There hasn’t been anything too exciting to report in the last week or so, at least little to involve a posting. To prove my point I will bring you up to date day by day.
A week ago Sunday we went to the MoMA to see the newest exhibit, Matisse: Radical Invention 1913-1917. This was the final day of the private preview before it opens to the public. The rest of the exhibit has timed ticketing.
The next day was the Cowsills’ show as reported in my previous post.
Tuesday was the grand reopening of the Soup Kitchen International, renamed The Soup Man. This is the original soup take-out place that inspired the famous Seinfeld episode. They had closed this original location five years ago and for some reason it remained vacant until now. It is just around the corner and a beautiful day so I thought I would go over and observe. To my surprise there were only five or six people in line even though this had garnered tons of news coverage for the week prior. As it was nearly lunch time I thought I would go ahead and get some soup and surprise Toni. I took my spot and almost immediately a big line formed behind me. Then a few minutes later the media showed up in droves practically outnumbering the customers. Reggie Jackson was there acting as emcee for the opening and Meredith Vieira was spotted here and there. I was even interviewed by a radio station and a newspaper but to my knowledge none of my quotes surfaced anywhere. The storefront is just a counter about as wide as three people. There is no entrance, you essentially order from the street, pay, pick up and go. I got an extra large Turkey Chili and headed home. The soup’s reputation is totally deserved.
Wednesday we simply took a short walk through Central Park. We went as far as Bethesda Fountain and back, about a mile each way.
Thursday we went out for dinner at the French restaurant across the street, Maison. It was a beautiful evening so went for the sidewalk seating. We got our drinks and placed our orders and then we felt a couple of sprinkles and saw lightning. We didn’t feel like pushing our luck and ducked inside. As soon as we were reseated the downpour came in earnest. I only found out the next day that we were under a tornado watch. The weather has been unusual for New York. They have recorded the warmest June and July on record and three tornadoes in the area. It still averages about ten degrees cooler than Kansas City and much lower humidity. I don’t think New Yorkers would be able to handle the weather back home.
Friday there was a free Sheryl Crow concert at Central Park. I was all set to go but there were storm clouds threatening and I bailed out.
Saturday was perhaps the hottest day we have had here coming in at 100 degrees. With that in mind we opted for an indoor activity, the King Tut exhibit at a rather new museum in Times Square. These are timed tickets but we took our chances and were able to walk right in. We didn’t have the same luck when we tried to see the exhibit when it came through Chicago in the 1970s and got shut out. We had intended to catch a bus to the Village afterwards but Times Square is so crowded the bus stops are sometimes skipped if there is too much traffic and no relief in site. Our stop was blocked by a couple of hop on/hop off tour buses and with the heat we thought better and headed back home instead.
Sunday we went to a street fair one block over and found a wall hanging for one of our bare walls. We have been slow to get wall décor. We were so quick picking out our rather generic furniture and kitchenware but there is something more personal about what you put on your walls.
Later in the evening we went to Times Square with our friend, Liz, for the season premiere of Mad Men. It was actually a nice setup and was a little island of relative calm in the middle of all the teaming masses. There were a few thousand people there and many of them were dressed as characters from the show. In fact we got there just as they were finishing up with a look alike contest. The actresses who play Betty Draper and Peggy Olson made an appearance and then we all settled in for the show an hour earlier than the regular broadcast. It was a little like being at a Saturday matinee when you are a kid with the audience clapping when a favorite actor first appears. We had everything but the boos and hisses for villains.
Monday afternoon Toni went down to the corner to buy some fruit for the week. When she got there a line had formed and she knew it would take awhile and considered going to another cart a block away. That is when she noticed a crowd forming on 53rd St and Broadway. This is the street where David Letterman does his outdoor stunts. When she got there she saw Biff Henderson scurrying around. She heard something about Albert Pujols. Indeed, Albert was a guest on the show as was Denis Leary. They wound up having a little batting clinic with Leary pitching first to Letterman and then to Pujols.
