What a day was Yesterday!!!
My Birthday is this upcoming Wednesday. Anywhere from a month to 3 days before Husband Mine is on the eternal quest for me to tell him what I want. Besides my amazon wish list, which is long and detailed.
This year about 2 weeks ago I got a notice from one of my Muppet email lists that there would be a performance of "The Music of Jim Henson" at Carnagie Hall with the New York Pops. Since it's a part of their family concert series, the tickets started at 9 dollars with a cap at 20! Dude, we can so afford that!
Alas, the notification of the concert that I recieved was late. They had announced the concert back in March. I learned of it too late for us to get the good seats, they were sold out. But we got tickets anyway, even if they were labeled "partially obstructed view."
Friday night, I decided to bop over to Woodbury Commons and their Disney Store to see if they had any Muppet shirts that would fit me. Most of my shirts not fitting right now. Alas, all they had (for either Charlie sized or me) were Animal shirts. While I have nothing against Animal, he is not Gonzo, nor is he Kermit (Charlie's favorite). So we passed on new shirts, but still had a nice evening out, and I compensated the next day by wearing some of my Muppet jewelry.
Saturday dawned and we started the getting up and go process. Something most difficult on Saturday mornings. We gave ourselves 2 hours to get to the City and routed ourselves through NJ in the hopes of getting gas that wouldn't rape our souls. It only maimed our souls.
Jeff dropped Charlie and me right in front of the Carnagie Hall entrance then drove off in search of parking. His parking fu was not with him this time and he did not find on-street parking... near Time's Square... on a Saturday... I think his fu can be forgiven this time. It was extraneous circumstances to find such an elusive beast.
Charlie and I went up to our seats in the Dress Circle. Not the tippy top of the theatre, but really high up there. It was awesome. Carnagie Hall is beautiful, red velvet, cream paint and gold gilt everywhere. Of course, the seats are tiny and I am hard pressed as to imagine how anyone wearing a bustle could have sat in those things.
The concert started with a clip from the 1965 Rowlf appearance at Carnagie Hall projected onto the back of the stage. Then the actual Rowlf popped up and made a wiseass comment to the affect of making it back to such a hallowed hall was good, but he didn't think it would have taken 47 odd years to get back again.
Then they started the music, with muppets. They had these black screens set up on stage right, left and center. Doctor Teeth played the piano and Electric Mayhem played on stage right (the side we could barely see). Fraggles appeared and the entire cast of Sesame Street came up from the back of the house to sing in front.
The host asked Alan, "How do you get to Sesame Street?"
He answered, "Practice."
Good grief, it was a running gag.
Paul Williams, the composer of well, most of the muppet's songs from Emmit Otter's Jug Band Christmas through Muppet Christmas Carol came out and sang with Fozzie, and did medleys from all the songs.
Kermit sang It's not Easy Being Green (under a green spotlight, of course) and so forth and so on. I could see them perfectly. It was literally a dream come true. I saw them live. I am so very happy.
The coolest part was that at the angle we were at we could see the muppet performers working the muppets. How their arms fit on the puppetier's sleeves, how they transformed from lifeless dolls to these characters I have known and loved my whole life. The behind the scenes magic was amazing.
I would have loved to stalk Dave Goelz after the concert, but alas, it was too crowded to do so and they had another performance in an hour. So we left Carnagie Hall and began the second part of our adventure!
We have a friend who works at Jaques Torres Chocolates and has been encouraging all friends to come visit her! Employees can give out free hot chocolate to friends and family and the branch she works at was pretty close to us!
We drove down (Jeff's fu was back and we got on street this time) and I got a picture of Charlie in front of the Chocolate Factory (Yes, I had too). We even had a driveby visit from nounsandverbs. As we were driving to the chocolate shop I realized that he had just gotten out of work! I called him and asked him to join us and he got to enjoy in the chocolate glory that was the store too.
Then we walked in and OMG, that place smells good. We got caramel and chocolate covered popcorn, hot chocolate cookies to die for and so much other chocolate. We even got to meet Jaques Torres himself! That was a nice treat.
We walked out with a lot of chocolate and their truffles were so very good. The flavorings subtle and wonderful without overpowering the true glory of the chocolate they serve. I swear to god, I dreamt of chocolate last night!
Then we headed out of the City, but our day was not over yet. On the Pallisades Jeff decided to stop at a scenic vista. The quick impromptu little side trips that Jeff loves to take me on and I love to go. Charlie got to use quarter view finders and saw the NYC skyline and boats on the river. It was short but very sweet.
We decided at this point to have dinner and got ourselves over to the Pallisades Mall for some Cheesecake factory. Charlie at a whole 10" pizza by himself. We declined cheesecake dessert in favor of the vast amounts of chocolate we'd just consumed and planned on eating more later.
We wandered the mall a bit. Well it felt like a bit but turned into a couple hours and we left the mall much later than I thought, getting home just before 9:00! I climbed my butt upstairs and crashed hard. This has been one of the best birthday presents I have gotten in quite some time... and I still have my actual birthday to look forward too.
