I LOVE NEW YORK!
This past weekend was nothing shot of amazing. New York is such an amazing city!
• Friday I left work at 2 and got to Yonkers at 6:50. jeffkimball drove us to Veselka for dinner. We met Vivian there. This place actually makes Borscht taste yummy! We also tried 7 different kinds of pirogues. The best was the goat cheese and arugula one!
• We went to Max Brenner’s for coffee. I bought horvendile a syringe full of warm choclate. Apparently he has been to M.B.’s 6 months ago, and meant to get the syringe the next time we was there. I had forgotten this tidbit, but I knew that Gordon would appreciate the gift, and he did.
• We walked to Joe’s Pub, met carriebananas in line, and soon went in for the concert. We got the front row tables, which was awesome! The concert was great. I think I sat there will a silly grin on my face the entire time. Gordon, Carrie and I stayed for the second show, and sessa joined us. Between shows I delivered a Jamenson on the rocks to Aoife, as I remembered her drinking whiskey in Ireland. The second show wasn’t as good as the first, but the highlight was seeing Rushad ride his cello like a pony during the a capella version of “Shady Grove”.
• Post show we went backstage to say goodbye and have them sign the set list. As we were standing there, Rushad ran out of the dressing room BUCK NAKED! He streaked down the hallway, realized he didn’t have anywhere else to go, and then sauntered back to the dressing room. It was hilarious, and at the same time not many people really reacted to it. That kind of stuff is normal for Rushad.
• I said goodbye to each member. Corey asked me what other shows I would be at, and when I only said Northampton he said I should come out for the Somerville show next weekend. Unfortunately I’m going on a wine tour, but I promised to bring him back some wine, and he said that was ok. Rushad gave me a big hug (in his underwear) when I told him I made a special trip to see this show since it was one of his last (he’s leaving the band after the Noho show). Everyone said they were looking forward to seeing me in Northampton. These people are just so nice!
• After the show I went to Queens to stay overnight with Gordon.
• Saturday morning I got up at 7:15 so I could meet Sessa in the city at 10:00. Gordon drove me to the LIRR, and I got an Everything bagel with lox for breakfast. :-) I met Sessa at Penn Station, and then we headed to the MoMA
• Sessa is a MoMA member, which was awesome for me…it meant we didn’t need to stand in a 2 hour line, and I got in for $5. The MoMA was so much more awesome than I was expecting. For some reason I only associate it with modern furnishing and culture, and didn’t even realize what amazing works of art are housed there. Von Gogh’s Starry Night seemed to appear out of nowhere as I was walking through the galleries. I mean, that’s probably the second most famous painting in the world, and it’s just hanging on the wall next to all the other paintings. There’s not even a humongous crowd in front of it, and you can take pictures. It was quite different from when I saw the Mona Lisa. There was also some of my favorite Picasso’s, beautiful Monet’s, Gauguin’s, Seurat’s, Warhol’s, Lichtenstein’s, Calder’s, Pollack’s and many, many others. Then we got to the design collection, and I was literally drooling over it. So MUCH famous furniture!! I just kept telling Sessa how much I owe him for bringing me, but I could tell he got a kick out of showing me around.
• Here are My photos from the MoMA
• After this I went to Union Station. I bought the perfume from Lush that I’ve been coveting since Ireland. I tried to find boots, but didn’t. I then went back to the Ukrainian neighborhood. I bought over $90 worth of egg dying supplies and a book on Pysanky. The woman helping me was sweet, and I can mail order from their shop if I need to.
• By this point I am tired and sore. I had been up for 19.5 hours on Friday, knew I would be up for 18 hours that day, and had been walking around all day. I had told myself that I would look for an opportunity for a back/shoulder massage in the city. In that neighborhood I found a Chinese place that advertised acupuncture and foot and back massage in 15 minutes intervals. The sign was written in Chinese though, so I wasn’t sure what kind of massage I was getting. I expected to sit in a massage chair, but they brought me to a small room with a table. Ok, so I’m sure most of you are either thinking I’m stupid or adventurous at this point!! Anyway, the massage was actually pretty nice. It was different than most ones I’ve had in that she used more smooth movements, but towards the end she did start attacking some knots, which was nice. She talked me into staying an extra 5 minutes so she could finish a few more. The kind of humorous thing was I really didn’t know what to expect, and at one point I thought she was about to get on the table and walk on my back! That didn’t happen, but it would have been quite a surprise!
