Born in Brooklyn: Dan of All Day NYC on Growing Up New York

0:00Ladies and gentlemen, the next booklet found, Trace is now right. Stand clear of the closing doors, please.

0:22This is the Times Square for the Commission.

0:42Hello, everyone, and welcome to the New Yorker's podcast, a podcast by New York City Cop. I'm your host, Kelly Copp, a professional published photographer, content creator, podcaster, and the owner of New York City Cop Tours, everyone, where I show visitors the city I love through private walking tours that include the subway and Christmas walking tours and Christmas bus tours and the world famous Diker Heights Christmas lights tours as well. But above all else, everyone, I am a New Yorker. With me today, everybody, I have my good friend Dan here, someone who spends a lot of time doing something I know a little bit about as well, walking around New York City with a camera and showing people this crazy city that we call home.

1:22He's the man behind All Day NYC, where he shares New York through videos, photography, live streams, and those everyday NYC moments that you really have to be out on the streets to capture. And as someone who is also out there in New York every single day creating content, I have a feeling we're going to have a lot to talk about today, Dan. Absolutely. I really do. But above all else, Dan is a New Yorker. So Dan, welcome to the New Yorker's podcast. How are you doing today, buddy? Thank you for having me. Appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, this is pretty cool, you guys. It's funny because Dan and I ran into each other on the street of course in new york city and uh we were going to see are you i was going to see i don't know if you were leaving yeah i was on my way too it was the the leaning tower of midtown you guys probably know that building that was structurally um inadequate i should say and it was going to collapse maybe we don't know and we heard about it for one day and then we never heard about it again right what happened with that dan there's a lot of thing there's a lot of things in new york city that make big headlines and then they disappear like remember when that crane fell oh in midtown it was the one so i feel like this was kind of because when this happened i thought it was a huge deal i mean obviously they closed down blocks you know we were going there to get some b-roll footage and not for our pages right and uh there was a lot going on i know that they shored up the building to make sure that it could, you know, be adequate for now.

2:49But what is the plan going forward? We haven't heard a single thing. I mean, that one day we're all going to see what was going to happen. Hopefully that what wouldn't happen. And then next day is no news. Wild. But we were talking and we're like, Dan or Dan, you know, worried about having Dan on the podcast. So I'm like, this is perfect. You know, he's he is a true New Yorker. You know, I'm a New or two, but I wasn't born here, unfortunately. And Dan, I think you were born here, right? I was, yep, yep. Tell us the story. I was born here in Brooklyn, New York, 1985, not to age myself too much.

3:221985, young man. But yeah, I grew up here. Grew up here in New York City, Brooklyn, to be exact. Lived there for most of my life. Right. Went to college out in Stony Brook, Long Island. Nice. And then moved back here to, was in Brooklyn for a few more years until I moved to Manhattan. Nice. Do you have any brothers or sisters or anything? I do. Two younger sisters also in Brooklyn. Mom's still in Brooklyn. So we still got the main family out there in Brooklyn. So I go back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was it like? I mean, so you're born in 1985, you said? Yeah. That was in high school. So 90s. 90s kid, I guess, is really when I started to.

4:05What was New York in contrast in the 90s to today? And so where and where did you hang out? Mostly was it in Brooklyn and Manhattan? Were you all over? What did you do? Yeah, it's a good question. So when I was younger, you know, living my early adolescent life and teenage years, it was really just Brooklyn. You know, there wasn't a lot of going to Manhattan or the city, as we called it. You know, I would go here and there with the parents. Dad would take me to work sometimes. But it was really just living in Brooklyn and just kind of hanging out in our area. There wasn't too much moving around.

4:39Like I grew up in Bensonhurst Gravesend, like right on the cusp. so give me like geographically where is that in brooklyn because i live yeah i've lived up in upper manhattan so i just want to be clear specifically yeah so it's it's literally like the southern eastern part of brooklyn right before coney i was just gonna say coney island that's a great way yeah uh-huh so that's where we spent a lot of our time coney island yeah uh all of my my elementary school my junior high school was in coney island school bus would take us to her all the time parents would take us to the boardwalk to the beaches to coney island for the rides he knows wonderland that's been cool as a kid very fun yeah fireworks back then on friday nights uh yeah they were doing it back then yeah yeah yeah so at what age are your parents like yeah you can just run around and do what you want and take the subway yeah yeah yeah so i think like uh junior high school or probably when i like yeah when i got into junior high school it was kind of like you could just go out and do what you want but not like run to manhattan but just in the area so like we would take our bikes out in brooklyn we're riding them to like toys r us which is by the belt park way over there um playing basketball every day summer times water gun fights uh what did you say water gun fights yeah the fire hydrants i still have a mean scar on my finger from aiming a can and cutting my finger open memories you'll never forget parents must have loved that yeah they definitely love that with the fire hydrants too in the summertime yeah we always had an older kid or a young adult that would come out with a wrench this was before they put those special so now they have like a special lock on it where some people still have the uh the key to it but there's like a special key wrench that needs to like magnetize or i don't know it's a weird uh they probably put those in like the late 90s early 2000s oh yeah so we would open them up and just, you know, go crazy.

