Weekend in NYC
I know I haven't finished posting about Readercon yet (and in fact, didn't post much last week at all), but I want to capture this past weekend while it's fresh in my mind).
First of all, the good news that started the weekend off. I had my colonoscopy Friday morning. ("Nighty-night," the anaesthesiologist said. "How long should it take to knock me out," I asked. "Couple of seconds," he answered. Then I heard the nurse waking me up...) Doctor's direct quote: "Everything's working fine in there, no polyps to be biopsied. See you in three years." The three sweetest sentences I've heard in a long, long time...
So the weekend, which had been planned before the colonoscopy, ended up being about celebrating.
Co-workers Regan, Ross, Jen and I had tickets to see the Saturday afternoon matinee of RENT at New World Stages, the "off-Broadway" house Rent was revived in after the B'way run closed. This is my second time seeing the show. The first was right before the end of the previous run, and American Idol alum Tamyra Gray was playing Mimi. For this production, American Idol alum Anthony Fedorov (4th place finish in season four) took over the role of Roger after we got our tickets.
This production, in a smaller and therefore more intimate house, is really great and it's a shame it'll be closing in September. The current cast will see out the run, and I wish I could go back one more time. I thought the cast overall, leads and ensemble, were wonderful. Josh Grisetti as Mark, Nicholas Christopher as Collins, Natlie Wachen as Mimi, MJ Rodrigues as Angel, Genny Lis Padilla as Maureen and Shaleah Adkisson as Joanne were all fantastic. Ensemble members Ben Thompson (the drug-dealer and others), Taylor Trensch (the waiter and others) and Katrina Rose Didericksen (she had the soaring solo on "Seasons of Love") also stood out. Most of the leads posed for photos and signed my Playbill after the show. They were all very friendly, but it was especially nice to chat with Anthony Fedorov and Nicholas ("I'm Nick," he said) Christopher.
Woody Harrelson is also in a show at that same multi-theater complex, and when he walked out, Regan walked right up to him and said "Mr Harrelson, do you have time for a photograph?" He didn't look particularly happy, but posed anyway. Ross used my camera to take the picture, and I really should have gotten in the photo but didn't.
Dave Lapkin met me at the theater, and we headed off for our evening. After we picked Roxie up down by Pace, we headed to Union Square. We passed White Collar's Matt Bohmer getting into a taxi. Yes, he is as hot in real life as he is on tv. (As were most of the male cast of RENT, by the way. Yum!)
We had dinner at Chat & Chew near Union Square. I had "Thanksgiving on a Roll" and it was almost too much. We visited The Strand (27 years living in NYC, Roxie had never been there) and Forbidden Planet. I got a nice small haul of books (found Rosanne Cash's book of short stories & an old Harlan Ellison collection, among others, at The Strand; got a bunch of the DC "New 52" trade compilations at FP), but the prize was a large glass with Firestorm on it that was on the sale rack at FP.
As we came out of the subway near Dave's place, we smelled smoke and could see the haze on the streets. We saw fire trucks go by headed in the general direction of Dave's apartment. We figure out how to loop around and get a look at what was going on. The first was on 89th and Third (I believe), a corner building. We watched 7 trucks respond, saw the firemen breaking out windows on every floor and smoke billowing out. Saw one person taken away in an ambulance. Turns out the compressor for the store on the ground floor blew. The injured person apparently got hurt coming down the stairs (so thankfully not a burn victim).
Back at Dave's place, we stayed up way late watching IT, and discovering that a lot of the actors we'd thought recently deceased are not actually dead (Harry Anderson, Dennis Christopher, Richard Masur), although two definitely are -- John Ritter and Jonathan Brandis.
Sunday we hit lunch at my favorite Upper East Side diner, Midnight Express. Love that place! Then we walked over to the nearest Barnes & Noble to browse and ask Nook-related questions. In the dvd section, I found the one Universal Monsters "Legacy Collection" dvd set I've been missing: The Mummy. So now I have all 6 in the set (Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf-Man, Invisible Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon are the others), and this does my collector-obsessive heart good, as I said to Dave.
The train-ride home was uneventful. I *finally* finished reading LAURIAT, edited by Charles A. Tan and out from Lethe Press in August. I'll hopefully be putting up a review here and on Goodreads and Amazon later today depending on how much work piles up on desk.
