Introduction: Post 9/11, New York, as a city and as the cultural and artistic center of the nation, was in a collective funk. It seemed rather tasteless to talk about art or films or entertainment when our way of life was in danger. But, life goes on, and as the days and months went by, people were searching for a way to get past the WTC attacks and get back on track.

Into this breach stepped Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, who founded the Tribeca Film Festival (henceforth referred to in this guide as TFF) in late 2001 (the first event was held in 2002) as a means of reinvigorating lower Manhattan’s culture using the power of the silver screen to draw a large audience and to promote New York to filmmakers as a resurgent filmmaking center. Considering the 2 million+ attendees who have attended the annual film fest since its inception and the over $425 million that TFF has generated in revenue for New York, it’s quite safe to say that it was, and remains, a resounding success. The film screenings are held at the Tribeca Cinemas, run by Tribeca Enterprises, a multi-platform media company run by the same founders, who also run the Tribeca Film Center and The Tribeca Film Institute, in addition to organizing the Film Festival.

Tribeca Film Festival 2008 Event Guide: Scheduled to be held from April 23rd to the 4th May, TFF this year will feature a drive-in outdoor screening, a sports festival and a family festival street fair (3rd May, from 10 am to 6 pm, Greenwich Street from Hubert to Duane Street), and panel discussions about the business of entertainment which includes the usual ‘Tribeca Talks’, ‘Behind the Scenes’ which features Q & A’s with eminent personalities such as Sissy Spacek, Amy Tan, and Melvin Van Peeble, and moderated discussions lasting an hour each with leading writers, actors and directors at the Apple Store, SoHo. In addition, there will also be an art exhibition showcasing local artists and music shows, also supporting local talent. More information here.

There will be some gala premieres and special screenings which include ‘Baby Mama’, ‘Redbelt’, ’Speed Racer’, ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ and ‘Empire II’.

TFF 08 Film Guide: There are over 200 films to choose from, not to mention the myriad activities and events outlined above. Naturally, it would be a bit of a stretch to be able to comprehensively cover everything, including all the great films being screened. Best way to do it is to browse the TFF website (www.tribecafilmfestival.org) and note down all the events and films you’re interested in (use their film guide), with date and time and venue.

Tickets: Once you have it all planned out, and you know exactly what films you want to see at which show and what events you want to attend at what time, you can go on a ticket buying spree, since the website allows you to add tickets to your shopping cart and pay for it all at the end, when you checkout. Well, that’s how they get you to spend all that money, so…It’s pretty smart on their part. But what the heck, Tribeca just comes along once a year, so have fun and splurge. Remember, it’s for New York.

Another option is get one of their passes. In addition to the all-access Hudson Pass ($1,100) and the pre-ticket selection Harrison($200) and Franklin($450) Packages, this year, TFF will also offer six new package options which offer discounts on ticket prices and allow you to indulge in films which fall under your preferred category, or theme.

American Express has created exclusive packages for cardholders which includes three unique screening packages, along with Q&A sessions with the filmmakers and catered food and beverage service. More information and details here.

Main Box Office: 15 Laight Street (between Varick St. and Ave of the Americas, one block below Canal St.) 11:00am - 7:00pm, 7 days a week; AMC 19^th Street East: 890 Broadway (between East 19^th St. and East 20^th St.) 3:00pm - 8:00pm, 7 days a week; Tel: (646) 502-5296, (866) 941-FEST (3378)

Tribeca Film Festival for Visitors: If you’re new, you’re gonna need directions, transportation, a restaurant guide and list of decent hotels in Tribeca, near the venues.  so, for starters, here’s the Tribeca Film Festival 2008 interactive map, which includesa list of venues, subway information and listings of NYC hotels sorted according to distance from each venue, all of which should help you get your bearings. Well known restaurants near the Tribeca Film Festival include Robert DeNiro’s own restaurant Tribeca Grill, Nobu Tribeca, Katz’s Deli and Lombardi’s.