This year about 2 weeks ago I got a notice from one of my Muppet email lists that there would be a performance of "The Music of Jim Henson" at Carnagie Hall with the New York Pops. Since it's a part of their family concert series, the tickets started at 9 dollars with a cap at 20! Dude, we can so afford that!
Alas, the notification of the concert that I recieved was late. They had announced the concert back in March. I learned of it too late for us to get the good seats, they were sold out. But we got tickets anyway, even if they were labeled "partially obstructed view."
Friday night, I decided to bop over to Woodbury Commons and their Disney Store to see if they had any Muppet shirts that would fit me. Most of my shirts not fitting right now. Alas, all they had (for either Charlie sized or me) were Animal shirts. While I have nothing against Animal, he is not Gonzo, nor is he Kermit (Charlie's favorite). So we passed on new shirts, but still had a nice evening out, and I compensated the next day by wearing some of my Muppet jewelry.
Saturday dawned and we started the getting up and go process. Something most difficult on Saturday mornings. We gave ourselves 2 hours to get to the City and routed ourselves through NJ in the hopes of getting gas that wouldn't rape our souls. It only maimed our souls.
Jeff dropped Charlie and me right in front of the Carnagie Hall entrance then drove off in search of parking. His parking fu was not with him this time and he did not find on-street parking... near Time's Square... on a Saturday... I think his fu can be forgiven this time. It was extraneous circumstances to find such an elusive beast.
Charlie and I went up to our seats in the Dress Circle. Not the tippy top of the theatre, but really high up there. It was awesome. Carnagie Hall is beautiful, red velvet, cream paint and gold gilt everywhere. Of course, the seats are tiny and I am hard pressed as to imagine how anyone wearing a bustle could have sat in those things.
The concert started with a clip from the 1965 Rowlf appearance at Carnagie Hall projected onto the back of the stage. Then the actual Rowlf popped up and made a wiseass comment to the affect of making it back to such a hallowed hall was good, but he didn't think it would have taken 47 odd years to get back again.
Then they started the music, with muppets. They had these black screens set up on stage right, left and center. Doctor Teeth played the piano and Electric Mayhem played on stage right (the side we could barely see). Fraggles appeared and the entire cast of Sesame Street came up from the back of the house to sing in front.
The host asked Alan, "How do you get to Sesame Street?"
He answered, "Practice."
Good grief, it was a running gag.
Paul Williams, the composer of well, most of the muppet's songs from Emmit Otter's Jug Band Christmas through Muppet Christmas Carol came out and sang with Fozzie, and did medleys from all the songs.
Kermit sang It's not Easy Being Green (under a green spotlight, of course) and so forth and so on. I could see them perfectly. It was literally a dream come true. I saw them live. I am so very happy.
The coolest part was that at the angle we were at we could see the muppet performers working the muppets. How their arms fit on the puppetier's sleeves, how they transformed from lifeless dolls to these characters I have known and loved my whole life. The behind the scenes magic was amazing.
I would have loved to stalk Dave Goelz after the concert, but alas, it was too crowded to do so and they had another performance in an hour. So we left Carnagie Hall and began the second part of our adventure!
We have a friend who works at Jaques Torres Chocolates and has been encouraging all friends to come visit her! Employees can give out free hot chocolate to friends and family and the branch she works at was pretty close to us!
We drove down (Jeff's fu was back and we got on street this time) and I got a picture of Charlie in front of the Chocolate Factory (Yes, I had too). We even had a driveby visit from nounsandverbs. As we were driving to the chocolate shop I realized that he had just gotten out of work! I called him and asked him to join us and he got to enjoy in the chocolate glory that was the store too.
Then we walked in and OMG, that place smells good. We got caramel and chocolate covered popcorn, hot chocolate cookies to die for and so much other chocolate. We even got to meet Jaques Torres himself! That was a nice treat.
We walked out with a lot of chocolate and their truffles were so very good. The flavorings subtle and wonderful without overpowering the true glory of the chocolate they serve. I swear to god, I dreamt of chocolate last night!
Then we headed out of the City, but our day was not over yet. On the Pallisades Jeff decided to stop at a scenic vista. The quick impromptu little side trips that Jeff loves to take me on and I love to go. Charlie got to use quarter view finders and saw the NYC skyline and boats on the river. It was short but very sweet.
We decided at this point to have dinner and got ourselves over to the Pallisades Mall for some Cheesecake factory. Charlie at a whole 10" pizza by himself. We declined cheesecake dessert in favor of the vast amounts of chocolate we'd just consumed and planned on eating more later.
We wandered the mall a bit. Well it felt like a bit but turned into a couple hours and we left the mall much later than I thought, getting home just before 9:00! I climbed my butt upstairs and crashed hard. This has been one of the best birthday presents I have gotten in quite some time... and I still have my actual birthday to look forward too.