sights

Two Italian guys with jackhammers. A man and a woman drink diner coffee as if there aren't two Italian guys with jackhammers. Chinese radio. I can't stop looking for Denis Leary. A jaywalker stops in the middle of the street to take a picture, his back to traffic. He almost gets hits by a cab. He seems surprised. BROADWAY. Sun-baked urine. I wonder where the great big hole is. I'm almost afraid of stumbling onto it. It's just so damn big. RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL. Stop looking for Denis Leary. Men with carts push Halal and fresh-baked pretzels. Cigars. Perfume. GRAND CENTRAL STATION. Pretty New York girls walk with purpose, always alone, always on their way somewhere, wearing gladiator sandals and wedge platforms, skipping around Italian guys with jackhammers like one great big dance.

I'm here. I've never been to New York City before. Straight off the plane, I was treated to a styling session here. I'm going to do a shoot -- in front of the camera -- with this guy. A few of my photos are in a show to benefit the Gulf Coast, and god, there's just so much to do, so many people to see. It's going to be great but I don't want to inundate you with wankery. So for the next few days, I'm going to come here with little bits and weird moments and stuff I see. It's my first time here. I can't believe it all really exists.

If you've been, what was your first impression of New York City? Best moment? Scariest? Anything.

Comments

[Katherine]

My first visit was more than ten years ago, when I was in middle school. I took a bus in the morning with my mom and my sister so she could enroll in classes at NYU. The bus went under a tunnel and came out the other side in the city, and I felt like I'd been transported to a fairy tale. It smelled awful, but the sky was bright, and the buildings were big, and I felt like everything I'd ever want was as my fingertips. I wanted to be one of the girls walking alone for somewhere to go. I always seem to look heavier and sweatier than those girls, but now that I'm supposed to be moving to New York, I hope that might change.

I returned from the city last night after two days dedicated to apartment hunting. I was hot, tired, bruised, exhausted, and everything smelled like urine.

[Nicole]

I like this. You see, as a big city dweller I normally use your blog and photos to help me peek out of my world (which you described perfectly--- I mean, especially the sun-baked urine), definitely to escape all of it. and here you are. Enjoy yourself. Find something beautiful :)

[thordora]

You deserve a little wank m'dear. :D

[evilnick]

Have a great time. My abiding memory of my first trip there, in '89 or '90 was spending ages trying to find somewhere there was steam coming up through the street. And some brazen pick-pocketers near Times Sq - when I caught them reaching out for whatever was in my jacket pocket, they just shrugged and smiled at me and ambled off.
Also, out of the blue there was a torrential rainstorm. After sheltering under a awning, in less than a minute, three different people had offered to sell me an umbrella.
Anyhow, it is still a great place I like to visit. Have fun there!

[devin]

Is it cliche to say the smell is what I remember, too? Stepping out of Grand Central Station and being immediately taken back to smells in other big cities - Shanghai, then Bombay, Cairo, Athens, and Marrakech...all wrapped up into one NYC odoriferous experience.

[Deer Baby]

Squee! You're there! Wish I was.

The fact that the steam really does blow up throw the vents from the subway, the MEGA GIANT billboards in Times Square, trying to buy a ticket off a tout in an alleyway in the Bronx for a Yankee game, browsing round Dean and Deluca, listening to jazz in Greenwich village, Grand Central Station, eggs over easy in a diner with red leather banquettes.

Can tell you're already in a New York State of Mind.

[Cheryl Arkison]

I had about the best first experience in NYC. It was November, about 6 weeks after 9/11. Blah, blah, gawking and staring up. Going to a meeting across the street from Ground Zero and hearing the accounts of my colleagues. Then the euphoria of dinners out, an off Broadway production called De La Garda that BLEW MY MIND, and drinking ridiclously expensive scotch at a private Japanese business mens' club. Oh, then there was the night out at the strippers (FYI, strippers in NYC suck.) But what sticks out the most was being out for a walk at night, alone, through what turned out to be the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood and feeling as safe as I do in my suburban Calgary neighbourhood. With no boulevards you got glimpses of lives lived by others through the front windows so close to the sidewalk, and the life on the sidewalk itself.

Have a great time!

[neena]

I'll be there tomorrow to experience it for the first time! I just have to be sure that experience includes hot dogs.

