalem Restaurant
2715 Broadway
Upper West Side

Arturo's
105 W Houston St
New York, NY 10012