Ciudad and Squirrel

Ciudad Poster Art (by Sunshine Reyes)

In West Village…

In 5 Guys burger place (Obama’s favorite)

at Kenny’s Castaways (where the show will be)…

… at Generations Record Store

… in Washington Square Park…

.. and a C Train ride later, in Central Park…

… and finally, on the fridge.

James Baluyut’s wizardry. Outro of “The Last Thing I Want To Do” at Fontana’s in NYC. October 17, 2009.

Mikey rehearsing “You’ll Be Out Of Here” with James Baluyut of +/- at their rehearsal space in Brooklyn, NY. October 11. 2009.

Mikey rehearsing “My Emptiness” with James Baluyut of +/- at their rehearsal space in Brooklyn, NY. October 11. 2009.

Good morning, Williamsburg Brooklyn! This is the view from our friend Jason’s window. This neigborhood will turn into hipsterville from about noon till night. It’s one big Cubao Ex.

At Guitar Center, West 14th St in Manhattan to test and pick up guitar stuff I purchased online. This will be my Ciudad New York tour arsenal.

After picking up my guitar, we’re off to Gray’s Papaya to get some Recession Special Hotdogs.

So is it the best hot dog in New York? Haven’t tried Sabrett yet so we’ll let you know in a few days.

Hotdog is not enough so we decided to drop by Ray’s Pizza. Huge slices. Yes those are entire strips of bacon.

Front door of where we’re staying. We went back to take some jetlag-related nap.

A very sleepy Marian in the hallway.

After a power nap, we’re off to Music Hall of Williamsburg, walking distance from the condo, to fall in line for Sufjan Steven’s show.

Opening band, Cryptacize, they’re good. Cardigans-Bjork-Portishead-Arigato-Hato-esque tunes. The singer’s cute too. The drummer looks like he’s bored and is too lazy to shave (sorry but his photo is missing).

Sufjan the man setting up and tuning his banjo. He sets up his own equipment together with his bandmates and the roadies. What a guy. Hipster chicks in front of us were writing “Dear Sufjan” letters on paper and thinking of handing it to him.

1/2 of the Horn Section. The trumpet player also doubles as a keyboard player. Yes, the trombone player is wearing a pink tie and could pass for a geek from a John Hughes film.

Marunong palang mag-drums si David Letterman eh!

Horn section

Letterman is actually very good.

The multi-instrumentalist genius that he is, Sufjan switches from guitar, to keyboards, to banjo.

Guitar player dude.

Looking up to the skies while singing “Transfiguration”

I didn’t know you could rock out with a banjo.

The show schedule of Music Hall of Williamsburg. Will catch Built to Spill here too next week.

After Sufjan’s show, we met up with the +/- boys, fresh from band rehearsal, in Spuytin Duyvil (just a couple of blocks from the condo) for a nightcap. They were happy to see us and we were too. This is a very blurry photo, I notice.

+/- with the newest band member, Marian.