Back To Work

Given the nonsense I faced trying to leave New York at the beginning of the layoff, I had to then return to New York to return to tour. It made sense to buy a round trip flight because there would be a bus taking the New Yorkers back to tour. Also our first stop was Easton, Pennsylvania which is not the most convenient city to fly into.

I gathered all of my belongings together again, paid $140 in baggage fees (thank goodness for reimbursement!), and flew into Laguardia again. Since I really only had one night in the city, I couldn't get into much trouble so I decided to continue the theme of my layoff and see another show.

Once again I based my choice on price as much as anything else. There was an Off Broadway show that I had been interested in seeing called Fuerza Bruta. As it turns out not only do they sell day of rush tickets, that night was also Boy's Night. So I got in the line outside the theatre (well actually I was so early, I could have started the line), and got my cheap ticket.

You might be wondering what Fuerza Bruta is exactly. Well it is really hard to describe. It is a show along the lines of Blue Man Group or Stomp meaning it is more an experience than a show that tells a story. There are several different segments in the show like the two people chasing each other on a giant silver fly swatter or the segment where the performers smash paper boxes filled with confetti on each other's heads. But the highlight of the show is the overhead pool. The audience stands for the show and for the final segment a clear plastic pool descends. Four of the performers then splish and splash in the pool, run and slide across it, and in general just get really wet. And since it was Boy's Night, the show turned into a big dance party under the shower. In fact I was a bit confused as to what was happening for a while. It was a fun show, but probably the sort of show that would be more fun with a group.

The next day, I took a car into Manhattan and got on the good old Croswell bus for Easton.

I'm Bidin' My Time

Having spent one week of the four week layoff in New York, that left me with just three more to make it through. Unfortunately I do not deal with free time very well. For all of those years when I worked at the Woodwind full time and played 6 (or up to 9) shows at Amish Acres, it was as much to give me something to do as any other reason. I am not one for sitting and watching TV. Reading is something that I do in the pit. I do not knit or crochet. In other words, I do not handle free time very well. Mostly what I like to do in my free time is to go shopping or go see shows, and therein lies my problem. I was limited in both of those endeavours due to my lack of a paycheck. So I did my best to actually find productive uses of my time on break.

First and foremost, I still had the wreckage of my life cluttering up my parent's and brother's homes. So I spent quite a bit of time trying to organize and downsize all of my clutter into a manageable amount. I can honestly say that I made some progress towards this end, but I still have a long way to go.

I did meet up with some friends, but I tried to make those meetings productive though. I drove out to Elkhart to get my taxes done, and then I meet up with Sherry, Vickie, and Jon for dinner. I took a quick trip to Indianapolis to see Roger, a good friend from college, and to see Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco. (Okay maybe that was not very productive, but I would really like to get into a Cirque show some day!) On Valentine's Day, I meet up with Heather the Groovy and her cousin Jason for drinks and Mexican food. (This I feel was a very good use of my time. Making fun of couples on Valentine's Day is one of my favorite pastimes!)

I did take a couple of road trips to see other NETworks tours, but otherwise I really just tried to hang out, practice, and not spend too much money. In fact I did not even make it into Chicago. And I was really hoping to see Xanadu again. Alas!

NETworking

After playing almost 4 months of The Wizard of Oz, and spending a week in New York seeing shows, what did I do on my layoff? Why I saw more shows of course. This time though, I did have more than just entertainment on my mind though. Part of any profession is meeting people and networking to help advance your career and being a musician it is doubly important. There really are very few chances to audition or interview for a job. You can send a resume, but chances are if the contractor does not know your playing or know someone who does, you are not going to be hired. So I had checked over the tour itineraries for the other NETworks tours and discovered that I could feasibly see two of the other shows during the layoff.

I had already seen the Sweeney Todd tour in Bloomington before I left in October for Wizard so that left Annie and The Drowsy Chaperone. The first of the two tours that I was able to see was Annie. Now anyone who knows me would know that I do not like children, and touring with Annie would be my personal Hell. But I knew the assistant conductor on Annie, and since it was in Wisconsin Joel, our company manager, was also up for seeing it.