6:29So did you, and you, how old were you when you and your friends could ride the subway? I would say probably like high school. Yeah, as soon as high school hit, it was kind of like, yeah, I'm going to go to the city, me and my friends, and we're going to go to this store that has, you know, jackets or whatever and, you know, stuff like that. So we started to hit Soho, which wasn't, you know, too far into Manhattan. You know, you go right over the bridge. Canal Street. Canal Street. Were they still selling, or not still, but when did that start? Do you remember? or do you know or was it always been when you remember it's it's been my whole life and and i'm assuming beyond yeah i think probably like 80s i think probably 80s maybe that's when that selling the purses and the wallets and everything everything it's uh i was talking with someone the other day i forget who they were visiting and they said they weren't too happy about you know the guys and ladies who sell the purses and stuff i said well they're doing it because the demand is high from you visiting.

7:24Yeah. Oh, no, no. You know what I mean? That's who's buying it. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're the one who's buying it. A hundred percent. You know, you're the one who's keeping them in business. A hundred percent. You know, New Yorkers aren't buying this. Maybe, maybe not a little here and there. But I mean, the tourists are the ones who are buying it. It's funny. So it's because of you, I said. Yeah. And that's why you'll even see them in Midtown now, too. They're just, you know, they got their whole thing with the blanket and like they pick it up and go as soon as the cops come.

7:47And it's like, it's a mad, it's a mad dash chase cat and mouse game. That's so funny. I was down there one day live streaming it and it was literally a cat and mouse game. So the cops would come, they would pick up their stuff. Then they would run to the other side. Then they'd come back. Then once in a while they would jump out and start chasing them. And then they would get like a few things, bags and stuff, throw it in the back of the police car. And then they would drive away. And then they'd come back. And I'm like, this doesn't make any sense. I'm like, this seems like such a waste of resources.

8:15Right. Like if we're going to go after anybody, let's go after who's the real criminals. I'm with you. Real criminals. And maybe the people that are that are providing all this stuff. Correct. Right. Like these guys are just selling it. They're just selling it. Yeah. There's there's definitely somebody at the top. That's funny. You know, my mind's eye. I have such a good picture of it because the podcast, this podcast studio, too, has offices on Canal Street. So for the last three years, I've been walking through every week. I've been walking through them. I'm like, hey, what's up? you know like i'm getting to know them you know and they're usually very nice they're awesome they're really nice guys so you know i feel kind of like protective of 100 when i see the cops coming and yeah you know and i'm not nothing against the cops i'm just saying you know i kind of feel bad because they're yeah listen i i don't think uh when the cops wake up they say we want to go to canal street and raid you know they're getting directions from the top so i don't you know there's no there's no beef with that yeah that's pretty that's pretty funny though i mean yeah no it's very funny there's such there's such a a big in what's the part of new york city culture you know and so it's funny about they used to sell a lot of car stereo equipment down there back in the day so a lot of those stores that have now closed up and probably become condos were a lot of car stereo stuff subwoofers decks that's when that's have you bought anything speakers yeah i bought a deck there yeah when i was growing up probably when i turned like 19 I think I went there to get a, that's pretty fun.

9:39One of those in dash that you have to like put it in your bag. So nobody would steal your car stereo. Yeah. So, okay. So you're in Brooklyn and then you leave Brooklyn, right? Yeah. So how'd that, how'd that work out? How'd that happen? I, well, I initially, like I said, I went to college out in Stony Brook. So that was my first break away from home, you know, moving into the dorms and just seeing life outside of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, which was different because you go there and then there's different kids from all over the United States. And then you also have like a lot of Long Island out there.

10:15So that's like a little different culture. But it was cool. It was cool to mix with everyone, you know, and get a different life. And when I graduated, I moved back home for six months and I was like, I'm used to freedom. I got to get out of here. So me and a bunch of friends from college ended up renting out a big house in bay ridge oh nice um and we all split the rent and it was pretty cheap considering what the rents are now yeah yeah i bet i think we were paying 2400 for the whole house and there were four of us four of us that's cheap cheap it's pretty cheap yeah yeah and so you're you said benson hearse now ben this was it was benson hearse and i moved to bay ridge yeah so where's bay ridge specifically bay ridge is uh pretty much the complete southern portion west side of brooklyn yeah so if you go past like the park slopes of the world and all that you keep going down right near diker heights uh if people are if people are familiar yeah yeah yeah i know diker heights well there you go so that's that's pretty cool and then you moved to Manhattan after that, right?

11:19Yeah. So in 2014, I, uh, I put on my big boy pants and yeah. Nice. And so, yeah, I think we live kind of close-ish. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm in the upper West. You're like upper, upper West. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. You're upper West. I'm upper, upper West. There you go. You know, how are you happy with where you live? I am. When I first moved there, I was 29. So it wasn't really par with my lifestyle. I still want to go out. Right. But now it's gotten very lively. And now I'm older and I'm like, I don't even want the liveliness. Yeah, exactly. I want to buy it. Yeah. So I grew into it perfectly.

