October: A Weekday Trip to New York!

With the encouragement and support of Liz, I took a quick Wednesday afternoon to Saturday morning to trip to New York a couple of weeks ago. The little solo jaunt with a purpose was better than nothing and in fact was pretty good. What was this “the purpose”? Scroll down to Thursday night to find out or just mosey your way through Wednesday and Thursday and you’ll know soon enough. I promise I’ll try to make your reading worth it!

Wednesday, October 16: Why is it I’m finding myself liking Spirit airlines? Like I’m getting used to their particular way of doing things and am developing my own system for dealing with the Spirit system and so far they’ve only ever been cheap and on time. Anyway, got up at 5 to workout, worked from 6 to 8, and then went and got my flight. A sub-theme to this whole trip was I was working while I was there, running to libraries during my free hours. It kept it exciting and feeling not fully weekend vacation indulgent. Anyway (I keep saying that), flew into LGA it was all bright and beautiful. Missed a packed M60 bus at the curb, went “ah shoot!”, but then an empty M60 pulled up right behind it and I rode in empty luxury to the Q which I took to midtown east, bussed up to the upper east side and…well I’ll pick up the typing when we get there, picture-wise.

Ok so I went to the UES on my way to a library so I could try on some sport coats…first the “ghost blazer” at Sid Mashburn and it was a nope, just too small, even when it’s my size. And then I tried on a “balloon jacket” at the Armoury (I have done this before) and I was like “yeahhh, I like this” — then I bussed over to the UWS and had some of my favorite halal before meeting up with Garrett, who was gigging from the Lincoln Center library. We both did our work there for a few hours, nice and quiet and focussed.

“The Temple So Nice they Built it Twice” — that’s the joke I made about the Manhattan temple, which has been closed down for a few months now for a complete gutting and rebuild. Should be awful interesting when it’s done in…. 2026? 2027? For the curious they’ve turned the former art gallery into an information center. But it’s only open from like 10am to 4pm, so you need to have your questions during a particular narrow window of time. Anyway, glad I could get a little look at the temple construction situation before going to the Starving Nachos library for a few more hours of work. Wait. Stavros Niarchos. That’s the real name of it.

Once I had gotten all my hours in I had had all these ideas for dinner or multiple dinners but I was really feeling like I had been up and go go going since 5am and decided to get a little sushi dinner at nearby Sushi Yasuda, which I hadn’t been to since visiting with Cory in 2005. It was a tasty little light meal before heading to Jeff’s in Brooklyn where I would be crashing that week.

Thursday, October 17: Up early and working from Jeff’s, then headed into the city for lunch. Crown Heights is particularly pretty in the daylight.

A nice thing about this NYC trip is I did some completely brand new stuff and a good example of “brand new stuff” was my Thursday lunch at the Grill. I thought I might get a burger but it looked like everyone was having the off-menu roast beef sandwich and since by night it’s a prime rib palace, roast beef seemed like a nice lunch idea. And it was! I also had grilled broccoli rabe. The Grill (or the Four Seasons that it was before it was) is a famously impressive room with famously impressive clientele (or should I say “impressively famous?” Geraldo Rivera was there!) but it gave an extreme “no pictures” vibe, so I was very self conscious just getting pictures of my food and napkin. The Men’s Lounge was very impressive itself, so I took a picture in there. Anyway, glad to check a Grill lunch off the to-do list I hadn’t made, maybe I’ll add “dinner at the Grill” to a to-do list when I make one.

From lunch I did a little midtown window-shopping (on both sides of the windows) before spending the afternoon at the big main library, finding that I like the room across from the Rose Room a lot more for getting work done.

Post library I had some unfinished business to settle: I wanted to try the tuna and foie gras dish at Le Bernardin which wasn’t in my meal when I went last year but is available a la carte in the lounge. And for dessert I tried their famous Egg dessert, which is a pot de creme in an egg shell. Both dishes: Very Nice. Eating at the lounge? Very nice and easy. And they give you bread, too. Oh and on my way over to the restaurant there was this “exhibit” of Range Rovers that had belonged to Queen Elizabeth at Rockefeller Center? Or at least that’s what the exhibit seemed to be from my side of the velvet ropes.

