Last but not least, New York offers a tremendous selection of shopping, especially for the eclectic and selective buyers. From Music, Clothes, Books, Movies, Bric-A-Brack and souvenirs, New York has it all. Please note, some locations may be out of business at the time of this writing!

Again, we will start at St. Marks Place on 6th Avenue (aka Avenue of the Americas). I am skipping the map illustrated map this time, because you will find all these places nearby the marked locations on the food map. Gothic Renaissance is a Halloween Store all year round (104 Fourth Ave. at W. 11th St., 212-673-4546). Head southeast on St. Marks towards 5th Avenue. Before taking a few steps you'll hit Funhouse, which is a two story alternative and goth clothing shop. The bottom floor is more medieval and frilly goth clothing, but upstairs has a few more practical clothes and items that may be an interesting look around. All down St. Marks are boutiques and specialty shops of clothing, fashion and accessories. Another nice stop on the way to 3rd Ave is Little Ricky's, a combination beauty supply and costume store. Amusing trinkets, gifts, souvenirs and hair products. Once you get to 3rd Avenue, you can head left towards East 9th Street for a great book store, St. Marks books. Within spitting distance is the aforementioned Around The Clock Diner and several student dormitory buildings. Heading right/west on 2nd Ave you'll hit Love Will Save The Day (nearby Baluchi's Indian Restaraunt), a toy, comic and costume/collectable shop with all your favorite childhood toys on display. Back to East 8th St/St. Marks St. keep heading down to 1st Ave and you will encounter numerous rock shops run by immigrants hocking Metallica, Misfits, Jimmi Hendrix and Che Guevara T-shirts, bandanas, studded wristbands and belts, headshop items and rock accessories. Don't pay full price for ANYTHING. Make them an offer. You'll also find Trash & Vaudeville here, a New York institution for rock and punk fashions since the 70s. A great selection of boots, shoes, jeans, shirts and accessories upstairs and down. Maybe a bit pricey, but still worth a look! Venus Tattoo and The Sock Man on the left side of the street are also well known landmarks. Kim's Video on the right has a giant selection of music and movies, and if you are able to spend the time digging, you can find some amazing pieces for great deals! There's another music shop around here too, St. Marks music I think... Its changed since I remember it, but their used selection is huge and worth spending some time in. It has a green awning downstairs, but I believe the downstairs had closed down and now its only a one room place up a set of steep steps on the right hand side. Up and down the parallel streets, East 7th and East 9th Streets are other little boutiques, record stores and shops that come and go with years, or months. But at any given time there is likely to be something of interest. So wander around a bit.

If you take a different direction from our starting point at 6th Ave/Avenue of the Americas, you can head over to Bleeker Bobs, located at 118 West 3rd Street (http://bleeckerbobs.com/). A bit pricey, but very impressive selections of Vinyl and CDs. Better vinyl.

Also in the area, reachable if you enter Washington Square Park from the 77 foot tall Memorial Arch and cross to the other side, is Tower Records 692 Broadway (212 505-1500) A few blocks away on Thompson Street is Generation Records. 210 Thompson St, Btwn. Bleecker and 3rd Streets (212-254-1100). Their collection is primarily rock and punk, as well as goth. Upstairs is new stuff, downstairs is a good selection of used CDs and vinyl.

Another interesting shopping trip is to check out the Canal Street Markets. there's one Army Navy Surplus Store that I used to go to religiously every time i needed new boots or work clothes. I may be going back for just that purpose this year.

That concludes my walking tour of the East Village and other spots in New York, designed for the Drop Dead Festival goer. I hope that you get some use out of it, and hopefully we'll bump into each other on the street, enjoying the metropolis of New York fuckin' City.

Written by Mark Splatter, thanks to Melissa Joy and Laura McCutchan for contributions and suggestions!