[Lisa]

Have a great time in New York - one of my favourite places.

[William]

I hope to see you and your Photos at the VOTY auction. NY in the Summer is o much more about the smells than in the winter.

[Danny]

My first visit was as a kid on a trip with my grandparents in 1972. On our first night we went to visit a friend of theirs at the Plaza Hotel. As we walked up the steps to the hotel, a limousine pulled up and out sashayed a youthful Liza Minnelli, fresh from her Best Actress Oscar win for "Cabaret." Her TV special "Liza with a Z" had just aired in which she bemoaned how people mispronounced her name. "Lisa!" my grandmother shouted on the top of her lungs. "Lisa Minooli!! Come over here and meet my grandson!" Oy. I remember that Liza still wore green nail polish, like her character in "Cabaret," and she giggled at us before going into the hotel. Later that night she probably hit Studio 54 with Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger. The next time I visited New York I was in high school. I had taken an all-night Greyhound Bus from Chicago. The minute we exited the then-decrepit Port Authority Bus Terminal, some guy tried to sell us a gun.

Have a fantastic trip, and don't forget to visit L.A. some time soon!

[Mamie]

I love how your first posted shot of NYC is just so NY. Getting on a plane in 15 so I guess I will just have to tell you in person. :)

[Sarah]

I haven't thought about this in ages. I didn't grow up in New York, but I have lived in the city for 5 years now, which is still incredible to me. I remember visiting with my family as a child and being confused as to where everyone lived. I saw all of the storefronts, but didn't realize that many of the tall buildings had apartments in them as well.

I hope you enjoy your visit!

[Alie]

I remember going to NYC for the first time to visit a university for grad school. Having been raised in Texas, the day to day life was definitely a little more laid back than the go-go-go atmosphere of the City.

I'd always had this dream that I would NYC would be great! I'd be super successful! Life would be GRAND!

And then I got there. Ohmygod. What the hell was this place? I felt like I was being eaten alive. My pulse raced. I couldn't focus. My blood pressure shot through the roof. How the hell could I ever think that going to school in a place where there were a hundred million billion distractions would be a GOOD thing?!

I love NYC and I always dream of visiting when I'm not there. But I can't live there, definitely can't go to grad school there. It is a place. A place to visit - and while I am glad that the people who DO live there make it such an amazing place to VISIT, I don't understand, nor will I ever pretend to, how the fuck they make it day to day.

Have fun!

[Kizz]

I moved to NYC almost 25 years ago to go to college. When my parents left and I was all alone in my dorm room I knew that if I didn't leave the building soon I'd get stuck in my fear and never get out. So I found my purse and slung it across my body and clutched it close as I asked the front desk person where the nearest drug store was. I'd forgotten my toothbrush. I remember every step of the 2 block walk along 10th Street and turning onto University Place. I was so thrilled to be here. 25 years later, even on the days when life just gets you down, I'm no less than thrilled to be here all the time. Sometimes I get off the subway in Brooklyn at my same old stop on a plain old day and I couldn't be happier just because I'm here.

I'll be at Blogher, if there's anything you need feel free to shoot me an email and I'll do my best to make you love this place as much as I do.

[Kizz]

P.S. That picture you just posted is right outside the subway stop I get on every day after work, only 3 blocks from the office I'm sitting in now.

[Susan Tiner]

I grew up mostly near NYC and it's great fun bringing people to visit. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. You might never want to come home :-).

[cjm]

I went the first and only time a few years ago. For some reason I was expecting more extremes. People always talk about the filth but it didn't seem bad at all to me. I've seen worse in other major US cities. And I expected Times Square to be bigger. And for me to be more freaked out by the pace and the crowds and the city-ness of it. But I wasn't (and, Lord, was I raised in the sticks). We had a good time and I'd definitely go back to see more. Have fun!

[Anne]

My first impression of NYC was how cool are the subways!!!! Coming from a place with no subways, I just had to ride them around town.

Have a wonderful trip, Kate.

[hodgepodge]

I've never been. I'm so pea-green with envy I may need to buy new clothes to complement my skin colour.

Have a wonderful, fabulous, awesome time. Wank all over the place. Can't wait to hear more stories and see more pictures.

