Posts in the New York City (2008-Present) Category

The most exciting thing about living in different neighborhoods is definitely meeting new people–and getting their unique perspective on living in NYC. I am also finding that meeting all of these new people is leading to new and different experiences. This all seems to be happening at an accelerated pace. I am not exactly sure why–but I am digging it and just going to go with it. In the last couple of weeks I have had four notable random encounters (or events that led from a random encounter) that have been collectively pretty awesome–so I figured I would write a bit about them.

Random Encounter Example 1: Last week, I think it was on Tuesday night I was eating dinner at the Sheep’s Station–my favorite bar in Atlantic Yards so far– and another woman had a conversation going with the waitress about how she was getting ready to go to “class”. I was curious as to what type of class this 50 year old woman was going too–so I introduced myself and inquired. Flash forward two hours later and I had just completed a two hour djembe (African drum) class a the Gowanus Arts Center taught by  Gabriella Dennery from Grace Drums. I was the only dude in the class–with 7 other females–and Gabriella is seriously talented. We learned a flurry of complicated West African rhythms– and literally banged on drums for two hours with little time for breaks. One of the golden rules of djembe playing is that you are not supposed to let your thumbs hit the drum. Well, this proved to be the toughest challenge for me as my thumbs are friggin gigantic. As a sidenote, this experience lit up my”inner hippie” as I have always dreamed of playing in a drum circle–and I am pretty sure this counts–even though it did not quite go down the way I pictured it in a park with Rastafarians.

Random Encounter Example 2: I wrote a month ago about Octavio and Sara — a super cool couple (He owns a cafe, she is a photog) that I met while living in Clinton Hill. We initially struck up a conversation while at the Pillow Cafe–my coffee shop over there at the time and had probably a 20 minute conversation. Quickly thereafter, they headed to India for a two week vacation. But, we connected and stayed in touch on Facebook. Last night, I got an invite to Octavio and Sara’s “Daylight Saving Party” and met their extremely cool group of friends and had a unique experience with a group of people heavily integrated into the New York City art and music scene. They had a bonfire in their backyard–and who knew was it was actually possible in New York City to have ability to light a bonfire to begin with. I am pretty sure that this is the first of many hangs with this crew.

Random Encounter Example 3: Last night while having dinner I struck up a conversation with Corey and Alex. Corey is in the music biz–while his wife Alex works in the publishing business for a wine magazine. This was a pretty interesting story as the waiter forgot to put in Corey and Alex’s dinner order–and if the food would have come out on time we would have never met. I used to work in the music business, and Corey and I immediately hit it off and I am sure we know some of the same people.  I also am heading out to San Francisco next week and Alex was giving me tips about Napa and Sonoma–places I want to explore. I think Corey and I are going to reconvene next month and see if there is any business synergies in the mix.

Random Encounter Example 4: A few weeks ago I met Tanya while eating dinner at a bar before one of my basketball games on the Upper West Side. She was with a friend and we all hit it off instantly. I quickly found out that Tanya, a writer by choice, also owns a chain of luggage stores in midtown—and guess who happens to need luggage. Today I went and met Tanya at one of her shops and will be lugging around whats left of my stuff in style. Tanya seems to have a cool group of friends as well–and I was also informed that Tanya has quite a few cute single girlfriends–which is always a good thing!

I suppose the moral of this paragraph is that the only reason I had the opportunity to meet all these people and participate in these eclectic and memorable experiences, is because I have been going out of my way to strike up conversations with completely random strangers on a regular basis. Anyway, I am really happy to the opportunity to have all of these new people in my life and that is all I have to say about that. Creating encounters like this are really what this whole idea of moving around in New York has been all about. I do not anticipate it slowing down.

In other news, it looks like I am moving to the heart of the West Village for April and May–which I am extremely excited about! The place is totally awesome.

More to come on the place I am staying in now in Atlantic Yards and perhaps even a video.

P.S. The dude in the video below is just a little bit better than me

If you can’t see the video click here

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