Tag Archives: tourism

The Brooklyn TV & Movie Sites Tour!


Manhattan Bridge (All Photos By Anne Raso)

The borough of Brooklyn, New York may be located just across a bridge from Manhattan, but that doesn’t mean most Manhattanites necessarily know much about what Brooklyn has to offer. Movie and TV production companies know all about Brooklyn, however, especially when it comes to scouting locations that can substitute on film for New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC and, well, sometimes they just want the place to look like they are filming in Brooklyn.
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Top Of The Rock: A Fun Touristy Thing to Do!

Empire State from Top of the Rock

I think it’s safe to say that most people who live in Manhattan don’t do very many traditionally touristy things when they are out on their own. At least that’s true for me. I’ve lived in NYC for over twenty years and, after hitting all of the famous, must-see attractions at least once (RIP The Top Of The World), the most touristy thing I do these days is go to museums. But last night I met up with a former high school classmate of mine and her family, who were enjoying their very first visit to NYC, and when they expressed a desire to hit the Top Of The Rock – the observation deck at the top of Rockefeller Center – so they could cross it off their list, I was in just the right mood to go along. I’m really glad I did, because it was a lot of fun!
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Texas Is The Reason (For Bats)


Austin Gets Batty

Hey what’s up.  I hope you missed me as much as I missed all of you. I just got back from spending a wonderful week having non-stop rad fun in south Texas with my sister, Keven (or in Espanol: “Quevan,” as I am now calling her). We basically wore ourselves to nubs being shameless tourists, but it was worth it. One of my favorite things we did together while in Texas was cruising out onto Austin’s LadyBird Lake close to sunset and watching 800,000 small bats fly out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge. Seriously, that was just insane. Anyway, Texas (San Antonio in particular) is awesome. You should go there for a vacation, and tell them I sent you.

The S F in San Francisco Stands For So Fun!


Andy Warhol Live at the DeYoung. I Saw It.

Hey what’s up. I got back last night from my rad trip to San Francisco, where I had the time of my life nonstop for five days, taking only short breaks in the extreme fun-having for tiny bouts of sleeping. San Francisco is so awesome I can hardly even remain alive now that I am back in NYC. Some of you (having read my most recent post) may recall that I journeyed to the west coast last Thursday to attend the Bartmizvah Palooza of Griffin Sloves. Griffin is the adorable and genius son (national chess championship finalist at age 5) of my good friends from College (and former roommates) Jonathan and Diana, who are just seriously two of the best people on the planet. Let me get you caught up with the Reader’s Digest Condensed version of how I spent my time while I was away from the blog.

Since I arrived in SF on Thursday evening, I had all day Friday free before Barbara (my hostess and fellow Bar Mitzvah attendee) and I had to drive a million miles in rush hour traffic to the suburbs for the Bar Mitzvah Pre-show activates. That left me with many free hours to hang out with Michelle, another super cool SF-based music industry pal of mine. Michelle is so very ass kicking. She and I spent the afternoon at and around Fisherman’s Wharf, doing touristy things like visiting the Aquarium and snapping pics of me posed by the bay with landmarks like The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island in the background. It was also about 70 degrees on Friday, so it was fun to run around without a coat on. Weee!

Gail, Alcatraz in Background

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Lyrics of the Day: Graham Parker’s "Discovering Japan"

Discover Japan

Her heart is nearly breaking
The earth is nearly quaking
The Tokyo taxi’s braking
It’s screaming to a halt
And there’s nothing to hold on to when gravity betrays you
And every kiss enslaves you

She knows how hard her heart grows
under the nuclear shadows
She can’t just escape the feeling
repeating in her head
When after all the urges
some kind of truth emerges
We felt the deadly surges discovering Japan
Discovering Japan Continue reading Lyrics of the Day: Graham Parker’s "Discovering Japan"