I am loving being in a big city. Well, most of the time. The main thing I don't love? The stupid New Yorkers and tourists who think that you can walk down a crowded street or through Times Square whilst tweeting or updating your Facebook status. You are blocking the flow of foot traffic, causing congestion, and are seconds away from being knocked on your butt from someone else not paying attention to where they are going. Traffic flow people! It is important. Am also still miffed by the dude on the motorbike who had the iPod and iPad mounted on his handle bars. Both were on. He was watching a movie and listening to music and riding his bike with NYC traffic all at once. I have no words for this...
Seriously distracted right now - Leno has on Newt Gingrich and Snookie. I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone watching these two have a conversation...
So, I think I got up to Thursday in my last post. Friday I went to see Evita. With Ricky Martin. I also met Heidi Klum. Friday the 13th was a good day for me.
I had been off in search of lunch and wandered past Barnes and Noble and saw a line. I asked who the line was for and couldn't believe it when they said Heidi was there with the new Project Runway book. $25 later I had a copy of the book, a purple wrist band, and I too was in line to see the supermodel herself (those of you on FB will have seen the pic of me and Heidi). This is my book. Yup, that says "To Belinda, Hugs & Kisses, Love Heidi". If only Tim Gunn had been there as well...
Then it as off to see Ricky.
Ricky's pop career really undersold his mad skills on stage. I lost it a little with the people sitting next to me about halfway through the first act. They would not shut the *#%$ up. So, I reminded them that I paid to come hear Ricky sing, not listen to them crap on, so could they please shut the hell up. They didn't say a word for the remainder of show. Not even at interval. Belinda FTW.
Saturday was double header day. In the afternoon I started with a play that I read about a thousand times in high school and wrote a number of essays on for Theater class (to this day I am somewhat miffed as to where the obsession with both Tennessee Williams came from - I think I even own a copy of this script for this play somewhere...).
This was a "all African American revival" of the play. Blair Underwood was Stanley (I loved him When I was a teenager as well - LA Law was my fav tv show). Wood Harris (from The Wire) was Mitch. It was a good production, but I think a lot of the audience were not sure what to expect, and seemed to treat it as a comedy at inappropriate times (I've never laughed when Stanley beats a pregnant Stella, or when he rapes Blanche, but some people found that funny...). It has been pointed out that this could have been nervous laughter. Here's hoping.
Saturday night was however intentionally funny. And good fun. And not just for the audience. I went to see Matthew Broderick in "Nice Work If You Can Get It".
The cast seemed to be having a blast on stage, and just kept loosing it in fits of giggles. On more that one occasion a cast member had to put their back to the audience to compose themselves. Matthew Broderick also ended up in a vicious giggle circle. He'd have a little giggle, the audience would giggle, which would make him giggle more, which made us giggle more. And on it went. It was just a good, fun, screwball comedy.
On Sunday, I did not go to the theater. Shocking I know. Pick yourselves up off the floor. It's okay, nothing is wrong. I just instead got to spend the day with the lovely Harri, who was also in town (though the poor thing has to work). Harri was a very responsible friend. She had me eat fruit for morning tea (well, apple strudel is fruit, right?). We then hit one of my fav cupcake places (that was lunch...) and wandered Manhattan.
On Monday, I once again skipped the theater (I repeat, there is nothing wrong). I instead got up early, and hopped a New Jersey transit train to Princeton Junction (which is so much easier to do when the Jets are not playing the Giants at Meadowlands!). Karen and Monique were kind enough to take me to Philly for the day, where we had lunch, a tour of Mon's old neighborhood (which included the spot of her mugging, and a wander past the prison that once held Al Capone) and then a trip to the newly opened Barnes Museum. Barnes was an eccentric character (his dog would respond to his correspondence...) but the man had a great collection of artwork. Over 200 Renoirs, and countless Picassos and Matisses. I even have a new fav painting. It is called "Scouts Attacked By A Tiger". Something about it spoke to me....
On Tuesday it was back on the wagon and headed to Jersey Boys. I loved the warning in the foyer of the theater...
...particularly as I had heard some of this "jersey vocabulary" the previous evening at Newark station when the train guards threw someone off for behaving badly.
It was quite the Italian day actually. I had snuck back to a place called Eatly that Harri had showed me for lunch. It was awesome. This was lunch
Walking home from Jersey Boys though the crowds were unusually big in Times Square. Traffic seemed to be gridlocked and in chaos too. When I got to about 47th I saw the signs and worked out why... The Goodwife was shooting and had closed down several blocks.
