SDE in the USA 2024 – Day One

I’m back in the USA for the first time since 2018 to see Duran Duran play Madison Square Garden and Tears For Fears play in Vegas!

As usual, with any trip to New York from the UK, it pays to get an early flight since the time difference gives you back most of the day if you get going promptly.

8.55 via Virgin Atlantic from Heathrow didn’t sound particularly early when I booked it, but of course by the time you’ve got there two hours before the flight and then built in travel time to Heathrow it is an early start –  5pm to be precise! Ugh.

Heathrow was heaving, but thankfully everything was on schedule and we were on our way (Mrs Sinclair is accompanying me on this trip!). I always choose to fly Virgin for long haul to America. I did it way back in 1989 for my first trip to the USA and continue to do so today. They’re good. Decent selection of films and audio on the in-flight entertainment, including a some of classic albums, such as The Who’s Who’s Next (not in Dolby Atmos!) My only complaint – and this isn’t confined to Virgin – is why airlines still give you those crappy 1984-style Sony Walkman headphones to plug in, when most people are likely to have much better headphones or AirPods, or whatever, that could connect with bluetooth. Less wires, less hassle and better sound quality. I guess bluetooth might interfere with the plane’s electronic systems.

I say ‘only’ complaint. The onboard Wi-Fi, which I made the mistake of paying £20.99 for the whole flight was a total joke. For over 6 hours it offered the tantalising prospect of doing something as labour intensive as opening an email without actually delivering. Despite staff rebooting ’the system’ a few times it never improved. I understand that in flight wi-fi is, by its very nature, going to be a bit unreliable but they really do overpromise and underdeliver when it comes to getting online.

We landed at JFK around noon local time which was pleasingly well ahead of schedule and there were no queues for passport control (I’ve had some terrible waits there in the past). So far so good! 

It’s always a bit of a trek from JFK to Manhattan via classic yellow New York taxi – plan for at least 45 mins – but the system is efficient and well staffed outside the airport, and they have a ‘flat fee’ fair system, so there is no stressing about being ripped off. It’s gone up a bit, mind! Last time I was here (2017, I think) It was around $50 but is now approximately $85. Despite sitting in many cabs from JFK to NYC over the years I can never make head nor tail of ‘the route’. It’s a spaghetti junction of interstates, intersections, bridges, tunnels. I noted loads of construction going on, especially in the early phase of the journey near Flushing Meadows (where the US Open Tennis tournament is held in September).

We’re staying right in the heart of the city, near Times Square, which is only because we’re only here for two days and it’s near everything. Hotel/area of choice for me is normally Washington Square Park Hotel in ‘the village’. Much more chilled out and bohemian and I like the rock ’n’ roll history! Maybe next time!

After checking into our hotel, it was time to go an do some exploring. It’s unseasonable hot in New York right now, which I wasn’t expecting for late October. In fact, for Halloween itself they are talking about 79 degrees, which is crazy. So much for lugging my heavy leather jacket with fur-lined collar across the Atlantic, that’s staying in the suitcase. It really is shorts and T-shirt weather! 

After a half-hour decompress, went for a wander and came across the first record shop of the trip! I say record shop, it’s actually a place called Book Off which specialises in second hand games, manga books, DVDs and blu-rays but also happens to have quite an extensive CD section in the basement and a very good selection of Japanese vinyl (which are all $29, which I thought was a reasonable price). The CD section is massive but there’s not too much in the way of rarities, just loads of 80s and 90s CD albums. It’s takes some looking through and arguably they are a bit overpriced at $5-7 for a disc, but there is a discount CD section as well where you can find discs for $1.50 a pop. I spotted certain titles that I’d seen in the ‘main’ section also in the cheap section so it’s worth having a good look. There’s also a CD box set section which wasn’t bad and I immediately saw something that I knew I wanted. It was the US version of Elton John’s To Be Continued box set from the early 1990s, which not only has a totally different design to the UK/European box but it’s large format too. The track listing is identical but it’s a really good box and looking at the discs, you could tell they’ve never been played. It had that ‘as new’ vibe, despite being over 30 years old. Best of all it was well priced, I thought, at $39. Bought! 

I also picked up the US CD single of Madonna’s ‘I’ll Remember’ ($9), which I’d actually never seen before. From memory I thought it had some remixes not on the UK equivalent, but I’ll have to check. Not everything was cheap; in the Depeche Mode section there was a few CD singles which looked like they’d be pulled from those box sets and they wanted $48 a pop. That’s well over the top.

So far as vinyl went, I saw the Japanese-only Duran Duran compilation Tiger! Tiger! (With OBI) which I don’t own, and it seemed an appropriate enough purchase, given that I’m going to see the band at Madison Square Garden tomorrow. I also couldn’t resist a Japanese pressing of my favourite ABBA album, The Visitors.

After further wandering we next came upon a Barnes and Noble, the mammoth US bookseller that is somehow still going (think Borders if you are in the UK). They do exclusive vinyl editions and so always worth popping in. They had a copy of Tears For Fears’ new album Songs For A Nervous Planet on exclusive blue vinyl, although only the one, so no extra copies for friends in the UK – sorry! They had a ton of ‘old’ exclusives, some looking a bit tatty and in a $10 sale, so you have to wonder, to a degree, how in demand these rarities are.

Retail giant Target was going to be the best bet for vinyl and CD exclusives and the plan was to make sure I get to one during our 48 hour stop in NY. I know they’ve definitely got exclusives of the new Tears For Fears.

We carried on walking up fifth avenue and came across Trump Tower, which was a reminder that it’s the US election in a couple of days. Network TV channels and the billboards in Times Square are full of campaigning ads. In fact, David Gilmour is playing Madison Square Garden on the day of the election and then again on the days after. That’s going to be a bit weird.

I’ve been an Android user for quite a few years phone-wise, having previously owned iPhones. My teenage daughter pointed out that it was “stupid” me being so plugged into the Apple eco system (with MacBook Pros, iMacs, Apple TV, Apple Music and being a Final Cut Pro user) and not having an iPhone. Point well made, so the end destination was Apple’s spectacular ‘glass box’ store at the top end of fifth avenue where I would go over the the dark side and get a new iPhone. Job done. Some NY retail therapy never hurt anyone.

By now it was about 7pm local time, so 11pm or ‘bedtime’ in the UK. We’d been up for 18 hours. However it’s a rookie error to go to bed too early in New York on the day of arrival, however tired you may feel. You have to stay up and see out the day, to try and get your body clock settled.

After a day of snacking and airline food, it was nice to sit down to a proper meal (me: steak, Mrs S: salmon) and the balmy weather allowed us to have a late drink on a rooftop bar. 

We are very pleased to be here and looking forward to the ‘main event’ tomorrow, since I’m a Madison Square Garden ‘virgin’ (how nice to have a big arena right in the centre of the city). However, there’s that Target to find and I’m planning to go to Academy Records on 18th street and pop by Record Runner in the village and say hello to proprietor John Pita. I’ve also got a catch up with a friend who works for Sony in NY first thing and we’re meeting another friend for pre-Duran Duran drinks. Day 2 of the USA trip is coming soon!!