I found an impressive aerial virtual tour of New York City. In the screenshots above I marked my workplace (pic #1, click on the Times Square bookmark in the tour) and the location of my apartment (pic #2, click on the Brooklyn Bridge bookmark in the tour)...
Related Link:
http://www.pixelcase.com.au/vr/2009/newyork/
Sadly, I don't really have any videoclips from this show. The first reason for that is the extreme strength of Modeselektor's base versus the poor quality of my camera's microphone. The second and even more annoying reason is, that I got jumped by security whenever I took my little camera out of my pocket for only a few seconds... So without any own footage to back it up, let me tell you that the show was absolutely worth its money and both Modeselektor and their supporting act Housemeister had everyone dancing all night long... Highlights of the show included a champagne shower for the dancefloor and a guy dressed up as a pig in butcher clothes butchering and later on fighting with a guy dressed up as a chicken...
Related Link:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bowery+ballroom+modeselektor
Oh... My... God... The last two weeks have been so insanely annoying; apartment hunting in New York is torture. Maria and I were looking for an apartment in Manhattan and now we've seen it all. I especially liked the so called "bait offers" where exactly the type of place you're looking for is shown to you for the price you're willing to pay and then suddenly the place is not available anymore for some obscure reason and you can only get the worse, yet more expensive one which could also be defined as a closet for $3,400 a month. After a couple of days we started to just walk up to a building that looked nice from the outside and asked the doorman if there were any places available.
In the end we got lucky tho and found a great alcove studio on Wall Street. Yes, that is correct. I will be living on Wall Street from now on. 37 Wall St (http://www.37wall.com) is a luxury building, with amenities such as doorman, elevators, free gym, pool billard and laundry inside the building, and last but not least the apartment has really modern, nice, European looking appliances. Move-in date is April 15th, and then I will finally be able to really concentrate on work and life in New York and not roam the streets like a madman, looking for a place to stay.
The eagle has landed. I repeat. The eagle has landed. But they didn't want to let him in. When I arrived at the NY airport on March 14th, the officer at the passport control asked for the document proving my eligibility of work. I didn't expect that; I was under the false impression that showing him the visa would be enough, so I had the document somewhere in my luggage, which was waiting for me somewhere far, far away. The officer said he had to sign the document, and couldn't let me in otherwise, so I already saw myself living on the airport and asking strangers for some change like Tom Hanks in "Terminal". Luckily I greeted the officer nicely before and didn't look particularly Mexican so he just believed my stories and let me in without seeing the document. Phew. What a way to start this chapter of my life, my heart was beating like crazy: that was a close call.
Then, on the way into the city, I slowly calmed down and started to feel like coming home. From the noises to the smell: everything in the subway seemed familiar. "Stay clear of the closing door" probably never had such a relaxing effect on anyone before. And the fact that I didn't have to look on the map to figure out my subway lines and where to change the train showed the few tourists who dared to take the subway: this guy is a New Yorker. Finally.