It is More than a T-shirt!

Capital I, followed by a red heart symbol, below which are the capital letters N and Y, set in rounded slab serif typeface called American Typewriter is pride for a tenacious community.

Before 9/11, before the 80s, about the time that everyone owned a TV, the lights of The Great White Way, Broadway, they were fading. Live entertainment became the business of taping a variety show. New York City was no longer a destination.

It was more than a campaign.

It became a slogan!

It was a pro bono gig.

The genius of Milton Glaser along with Bobby Zarem volunteered their graphic design talents because they expected the campaign to last only a couple of months, waving the rights to royalties, and in hindsight the simple design is worth millions and more. The innovative pop-style icon became a major success.

1977 Deputy Commissioner Doyle, aware of the increase in crime and the welfare burden all of which reached a nadir in the city's fiscal crisis of the 1970s. New York City needed the revenue and ‘I (heart) NY,’ the logo, a rebus, became the icon, the pulse, the positive affirmation, the ID.

The simplicity is its beauty.

Everybody sing!

“If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere. Come on come through, New York, New York.”

Eye of the Beholder, Hiring a Private Guide

In the age of branding where “it takes a village,” and where few people accept change immediately, I Googled my name and found a Satan worshiper who killed his mother and stepfather. This whole time I thought Sean Sellers a pretty unique name, and it is; however, building a tour business from scratch I needed a new name.

One Token Tours came about in 2004 as New Yorkers were being weaned from the beloved, yet a little cumbersome Subway token to the new ‘Metrocard.’ People were up in arms as a part of the City’s history was being dissolved. Now fully transitioned in 2011 we find our pockets a little lighter.

Googling again I decided to type into my web browser “Why Hire A Guide” and I found several global villagers, travel writers, out there with some pretty sound advice.

- James Patterson from TravelSavvyMom.com writes:

4 reasons to hire a guide on your next family vacation

- You will see more

- You won't have to drive

- You’ll avoid unnecessary stress

- You will be entertained

I was surprised to see the number of stories from world travelers who said they would never spend the money but changed their tune because the VALUE of hiring a guide for only a couple of hours can make the biggest of differences in the overall experience.

- Mark Kahler form About.com, “They are budget travelers in search of value and an authentic, memorable experience.”

- Molly Feltner of ‘SmartTravel,’ “As I traveled more, I learned that while you don't need a guide for everything, hiring one, even if only for a few hours, can mean the difference between really understanding a place and having a visually interesting but ultimately superficial travel experience. Also, not all guided experiences involve name tags and tour buses, or a lot of money.”

Help me spread the word, One Token Tours, of the East Village, a ‘Metrocard’ carrying, DCA licensed local guide is excited to show you New York City!

Time Travel

In a movie it is a sunset or sunrise, transatlantic voyages, the passage of a locomotive, a bridge, that symbolizes change, transition, and the stirring that hope is the journey.

My work as a guide, helping people enjoy their time, is a lot like being an escort to the past and because I wasn’t born in New York a guest always asks, how I got here, as if I was beamed into their presence from the “Star Trek Enterprise.” It is even more evident when my group discovers that I don’t own a vehicle nor cable TV, I can hear hand held devices hitting the floor.

Trying to avoid becoming obsolete in my own time I do acknowledge the purpose of new technology. Graduating from high school in 1984, there is a slight Orwellian paranoia as our universe becomes less and less tangible to me; this web and its infrastructure is a network of invisible highways, avenues, and threads that offer simulation, surveillance, and transportation and you don’t have to leave your home.

I don’t understand it but I find it fascinating. Like all strange new things there is transition and this may be the ultimate in time travel, and like a merry-go-round, or a roller coaster sometimes we just hold on to whatever we can manage.

Maybe I was born at the wrong time and the pleasures I get out of living in New York City are the best of both worlds. From 1869 to 1883 witnessing the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, it was a grueling process, I understand, but the web of cable networking suspends and supports the future and today an Icon. The only buildings of that day to be nearly as tall were the spires of churches and when the bridge was completed it became the tallest structure on the entire eastern seaboard. Today, it is hard to imagine the bridge standing so dominate against a more demure city.

I can look at photos of the bridge before the city exploded around it and know that the photo is a first in hand held images captured by a machine and circulated around the world with great excitement and I can hear the clamor of pedestrians, bicyclists, and the clip clop of the horse-and-buggy as this bridge changed lives and brought a more conscious enthusiasm for adventure.

Join me, let’s “trip the light fantastic, on the sidewalks of New York.”

Hiring a Tour Guide

Simply put, “Time is Money.” Not sure this is something Mrs. Silence Dogood conjured up but Benjamin Franklin is given credit for such an astute proverb. Time and money are the two elements upon which most decisions are made.

Why hire a guide:

- The best use of your time.

- Comfortable pace and safe passage.

- Location and navigation, (don’t fuss with books or maps that may be out of date.)

- Ask your licensed professional - Now you’ve got the idea.

- This is how you make N Y C as easy as A B C & 1 2 3!

- I can help!

With our global environment shrinking to a touch screen, the mobile device although a great tool will never take the place of a quality guide. The individual, with whom the ins and outs of this bustling city, understands, entertains, informs, as well as manages your time; the essentials that makes travel an experience.

When it comes time to choose a tour guide in “the city that never sleeps,” where a “New York Minute,” is a happening rather than an increment of time, and where money may need to be borrowed from the bank of a ‘Monopoly’ board game, you have to ask yourself what do you wish to do and see because the sky is the limit, literally.