Well, looking back at it I guess there is more going on than I realized.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Cowsills
Monday evening I was wondering how I had wound up at B.B. Kings Blues club waiting for the Cowsills to come on stage. They were never on my radar growing up. I considered myself too sophisticated for Top 40 radio by the time they became popular and I never owned any of their records, heck, I never even knew anybody who did. But over the years the youngest sibling, Susan, stayed in the music business after her first career ended at the age of twelve. She would pop up from time to time on albums I owned singing backup vocals and associating with artists I truly enjoyed, Dwight Twilley, Peter Holsapple, Smithereens, Carlene Carter, and formed the Continental Drifters with members of several bands that I followed. More recently she has had a couple of solo albums that I have truly enjoyed. She has been touring to support her latest release but I was unprepared to see a tour as the Cowsills in the middle of her own tour. I tossed it out there as a suggestion to Toni fully expecting it to be rejected but she jumped on it. Of course, after I bought the tickets she asked me, “Now why are we going to this?”
We met up with our new friend, Liz, at the show. She asked me if I was excited about the show. I didn’t really know how to answer except that I simply didn’t know what to expect. I mean the group only had four hits. How would they possibly fill up their time slot? Well, we would have to wait just a bit longer for the answer as there was an opening act. The Funky Knights are a five piece band that originally played clubs around New York in the eighties and early nineties. Unfortunately they have recently reformed and we were subjected to something that I won’t even try to describe. For the morbidly curious feel free to check youtube for these guys. We alternated between jaw drops and laughing out loud through their thankfully short set.
Finally the Cowsills, Susan, Paul, and Bob, came out with a full band and jumped right in with a perfect version of Monday, Monday, the Mamas and Papas hit and a song I never tire of. I was hooked from the get go. They alternated their hits with covers which included Be My Baby (Ronettes), The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel), Helplessly Hoping (Crosby Stills and Nash). They also did an acoustic mini set of folk songs made famous by Peter, Paul, & Mary, If I Had A Hammer, Puff The Magic Dragon, and another one that escapes me at the moment. None of these are songs to tackle for someone who is not seriously at the top of their game. I can honestly say they were spot on, never missing a note or straining. Plus they have that magic gift of harmonies that only siblings can achieve, like the Everly Brothers, The Beach Boys, The Jackson Five and others.
Only a third into their set they played one of their biggest hits, The Rain, The Park And Other Things best known for the refrain, “I love the flower girl”. They sounded as if they hadn’t aged a day since it was recorded. Later when they performed Indian Lake it struck me how much those two songs sounded like the Beach Boys. It should be no surprise that one of the absent brothers, John, is the drummer for the latest incarnation of the Beach Boys.
Also, they were quite entertaining with their between songs banter and jokes, teasing each other as siblings do and telling the stories of their careers including the unexpected back to back losses of two brothers, Barry and Bill, one in Hurricane Katrina and the other to health issues only weeks later. They even managed to convey these tragedies with a lighthearted levity that did not bring the room down. They also told how the family was approached to be in a sitcom and when it was turned down by the group the TV producers turned right around and created the Partridge Family instead even using some of the same team that worked with the Cowsills. And as turnabout is fair play they sang “I Think I Love You”, the hit for David Cassidy.
The funny man of the group was brother, Paul, who cracked the most jokes with just a touch of Paul Lynde silliness that kept the audience laughing. Susan sang a few tracks from her solo album and brought out her daughter, Miranda, to sing a moving duet. In fact, the family aspect has continued with Susan’s husband on drums, one of the nephews plays keyboards, and for the finale of “Hair” they brought Miranda back out along with yet another nephew.
After the show the Cowsills stayed in the lobby and signed whatever anyone brought along and stayed and chatted until everyone got their turn. I think the group had as much fun as anyone in the audience. There were no more questions about why we went.
We met up with our new friend, Liz, at the show. She asked me if I was excited about the show. I didn’t really know how to answer except that I simply didn’t know what to expect. I mean the group only had four hits. How would they possibly fill up their time slot? Well, we would have to wait just a bit longer for the answer as there was an opening act. The Funky Knights are a five piece band that originally played clubs around New York in the eighties and early nineties. Unfortunately they have recently reformed and we were subjected to something that I won’t even try to describe. For the morbidly curious feel free to check youtube for these guys. We alternated between jaw drops and laughing out loud through their thankfully short set.
