Morning all

Traveled the subway today to the East Village area to visit a music store and also Reciprocal Skate and Pinball.

This 'journey' saw us having to change trains 3 times on 3 different lines - and we NAILED it ( somehow  :unsure)
There is still a large 'security/ military' presence at certain places, we had a '1' Red train canceled/delayed , and then later found out some nutjob had done something and they were still ( quote) "looking for the guy".............

In a city where people LOVE to walk the streets having their entire LOUD conversations heralded publicly for everyone near them to hear ( whether they are discussing the weather, their jobs, or their very personal family stuff ) , we were able to deduce that it was either a bomb threat on the line, or a stabbing. We had lunch at Union Square and I asked a local and they said in a VERY 'blase' fashion..... "oh it's probably just a stabbing, it happens all the time" ( like no big deal )

So this , once again , put Kayla at complete ease as we had to use various subway lines still throughout the day.

Anyway - we didnt get stabbed or blown up - but there was a couple of uneasy moments today with some REALLY NASTY looking 'gang guys' being on the station at one stage, so we left and got another train just to be safe. There are HUNDREDS of people down there , but it just 'felt' wrong' so I thought it best to leave

FINALLY - we made it to Union Square and headed for The Guitar Centre in the hope of getting some good drum deals on parts I need to buy
The guys at the shop were super cool but didnt have a lot of what I needed.
For those of you that know drum stuff and realise we pay $25 for ONE set of decent sticks and around $30- $40- for a drum head , I walked out with 3 sets of sticks and 4 heads ( 10,12,16 and a 14 snare ) for $90 in total

They had a very cool looking 'fish bowl' kit in the store





Someone asked earlier in the thread if Kayla was getting to see what SHE wanted to see and do, I will answer that by saying that she came here wanting to see all the touristy stuff as well as Seinfelds etc, the ONLY thing that she wasnt keen on , but still laughed along on the day was The Warriors stuff uptown the other day - we have taken her to Macy's shopping a few times as well as along 5th Ave and she has been able to buy some nice 'girly stuff' that they like and we ( as blokes ) just dont get.......today she wanted her nails done , so we sat and got that sorted for her as well......the language barrier here can be tough , I mean WE speak English and THEY speak English and they dont understand us :o Kayla said she went to The Ice Hockey last night and they had NO IDEA what she was saying, she proceeded to repeat ICE HOCKY 4 times .......... nothing ......... she then showed them a picture on the camera and they said " oh, Ice Hockey"  - WTF   



After that it was a short subway ride across town on the L Line to get to the area where Reciprocal is - it is JUST left off one of the main streets, it may appear like it is in a seedy part of town , but it isnt. In actual fact, to me .....most of this city looks like this so it aint as bad as it may appear.







Inside - it is actually a really colourful and arty design , incorporating pinball and skate art , products and trinkets etc. Its pretty niche and cool to be honest










The roof...........




And instead of mods and loads of stuff on games, he has quirky things like this actual ticket from a WHO concert sitting on the TOMMY pinball.




You can see the games he had there today - a few were off but we played a few games , but actually had a great time talking to ( John? - damn I am HOPELESS with names )......anyway we spoke for about half an hour about anything from pinball to being in the city during 911, to Pinside bitchfights and anything in between ( he is Bigehrl on Pinside )

The body language should tell you I was having a GREAT game !



In the few hours that we were there , there was a fairly constant flow of 'players' coming and going






Kayla even had a few games - and she NEVER plays pinball at home



And here I am with Bigerhl behind the counter
Oh and obviously he had no WOZ there - but he has one on order.



At least Union Square was not busy on the way back 




COMPLETELY exhausted at the moment and going to crash out for a while.




Oh and TonyT - this ones for you - WE FOUND ONE ( well its close aint it ! )