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Travel Journal Photos |
Dancing in NYC Tonight I am sad to say good bye to New York City. In 12 hours, I have to leave for JFK airport to fly home. However, I will be back here in exactly one month. Back in September, I filled out 12 pages of applications for the United Nation's college graduate program. They've called me in for two days of recruiting exams and related hazing. I've managed to blend in so well during my trip that I am 0-5 for giving out useful street directions. I almost got interviewed for local TV when they were in the subway looking for random people to quote. I had dinner tonight in the East Village. Walking through there, I ran into the original Coyote Ugly bar. I saw the movie on TV last week and thought it was horrible. Nonetheless, the bar is true to the movie. I walked in to see two women dancing on the bar--one showing her boobs to the drunken and the damned. (One side note: a childhood friend has permanently sworn off alcohol after the type of experience the bar is named after.) My time around NYC reminded me a lot of the movie even before I found the bar. In the movie, Piper Perabo moves to the city to pursue a dream of singing. She ends up working at the bar after unsucessfully jousting with record label receptionists over her demo tape. My advice to her: make an appointment before showing up with your work. This afternoon, Newsweeks's deputy photo editor went through my portfolio and brought my ego back to equilibrium one picture at a time... In the morning, I had an excellent meeting with the people at Frommer's Budget Travel Magazine. They've already sent me hunting through my travel archives to find some hotel pictures in France. I showed them a few on my website that might work for them. It made my day when they said that they could use stuff taken within the past five years. I didn't get my passport until 1999. Frommer's photo editor said that wants me to spend time with them should I get an internship at their sister publication of Newsweek. Despite my brutally candid portfolio review by Newsweeks' deputy photo ed, he said that he wouldn't rule out an internship for me. They don't do shooting internships, but do for design and editing. This would actually work well for me, since this is very close to what I'll be doing at Poynter. He gave me his boss's name to talk to for more details. Yesterday, I shaddowed David Handschuh on assignment for the NY Daily News. We were on the trail of Sherry Murphy, the 40-year-old gogo dancer crack addict whose idea of baby sitting is locking the kids in the basement until one of them dies. We started the morning by staking out her perp walk in Newark, NJ. We waited alongside photogs from the Post and Star-Ledger, plus local TV. When the perp walk was cancelled, the closest we got to the woman was when the police gave out her mugshot at a press conference. The police had blown up the mug and mounted it on an easel. Here in New York, pictures of the easel ran on the front page of the New York Times. Afterwards, we headed out to find the house where the tragedy took place. We arrived to find a shrine of teddy bears, balloons and candles on the fence of the house. Once we had our shots, we headed to the nearest starbucks to transmit wirelessly. Since adding wireless access points, NYC's Starbucks places have become newsrooms for the city's photogs. While there, I caught the following news item in a local newspaper, "The Better Business Bureau has booted its North Jersey chapter for bad business practices." After I send this email, I am going to spend a little time tonight at a bar adjacent to my hostel. It's the Garden Tavern, named for its neighbor, Madison Square Garden. I went to it my first night in town and found out from the bartender that it's a favorite of Dave Attell's. Dave comes in frequently, through at random times and always alone. I'm sad to hear that his show's in its last season on Comedy Central. At this bar, a drunken businessman told me to call him next week. He's filling a business analyst position at one of of the big investment houses and (at the time) thought I had the right blend of skills to be a strong candidate. He's also expecting another opening in March. best regards, P.S. Attached are two photos from my time with David Handschuh at the NY Daily News. P.P.S. Tomorrow is trash day in Manhattan. Near my hostel, somebody put a perfectly good looking Gateway computer on the street. The tower case was way too big and heavy to drag to the airport. Thinking fast, I hauled back it to my room, bought a screwdriver and gutted it like a fish. The innards fit nicely into a plastic grocery bag. Even if the floppy drive is the only thing that actually works, it's still a $20 value. Note: The computer completely worked when plugged in at home. This is despite being handled as checked baggage for the trip home. Airport security was a bit amused when they x-rayed my bags and saw all the loose wires. |