11:58And you're close to Central Park? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Nice. Can't do that. Which is amazing. I've been working in the Upper West Side area for a very long time. So I started working doing maintenance stuff in buildings when I was 16 years old. Wow. Yeah. So every time I wasn't in high school or college, I was just in between. Right. Oh, there do some relief work, clean up all these dirty staircases, you know, that all that fun stuff. Yeah. So I'm familiar with the area and I've seen it change. It changed a lot. For the better. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I mean, rents are obviously high, but definitely for the better.

12:34Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think so, too. I think I mean, I lived here 13 years. My rent has gone up somewhat, but it's nothing compared to me. to what you know if you're going higher and higher yeah it gets less and less and so it's still pretty affordable in a way the only downfall is you're starting to see the businesses not being able to afford the rent which is unfortunate so you're seeing a lot of businesses that have been there for a long time closing down you're seeing more chipotles not that i don't dislike chipotle i know what you mean you know what i mean yeah yeah i like i like dos toros though okay you know it's you know yeah yeah yeah better than chipotle if anybody wants to know that i prefer dos toros over chipotle so dan let's talk about what you do on social media tell everybody your page and what your page is about and how did you get started and everything and that's how we became friends yeah you know through social media which is awesome so tell everybody about that so the page is all day nyc uh on all platforms um and i got started like many others i feel like during the pandemic so pandemic was a big changing time where people were kind of venturing outside when they could yeah um and that's when I started seeing New York City a little slower and I realized you know what there's something here and I always kind of was on social media I've been on the Facebooks of the world the MySpace yeah all you know I have the experience with it that's fun but I never got into actual like taking photos or videos also at this time I feel like the phones were getting better so like the iphone finally had like a built-in stabilization good point because before that it was like your phone is just shaking all over the place there was no people didn't have people in own gimbals unless you were doing really professional exactly no stuff and like you said yeah yeah so i agree yeah so i feel like uh i i was seeing all this stuff during the pandemic especially with new york city being empty and i'm like i need to really start getting this up on social media and posting it yep um so that's what that's what i started doing uh you make you're making me think of the stable stabilization i was walking through central park it was six years ago and i saw tony bennett sitting in central park with his wife i'm like this is an awesome video yeah and then back then i thought it was and i just pulled it up the other day just it was like it was like so shaky and it's like terrible you know i have a few of those going to the archives yeah oh man is this even usable yeah i was terrible i would have never posting now yeah like this guy is horrible you know unfriending or unfollowing and everything so what what tell me your can i say three favorite reels that you posted oh yeah yeah yeah what are your three very favorite real quick i saw a really really funny one the other day though yeah um on your page which was like the barbecue club what was not a good like a like a hot dog it was a stand with music or something what was happening there do you remember that uh was it the one from yesterday in midtown or something uh well it was this one there was this like crazy dj yeah there it is that what it was yeah okay okay all right so it was the school bus rave uh i'm just doing my little live stream riding around sometimes i'm riding around on a bike or a one wheel or walking yeah i think i was taking a city bike home yeah and i hear music and my one rule is whenever i hear music follow it so i follow the music that's smart and sure enough there's a school bus that's converted into a DJ platform and somebody's just playing yeah DJing on 34th Street right it was cool yeah I like just just something you you know you wouldn't see every day you know and I know I asked you this question about your videos but I want one second yeah I have all these questions you know go for it so and you basically ride your bike are you said a one a one-wheeler yeah I have a one-wheeler which is like you kind of stand sideways on it it's not the one that you stand straight it's the one you stand sideways right and you're kind of like it almost looks like a skateboard but it has one big tire like a hoverboard or yeah yeah something like that yeah how hard is it to like learn to balance yourself on that i don't know if i had a friend who was using one who was also streaming out in california and i used to watch him do it and i'm like that looks really cool and then i started seeing people riding them and i'm like that looks really cool i just go ahead yeah yeah and i just i bought one and i took it to central park and i started out in the grass yeah and i started out slow and the first day i was like okay then get the hand of this you know and little by little i would venture i ventured into a pathway and then i took it to the street in a few days and little by little and so you're all over the city now doing that now i'm all over with it yeah i just saw yesterday or last night this this guy and he has his dogs on those things you may have seen it oh yeah it was really cool yeah i was like how is this dog maneuvering and turning it was insane to me it's insane yeah yeah like the little little bulldog yeah exactly yeah i just saw last night just by just by chance but um you know i saw you one of your videos too which i thought was pretty funny you're actually there was like a traffic jam or directing traffic and what what happened i was also live streaming the best stuff happens when you're live streaming yeah and it was a complete traffic jam i think it was right here on like 7th avenue that was in midtown right yeah yeah and i'm like you know while i'm live streaming you have an audience and it's like right you want to investigate you want to see you know what's going on what's you know you hear people honking the horns we got to go see what's going on and sure enough it's all because there was a line into a parking lot we up and there was a woman who wouldn't i was gonna say one car right one car one car yeah i wouldn't pull over to like wait for the parking lot attendant to bring in the car and then keep the flow going like no i'm just gonna stand right here with my big escalator in the middle of the street.

