A Visit to the Wired Store

        If you haven’t already heard, Wired has opened a pop-up store over in the NoHo area (Corner of Broadway and 4th st). The concept of the store is to showcase various products that Wired magazine has reviewed in their various issues. So I decided to visit the store a few weeks ago. I got there around 6:30pm on a Tuesday only to find the store closed. On closer inspection, the store is only open from Wednesday to Sunday and closes quite early on weekdays. So if you are thinking of visiting the store, double check the times on their site before going out there.

        It doesn’t take very long to go through the store and see all the gadgets that they have. Some worth mentioning include the uni-motorcyle displayed in their window, touch screen HDTV, and Cisco Telepresence. The sales person was helpful enough to do a demo of the Cisco Telepresence where she made a phone call to someone in LA and we were talking live with them on the TV. The concept is pretty cool and it works with Google TV as well. The other two things to check out are in the back of the first floor. One is this reflection of you on the wall with birds flying above and they swoop down and peck at your shadow until it’s all gone. The other is a piano but if you look above the piano, you will see how hitting a key will generate the sound from an enlarged piano strings. You can see it up-close from the second floor of the store.

NOTE: In the refrigerator in the back of the store and on the second floor, there are free drinks like ginseng tea, so make sure to pick one or more up when you are there.

Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what to expect there:

Long Hiatus

It has been quite a while since I last posted here. That doesn't mean I haven't done anything in terms of traveling. On the contrary, I think I did quite a bit of traveling in these few months. Mainly within NYC, sight seeing and all, but my major international trip was to Panama and Costa Rica towards the end of November, the details of which I will be posting in the next few days so stay tuned.

Summer of Movies

This summer I was able to go out and watch quite a few movies in theaters. Three notable ones were Despicable Me, Toy Story 3, and Inception.

Despicable Me, in my opinion, was a great movie. I was funny, entertaining, and above all it catered to not just the younger audience but the older ones, like myself, as well. The story line is pretty straight forward, one villain trying to outdo another. There is a dark side to the plot but with the introduction of the kids, the movie takes a very light hearted turn, which is always welcome. Without giving away too much about it, I think this is definitely one of the must see movies of the summer.

Toy Story 3 turned out to be your average Toy Story movie. I went in with high expectations having seen 1 and 2. The movie was good and continued the story from where the previous one had left off. There were moments that were funny but overall, for me, the movie did not live up to its expectations. I personally would have waited until it was out on DVD to see it knowing what I know now.

Inception, now that was a whole other story. I had heard great reviews about this movie as you probably already have. The movie lived up to all the hype that I had heard. The plot was great, the casting was also very good, and the special effects were amazing as well. I think the plot was the best part of the movie. The twist in the ending really made us think what really happened and what we could have thought wrong in our assumption of various situations. To this day, we still have discussions about the ending and its effects on the rest of the movie and how it definitely threw a wrench into the perfect explanation that everyone had of the events in the movie, until the final scene. So this movie is also a must-see from this summer.

NY Philharmonic At Prospect Park

Every year, the NY Philharmonic hosts a program called New York Philharmonic: Concerts in the Parks. This involves the New York Philharmonic performing in various parks around NYC. The various venues include Central Park, which holds the most number of shows for them, Prospect Park, Bronx, Staten Island, and Queens.

I had plans to go to the performance in Central Park. The special part this year was that one of the performances had the Shanghai Philharmonic join in with the NY Phil to perform, the first event of its type in Central Park. However, due to the weather forecasts where rain was imminent if it wasn’t already raining during the day, I could not make it to any of the Central Park performances. Eventually, I convinced a few of my friends to join me on a Friday for the performance in Prospect Park.

Arab Heritage Week - Comedy Show

Last week was a rare celebration of the Arab culture in NYC. The Arab Heritage Week was celebrated through various means all around NYC. There were music shows as well as comedy shows and festivals throughout the 5 boroughs of NYC.

A friend of mine convinced me to go to the Arab comedy show and it turned out to be a blast. Although the cover charge with the 2 drink minimum was a bit excessive, the show itself turned out to be a great display of Arab comedians. The show was held at the Broadway Comedy Club on 53rd st between 8th and 9th ave. In a span of 2 hours, the standup comedians made us laugh hysterically, the poet made us think about the current state of Arab culture, and the musician on the guitar picked on all different stereotypes of the Arab world.

Yankees Game - the house that Jeter built

One of the greatest things that NYC has to offer is its sports team, and which team is better to celebrate it with than the NY Yankees. I had the privilege to receive free tickets from a close friend of mine to a recent Yankees game played on July 3rd 2010. It was a game against the Blue Jays, whom Yankees had lost to the night before. So it was a day of retribution for the yanks.

It was a day game so my little sister and I arrived at the ball park an hour before game time. Our seats were in section 135, that’s right behind the left field wall. I did not take the time to look at the stadium and went straight to our seats. They were holding batting practice so I was hoping for some fly balls or even one that was thrown into the stands by the fielders; no such luck :(

One Republic - The performance that wasn't

So I found out this morning that there is a free performance by One Republic at Bryant Park at 8:30 pm. I get extremely excited since I love their songs and would love to hear them in person.

A friend of mine got to Bryant park an hour or so before the performance and got a good spot on the lawn near the front. After taking care of some stuff at my apt, I get to Bryant Park at around 8:30 thinking that it would be packed but it hardly looked like anyone cared about the performance to show up. I was surprised but I chalked it up to the heat wave.

Blues Concert at Wagner Park, Battery Park City

So NYC has a lot to offer and especially during the summer time. This year I decided to look into the River to River Festival. They have quite a few events that are organized through out the downtown NYC area.

Last Thursday, July 1st, I went with a few friends to check out the blues concert that was organized by R2R at the Wagner Park in Battery Park City. The performer was John Hammond who I personally have never heard of or listened to but then again my taste in music consists of Linkin Park and Eminem so that was expected.

Starting up!

I guess I decided that since I am exploring more parts of NYC this summer, I should document my explorations so I can look back on it from time to time and see what else I can do.

At times I will throw in some posts about my travels outside of the country as well when that comes up.

For now I think I am going to recall the various events I have attended in NYC and share it with you. Maybe there are some NYers out there who will gain something from this or even join me in future events.