Things Best Left Unsaid

So I finally hit the wall yesterday. 12 hours of sleep, I guess it had to catch up to me at some point. The Dreamland train took me straight back to Manhattan so I didn't mind.

Okay Day2, Take 1

I woke up early, 6 o'clock, less than 3 hours of sleep. I was being fueled by visions of Woody Allen movies, and all of the New Yorker magazines I had read over the years. I quickly showered and hit the road. I knew the others wouldn't be up for a few hours, and there were some things I had to get out of my system.

I made my way to the Starbuck's down in the lobby. I normally hate the stuff, but I wasn't sure if I could last on the adrenaline alone. Spinning out through the revolving door I entered a world that seemed to be the equivalent of watching your old black and white TV suddenly becoming a color plasma.

My old dog Reno, when faced with a new environment, would point his snout in the air and take a quick couple of puffs to familiarize himself with the surroundings, I found myself doing the same. The smells, the vibe, the electricity, were palpable. We were supposed to meet in the lobby at 10, so I had to stay relatively close. I knew Rockefeller Center was close, so I made a beeline towards there.

I can't even describe the feeling I had when I saw the statue of Prometheus for the first time. One of those moments where regardless of the heat, goosebumps quickly spread across my skin like some microscopic corn field. Sort of along the lines of love at first sight. I became almost spastic trying to take it in, you need someone there to share it, someone you can say "can you $#@%ing believe this!!!" to.

I had to settle down, my mind was racing. I decided to get something in my stomach and find a place to sit and absorb my surroundings. Where better place for breakfast than the Rockefeller Center skating rink? In the summer months they open two restaurant patios on the rink surface in front of Prometheus. I found what looked like a bus shelter, but it turned out to be a glass elevator that lowered me to the restaurant below.

The food was to die for, and pressed coffee put the Starbucks sludge to shame. I looked straight out on the fountains, and the front of the GE building as seen above. The bill made me choke on my Benedict for a moment, but I already knew that I would spend without a second thought on this trip, I already knew in the brief time I was there that this would surely be the trip of a lifetime. The rules and the budget were out the window.

I went for a walk after breakfast and quickly found the NBC studios where they were filming the Today show. There was a big crowd, so I just skirted the set like a sparrow taking a quick view. As I was walking away I heard Meredith Viera introduce the next guest, one David Wroblewski, an author. Now I don't know it the spellings are the same, but verbally it is the exact same as one of the guys on the trip. It sort of threw me for a loop for a moment, not a common name.

I jammed in what I could, Radio City Music hall, a few local churches. The Cole Hann store of course.
The architecture was just scrambling my brain, I couldn't take it all in. Just Rockefeller Center alone was stunning.

This is an example of the doorways of Rockefeller Center. I will show you some interior shots later, when we actually went to the "Top of the Rock".

A church on the walk back to the hotel

Saks Fifth Avenue across from the Cole Hann store. Beautiful building.

I made it back to the hotel to find everyone ready. Rick and Alayna had gone ahead to get some breakfast for themselves. We headed off towards Grand Central Station. You have to walk down Park Avenue and walk through the center tunnels of the Helmsley Building, another stunner. You come out the other side and go through the Met building and down the escalator to Grand Central. My camera literally could not take in the cavernous station, the pictures I have simply do not do it justice. I will have to see if I can get some from Dan as he is master of these shots.

It took us a little bit to get Metro Cards, but that was no fault of the NY transit system, a few people seemed to get ADD, and couldn't sit and wait while we figured things out, but we got it all straightened out. It was really warm, humidity mostly, as we crested the top of the escalator, it was as if we were on this roller coaster to hell as the temperature shot up several degrees in the tunnels. The subway cars were clean enough to eat off of and air conditioned to boot. I think most of us were looking for something like the opening credits of Welcome Back Kotter.

It only took us about 25 minutes to get to Yankee Stadium. A truly fantastic transit system. The train is elevated at that spot, gives it an almost Chicago feel. You know you are not in Manhattan anymore, you are in The Bronx. Again you could feel the energy, but this time it was baseball fever, and this was Mecca.

These stores and bars were packed. This was around 11, 2 hours before the game. Everyone was very polite and helpful. New Yankee Stadium across the street looks absolutely stunning, although walking through Old Yankee Stadium, you actually feel the rich history within its walls, and you know the only reason it is being torn down is for luxury boxes. The almighty dollar.

