I have been remiss in reporting on my big trip to New York City, just about a month ago now. I went up on Monday, Sept. 21, and came home on Saturday, Sept. 27.
To be honest, the trip was a tad ruined in advance. JetBlue, in all their infinite wisdom, canceled my favored Sat. non-stop from JFK to San Diego, and instead re-booked me on a flight to Boston first, leaving 4 hours earlier than my previous reservation. And with weather on the Eastern seaboard crappy as all hell, I just barely made the connecting Boston-San Diego flight. In fact, they were holding the plane for us.
One of the only reasons why I fly JetBlue is because of these non-stop NYC-San Diego flights, coupled with their reasonable fares. I think I'll be rethinking this in the future, because I was incredibly disatisfied with the changes they made this time out--the first time I've had any trouble at all with the airline.
But I digress, even if there isn't a whole heckuva lot else to report. I took some photos (you can view 50 of them here on Flickr), and I saw a play, and I went to a taping of The Daily Show, in addition to my usual things: visiting book and comic stores.
I was tempted to go see The 39 Steps again in NYC, even though I had seen it in its original London run two years ago. Then I noticed tickets were $99 each, and I decided that was too much for a play I had already seen. And then fate intervened.
On Monday night, I walked up to Borders at Time Warner Center and arrived just in time to catch a talk about the play with 3 of the stars, including Sam Robards, who was now playing the lead. Along with an entertaining 20 minutes or so with the stars, Borders offered a ticket voucher for 50% off, so that sealed the deal for me. I went to the Cort Theatre and saw The 39 Steps again for 49 bucks (that's a little more than a dollar a step). And while I enjoyed the play, it wasn't as good as its London production (you can read my original review by clicking here). It seemed to me to be quite a bit dumbed down for America, with more Alfred Hitchcock references and the actors playing the material much more broadly. I also didn't think there was much energy to the performance or that the audience was into it. Still, The Cort is a fascinating little theater, and it was fun to see it. For many years, it was the home of The Merv Griffin Show, when it was a Group W (Westinghouse) production.
On Thursday, my friend Laurel--who lives up in the Hudson Valley--and I went to see a taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I reserved tickets a few months in advance, mainly out of curiosity. While we both enjoyed the show, there's a couple of things to keep in mind if you plan on going. You'll stand in line outside for close to 2 hours, then you'll sit inside for about an hour (which may have been a more extended amount of time than usual, due to the news of the day), to watch roughly 22 minutes of taping. I wouldn't recommend booking tickets in the winter months, or in July and August; the cold and the heat could be rough. We lucked out and had a cool, cloudy day, but we also were in line with one of the most obnoxious individuals I've ever been forced to stand next to. Let's call him "Joe Liberal."
I look at myself as being a fairly liberal person, but this guy needed to be taken out and shot at dawn. Repeatedly, over a period of six months. He went on and on about Bush (little or no argument there from yours truly), but it wasn't so much what he said as the way he said it. He found a willing pair of ears in two older women who were between him and me on line. He was, of course, an expert on EVERYTHING, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out he was a blogger. (You know how THOSE people are.) After 2 hours of listening to this guy, I longed for Woody Allen's large sock full of horse manure, or, at the very least, the ability to pull someone out from behind a movie poster to set him straight, ala Woody in Annie Hall. Alas, it didn't happen.
Once inside, we had great seats. The guest was CBS News' Bob Schieffer, touting his new book. The audience was warmed up by a funny but caustic comedian whose name escapes me and then Stewart answered some questions. The show was taped in the middle of the Wall Street meltdown, so that may explain why we were delayed so long in starting. The studio is more expansive than I anticipated (they usually look much smaller in person), but the overall set-up was tiny, especially the audience seating which I would guess held maybe 250. It was all over in a flash.
And the Wall Street meltdown was another thing that put a damper on this trip for me. I made me incredibly conscious of money (indeed, I returned home to find my own 401k had lost close to $6,000 in the last quarter), so spending a lot for a hotel room each night weighed on me heavily. I also made my usual yearly observations: A) I'm tired of traveling alone; B) I don't travel well anymore; and C) Just about anything I wanted to buy in NYC, I could also find online, thus negating the shopping aspect--an important one for me--of the trip.
So there you have it. My big, fat, New York vacation.
I spent a lovely five days in New York City last week as my annual Fall vacation. I went a little bit earlier than usual, due to a free ticket from jetBlue, so it was still Summer-like, temperature wise, for most of the days. It rained Tuesday when I arrived but cleared out nicely by late afternoon.
One of the big problems at JFK is how long it takes to get baggage from jetBlue, so--along with the half-hour early arrival time--finding the luggage runway parade started when I got to it was pretty amazing. But then something REALLY amazing happened: my bag was the FIRST one on the belt. How many times has that ever happened to you? It may have been because of my early morning stupor, but I could swear my bag was glowing, with a back-lit sunburst and there was a faint choir of angels singing in the background. How could any plane ride end better?