18:08So I took it upon myself and I directed her. You did. I said, come on, come this way, move down here. She thought she was going to like lose her spot. And I'm like, no, you're holding up the whole avenue. This is pretty ridiculous. I mean, the way you had the camera too, you could clearly see that this person's car was messing up all of midtown Manhattan. Literally. Yeah. So literally closing a bottleneck. Yeah. Job. I love that. I I watched that a couple of times just to see you or people driving around trying to figure it out. You get these funny, interesting moments. Yeah. So I asked you three, right?

18:46Sorry. Yeah, three. There's so many. It's so tough. Well, one or two. I don't care. Yeah. You know what? I'll give you some of the ones that really started off with the virality. uh there was one day where i literally just walked outside my building and there's a raccoon uh in the scaffolding and he's doing this like acrobatic i think walk i saw it yeah that was one of my most crazy viral videos that's been a year or two ago right yeah yeah yeah yeah and it was just like such a funny moment i just you know pull out the camera snap it this yeah yeah i think i put like mission impossible music behind it yeah yeah that was really cool That's not something you see every day.

19:29And people are just walking under the raccoon. So a lot of people don't even see it. I'm going to admit this. I was a little jealous of that. I'm like, that's one of the coolest videos I've seen. You got the content brain because I do the same thing. When I see a video, I was like, damn, I wish I could have got that. Yeah, that was a good one. That was a cool one. That was a cool one. We just got to call each other now when we see something cool and just be like, come up here. Oh, yeah, you got to hurry up. Okay, what else? What else is another one? Some of my other ones. probably you know not to go super recent but um no that's fine this this summer has really been so great in new york city oh well let's talk about that too so go ahead um i would say one of my favorites just for me personally because i never thought i would see the day was being at the nicks parade and i was able to highlight and get like walt frazier like rolling down the nicks parade like who would have ever thought we would see the day you know so like that's really that hits uh that yeah it was as i was actually looking at some of your nicks today nicks videos i mean you were right up front right on the right on the street right there i was in the woolworth building which was awesome it was beautiful you know you were you were yeah overhead shot yeah yeah yeah you were right right in their face and i was just like wow look at these shots i went super early so there was there was a lot of oh yeah what time did you get there tell us so i got there i had another good friend of mine uh can't stop who's also does a lot of nick stuff and other uh what's his name can't stop uh on instagram i think can't stop 718 he was he was going to the spurs games in san antonio he's like all over the place yeah he was like oh we're going yeah i mean i can't believe i just said that we're talking nick you guys yes you just said first my brain's trying to you know jump ahead of everything yeah so he was like yo we're going to the parade we're gonna get there crazy early so i'm like all right say less so he got there at like 4 30 in the morning that's what i heard and i woke up at 4 30 so i'm like he said we already kind of got like in a line because they weren't allowing press passes that day i know yeah that that was rough but i'm like you know what it's rough but i'm like this is i've lived for this i'm i'm going to this yeah yeah i woke up crazy early and i said i'm going no matter what and i ended up getting in line with him and And we got right to the front of those gates when they first opened up.

21:47We were standing there for hours. Worth it, though. Did you have to go to the bathroom? I made sure I only had a little sip of coffee. I was, like, fully prepared. I, like, went to the bathroom and I woke up. And I was like, I'm only having a little sip of coffee. And that's it. I'll stay dehydrated, but I'll be all right. That's so funny because people don't realize, you know, what Dan and I do and what we have to think about ahead of time is eating or drinking. for instance, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade too, like these big events especially the Knicks, I almost didn't go to the Knicks you know, parade because I was like, I'm going to be stuck there without a restroom, we have to think about all these things, but you know and then I was, you know, one of my friends invited me to the Woolworth building, which I eventually got into, but I almost gave up and what was amazing, I was there a few I got there like at nine like an idiot, the subways were insane insane the the you know at the um world trade center you know our chamber street i should say yeah two um fulton street underground shoulders shoulder packed we come up above ground the oc the oculus is completely surrounded with thousands hundreds of thousands of people i mean it was some of those videos were crazy enough just to see that part yeah exactly yeah and it was insane and then i somehow managed to squeeze through almost to the woolworth building but I was starting to get nervous because I was scared of a crushing situation.

23:15100%. There was all these things going on. Did you think about that too? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And then I ended up, just happened to look, and I saw this on a video. I happened to look, and I saw the crowd running forward. And I was like, oh, my gosh, there's my inn. And I jumped in, and I ran with them, and I saw the entrance to the Woolworth building for security, and I stopped, and I pinned myself, and I said, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. That's the New Yorker. Yeah, it was crazy. I mean, I gave up. I mean, I gave up. I almost went, I couldn't even go home, though. Yeah, yeah, you're literally stuck.