I actually took this picture from the water. It is almost impossible to get a good shot of the stadium from the ground.

Wow Wow Wow!!

Again, it was hard to take it all in.

Derek Jeter lining up for a single.

Roman and I had to take off for the Late Show with Letterman. Again, the subway took about 20 minutes, and literally dropped us off right in front of the theater. We jumped in the line up where we only had to wait for a few minutes before being processed. There was a couple in front of us, and a couple behind us. Everyone was from North Van of course. How bizarre is that? The couple behind is ended up being a focal point of the show. It was quite funny.

We had to kill an hour off afterwards so we went to see Rupert at the Hello Deli. Sure enough he was manning the counter. Roman was mesmerized, although I found it quite surreal myself. We killed the time and made our way back to the line. We had to wait outside for about 15 minutes before being herded into the Ed Sullivan Theater. It was cool in there at first, but the heat soon built as 200 people hyperventilated in anticipation for the show. I was fine, I was caught up in the whole history of the place. Elvis got his start here, The Beatles, The Doors, and on and on and on. The Merv Griffin Show used to be filmed on the same stage.

Roman was getting a little heated and flustered. I don't blame him, I'm a little claustrophobic myself. They started through the ground rules and did about a 20 minute pump up of the crowd. They warned that they manually assign seats and that if someone wasn't really into it then they were getting a shitty seat. I didn't believe them, but sure enough, as soon as they started filling the theater, people were being pulled aside and asked to sit somewhere else. They grabbed Roman, but once they knew he was with me they told us to keep going.

The theater was ice cold which suited me just fine. It turned into another 30 minute pump up session, it was actually a lot of fun. The band played and a stand up comedian came out and did a set which he then used to introduce Paul and Dave. It really was quite surreal, again.

Once having the conversation with the North Van couple Dave jumped right into the show. It is absolutely fascinating to see what goes on during the commercials. The second they cut he is surrounded by his entourage, he vents on his writers, rips up Q cards, then typically has a laugh and gets back to it. I can sort of understand the frustration. Talk shows are a cut throat business, and the last man standing is normally the funniest.

The show seemed to fly by in no time, and before we knew it we were back on the street. The show ended almost perfectly with the ball game, I had told the guys what train to take to meet us in Times Square.

(Whats left of Studio 54)

As the crew walked into Times Square from one side, we walked in from the other and met literally at the same time right in the center of the Square. I knew at this point that this trip was going to go like the well oiled breach of a rifle, it was just clicking perfectly into place.

Words cannot describe the place. To see so many people in one place, not in chaos, but rather some unconscious harmony, makes you really wonder about some of the crap that goes on in the world. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of pictures and a video from here. I guess I will have to mess around with the camera and see what happened.

A magazine stand in Times Square. I so dig these things. Can you even see so much as a candy bar out of place?

Virgin Records. (I know, Duh!, but I had to write something.

We were all starved and decided to go to the Hard Rock for some food and bevvies, bevvies seeming to take the priority. Amazing place, the memorabilia was incredible. The Vancouver location probably would have lasted longer if they had some of this stuff. It was so crowded (yet functional) that I couldn't really squeeze off the shots of everything I wanted.

We had a waiter named Razor or Cutter or something like that. He had more piercings that a National Geographic cover model from the Congo.
He was great with the service, it was just when it came to the time for the bill.

He was telling us the whole time that he had a "system". When we finally said we wanted the bill, he sat down with us. He calmly looked up and said "Does everybody remember what they had?" I thought he meant so he could separate the bills. He really meant he didn't have a clue what we really had. I said I thought you had a system. He of course said that was the "system." After about 10 minutes he said he had it all figured out and went to get the bill that he would formulate from his hand scribbled notes.

The bill didn't make any sense whatsoever of course, we just paid and went. Good time though.

We flooded outside to talk some shots of the square.

Police Dept. in the center of the square.

"The Square"

Love this shot. Wish we had figured out the black and white thing earlier.

