Day Three and Four: Organ Stanley and Union Square

So right now it's 12:02 a.m., and I am dead tired.

Last night I fizzled out at about 9 p.m. and wasn't conscious past that point. I get really tired, because New York just knocks it out of you. Everyone is always going somewhere, constantly moving. (Except for foreign tourists. They're just in the way.) And not the I'm-on-my-way-to-the-next-store gait, but more like a Black Friday type of thing. "Don't get in between me and my Walmart flat screen, or you're a dead man." And like a Ferrari on Highway 68, the mentality just overtakes you.



Yesterday and today I covertly ate at a cafe at a place that rhymes with "Organ Stanley." Ever since September 11th and I think Inception didn't help at all, security in my building rivals JFK airport. When we order a messenger service to pick up a package, they have to get the package from the building's messenger service instead of us. That's right, silly. I know. To get to work, I show my ID to the security guard in the lobby before I swipe my ID to get past the turnstiles, so I can go up the elevator. Then when I get off the elevator, I need to swipe my ID again to get through the door into the Office. I feel important.

Oh, wait...Organ Stanley that's right. That organization owns 25 of the 32 something floors in our building, even though its organization has its headquarters two blocks away. But fortunately for us they've outfitted the fourth floor with a cafe. You would normally need an ID to get past the doors, but because of the popularity of the cafe. The doors are constantly open.

And you can't beat the prices. Good luck trying to eat lunch for $3.50 anywhere else in Times Square. And this stuff is fresh.

In other financial news, Too Big to Fail an upcoming HBO film about the financial crisis featuring Topher Grace, Paul Giamatti, Tony Shalhoub and our good buddies from Organ Stanley was filmed in the Goodman Media office a couple of weeks ago. I was talking with my boss about it and apparently the conference room was turned into the boss's office. Tom met Tony Shalhoub and said he was absolutely pleasant.



Tonight, Marcus and I have went to Union Square and looked for a raincoat. I am looking for a tan, thigh-length trench coat and can't find one anywhere for less than $250. However, going to Union Square afforded us a lovely evening of walking around and taking pictures. We ate dinner under a statue of Ghandi. Even though we only had a couple of bucks worth of taco's from TacoBell I still felt bad eating them under the statue of a perpetual faster.

On the way home, my ears were filled with music as we waited for the train. The first stop was a kid playing on buckets for drums and he was actually really good. A jazz trumpet-player was at the second stop and he had a really mellow, non-abrasive soul to his sound. I really like both, but because of the swiftness of the train I could only grab a photo of the bucket drummer.



Tomorrow I get to go with my faculty advisor and be an anonymous food critic at a restaurant. He gets free food and an opportunity to be as picky as he wants. He asked me to go with him. I have no idea what restaurant we are going to, but I'm stoked.