[mosey]

I was in NYC for 24 hours 11 years ago. In that time, I managed a walk in Central Park, a trip to the top of the Empire State Building, and a visit to one of the museums. Plus dinner at Nobu. And walking past JFK Jr's building in Tribeca (RIP). Can't wait to take some photos when I arrive tomorrow.

And one of my photos is in the auction too. Gah. Now I feel even more inadequate knowing what I'm up against.

See you in a bit!

[Sarahtk]

Welcome Kate! You are on my stomping grounds. :) I'm going to love reading your new-eyed impressions of the city. Hope you love your trip!

[jag]

You've described it perfectly!
My first visit was in August 2005. Hubby was there for a conference and I joined him there for the last few days. I arrived around 11pm and he says: "Wanna go to Times Square?"
- But it's 11pm on a Wednesday night, says I.
- So? says he. This is New York City!
...and away we went. It was a jaw-dropping, visual smorgasbord... I couldn't wrap my small-town brain around it, even after living in the "big city" of Ottawa for many years.

Truth is, I fell in love! We've been back once, and will be returning again this November as Hubby runs the NYC Marathon. I can't wait!!!

And I can't wait to see NYC through your eyes - especially the weird bits!
Enjoy... xox

[michele]

I was 6 yrs. old, stepped off a train in Grand Central and saw a man peeing...I turned to my Dad and said "I think we should move here"...thought it was the funniest thing ever.

[Tarrah]

My first trip in was in 2003 - enough time had passed since 9/11 that I felt that the city had found its legs again. I was a grad student with a clinical in Bayonne, NJ and I felt a magnetic pull to cross that ridiculously enormous expanse and be among the sky scrapers. I took the train from Chatham, and when I stepped out of Penn Station I had this overwhelming sense of *belonging*. I never expected that.
I grew up in a teensy-weensy town in Northwestern Ontario, surrounded by lakes and rock cuts and sunsets that to this day give me goosebumps. I never thought that when I stepped out onto that sidewalk that I would feel so at home amid skyscrapers, blaring car horns and that smell. (You phrased it so perfectly.).
When my clincial was done, I moved back to Alabama (another story) and married a boy from the same part of Canada that I was from. He knew how special the city was to me and took me back weeks before our son was born.
Somehow I know that my story with the city isn't done yet. I just don't know when the next chapter will reveal itself to me.
Enjoy your trip. Do all the cheesy tourist things. Find that hole.

[Gal]

Totally overwhelming. Incredibly fun. I can't sleep when I'm in NYC. There is too much buzzing, the energy is way too on constantly. Seriously, major insomnia when I am there. Don't know if I could live there. Maybe if I had a LOT of money and could do it right. You don't want to be poor in NYC because NYC sucks money out of your wallet. Have fun Kate!

[tash]

My first visit: I was 18, and my mom and I went to visit a college. I almost cancelled the trip, because the day before I saw the college I would surely attend -- a lovely, manicured, quiet one in the suburbs in Pennsylvania. I wanted to spend the day with my relatives, but Mom convinced me to go to NYC because I should at least see it in order to cross it off the list and never have a doubt. Fine.

We took the train in, got off at Penn Station, and in the cab ride to the upper west side I knew I was going THERE. It was like I had finally found home. I looked at the busy and mass of people and the tall buildings and the noise and I RELAXED. I have never felt so comfortable in my life. I fucking loved it from my first cab ride.

My mother flipped out.

I told the manicured school thanks but no, and I went to school in the city, and loved it entirely.

[heidi]

You're going to love it! It really is all it's cracked up to be.

[shannon]

I hated New York...I grew up in Boston, so even having never visited, I hated it. And then my roommate, and best friend, moved at a time in my life that I felt otherwise anchorless. And I followed her.

Nothing in my life has made me feel more empowered than moving to New York, roughly sight unseen, and making it my home. New York, at its best, is a collection of neighborhoods, and this seems like something you would uniquely enjoy. I hope you have, or find in the future, a good tour guide of the places where people who call the city home spend their time. There's nothing like breaking that city and its scale down to its component, manageable, and frankly sometimes pedestrian parts, to make you feel like (thanks Frank!) you really can do anything.

Send it my love, and have a *great* time.

[Major Bedhead]

Oh, I love NYC. I will be arriving tomorrow afternoon and I cannot wait.