• After this I high tailed it toward Lincoln Center, missing my transfer Metro stop on the way there. I didn’t get there too late though, and Gordon was waiting for me. As we arrived the final act of La Traviata was starting. I called my high school friend John Rooney, who is an electrician on the stage crew. He brought us backstage, through the area under the stage, and then up to “G1”, which is the lowest of 6 levels overlooking the backstage. He told us a lot about what we were seeing, and then ran off to do his job. The next hour was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen! We watched the opera end (someone died), and as the actors went in front of the curtain for their curtain call, the backstage burst into a flurry of activity! About 100 people help break down the show to set up for the evening show (Macbeth). The entire set, all the curtains above the stage, and the lighting setup is changed twice a day (matinee and evening show on Saturday, rehearsal and evening show during the week). The set for La Traviata is on an elevator on the main stage. The set consisted of a 2 story house, and the elevator would raise or lower the house depending on the scene! There was also a smaller set behind this main one, but it was hard to tell how that was used. We also watched at least a dozen curtains fly down, get removed from the fly system, and then stored (it took about 15 guys each time). They have to do this after every performance! Besides this main stage, the Met has stages that can be rolled out from the two wings and from behind the stage! One of them is a rotating stage. (Are you guys jealous of this theater yet?). This is how they can perform and rehearse 5 shows in a 2 week span. John also said they have ~102 rows on their fly system! Watching all of this happen was simply amazing. I can not imagine how much planning must go into each show, and how controlled everything was. We kept seeing “near accidents”, but no one ever got hurt. It all seemed very dangerous though! John’s job is to climb up scaffolding and move lights into position for each show. They also refocus each light, sometimes minutes before the show opens. John did say that last week he got hit on the head with a flying chandelier, and last year one of the scaffolding became electrically live and went through his body. Luckily he had his legs wrapped around the scaffolding bars and didn’t fall off. After about an hour John came back up, answered a few questions and escorted us back outside. On the way out he wanted me to see the actual audience, so I got to go INTO THE ORCHESTRA PIT to see it! ROCK ON!!
• After this we had about an hour before dinner, so we wandered to Central Park. We soon realized that we were right near the finish line for the NYC Marathon. We walked to the finish line, and I sent Beth a camera phone picture to inspire her. We then walked to Strawberry Fields and past the Dakota, which I had never seen before.
• For dinner we met Jeff, Vivian, Carrie, Phil Henry and his fiancée Alison and went to The Symposium, a Greek restaurant near Columbia. The highlight of the meal was an appetizer of melted cheese that came to the table on fire, and then was extinguished with lemons. It tasted amazing. We also got a plate with feta cheese, grape leaves, olives, and four yummy dips. I had Exhohiko as my entrée, which is a lamb stew wrapped in pastry. Everything was awesome!
• After this we went to the Postcrypt Coffeehouse at Columbia University to watch Phil’s show. bboy_johnny met us there, which was a nice surprise. Phil’s set was really fun, and Jeff accompanied him on mandolin and accordion. It was fun to watch the set, as all my friends were singing along. Post Phil’s set, things went downhill. The next performer was a talented singer, and his guitarist was good, but it was not at all appropriate for the setting. He did all covers, which ranged from 60s songs to opera to cowboy songs. His stage presence was also horrible. His guitarist did not speak at all, except to sing 5 bars of “Lalalas” during one song. It was very Tenaious D-ish, but not in a good way. I seriously felt like it should have been a Saturday Night Live skit, and not a serious performance.
• I think I slept the whole way back to Jeff’s, except to wake up for a minute to talk about the use of the word “Albanian” to refer to something/someone from Albany.
• When we got back to Jeff’s on Saturday night I got a very bad surprise. Someone had hit my car, and left a very nasty dent in my driver’s side rear door. Of course, there wasn’t a note on the car, but I had my suspicion of who on the street did it. This is something I definitely need to get fixed. If anyone has suggestions for a body shop in the area, let me know. I’d like to find one around my work so it will be easier to leave it there/pick it up/get a carpool home if I need it.
Here are all the photos from the weekend. I also took a 1:00 video of the backstage at the Met, but I stupidly shot it with the camera turned, and now I need Stef’s help to fix that mistake. Hopefully it will be up on youtube within a week.
• Sunday morning Jeff, Vivian, Phil, Alison and I had pancakes and potatoes at Jeff’s house. I hit the road at 11:00. I crashed on the couch, watching tv and napping with the cat for longer than I should have. I finally went out to do yard work at 4:00, not realizing that even though the time had changed, it was going to get dark at the same time. So, I could only work for about an hour, but I got a lot done! Then I just watched TV and took the photos off my camera for the rest of the night.