I may have mentioned earlier that I had a ticket to see Jesus Christ Superstar (for last Sunday I believe) but they closed it early due to poor sales. I had to laugh at all of the signage outside the theater (it was across the street from Jersey Boys). Getting tickets wasn't the problem, I had one...
Today, being Wednesday, was also a double header day. It however started with a trip to 30 Rock to do the NBC Studio Tour. I had the theme music from the tv show 30 Rock in my head the whole day.
We got to visit the studios for Dr Oz, some NFL show I'd never heard of, the newsroom, and Saturday Night Live. The SNL set is in disarray at the moment. The walls have been replaced with the London skyline, the audience seats replaced with banks of computers and statisticians (looked like a telethon), endless monitors (which they were testing), and the stages had been turned into lots of small sound booths. NBC is apparently covering every single event that involves and American, and a large number of them will have their commentary done in studio 8 in NYC. Apparently NBC sent over 1000 staff to London to cover the games. I really only did the tour because they are hosted by an NBC Page. No Kenneth though.
I headed to the theater to see Clybourne Park. It was very clever. Same actors, same location in both acts, but act 1 was set in 1959, and act 2 in 2009. In 1959 an all white neighborhood was dealing with an African American family moving in, and in 2009 the African Americans in the neighborhood were dealing with white folk wanting to knock down a house and try to change the neighborhood. Not often you go to the theater and hear the c-bomb dropped...
I have no picture of the marquee, because I walked out into chaos. Thunder, lighting (that was HITTING BUILDINGS!!!!), torrential rain, hail and high winds. There were warnings about being on the street because of the lightning (people were actually screaming with some of the strikes that were really close) so I hunkered down in a Thai restaurant over the street and finally made it home about 2 hours later (with a ruined pair of shoes).
Tonight, it was Sally-Anne's choice, and Sal decided I should go see Bring It On - The Musical.
I admit I had low expectations, but this was awesome. The cast were almost all Broadway virgins, and over half were cheerleaders and the routines were impressive (though on more than one occasion I covered my eyes in case they dropped the flyer). The songs and dialogue were also very funny. Not surprisingly really given that the book was written by the author that bought us Avenue Q (I love those naughty muppets). It helped that it was a different plot to the movie, so you didn't know what to expect.
On the way home tonight I popped into Walgreens to grab a drink. I saw this in the fridge. Is it just me or is a "nutrition shake" in the "cake batter" flavor just....wrong?
Seriously distracted right now - Leno has on Newt Gingrich and Snookie. I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone watching these two have a conversation...
So, I think I got up to Thursday in my last post. Friday I went to see Evita. With Ricky Martin. I also met Heidi Klum. Friday the 13th was a good day for me.
I had been off in search of lunch and wandered past Barnes and Noble and saw a line. I asked who the line was for and couldn't believe it when they said Heidi was there with the new Project Runway book. $25 later I had a copy of the book, a purple wrist band, and I too was in line to see the supermodel herself (those of you on FB will have seen the pic of me and Heidi). This is my book. Yup, that says "To Belinda, Hugs & Kisses, Love Heidi". If only Tim Gunn had been there as well...
Then it as off to see Ricky.
Ricky's pop career really undersold his mad skills on stage. I lost it a little with the people sitting next to me about halfway through the first act. They would not shut the *#%$ up. So, I reminded them that I paid to come hear Ricky sing, not listen to them crap on, so could they please shut the hell up. They didn't say a word for the remainder of show. Not even at interval. Belinda FTW.
Saturday was double header day. In the afternoon I started with a play that I read about a thousand times in high school and wrote a number of essays on for Theater class (to this day I am somewhat miffed as to where the obsession with both Tennessee Williams came from - I think I even own a copy of this script for this play somewhere...).
This was a "all African American revival" of the play. Blair Underwood was Stanley (I loved him When I was a teenager as well - LA Law was my fav tv show). Wood Harris (from The Wire) was Mitch. It was a good production, but I think a lot of the audience were not sure what to expect, and seemed to treat it as a comedy at inappropriate times (I've never laughed when Stanley beats a pregnant Stella, or when he rapes Blanche, but some people found that funny...). It has been pointed out that this could have been nervous laughter. Here's hoping.
Saturday night was however intentionally funny. And good fun. And not just for the audience. I went to see Matthew Broderick in "Nice Work If You Can Get It".