First memory - my parents taking me to visit friends in the Village. Going to Junior's and being quite insistent about ordering cheesecake and immediately falling in love with it, and the city. It's so big and busy and smelly and beautiful and I just love it. I am so torn by sessions I want to attend and just going outside and soaking it all up.

[Carol]

My first impression was that it was crowded, and hot, and a lot dirtier than I had thought it would be. The subway dismayed me - I had been expecting higher technology, more chrome and less brick. Garbage bags along the street...

But I found Central Park lovely, and Greenwich Village was charming. FAO Schwartz was amazing.

It was big. It was bustling. It was New York.

[et]

1st visit as a kid
impressions: loud, smelly, too many people, not enough green

[tanya]

I was 6. My grandma took me on the train from New Jersey for a "girls day." We saw the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and window shopped. It was magical. My mom still has the candle I bought for her.

[Emily]

Never been. Can't wait to hear the impressionsof a seaside/country girl. I myself, being the selfsame, can only take big cities for a few days at a time. If that.

[amy z]

Got two-and-a-half days there a few years ago when I stowed away on hubby's business trip. 60 hours in the city by myself while he attended meetings and such. oh. my. gawd. I loved every second. I rode every subway and crammed in the touristy stuff (Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Empire State Building, MOMA and the camera geek's holy grail: B&H Photo) and walked everywhere and blew out a knee and spun through countless rolls of film. I walked around by myself, loaded down with gear - photographer dork that I am, and felt completely safe. And anonymous. I found the anonymity oddly reassuring, which was what surprised me more than anything.

I can't wait to go back some day.

Have fun!

[Cheryl S.]

I LOVE NYC. The first time I went, I was so overwhelmed with the sheer size of it that I cried in my hotel room. The funniest thing to me was that, although they have the reputation for being rude, I've never encountered a New Yorker that wasn't perfectly helpful.

Have a wonderful time!

[angelica]

the first time I went to NY I was too small to notice anything. at that age everything seems normal. a few years back I moved to work there. I had my first child there. and even though I only lived there for a few years, somehow it feels a lot like home to me.

It's everything and nothing. too many worlds in one little island. looking forward to seeing it through your eyes.

I like you, so will tell you in on a little secret. the best cheesecake in town is on the corner between 2nd Ave & 1st Ave (east village), called venieros. have fun!

[Constellation]

The first time I went to New York was with my now-husband-then-boyfriend to attend his brother's wedding (he was the best man). The first night we were in town, after dinner we took the subway to Times Square. As we walked, we noticed a diner open. It was really cold out (it was late March), and so we ordered a couple cups of coffee-and they poured it into those classic blue, white and gold greek paper cups. And strolling with this guy I was rapidly falling in love with, sipping coffee in the glitz and glamour of Times square-well, it's a great, New York Minute kind of memory.

[Alison]

I warned you, didn't I? NYC smells like a bin of hot diapers one minute, and croissants the next.

You'll go home breathing Nova Scotia air like you never have before, but, NYC is amazing. I don't think I could pinpoint one NYC moment. I've spent so much time there in the past 5 months that it started to become a place I knew. The moment I realized that I didn't have to ask someone which train to get from 125th to W4th, or the day I gave someone directions at Port Authority... I started to feel more aware of the city around me. It's gigantic. No one could ever know everything about it, I don't think.

But, Joseph picked me up in NYC (what seems like 'Once upon a time' ago) then months later, over our heads and sure but unsure, he put me on a plane home. When the plane was taking off, I begged it not to leave the ground. 'You don't have to. We can just stay here. Seriously. Come on." It took off anyway, of course. I closed my [red and teary] eyes and slept. NYC will be there when I get back.

Have a wonderful time. And if you're in the Village, go to Patisserie Claude on W4th. I'm telling you. Lemon tarts to diiiie for.

Kick ass. I know you will. Oh, and keep your eye on the garbage men. You might recognise a few of them ;)

[snarkoleptic]

Welcome to our fair smelly in summer city! My first visit was twenty something years ago and it was exhilerating and terrifying, a blur of yellow cabs flying up Sixth Avenue at inhuman speeds. I had been all over the world but never to NY and I wore that like a badge of honor. Til the first visit which gave way to the second, to monthly visits, to the move here against my parents' wishes way back in the late 80s. And now I'm a middle aged mom in NYC but I see ghosts of myself all over town. Enjoy your first visit! Drink lots of water! Don't walk three abreast. And get the heck out of Midtown as often as possible!