• Friday I left work at 2 and got to Yonkers at 6:50. jeffkimball drove us to Veselka for dinner. We met Vivian there. This place actually makes Borscht taste yummy! We also tried 7 different kinds of pirogues. The best was the goat cheese and arugula one!
• We went to Max Brenner’s for coffee. I bought horvendile a syringe full of warm choclate. Apparently he has been to M.B.’s 6 months ago, and meant to get the syringe the next time we was there. I had forgotten this tidbit, but I knew that Gordon would appreciate the gift, and he did.
• We walked to Joe’s Pub, met carriebananas in line, and soon went in for the concert. We got the front row tables, which was awesome! The concert was great. I think I sat there will a silly grin on my face the entire time. Gordon, Carrie and I stayed for the second show, and sessa joined us. Between shows I delivered a Jamenson on the rocks to Aoife, as I remembered her drinking whiskey in Ireland. The second show wasn’t as good as the first, but the highlight was seeing Rushad ride his cello like a pony during the a capella version of “Shady Grove”.
• Post show we went backstage to say goodbye and have them sign the set list. As we were standing there, Rushad ran out of the dressing room BUCK NAKED! He streaked down the hallway, realized he didn’t have anywhere else to go, and then sauntered back to the dressing room. It was hilarious, and at the same time not many people really reacted to it. That kind of stuff is normal for Rushad.
• I said goodbye to each member. Corey asked me what other shows I would be at, and when I only said Northampton he said I should come out for the Somerville show next weekend. Unfortunately I’m going on a wine tour, but I promised to bring him back some wine, and he said that was ok. Rushad gave me a big hug (in his underwear) when I told him I made a special trip to see this show since it was one of his last (he’s leaving the band after the Noho show). Everyone said they were looking forward to seeing me in Northampton. These people are just so nice!
• After the show I went to Queens to stay overnight with Gordon.
• Saturday morning I got up at 7:15 so I could meet Sessa in the city at 10:00. Gordon drove me to the LIRR, and I got an Everything bagel with lox for breakfast. :-) I met Sessa at Penn Station, and then we headed to the MoMA
• Sessa is a MoMA member, which was awesome for me…it meant we didn’t need to stand in a 2 hour line, and I got in for $5. The MoMA was so much more awesome than I was expecting. For some reason I only associate it with modern furnishing and culture, and didn’t even realize what amazing works of art are housed there. Von Gogh’s Starry Night seemed to appear out of nowhere as I was walking through the galleries. I mean, that’s probably the second most famous painting in the world, and it’s just hanging on the wall next to all the other paintings. There’s not even a humongous crowd in front of it, and you can take pictures. It was quite different from when I saw the Mona Lisa. There was also some of my favorite Picasso’s, beautiful Monet’s, Gauguin’s, Seurat’s, Warhol’s, Lichtenstein’s, Calder’s, Pollack’s and many, many others. Then we got to the design collection, and I was literally drooling over it. So MUCH famous furniture!! I just kept telling Sessa how much I owe him for bringing me, but I could tell he got a kick out of showing me around.
• Here are My photos from the MoMA
• After this I went to Union Station. I bought the perfume from Lush that I’ve been coveting since Ireland. I tried to find boots, but didn’t. I then went back to the Ukrainian neighborhood. I bought over $90 worth of egg dying supplies and a book on Pysanky. The woman helping me was sweet, and I can mail order from their shop if I need to.
• By this point I am tired and sore. I had been up for 19.5 hours on Friday, knew I would be up for 18 hours that day, and had been walking around all day. I had told myself that I would look for an opportunity for a back/shoulder massage in the city. In that neighborhood I found a Chinese place that advertised acupuncture and foot and back massage in 15 minutes intervals. The sign was written in Chinese though, so I wasn’t sure what kind of massage I was getting. I expected to sit in a massage chair, but they brought me to a small room with a table. Ok, so I’m sure most of you are either thinking I’m stupid or adventurous at this point!! Anyway, the massage was actually pretty nice. It was different than most ones I’ve had in that she used more smooth movements, but towards the end she did start attacking some knots, which was nice. She talked me into staying an extra 5 minutes so she could finish a few more. The kind of humorous thing was I really didn’t know what to expect, and at one point I thought she was about to get on the table and walk on my back! That didn’t happen, but it would have been quite a surprise!
