Women, I NEED You...
Bambouche
1,484 Posts
What did you like when you were twelve?
What's generally cool and fun for a pre teen miss?
What's idyllic about NY for teen chicks?
(No, I'm not trying to hook up with a grade school chick.)
We're flying my niece out for a week. She's twelve, never been to New York, and is deep in her "whatever" phase. I was on the phone with her for an hour this weekend, chatting about the trip, and she answered every question with a half-hearted, "I don't care" or "That sounds fine." I feel for my mom. Damn, teenagers are rough.
I did manage to wrangle a few facts out of her. She is into knitting (so I got the dope yarn spots on lock), she kinda wants to see the American Girl store on Fifth Avenue (but made it clear to me that her doll collection is now "in the closet" (no R. Kelly)), she's saved $200 for the trip -- which her dad agreed to match -- so she's got 4 c-notes to blow on "whatever."
We plan on doing tourist shit: Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Coney Island, museums, pizza, etc. We're going to the beach, and we're gonna see M.I.A. and Diplo in Central Park on Sunday (her mom catches her singing along to Neva Scared, and last winter she told me, "My favorite 45 is 'Iron Man.'" Kids these days?).
I want this to be her hecka cool vacation with Uncle Bam. I'm sure once she gets here it will be easier to see what she responds to and what bores her to death, but I thought some of you may have some advice. Obviously, the first day I'll show her around my record room, get her familiar with labels, help her distinguish OGs from reissues, and then we'll hit the shops. I'll show her how to dig, and hopefully she'll be into it [color:white]-- I AM TOTALLY JOKING, THERE WON'T BE ANY CHILD LABOR DIGGING ON THIS TRIP --[/color] after seeing how her Uncle digs. Lineage, feel me? "Teach the children."
So help me, plaese. Ladies, NY natives, people with teenagers...
I want to have a back-up plan.
Picture me givin a damn...[/b]
What's generally cool and fun for a pre teen miss?
What's idyllic about NY for teen chicks?
(No, I'm not trying to hook up with a grade school chick.)
We're flying my niece out for a week. She's twelve, never been to New York, and is deep in her "whatever" phase. I was on the phone with her for an hour this weekend, chatting about the trip, and she answered every question with a half-hearted, "I don't care" or "That sounds fine." I feel for my mom. Damn, teenagers are rough.
I did manage to wrangle a few facts out of her. She is into knitting (so I got the dope yarn spots on lock), she kinda wants to see the American Girl store on Fifth Avenue (but made it clear to me that her doll collection is now "in the closet" (no R. Kelly)), she's saved $200 for the trip -- which her dad agreed to match -- so she's got 4 c-notes to blow on "whatever."
We plan on doing tourist shit: Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Coney Island, museums, pizza, etc. We're going to the beach, and we're gonna see M.I.A. and Diplo in Central Park on Sunday (her mom catches her singing along to Neva Scared, and last winter she told me, "My favorite 45 is 'Iron Man.'" Kids these days?).
I want this to be her hecka cool vacation with Uncle Bam. I'm sure once she gets here it will be easier to see what she responds to and what bores her to death, but I thought some of you may have some advice. Obviously, the first day I'll show her around my record room, get her familiar with labels, help her distinguish OGs from reissues, and then we'll hit the shops. I'll show her how to dig, and hopefully she'll be into it [color:white]-- I AM TOTALLY JOKING, THERE WON'T BE ANY CHILD LABOR DIGGING ON THIS TRIP --[/color] after seeing how her Uncle digs. Lineage, feel me? "Teach the children."
So help me, plaese. Ladies, NY natives, people with teenagers...
I want to have a back-up plan.
Picture me givin a damn...[/b]
Comments
i dont really know how "cultural" she is, but i would definately expose her to some interesting eats while shes in town, who knows what she has or hasn't tried, so maybe let her get a taste of some new foods while shes in the big NY.
good luck.
12 year olds have varied interests
mine liked 57th st & broadway,
lil italy & chinatown for the classic nyc-ness
but
the LES is what she was into the most
nice mix of old & new, kool shops, parks
not as nitty gritty as when i was 12
but the village east & south is 12 year old hip
"this is where i would live in the city"
+
"this is more real than 57th street"
are 2 quotes i remember
from that trip
i think she also had a krush on kush @ jammyland
What's up with her getting a guest spot on EVR? That'd be a big hit, dog.
Yo, Mark Ransom should be on in a few minutes, but here's "Iron Man" one more time!
I guarantee you this means she really wants to go to this store!
I think what's been listed here is solid. Get some good cultural shit in there. Natural History Museaum (if it's not under construction anymore) will be a big hit. Statue of Liberty, chinatown, the village etc. Maybe a play if it fits in the schedule. Coney island for the experience maybe. Good luck.
dont know much about kids. all i gotta say is...
Q-vo, Bam!
OHMIGOD! We were inside Cosmo Baker's house today, I mean, totally, like, IN HIS HOUSE, his wife was there and she is like totally nice and smart and knows all the words to that Amerie song, and then we went to Good Records, and Bob Bannister totally called someone a fag -- right to his face, and Jonny from Soul Purpose was there, he had a HUGE stack of money, and Jake One was buying slaps -- OHMIGOD, then we went to TSL and saw Jared, he's taller than he was in that Madlib video, it was cool, and Uncle Bam taught me how to give a pound, and everyone in New York totally calls eachother "sun."
Indeed. I hope to make her feel like she can be free of the whole "parental" thing while she's here, and get a little taste of independent adult life. Make her own decisions about what she wants to do and how she wants to spend her money (within reason, obviously).
I know a certain Ethiopian Record that would be a great investment of her savings.
"Uncle Bam, Where can I get that good NYC white sheyat?"
Holding up a record during Show and Tell on her first week back at school, she solemnly states:
His name was Amiri Baraka and he had no love for the white devil.
What about a trip to the Brooklyn Cyclone (not the team but the rollercoaster)...
or a ferry trip around the harbour or just the free-one to Staten Island...
Dress
The first, and best, thing I did when my niece (16) visited was plug her ipod into the computer speakers. We all talked about how great her music was, she picked tracks for us to listen to. It kept her from isolating herself, and let us engage her about things she really likes.
The next good music thing I did was give her a stack of 45s and set her in front of the portable. Of course she knew nothing about picking up a tone arm and putting it on a record, but she learned, it ain't rocket science.
THe other good thing was talking about movies, then going to the rental and she picked some she wanted us to see, and we picked some we wanted her to see. Might work better with a 16yo than 12. She picked Napolian Dynamite and Mean Girls, we picked High Fidelity (the story of my life) and Muriels Wedding (she likes Abba).
The biggest mistake we made was thinking she would like things we like.
American Girl has a great line of books. They have lots of activities books that are fun, plus they have great historical fictions. You wouldn't thing a doll company would publish good books, but they do.
My friends are in NYC now with their kids. The one thing I have heard that was a hit was FAO Schwartz.