23:47I knew I was stuck there for hours, you know, but it was so worth it. I don't want to make it sound bad because it was so incredibly worth it, everybody. For sure. So were you a Knicks fan since you were this tall? Since I was, yeah. Yeah, very, very young. So how is that for you, you know, being a true New Yorker, a real New Yorker, watching your team after 53 years? 53. You've never seen them win. Never. Until this summer. Until this summer. How cool is that? Very cool. I even had to get a tattoo to commemorate it. Let's see it. Can we see it? Yeah. Show the camera, too. Because Murr from Impractical Joker showed his, too.

24:27Yeah. Yeah. It's the trophy with the tin hanging from it. It says 26 cans. Done by Rich Pie. That's awesome. Out at R &D tattoo. Very cool. I have to commemorate this. Yeah, that's really cool. So, you know, let's talk about this summer. Yeah. It has been such an incredible summer in New York City. And you can just feel the amazingness in this. It's been incredible. You know, there was a part of New York City that I felt like it changed when the pandemic hit. And it felt like it never truly came back. So New York was back as far as busy and tourists and stuff. But there was something weird. You know, it just didn't feel like the old New York.

25:09It changed a little. It changed a little. Yeah, I get it. Yep. And I feel like this summer made it feel like back. Like home again. Yeah, yeah, like home again, for sure, for sure, for sure. I mean, it's, you know, because I moved here 13 years ago. Yeah. So I saw and felt New York City the way it was. And then the pandemic came and it did change. It didn't feel like its regular self. Yeah. You know? Yeah, no, for sure. and now we're here and yeah and the nicks is a huge part of it what else do you think part of it just the the vibe the vibe in general um new mayor and i love you know what do you think about our new mayor i love him i think he's doing great stuff for the idea i hear yeah i agree you know there's a lot to do here so somebody's always going to be upset about something but i think as long as you keep going in the right direction and try to do you know the best for the people that need it yeah you know what i mean um i completely agree um i mean you've been here your whole life so you've seen how the city reacts interacts you know with our mayors and i think this i feel different i feel something different with this mayor too for sure the city is is seems happier yeah so i just you know i i think both of us have interviewed him some a few times too and you know i think actually getting to talk to him and he's he's a he's a good guy yeah for sure yeah the first time i met him uh he was just really cool and personable and like making little side jokes and stuff making everyone comfortable around him yeah and there was even somebody in the room that was like oh i didn't meet him before and i wasn't too sure about you know how he would be like and i didn't really know if and they're like he was great so it's like you know you kind to get that and it's not like fake either it's like no it's an authentic yeah yeah but he knows you and remembers you too for sure you know when i see him he's sincerely like hey you know like you know and um it's i was gonna say something else too i don't know he's just all around i've just really enjoyed talking with him and he always has good you know sincere answers and i also like they ride the city bike around i know so the knicks uh a new mayor and what else happened uh the world cup the world cup you know we had so many it's been so crazy countries here i like for you know yeah so no the world cup was pretty insane too no just seeing all your videos some of your videos yeah square amazing just seeing everyone come together different people from different countries here in new york celebrating together was pretty cool and what's amazing is every country that was here is also represented in some way or form here in new york city.

27:52Very true. You know what I mean? So yeah, you would, you would go. So me and my friends and my wife, we were looking to go to, you know, bars in different neighborhoods to celebrate for the different games. Right. And you could do that here. That's, you know, that's what it's all about. Yeah. I mean, every night there was a different, um, country celebrating or excited for what may are half what may happen you know they may win celebrating and all the people who live here from you know that are originally from that country are their you know parents or whoever it's just what new york is about is the diversity and all the different people from all over the world it's just felt so good yeah it did it did it you know like and it was like perfect timing how everything just yeah it was like oh we're done with the knicks okay now we have the world covers yeah Yeah, yeah, exactly.

28:42And then after that was the best fireworks I think I've seen, right? The Fourth of July fireworks? Yeah, yeah. I think we're in the same area because I saw your video down in Dumbo. Not Dumbo. This year I was actually over in Long Island City. So I didn't see. Oh. I did see the videos afterwards, but I didn't see. I thought I saw yours. I didn't see it the best this year, but I had some, I had a decent view of it. Yeah. You know what I like? if you really look around people are lighting fireworks everywhere yeah so if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty you go like all the way uptown or you go to some of the outer boroughs in brooklyn oh my god forget about it it gets pretty wild in my neighborhood it is you don't sleep fourth of july yeah and it's it's cool though i mean i'm not upset yeah it's a once you know yeah as long as they do it once a year don't do that you know this was a special one too it was celebrating that and it was just um it was just a really just a great summer and it's continuing and i wonder what is next what is next to add on to that yeah because it's we're just moving forward over yeah i feel like i finally got to take like a little break of just like the events and now it's just kind of like i can enjoy the actual summer too right so like you're not like you don't have this brain of like i have to go here i have to go there to get a video good point i didn't think of that that's what we're doing we're always trying to get content you know and it's like now we can kind of like find it freely or let it come to us i mean when the knicks games the knicks uh championship was over i was so glad that i could rest and this dress that we had i that was a lot of yeah there wasn't too much sleep eating very badly a lot of yeah and like quick on the go because it was like every day i would go to work and then it was like okay the game's on where are we going for the game right doing do we have to go out and document the celebrating.

