I propose Hell's Kitchen, since I live there.
It would be nice if you reprobates would venture down this way occasionally.
Does anyone still call it Hell's Kitchen?
2: I thought you lived by the Queensboro bridge?
4: What else would you call it? Chelsea North?
6: Dunno, but it seems so archaic. Chelsea North seems pretty good, though.
Hell's Kitchen is fine. There are a lot of cheap grungy bars in the area, but IME they tend to be too loud to talk in. Got a place in mind, Joe?
I moved to Hell's Kitchen, baby! Finally.
Bar 9? 9th Avenue and 53rd. Grungy, lots of places to lounge in. It's a grungy lounge, if that makes sense.
The newfangled name for Hell's Kitchen is Clinton. But I've never heard it used outside of a real estate context.
Everyone I've ever spoken to in New York, other than the real estate page of the New York Times, calls it Hell's Kitchen.
I only know about "Clinton" because everybody observed the humor of there being a "Chelsea-Clinton Gazette" back in the mid-90's.
Bar 9 isn't too loud, in my experience.
Over the weekend, the West Village was re-dubbed WVill, pronounced Weevil. When you cross 5th Ave you enter the EVil.
Hey this is possibly apocryphal but I have been told that in the early 20th century, a German immigrant named Hell opened a diner on 9th Ave. serving the longshoremen who worked on the piers, and that the neighborhood takes its name from the name of that restaurant.
Pitchers tend to be ridiculously cheap in Hell's Kitchen, and the bartenders are often loose with them and don't charge.
13: Huh. In my own (now old) experience, no one actually referenced the area by name. It was all cross streets, or Port Authority-ish. That might be a function of the people I knew.
SomeCallYou: Yeah, it might be because most of the neighborhood is new-ish now, so all sorts of new bars/restaurants/buildings exist there, and people need a handy name to refer to this newly gentrified hood. And Clinton just confuses people.
Right -- the neighborhood changed a lot in the 90's. I could see no one you knew using a neighborhood name in the early 90's just because it wasn't an area they thought about much.
Shouldn't "Clinton" be the new name for part of Harlem?
22: I genuinely did like Giuliani, in no small part because of the general improvement in the sense of security in NYC. But turning the Port Authority area into Disneyland was just wrong. I blame you, Joe.
I genuinely did like Giuliani,
Really? He's always seemed particularly loathsome to me, even from far away. And I suspect that if I lived in NYC I'd feel almost apoplectic about it.
Different strokes. (LB is now having one.)
Tim also liked McCain once upon a time. He's recovering, y'know.
The neighborhood in question is utterly gentrified. It should be referred to as "Purgatory's Bistro."
27: What was that? I couldn't hear you -- everything went dim, and there was this ringing in my ears...
Joe, Hell's Kitchen is a fictional neighborhood in New York from Daredevil comic books. Nobody lives there.
Whenever on Friday. I'll be coming from Chelsea.
You have to say when the fun will begin. You have the power, 'smasher.
My Fridays are wonderfully flexible.
Unlimited power! Bwa-ha-ha!
Is 6p too early for folks?
Six is fine if we're allowed to be late. I can be there (where?) by 6:30 or so.
Look! He's become a despot already, proving yet another truism true.
Well, it's just that we're going to reveal all our seekrits by 6:15, so...
I can probably come 6ish. Surely by 6:30.
I'm just impressed Smasher's waiting so long. Doesn't Friday drinking usually start around noon?
6:00pm?! For reals? Where do you people work?
Yah, but I have to get in some gallery time, and it looks as if Saturday is going to be taken up with Spider-Man 3 and shopping in Soho.
Fact: I have never done one touristy thing in New York, unless you count visiting museums.
Work?
Fridays in my world are the days when we start with a glass of port around 2, have a couple of meetings, go to a lecture, grab a snack and wine at 4, head to a bar at 6, and from there to a party by 8. Fridays are the best.
I have never done one touristy thing in New York
b-but
shopping in Soho
Over the weekend, the West Village was re-dubbed WVill, pronounced Weevil. When you cross 5th Ave you enter the EVil.
Isn't this violating off-blog confidence?
I thought the chic thing was to call the area north of Chelsea "CHellsea" or "Chell's Kitchen" or something.
And I will be missing Friday's get together... to be in DC. But do get museum rec's from the 'Smasher for me.
mike d, e-mail me if you're interested in recs for your time in the District. There are a lot of shows to see.
Dang. I'll be in the city all weekend, but I won't be getting in until after 7 on Friday.
Party just starts at 6. I'm sure we'll still be around at 8 or 9.
In lieu of being in NYC, I just drank port in the afternoon. Whoo-hoo!
OK, I checked out the Bar 9 website (have we decided on that?) and, besides being a Flash abomination, it does have some useful information: they have not overpriced food (like a $6 burger), pints look around $5, and happy hour is from 5-8 (even Friday).
