Strawberry Fields - Central Park
Orpheum Theater in East Village
Times Square
The Vampire Weekend at Central ParkI spent Friday-Sunday of last week in New York City. The trip was a blast, but the entire weekend served as a pretty clear indicator that I am definitely not street savvy enough to live in a big city. I flew out of the Vineyard on Friday morning, and upon landing in LaGuardia (one of the NYC airports) I made my way down to the ground transportation level only to be left completely perplexed by the elaborate bus/subway system map. After staring blankly at the map for a few minutes, a woman approached me to ask if I'd like a ride into the city. I must have looked pretty pathetic. This woman was one of two other passengers that flew out of the Vineyard with me on my flight, so I figured it was just as safe to hitch a ride with her as it was to take my chances on the NY metro. As we approached her car, I took note of the fact that she was traveling with a chauffeur. Turns out, this woman is Meg Ryan's assistant, and the car in which I'm getting a ride is one of Meg Ryan's cars. Jackpot.
The woman, who by now has introduced herself as Madeline, is a very sweet native of New York who has been working for Meg for the last ten or so years. She and Meg were vacationing at Meg's house on the island before attending a film festival on Nantucket later in the week. When I told her it was my first visit to New York, she gave me all sorts of indispensable information about places to visit, things to see, how to navigate the city, etc. In addition to Madeline's expertise, riding in her private car probably saved me about an hour of commuting time as I had a direct (and swanky) ride into the heart of the city. I told her she could drop me off at wherever she was getting out, which put my final destination in the neighborhood of Soho, one of NY's most eclectic and stylish shopping districts.
At this point I had no clue where Soho was in relation to anything else in the city, so I just started walking (as previously mentioned...not too street smart). After about 15 minutes I ended up in Washington Square Park, more or less on NYU's campus. My phone rings and it's Eric, the friend who is hosting me for the weekend. As dumb luck would have it, Eric had just finished a meeting for work in Soho and was about 5 minutes away from me. This coincidence is unbelievably lucky as Eric is not normally in this part of town. We met up and he took me past his office, where he works as an admissions counselor for the Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts (part of the same school as Parsons ala Project Runway).
We stocked up some vitals (including a box of Oh!s--my favorite cereal that is essentially non-existent in Athens and the Vineyard) and took the metro to Central Park, where two of Eric's friends met us for a picnic. After a few hours we all parted our separate ways and I took the metro into Times Square to buy tickets to an evening performance. I went to TKTS (discount rush Broadway and Off-Broadway tickets) and purchased tickets to see STOMP Off-Broadway. I'm not really into the whole glitter-and-jazz-hands-song-and-dance-show-tune type of Broadway production, so I figured STOMP would be a safer bet. Being the bonehead that I am, I didn't realize that the STOMP theater was way WAY off Broadway (about 45 blocks) until after I'd made the purchase. Oh well, time to start walking.
Fast-forward about an hour and a half and I arrive at the Orpheun Theater, home of STOMP. In transit I was able to walk past the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, 5th Avenue shops, etc., so the walk was actually pretty entertaining. Once I finally made it to the theater I had about an hour to kill before meeting up with my friend Petra, who is working an internship in New Jersey this summer and agreed to meet me in NYC for the weekend. I planted myself down in a NY pizza parlor with my book and watched passersby until Petra arrived.
The show was definitely worth the trip. If you ever have a chance to see STOMP live, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it. It was one of the best live performances (if not the best) that I've ever seen. Total riot. We had a ton of fun.
For more information on the show: http://www.stomponline.com/
When the show ended we called Eric to figure out the best place to meet up, and as luck would have it (again), he was already in East Village, about 10 minutes from where the show was held. We met Eric and his friends at Union Square for about an hour before calling a wrap on day 1.
Day 2: After feasting on a delicious breakfast compliments of Casa de Eric, Petra and I set out for the Rockefeller Center with the intention of touring NBC studios. The Rockefeller Center itself is awesome, but the NBC studios were packed so we opted to save the tour for another day. A few weeks ago I made reservations to see a live taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien (awesome!) along with another four other NYC shows, so I'll have plenty of opportunities to see the studios some other time. After perusing a few stores on 5th Avenue, Petra and I both wanted to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so we took a nice walk through Central Park and spent most of the afternoon in the museum. If you haven't been to the Met, it is (in my lowly opinion) the best feature of NYC. It is absolutely enormous and the collections are incredible. My personal favorites were the 16th-18 century European paintings, the Egyptian gallery, the Greek/Roman collection, and the Pop Art gallery. I could have spent an entire day in the Met and still not have seen everything.
Upon leaving the Met, weather took a turn for the worse, and by worse, I mean torrential downpour. Given that Georgia has been in a drought for over a year, I haven't seen a rainstorm like this one in a really REALLY long time. Petra and I were planning on seeing a free concert in Central Park in the afternoon, but the rain was so horrendous that we assumed it was cancelled and went to get [more] pizza instead. After the rain cleared up, we walked back toward 72nd street to see if the concert was going on, and sure enough, it was. The band headlining was "The Vampire Weekend", a New York band of whom I'd never heard, but Petra was a pretty big fan and after seeing them live I can understand why. The concert was great, and such a fun way to be able to enjoy Central Park.
More info on the band: http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend
However, the thunderstorm came back in a big way and we were forced to leave the concert before floods ensued and Noah's Ark arrived. Between the cross-city traverses and multiple monsoons, Petra and I were both exhausted and elected for a nice, quiet evening at Eric's apartment in front of Monsters Inc. and charades. Yes, we're wild. I know.