How was your weekend, all?
First of all, the good news that started the weekend off. I had my colonoscopy Friday morning. ("Nighty-night," the anaesthesiologist said. "How long should it take to knock me out," I asked. "Couple of seconds," he answered. Then I heard the nurse waking me up...) Doctor's direct quote: "Everything's working fine in there, no polyps to be biopsied. See you in three years." The three sweetest sentences I've heard in a long, long time...
So the weekend, which had been planned before the colonoscopy, ended up being about celebrating.
Co-workers Regan, Ross, Jen and I had tickets to see the Saturday afternoon matinee of RENT at New World Stages, the "off-Broadway" house Rent was revived in after the B'way run closed. This is my second time seeing the show. The first was right before the end of the previous run, and American Idol alum Tamyra Gray was playing Mimi. For this production, American Idol alum Anthony Fedorov (4th place finish in season four) took over the role of Roger after we got our tickets.
This production, in a smaller and therefore more intimate house, is really great and it's a shame it'll be closing in September. The current cast will see out the run, and I wish I could go back one more time. I thought the cast overall, leads and ensemble, were wonderful. Josh Grisetti as Mark, Nicholas Christopher as Collins, Natlie Wachen as Mimi, MJ Rodrigues as Angel, Genny Lis Padilla as Maureen and Shaleah Adkisson as Joanne were all fantastic. Ensemble members Ben Thompson (the drug-dealer and others), Taylor Trensch (the waiter and others) and Katrina Rose Didericksen (she had the soaring solo on "Seasons of Love") also stood out. Most of the leads posed for photos and signed my Playbill after the show. They were all very friendly, but it was especially nice to chat with Anthony Fedorov and Nicholas ("I'm Nick," he said) Christopher.
Woody Harrelson is also in a show at that same multi-theater complex, and when he walked out, Regan walked right up to him and said "Mr Harrelson, do you have time for a photograph?" He didn't look particularly happy, but posed anyway. Ross used my camera to take the picture, and I really should have gotten in the photo but didn't.
Dave Lapkin met me at the theater, and we headed off for our evening. After we picked Roxie up down by Pace, we headed to Union Square. We passed White Collar's Matt Bohmer getting into a taxi. Yes, he is as hot in real life as he is on tv. (As were most of the male cast of RENT, by the way. Yum!)
We had dinner at Chat & Chew near Union Square. I had "Thanksgiving on a Roll" and it was almost too much. We visited The Strand (27 years living in NYC, Roxie had never been there) and Forbidden Planet. I got a nice small haul of books (found Rosanne Cash's book of short stories & an old Harlan Ellison collection, among others, at The Strand; got a bunch of the DC "New 52" trade compilations at FP), but the prize was a large glass with Firestorm on it that was on the sale rack at FP.
As we came out of the subway near Dave's place, we smelled smoke and could see the haze on the streets. We saw fire trucks go by headed in the general direction of Dave's apartment. We figure out how to loop around and get a look at what was going on. The first was on 89th and Third (I believe), a corner building. We watched 7 trucks respond, saw the firemen breaking out windows on every floor and smoke billowing out. Saw one person taken away in an ambulance. Turns out the compressor for the store on the ground floor blew. The injured person apparently got hurt coming down the stairs (so thankfully not a burn victim).
Back at Dave's place, we stayed up way late watching IT, and discovering that a lot of the actors we'd thought recently deceased are not actually dead (Harry Anderson, Dennis Christopher, Richard Masur), although two definitely are -- John Ritter and Jonathan Brandis.
Sunday we hit lunch at my favorite Upper East Side diner, Midnight Express. Love that place! Then we walked over to the nearest Barnes & Noble to browse and ask Nook-related questions. In the dvd section, I found the one Universal Monsters "Legacy Collection" dvd set I've been missing: The Mummy. So now I have all 6 in the set (Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf-Man, Invisible Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon are the others), and this does my collector-obsessive heart good, as I said to Dave.
The train-ride home was uneventful. I *finally* finished reading LAURIAT, edited by Charles A. Tan and out from Lethe Press in August. I'll hopefully be putting up a review here and on Goodreads and Amazon later today depending on how much work piles up on desk.
How was your weekend, all?