OT: London v New York - What's best?

[brightonalex]

Oh yeah +1 for the shopping.

Century 21 rules ok!!

[popslut]

They're both shit holes.

I'll take Paris, Vancouver, San Francisco, Barcelona, Dublin, Helsinki, Tokyo, Tel Aviv or Edinburgh over either of them.

[brightonalex]

Yeah right, popslut. because Dublin has all those pubs and edinburgh has.. has the castle and....

[popslut]

...edinburgh has.. has the castle and....

A fucking collossal arts festival that happens every summer and whose influence lingers all year round, making Edinburgh one of the most culture-rich cities in the world.

Then there's the many restaurants, theatres, pubs, architecture and thousands of years of incredible history.

[rozling]

Yeah right, popslut. because Dublin has all those pubs and edinburgh has.. has the castle and....

Just be prepared to take out a bank loan to be able to have a decent night out here. Actually it seems tons of Dublinites are heading over to Edinburgh for random pissups this winter (not just stags/hens, christmas parties etc). Never been myself though...

As for London -v- NY, I visited NY for the first time around this time last year and loved everything about it. Rent is f-ing insane is the only thing, or was for my mate wot lived there at least. Live music seems to be excellent - we walked into a hotel a friend happened to be staying at and copped an amazing jazz performance for free... I get the impression this is the norm (although I know you'll get F-d in the A on ticket prices for the big jazz names but hey, it's New York).

Then there's all the random societies/events that crop up - check out Create Digital Music for some of those. I am insanely jealous of some of the events that go on there. Plus it's a breathtaking city. I would say subjectively more so than London (except for the Tate Modern - gotta love that).

Century 21 is shit! I thought it was like TK Maxx for... well I don't know who it was aimed at really. Maybe I just didn't get it. Mmm want to live in NY...

PS I've got nothing against London really, it's a savage (meaning great) city and a few good friends have lived there for a few years now, I just have more time for New York having spent less time there than London.

[jngpng]

...edinburgh has.. has the castle and....

A fucking collossal arts festival that happens every summer and whose influence lingers all year round, making Edinburgh one of the most culture-rich cities in the world.

That's pretty much bullshit in my experience. Edinburgh is dead and conservative outside the festival season. Granted, the architecture & history are interesting but that wears off pretty quickly. Do you live here? I can see why you'd think the way you do as a visitor, but most long-term residents I know hate the fucking place.

London & NY are both great, but far too expensive. I'd take Berlin or Belgrade. In fact New Belgrade > everywhere. Craziest place I've lived by a mile.

[popslut]

That's pretty much bullshit in my experience. Edinburgh is dead and conservative outside the festival season. Granted, the architecture & history are interesting but that wears off pretty quickly. I can see why you'd think the way you do as a visitor, but most long-term residents I know hate the fucking place.

Familiarity breeds contempt I suppose. I've stayed in Edinburgh a few times but never for more than a few weeks at a time, both in and out of festival season. Always had a brilliant time.

I lived in London for 12 years and a grew to despise the place. It's a grey and drab and windswept hell hole, piled high with dog shit and chip papers and crawling with crackheads, bigoted policemen and posers.

The air is virtually unbreathable, the noise pollution of a million sirens, bus brakes and screaming loonies is relentless and it never goes dark.

It's too expensive and probably the most hostile environment I've ever experienced.

Fucking brilliant fun for the first couple of years, aged 19 - 21, but after that just purgatory.

Do you live here?

No, I live in a small town on the east coast of Spain.

I'd take Berlin or Belgrade.

Now Berlin is a great city.

[forge]

I prefer NY over London,
I prefer the personality of NewYork, London is more de-personalised and cut-throat in my opinion. I know the stereotype of NY is somehow cold-hearted, but I've never experienced that. In London I certainly have.
!

funny my experience was quite different - although I havent been to NY

but in London I found I made a lot of friends because it tended to be where people moved to from all over the UK and all over the world

it is quite conceivable that if you stayed in London your whole life then at some point you'll run into somebody you knew from any other part of the world because it's somewhere everyone will go at some point in their life

I guess NY is probably quite similar in that sens, but London is more in the middle and a stopover point for anywhere

I have also experienced the negative side you mentioned, but I've also had a lot of fun there and met some great people who I miss a lot

[corygilbert]

There's the US, and there's NYC. It's abut as different as West Berlin was to West Germany back in the day - an island with it's own identity and culture.
NYC is surprisingly warm in spirit, there's a rough kind of friendliness that permeates through the city, something that disappears as soon as you leave city limits and is replaced by a "we wants to be NYC, so we gots to be tough like NYC" mentality.