So we got to the hotel and got changed. Most were tuckered. I was ready to spread my wings. 5 of us hit the town. Hutch, Roman, Dan, Dave, and myself. We found a great little mahogany enclave called P.J. Morans and pulled up to the bar. This is a great shot, if you zoom in on it, you will see that Hutchy at the end has transformed into the devil. Who better to hit the town with than the devil? This is where our Cosmopolitan trip was born. The 5 dollar special. At the time we were only talking about one or two before you knew it we had to buy a round each then we had to change bars, yada yada yada...

Dave was the first to be bitten by the Cosmo bug, he was already talking Spanish to the bartender in the picture above. As we were leaving to go to the next bar, he went into a tailspin and landed on jugs of grease left on the sidewalk for collection. No harm, no foul, there were some issues with his shoelaces, but as you can see Hutch taught him how to get the gopher around the tree and into the hole.

We ended up at the Pig and Whistle just below Times Square where we hooked up with Rick and Alayna. While all of us were soaring in our new fun and freedom Dave got caught in the bonds of gravity, and fell out of the booth into the center of the floor. We sent him on his way, I went out to hack a butt and watch his progress. He made sort of a straight line as he gently bounced off the buildings, he suddnly weaved and shot across the street, missing a cab by a matter of inches, or viceversa I suppose. he was too far away to do anything so I left it.

We headed up to Ray's Pizza up 3 in the morning and grabbed some slices, (Roman grabbed 4), the pizza was AWESOME!! We squeezed into a cab. Roman had to get into the front squished inside the plexiglass like that old yoga master they used to have on That's Incredicle. Somehow we convinced him to lick the plexiglass. I dont't have a clue what we were thinking, but I think that was kinda the idea.

Day 3 coming up.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Get Me Outta This Veal Fattening Pen!!

So we got to YVR at around 11. My anxiety had already kicked into full overdrive. I was checking my pockets to make sure my wallet, passport, camera, etc. were still there so often that it could have looked like I was playing the Hambone. We were checked in quite swiftly, but were informed that the flight was going to be a half hour late. Typical.

We quickly started running into the rest of the group, some had already cleared security and were waiting below. Steve, Leanne, and I had to squeeze in as many heaters as possible, so we lingered smoke like by the ashtray outside.

By the time we made our way downstairs, we knew the flight was going to be at least an hour late. Some sat around the bar, others just flopped down patiently in their seats.

I had checked out the seating arrangements on Cathay a few days earlier. They said that they had overhauled all of their planes by July 2008. We of course got the one that had somehow fallen through the cracks. As it was, the seat back was pressed right into my knees. Then the 5 foot tall Chinese woman in front of me decided she had to recline it as soon as we reached altitude. When Tom had to get out to the loo, her husband saw my frustration and apologized and asked her to return it to the original position. I appreciated that. Don't get me wrong on Cathay. The service and flight attendants were excellent. The food was not bad either. The entertainment system was a little whacked out, but we figured it out.

We touched down after a few hours, and a couple of movies. Iron Man and 21. Not bad. We were at the back of the plane, so we just sat and let everyone get out. What happened next was one of the most claustrophobic experiences of my life, as we came off the jetway into a narrow tunnel that led to customs and immigration. It seemed to take forever, but we also just wanted to get to where we were going. I still hadn't received the baseball tickets. And when you have 13 people who have dropped 3 grand for tickets, you feel a little pressure believe me. We finally collected our bags and split.

As you can see in the pictures, the Waldorf did not disappoint. The lobby alone leaves you speechless. It spreads over almost an entire city block. Our rooms were crazy, sitting rooms, dressing rooms, full wet bar, hell, one guy even had two bathrooms.I swear my room was bigger than some apartments i've had. We quickly changed, and met in the lobby before hitting the town. I heard that Dan's bag was accidentally taken by Paul at the airport, and Dan was still out there figuring it all out. My heart went out to him. He is a bigger man than I. I would have lost it.

We decided to go to P.J. Clarke's, an old speakeasy down on 3rd and 55th. It's a ghost-ridden old brick of a building that is now owned by Timothy Hutton the actor. It was one of Frank Sinatra's original hangouts, and Richard Harris was well known to beehive it from JFK and order 6 double vodkas at once. I wouldn't be trying that. It is also well known for gracing many covers of The New Yorker.

