Honestly I’m not sure if I would’ve read my blog for the last couple weeks. I’ve been living a pretty vicarious existence with all the reading and watching I’ve been doing. This doesn’t make for the most interesting reading for others. Vicariously experiencing a vicarious life is just a bit too detached for most of us to handle. So in order to encourage further reading, I ventured out of my house and went on a trip to NYC.
Despite the fact that I’ve lived in New York for ten years now, this makes only my fifth visit to Manhattan. Two of those visits were six months ago when I was going to interviews. So there is really a lot that I have yet to do.
We drove to NYC on Friday, arriving around 4. I had intended to get some good anatomy studying in, but my darned video iPod pulled my attention away. We checked into our hotel, which was conveniently situated right in the theater district. With the help of my other family members my brother and I got lottery tickets for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Everyone else took off to go see the opera, and Eric and I walked around the Times Square area. We tried to find a grilled cheese restaurant my sister suggested, but had to settle for Carve: Unique Sandwiches. I like having so much variety right at my fingertips, but would vastly prefer it if this variety didn’t cost my first-born child. Little did the sandwich shop know that I may never has a firstborn, so they’ll probably never get paid.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was quite entertaining. Our seats were in the balcony directly by the stage, so we got a unique view of the action. The only person I knew from the cast was Jonathan Price, who I only know because he’s in several Terry Gilliam films. But everyone seemed to do quite well. The actor playing the Steve Martin character was particularly entertaining. He did go into the play having the disadvantage of not being Steve Martin, but he seems to have overcome that well. Having seen the movie on which it was based many times, the plot was no surprise to me. But altogether it was a very enjoyable experience.
I spent Saturday morning alone, which is when I my best exploring. My family went to one museum and I decided to seek out the Guggenheim instead. But sadly I have horrible luck with the Guggenheim. The last time I tried to visit I discovered that Thursday was the Guggensabbath and I couldn’t go in. This time the building was open, but the vast majority of it was closed for renovation. Some guy outside did give me a free ticket though, so my luck is changing a bit. I did get to look around the building a bit, which is mostly what I cared about. Frank Lloyd Wright is my favorite architect (admittedly there are relatively few celebrity architects to choose from) and it was great to just see the building.
I met up with my brother in the afternoon and we went to see Spamalot. Again, I greatly enjoyed the show. I was a bit torn when they departed from the source material, since Search for the Holy Grail is most likely my favorite movie of all time. But the play was very much in the Python style, ie incredibly silly while simultaneously clever. I think DRS may be the superior play, but I certainly preferred this one due to my devotion to the Python clan. I even bought an inanely overpriced toy cow to commemorate the experience.
I think it’s almost certainly some sort of statement that both Broadway shows I saw were based on movies. I don’t know if that’s a statement about me or about the state of theater, but I know I enjoyed them more than I would've enjoyed the opera.
We gathered together after the show (the rest of my family saw another opera or The Pajama Game.) After dinner we visited a Joseph Smith statue that is temporarily on display in the financial district. Why? We’re not quite sure. We also swung by Ground Zero, which I had never seen before. But as you’d expect, a large construction site with incredibly high fencing really isn’t terribly interesting to look at. After some more chit-chat we parted ways. The three of us returning to Rochester did so without any complications.
So now back to a couple more weeks of my dull life. Relaxing certainly, but undeniably dull. Though I will inevitably complain about having no free time once my job starts up. Such is life.
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