4 in the afternoon ben walked in and was obviously in irritable mood. the
apartment was semi messy because i was making myself at home thinking i really
had the apartment all to myself. ben slumped on the couch and said he couldn't
get on the flight because he got there several minutes late. he was pissed
that he couldn't go up to maine to his friend's cottage, a mini vacation he's
been looking forward to for 6 months.

neither of us did anything all day, we just played some games on his xbox
and watched tv. nearing 11pm, ben fiddled around with extra couch in the apartment.
he asked me to lift one end to see how heavy that thing was. it wasn't so bad,
maybe 150lbs? he was planning to move the couch to his studio on 27th/7th but
wasn't sure how he was gonna do it. i said the couch wasn't that heavy but
wasn't sure how it would feel after 10 blocks. ben had a slightly evil grin
on his face and said 'how about 30 blocks?' i immediately knew what
he was thinking and said we should do it. he went downstairs to the laundry
and met up with the doorman to see if we can bring this out at this hour. the
building charges 200 bucks for moving furniture but he knew the doorman well
so we just snuck it out.

so here's the new leather couch that he picked up yesterday and the old one
that we carried around today.

he came back up and at 11pm we were ready to roll. ben's apartment was on
57th and 9th so we had to cover about 35 blocks in total. it would have been
impossible to move something of this size because of traffic and massive amount
of pedestrians on the road but by this time things were dying down. still,
we were to walk down midtown 9th/8th and 7th avenues which has very good concentration
of tourists and locals. i stuffed 2 water bottles under the cushions before
taking off. we moved the couch out of his tiny door, down the elevator and
onto the sidewalk no problem. for the first several blocks we experimented
with different grips, trying to find the most comfortable position. it was
hard finding one that fits the occassion since ben was 6'5" and i was
5'8"...

everywhere we went ppl staredat us, pointed fingers and made smart-ass remarks
like 'hey, can i hop on?' despite all that it was fun and we were making
other ppl happy or at least put a smile on their face. we marched for 4 or
5 blocks and stopped for a break by a restaurant. while ben rested on the couch
i took a quick picture. families inside the restaurant saw us and stared out
amusingly.

the man behind waved and gave us a thumb's up as i took the picture. then
i started thinking, what if we went down to the times square and set this couch
down in the middle of the square? times square, which is between 5-7th/42-46th,
wasn't far away and it was definitely on the way, albeit an avenue over. i
proposed the idea to ben and he wasn't particularly convinced because there
would still be shit load of ppl there even at this hour. but we took the 7th
avenue down. and that's when things got interesting.

we had to set the couch down every 2 to 3 blocks to rest. but we stopped many
many more times in front of anything interesting to take pictures. can you
imagine? you and your friend taking a couch down the one of the most busiest
street in new york city in the middle of the night? just how many new yorkers
have had the chance to do something like that? we were both having fun with
the situation, stopping in front of many tourist attractions to take pictures
on the couch.

oh yeah, i have to tell ya even though i'm wearing a yale t shirt, i didn't
go there. when i got my design bachelor degree from york i had the option to
go to yale design grad school or sheridan computer animation school. up until
graduation i was set on yale after checking out the new haven campus and design
grad program. but once i was done with school i decided not to go to design
grad school because i was sick of it. i just wanted to get away from graphic
design and all its discplines and do something completely different. i wanted
to pursue storytelling and computer animation felt like a good choice. and
that's what i did. maybe in the next couple of years i'll go to yale and get
a master degree so that i can legitimately teach classes at universities in
the future. i don't know if i want to become a prof full time but i definitely
want to try teaching at one point and i would like to have some credentials
to prove my worth. so yeah, i picked up a yale shirt when i was checking out
the campus and when i work out sometimes. it was kinda funny today, one guy
who saw us moving the couch said 'you went to yale and you're moving couches???'
:D why the hell not!