My destination? The previously-teased purpose of my trip … which was … to see Jez Butterworth’s latest play, “The Hills of California.” As his Ferryman did a number on me (and, I imagine, everyone who saw it) I really wanted to see what his next show was be and feel so lucky I was able to go see it. I didn’t expect something as amazing as the Ferryman, but I knew Hills of California would be good … turns out it wasn’t just good, it was great! I’d say sadder than the Ferryman but not as WOW as the Ferryman. I am very, very glad I got to see it and looking forward to getting my hands on the script (apparently the original England version of the play had a fairly different ending so I resist ordering the British script as I wait for the US script to be published in February).

When I got out of the show actors were already autographing and it was back to Crown Heights with me.

Friday, October 18: After a morning of working, Jeff and I headed to the LES to meet up with Ned for lunch at Gotham Burger Social Club which turned out to be rather nice eating. Then we went over and admired Ned’s new office.

Then Jeff and I had a nice big LES & Soho wander looking at lots of clothes, cameras, books, art and stuff. And I tried on a pair of NB 991v2’s for the first time. And Jeff found his western wedding tuxedo.

Having seen every cool thing in Soho we parted ways and I took a quick walk to and through the village. On my way I saw an Audi RS6 wagon just parked on 6th Avenue like it was no big deal! In the village (which was already quite ready for Halloween) I tried on a sport coat at J. Meuser … I’m still liking the Armoury jacket the most. And I grabbed a cheeseburger at this new burger stand of the moment, Smacking Burger, which is inside a gas station. Wasn’t particularly stupendous, but nice.

From the Village I zipped uptown to meet Patricia for dinner at Columbus Circle…wouldn’t you know we wound up at the Momofuku Noodle bar. It was a great catch up and we walked up to Lincoln Square because there was some very fortuitous opera programming for my trip.

And this fortuitous programming? Tales of Hoffman was playing at the Met that night! When I saw it there in 2005 it was the first time an opera really had me like “oh dang I think I love this?” so I was excited to get to see this newer production. And also excited to just be at the Met, there’s seriously no other place like it (especially among places that are like it). And now it’s got a great Moby Dick painting, or at least it does for the time being.

A I bought one of the cheapest tickets available at just 20-something bucks in the “boxes” of the top balcony above the chandeliers. I ignored that it said it would be a partial view seat but when I got there the partial view was quite partial. I had to lean quite a bit outside of my box to see most of the stage (I’m surprised they don’t lose more people this way) and next to us were the “no view” seats for people to follow along on the score. At first I was like “dang it I should’ve spent $5 more for a view” but then I was like “no, I am doing all sorts of first time things on this trip, sitting in this box is just another first time NYC experience.”

The opera itself was extremely top notch. The audience was loving it. I was loving it. When the famous opera singer finished singing the famous robot song the place EXPLODED in applause and roars. I have never head applause like that at anything, let along the opera. I watched that opera feeling like just about the luckiest dude in the world.

Another first time experience: I finished the last half of my Smacking Burger burger in a bathroom stall during the intermission. Really hit the spot.

Saturday, October 19th: Up bright and early to make the most of my last half day. Uncertain of timing in so many ways, I hurried up to the UWS Daily Provisions where I tried the Lumberjack, which is their famous bacon egg and cheese sandwich on one of their famous maple crullers instead of a roll. Wow. Post lumberjack I had a little UWS walk getting to my next subway and saw a beautiful Volvo V90 wagon. Love that ski rack.

Then I hopped a train up to Inwood to get Liz a treat and to check on my old apartment building and neighborhood and to visit the new Inwood library. It’s a gorgeous library, great job, Inwood. I would have really liked sitting at those tables or picking up my reserves from there.

And from there I headed to LGA…I made really good time there, which was fortunate, as security was spectacularly backed up at little Marine terminal that Spirit flies out of. I guess it’s nice to not have to wait to board your plane when you get out of security? But not nice to worry if you’re going to make your plane while you’re in security. So it goes. Oh! Lost a few seconds being distracted by another beautiful V90 wagon. Saw a lot of great wagons on this trip, way more then the ones I’ve posted.

So. In conclusion. It was a great quick, busy trip to New York. Looking forward to coming back soon with Liz and not having to fit work into the running around.