NY NY - The big weekend, May 2009

Hello All:

Highlights from DB's surprise B'day weekend in Manhattan:

1. First time ever when the kitchen was in the bedroom closet (and the bathroom was off the entryway).
2. Spotted Homer Simpson on the subway, without his shirt or a doughnut. Dead ringer...
3. We took the subway uptown and back on the 1, only time we were on another line the train went out of service at the stop we were supposed to get off at (and didn't realize it).
4. It's faster to "forget" your tickets and pick them up at the theater box office than it is to print them off at home (OK, I left that night's tix in the apartment and brought the tix to the following night: that's almost forgetting except worse).
5. Everyone in 5 boroughs between 18 and 35 congregates after 11 on Friday and Saturday in the West Village.
6. Apparently I was the only person who carried two loaves of bread all over Manhattan for an entire day. Fresh from Amy's Bakery in Chelsea, the bakery is attached to this outlet. Highly recommend the semolina and raisin. Even better when toasted without road fatigue.
7. At Telepan, our waitress poured DB's lemon drop into her wine glass instead of her martini glass. That led to an extended conversation all dinner long, who was more affected, her or us!
8. Two top art sitings: Neto installation filling the Armory, a huge amorphous organic shape complete with ground cloves (this thing is huge); and Roxy Paine's metal sculpture filling the (small) roof of the Met. Bonus round: don't miss the Kiefer if you are at the Met, awesome.
9. Some things never lose there jolt of sense of time, Hair affected both of almost from the opening number (and we've listened to the cast album maybe 200 times, not like it was just remembering the music). 1967-8 and the world in revolution...and the dawning of Aquarius.
10. If you think East Bay is a melting pot (which it is), you realize that riding the subway in NY is the ultimate mix-match: ethnicity, language, eccentricity (the guy dribbling the basketball next to us...only one person switched cars), all this for a $1.75/ride as far as you can go...

Later, THB