Finally the Cowsills, Susan, Paul, and Bob, came out with a full band and jumped right in with a perfect version of Monday, Monday, the Mamas and Papas hit and a song I never tire of. I was hooked from the get go. They alternated their hits with covers which included Be My Baby (Ronettes), The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel), Helplessly Hoping (Crosby Stills and Nash). They also did an acoustic mini set of folk songs made famous by Peter, Paul, & Mary, If I Had A Hammer, Puff The Magic Dragon, and another one that escapes me at the moment. None of these are songs to tackle for someone who is not seriously at the top of their game. I can honestly say they were spot on, never missing a note or straining. Plus they have that magic gift of harmonies that only siblings can achieve, like the Everly Brothers, The Beach Boys, The Jackson Five and others.
Only a third into their set they played one of their biggest hits, The Rain, The Park And Other Things best known for the refrain, “I love the flower girl”. They sounded as if they hadn’t aged a day since it was recorded. Later when they performed Indian Lake it struck me how much those two songs sounded like the Beach Boys. It should be no surprise that one of the absent brothers, John, is the drummer for the latest incarnation of the Beach Boys.
Also, they were quite entertaining with their between songs banter and jokes, teasing each other as siblings do and telling the stories of their careers including the unexpected back to back losses of two brothers, Barry and Bill, one in Hurricane Katrina and the other to health issues only weeks later. They even managed to convey these tragedies with a lighthearted levity that did not bring the room down. They also told how the family was approached to be in a sitcom and when it was turned down by the group the TV producers turned right around and created the Partridge Family instead even using some of the same team that worked with the Cowsills. And as turnabout is fair play they sang “I Think I Love You”, the hit for David Cassidy.
The funny man of the group was brother, Paul, who cracked the most jokes with just a touch of Paul Lynde silliness that kept the audience laughing. Susan sang a few tracks from her solo album and brought out her daughter, Miranda, to sing a moving duet. In fact, the family aspect has continued with Susan’s husband on drums, one of the nephews plays keyboards, and for the finale of “Hair” they brought Miranda back out along with yet another nephew.
After the show the Cowsills stayed in the lobby and signed whatever anyone brought along and stayed and chatted until everyone got their turn. I think the group had as much fun as anyone in the audience. There were no more questions about why we went.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Neighborhood
There really isn’t much to report this week, mostly just working and errands and dealing with day to day issues that come up regardless where you live. We did squeeze in an hour walk through parts of Central Park, parts that we hadn’t seen before. There are so many meandering paths there I don’t think I will ever get it memorized. We also found another “keeper” restaurant called Hummus Kitchen that we liked enough to prompt Toni to write a review at Yelp. I have to agree with her.
Saturday we went to the American Folk Art Museum. This is a rather small museum right next to the MoMA that is really easy to miss as it has a rather small “store front” that almost looks like it is a side door to the MoMA. We were there specifically to the see the Henry Darger exhibit which runs through September 19th. We learned about Darger from a documentary several years ago. He lived a reclusive life in a one room apartment in Chicago where compulsively created art and wrote fantasy stories on an old typewriter. He worked as a janitor and had no friends. His creations were not known until after he died in 1973 and his apartment was being cleaned out. They found hundreds of works of art and several books he had written, one book was over 15,000 pages typed and single spaced. He is probably the best known of the so-called outsider artist world, that is artists who have created a large body of quality work without any formal art training, totally self taught.
For dinner that evening we went to Maison. This is a French restaurant right across from our apartment on Seventh Avenue. I have been reluctant to try it as we have not had the best experiences with the eateries right in our neighborhood. We are right in the midst of several large hotels and I think with all the built in traffic they aren’t worried about locals and repeat business. But Maison had just set up a rather large outdoor seating area a week before and the weather was so perfect we just could not resist. We got a great table where we could see Times Square down the street. I got a poached chicken crepe and Toni ordered a ratatouille crepe. Mine was so good that I was tempted to lick the plate. The kicker is this place is open twenty-four hours a day!! A great French restaurant that is never closed. We will be back.
