She’s arriving by bus in the morning and going to a play on Broadway in the afternoon with student and faculty from her college. They are given a few hours
before and after to shop.
She wants to hit the Virgin Records Megastore and look for music (mostly alternative and techno vinyl) she can’t get around here, but beyond that I’m wondering what other places might be fun or useful for a newly minted 18 year old to visit re shopping or lunch. They are starting in Times Square and she has about 2 hours before, and 2.5 hours after the play, to shop and mess around.
She now tells me she went to www.timessquare.com, and all the cool shops she likes are in the “East Village”. How much time to get there and back from Times Square?
Well, if she stays in Times Square, there are a lot of fun shops (Sephora not to be missed- more make up than a girl can wear in her lifetime), but the village is pretty easy, just get on the subway and manuever to Christopher St. or another nearby station.
I know girls that age that really enjoy H&M clothes. I don’t know if she has those where you are from though.
One thing is that she probably doesn’t want to get any big bags of stuff befor the play. One is the hassel factor of going through a bag search and then there is the probabilty of losing it at the show.
It should be about a 10-15 minute subway ride from Times Square to Christopher Street on the number 1 train. It may be easier to head over to 5th avenue and shop there in the 50’s and upper 40’s. (cross streets from 45th to 59th)
Of course some of the stores there are pretty pricy. Does your daughter have loads of cash? Wait she’s 18! Is your daughter cute?
hmmm. She could go down to Tower Records at Broadway and 4th St. I haven’t been down there in a while but there’s often a flea market in the adjoining lot where I’m sure she’ll see something she likes. She can stroll up broadway and hang a right at Astor Place, go by the spinning cube by Cooper Union, then go over to St. Mark’s Place, where there’s a used CD place, but St. Mark’s might be a little too rough or edgy for her. More in the cultural sense than a personal safety sense. But I haven’t been there in a while, either. From St. Mark’s she can work her way into the East Village, but that’s unlikely given the time constraints. She’ll probably have barely enough time to make a pass through Tower Records and the flea market.
I mean 2-2 1/2 hours minus travel time, that’s barely enough time for a surgical strike in the village, much less wandering around.
The quickest way from Times Square to Astor Place or just west of the East Village is to pick up the N or the R (the yellow route) at 42nd & 7th and take it to 8th street/NYU. That will come out on Broadway.
And I’ll say it again - I haven’t been down there in a while, so she needs to pay attention to which subway train will be running at the time she’ll be traveling.
There are some vinyl places down in the Village on or around Bleeker or West 3rd (Bleeker Bob’s) NYU area. To get there take the A or the E train to West 4th.
The tree is up at Rockefeller Center, so that might be something to do.
I got a cell call from the bathroom of the Minskoff Theatre a little while ago. She wanted me to look up the addresses of some alternative record stores for her, and some place call KidRobot. She is apparently going to ditch Alfred Molina as Tevya and head out to do more shopping. When I asked her about missing the rest of the perfomance with her college buddies she said. “I never get to New York! I can always get the DVD!” The stores won’t stay open forever! Gotta go!"
My credit card’s going to be sorry in the morning.