we walked several more blocks and stopped in front of this hotel. a minute
after we set it down, several security men came out and asked us to remove
it. i told him that we're just taking a photo and they waited until ben took
5 shots, none of which are any good. a dude on one of those transpot bikes
came to say a hello. he had this huge grin on his face.

facing the port authority terminal.

i believe this was on 43rd street just a block or two away from heart of times
square. there were alot of ppl out and these portugese kids came over to take
a picture with us. their friend also snapped a picture. they were talking in
portugese so ben couldn't understand what they were saying. we shook hands
and thanked each other for the picture.

i really wanted to go straight into times square but ben suggested that we
walk down further and cross over so that there aren't too many ppl.

on 40th we crossed over to 7th avenue and came across a porn shop. a clerk
was standing outside, looking at us. we quickly positioned the couch in front
of the shop and invited him to join us for a picture. he agreed. great shot
isn't it?? :D

he had to go in because a couple walked in but he invited us to come in. it
wasn't like anyone was going to take the couch so we left it there and went
in. the shop was surprisingly spacious and it stretched quite far back. we
talked to michael, the nightshift clerk, briefly about the business and asked
what the best seller was. there were 2 dvds on the counter with 'bestseller'
label. one of them was the infamous paris hilton video.

michael said the video is totally legit and both parties gave consent to sell
the dvd with profits going to some charity, which i think is total bullshit.
not that michael has any reason to lie but i find it hard to comprehend that
paris hilton would drop a single cent to ppl who are less fortunate than she,
let alone shit load of money that would come into her possession through a
video she made having sex. i should give her the benefit of doubt since i don't
know her but it's much satisfying to think of her as a brainless idiot with
money to burn thousand times over.

across the street we saw domino's pizza and we went to order a pan. ben treated
me since i was doing all this work with him. we waited outside while they prepared
our food.

we decided not to eat there but move to times square which was only 3-4 blocks
away. we stuff the pizza under the cushion and moved to 7th avenue. we could
see the lights eminating from times just several blocks up and i really wanted
to go right in the middle and have our meal while staring at the NASDAQ monitor.
ben didn't want to go there because he just didn't have the energy to walk
up 2 blocks and come down. i begged and pleaded with him at every half block
up to 42nd street. we put the couch smack in the middle of the street and ate
our pizza watching all the screens in front of us.

most ppl looked on curiously but some ppl passed us as if something like this
happens everyday in new york city. some of them didn't even flich, nor looked
at us even though we were on their way. a woman talking on cell phone came
to us all excited and asked if she could take picture of us. she said she's
talking to her mother and said to her 'there're two guys sitting on a
couch in times square!', her mother said to take a picture of us. we smiled
for the photo. another woman who looked homeless came and said we looked like
we were having fun. she was smiling ear to ear and added that new york used
to be a fun city filled with ppl like us but not anymore. we offered her a
slice but she politely refused. she wished us rest of fun-filled evening and
walked away.

video clip of the view and pizza.

our couch was stationed near a subway exit and ppl would do double take as
they came out. then there was this guy with accordion. he looked like a cool
character so we asked him to come sit with us on the couch. click on img below
to view a video clip.

he said he was on the way to various restaurants and other locales near
times square to make some money with his brother, who stood there several feet
away, trying deperately to look away, either bored to death or ashamed of having
a brother like this cool cat! he played a tune that i think he improvised on
the spot. he said he comes out on the weekends from time to time when he needs
some money. he could make as much as 20 bucks on a friday to nothing. he stays
out and play for 5 hours at a time. one perk of the gig is the cigarettes ppl
offer him, 'they give me cigarettes so on the nights i'm out i don't have
to buy a pack.'

we sat there for another 10 minutes talking about some other cool things we
could do with this couch. all these weird ideas came to us, many of them involving
taking a light couch all over the country and taking pictures of our adventure
in various recognizable locales and getting a couch company to pay for our
trip, possibly ikea. all we need are a light couch with wheels and a long lamp
that we could put it on the side. can you imagine setting this up smack in
the middle of times square and getting ppl in on it? what an experience that
would be?