The picture is from Miami not Whitewater

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Well what could I say about Annie that you couldn't guess? I still am not a fan of the show. Anything that relentlessly optimistic is just irritating to me. The orchestra sounded fine, but there were several noticeable clams. I did get to talk to a couple of musicians, and I got to say hi to a couple of friends from The Wedding Singer. The show was in Whitewater, Wisconsin which just for the record is in the middle of nowhere! I had to spend the night up by Milwaukee.

In fact it took me so long to drive up to my hotel and then down to Whitewater that I just barely made it on time. Alas I had no time for picture taking in the daylight. The is my attempt at a picture of the Young Auditorium where Annie played.

For my second crazy road trip to see a NETworks show, I drove out to Erie, Pennsylvania to see The Drowsy Chaperone. For what it is worth, Erie is an 8 hour drive from Cedar Lake, Indiana, but it was totally worth it. I got to meet and hang out with a couple of the reed players on Drowsy. I had met one of them before when he came to see Wizard, and the other I had heard about from our Reed II player. So I feel like making the drive was totally worth it.

As for the show itself, I had seen Drowsy on Broadway, but it is such a fun show that I would see it again and again. The plot is very simple. It starts with a single man alone in his apartment talking to the audience. This man turns out to be a huge fan of classic old musicals, and he decides to play his favorite cast album for everyone in the audience. The record is for a show called The Drowsy Chaperone. As the record plays, the show comes to life in his apartment. That makes it sound not very interesting, but it is very charming and witty. The score is also very fun, and I have to admit that I was a bit envious of the music they get to play night after night. I mean how many times can you play 'We're Off To See The Wizard" before they take you away in a straight jacket?!?!

There were two other NETwork's tours which I was not able to see. The first was Rent which was actually a union tour and is a show I could never play anyway since it has no woodwind part. The second was Hairspray. This is a show which I could play, but probably should not ever play. I love Hairspray, but the woodwind books are mostly saxophone and there is too much improvisation in the show that I would not be able to do. Plus I have great memories of seeing the original Broadway cast. Sometimes I don't like to tamper with those!

Trying to leave New York

On Sunday, I called a car to take me to Laguardia Airport so that I could meet up with Heather and fly back to Indiana. I had a very pleasant ride over in unseasonably warm weather for the beginning of February. My driver was very nice, and interesting to converse with. I had plenty of time to spare before my flight left. What I did not have was the sense to realize that these were all warning signs that something was going to go horribly wrong.

I got to the United terminal and went to the self check in machine. Usually these machines are not a problem for me, but there is always the rare occasion when they are problematic. This was one of these occasions. So I went to the ticket counter to speak with an agent. After some thorough research, I was told that I no longer had a valid ticket.

At this point, I should provide a little background information. I booked this flight back in December thinking that I would be flying to New York with Heather on Wednesday of that week. Well since our last city before layoff was Scranton, PA, they just bused us up to Laguardia for everyone's flight home. Well since I was already in New York it did not make sense that I would fly home to Indiana for two days then fly back. Therefore I just stayed and did not use the first leg of my ticket.

That was the fatal flaw. Because I did not use the first half of my roundtrip, United saw fit to just completely cancel my ticket. Not only that they would not reinstate my flight home under any circumstance. No penalties, no body cavity level security screening, nothing! I was told that I had to buy a completely new ticket.

Needless to say, at that point there was not a chance that I would purchase another ticket from United. (I really have to marvel at the stupidity of the airlines and their hateful customer service given the fact that most of them are on the verge of going out of business. It staggers the mind!!) So I went to the food court, called Heather to let her know the situation, and got on my computer. Well I would have except that I could not get the WiFi to work so I had to use my iPod Touch. Thankfully that worked, and I was able to find a reasonable flight on US Airways for that day. I did misspell my name because the iPod Touch keyboard is much too tiny for my fat fingers. Mercifully security let me through, and I eventually made it back to Chicago.