Sunday was a pretty lazy day. In the afternoon Toni went off for a manicure/pedicure and I headed the other way for a quick stop at Home Depot. It was getting late and I hadn’t had lunch yet so I intended to grab something quick from the cart just outside our entrance. However, by the time I got to the street I promptly forgot all about it and turned the opposite direction and I was three blocks away by the time I remembered. I didn’t really feel like taking the time to stop at a restaurant, hmmm…. Then suddenly I saw that Madison Avenue was closed off for yet another street festival. I had no clue what the occasion was but there were blocks and blocks of booths and a fourth of them were all food. Saved. I was bad and got an Italian sausage sandwich that was smothered in grilled onions. It was delicious with just enough kick to keep it interesting. My mouth is watering again as I type this.
On Monday Toni had a late afternoon dentist appointment. The office is just a couple of blocks away, a short walk. On her way back she came down 53rd Street which happens to be the location of David Letterman’s stage door. She saw a gaggle of photographers and went up to see who their target was. It turned out to be Kyra Sedgwick, the star of “The Closer”. When she got home to tell me about she was all in a dither. The strange coincidence is that our first celebrity sighting when we were still in the hotel was an actor from the ensemble cast of this same show.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Fireworks Over The Hudson
We did not forget all about the Fourth of July. It is nearly impossible to forget when Macy’s, the sponsor for 34 years, has a full page color ad in every issue of the New York Times.
I sometimes wonder what it is that seems to fascinate us all with fireworks. Is it some primal thing that goes back to early tribes huddling around a campfire as logs popped and orange sparks spray up into the dark sky? Did some ancient Chinese chemist discover the effect could be enhanced with more colors by sprinkling different chemical compounds over the flame? Whatever it is most of us seem to be attracted to the colorful displays just as moths are drawn to a flame.
One of the great events at Lake Quivira is the annual fireworks displays from the dam. For twenty-two years we never had to think of where to be to get our fix. It was right in our back yard. Last year we opted for the view from our loft’s deck which paid off nicely as we were able to watch hundreds of displays from 180 degrees around for hours.
In New York we didn’t have to decide which display to watch as there is only one, but it is a killer. They have the launch sites all stationed on the west side along the Hudson River. There are six barges equally spaced from around 54th Street all the way down to 23rd Street and each of the locations have identical synchronized programs going simultaneously . The display lasts about a half hour during which they go through 40,000 explosives. This is a bit shy of the record 66,326 but a big display all the same.
We still had to decide where we wanted to go to view the spectacular. We didn’t know whether to head toward the river and deal with the crowds (Justin Bieber was performing somewhere over there) or to just go to our rooftop and deal with a limited view. We were weighing our options nearly up to starting time but we finally went with the rooftop. I think we would have been happy either way. Anyway, it turns out that the best vantage point is not even in Manhattan but across the river in New Jersey where you can take in the whole scene from lots of places.
I have embedded a nice video taken from the Jersey side showing the last seven minutes of the show. I recommend you view it in full screen mode (go to this LINK at youtube and click on the button with four arrows).
If you want to experience it like we did simply take your left hand and block half of one display and take your right hand and block half of the display next to it. This is a rough approximation of our view between the buildings. It was not perfect but our primal needs have been met for another year.
I sometimes wonder what it is that seems to fascinate us all with fireworks. Is it some primal thing that goes back to early tribes huddling around a campfire as logs popped and orange sparks spray up into the dark sky? Did some ancient Chinese chemist discover the effect could be enhanced with more colors by sprinkling different chemical compounds over the flame? Whatever it is most of us seem to be attracted to the colorful displays just as moths are drawn to a flame.
One of the great events at Lake Quivira is the annual fireworks displays from the dam. For twenty-two years we never had to think of where to be to get our fix. It was right in our back yard. Last year we opted for the view from our loft’s deck which paid off nicely as we were able to watch hundreds of displays from 180 degrees around for hours.
