St. Mark's Place between 3rd and 2nd Ave. - lots of stores, eating places and whatnot.
Recommended St. Mark's Stores St. Mark's Sounds (used CD's), St. Mark's Comics, Kim's Underground (videos, DVD's, CD's *great 99 cent bin!*, vinyl, books, all kinds of fun stuff), Trash & Vaudeville (vintage clothing) are all recommended stores to hit up on that street.
Recommended St Mark's eateries: Dojo (cheap mostly vegetarian food), St. Mark's Falafel, some Japanese/sushi places, Ray's Pizza, or even Subway. Around the corner on 2nd Ave is an excellent Mexican fast food restaurant called Burritoville. Definitely go there if you can, its one of my favorite places to eat in Manhattan.
DO NOT GO TO: Freaks. It's a dumb store that sells all kinds of "punk" items... it's lame. Go in and see for yourself if you want, but it's not worth it. It's pretty much Hot Topic on a smaller scale.

Museums - I personally recommend The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Natural History, and the Guggenheim.

Times Square - Broadway theaters, lots of shopping places, the World (WWF cafe/museum, if you're into wrestling... they actually have shows there too sometimes), the MTV studios are there too if you want to see all the kids lined outside for TRL.

Washington Square Park - located in the NYC housing area. Fun place to go and chill, especially in the summer.

Highly Recommended Record Store:
Generation Records
210 Thompson St. btwn West 4th and Bleecker Streets

Venues to check for shows and show listings:
Irving Plaza(note: Irving Plaza show tickets are cheaper if you buy them at their box office and not at Ticketmaster outlets)
CBGB (hardcore matinees most Sundays)
The Bowery Ballroom (note: You buy Bowery Ballroom tickets at the Mercury Lounge box office)
The Mercury Lounge
Knitting Factory
Tribeca
The Continental
*also check Excess dB for Continental shows... but mostly those are listings for shows in NJ so make sure you look for ones that SPECIFICALLY SAY the Continental.

You can also pick up a Village Voice newspaper pretty much anywhere in the city and get show listings. They're in the middle of the paper.

Hope that was of some help William. When are you going to NYC?

[ June 16, 2003: Message edited by: One Girl Army ]