[Janis]

I've been missing NYC a bit lately. even though I only lived there for 4 weeks, 13 years ago, in a friend artist's apartment living room. I miss the food, the walking, all the glorious walking, museums, galleries, shops, bought a photo of Audrey Hepburn off the street.

This is so damn exciting! Can't wait to hear/see more!!

[jeannie]

completely off topic - but what do you use for post processing your photos? Lightroom? Aperture? Photoshop?

My first impression of New York is 'my mother died.'

You see, she and me and my sister had planned a girls' long weekend there in April of 2007.

She was going to pay for a boutique hotel; we were covering the meals.

My last conversation with her was a her cell phone call to me, planning the trip.

Then, she died.

After that, I've stopped waiting to have life experiences. I'm going to get them whenever I can. There might not be a next time.

[WorkingMom]

LOVE NYC! Best memory was a girls' weekend at the start of December - we shopped and talked and walked and ate and drank our way through the town.

[Christine (spiral bound)]

Best moments:
Natural History Museum (the WHALE, but also ALL OF IT)
Central Park - just walking forever
Walking in general, everywhere, especially on the morning it rained, which made me feel like less of a tourist
Cafe Grumpy: http://www.cafegrumpy.com/
I loved their sign and the coffee was lovely too (I went to the one in Chelsea)

Coincidentally I've been posting photos from my trip in 2008 on my blog this week. I'm definitely going back. I think the first visit is just to get over the shock that Manhattan is actually a real place, not a movie set.

[Denise]

My niece flew to New York (from Edmonton) to celebrate her graduation from high school... I didn't get that luxury, unfortunately!

But in April 2007 my then boyfriend and I were in Niagara Falls and planning to drive home to the Canadian prairies (we'd flown East). I convinced him to drive the "scenic route" through the States instead of through the Canadian Shield and miles and miles of Northern Ontario.

Didn't know if we would "get in" as I only had a driver's licence as ID. But before we knew it, we had crossed the border into the USA and New York State. The first time we stopped to buy gas I phoned home collect.

"Mum, I'm in New York!," I exclaimed excitedly.

She put a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm when she responded, "Better not be New York City!"

Maybe next time.... sun-baked urine and all (reminds me of parts of Glasgow, Scotland!)

[Kgrrrl]

First opinion - love.
I love the big, the anonimity, the fact that everyone is going somewhere.
I loved that no one cared about who was around them, it was very freeing.
I love that city. I've love to live in that city.

[Krystyn]

You've captured so many of my favorite things about living here. :)

One gripe though — besides the sun-baked urine — is the giant MetLife building behind Grand Central. Such a great view of it on Park Avenue that's just ruined by that ugly building behind it.

[Betsy]

Hey! I LOVE your pics that Ryan took! You are soooo adorable! Nice bangs. Are you SURE you've got your age right? Maybe your mom is confused about the decade.

Also...my first experience of NYC was when we were hiking the Appalachian Trail and rode a train into the city and it was like this mind-numbing throb of lights and diners and then really expensive banana pancakes that were totally worth it and a star-spotting of Daniel Vosovic from Project Runway. I don't think I'll ever go back and try to top that, unless my mom insists on one of those mother/daughter weekends for her 60th.

[Christine]

I grew up a half hour train ride away from Manhattan with cousins in Brooklyn, and a father who would take us to a musuem of our choosing almost every Sunday. My sister always chose the Musuem of Natural History and I always chose an art musuem. My favorite place in the world to this day is the Temple of Dendor at the Metropolitan Musuem of Art. I used to train into the city and drag my books to study in that room during finals while I was in college. Love, love, love.

Enjoy!

[Aimee Greeblemonkey]

My first impression, as you know, happened this weekend. The first day, I was overwhelmed - especially by the smells. I now realize that was partially due to the intense heat - but it really was fascinating to have all those different scents waft over my face, some good, some bad - OK, many bad... But seriously, NYC was the most PUNGENT city I have ever been to.

I loved it.