Question: there's an option to make a reservation. Do we want to do that to ensure we don't get broken up? And, if so, any "special requests"? Is there a part of the bar that's better than others? If we make a reservation, it needs to be done 72 hours in advance.
I take reservations for "special requests" as well.
grrr. The website is nearly enough to make me refuse ever to go there. Why the hell to people think all that fucking flash crap (and sound, too!) is what prospective customers want? Cut that out, web designers.
Glad there'll still be people there late, since there's no chance I'd get out of work before 8. Everybody get good and drunk ahead of me, so I can slip in and get a lot of compromising pictures/information without having to reveal anything about myself, okay?
We're not meeting IRL, we're just attending some dive Web site.
NYC is a weird place. To me a $6 burger at a chic bar sounds very cheap, and a $5 pint sounds way too expensive unless it's a microbrew.
IRL $5 is expensive for a microbrew too.
Isn't this violating off-blog confidence?
Yes, and for the record, this is the last time I ever rush off an email without spelling all the words out.
51, 62: See, I thought by putting it in a passive construction I had anonymized the whole thing sufficiently to avoid violating the sanctity of etc., and then you two outed the whole matter for all the blogosphere to see! But I am properly chagrined, penitent even, and I may even go confess at Kotsko's place.
It's okay, Dave. I actually prefer when my shame is public to when it's just you and Mike teasing me in secret. It seems more diffuse that way.
I prefer when my shame is in public, too, which is why I don't wear pants.
I keep reading w/d's "btw." as "BTW".
I'll raise it here because of subject-matter affinity, although I don't know if enough people will see it, but I think it's time to try a no-particular-occasion-open-to-all Chicago meetup. The Bostonians have had 2 of those, and the second was more fun, which is a good sign.
I think the last general thing was LB's training trip to Chicago, exactly a year ago last weekend. Smasher and Tom were here too, to see Catherine who was then resident here. B's trip in August was also open, although it was at Jimmy's in Hyde Park, far away from where most Chicago Unfoggers probably live, and I was the only Unfogged person there.
There must be at least a dozen regular commentators in Chicago, some of whom I've wanted to meet for a long time. I haven't seen anybody I met since last year, although our paths must nearly cross all the time. I don't go to bars much outside my neighborhood, so I'm not a good person to do the planning, although I expect a place in Lincoln Park, or maybe Lincoln Square, would be most convenient for the largest number.
What say you?
i may be able to make it. stupid finals.
ON a related note -- does anyone have recommendations for reasonable hotels in NYC on a BBC radio budget? In other words, not dives, but not outrageously expensive ... I should be over there at some time this month to see someone in Princeton and someone in Columbia, all being well. And I foolishly volunteered to find me and the producer a nice place to stay, as well as one to eat (which is much easier).
I must have visited the city six or eight times by now and only once found a hotel I would be happy to revisit. It was a half price offer. I can't now afford the $5-600 a night it would be.
You seem to have been forgotten down here, Werdna.
I read it, I just haven't got anything helpful to say. I don't know anyone who stays in a hotel in Manhattan without a large corporation paying for it -- my sense is that the prices are just brutal.
Have you tried Priceline?
69: Get someone to bump it up into a main post, and a Chicagoland meetup there shall be.
(Gee, I wish one of the bloggers were from the Bay Area...)
Have you tried Priceline?
You can get reasonably good ($150 - $200 for a reasonably fancy hotel) last minute deals on NY hotel on Priceline. Why take a chance on something when you can stay at a Hilton for $150.
(Gee, I wish one of the bloggers were from the Bay Area...)
I haven't forgiven you yet, I don't know what you're mouthing off about.
74: I'd feel better if somebody seconded the motion.
Didn't matty second it (admittedly somewhat reluctantly) in 70? I'd happily join in even though I'm unfogged d-lister at best.
I didn't even know matty was local. Could the call be promoted to a post?
Matty is a New Yorker, misreading.
Yeah, but JAC, whom I was thinking of, was enough.
sorry. i've never even been to non-o'hare chicago. my inability to convey something as simple as "i hope to meet you in new york on friday" bodes ill indeed for my exam tomorrow. on the bright side, this may help w/d's grade.
I think Priceline or something similar it will be; quite probably there are no halfway nice halfway affordable hotels there except on fleeting special offers.
In NYC meetup news, expect to enjoy not only my company, but that of my wife and sister, the latter of whom can be counted to roll her eyes at meeting my "blog friends." Good times!
We'll probably be able to be there around 7:00 or so.
Werdna: I stayed here on a recent visit. It was perfectly fine, though the descriptions on the site are absurdly overstated (the "cappucino bar" is basically a coffee machine and a few comfy chairs in the lobby). It's reasonably close to the subway and we walked to some bars and restaurants. Views from the upper floors are nice and it's worth requesting a room on a higher floor on the river side. We didn't eat in the hotel at all so can't speak to that. Various internet hotel sites may have rates cheaper than the hotel's own rate.
