• New York City Numero Deux

What I really love about New York, is that every day is a busy day there. That may not sound very tempting for some of you but for me it makes for an adventure every time I visit.

Sometimes it can be visual overload with so many billboards, screens, and people vying for your attention.

Driving around in the center of the city can prove to be a nightmare too, at least you always have something or someone to look at.

I wonder how many steps these sidewalks see in a day with this many people constantly walking about.

I saw more and more hybrid taxis this visit, l just wonder if they will prove to be as effective and long lasting as the big Crown Victoria taxis.

Oh yeah, Metrocard! Getting ready for some subway travel.

Don’t get TOO close.

I had my camera flash help me get some pictures since it was a little too dark in the subway.

Local beer? Doubt it, look closely it says Brooklyn brand.

This is the first bar/lounge we started at. The waitress looks like a ghost while the blonde girl must have gotten a good light burn in her eyes after staring directly at the camera, sorry!

We take a ride in the back of Suburban.

I tried to take some long exposure shots from the back but most were blurry aside from this one.

Next bar, don’t remember the name but we had to take an elevator. Reminded me of Japan.

Drink much?

Off to another place, this time out the back door.

Cool steam…

The now nightly ritual, a meal early in the AM. This time it was pizza.

Wolfing it down.

I’m not one for crust so I always leave it behind and usually take flack for it. Hey, it’s the blanded part!

Didn’t expect to see this vintage truck on the streets of NYC. It’s nice to see a smidgen of car culture in the city.

This was one heck of a cup of coffee. Perfection!

And so was the vegetable soup that I had. Sorry for the blurry photo, I had to show off this meal since it reminds me of the homemade soup my mom used to make me.

The wall of cons.

I never knew Tori Spelling had so many talents.

Checking the map to find our destination. Did I mention how much I love the subway system, efficiency at its best (almost).

57 street, nuff said.

That’s a fine looking menu.

Clever marketing. I hope she shows up in that outfit.

City ball park, made entirely of cement. How serious are you? Serious enough for a slide?

The fields gatekeeper.

I’m not sure what this poster is for but it’s well done. Caught my eye.

A tear in the gate enabled me to get a small peak inside the equipment rental yard.

Check out the yard’s brick wall. Awesomeness! The exposed brick and previous art underneath make this piece for me.

YES.

More YES.

We walked by a building with no windows just a massive garage door and this Vans sign. You won’t see anything like that in LA.

Someone’s yard that leads onto the street. Not the best use of space but it made for a good photo.

I walked through the Polish part of Brooklyn and saw tons of Polish stores.

Back down below, more trains whizzed by.

Rock you in a rocking chair? No? Maybe?

This is clever since its on a sliding door, get it?

OMG, Tom Hanks has turned into a rat!!

The ingenuity of store names never ceases to amaze me. Its a rice pudding store if you didn’t guess.

Look closely and you’ll die laughing at some of the signs on the window.

This alleyway led us up to…

A tucked away restaurant, that had some of the best pea soup I’ve had in a long time.

Remind me again what these stars are from?

Some nice detail in this wall art.

That does it for my NYC posting. I should have split this post up into two or three but when Im on a roll there’s no stopping!

I first have to apologize for not posting more content to this site but I’ve been extremely busy with work and life which has left me very little time for this site. I’ll do my best to get more content up here shortly for the few of you that still frequent my site.

Back in April, I visited New York City for the auto show and as always had an amazing time in what has to be one of my top cities in North America. Sadly, I didn’t have my digital SLR with me so most of the photos I took were with my trusty iphone and then I switched over to my Panasonic LX3 point and click. I do wish these photos were better in quality but it’s not easy lugging around a big lens camera when you are going out and trying to enjoy the night (and not worry about your expensive camera).

It didn’t take long to get into social hour, the drinks started flowing fast and continued into the night.

Moving from bar to bar proved a bit difficult due to the rain but thankfully almost all of us had hood jackets.

It rained for the better half of the night.

I’m not sure what to comment about this photo, other than this was a bachlorette and somehow my buddy Sam ended up in this situation.

The next day brought some great sunny weather, this is what I love most about New York, you can walk around aimlessly for hours.

And ride the subway to get practically anywhere you need to go.

We wear our sunglasses on the subway? Must have been a rough night prior.

I’m really bad with names so I dont remember this particular bars name but its a great place in the meat packing district with a wide assortment of beverages and decent food.

You probably won’t notice the super low moon in this photo (At the end of the buildings) but it caused quite a commotion outside with people taking photos and slowing traffic.