So what was the lesson that I learned from this ordeal? United Airlines can lick my butt!!

Shows with, Brian, Heather, Me, Myself, and Eric

Keeping in mind that I was facing four weeks of unemployment, I set forth to prove to myself that I could see shows in New York and not empty my wallet. Thankfully it turned out that I was in New York during the 20@20 promotion. Basically several Off-Broadway shows offer a block of unsold tickets for $20 starting 20 minutes before curtain. This was my first time in NYC for this promotion, and I took great advantage of it!

I arrived in New York a couple of days before Heather so I had a chance to see shows and hang out with friends. I had intended to make my first visit to The Metropolitan Opera on Monday night. They premiered a production of Lucia di Lammermoor last season directed by one of my favorite directors, Mary Zimmerman. (Incidentally her adaptation of The Arabian Nights will always be my favorite theatrical production, and Lookingglass is reviving it this summer!!) Lucia had a performance that night so I rounded up Brian to try for a $20 rush ticket. I arrived at the Met 2 hours before the rush seats went on sale, and there was already a huge line. I got into the line and put my fate into the hands of the theatre gods. Unfortunately they do not usually smile down on me when it comes to rush tickets or lotteries, and we were denied. So Brian and I switched to Plan B. Since it was Monday night and most Broadway shows do not play on Monday, Brian brought up 20@20. I had never seen the musical Altar Boyz, and since it was on the list and Brian loves it we decided to see that.

Altar Boyz has been around for a few years, and has now played just about everywhere. I had intended to see it in Chicago, but well that never happened. I was not in a rush to see it although I knew that when I did eventually see it I would find it to be enjoyable. And it was enjoyable, but nothing more. The story, which is about a Christian Boy Band, is a bit dumb. The jokes are somewhat obvious, and the songs are not really something that I would want to listen to more than just once. At least I can check it off of the list.

Just for the record, Altar Boyz played in the New York Musical Festival in the same year as Eric's Caligula and lost the Audience Favorite award to Caligula! Oh and don't give up on Caligula just yet. I have read the new script, and things are really sounding promising!

In years past, I have prided myself on having seen many of the shows that were nominated for awards at The Tony Awards. In fact I am pretty sure that I won the "pick the most winners" game at our annual Tony Party graciously hosted by Jimmy every year! Sadly I have been seeing fewer shows, and that goes for last year's winner for Best Musical, In The Heights. Well until now that is!

In The Heights is a show that I might have just passed over, but Brian is a big fan so I decided to give it a shot. Hip hop is not a style of music that I would just sit down and listen to under normal circumstances. Thankfully I trusted Brian and also took advantage of his natural disposition to win ticket lotteries. In The Heights was very enjoyable even though it is sort of like viewing life in Washington Heights through the eyes of EPCOT.


On Wednesday Heather arrived and we checked into our hotel in Times Square. She had a somewhat stressful trip to New York so she decided to stay in and not see a show. As fun as it would have been to have Heather along, it worked to my advantage to be by myself that night.

I had been hoping to see a show called The Cripple of Inishmaan during this week. Since it was included in the 20@20 promotion, I thought I would go that route to get a ticket. I arrived at the theatre more than an hour early, to find a few people hanging out in the lobby. I asked at the box office if there would be $20 tickets available that night, and they all but laughed at me. The Atlantic Theater Company makes a list for tickets as opposed to the more widely employed ticket line used elsewhere. Apparently there were quite a few names on the list ahead of mine, but I decided to stick it out. At about 5 minutes before the curtain time, I had given up hope just as they called my name. There was one seat left!
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So how was the show? Well if you don't know Martin McDonagh's work than you would be in for a surprise. His plays are extremely dark, violent, and usually include several horrifying plot twists. The Cripple of Inishmaan did not disappoint!

And now for the feature presentation...