In New York we didn’t have to decide which display to watch as there is only one, but it is a killer. They have the launch sites all stationed on the west side along the Hudson River. There are six barges equally spaced from around 54th Street all the way down to 23rd Street and each of the locations have identical synchronized programs going simultaneously . The display lasts about a half hour during which they go through 40,000 explosives. This is a bit shy of the record 66,326 but a big display all the same.
We still had to decide where we wanted to go to view the spectacular. We didn’t know whether to head toward the river and deal with the crowds (Justin Bieber was performing somewhere over there) or to just go to our rooftop and deal with a limited view. We were weighing our options nearly up to starting time but we finally went with the rooftop. I think we would have been happy either way. Anyway, it turns out that the best vantage point is not even in Manhattan but across the river in New Jersey where you can take in the whole scene from lots of places.
I have embedded a nice video taken from the Jersey side showing the last seven minutes of the show. I recommend you view it in full screen mode (go to this LINK at youtube and click on the button with four arrows).
If you want to experience it like we did simply take your left hand and block half of one display and take your right hand and block half of the display next to it. This is a rough approximation of our view between the buildings. It was not perfect but our primal needs have been met for another year.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sixth Visitors And Seventh Visitors
During the last week of June we had the pleasure of two sets of visitors from Kansas City. First there was Eva Foster and her daughter Lauren who we know from when we lived at Lake Quivira. They had built a beautiful house in the mid-1990s on the street just south of our house and through mutual lake friends we got to know the Foster family. After the Fosters' visit, Rita Reilly and her husband Tim were in Newburg, NY visiting the Reilly clan, and decided to spend Friday in the City with us. We each knew Rita separately in high school actually before Bill and I met. She was also the Maid of Honor at our wedding almost 34 years ago.
Tuesday after work we met Eva and Lauren on the corner of 53rd and 9th Ave which was exactly the halfway point between our apartment and their hotel. It was great to see them after all these many months away from KC. We ate at a tiny Indian restaurant a couple blocks down where the food is delicious and very reasonable. Afterwards we walked back to our apartment to show them our new lifestyle and enjoy a glass of wine. The next morning Eva phoned to say she had procured tickets at a deep discount price to see "Promises, Promises" starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth that night. So again we made plans to get together after work. We met up at the same corner as the night before, except this time we walked further down 9th to one of the best Thai restaurants, Room Service. Everything we ordered was fantastic. We then walked to the storied Broadway Theatre. This theatre has been the venue for all or part of the first New York runs for shows like Funny Girl, West Side Story, South Pacific, Music Man, My Fair Lady, and many more. While we girls saw a terrific show Bill chose to enjoy the sunset and some impromptu piano music at Central Park.
We really enjoyed the show and afterwards bid them farewell. Eva and Lauren were able to see another show the following day, “La Cage Aux Folles" again at bargain basement prices, and later enjoyed the delicacy of the Halal cart that we had highly recommended.
On Friday, the Reillys arrived from Grand Central Station via subway in front of our apartment around 11:30. After a joyous reunion we walked to the Brooklyn Diner, which despite its name is in Manhattan on 57th between 7th Ave and Broadway for lunch. The place is not as reasonably priced as the dives we like to frequent on 9th Avenue, but the atmosphere is great and the food is fantastic. If you get a sandwich or entree salad each serving can be almost four servings so you do get your money's worth. After lunch we went to the apartment for a quick rooftop tour then back to work for Bill and me while they went to the MoMA and Central Park. They returned to our apartment at 4:30 where several glasses of wine were consumed while catching up. We headed to dinner, where else, but 9th Avenue. We were in the mood for Mexican food and found a place that looked interesting at about 49th Street, El Deportivo. We opened the menus but we didn't recognize anything and realized after confirming with the waitress we were in for Puerto Rican food, not Mexican. The big thing that made it something different for all of us was the side orders of green and yellow fried plantains. Once again, it was delicious and affordable. We walked off the meal by heading toward Time Square taking 46th street back over to 7th Ave. We discovered a whole new set of little restaurants during that walk to keep in mind for the next outing. At Times Square we marveled at the lights and got some great snapshots of all of us with the Jumbo-Trons in the background.