You mean Werdna should sleep on the sofa there? Might be a little noisy.
Which Friday? Today, May 4, or next week, May 18. I am traveling to NYC next week (my first trip to back since 2000.) and would like to meet up, i.e., put a face behind the pseudonyms.
The plan is for today, but we might be able to get some people together next week -- it's not as if dragging people to a bar is difficult, generally.
That would be great ... I am looking forward to meeting up.
In other words, not dives, but not outrageously expensive
I stayed at the Pod Hotel when I was in NYC--around $120 a night. I wouldn't call it a dive (more like a dorm room), but the Bentley looks much nicer. Still, the Pod is fine if you expect to spend no conscious time in your room. No bedbugs, which is my only nonnegotiable demand.
next week, May 18
Fuck. an. A. I am going to be 37 in a week!
Dammit, I thought this happened last week. Will no one rid me of these insular, solipsistic New Yorkers?
Yeah, yeah. We'll see you change your tune the next time you happen to be in NYC.
Clown, I'd make a pact with Mephisto to be 37 again. Count your blessings.
LB, are you sure you wouldn't mind moving the Armsmasher Meetup to the next week, the 18th. Please, Please ...
99: It's cool with me, but it wouldn't be much of an Armsmasher meetup without, you know, Armsmasher. Who's here this weekend but not next.
And feliz cumpleanos to the Clown.
Understood. Would you mind, then, back-to-back weekends, one Armsmasher, and one from the swamps? I would still like to meet y'all.
Fact: I have never done one touristy thing in New York, unless you count buying rock cocaine.
Sure. We'll put up a post for it.
I've just figured out that I should be able to show up today, but I never know how available I'll be ahead of time. But there should be someone around, and I might be able to make it.
So Armsmasher, when are you gracing the Bay Area with your presence?
I'd make a pact with Mephisto to be 37 again
Based on your reported age, I should think you already have.
(Nice selection of movies BTW. Except do you mean "Cabaret" or "Cabernet"?)
I would just like to complain that everything is a pain to get to from the UES. I feel better now, thanks for listening.
But the Second Avenue Subway will be running any century now, and make everything easy.
ah, true! Maybe I should just wait for the first post-2nd-Ave-line-opening meetup. I find that waiting until things become totally convenient for me to be an excellent decision rule.
Shoot. Deadline pressure, can't make it.
So are you liveblogging Becks style, or is it still too early?
Too early? It's been an hour and a half! Get to it, Becks!
Sife, they don't care about our needs. They're only thinking about having fun, with no regard for the community which made them what they are.
Sheesh, what's the point of even drinking if you're not going to write drunken blog comments. Those layabouts better at least be having some kind of orgy.
They can't be counted on for anything, Sifu. They've forgotten us.
We can't find cerebrocrat. We're going to bala inda nusa (?). At ninth ave and 45th ish.
If he wants to know where we are fweel free 2 give him my number. I left it with the bartender and told him to give it 2 anyone who sid unfogged. Cererocreat or or internet . I said it was a kinky sex thing.
Dude, you guys are standing up cerebrocrat? Wow.
Arrrrrrrgh. No wonder all the complete strangers I approached looked at me like I was some weirdo. It didn't even occur to me to ask the bartender.
*trying to decide if it's worth going back out*
anybody really think they're at this 9th & 45th place?
I assume no one gave anyone their cell phone #s. Jeez, people.
Cereb, I think they are. Becks messaged me to see if you'd checked in. Email me for her cell number.
Advice, anyone: are these late-stayin'-out-people? It'll be 11:30, best case, by the time I get back over to the west side of Manhattan. That's early to some and late to others.
Just talked to Becks, who says that they'll probably have gone their separate ways by 11:30. She also said "shit" and was sorry a few times. Sorry, cereb. They're all big dorks anyway.
Becks thought it was much earlier than it is, they're at bala nusa indah and 651 ninth between 45th and 46th. They expect to be there at 11:30.
Ogged is transcontinentally arranging people getting together for drinks.
I can't decide if this is hella cool or a sign of the apocalypse.
Ogged's virtual soireés are the high point of the virtual season. Simply everybody who's anybody attends, if only to say "sory cant find anyone" and then go to sleep.
It really is rather like we no longer exist in the three dimensional world, isn't it?
Why, Unfogged is the egalitarian, unfun Black and White Ball of our age, with Ogged the spitting virtual image of a four-dimensional Truman Capote, only not as short.
Cerebro, if I had been reading this about twenty minutes ago I would have recommended that you go, it's a good group which I was sorry I had to ditch in order to study and make sure I actually graduate from law school.
I ditched out early. I hope you find them, cerebrocrat.