Was Equus worthy of all of the hype? Yes! I had never seen Equus before although I knew the basics of the story. It is certainly not a show that every person is going to enjoy. It is really dark and somewhat disturbing (although compared to The Cripple of Inishmaan, Equus is like watching Sesame Street!) Daniel Radcliffe was excellent in his role as was Richard Griffiths with only one reservation. Richard Griffiths is such a large man that it is really unsettling and distracting. One would hope that for his own well being, he might lose some weight. Oh and the nudity? It is essential to the plot so it really does not come across as sensational or gratuitous. And I don't think that I will have any problems watching the Harry Potter movies either.

After the show Heather and I had our post show analysis at John's Pizzeria. She loved it, and was glad that she made the trip. As we were talking, it was obvious to me that she would really enjoy seeing Equus again so on Friday we froze ourselves in the TKTS line to get half price tickets.

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On Saturday Heather and I got up early so that I could go to the M&M Store. Why you might ask? Well Shrek the Musical has a lottery for $25 tickets that takes place there. Since I had already been lucky with Cripple, I fully expected to not win, but I did. So I got to see Shrek on Saturday. Well I saw some of Shrek. These cheap lottery tickets often come with a catch, and the catch for Shrek was that they were limited view seats in the front row. Because the height of the raised stage was above eye level for me, I missed a lot of the show. I wasn't really upset. Shrek is really a pretty disappointing paint by numbers stage version of the movie. I do feel like I will end up playing the show at some point in my career so I am glad that I got to see it (especially for just $25).

Whereas the movie playfully mocks Disney movies, the musical has fun at the expense of other musicals.

To end my week, I attended my first They Might Be Giants concert in New York, and I brought Eric along to attend his very first TMBG concert. I have seen the Giants play a few times, and it seems like each time they play one song that make the concert worth it for me. Since they were using their horn section, this time is was Cowtown!

Let's Do The Time Warp Again!

Okay now that I've finished up with my two week run in New York, I'll return to the end of January and my one week vacation to New York!?!? Sorry!

So my one biggest beef with our tour itinerary for The Wizard of Oz was the scheduled four week layoff in February. Four weeks is a long time to not have a paycheck especially in February when the prospects of getting a temporary job (let alone another gig!) are minimal at best. So in typical fashion, what did I do? Went to New York of course!

Heather ice skating in a tree

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All the way back in October when we were in Orlando, I got a call from Heather. She was dying to see Daniel Radcliffe in Equus, and wanted to make a return trip to New York with me. A couple of years ago we had a most successful New York trip in which we discovered the existence of the Toilet Genie. So for those who know the Toilet Genie, you know that his siren song is too powerful to resist. Since I also wanted to see Equus, I got out my schedule, and we planned our trip for the first week of my layoff.

Since Heather's NYC friends were in Germany, we bugged Uncle Glenn and he used some of his magic points to get us a room at the Sheraton Towers Hotel so that we would right in the center of the action. Thank you Glenn!! Heather and I have an unspoken understanding when we go to New York. She is not as into seeing shows as I am so I will do anything during the day, but at night my butt is probably going to be in a theatre seat. And that is okay because I enjoy doing most everything that Heather enjoys! Shopping, museums, eating are all things I can handle!

The view from our room without my fat head in the way!

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Heather chose to go the Guggenheim Museum which turned out to be a fortuitous choice. Not only was the exhibit interesting, she saw two very cool people. One of the two was a artist who was doing a performance piece in the exhibit called the Bean Turner. Basically she walked around with a giant paper envelope filled with beans which she turned over periodically making a rather loud sound. Since the beans were spilling out, Heather helped herself to a few, and of course that led to me sing, "Beans? Beans, the special beans..." much to Heather's consternation! The other person we stalked was none other than performance artist Laurie Anderson. We were trying to get a picture on the sly with Heather and Laurie in the background, but alas my slowness on the draw caused us to miss the chance. Oh well.

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I too made a couple of good choices. I took Heather to the Strand which turned out to be a great decision. She had a field day amongst the thousands of used books. She also very much approved of my choice of lunch at The Chelsea Market. I had no real agenda so I pretty much tried to think of things that Heather would like.

