After having been to New York several times, I recently watched a movie shot in the city. When you recognize places you have been, the movie feels completely different, so I felt like watching some more and next in line came some classics like When Harry met Sally, Taxi Driver, and The Warriors.

The latter two in particular made me think. The New York they depict is very different than the one I visited.  They talk about a scary place where crime is commonplace, gangs fight to control their turf, whores tease on sidewalks, walking down the street alone at night is dangerous, and taxi drivers carry a gun and prefer to avoid some parts of the city.  Washington Square and Bryant Park were no-go areas for ordinary people.

Nowadays you’d never tell New York used to be like that.  As Travis hoped while talking with Palantine, they cleaned up the mess.  In one decade Mayor Giuliani and those who came after him made it one of the safest and cleanest places I’ve even been.

While writing this post I discovered after 29 years Paramount Pictures is re-making The Warriors movie and this time it’s going to be shot in Los Angeles.  It’s expected to hit the theaters later this year.

Few days ago I’ve been at the Madison Square Garden, arguably the world’s most famous arena. New yorkers simply call it The Garden, as if it were the only garden out there, or worse, as if it were a garden at all! Well, actually it’s not even on Madison Square. Thanks to wikipedia I discovered the current name is just a legacy from the original arena, that one century ago used to be located in a garden at Madison Square.  Anyhow entering the arena is impressive: you feel like getting into a temple, a place where people go to worship their idols. Oh wait, that’s exactly what they do there!

The show on stage was a basketball match in the College Hoops league, between St. John’s and Pittsburgh. I went with Carla, a friend from New York. She likes college basketball and taught me all I had to know and something more, e.g. that college teams usually have the name of an animal (Pittsburgh Panthers) but St. John’s is an exception (they call themselves the Red Storm). We took the obligatory beer (that they served us with a built-in pretzel) and brought it in.

Before the match started an actual singer sung the national anthem, everybody standing, hats off. Pitts were much stronger and they easily blew out St. John’s 81-57, but it’s been fun anyway. The home team had cheerleaders, dancers and a fanfare band and shot t-shirts to the public during time-outs. Much fun!

Too bad I’m already back to Italy.

parking lots are stackable and cars take elevators to save space, or when walking down the street you frequently see nail salons with (mostly) women lined up just behind the the storefront, their nails being taken care of. So here I am, back in this crazy place again. First thing I did after hitting the hotel was entering the nearest Starbucks and have a chocolate chip cookie and a “solo”. I felt like a junkie.

This time I’m staying in West Chelsea, just two subway stops from the office and none the less a totally different place. The hotel has been derived from a 19th century building, part of the General Theological Seminary. In fact breakfast is served in the refectory. Believe me, I can see the Empire State building from the window and still I feel far from that in space-time. It’s not a mainstream place and you need to walk three blocks and two avenues to get to the subway (blue line) but rooms have just been renovated and have all comforts for a very reasonable price. I discovered I’m close to the gay district (which is bad), but I’m also close to cool areas like Meatpacking and at least I have a decent room (last time I stayed at the crappy Pennsylvania hotel).

This season New York is freezing cold. Wind can make you cry if you walk against it.

Last time I’ve been in New York, one night Ale brought us to Ludlow Street. Ale is a fan of Lower East Side, and I definitely approve his taste. That area is filled with strange and interesting places, for both dining and having fun. That night Ale brought us first to the Back Room (which I already knew, maybe I’ll talk about this in a different post) and then to Mehanata, a Bulgarian bar and dance floor.

You have to know it in advance, cause there’s no hint from outside. No name on the street, just a small door no different to an normal entrance to apartments. When you’re in, you find yourself in a bar room, brick-and-stone raw walls, amazing psychedelic lights, high-tech but retro at the same time. Do you remember those mirror spheres that were so common in the 70s? Same concept but made with LEDs, or maybe Lasers. Strange bottles are aligned behind the barman and people left Cyrillic messages on the restroom walls.

Downstairs, a crowded improvised dance floor with a DJ playing Balkan-punk-folk-gipsy-rock-ish stuff and people dancing like crazy, not the least afraid to show everybody their hormonal level, girls included. On the lower bar a board says “Get naked, get a free shot” and I guess somebody actually does every now and then. Everybody knows the songs they’re playing (unbelievable), so they sing out loud while dancing. It looks like one of the resident DJs, probably the local hero, is Eugene Hütz (the man in the picture), which by the way is Alex in Everything Is Illuminated.

As a girl told me, the place is “totally unpretentious” and you feel like you could do anything, like you shouldn’t care about what people think of you. You just get in the flow, dancing and screaming and teasing girls and having huge quantity of fun! Thank you Ale!