30:33Exactly. We do. Yeah. Two hours. Yeah. You're getting home like midnight. We're stressed out because we're, you know, 27 points behind and then we come up and we win. And it's just the emotions of it. It's incredible. Really, really, really cool. Yeah. Okay. Dan, since you're a certified New Yorker born here in New York city, let's talk pizza, pizza, you know, so do you have your favorite pizza places you like to tell people to go to and what is your favorite so when i grew up in brooklyn uh this was like i said 90s lmb spavone garden oh yeah where slices the original one like way the original one way out there yeah yeah i was two blocks away from there so that was just wow that's how i grew up first time like two years ago to that specific location yeah it was incredible incredible and just like the setup right outside the picnic tables and stuff also the spumoni is also very good the actual uh ice cream oh um very good that was like that was where i grew up so that was always been my number one you know i wouldn't really venture out too much beyond i think it was that and like nap street pizza we would order like a regular pie from nap nap street and the regular is like the circle and then the square is what lmb's morning gardens is known yeah the sicilian i like that it doesn't lmb's lmb's put like your sauce yeah sauce on top i love they call it red so like other places will call it a red slice now oh that's why yeah yeah but when i grew up it was just you know well growing up growing up growing up i would always put the sauce on well forgive me for saying this a pizza hut you know growing up not in new york i was a young kid nothing against pizza hut to be yeah yeah and uh i had some of it in college yeah but i would put the i would put the sauce on it i always like sauce on my pizza and then i went to l &b's like this is how i like it yeah that's it it's really cool so what about what other spots so that was always like the number one yeah um and then there's another one in brooklyn called the farah which has also been there for a really long time it's an avenue j uh it's been there for a very long time the old man who used to literally make the pies passed away unfortunately a few years ago but you would go in there and he was still making them he was had to be in his maybe late 80s um and he was still making the pies and that that was one of the i've been there a few times recently a couple years but that was one of the last times i went he was still making them this was probably 2022 i'd like to say yeah so that's a good it's a good regular slice it's good where is it again pizza the farah avenue jay and bro how do you spell it uh d-i-f-a-r-a okay good yeah they try to branch out a little bit i think they put one in seaport for a little bit but it didn't i don't think it really worked out it's hard when they branch out because it's yeah i think they use different ingredients and stuff and well what about the original what do you think of lindistry have you been there i i i have had it yeah i had it early on before it got like really hype i like it i'm just like i like it i wouldn't wait for it yeah you know there's certain things i'll try i'll do the line thing just for my own sense or my people that follow me to be like is this even worth it but if i like already know about it and i've had it yeah it's got to be really really good for me to wait in a line for it i agree i mean i i went to i did the line is i felt like the line was kind of fast but i had it and it was really good don't get me wrong yeah uh it's very good yeah it's very good but i'm a bleaker street pizza fan i like bleaker street i'm i mean that's my go-to a couple blocks away i like bleaker i'd love it slice you know you have john's right there yeah right there pies yeah you have a nice little triangle exactly pizza yeah those are good spots are you familiar with coronet pizza i'm sure you probably yes yes yes yes the big slices i that when i first moved to new york it's on the opposite opposite side of my block yeah so coronet with a k-k-o-r-o-n-a-t to this day still one of my favorite slices.

34:42It's so big. You know, there's some decent ones up there. That's a good one. You have Sal and Carmine's. Yeah. That's a good one. It's really good. There's also one that I like that's really far. It's on Dykeman Street, Pizza Palace. Another big slice. Yeah. Very big slice. And they also do, if you're not into the pizza or you just want to do something different, they do the beef patty with cheese. Oh, yeah. And the cocoa bread. Yeah. It's always, I heard the cocoa bread is the best. Very good. Yeah. Do you know what cocoa bread is? I'm not sure. I don't know exactly like the ingredients or how to make it.

35:15I know it tastes good. It has to be in cocoa bread. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That's the way. Yeah. Yeah. That's the way. That's how I have it. Yeah. You know, this is a little has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but way up upper Manhattan is a restaurant that I love. And it was just randomly I saw it with my good friend, Carrie, about a year ago. It's called Bitcoin Steakhouse. Have you heard of it? No. It's in Inwood. Okay. It is one of the best restaurants I've been to in New York City. Oh, now I gotta go. Yeah, I love it. And it's, I think they have music and the way the food is really good.

35:51We went for happy hour and happy hour, even the happy hour food was phenomenal. It's called Bitcoin Steakhouse. Interesting. I like the name. And I was, yeah, it was really cool. I was, we should all go back at a group of people and go back sometime. I'll be down. It's truly amazing. Inwood is a very underrated part. and forget about upper Manhattan, you know. It's like it doesn't, when they think of Manhattan, they only think of where we are in Midtown. And it's like, no, that exists too. And it's really nice. I actually like it. It feels like the Bronx too. It does. It feels like you're like in the city, but you're like in like, yeah, yeah.

