Saturday, August 23, 2014

Visiting the City That Never Sleeps

This past weekend I headed down to NYC to check out the scene in the city that never sleeps. 




After three days spent scouring Manhattan my feet hurt so much. I don't know if I've ever walked so much. But the sounds and scenes were definitely worth it. Like this three-man a capella doing their thing in SoHo. 



I took in the Broadway musical Bullets Over Broadway written by Woody Allen and starring Zack Braff in the lead role, scoring a ticket for $30. Having lived in Utah for many years I wanted to take in The Book of Mormon but getting tickets to the show were crazy expensive. Maybe I still should have gone. Maybe there will be a next time.


One of the reasons I came to New York was to check out the nerve center of the Associated Press. The AP is quite arguably the most important news gathering agency in the world, with incredible reach. 1,700 newspapers and something like 5,000 broadcast outlets subscribe to their wire service, pulling whatever articles and photos they need. The non-profit has something like 240 news bureaus around the world.

It's a really no-nonsense place, except for this incredible view from the 14th floor of their building hugging the Hudson River's shore.


Visiting with the New York Times was pretty incredible and made for the trip's highlight. They had one writer in sports really hustling, 'just happening' to meet run into the two men who were looking to replace Bud Selig as MLB Commish. The kid make his first impression working as a clerk at the NYT, but breaking stories on the Balco scandal. His boss said he was "just a terrible clerk." But I think he had other plans by coming out of college and taking a very entry level position. The day after Rob Manfred was named commissioner, the writer was in Ferguson putting out breaking news reports. To find stories like this one on the U.S. Open you can't be a normal sportswriter. That takes looking looking beyond Flushing Meadows or the traditional storyline.