The one with an epic fail in Translation

FAIL!

The one that has to be seen to be believed

The one with NYC!

Christ this has been lazy week on the blog with pics and videos of monkeys. I’ve been throwing a far bit of time in the the Movie Bit blog so make sure to drop by that!!! It feels like months since I was in NYC. In fairness, it was just what the doctor ordered. Get away from Cork and all the madness of Christmas and work!!!
We had an absolute amazing time there in December. I've been there a good few times now and it was Ger’s second time, so there was no need to take in any of the tourist shite!

We stayed well downtown, in Tribeca, not too far away from the famous Tribeca film center. The days were spent relaxing, wandering and staying away from midtown! That said we wandered through Times Square once, as the wife wanted to go to Toys R Us. While its a great place to see, once is enough for anybody in Times Square, in my book! Carrie Fisher was on Broadway so we trundled off to see Princess Leia do her thing and she was absolutely fantastic. That said, 2 ghoul bags a few rows in front nearly had a UFC style match and security had to be called. The Museum of Modern Art was amazing. My main reason for convincing the wife that we needed to go was the Tim Burton exhibition. Tickets were booked on the iTouch and picked up at the MOMA. So efficient. The Burton exhibition was simply astounding. A gigantic selection of his lifes work was on display and you could easily lose a whole day there in one exhibition. We took in the rest of the MOMA as well, so plenty of Picasso, Monet and of course Andy Warhol. Speaking of museums, we also took in the Natural History museum which was pretty incredible. Being a big child, the dinosaur exhibit got the most love. The place, like the MOMA is huge and about 3-4 hours later we emerged back into the daylight with a nice –10 temperature. As I’m sure some of you know, old Romance here got engaged in Central Park, not to far away from the Bow Bridge. So we made a pilgrimage back to it and had an incredibly long, cold and relaxed stroll through Central Park and we eventually made it back to our engagement rock!

The bullshit surrounding Times Square on New Years Eve is nothing short of surreal! I know its all in the name of security and so on, but it wasn’t for us. Instead we had dinner in the upper west side and strolled into Central Park for the New York runners club midnight run, which is tied in with a huge fireworks display from the same people who do the 4th of July fireworks. So we mingled with a couple of thousand locals and runners and froze our bits off, but the fireworks at midnight went on for nearly half an hour! Madison Square Garden was on the cards next for a NY Rangers Ice hockey game which was absolutely brilliant. At times I thought the roof was gonna blow off the Garden, the atmosphere was nothing short of spectacular! An hour and half trip on the Subway and we ended up in Coney Island, which is quite run down but of course its the home of Nathans Hot Dogs, the place where they have the hot dog eating contest! So a bunch of hot dogs later and a long stroll on the beach and the boardwalk we headed back to Manhattan. We took in plenty of bars, which were so far removed from tourism it was a refreshing change! Talking shit to the locals and eating some tasty food is the real way to do this city. And ate we did! Crawling into a diner in the morning surrounded by NYPD, FDNY and even the department of sanitation is probably the best breakfast experience anywhere in the world! And cheap too! On the expensive side of things, eating out every night does have its impact on the cash, but its gotta be done! We spent a small fortune in De Niro’s restaurant, the Tribeca Grill but it was worth every penny and in hindsight it wasn’t too expensive compared to Cork.

On the famous people front, I did spot De Niro leaving his restaurant and to be honest, he looked like he had just spent about 12 hours washing pots. Head down and made a bee line out the door. Having Brunch on the Sunday I spotted Tobey Maguire who looked incredibly homeless! I also spied myself in the mirror a few times too!

Now a few places I thought were pretty daycent for food and drink and would go back in a heartbeat! Great service and great food!

Square Diner – 33 Leonard St,

Gee Whiz Diner – 295 Greenwich St

Kitchenette – 156 Chambers St

Wichcraft – 397 Greenwich St

Bubbys – 120 Hudson St

Ducale – 392 Columbus Ave (at 79th St)

Tribeca Grill – 375 Greenwich St

Reade Street Pub & Kitchen – 135 Reade St

Mudville 9 – 126 Chambers St

Columbine – 229 W. Broadway

If anyone has any particular questions, fire a comment or a mail!!!

For anyone going to the big apple, stay way downtown in places like Tribeca or the Villiage (East or West) or uptown in the Upper West Side and get a proper feel for New York. If its your first time, do the tourist shite, but any subsequent visits should avoid the tourists traps! The city and its neighbourhoods are far removed from the melting pot of madness that is Times Square!

The one with Walmart

No wonder so many kids are terrified of clowns!! Outstanding viral!

The one with Pizza

Remi FTW!

The one with monkeys

Here is the most awesome thing you will hear about today! Monkeys (chimps to be precise) have made a movie! It was made with chimp proof cams and is set to be shown on TV! No word yet as whether or not its in 3D!

The one with a little piece of awesome on a Friday

The one with Leno and Conan all things mad!