36:23But you know, it's only like, it was only like two or three subway stops away from me. It was pretty close-ish. Yeah. And I love it. I just, it's a great restaurant. A great restaurant. Okay, so let's talk bagels. Yeah, but I'm not a big bagel eater. So I'll be, I don't really have a, you know, a good. I like bagels. I don't eat them all the time just because they're not the best for you. But I do like a good, I like a good bagel sandwich. What do you get? Well, I'm upset, first of all, because one of our places in the Upper West closed, I don't know if you remember, Lenny's Bagels. It was an old mom and pop on like 100th and Broadway, maybe.

36:58It's not part of Lenwich, is it? No, completely separate. It was an old mom and pop. They had like the bagels in the baskets. They made them there every day and they had a bad boy bagel. It was egg everything with like onion and like all kinds of stuff. They're gone, RIP. I'm just reminiscing. But it's one of my favorites. But no, some of my go-tos now, like I like Zucker's. Zucker's isn't too bad. I've never been there. Pretty good. They do a good bagel sandwich. If I'm moving around, I'll do a bagel pub makes a pretty good one. I mean, they're all kind of like chains now. Yeah. You know? I mean, I do like Esso Bagel.

37:36Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. for sure yeah what about liberty bagels and the rainbow bagels and all that stuff yes yeah popular yeah yeah uh-huh i think i got a nick's bagel from yeah they were doing a nick's bagel yeah it was like a rainbow style too yeah yeah it was the i got it too yeah yeah i mean i like uh i'm just not a big bagel eater yeah you know for people who don't know why we have the best pizza and bagels in the world do you know why i'm sure you know the water there you go the water yeah it's from no yes from the croton reservoir up in upstate new york and comes on down and to new york city you know what's funny my very first day in new york city it was august 1st 2003 whatever year it was 13 because i know i've been here 13 years yeah that's right so 26 yeah yeah so um i you know got a glass of water from the faucet because i'm from florida when water tastes like crap sulfur got to enjoy have you been there do you know what i'm talking about yeah yeah yeah yeah so you don't drink it yeah yeah and i took uh my first glass of water and it was summer august 1st it was cold and it was crisp and it was refreshing and i was like holy moly i did not know that water had like all these characteristics like fine wine you know what i mean oh yeah for sure and it was i was like wow florida's water i didn't realize i was drinking that we have some of the best water i still use the water fountains that are like the public water fountains yeah i'll use them yeah sometimes i'll even just rate them on my you know channel just for really you'll rate water yeah why not what are the best ones you know uh that's funny wait where was there really a good one actually there was a good one over by the baylander yeah uh up in harlem over there right off the west side highway yeah they have one right there off the bike path i think i rated that one pretty high one of the worst ones was in cheap said bay brooklyn it was right off the pier i maybe they were getting the water straight from the that's not a good one that's so funny that you're raiding water fountains in new york city why not right no it's a good it's a great idea because i see them all the time and i'm thinking now that just you know since the pandemic wants to you know debate me on the best that's pretty feel free you have you rate the water fountains i gotta do it again well since the pandemic i see water fountains i'm like you know um you obviously do take the subway a lot correct yes how do you feel you know as a new yorker this is interesting this is interesting to me too do you feel the subway has gotten safe do you feel the subway has gotten safer because i just know it is pretty safe in my opinion for sure you know but from what it from what you've seen growing up here as a this tall yeah you know not till today give us your perspective i would say from that perspective it's definitely safer just like the city in general you know so like what it was back in the day you can't even compare it anymore uh is it still perfect no i think there's a huge like homeless issue here in new york city just like other major cities yeah and what happens is a lot of times we like push them away from everywhere else and they go to the place where nobody will see them right that's the subway correct you can ride it all day long and then if people have mental health issues that's where bad things happen.

