in all i must say - it turned out to be a pretty good sunday. the only issues involved the getting there and getting back part of the journey out to williamsburg. in typical mta fashion - the L train was out of service which made williamsburg virtually impossible to travel to by train.ames and i met at virgin as planned at around 3:00 - after i managed to spend yet another small fortune on cds and movies - damn them and their never ending $10 sales! some of the artists i pulled into my ever expanding catalogue of now and then music were nina simone, culture club, franz ferdinand, south park the movie, mamma mia! (the original broadway cast), and jenny lewis and the watson twins. we hoof it over to the train to attempt the L - but no - absolutely no trains running. being that neither of us had ever really had to travel to williamsburg from this direction before - we were clueless on the other options that were available to us - and we all know that no one knows how to use the buses here - well at least we don't - so we were off to find an mta person to help us. long story short - we decided that with the number of trains this guy was suggesting we'd fuck the train and the bus and head there in a cab - mind you - it's pouring rain - and what's the hardest thing to get in the rain - a nyc cab!
ames - being the diva that she is - was able to find us one almost immediately - go ames - and then we were off. here's where i segue into the incompetence of nyc's cab drivers. now - it's my job as an internet professional working in digital media to know how to build great websites - it's my best friend's job to know how to make people beautiful by being proficient in hair care and styling as he is a hair dresser - by this logic - wouldn't it be assumed that the job of a cab driver in nyc is to know how to get from point 'a' to 'z?'
one of the biggest luxuries of living in a city like new york is to not have to actually know how to drive anywhere. very few people have a car here - and if they do - it's used to get out of the city - not drive around it at your leisure. most of the time spent in your car in this area is to simply move it from one street to the next to allow for street cleaning. so for me - a common new yorker non-driver - it would be safe to assume that my knowledge of driving routes is pretty limited. that's why i rely on the mta and cab drivers to - well one - be operating efficiently - and two - know how to get to the intersection i'm instructing them on. pet peeve: when you get into a cab and they ask 'how do i get there?' - i'm usually like - hell if i know - isn't that your job? burns me up really - but seriously - i believe it's one of the 'rights' of a passenger as posted in the back of the cab that a passenger is to be subjected to an experience where the driver knows how to get to where you are going safely, quickly, and by any point in the city and the boroughs of new york.
i once had a cab driver who had to take me from work (rockefeller plaza, manhattan) to home (park slope, brooklyn.) i told him the intersection in brooklyn where i wanted to be dropped. of course he took me to the corresponding grid corner in manhattan - not brooklyn (mistake number one - and i should have ran for the hills at this point) - then - he was like - 'well how do i get there?' - i said that i didn't care just to get me there quickly - i'll go the route he recommends - that didn't work so since we were already on the west side - i told him to take the tunnel off the west side highway. big mistake. not only was it a nightmare trying to head west down 14th street (don't ask - that's the way he went) - but when we got to the tunnel - it was like he had never been in one before - freaked out - and started going 25 miles per hour. well you know what that did - piss everyone the fuck off - everyone behind us began to lean on their horns. now - i don't know if you've ever been in a tunnel - going at a snail's pace - with about 45 cars behind you leaning on their horns - but that sound is not pretty - not only that - it freaked him out causing him to go even slower.
the story continues - not only does he blow through the toll - disregarding the cop trying to flag him for being a dick - he misses the exit that i pointed out for him to take. so we are now off to an adventure in a place i know not where. long story short (too late i know) we ended up 'close' to my place. he admitted that he just moved to nyc on monday - this was a wednesday. so - in two days time - this person was allowed to get a cab and drive it around the city not knowing where the hell he was - which was obvious - and then after all of that - asks me this - 'do you know how i can get back to the brooklyn bridge?' - my reply - 'no - but - good luck.'
ok so i totally digressed in that one - but anyway - let's recap - mta sucks and taxis suck - moving on. the festival was awesome. it was good to see old friends and great performances. some of my personal favorites were becca's brew, falu, and red hots burlesque. the bands continued on into late in the evening but i had to get home to catch up on some much needed rest. so i said good-bye and ames and i headed off to the hills.
mta still sucks. L train - still down. so we bus it. ames is able to get out at a stop that took her to the subway and ultimately back to manhattan - i stayed on the bus. i saw parts of brooklyn i never thought i'd ever see and never hope to have to see again. nearly 2 hours later - one bus - 2 trains - and a 20 block walk - i get home. christ.
home - finally - ate - watched flightplan (don't waste your time) - and heading to bed. yee haw.
No comments:
Post a Comment