come walk the city streets

I still can’t believe I was there just last week.  Just for a moment.  Which sometimes feels like all I need – just a minute to pop in, soak up a little of the atmosphere, ride a couple of turns on that whirlwind…

And then again, it’s not enough time.  Who could ever walk around every corner?  And for me, at least, it takes more than a couple of days just to adjust to the pace.  Remember the walk (My NY dwelling friend tells me you have to walk angry when you’re alone in the city.  I totally agree. But dang, it’s tiring).

We arrived mid afternoon on Tuesday (fresh from Long Island!) and we settled ourselves and tried to figure out the rest of the day.  Things were unclear with dinner plans for Bryan so we decided to head to Times Square.  I loved being able to take him there, since he is so often the one showing me the next new thing.  He loves the next new thing, that Bryan Jones does.

Several obvious observations:

• New York is VERTICAL.  I just ended up laughing at myself over my surprise at having to constantly turn my camera sideways.  Of course it’s vertical.  It’s skyscrapers.
• Times Square is a mall.  With an Olive Garden, a Gap, a Hard Rock, and a Red Lobster.  Really, people?  Where do you have to be from to go to an Olive Garden in Times Square?
• The whole city is a paradox.  Great art, beautiful culture, more trash than I’ve ever seen.  The simultaneous feeling that the whole world is open to you, and that the same whole world is trying to scam you.

Yes, I know.  Profound. I did say they were obvious.  But we had a good time walking around and in time, his dinner plans fell into place so I decided to go see a show.  Which led to a visit to the TKTS booth…

…and wandering down some side streets to oh.  Theaters. It’s like they built these blocks just for me.  I’ll be fine, thanks, you can just leave me here and I’ll see you in a few weeks.

This was the show that I came into town thinking about seeing.  It’s supposed to be wonderful.

But I didn’t get tickets in advance, and there weren’t any cheap enough left to suit me, so I kept looking.  Right around the corner there was this.  I loved the painting on the side of the theater.

And this one nearly did me in.  James Gandolfini, Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden. I love what they did with the stage doors, and that one quote may become my new motto.

But in the end I couldn’t turn down this cast, appearing in a play called Exit The King.

And did I like the play, you ask?  Well, I certainly liked watching Susan Sarandon and Geoffrey Rush do their thing right across the room from me.  The entire cast was fantastic, really.  But the whole thing, altogether – well if I was a New Yorker, I think I would say meh.  It was just okay.  Which is crazy to me with that level of talent involved.

Let me just veer to the side here and just say that I have yet to have an incredible theater experience in New York City yet – now, I’ve only been to 3 shows there, but so far, nothing that blew me out of the water.  That’s funny to me, because I so often have these strong experiences other places – so why not here?  I have my theories about too-high expectations and casting well-known stars in pieces because people will pay money to see them even if they know nothing about the show (case in point) and ‘pushers’ in Times Square like the young man who breathlessly said to me they should just go ahead and give Geoffrey Rush the Tony right now…

Oh well, it worked on me.  I bought the ticket, I had a pleasant evening, I saw the stars.  I just wanted more.

And I got it, in a way.  You’ll remember my Official Celebrity Sighting, otherwise known as The Moment I Grabbed My Camera And Started Snapping As Fast As I Could Without Changing Any Of The Settings Off Of Daytime Outdoor Light.  Seconds after this I was accosted by an usher and shamed into putting the Nikon away.  This was the best I could do in Photoshop.  My apologies to the wonderful John Lithgow.  He seemed like a very nice person, albeit a giant one.

And, without much further ado, the play ended, and I said goodbye to the theater…

and to the Square…

and walked angry back to the hotel and called it a night.