• After this I high tailed it toward Lincoln Center, missing my transfer Metro stop on the way there. I didn’t get there too late though, and Gordon was waiting for me. As we arrived the final act of La Traviata was starting. I called my high school friend John Rooney, who is an electrician on the stage crew. He brought us backstage, through the area under the stage, and then up to “G1”, which is the lowest of 6 levels overlooking the backstage. He told us a lot about what we were seeing, and then ran off to do his job. The next hour was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen! We watched the opera end (someone died), and as the actors went in front of the curtain for their curtain call, the backstage burst into a flurry of activity! About 100 people help break down the show to set up for the evening show (Macbeth). The entire set, all the curtains above the stage, and the lighting setup is changed twice a day (matinee and evening show on Saturday, rehearsal and evening show during the week). The set for La Traviata is on an elevator on the main stage. The set consisted of a 2 story house, and the elevator would raise or lower the house depending on the scene! There was also a smaller set behind this main one, but it was hard to tell how that was used. We also watched at least a dozen curtains fly down, get removed from the fly system, and then stored (it took about 15 guys each time). They have to do this after every performance! Besides this main stage, the Met has stages that can be rolled out from the two wings and from behind the stage! One of them is a rotating stage. (Are you guys jealous of this theater yet?). This is how they can perform and rehearse 5 shows in a 2 week span. John also said they have ~102 rows on their fly system! Watching all of this happen was simply amazing. I can not imagine how much planning must go into each show, and how controlled everything was. We kept seeing “near accidents”, but no one ever got hurt. It all seemed very dangerous though! John’s job is to climb up scaffolding and move lights into position for each show. They also refocus each light, sometimes minutes before the show opens. John did say that last week he got hit on the head with a flying chandelier, and last year one of the scaffolding became electrically live and went through his body. Luckily he had his legs wrapped around the scaffolding bars and didn’t fall off. After about an hour John came back up, answered a few questions and escorted us back outside. On the way out he wanted me to see the actual audience, so I got to go INTO THE ORCHESTRA PIT to see it! ROCK ON!!
• After this we had about an hour before dinner, so we wandered to Central Park. We soon realized that we were right near the finish line for the NYC Marathon. We walked to the finish line, and I sent Beth a camera phone picture to inspire her. We then walked to Strawberry Fields and past the Dakota, which I had never seen before.
• For dinner we met Jeff, Vivian, Carrie, Phil Henry and his fiancée Alison and went to The Symposium, a Greek restaurant near Columbia. The highlight of the meal was an appetizer of melted cheese that came to the table on fire, and then was extinguished with lemons. It tasted amazing. We also got a plate with feta cheese, grape leaves, olives, and four yummy dips. I had Exhohiko as my entrée, which is a lamb stew wrapped in pastry. Everything was awesome!
• After this we went to the Postcrypt Coffeehouse at Columbia University to watch Phil’s show. bboy_johnny met us there, which was a nice surprise. Phil’s set was really fun, and Jeff accompanied him on mandolin and accordion. It was fun to watch the set, as all my friends were singing along. Post Phil’s set, things went downhill. The next performer was a talented singer, and his guitarist was good, but it was not at all appropriate for the setting. He did all covers, which ranged from 60s songs to opera to cowboy songs. His stage presence was also horrible. His guitarist did not speak at all, except to sing 5 bars of “Lalalas” during one song. It was very Tenaious D-ish, but not in a good way. I seriously felt like it should have been a Saturday Night Live skit, and not a serious performance.
• I think I slept the whole way back to Jeff’s, except to wake up for a minute to talk about the use of the word “Albanian” to refer to something/someone from Albany.
• When we got back to Jeff’s on Saturday night I got a very bad surprise. Someone had hit my car, and left a very nasty dent in my driver’s side rear door. Of course, there wasn’t a note on the car, but I had my suspicion of who on the street did it. This is something I definitely need to get fixed. If anyone has suggestions for a body shop in the area, let me know. I’d like to find one around my work so it will be easier to leave it there/pick it up/get a carpool home if I need it.
Here are all the photos from the weekend. I also took a 1:00 video of the backstage at the Met, but I stupidly shot it with the camera turned, and now I need Stef’s help to fix that mistake. Hopefully it will be up on youtube within a week.
• Sunday morning Jeff, Vivian, Phil, Alison and I had pancakes and potatoes at Jeff’s house. I hit the road at 11:00. I crashed on the couch, watching tv and napping with the cat for longer than I should have. I finally went out to do yard work at 4:00, not realizing that even though the time had changed, it was going to get dark at the same time. So, I could only work for about an hour, but I got a lot done! Then I just watched TV and took the photos off my camera for the rest of the night.