+1

[Homebelly]

I lived in london 12 years starting in 84,, worked in Soho on Frith street,, up in Camdon and over in Victoria,, lived in Streatham, brixton and up in Turnpike and Woodgreen,, had some very cool times especially at the Fridge, the Academy,, KTAC/Forum/meanfiddler,, and practically lived at the Marque when in was on Wardour street and then when it moved to Charingcross and if i wasn't there i was at the astoria or round the corner at the George Roby,,,
In my opinion London as a city though is poop,, I went back there two years ago,, nothing has changed,, the people are 24/7 fuckin miserable,, the tribal rivalry is dumb beyond description and seems to become amplified every time the london foot ball clubs play each other,,
Traveling on the tube is horrendous, hot and stinky,,
The bus drivers are all ass holes,,,
Oxford street is one long strip mall,,
Camdon is still okay and the African food stalls are awesome!!!
I was there during the bus and subway bombs,, as an out sider at that point it amazed me how those events seemed to cheer every one up,, almost as though it gave them a legitimate reason to be miserable and so they got happy for a couple of days for that reason,,
I have also lived in NYC on and off for about ten years,, done it both as an undocumented illegal alien as as a fully paid up Green card holder,, both cities are big, both are loud,, both have there share of ass holes and brilliant people,, but for what ever reason NYC is just a whole lot better place to be,,
I love NYC in the spring,,
The park is great,,
The village is equal parts horrible and amazing all at the same time,,
Up around Ludlow is very cool,,,
The subway is a breeze,, and full of very cool, some times dangerous but always interesting people,,
Stay away from 5th and 6TH ave but the rest of the City is fantastic,,
The weather kicks the sit out of London,,,
Unless you spend a lot of time in Midtown the rest of the place can feel like a very big village,,
I worked up in the 20's around Chelsea when every one was building big old warehouse conversions into bars and restaurants,, I lived for a while on Broadway right opposite tower records,, i had Bleeker street right there and NYU around the corner,, Ludlow and Canal just up the road,,
Spent most of my time living over in Brooklyn where i was often the only white guy living in Dominican, Portorican or Jamaican/st Lucian neighbor hoods,, tried to stay away from Park Slope,, but even that joint had it's moments,,

In my mind the two cities are incomparable,,
London can be fun,,,
NYC is fun,, it really is as simple as that.

[spaceribbon]

NYC Cons

-Hipster Epidemic
-Americans
-End up in a detention camp.
-Terrorist Target
-Ultra-Competitive

London Cons

-Terrible food except for Curry
-Extraordinarly expensive
-Cold/Rainy 365
-Caste System
-Pub Crawlers/Hooligans

Besides the obvious...

Pro NYC

Cheaper Metro System.
Affordable if you live in a shoe box.
Plenty of places to make gigs.
Much larger country to travel in.
Brilliant culinary delights.

Pro London

Classy people and women.
Melancholy inspiration.
More advanced music culture.
Better dancers and partiers.


But lets face it, for such a small country, London takes it.

[popslut]

-Cold/Rainy 365

Oh now come on..!

For three weeks every August London becomes unbearably hot and sweaty and the Undergorund network becomes a vast Turkish bath, full of bad breath and dead rats.

[SubFunk]

i lived for 6 years in london... so my vote goes there, simply because it is great for music in general, a hard place to live and utterly expensive, but i still miss and dig it.

london is extreme diverse in many aspects, people, religions, food, music, clubs, concerts, etc.

i guess NY is as exciting, but all my professional dj friends who go to the states and NY regular say the music scene is nothing compared to europe... speaking of diversity. i don't know because after the 9/11 racism and paranoia, nazi type of control behavior of the US i have no intention to go... unless they change there attitude of playing the world police... [just my personal feel and reason!]

unfortenuately the brits are close in getting there themselfs... still i guess both are cool cities with a lot of nice people...

hard to say... i think they are up to paar, except london is most probably better for any type of music, when it comes to business.

[SubFunk]

damn, double post

[SubFunk]

oops sorry tripple post