40:50Somebody will push somebody into a subway. Very unfortunate. And then it's, you know, major headlines everywhere. So I do think that is something that does have to be addressed, but it's a very difficult situation to address, as we know. But I think overall, it's safe. You know, I think it's fair to say overall, it's a safe way. And it's an effective way to move around the city. I agree. It's inexpensive too. It's the only way I travel. I have, do you have a car? No. yeah i'm city bike and subway yeah but that's the only way i travel is subway yeah no and i i'm never fearful i mean of course i've seen some interesting things to put it lightly but i'm never worried about it i'm i used to commute from deep in brooklyn to up west side manhattan which was about an hour and 15 and i would be tired after work and i would put my headphones and i know i'm a bigger guy and you know but it's rush hour my mind i would just like sleep and i would like wake up and it was like all right 36th street i got a transfer here yeah and like i just had it in me and it was like wouldn't even think twice about it obviously there'd be things going on sometimes you'd pull your headphones out yeah exactly you're on edge trying to that's funny your mind well i mean i was just gonna say you're a bigger guy than me yeah and i still feel pretty yeah pretty safe i mean i don't think and i was in a subway crash i don't know if you know this in harlem a few years in 2017 it was a derailment it's pretty furious you know um but it was it was human error some some mta workers left loose rails on the tracks oh okay because i remember there was something where like a rail wasn't sweet well we hit it and it looked like it was a big explosion because we're going full speed in the morning rush hour and it looked like an explosion because when we hit the rails it created this huge ball of sparks wow we're thinking it's a big explosion it was insane oh that's wild nothing i've ever experienced yeah yeah we crashed and it was just insane wow so what's funny about what i learned from that too is there's a person inside of me um that i never knew i had in in me that was like you got to get off this train you're i was a fighter i mean i was so uh laser focused to get off this train and clear-headed i couldn't believe the person i was and it's weird we jumped off the train because we thought i was on fire it was insane yeah yeah yeah but it was just crazy i talked about this and i was on the news talking about it but the person that i didn't know that was in me was like completely laser focused wow and i was like let's do this do this point a to point b to point c meaning the other me and these other guys were trying to get the back door open and people coming together yeah it was crazy yeah that's one thing about new york i feel like we were that's exactly what we were doing we may not want to talk to each other every day but if something goes down i feel like people immediately come together yeah i tried to get a hold of these three guys that we worked you know very effectively together we ended up kicking the door the window and we got out everybody else was jumping out but I tried to get to talk to them because I couldn't believe I was in this experience too I'm like did that really just happen that we crashed but I couldn't get a hold of anybody but the thing is a couple weeks later I was a little nervous to ride the train a little bit of PTSD I guess but I'm like this is New York I gotta jump actually somebody said to me you're a New Yorker you gotta just jump back on the horse I'm like you know what you're right I needed to hear that And so after a few weeks, I got back on it.

44:09And within a few weeks after that, I was passed out on the train again, coming home. You know what I mean? Yeah, you know. I was like, here, I'm back to normal. That is the New York way. You know, I remember after 9-11 happened, I was young, like 14 years old. I want to talk about this. Yeah, yeah. And I remember, you know, all that going down. And then they used to do this thing on the news where it was like, what is the terror alert, right, for the week or day? and it was like color coded right and it's like uh today it's like green but tomorrow like then it's like orange and it's like and i'm like you know i'm a young dude like 16 years old i'm going to work on the train it's like what like there was always the thought it would be like a subway bomb or something like that and it's like you're on edge but you're like what am i gonna do i gotta you know gotta go you know what i didn't think about talking about this today i really want to get into this yeah yeah so that's fascinating so here you are what 14 14 yeah because uh 2001 uh i was born in 85 is my math yeah on that yeah right i gotta get my phone in i think 16 sorry no you're yeah 16 close enough so 16 i want to start from that day tell me what happened in your life on september 11 2001 so i was in high school it was my junior year of high school I just started working that summer in Manhattan.

45:32So, you know, got used to the back and forth. But I'm back in school now. Just finished working for the summer. And I just remember, I think it was homeroom. Because it was early in the morning. It was like eight something in the morning. Yeah, yeah, it was early. And the principal got on the loudspeaker and told us what had happened. A plane had hit the World Trade Center. We're not sure what's happening. We don't know if it was a terrorist attack. That word already started getting flown around. And then teachers. This is before the second plane hit? I think this is before the second plane hit.

46:04Wow. Yeah. This is before social media. So, like. Correct. There was no way to really know except for what you heard. Yeah. And then I remembered, like, one kid in my class had a Walkman, and he was listening to, like, the radio to try to get, like, updates. So, I think they kept us all in that same class for the day. And then I remember going into lunch, right? So, they put us into the lunchroom. They bring us all down to the lunchroom. and I guess it's maybe like 10 or 11 o 'clock now. So like the towers fell, but we didn't know that. But we heard like all of the, we kept hearing like planes like flying over.

46:38So I guess like they were bringing in the big planes just in case. Like the jets. Yeah, in case something else was going down. So it's like, are we at war? Like we don't know. Were you scared? Yeah, of course. Yeah, like there was something in me that was like, what the heck is going on? Shit's going down. Yeah, shit's going down. So that was, that brings me to the next point. We're in the lunchroom. So it was me and my friends that played football at Lafayette High School. And my coach was the assistant principal. So I told my coach, I'm like, I don't know what's going down. But I was like, we don't want to like stay here.

47:08Like I don't want to stay in school. And he's like, he's like, all right. He's like, what are you going to do? I was like, I'm going to bring everyone to my house because I live two blocks away. So it was like 10 of my friends. You're being that young to think of that. Yeah. I'm like, let's just go to my house. Figure out what's going on. We'll put on the TV. And we broke out. he's like i don't know nothing so we left out the side door and we went to my house to put on the tv and then we finally saw it because we didn't see it up until then because it wasn't like tvs and everywhere and there was ash already outside like a light film of ash on some of the cars in brooklyn that south of brooklyn wow yeah yeah yeah holy crap and it was just like you already We started smelling a crazy smell.