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On Saturday her friends had returned from Germany and were rested so she parted ways with me and went to spend time with them. So then I did not see her until our what was to be our flight home. That is not knowing the fun that awaited me at Laguardia Airport!

The Mermaid Effect.

It is funny how different people react to the Mermaid Effect:

Just kidding!

Some last New York thoughts

Aside from the headaches of playing at Madison Square Garden, I had a great time in New York. But like all good things, it did have to come to an end.

I met up with so many different people. I saw the regulars: Brian, Eric, and Melissa and her family. I hung out with the Wizard of Oz folk many times including our night at the Crocodile Lounge which is now my favorite New York bar. I mean come on. A free pizza with every beer. How can you beat that? I met up with Leigh and Marcia both former Round Barn alums. Once again we had a Wedding Singer reunion which included some people who were not able to attend our November reunion. So needless to say after two weeks, both me and my bank account were exhausted and ready to recuperate.

West Side Spirit

As shocking as it may seem, I limited myself to seeing just three shows during my second NYC week when I could have seen four. On Tuesday night, I had dinner at the Chat 'n' Chew with the Jose family. They had actually just returned from Emma's first trip to Disney World. So despite the fact that Emma still seems a bit scared of me, the power of talking about Disney World won out over my scariness. From the sound of it, they had a great trip, and Emma really enjoyed herself.

West Side Story represents one of the low points in my professional career. I have played West Side Story once before at the Round Barn, but fate had it out for us on that one. Well when I say fate, I really mean Jeff Dorsey. Because of his inaction and refusal to actually pay outstanding royalty bills with MTI, we did not get the orchestra parts for West Side until the Saturday before our Tuesday night opening. Now if this was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat that would be no problem, but West Side Story is usually cited as the most difficult orchestration in the musical theatre world. It took a week of performances before the show sounded like anything more than a Hanover Central production! And if you did not go to my high school, then trust me that is the lowest of the low!

So I have been waiting for the opportunity to see a big professional production of West Side to help get over the Round Barn debacle. The revival currently playing on Broadway come as close to this as possible. The production was great, the orchestra sounded amazing, and in an attempt to make the show more realistic they have translated much of the dialogue for the Sharks into Spanish. As gimmicky as that sounds, I bought into it. Especially since I did not have to listen to the English lyrics to I Feel Pretty!

After seeing West Side Story on Wednesday afternoon, I had a big debate as to what other show I would see. I had left Wednesday night open because that was the night I was hoping to sit in the pit for The Little Mermaid. Since that did not happen, it left me open to actually see a show. I had narrowed my choice down to Hair or Blithe Spirit. I was torn because I wanted to see Blithe Spirit, but felt like I should see Hair. I think that I hate Hair, but I have never actually seen the show. I learned a long time ago to not judge a show until I have actually seen it, and this production of Hair just opened to really great reviews. Ultimately that is what made up my mind. Hair will most likely be in New York the next time I visit, but Blithe Spirit was a limited run.

To quote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "I chose wisely." I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of Blithe Spirit. If memory serves (and these days it does less and less), I was in the backstage crew for a production of Blithe Spirit in high school. Thankfully I did not remember much of the story though so it was completely fresh. The entire reason that this production exists is to be a star vehicle for Angela Lansbury, and deservedly so. Admittedly Ms. Lansbury is getting up there in years and is obviously stumbling around her lines after weeks of performances, none of that mattered because she was fabulous. Once again though, everyone in the cast was fantastic and Jayne Atkinson in particular.

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In a move that once again proves that I really only have bad luck 99.9% of the time, I had a pleasant surprise before the show. In an attempt to be money conscience, I had purchased a nose bleed top of the balcony ticket. Right before the performance started, an usher moved us poor people from the balcony to the orchestra level. So I ended up in a fantastic seat for only $36.50! I'll take it! Oh and the third show that week was viewing number two of Next to Normal.