A word of advice - print out this page and whatever else you think is important. You don’t want to get lost because you need to be at screenings around 30 minutes in advance if you don’t want to waste your ticket money. Another last word of advice. Keep an unbrella and/or raincoat handy, cause the weather this time of the year is very iffy and while it’ll be warm and pleasant, you could end up drenched if you’re not prepared. Wear comfortable walking shoes which will allow you to wander around between screenings and keep your cellphone camera handy to take pictures and videos of the film stars and celebrities you’re likely to bump into.

Tribeca Film Festival: 375 Greenwich Street New York NY 10013; (212) 941-2400; festival@tribecafilmfestival.org

Geek visiting New York? Here’s the schtick. You  get off the plane,  pay $60 for a Downtown cab ride which you suspect is excessive (you’re right), checkin and then walk out of the hotel, don’t want to take a cab again and you have no idea how the subway works, so you walk around, get lost after a couple of blocks, ask  for directions, get a blank stare and a head-to-toe ‘onceover’ which basically means ”Where do all these people come from?”

Right. Welcome to New York, and you’re all alone in a city with over 8 million people. Pathetic day so far, and perfectly normal for a geek. But today happens to be your lucky day, because I’m about to give you a free guided geek tour of New York City. Before we start hitting the streets, you should know that its best to know where you are, relative to wi-fi enabled spots, like Central Park and the nearest Starbucks. So you can map out a route which tracks both your intended destinations and all the wi-fi spots along the way.

Robot Village: Doesn’t get geekier than this. Anything and everything you’d need if you’re interested in robots. That’s Robot Village in the Upper West Side, where they have ‘bot building stations’ where you can build your own robot. You can buy a robot, you can buy books on robots, you can buy spare parts & accessories for robots, and you can attend or organize robot building parties, events and workshops. Let’s just say that if it needs electricity and moves, you can find it at Robot Village. Photo Credit - Ruth Fremson/The New York Times.

Info: 252 West 81st Street, New York, NY 10024; (212) 799-7626; info@robotvillage.com; Directions:- Subway: Take the #1 subway to 79th street. Walk 2 blocks North on Broadway to 81st Street.  Make left on 81st (between Broadway & West End Ave.); Bus: Take the M79 cross-town bus to Broadway (you’ll be on on 79th Street). Walk 2 blocks North on Broadway to 81st Street.  Make left on 81st  (between Broadway & West End Ave.)

Metronaps: Call it the perfect touristy option for geeks in NYC, but Metronaps provides you with an excuse to participate in regular ‘touristy’ options. It might otherwise be yucky for a geek to be caught snapping pics of the Empire State Building or wondering if you can say ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ aloud (don’t). The ergonomic pods at Metronaps provide you with 20 minutes of futuristic sleep in a dark room enhanced by the vibrations, the powerful but gentle hum of Bose speakers and a lemon scented washcloth that will totally knock you out just as the 20 minutes are up and you’re yanked out of your alternate reality. When you get out of the seat, and look around you, you’ll feel like one of Godzilla’s eggs hatching out of your shell in Madison Square Garden. BTW, it costs you $14. Worth it, I’d say, if only because you can say that you fell asleep on the 24th floor of the Empire State Building.

Info: Empire State Building Suite 2210, 350 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10118; (212) 239-3344  

Hayden Planetorium, Rose Center for Earth and Space: Walk through 13 billion years of cosmic evolution, watch the birth of the universe with a re-creation of the Big Bang, massive cosmic collisions and virtual reality space simulations with a customized Zeiss Mark IX star projector which can project over 9100 stars, along with a tour of the surface of any object in the solar system, on to the dome. For space junkies, there isn’t a better place to fulfill and indulge your fantasies. The Planetorium is located in the American Museum of Natural History. Info: American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024; (212) 769-5100; FAQ 

And then there’s New York’s ‘blogger bars’. It’s not like they hold any blogger get-togethers or some thing. Just that some bars and restaurants just sort of started getting famous as hang-outs where bloggers hang around, so to speak. So if you want to talk to a few NYC bloggers, and make friends with some of them, then you have to hit these bars.