During these two visits we found out Rita, a court reporter at the Johnson County Courthouse, has been a colleague and friend of Eva's brother-in-law, Tom Foster, who is a Johnson County Judge at the courthouse. Small world, but not surprising as both Eva and Rita know just about everybody back in KC one way or another. What is surprising is they have never met each other.
Tuesday after work we met Eva and Lauren on the corner of 53rd and 9th Ave which was exactly the halfway point between our apartment and their hotel. It was great to see them after all these many months away from KC. We ate at a tiny Indian restaurant a couple blocks down where the food is delicious and very reasonable. Afterwards we walked back to our apartment to show them our new lifestyle and enjoy a glass of wine. The next morning Eva phoned to say she had procured tickets at a deep discount price to see "Promises, Promises" starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth that night. So again we made plans to get together after work. We met up at the same corner as the night before, except this time we walked further down 9th to one of the best Thai restaurants, Room Service. Everything we ordered was fantastic. We then walked to the storied Broadway Theatre. This theatre has been the venue for all or part of the first New York runs for shows like Funny Girl, West Side Story, South Pacific, Music Man, My Fair Lady, and many more. While we girls saw a terrific show Bill chose to enjoy the sunset and some impromptu piano music at Central Park.
We really enjoyed the show and afterwards bid them farewell. Eva and Lauren were able to see another show the following day, “La Cage Aux Folles" again at bargain basement prices, and later enjoyed the delicacy of the Halal cart that we had highly recommended.
On Friday, the Reillys arrived from Grand Central Station via subway in front of our apartment around 11:30. After a joyous reunion we walked to the Brooklyn Diner, which despite its name is in Manhattan on 57th between 7th Ave and Broadway for lunch. The place is not as reasonably priced as the dives we like to frequent on 9th Avenue, but the atmosphere is great and the food is fantastic. If you get a sandwich or entree salad each serving can be almost four servings so you do get your money's worth. After lunch we went to the apartment for a quick rooftop tour then back to work for Bill and me while they went to the MoMA and Central Park. They returned to our apartment at 4:30 where several glasses of wine were consumed while catching up. We headed to dinner, where else, but 9th Avenue. We were in the mood for Mexican food and found a place that looked interesting at about 49th Street, El Deportivo. We opened the menus but we didn't recognize anything and realized after confirming with the waitress we were in for Puerto Rican food, not Mexican. The big thing that made it something different for all of us was the side orders of green and yellow fried plantains. Once again, it was delicious and affordable. We walked off the meal by heading toward Time Square taking 46th street back over to 7th Ave. We discovered a whole new set of little restaurants during that walk to keep in mind for the next outing. At Times Square we marveled at the lights and got some great snapshots of all of us with the Jumbo-Trons in the background.
It didn’t take long until we couldn't take the crowds anymore and we turned at 42nd Street to Bryant Park at 5th Avenue. We were hoping to enjoy a drink at the outdoor restaurant there, but time was getting away from us, so after a short rest at the Park, we continued down 42nd street to Park Avenue to Grand Central Station. During that stretch of the walk the Chrysler Building was always in front of us, lit up so beautifully against the dark sky.
We had not been inside of Grand Central so that was a real treat to see it. Tim, who grew up in New York State, was pleased to see us enjoy one of the city's finest architectural icons as much as he did. After a long goodbye, we saw the Reillys off at their train back to Newburg.
During these two visits we found out Rita, a court reporter at the Johnson County Courthouse, has been a colleague and friend of Eva's brother-in-law, Tom Foster, who is a Johnson County Judge at the courthouse. Small world, but not surprising as both Eva and Rita know just about everybody back in KC one way or another. What is surprising is they have never met each other.
The week went fast and we cannot say we didn't experience a little home sickness after our visitors left. We used the long holiday weekend to reflect, relax and catch up.
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