My cousin moved to Brooklyn because Manhattan is so expensive. Not all of the food is though. Some frequent flyer miles and lodging credit card points can get you there to visit.
Like London, so much to see, a week isn't enough.

My youngest son moved from Manhatten to Brooklyn with his GF to get more bang for their dollars. What they pay even in Brooklyn for a nice, tiny upstairs/downstairs apt is insane.  I told them they need to move out in Queens and get a real house & a yard. Forgetaboutit.

Now his rich GF is going to get her Masters @Vanderbilt, so they're hauling down to Nashville for two yrs. After that though, they could settle anywhere....hopefully closer this way. I didn't mind visiting NYC with the ex, but I couldn't believe how expensive everything was. You could spend $40 at a street vendor's for lunch etc.

Kevin

So this is rather off topic, but look how bizare this footage is!

Shot 24 years ago (1993) in modern HD quality (1080p 60fps), still VHS of course, but non the less, it is HD in the 90s!! It really does play tricks on your mind! Very facinating indeed!

I have a Beta Hi8 camcorder from that period that took absolutely stunning movies. And I suspect the professional mobile shoulder cams that movie documenters would have used were awesome. Professional Beta always had the edge and went well into the digital age. A lot of news shops used VHS shoulder cams because they were in a hurry, could slam the tape into a VHS editing machine, fine tune it and put the footage on TV in a hurry....it was a universal concept. Film students and the like were using Beta shoulder cams....

Kevin

IMO, ADAT was much better than the finicky DAT's and many musicians today still vie for a low hr ADAT machine. There's one down on the bottom right. I never went very far with video machines other than buying a commercial SVHS editing machine to play around with audio recording only on it. Worked but too cumbersome to be much fun.

Kevin

Kevin,

I know NY is expensive all over. Even a house in Queens, but a meal at say Eatily will not set you back more than $40. A good steak dinner in midtown can also be had for $50. Not at Keen's, or Delmonico's, but why go there? There are so many restaurants that all compete for business.
The first time I was there, The Roy Rogers were still around. Cheap fast food. They were converted automats.
The Meatball shop is also good, several locations. Now they have Shake shack also for a great burger. Plenty of deli's with affordable soups, sandwiches, etc.
Like in Europe, you have to know where the locals eat on a budget.
My cousin owned a condo 3 blocks from ground zero. She had to evacuate and it had to be worked on afterward. She is a manager for Citi, and now walks the Brooklyn bridge to work. She bought a shop in Brooklyn, rents out the street level space, and lives above it. The taxes and association dues for her condo kept rising, so she sold it.

Interesting piece on NYC Mike, thanks! My son was working during our visit except for one day. The day he got off he took us way down to the docks to see some big military ship/museum. When we got there it was closed...lol. He certainly knew where to go and not be fleeced food and travel wise. But when he was working, we were on our own. My absolute all-time favorite scraper in NYC is the Empire State. No matter where I was if I could see Her poking through the other building, I felt rest assured my day was gonna be OK. Museum mile was unbelievable and we spent a whole day at the MET. 

We did eat at Shake Shack.

Kevin

organic thing with me and the Empire State...can't explain it. Saint Patrick's Cathedral was amazing too, from the outside at least. Even the big Union Station is sight to behold, inside and out. NYC does not lack for interesting architecture for sure! One World Trade Center was close to being done. The huge bronze relief that gives tribute to the lost firefighters and police for 9/11 is pretty amazing/sobering. 

I wanted to do Radio City Music Hall and the Lincoln Center, but we ran out of time. We basically hit Museum Mile that trip.....and of course Fifth Ave. It must take a lot to stimulate a Newyorker but for us, we were on sensory overload. I figured out the subway system in a day with the help of just asking people. Yeah, Newyorkers won't talk or acknowledge you on the street, but I found if you ask them questions, they suddenly become very personable. One lady down in the subway system even took me by the hand and led me to the appropriate train and rode with us to the next stop. 

We got lost in the MET...first in the Egypt section and finally figured a way out which dumped us into the China section...got lost in there as well...finally made it out into the Rennasance art and beyond which is what we went there to see in the first place...lol.  You could do two days in the MET easily.

Kevin

Akai's are marginal but well-intentioned decks. They have so many things that go wrong with them over time, they are the scourge to repair techs even today. If you have SSS, read the whitepapers on baking the tapes, transfer their contents and throw the tape away. There is also a fraternity of people that use the NuFinish process to restore these tapes. They seem to have success....I don't see the bother. New tape is expensive, but it's better than it ever was in the past. No reason to cling on to old tape like it was Holy Grail stuff...it wasn't.

DAT was short lived because it wasn't consistent without mechanical/electronic problems. I don't even know who works on those machines today. ADAT was much better in every respect. Its only shortfall is that if you go for maximum fidelity, you only have about 45 minutes of recording time. Not a problem for musicians, but a drawback for home audio and storage.

Kevin

Yep, I'd hate to even think about getting a DAT deck serviced right now. I stupidly invested in Tandberg reel to reels and there are now like three techs in NA that can do them justice. Their sound is glorious, but they are not robust decks. In hindsight, I should have saved my money and bought one ATR studio refurbished deck. All the pros use digital now, it's a done deal. I just find the distortion & coloration of old analog addicting and my ears agree as well.

I got a real deal on the ADAT deck I have. It's an Alesis that was supposedly refurbished, but in actual fact, it was a new replacement. I've put the only minuscule hrs on it.  I've had a lot of musicians offer to buy it.  Usually, when you find one, it has a zillion hrs on it but the seller says, "Works like new!"

I also have a Tascam analog to digital converter still in its box. I was gonna record a lot of albums from my vinyl collection and send CD's to friends. Then CD's got unpopular with everyone sharing MP3 files on the Net and their iPhones/androids. The quality of the CD's would be way better....oh well. I even have a nearly new 40GB iPod....like the ones they call 'classic'. Never used it either...I need to talk with somebody sharp on old iPods and tell them what I'm trying to do. Supposedly you can buy uncompressed music through iTunes and there's a setting for that on the iPod...they just take up a lot of space uncompressed that way.

Kevin