The next day I flew out on the 12:30 flight back to the Vineyard and I've picked up where I left off. Marshalling planes, rerouting passengers, filling out load manifests, the usual. I'm not sure where my next destination will be. Things are starting to pick up here at work and we're a little short staffed, so it might be a month before I can go adventuring again, but I have every hopeful intention of ending up back in Atlanta for the Peachtree Roadrace and Washington D.C. before the end of July.
Thanks again Eric for your wonderful hospitality this weekend and I can't wait to have you up to the island!
The woman, who by now has introduced herself as Madeline, is a very sweet native of New York who has been working for Meg for the last ten or so years. She and Meg were vacationing at Meg's house on the island before attending a film festival on Nantucket later in the week. When I told her it was my first visit to New York, she gave me all sorts of indispensable information about places to visit, things to see, how to navigate the city, etc. In addition to Madeline's expertise, riding in her private car probably saved me about an hour of commuting time as I had a direct (and swanky) ride into the heart of the city. I told her she could drop me off at wherever she was getting out, which put my final destination in the neighborhood of Soho, one of NY's most eclectic and stylish shopping districts.
At this point I had no clue where Soho was in relation to anything else in the city, so I just started walking (as previously mentioned...not too street smart). After about 15 minutes I ended up in Washington Square Park, more or less on NYU's campus. My phone rings and it's Eric, the friend who is hosting me for the weekend. As dumb luck would have it, Eric had just finished a meeting for work in Soho and was about 5 minutes away from me. This coincidence is unbelievably lucky as Eric is not normally in this part of town. We met up and he took me past his office, where he works as an admissions counselor for the Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts (part of the same school as Parsons ala Project Runway).
We stocked up some vitals (including a box of Oh!s--my favorite cereal that is essentially non-existent in Athens and the Vineyard) and took the metro to Central Park, where two of Eric's friends met us for a picnic. After a few hours we all parted our separate ways and I took the metro into Times Square to buy tickets to an evening performance. I went to TKTS (discount rush Broadway and Off-Broadway tickets) and purchased tickets to see STOMP Off-Broadway. I'm not really into the whole glitter-and-jazz-hands-song-and-dance-show-tune type of Broadway production, so I figured STOMP would be a safer bet. Being the bonehead that I am, I didn't realize that the STOMP theater was way WAY off Broadway (about 45 blocks) until after I'd made the purchase. Oh well, time to start walking.
Fast-forward about an hour and a half and I arrive at the Orpheun Theater, home of STOMP. In transit I was able to walk past the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, 5th Avenue shops, etc., so the walk was actually pretty entertaining. Once I finally made it to the theater I had about an hour to kill before meeting up with my friend Petra, who is working an internship in New Jersey this summer and agreed to meet me in NYC for the weekend. I planted myself down in a NY pizza parlor with my book and watched passersby until Petra arrived.
The show was definitely worth the trip. If you ever have a chance to see STOMP live, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it. It was one of the best live performances (if not the best) that I've ever seen. Total riot. We had a ton of fun.
For more information on the show: http://www.stomponline.com/
When the show ended we called Eric to figure out the best place to meet up, and as luck would have it (again), he was already in East Village, about 10 minutes from where the show was held. We met Eric and his friends at Union Square for about an hour before calling a wrap on day 1.
Day 2: After feasting on a delicious breakfast compliments of Casa de Eric, Petra and I set out for the Rockefeller Center with the intention of touring NBC studios. The Rockefeller Center itself is awesome, but the NBC studios were packed so we opted to save the tour for another day. A few weeks ago I made reservations to see a live taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien (awesome!) along with another four other NYC shows, so I'll have plenty of opportunities to see the studios some other time. After perusing a few stores on 5th Avenue, Petra and I both wanted to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so we took a nice walk through Central Park and spent most of the afternoon in the museum. If you haven't been to the Met, it is (in my lowly opinion) the best feature of NYC. It is absolutely enormous and the collections are incredible. My personal favorites were the 16th-18 century European paintings, the Egyptian gallery, the Greek/Roman collection, and the Pop Art gallery. I could have spent an entire day in the Met and still not have seen everything.
Upon leaving the Met, weather took a turn for the worse, and by worse, I mean torrential downpour. Given that Georgia has been in a drought for over a year, I haven't seen a rainstorm like this one in a really REALLY long time. Petra and I were planning on seeing a free concert in Central Park in the afternoon, but the rain was so horrendous that we assumed it was cancelled and went to get [more] pizza instead. After the rain cleared up, we walked back toward 72nd street to see if the concert was going on, and sure enough, it was. The band headlining was "The Vampire Weekend", a New York band of whom I'd never heard, but Petra was a pretty big fan and after seeing them live I can understand why. The concert was great, and such a fun way to be able to enjoy Central Park.
More info on the band: http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend
However, the thunderstorm came back in a big way and we were forced to leave the concert before floods ensued and Noah's Ark arrived. Between the cross-city traverses and multiple monsoons, Petra and I were both exhausted and elected for a nice, quiet evening at Eric's apartment in front of Monsters Inc. and charades. Yes, we're wild. I know.
The next day I flew out on the 12:30 flight back to the Vineyard and I've picked up where I left off. Marshalling planes, rerouting passengers, filling out load manifests, the usual. I'm not sure where my next destination will be. Things are starting to pick up here at work and we're a little short staffed, so it might be a month before I can go adventuring again, but I have every hopeful intention of ending up back in Atlanta for the Peachtree Roadrace and Washington D.C. before the end of July.
Thanks again Eric for your wonderful hospitality this weekend and I can't wait to have you up to the island!
1 comment:
I never got to go to the Met when I was there so I am incredibly jealous about that, but did you know that Jey just got accepted to The New School for his graduate program?
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