I’m a big fan of the American late night talk shows. I’ve been a fan of Letterman since I was allowed stay up late as a whipper snapper. So Letterman is on the top of my list. Leno had has moments and CoCo also had his moments.
From watching the 3 shows and when it was announced the CoCo was to get the Tonight Show I felt it would never really work. The Tonight Show is nearly as American as the stars and stripes. It’s on the air for 7000 years or something. Conan is more suited to the younger demographic, but hosts adapt and change as the audience demands. Unfortunately, I, like many others were right. It didn’t work for CoCo. It didn’t work because but he didn’t get a fair crack of the whip. He didn’t get a chance to evolve into the Tonight Show host he was always destined to be!He also wasn’t helped by the fact that Leno didn’t go quietly into the night. Jay kicked off the Jay Leno show which went to air before CoCo, and that arse kinda fell out of that as well, which again in turn didn’t help the Tonight Show. The big wigs that caused the rumpus in the first place are the real problem here, and the subsequent bickering between CoCo and the NBC execs have been a disaster. Granted the monologues each night have been superb as each host takes a pop at their big shot bosses.

It all stems back to the fact that Jay wouldn’t be around forever and Conan was promised the Tonight Show a few years back. And they should have rolled with it. Johnny Carson was single handily the most popular chat show host in history, on state side at least and when Leno eventually got to take over (or some reckon he stole it from Letterman) it took him the bare bones of 2 years of shows to start climbing the mountain. I know we live in different times now but a few wet weeks in to a new show / host is bollocks. It makes everybody look bad.
As it stands, Leno is made out to look like the bad guy, Conan is the guy that has got nothing at the end of it bar 30 odd million bucks (from his exit deal) and more importantly NBC look like a bunch of idiots who couldn’t organise a piss up in an Olympic sized swimming pool filled with beer! When the dust settles, it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Leno will go back to the Tonight show and I’d be surprised if it doesn’t take a huge dip ratings wise! In the meantime CoCo will go elsewhere and with or without the sympathy vote should tear it up!

American TV has always been famous for all the great TV show’s over the years, some which are still on air and some which have just disappeared into the night. But in the current CoCo fiasco, Westerns must surely be about to make a comeback, because there’s a whole lot of cowboys around!

Last nights Mystery Sound Scene

A bit easier than yesterday!!! Not on air tonight as I am away on company business (ohhhhhh mysterious)

The one with an epic fail and win at the same time!

The one with the Globes of Gold

Golden globe winners list with video’s now available over on the Movie Bit blog!

The one with some funny!

The one with Up in the Air

Lots of buzz and nominations surrounding the latest movie from Jason “Juno” Reitman, who not only directed this but he was partly responsible for writing it as well. So is Up in the Air worth your air miles?

 
Read the rest of the review here

The one with the morning after!

This is the funniest pic you will see all week.....possibly!

The one with Voting

Irish blog awards are open for nom noms so if you think this blog is worthy of a vote then please vote for it in the personal or pop culture section or if there is a particular post that you liked, vote for that in the best post category. You can vote by clicking here!

The one with Voting

Irish blog awards are open for nom noms so if you think this blog is worthy of a vote then please vote for it in the personal or popculture category. You can vote by clicking here!

The one with I’m back

Righto, failing a Noah style flood, yours truly shall return to the airwaves tonight!
Its been mental, weather wise the last few days and we are getting it sideways again today! Lots to tear into as we say, some of which will make an appearance on the blog over the next few days. Anyway, for your “amusement”….

Other than Emmerich doing the weather, I’m on tonight, 9pm!!!! Corks RedFM!!!

The one with Snow and Ice

Just in case anyone doesn’t know what it looked like here’s a selection of “snaps” from the last few days!

Frozen solid! 
As above!    

The one with I'm NOT back

Due to the roads, in particular the one outside my door and the car not having ski'ing capabilities I ain't gonna be back on air tonight! Fingers crossed I shall return to the airwaves tomorrow night! If anyone has an AT-AT I can borrow then please let me know!

The one with an update!

Due to the snow I won’t be on air tonight! Keep checking for updates!

The one with I’m back

Tomorrow night (or tonight, depending on what time it is) I return to the airwaves on Corks RedFM after the holiday break!

10pm!!! Be there!!!!! Get it off your chest and the Movie Bit amongst all the gossip!!!

www.redfm.ie

The one with a few pics and THE ANNOUNCMENT

For over 3 months, I’ve been keeping the biggest secret of my life! Ger is pregnant, so yours truly will be a Daddy by the Summer! Huge thanks to all the tweets and facebook mentions so far! I’m still getting my head around it to be honest, but roll on the shitty nappies, the puke and the joy of having our first born. And another thing…It’s going to be great to get a father’s day card from another human as opposed to the dogs giving me one each year!

Anyways, I spent most of the holidays in NYC (Tribeca to be exact)  and to be honest, I gave up dragging the camera around and swapping lenses and just started completely chilling out! All in all, I took about 900 shots, many just off the hip, but for the last few days, the camera spent its time in the hotel! I’ll bang up a trip report at some point but either way, here’s a few snaps! So click the full album part :)