Gold flower restaurant, not really. It’s a great lounge with superb cocktails. Think Speak Easy bar.

These are the types of drinks you can expect.

Not sure what’s up with the gang signs but my drink had flower petals in it.

Random alley way in Chinatown.

Someone had lit a trash can on fire and these guys were cleaning up the mess.

Yet another night ending with too much food consumption.

YES! Finally, stackable parking lots. I’m waiting for these to make it back to my home city in Toronto.

Old street car line that’s been converted into a nature path.

Poor bike, never stood a chance being locked up like that.

Somewhere on the NYU campus.

More food at night, halal cart meals that are way too big a portion for one person but we gorged them down anyways.

If you remember Garbage Pail Kids, then you’ll love this random sticker sighting.

I caught this blur of a train wizzing past us in the subway. Has an eerie ghost feel to it.

The view from our room, Times Square.

I’ve finally had 5 minutes to sit down and post an update, this one goes back over a month now when I visited Washington D.C. for the new 2012 Honda Civic launch. On my way down, I decided to take some aerial photos from the plane.

It’s pretty amazing to see our world from above, you really get a sense of how small we really are compared to the elements on the planet.

It’s nice to see suburbs that aren’t built on grids, I realize the effectiveness of the grid but it’s so visually unpleasing.

Musing around the city, I found this saying posted in a bathroom. Not sure what to take from it, especially in a bathroom.

This is what a late night meal, looks like at one of DC’s oldest standing Hot Dog joints. Chilli sausage and chips at 4am does a body good?

Someone needed to sit down after eating a chili dog. The bear was more than accommodating.

ONLY?

What’s that I peak? Capital Hill?

We had a great tour of the News Museum where Honda had brought out every generation of the Civic for us to look at. Starting with the newest 2012 model.

I’ve always wanted to build a 2nd generation Civic and this wagon would be the perfect platform to start with!

Ever wanted a bar in an elevator? This one had just that. The gent pouring the drinks was fast too, since it was a short ride.

We had two challenges to complete during our new Civic test drive. One was an MPG to see who could get the best mileage out of a Civic in 10 miles. I managed to squeeze 55.2mpg, which isn’t very realistic in the real world but it was cool to do. The other was an autocross course where I did a little better and won first place.

Outside we had a picturesque view of Capital Hill and some Canadian flags flapping nearby at the Canadian Embassy.

Just had to get a photo with the red and white showing prominently.

Walking around there were a ton of pretty awesome exhibits at the Newseum (thats the official name, get it?). This photo from the Katrina disaster was one of my favorites.

The caption tells the story better than I will.

This could be the very first execution photo taken by Tom Howard who snuck a camera into the execution around his ankle. Very cool.

GERMAPHOBIA!!

Have you ever wondered what dogs the presidents owned? Well you can see them all at the Newseum.

We found this guy doing a broadcast in the middle of the evening, weird. He was spot on though!

Don’t really remember who this guy is, but I think its time I cut my hair like that.

KKK and one more K. Knights in the clan? Uh ok.

This is the actual shack of Ted Kaczinyski, also known as the Unabomber. He lived in this hole for a decent amount of time.

This is a crankshaft from one of the automobiles near the bombing. I can’t fathom the carnage a blast of this magnitude could cause.

I’m very sorry for not updating this page very frequently as of late but my life has been a bit of a blur. As spring flowers blossom, my work load seems to increase exponentially leaving me with little time to keep this blog updated. Even when I get home from a long day at the office, I find myself wanting to decompress rather than sit down and put together an entry for this site.

It’s more about quality than quantity for me, even though my traffic numbers prove otherwise.

I think this photo best sums up my life right now. Those things on four wheels are everywhere around me and while there’s a bright light peering into my life, I can’t help but always be chasing more of it.

This afternoon I decided to take a quick trip out to a nearby school yard and snap some pictures of the Subaru WRX for an upcoming article on the wraptivo wrap. Without further ado, here are the images. I did adjust the ride height a bit to make it sit lower in the front as compared to the images before (scroll down to see the before/after post) where the front was a bit too high compared to the back.

I have yet to take some good photos of my newly wrapped Subaru WRX but here are some quick teaser shots before I get to the good ones.

Before, with flat black paint.

After, Wraptivo flat white wrap.

And here are some process photos. The wrap goes on amazingly well and as you can see is pretty seamless if applied properly.

Only time will tell how well the wrap holds up but right now it looks just like a new paint job.