The cast seemed to be having a blast on stage, and just kept loosing it in fits of giggles. On more that one occasion a cast member had to put their back to the audience to compose themselves. Matthew Broderick also ended up in a vicious giggle circle. He'd have a little giggle, the audience would giggle, which would make him giggle more, which made us giggle more. And on it went. It was just a good, fun, screwball comedy.
On Sunday, I did not go to the theater. Shocking I know. Pick yourselves up off the floor. It's okay, nothing is wrong. I just instead got to spend the day with the lovely Harri, who was also in town (though the poor thing has to work). Harri was a very responsible friend. She had me eat fruit for morning tea (well, apple strudel is fruit, right?). We then hit one of my fav cupcake places (that was lunch...) and wandered Manhattan.
On Monday, I once again skipped the theater (I repeat, there is nothing wrong). I instead got up early, and hopped a New Jersey transit train to Princeton Junction (which is so much easier to do when the Jets are not playing the Giants at Meadowlands!). Karen and Monique were kind enough to take me to Philly for the day, where we had lunch, a tour of Mon's old neighborhood (which included the spot of her mugging, and a wander past the prison that once held Al Capone) and then a trip to the newly opened Barnes Museum. Barnes was an eccentric character (his dog would respond to his correspondence...) but the man had a great collection of artwork. Over 200 Renoirs, and countless Picassos and Matisses. I even have a new fav painting. It is called "Scouts Attacked By A Tiger". Something about it spoke to me....
On Tuesday it was back on the wagon and headed to Jersey Boys. I loved the warning in the foyer of the theater...
...particularly as I had heard some of this "jersey vocabulary" the previous evening at Newark station when the train guards threw someone off for behaving badly.
It was quite the Italian day actually. I had snuck back to a place called Eatly that Harri had showed me for lunch. It was awesome. This was lunch
Walking home from Jersey Boys though the crowds were unusually big in Times Square. Traffic seemed to be gridlocked and in chaos too. When I got to about 47th I saw the signs and worked out why... The Goodwife was shooting and had closed down several blocks.
I may have mentioned earlier that I had a ticket to see Jesus Christ Superstar (for last Sunday I believe) but they closed it early due to poor sales. I had to laugh at all of the signage outside the theater (it was across the street from Jersey Boys). Getting tickets wasn't the problem, I had one...
Today, being Wednesday, was also a double header day. It however started with a trip to 30 Rock to do the NBC Studio Tour. I had the theme music from the tv show 30 Rock in my head the whole day.
We got to visit the studios for Dr Oz, some NFL show I'd never heard of, the newsroom, and Saturday Night Live. The SNL set is in disarray at the moment. The walls have been replaced with the London skyline, the audience seats replaced with banks of computers and statisticians (looked like a telethon), endless monitors (which they were testing), and the stages had been turned into lots of small sound booths. NBC is apparently covering every single event that involves and American, and a large number of them will have their commentary done in studio 8 in NYC. Apparently NBC sent over 1000 staff to London to cover the games. I really only did the tour because they are hosted by an NBC Page. No Kenneth though.
I headed to the theater to see Clybourne Park. It was very clever. Same actors, same location in both acts, but act 1 was set in 1959, and act 2 in 2009. In 1959 an all white neighborhood was dealing with an African American family moving in, and in 2009 the African Americans in the neighborhood were dealing with white folk wanting to knock down a house and try to change the neighborhood. Not often you go to the theater and hear the c-bomb dropped...
I have no picture of the marquee, because I walked out into chaos. Thunder, lighting (that was HITTING BUILDINGS!!!!), torrential rain, hail and high winds. There were warnings about being on the street because of the lightning (people were actually screaming with some of the strikes that were really close) so I hunkered down in a Thai restaurant over the street and finally made it home about 2 hours later (with a ruined pair of shoes).
Tonight, it was Sally-Anne's choice, and Sal decided I should go see Bring It On - The Musical.
I admit I had low expectations, but this was awesome. The cast were almost all Broadway virgins, and over half were cheerleaders and the routines were impressive (though on more than one occasion I covered my eyes in case they dropped the flyer). The songs and dialogue were also very funny. Not surprisingly really given that the book was written by the author that bought us Avenue Q (I love those naughty muppets). It helped that it was a different plot to the movie, so you didn't know what to expect.
On the way home tonight I popped into Walgreens to grab a drink. I saw this in the fridge. Is it just me or is a "nutrition shake" in the "cake batter" flavor just....wrong?
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