We settled in to our red and white checkered table cloth tables and ordered our round which disappeared as quickly as Dan's luggage, the waiter soon knew he had a winning table on his hands. The rent would be paid this month.

Dan and Dave showed up soon after, and we rejoiced in burgers, beers, and fries. I kept sneaking out the side door for my smokes. Garbage was piled up high around all the street corners. I didn't know how to take it at first, but it soon became an example of the efficiency that defines this beautiful city. I will get into that later.

It amazed me that this bar was 120 years old, and it looked as fantastic as it did. There weren't that areas that have been painted over 20 times, and the windows would still open and close. They brought us a big plate of fresh garden pickles that everyone gobbled down.

We decided to pack it in and get a good start in the morning. Nobody really noticed that it was already 3 in the morning anyhow. We strolled back to hotel where we would all soon fall in love with our mattresses. The bedding and mattresses at the Waldorf are to die for, there are already a few of the guys who are going to buy them. I only slept 3 hours a night the entire time I was there, but still felt refreshed, albeit, glazed. I laid my head down, closed my eyes, and I was gone.

Tomorrow, Day 2.

The Sidewalks of New York

I will start to post a chronological journal after this entry. I just love this video, even with its brevity. The guy in the pink shirt started talking to us about 4 minutes earlier. The conversation was brilliant, but I stalled in grabbing my camera because I didn't know how drawn out it was going to be. This is right before we went to JFK to come home. As you can see, Dan and I were already "taking flight."

Monday, September 1, 2008

Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night, Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Cosmo Tour 2008 has come to a close. We got back at about 3 this morning, so this won't be long, I simply wanted to point out the fact that I'm still alive.

The Tour could not have been better, and about 90% of the people aboard vowed they had never had a better trip in their lives. I think we all hit it out of the park in our own little way. I could talk endlessly about it, but we have lots of time for that. My convalescence must take priority. What I really want to say in this post is how incredible I find it that 13 people can come together and gel as this group did on this trip. When you have an experience like we had, it is thicker than blood. For the rest of our lives, the tag line of our opening sentences to each other could easily be "Remember that time in New York....?"

These are just some quick shots from Greenwich Village on Friday night. We had a wonderful dinner in Little Italy before walking (and cabbing) to this bar. I did a fair bit of research before we went and came up with a "loose" sort of map of restaurants and bars we could could hang around.

This is the White Horse Tavern. It opened in 1880, and has been home to the likes of Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, The Clancy Brothers, and of course Jack Kerouac and Dylan Thomas, both of which lived upstairs. There is still "JACK GO HOME!" carved into the mens washroom wall, as Kerouac had a tendency of being tossed out of the bar. It was Thomas' drinking at the White Horse that many attribute to his early death. A lot of people in out group were not aware of Thomas, but as we carved our way through our drinks that night I made it our new mantra for the trip. "Do not go gentle into that good night, rage, rage against the dying of the light!" The White Horse is also the birthplace of the now famous Village Voice.

We hung out until about 3 in the morning, a fresh night rain washed the streets. Our tab approached $500, a testament to our commitment. I had to include this picture of Dan. Not only does the smile on his face represent the joy we all felt on this junket, it is also one of the few where he doesn't have that goofy, surprised, bug-eyed look. See below.

On that note, I have to go back to bed.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Whoever Said You Can't Buy Happiness Forgot Little Puppies

Let me introduce Trio. This is Miley's new puppy. Cute ha? We had been working together on a Great Gatsby project for her upcoming school year. We both thought Gatsby would have been a great name, but Mothers always win and Trio it is. Still a great name.

I saw Truman Capote in an interview once. He was asked to explain Zen. He pointed to his puppy sitting on the floor thumping his tail, and said "I think that about sums it up."

Just as Meadow guided her from childhood to now. I'm sure Trio will guide her from now to adulthood. Gilda Radner one said "I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the roll model for being alive. The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too." Puppies can make falling in love so easy.

It's like I used to say:

My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am.

Things Best Left Unsaid

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Circle Line, Cobb Salads, and the Golden Balls of Wall Street

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

It Was the Best of Times...it WAS the Best of Times

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Get Me Outta This Veal Fattening Pen!!

The Sidewalks of New York

Monday, September 1, 2008

Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night, Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Whoever Said You Can't Buy Happiness Forgot Little Puppies

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