The 24 Hour Hardware Shop

Last night after submitting the blog I still had about 10 minutes left of time before forcing myself to go to sleep. In that time I checked through both my audio equipment and camera and discovered something quite troubling.

On most cameras there’s a little hole at the bottom  to get it screwed onto a Tripod or some stable holding device. For today’s shoot I borrowed a camera from a friend’s dad, and at first glance it looked perfect.

But once I discovered this troubling component, I realize I may just be out of luck.

The event today was an interview of Mike and Kass Lazerow — founder of Golf.Com (acq. $15M), Buddy Media (acq. $750M), lover of rock music, and as of today author of this book — Gary Vee wrote the forward).

For this event I wanted to have a single camera recording the panel (A7iii) as well as me operating a side camera (DJI) to capture additional angles.

That single camera was meant to be mounted on the tripod, but there was a one HUGE problem: the strap was screwed onto the bottom of the camera.

Why is this a problem? I had no screwdriver or access to tools, and the shoot start time was 8:00 in the morning. IT’s 11:00pm at night when this happened.

I essentially gave up on the matter and told myself I’d use the A7iii as handheld while the DJI for the panel. Not the worst setup, but far from ideal.

However, I had 1 last inkling of hope.

It’s New York City, there are a lot of places to get screwdrivers just about anything.

I was unsure whether a flat screwdriver or an Allen Wrench was needed but I was sure that the one solution to my problem would 100% lie in a hardware store.

That brings me to the good now 2.5 year old reliable friend: ChatGPT. I first ask if there were any hardware stores near me open now. Straight denied. No surprises I’m in Williamsburg at 11pm on a Monday. Second I ask for hardware stores open before 8am around Union Square. I was pointed towards 1 that said open 24 hours but was called a “locksmith.” I called for due diligence purposes and the answering machine responded “24 hour locksmith…and our store hours are 10am-9pm.”

RIP

Alright now what?

I look up on the internet 24 Hour Hardware Store. Low and Behold, back in the old stomping ground of pre @extravirginguy Wall Street Jack, in the wonderful neighborhood of Murray Hill Manhattan lied the One y 24 hour hardware shop remotely close to  Union Square. Great — now all I have to do is wake up early, take 22 minute subway / bus route to get there.

And I do just that, I wake up to a 6:20 alarm, get out of the hotel by 6:45 and walk over to the L train.

I kid you not I’ve taken the L train 50-60 times in the past 2 months. The longest I’ve ever had to wait for at train was 12 minutes on a Saturday night. During the week, MAX 4 minutes. There is always a train running. For some reason it gets a lot of hate but in reality I love the L — especially the guy playing electric guitar outside the Union Square Stop weeknights ~9pm.

When I walked over towards the L staircase, I was shocked at what I saw:

8 Av

19 minutes.

What? Of course today out of all days the Manhattan-Bound L Train decides to have the biggest delay I’ve ever seen.

I angrily open up my Lyft App to see a $30 car 3 minutes away and yes I was picked up and got to the hardware store by 7:18. Plenty of time to spare.

One acute observation I made outside the hardware store was another reason that I hate Murray Hill. I sometimes say I forget why I hate it I just do, but this one subtle reason bothers me a lot: Air Quality. 0/10. It ALWAYS smells like Gas. It’s also loud, filled with crack addicts on “Crack Corner” of 28th / 2nd, homeless people sitting on chess tables in the park, and idk it’s just gross to me. I get the appeal for some — just not for me.

I finally make my way into the Hardware store which was surprisingly clean and well-lit. I get to the register and ask the guy to help me with the camera. For some small reason I thought there’s a chance he wouldn’t be able to fix the problem, yet I remained optimistic.

He opened the draw to get an Allen wrench that didn’t quite fit. Fortunately, there was a 10-pack of Allan Wrenches that he started ringing up. I asked him the price, and for the 26 seconds it took for him to find the price I caught in the rocker of my eye a flat screwdriver on display.

I pick it up just as an experiment and BOOM the camera strap screwed right off, easy as pie.

I now am left with a Dilemma. Poor man is working his tail off a 7:23am on a Tuesday morning to sell me a 9.99 Allen wrench and I completely bypass the system without having to pay a dime.

Now I’ll leave the judgement in your hands. Which option would you have chosen:

• Should I have paid him for the flat screwdriver?

• Leave with a little bit of guilt

• Leave with no guilt

I made the job in time and had a wonderful morning and early afternoon shooting video

-Jack

I wrote this at 2:30pm today. No timer needed!