The Magician - 118 Rivington St New York NY 10002; (212) 673-7881

Max Fish - 178 Ludlow St New York, NY 10002; (212) 253-1922

Loreley - 7  Rivington St New York, NY 10002; (212) 253-7077

Von - 3 Bleecker St New York, NY 10012; (212) 473-3039

Tom & Jerry’s (288 Bar) - 288 Elizabeth St New York, NY 10012; (212) 260-5045

There’s lots more, but tell you what. If you hang out with some of the people you find in these places, you won’t be needing this guide any time soon.

Up until recently, people used to prepare wills and set their affairs in order before they kicked the bucket. But, thanks to Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, not to mention the tanking economy, NYC residents no longer need to worry about wills and inheritances. There’s nothing left to leave behind anyway. So might as well get ready a Bucket List of places to visit before you go calling on the Pearly gates. A bit morbid, I agree. Like, Totally. But if you were given one week to live and wanted to visit the top 5 places in New York for a last look-see, what would they be? Any and all suggestions are welcome in the comments. Here’s my NYC Bucket List.

1. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York: There are slightly less than three quarters of a million bars of gold worth well above $100 billion in a vault five floors and 80 feet below the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, located at 33 Liberty Street, Manhattan. The 10 foot passageway to the vault is cut through a 90 ton steel cylinder. Photo credit: Heather Cross, About.com Guide for New York City Tavel (gonyc.about.com)

The NY Fed provides free guided tours (course they’re not gonna let you wander around in there by yourself) of the gold vault, trading desk and a multimedia trading exhibit during weekdays. These tours last about an hour and you actually get to see the gold and the tour guide will explain the security measures, the role of the Federal Reserve, the history of the bank and the gold.

If you’ve seen Die Hard III or Mackenna’s Gold, then you know what the NY Fed’s gold vault is doing on this Bucket List. What I’d like to do is just touch one of those bars. Not pocket it. Just rub it and see how it feels and how heavy it is and how it smells. Tell you the truth, I’ve never touched a gold bar before. And I wanna do it and that’s why it’s on the Bucket List.
Info: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Public Information Division, 33 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10045; (212) 720-6130; e-mail: frbnytours@ny.frb.org.

2. Ground Zero: If you thought rubbing a bar of gold was kinky, this one is downright loony. I want to sing a song standing on Ground Zero with a bullhorn. What? It’s a frigging Bucket List. I can write, and do, whatever I want to. Haven’t decided on a song yet, but I welcome your suggestions. I’m gonna do it too. I don’t think I need to explain what Ground Zero is, or where it is, but if you want to learn more , and get current updates about the WTC Memorial, you can visit http://groundzero.nyc.ny.us BTW, do those blue Ground Zero lights reaching for the skies remind of the Bat Signal that Gotham’s Commissioner Gordon used to summon Batman? It sounds more than a bit poignant that those lights are still vainly searching for Batman.

3. Charging Bull on Wall Street: I want to ride the Charging Bull in Bowling Green park near Wall Street. You walk by it everyday, but did you ever think of climbing on to its back and think of the stir that would create? Heck, you could get yourself a front page New York times photo spread, if you managed to get on the bull, held on to its horns and refused to get off. Just think about it. Wouldn’t that be on your Bucket List? Note to Wall Street bankers and investment managers - Rub the bull once a day. Some of that aggression and optimism may rub off on you. I’m telling you, it works. Really.

I’ll continue this Bucket List, if and when I want to, or get around to it. I’m thinking I’ll add the naked cowboy on Times Square to the list. Meantime, have fun. What? You think I’m nuts? So who gives a shit? This is New York.

If you’re planning a religious trip to New York, no time like the present. I believe that faith is a personal matter, something that’s between you and your Maker, so I don’t like to throw religion in anyone’s face. But I’ll make an exception here, because Pope Benedict XVI is visiting New York and Washington between April 15-20. His NYC plans include a speech at the United Nations, a visit to Ground Zero and mass at Yankee Stadium. He’s also scheduled to visit Manhattan’s Jewish Park East Synagogue on April 18th. Also on his list is a stopover at St. Joseph’s Church, a German-speaking Church  on East 87th Street at First Avenue.