Remember Me To Herald Square

Aside from Times Square, Herald Square is probably the most annoying area of Manhattan to walk through. I have tried to avoid Herald Square in the past, but as I was working in the middle of it for two weeks it was hard to avoid. There are really only a few reasons to be in Herald Square:

The Empire State Building is in the Herald Square area. The funny thing about a tall building like the Empire State is that I walked past it several times without realizing it. I guess that I needed to look up!

Obviously Madison Square Garden but also Penn Station

There are a few affordable hotels in Herald Square like the Hotel New Yorker above. Unfortunately they are really dumpy and full of tourists. I'll take Eric's couch any day.

And of course, Macy's (as well as other fun shopping including 2 H&Ms!)

Next To Normal

Every so often in my theater going, I come across a show that really reminds me why I am so obsessive about theater. Next To Normal, the musical that I saw the first Sunday night and then the subsequent Sunday night, is one of those shows. I only vaguely knew the story going into the show, and had only heard a couple of songs clips on their website. As it turns out these were both advantages. The show is about a mother who is battling severe depression and bipolar disorder and how that affects her family. There are a couple of fairly big surprises written into the plot so it is best to not know too much of the story when seeing this show for the first time. As maudlin as that all sounds, the story grabbed me from the beginning of the show and kept me engaged for the entire evening.

Like all good musicals, I left the theatre wanting to listen to the cast recording incessantly. (I am listening to it as I type.) Sadly the cast recording did not come out for a week and one day after I first saw the show! So I had to endure a week with only the few clips on the website to sate my appetite. The score actually reminded me a bit of Spring Awakening, another musical which affected me like Next To Normal. The songs are very much in the pop rock vein. Some of the songs actually sound like stand alone pop songs, but they work really well in the context of the show. Thankfully I was finally able to download the cast recording and I have been listening to it ever since!

Next To Normal is a rather small show. This is the entire cast of 6 people, and amazingly everyone in the cast is fantastic!

Yep, Crumbs is better than Magnolia

So elsewhere on this blog I have chronicled my obsession with New York cupcakes. I am now officially ready to declare that Crumbs are my hands down favorite. Much as the gelato place in the Borgata this summer, I found myself working through my way through all of the different flavors of cupcakes. Here is a list of the damage that I was able to inflict:

Hostess (pictured above)
Raspberry Swirl (pictured above)
Peanut Butter Cup
Coconut
Red Velvet
Carrot Cake

Sadly I am now paying for my indulgence on the treadmill. But they are oh so good!

In The Middle, In The Middle, In The Middle

So I have been known to go to great lengths to see a They Might Be Giants concert for example the New Haven, Connecticut trip. As it turns out, the Giants were playing at Le Poisson Rouge on the first Saturday night of our New York run. After quite a bit of planning and analyzing, I decided to buy a ticket. Saturday was our three show day with the third show starting at 7:30pm. The Giants concert started at 8pm, but of course they had a warm up group so, knowing that i would be done at 10pm, my hope was that I would be able to catch a couple of songs before the concert ended.

After the last note of Wizard was played, I threw on a pair of jeans and bolted from the theatre as fast as possible. Luckily the subway line that I needed was just outside the stage door. In an unusual change in my luck, the express train came within a couple of minutes, and before I knew it I was walking to the club. As I walked in they were playing one of my favorite TMBG songs, Experimental Film. The horror of the three show day melted away, and I was treated to at least 7 songs. (I made it for the last two songs of the regular set and the encores!)

Everyone that I told about my plans thought that I was nuts, but it was totally worth it for me. It was the perfect way to end a horrific day!

These are a few of my favorite things...NYC buildings

Exit the Mermaid

During our first week in NYC, I ended up seeing 3 shows. I will save the third one from this week for a later post so that leaves Exit The King and The Little Mermaid.

Exit The King was somewhat of a random choice for me. I had been intending to see West Side Story that night, but it was sold out. Exit The King was a play I considered because I did not know the play, and it had been getting good word of mouth. The play itself is an absurdist comedy which is a genre of play that I had no real experience seeing, but felt like I would enjoy. The show starred Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon neither of whom I have seen perform live before. (Although I will forever see Susan Sarandon as Janet from The Rocky Horror Picture Show!)


