Mike Brinker

Oh My NY!

Three of the coolest things to happen to me this year...

1. Seeing more Hollywood celebrities in one day than I can possibly handle.
2. Going to E3.
3. Being in Queens New York during the worst blackout in North American History.

I was so pissed when it happened though because I was at my favorite part of the American M useum of the Moving Image when the blackout hit. I happened to be playing the 3rd exhibit in the new age technology and digital playground area (what I am studying for my masters degree) when the power went out. It was called "I Shot Andy Warhol" and I had just picked him off twice when the blackout started ("I Shot Andy Warhol" is a modification of an old NES game called "Hogan's Ally" that uses the light zapper gun. I spent many a day playing that game as a child, shooting gangsters and tin cans and such). That was about 4:10 Eastern time and I figured maybe the museum blew a generator. I immediately marched up to the front desk and demanded to know what was going on. They said that the power was out and they had no idea what was happening. Probably just a block thing so we waited. A half-hour went by and no one knew anything, so someone finally turned on a radio. All of Manhatten was the first thing we heard, followed by parts of New Jersey, then the entire Eastern Seaboard (rumor). YIKES!!! So, what to do? Subways didn't work, and that's how we got out to Steinway Street to begin with. Trains weren't working and the only thing to do was to take a bus. Now, you have to remember, this is my 5th day in NY and not having a map of Queens didn't make traveling any easier. Plus, my brother and I had split off from my aunt and sister who were shopping in SoHo. SO, we asked the museum people and they said grab the Q101 bus to Manhatten. After finally finding the bus stop on Steinway street, we realized that we weren't getting on any bus anytime soon. The first one zoomed by us at MACH 10, with people literally hanging out the sides. We also realized that we were standing in the midst of about 40 third graders on a summer camp field day who were trying to get back to Queensbury Park, all hopped up on sugar and rumors. This made the situation stickier. So the second bus rolls up and actually stops. A few people get off and the 40 children get on, along with my brother and I. We were the last two to fit, and we basically had to stand on the inside of the doors. Several hispanic women were also trying to squeeze on, but they eventually got off and waited for the next bus. I would say we got about 5 and half blocks before we hit the wall. Now, this wasn't a normal wall made out of stone or brick or concrete, this was a wall of people. And they weren't walking on the sidewalks, they were walking in the street, on the girders, under the girders, around the dividers, on the dividers, over roadblocks and around cars, and in lanes. It was like a marathon run, all of regular people! So, realizing we weren't going anywhere, we hopped off the bus and joined the masses. From there we walked all the way over the Queensboro bridge to central park, then south on 6th avenue all the way to The Grand Marquee at Time Square to meet my sister and Aunt for dinner at "The View" Restaurant. Of course this never happened, but along the way, we saw people hitching rides on the backs of trucks, cars, vans, school buses and even garbage trucks. We also got to see citizens directing traffic and an eery times square with no lights....none. Cell phones were on the fritz because the networks were overloaded, so I would have to say that the majority of people with cell phones couldn't make calls, including myself. The most interesting thing about our walk though was that no one was crazy. No one got out of hand and no one had attitudes. It was essentially a town meeting, with everyone standing around on the street talking to one another. Amazing. So we finally found the other 2 members of our party, thankfully they weren't caught on a subway during the mess, and decided to head for Penn Station so we could catch a train back to New Jersey where my Aunt and Uncle live. As we got closer to Penn, at about 6:30 or 7:00 o'clock, we realized that no one was going anywhere but there. All the commuters were desperately trying to find ways out of the city to get home, and the most popular was the ferry and Penn. Realizing this was a futile effort, we gave up and played the waiting game. Seeing Manhatten get dark with no lights is very strange. People with flashlights in buildings looked funny, and seeing the empire state building with only 4 lights on at the very top was also odd. It was at this time that all four of us realized you could actually see stars if you looked up into the night sky. We saw the big dipper and a variety of other constellations. That was a moment that I will never forget, nor will I ever expierence again for that matter. At about 9:20 I happened to peer through the crowd to some of the doors at Penn Station, and I noticed that one of them was opened. As we crept closer, I heard that they were boarding ticketed passengers only for any person headed south on Amtrak. Bummer, we were heading to Dover on the NJ transit lines. So we waited again. Eventually they started boarding others, but we couldn't make out who or where. Finally, a woman in the crowd told us to go to the opposite entrance, over on 31st and 8th because they were boarding NJ transit lines. Sure enough, they just so happened to be boarding NJ transit ticketed passangers to Dover ONLY. YAY! We skipped ahead of about 200 people and got into the station. It was pretty dark, but not coal black like the subways. As we headed down, we were informed that the Dover train had already left and that we would have to go all the way back up to the street and wait for the next one. Before we could even turn around however, someone else announced that their was another train just boarding for Dover as well. We hopped on that one and were home before 11:00 o'clock. Good 'ol NY. Gotta love that city!

Pictures are available here