Junior Covers Loudness

[JammerMatt]

Re: Junior Covers Loudness

I wanna go way OT, now, since I've got a couple of New Yokkers on the line. This
country boy from the Northwest is an unfrozen caveman, and he is frightened by your moderns ways and customs. He's never been to NYC (yet).

I see various movies and television shows, and hear stuff about the great city of New York with it's various burroughs and stuff, and it gets quite confusing. Perhaps a NYC primer is necessary.

For instance. What is the difference between Uptown, Downtown, Mid-town? Is it all the same place? Can you really find all you need.... Downtown?

Movies portray Brooklyn as a semi-rough place. Twilight, what Brooklyn do you live in? Do you live in Saturday Night Fever Tony Minero Brooklyn? Do you live in "Wanderers" Brooklyn? Do you live in Beastie Boys no sleep till Brooklyn? Can you get White Castle there? Don't the Goodfellas hail from Brooklyn?

Deluxe Meat, when you say The Bronx, is it like Fort Apache The Bronx? Is it Lords of Flatbush Bronx (if I'm even in the right neighborhood). Or is there a different Bronx? Where's Hell's Kitchen, and would it be a bad place to visit?

What's "The Village?" Where does Jerry Seinfeld (the TV Character) live? Where do the "Friends" live? Where does King of Queens live... Queens I suppose? And where do you find that really cool globe structure on the Beastie Boys CD?

These are all just probably dumb questions, but when you're a hick from the NW and your wife is watching Sex and the City, you begin to wonder how it all fits together.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Junior Covers Loudness

I see various movies and television shows, and hear stuff about the great city of New York with it's various burroughs and stuff, and it gets quite confusing. Perhaps a NYC primer is necessary.

For instance. What is the difference between Uptown, Downtown, Mid-town? Is it all the same place? Can you really find all you need.... Downtown?

Movies portray Brooklyn as a semi-rough place. Twilight, what Brooklyn do you live in? Do you live in Saturday Night Fever Tony Minero Brooklyn? Do you live in "Wanderers" Brooklyn? Do you live in Beastie Boys no sleep till Brooklyn? Can you get White Castle there? Don't the Goodfellas hail from Brooklyn?

These are all just probably dumb questions, but when you're a hick from the NW and your wife is watching Sex and the City, you begin to wonder how it all fits together.

First thing to note, Matt, is that TV and movie NY is totally fictional. For example, in the movie Peacemaker, George Clooney runs from Penn Station to the UN ... I would like to see him try that in real life!!

NYC is divided into many little pockets, called neighbourhoods. Each neighbourhood is totally self-contained -- you have everything you could need in your neighbourood: movie theater, market, and countless bakeries, bodegas, chinese take out, and pizza places (good and bad).

My neighbourhood is called GERRITSEN BEACH. It is 90% Irish; lots of fireman and police officers. Lots of Cunninghams and Murphy. It is somewhere between Saturday Night Fever (Bensonhurst) and Beasty Boys. While predominantly a family neighbourhood, crime is very real; you have to be aware of where you are at all times. My son goes to school literally one block from our house and is not allowed to go alone, because we're afraid of anyone that may pick up on the pattern of him walking alone at the same time every day ... I have yet to be mugged, though it's a matter of time before statistics catch up to me. When I had a car, it was stolen once and had the battery stolen twice. I've been hit by a taxi once.

Manhattan is the central core of NYC, of course. It has many neigbourhoods as well. Basically, you can divide Manhattan into grids, with 5th Ave or Broadway being the East/West dividing line.

Going from South to North, you have Downtown/Financial District, then Chinatown, Lower East Side, and SoHo. (SoHo = South of Houston)

Just North of Houston you have NoHo (North of Houston). This joins the Villages at Bleeker Street. Greenwich Village is West of Broadway. East of Lafayette is the East Village.

From 14th St you have where I work, which is Union Square. Then you have Grammercy Park, Murray Hill and Chelsea.

Above these neighbourhoods is MIDTOWN! Blech ...

Above Midtown you have Hells Kitchen, the Upper East and West Side and Harlem. Finally you have Washington Heights.

I know I've missed a few neighbourhoods like Tribeca (Triangle Below Canal St).

More ...