I enjoyed the show, but ultimately I could have lived my life had I not seen it. Geoffrey Rush gave a performance that steals the show much to the detriment of Susan Sarandon. Unfortunately she does not give a very strong performance. Oh well regardless, "Dammit Janet, I love you!"

I have been mostly faithful to the world of Disney Theatrical's productions. I have seen Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aida, and even Tarzan (it gave me a headache!). I have not nor will I ever see High School Musical. Well The Little Mermaid opened about a year ago to less than enthusiastic reviews. I faithfully purchased the CD when it was released, and enjoyed the older material from movie but not so much the new songs.

Then in a move that the cosmos is still reeling from, Eric became a keyboard sub for the show. (Eric tends to prefer a more sophisticated style of theatre.) So I now had more of a reason to see the show than just my blind devotion to Disney. Eric arranged to sub in the show on Wednesday afternoon so that I could hear him play the show.

As for the show? Well it is fine, but The Little Mermaid could use some work to make it a more enjoyable evening. The story is a little bit weird now with how they kill off Ursala. The set is really plastic looking. It looks really amazing in the production photos, but then it just looks really plastic on the stage. The swimming is accomplished with Heely shoes which works relatively well. The music sounded great though, and it was fun to be there when Eric played. Keys 1 plays the vocal samples for Ariel, so every time that Ariel's singing voice is out of her body it is actually the 1st keyboard player.

Eric was also trying to get me a chance to sit in the pit for Mermaid. Sadly it turned out to be a really complicated process of making sure the right players were playing at the show and gave their permission. So it did not work out. Oh well Mermaid will still be playing the next time I am in New York.

Celebrate Brooklyn

One of the biggest reasons that I visit New York, is the fact that several of my college friends moved there after college (well and of course Broadway shows!). Thankfully they are generous enough to offer me the services of their couches so that I have a place to sleep. For years now, I have usually left New York feeling like I could never actually live there. That is starting to change since my friends have moved further out of Manhattan. Eric moved to Brooklyn a few years ago, and each time I stay with him, I grow to like it more. Since he offered me his couch for our two weeks, I got to explore Brooklyn more than ever.

Eric lives in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. This is the first neighborhood that one encounters when taking the L line subway train from Manhattan. The above picture is the Williamsburg bridge and below is the view of Manhattan.

Williamsburg seems to be an up and coming area of New York. It is populated by many trendy hipsters, and beautiful people. There are endless possibilities for restaurants, bars, and shops. In fact I once saw a Bobby Flay show on The Food Network in which he went to a Peruvian steakhouse in Williamsburg called Chimu. As one of many things I did to thank Eric, I took him to dinner at Chimu, and it was so good. I had a tamal criollo appetizer which was basically like a tamale stuffed with chicken, eggs, and olives, but not wrapped in a corn husk. Also Eric and I both had the tallarin verde con bistec or in other words: spaghetti in basil and Spanish cheese sauce topped with grilled steak. Mmm Spanish cheese sauce!!

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I also had several firsts with my two weeks in Brooklyn. It was the first time that I did my laundry and bought groceries in New York for example. It was also the first time that I had taken the G train in Brooklyn. The reason I took the G train was that I wanted to go to my first Target in Brooklyn! As I was walking around after getting off of the train by the Target, I had one of those New York moments. A few years ago when I visited to see shows, I came out to Brooklyn to see a dance piece called, "Play Without Words" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (or BAM). This was my first time in Brooklyn, and I was still a bit weird about the prospect of being in Brooklyn let alone wanting to pull out a camera and take pictures. So as I was walking to Target, I passed by BAM and was totally amazed. I really had no concept of where it was, and it turns out to be right by Target. How perfect. So now that I am not awkward about taking pictures and don't feel like everyone in Brooklyn wants to kill me, I photographed BAM. It is a really cool building, and I am thrilled that I happened upon it by accident!