We Heart NYC

So I woke up at 4AM this morning after only a few hours asleep. I popped out of bed, ate some biscuits, drank 3 cups of espresso, zipped the suitcase up, and headed towards the Belmont stop to meet up with Ayisha. She told me her morning was much of the same, minus the biscuits.

We arrived in NYC around 11:30 AM. As soon as we grabbed our bags we were confronted by a handsome looking man with an English accent who had each of our last names written on a black board surrounded by gold trim. Unfortunately that was for a man named Jaffer Eastman. Luckily we did manage to stumble across a nice deal on splitting the cost for a limo into the city. So your friends were still able to roll into the city in fashion.

So lets skip past the New York strip and get to the filet mignon, or maybe past the broccoli straight to the Toferky. After receiving our badges and CMJ swag, we were right on track with our itinerary. Our first panel of the week was:

Go Cheap or Stay Home: A Cost Effective Touring Symposium It used to be: Get in the van > rock a club > sell cds from said rocking > fill tank, eat, sleep, repeat. Wait, no one is buying CD's and gas prices are over $4/gallon... This panel will assess the current state of the touring independent artist and aim to collectively shed some light on effectively squashing gig-obstacles.

MODERATOR:
Ralph Jaccodine

PANELISTS:
Stephen Brush
Howard Han
Heath Miller
Geoff Rickly-lead singer of THURSDAY (omg from Ayisha)

The panel members and discussions were great. Stephen Brush (President of IAA) was definitely the highlight of the hour. His insight on agency representation, touring, the path to profitability, and his take on the "new" economy was incredibly interesting.

And let me take it from here (Ayisha).
We are stationed in Chinatown near SoHo. AMAZING HOTEL! It's so swank.
Check out some bad pictures I took.


We decided to explore NYC for the food of course in Chinatown because you know Zack couldn't wait for it. "It runs in the family," he decided to use as an excuse as twenty of his Jewish brotherin run by.
We came across a buffet that was only $5 and piled on the somewhat suspicious foods that we have no idea exactly what they were but sufficed. We were warned that all the fresh foods in Chinatown fall into the fish water. I'm not really sure what that means but I did notice that all the fish and crustaceans for sale were still alive at all the markets. That's what I call FRESH!

After dinner of course we had to get hot cakes... that's expected for Chinatown


And then of course watch out for those car crashes that happen ever so often as you're trying to cross the street.