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Junior Covers Loudness

Here's your quick and easy guide to the areas I've outlined:

Downtown = Wall St, Stock Market, Financial district
Chinatown = Chinese food, cheap bootleg crap, OTB, Little Italy
Lower East Side (LES) = Trendy combo rock clubs, some good bars, NYU crowd, bridge + tunnel invasion on the weekends
SoHo = Art galleries
NoHo = Barnes + Noble, Astor Haircutters
Greenwich Village = I think you know
East Village = Metal side of the village: dive bars, tatoo parlours, head shops, rock clubs (where my pub is)
Union Square = High end everything; fabulous women walk around to be seen, as well as movie stars; Irving Plaza
Murray Hill = Residential
Chelsea = Homosexually oriented; lots of leather daddy shops
Grammercy Park = High end residential
Midtown = Museums and tourist traps
Hells Kitchen = Recording studios (where I rehearse)
Upper East Side = Rich people (The Jeffersons)
Upper West Side = Rich people (Diff'rent Strokes and Seinfeld)
Harlem/Washington Heights = STAY OUT.

 

[JammerMatt]

Re: Junior Covers Loudness

TO, that was a sweet run-through. I appreciate you taking the time to lay it all out, as that looks like it took some time. I hope you type fast, my friend. I found it very informative and will have to find a way to print it out so next time someone mentions a neighborhood I can follow along. It's unfortunate that crime is for real where you are. But, having alot of police around is probably bonus, and it sounds like the Irish police stereotype has some foundation in reality. I suppose the crime isn't totally different here, either, as I wouldn't let my boys out of my sight outside... just too many freaks in the world in general. My neighborhood is real nice, but you just can't trust people. My car has been broken into about 5 times, and was attempted stolen once. After the first 3 incidents, I quit taking it to the body shop and decided to just let the dents, scratches and knife cuts accumulate. Funny thing, but after I decided to let the speaker hole remain bare, nobody's bothered the car since.

What I think is real cool about your description is that you have these neighborhoods which are totally self-contained. Being a west-coaster, owning a car is an absolute must. Everything, and I mean everything, is a car trip. The grocery store is a couple of miles away, and as for just walking to a bar and having a drink, like you'd probably say, "fuhgettaboutit." It's a drive, too. This throws some serious wrenches in the partying for sure, as you've got to either have a driver lined up who can stay sober, or risk getting pulled over. It sounds like you could take it or leave it (a car) where you live, and get along fine without. I think that is so totally cool. Urban designers here are trying to get back to that neighborhood idea by developing housing near stores, etc, but it's not organic like your neighborhood sounds like. And even so, you still have to drive to work and drive to eat out. For a short time I lived in a neighborhood close to what you describe, and I loved it. I walked to the store, the theater, the bar, the strip club It was cool.

Brooklyn is south of Manhatten, yes? And The Bronx is east of Brooklyn? I looked at a map once and found it real interesting, as you read along and find all these very familiar names and locations. Being from a relatively small city, I think it would be total mindblow to hang out there for awhile. I think that the Portland Metro area is probably a million people including the suburbs which stretch about 20 miles in every direction, and you could walk across the downtown core in under an hour. You could also walk through the downtown core any time of day or night for the most part.

We moved out of Portland to Washington about 5 years ago. We live right across the river from Portland, and the town I live in, CAMAS, is typically the butt of any Deliverance jokes. I think it is about population 5,000 or so and is formerly a mill town, but now the seat of several high tech firms. To read between the lines would say that we are being overrun by Californians who sell their modest ranch homes for 400k, and move up here and buy a 3,000 sf home for 300. This is great for my property value, which is skyrocketing, but will suck when it comes time to move to a bigger house.

Man, you'd find this place tiny, I'm sure. But, two hours west is the Pacific Ocean and two hours east is snow-skiing, and 3 hours east is high desert. In all, it's a great place to live.

Is Gerritsen Beach actually on a beach?

 

[JammerMatt]

Re: Junior Covers Loudness

Okay, I got off my lazy butt and looked up a NYC map. I was a little off on Bronx, but I was close on Brooklyn and Queens. Ben, you look pretty close to Coney Island, and quite close to the water. I'm guessing that's a good thing. It appears that Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens take up some considerable area. For hearing so much about Harlem, it appears small in comparison and tucked between Bronx and Central Park. Well, it looks small on the map, but it's probably 2x Portland I suppose. Still, I'll take your advice and avoid it. Soho, Noho, Village, and Chinatown appear to be sort of lumped together in the south of Manhatten

So you commute all the way north of Manhatten to rehearse? Do you have to commute through Harlem? Friend, that is dedication!

For some reason this is all strangely fascinating to me. I just have a hard time imagining that many people in one place.