I thought this is as good an oppurtunity as any to focus the spotlight on the rich history and heritage of the Catholic Church in NYC. The Big Apple will be decked up and primed for the Papal visit, and in addition to following the Pope’s itenerary, you might want to visit some of the major attractions listed below for a Catholic tour of New York City.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral: The biggest attraction, with over 5 million annual visitors, is St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This imposing and magnificient structure on Fifth Ave between 50th & 51st, is the HQ of the New York Archdiocese, headed by Bishop Edward Michael Cardinal Egan.  Photo credit - Cambridge 2000 Gallery

Take a gander at the Gothic architecture, the stained glass windows, the marble sculptures, the  magnificient altar, the Kilgen organ and most of all, the very immensity of the Cathedral and the aura of peace and serenity which fills the air in and around the Cathedral, and that too in a city like New York where being a hard-nosed cynic is a prequisite to survival, and you can understand the attraction that St. Patrick’s provokes, in both New York residents and visitors.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine: Located at 701 Fort Washington Avenue, in the Washington Heights neighbourhood, this shrine holds the remains of the first American to be beatified, Francesa Cabrini, or as she is better known, Mother Cabrini, in a crystal coffin. The shrine’s gift shop contains an exhibition of her belongings and her death certificate.

Mother Cabrini was an Italian immigrant who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and upon coming to New York, she established hospitals, orphanages, nurseries and schools. Its a well established tradition for immigrants applying for Green Cards to visit the Cabrini Shrine and ask for her help. Today’s visitor to New York might just ask her for help with safe cab rides and a hassle free departure from the airports without Airport Security flagging you onto a no-fly list.

Other notable points of interest on a Catholic religious tour of NYC might include Fort Tryon Park where the Cloisters contain famed art works, paintings and manuscripts; St. Malachy’s Church at 239 W. 49th Street known for being frequented by the artistes and theatre crews on Broadway and The Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue near 84th Street, where Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ funeral was held.

No, that’s not a typo. The film, starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, is named ‘When Harry Met Sally’, but did you know the places and spots in New York, featured in the movie? Well, follow me along on a Where Harry Met Sally tour of New York.

Katz’s Deli: First up is th Deli where they’re having this discussion about women faking orgasms and men not realising it (youtube video), and Sally gives a vocal display of how its done. This famous scene was shot at Katz’s Deli, one of New York’s oldest and most famous delicatessen’s, and the gold standard for Jewish Deli’s. You can even sit at the same table, which has a taped sign which says “You are sitting at the table where Harry met Sally.” 

Katz’s pastrami sandwiches are the stuff of legends, and the frankfurters, knockwurst, knishes and other Jewish deli dishes are equally enticing. But more than the food, it’s about the New York experience. Eating at Katz is more of a ritual, than just about kosher food. Its a meeting place, a place where you can hang out, and be a regular and josh with the counterguys. Info: 205 E. Houston St., New York, NY 10002 at Ludlow St.; (212) 254-2246

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The pecan pie scene, where Harry asks Sally discuss dating, was filmed in the Egyptian Exhibition section at the Met, in the temple of Dendur, to be specific. There’s a lot you can do at the Met, other than gawking at the artifacts and exhibitions. The Met organizes events and programs, and there’s some fine cafes and restaurants, including the fifth floor Roof Garden Cafe which gives you an excellent view of Manhattan.  Info: 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street NYC New York 10028; (212) 535-7710

There’s a lot more of Manhattan in the film, including a stroll through Central Park in the autumn, when they talk about their sex dreams. There’s also glimpses of the Rockefeller Center Christmas display and the decorated windows of Saks Fith Ave.

Minor points of interest include The Plant Shed, on West 98th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave, where Harry and Sally buy Christmas trees, and then there’s a scene in a bookshop where they meet with one of Sally’s friends in tow, which makes for an interesting turn, as…Well, anyway, point is the bookshop featured in the movie is a branch of Shakespeare & Co., located at 79th and Broadway.

This is all I can remember offhand, but if you know of any more interesting NYC spots where Harry met Sally, do tell.