Published by Swiss James on 02 Apr 2008 at 12:10 pm
New York Flippin City
This t-shirt (modeled by workmate Ryan) just arrived from England.
It was sent by my new sister-in-law and brother following their Christmas wedding, and honeymoon in NYC – the delay in it arriving is because they pretty much wrote the address on the envelope as:
James Creegan
Somewhere near an airport
China
Anyway it’s a Bobby Dazzler I’m sure you’ll agree, and made for a somewhat unique lesson on the finer points of grammar in the English language.
I’ve been to Noo Yawk three times, and would love to live there one day- it’s the ultimate city for people who love cities, and fulfills my three main criteria for city greatness:
- Home delivery of Somalian food at 3am
- Glow-in-the dark 10 pin bowling
- Sassy cops.
The first time I ever went to NYC was with a university mate called Chris who, co-incidentally, visited Shanghai this weekend.
The main incident which stands out from that trip (and if you’re my Mum, this is the point where you should either stop reading, or start breathing into a paper bag)- is when we took a subway from midtown up to our hostel on the Upper West Side.
Or at least that was the plan but the train we caught was an express that went all the way up to Harlem without stopping.
So there we were, young englishmen as green as we were white stood on the platform of the 125th street station wondering what to do next, when a kindly gentleman offered to walk us to the next station where we could take a train back to relative safety.
For some reason this seemed like a great idea to me so we set off with this guy and walked through unfamiliar sidestreets and underneath dark railway arches whilst this good samaritan smoked a cigarette laced with drugs (”But it’s OK man, they’re good drugs“).
He started off weird and got weirder, eventually performing a routine from his (failed) career as a standup comic.
Long story short, he was absolutely crackers, threatened us with a knife, sort of stole 1 dollar fifty from me, and then fulfilled his promise of taking us to the correct train station where we rode home, speechless and numb with fear, for a couple of frames of glow-in-the-dark bowling.
I heart N Y.
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What a nice gentleman. Did he share his cigarettes with you? Did he sell you the Brooklyn Bridge for $1.50?
I wouldn’t touch his filthy cigarettes, nor did he offer.
125th isn’t that dangerous. . . nowadays.
ah yes T but this was in June of 1999.
The sound of the Spice Girls was echoing around the globe, people danced to a new sound called the Macarena and Rudolph Giulianni was but a young man with 8 ex-wives.
What’s with all the peace signs? Have these people never heard of the Buzzcocks?
I heard Harlem has gone through quite a process of gentrification but yes, back in 1999 it must have been a bit scary for two white boys. You should have mentioned that you good mate WoAi has seen the Harlem Globetrotters at Wembley Arena and you would have been well looked after.
Neil, this isn’t a peace sign, this poor deluded chap thinks there is someone standing next to him and he’s making bunny rabbit ears, he’s in his own world bless him.
James, you should be ashamed of yourself taking advantage of people like this!
he’s doing a Statue of Liberty impression surely?!
having traveled a bit and resident of nyc just under 10 yrs, it IS the greatest city!!
At last a bit of retribution for being sent by you and numerous other hilarious youths into Moss Side on my first full day in the smokes of Manchester. The bloke also seems relatively similiar to the people Matt invited back after a gig to camp in our lounge, thereby forcing me into hiding everything of value in various cubbyholes around my room. I fear this echoes too much of my life – apprentice teaches the master!
When we going to see Little Chris’ antics in Shanghai? Unless, I mislaid a weekend and a couple of hundred bucks and was with you instead.
If I remember correctly, it was your good friend Stella that sent you into the wilds of Moss Side Scarletti, and I think there were mitigating factors when you had an attack of paranoia during that band’s visit.
Don’t play the innocent with me CS!
ml- have a slice of pizza for me
She’s a cruel mistress that Stella, got me in a lot of trouble in my time she did.