Where's Dream Theater from?

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Junior Covers Loudness

Dream Theater are from Long Island, for the most part. Mike Portnoy has the classic "Lawn Guyland" accent ...

From my corner there are 2 buses which take you to the closest train station, either KINGS HWY or AVENUE U on the Q line. You can see how many stops it is from the Union Square station at www.mta.info. My ride into work, although only 15 or so linear miles, takes me about 1:30 to get into work, and about 1 hr home. Lots of time to read!!

I haven't had a car in about 15 years! There are reputedly 100,000 people that live in my neighbourhood, with the total population of Brooklyn being around 4M.

I live relavtively close to Coney Island and the Aquarium. On a gorgeous day, you might attempt to walk it, but you would need a MAJOR pint after that walk!!

I rehearse in The Building of Recording Arts on 30th St, between 7th and 8th Ave. It's across the street from the famous 30th Street Guitars, http://www.30thstreetguitars.com. We usually rehearse in Studio A or the Ultra Room at Ultrasound Rehearsal, tho I prefer the sound of Studio A ... http://www.ultrasoundrehearsal.com.

This means schlepping my gear onto the MTA in the morning when we have rehearsal. From work, I take the train one stop north, to MSG, and then walk 2 avenues west to the studio ... not a fun walk due to the crowds, and in the extreme heat or cold, it just plain sucks!! :evil:

I absolutely love NYC, and yeah, it's a trip being here, even tho most people can't stand it. My wife and I are what I call New Yorkers, not Brooklynites, because we actually go into the city (aka, Manhattan to non-NYers) as opposed to hanging around Brooklyn all the time, which most Brooklynites do, shamefully enough.

I think you would totally love it here, at least for a visit, until the crowds, constant walking, and general NY hardness wore you down -- hopefully, you'll be next to me in the 2nd row for Maiden when they headline Ozzfest this summer!!

 

[JammerMatt]

Re: Junior Covers Loudness

Do you just keep the heavy equipment at the studio? The amps and whatnot, and just commute with yer axe?

Jet Blue airlines has moved into Portland, and are coming in w/ 99$ one-way tix to NYC. The reason I know this is because my wife informed me, so the IM/NYC campaign is moving forward. Not that I need her permission of course :blackeye: but you know it's much easier when everyone's on board. 2nd row? What kind of contacts do you have there, bro? Oh, maybe you shouldn't tell me... what with all those Goodfellas in Brooklyn.

Whilst living in Spain (4 years), I did not own a car for the last 3 years or so. I walked everywhere or took taxis. If I wanted to take a road trip I rented a car. I was in great shape from all the walking, and sorta like your 'hood, everything was within walking distance. It made it very easy to go out and party at night when home was just a half-mile or so away. I think I'd dig the urban life.

I'll have to check out those links during lunch. Much cool stuff there.

-Matt

 

[deluxemeat]

Re: Junior Covers Loudness

damn there's some cool stuff in this thread i've missed for the last few days! i'll jump back in asap! talk to you guys soon.
twighlight. that sounds very cool! let's try to hook it up sometime.

 

[deluxemeat]

Re: Junior Covers Loudness

Deluxe Meat, when you say The Bronx, is it like Fort Apache The Bronx?

matt, they filmed scenes in the hospital where i was born! my mom worked down around that area when i was growing up. good times!

Sounds cool, deluxemeat! Will you be putting on the jagged mirrors on it?

i've been debating that, but i doubt it. i'm gonna go w/ either keeping the body oiled ash so it "breathes" or going the opposite way and applying a clear coat and then having it plated in chrome, as that's a very "metal" guitar!
:saeek: debating whether i will slap an original floyd or a speedloader on there. the neck will be a usacg w/ a wolfie contour and 6000 frets! dano head of course!

hey twighlight od, have you ever heard of a band called four trips ahead? i've done their artwork and you may have seen my stuff around town.
i'll also be unveiling my 2 new bands this summer. one involves me co-writing w/ the singer of four trips: that will be his solo excursion and my main band which is basically wildhearts, motorhead, cheap trick sorta rock. let me know when your band is playing out. let's talk some more!

 

[Falstaff]

Re: Junior Covers Loudness

I think the link is broken...I'd love to hear it if you could fix it.

 

[JammerMatt]

Re: Junior Covers Loudness

I think the link is broken...I'd love to hear it if you could fix it.

It was a temporary link, I'll try to re-hook it.

-Matt