Aw fuck, I left before Cerebrocrat came! Rats.
You guys are making a major mistake by eating dinner at Bali Nusa Indah (which is pretty good) instead of Arianna Afghan Kebab (which is best in class). Seating at Arianna might be a little tight for a large crowd I guess.
"Cererocreat or or internet"
I'm still working on this.
Any leads?
"Cerero creat" is obviously misspelled and should read "celer creat".
Who knew all these New Yorkers would be such early-to-bed types?
122 - Drunk and posting from a phone.
Ogged deserves a medal of honor (and not one of those fake ones the president gives out to George Tenant) for all he did to help coordinate this. After the Great Brock Landers Fiasco, you'd think we'd know better than to let newcomers meet up without phone numbers but, well, I'm an idiot. Cerebrocrat was awesome and I'm glad that the few of us who were remaining were able to meet him.
Bar 9 was awesome when we got there and took over a back room but then we got kicked out when some drunken bachelor party or something that had reserved it came in. We got moved into the front room where there was no seating and a mariachi band wandered in off the street. This led to dancing (Kriston and Jackmormon taking the lead), but also to some of the meetupers deciding to leave. Then the bar got taken over by some radio station doing a giveaway thing with reps from TiVo and got douchebaggy really quick. I told the TiVo people how Ogged used to use his to keep track of the last time he got laid and they were astonished and awed and promised me free stuff for the fabulous story but never delivered. The douchebag quotient led us to realize we were hungry so we adjourned to the Indonesian place, losing most of the group along the way. I strongly suspect that if we'd managed to secure the back room all night, we would have kept many more of our numbers.
But! Cerebrocrat eventually found us (I had no idea that he'd gone to Brooklyn and back -- that's some dedication! I should have bought you a drink!) and we got kicked out of the restaurant and wandered around the Port Authority area until we found a tolerable bar that became somewhat sucky and intolerable as soon as we sat down and ordered by someone putting the entire Greatest Hits of Death Metal on the jukebox.
A very odd night but fun indeed.
We're not usually early-to-bed types! I blame Armsmasher (the guest of honor, no less!) and his cutting out early to meet the person he's crashing with and the many interruptions at the original bar. Like I said, had we secured the back room, we might still be there.
Despite all this, Bar 9 was pretty OK. Just if we go there again, we need to make a reservation.
And I really did drunkenly tell the bartender that I was meeting a guy from the internet for a kinky sex thing and she should give him my number. DaveB saw me.
I thwart your attempt to fill the sidebar with yourself.
After reading that I am definitely staying in Princeton instead of NYC. I worked out, not being completely stupid, that it would almost certainly be cheaper and nicer to stay in Princeton and do the NYC interview from there rather than vice versa.
I'm just assuming that if, in a university town you give your number to the bartender you don't have to spell out that it's for a kinky internet sex thing. Sheesh!
Becks-style really is tha best style. Socal meeetup! I willl blow it off tendentiously and jump on the unfo' to dish when I meet the meat.
We left before a mariachi band AND the TiVo guys showed up? Damn.
I had a really swell time meeting everyone who was there, and I was bummed to have to leave early. When I collected the rest of my posse, they wanted to make sure you all didn't think they were sitting apart from the Unfogged crowd out of dislike or anything. My sister asked, "Do... do they think we're assholes?"
Anyway, I hope I can get back into the city soon so I can get a chance to talk to those of you who were on the other couch.
I'm just assuming that if, in a university town you give your number to the bartender you don't have to spell out that it's for a kinky internet sex thing.
Because in a college town, that's just understood, I guess.
mrh! It was great to meet you, too! I'm glad your posse didn't think we were too weird. I hope next time you're in town, we can all hang out a little longer. With gravy!
Ogged is transcontinentally arranging people getting together for drinks.
I vote hella cool. Thanks Ogged!
Nice to meet those I did, sorry to miss those I didn't. Maybe someday I'll finish/skip out of work early enough to meet the old people early-to-bedsters.
"Do... do they think we're assholes?"
Hahahaha.
Also: mmmmm. gravy.
I don't know what happened to me last night. When I was running on nothing but beer, I was up. After having food, I kinda crashed. Coffee or a nap, and I'd have been up for being out all night. Six to midnight is a long time, I suppose.
Great to meet everyone! How fabulous to have new folks in our company.
the old people early-to-bedsters.
Hrmpfh. Some of us had to coach soccer at 9am. But I'm sorry to have missed you, and had a great time meeting mrh, and 'Smasher again, as well as the usuals. (And mrh's entourage were clearly not assholes.)
Some of us ^old people^ had to coach soccer at 9am.
Yeah, yeah. Any more lip out of you and I'll send my highly trained team of seven-year-olds to Minnesota to kick you into next Tuesday.
Man, I'm sorry I had to bail early.