Racing

This NYC vacation has gone so quickly, as my vacations are wont to do. We got up late again, and then realized we had a limited amount of time to purchase and send Mother’s Day presents, less than 2 hours, since we will be all tied up tomorrow with air travel, etc. So we ate our chocolate babka and with the energy it provided, raced out to the post office on the 9th floor of Macy’s to get Priority mail boxes, then to Hallmark, which it turns out is within the Herald Square train station, then back to the hotel to find another Hallmark, then to the other Hallmark on 7th Ave and 38th, then to 25th St and 7th Ave. to purchase the gifts, then back to the hotel to put them all together, then back to Macy’s post office again. And then we waited for a very long line, and at 1:40 we finally got our packages off, just in time to take the elevator to street level, race into the subway entrance, take the train to 49th St., and then walk quickly to the theater to catch our 2pm curtain, which I am proud to say we made with 5 minutes to spare!

In all that, we sort of missed lunch, so we’ll just have to make up for it at dinner.

The show “Race” was about racial relations. A rich man (the guy who played John Boy in the Waltons…the one with the big ass mole…) comes into a lawyers office wanting them to take his felony rape case. The partners (James Spader and David Alan Grier) try to decide whether they want to take the case. One is white, the other black. They have a black female intern lawyer also working for them, who gathers things for the case. Here is the kicker, the alleged rape victim is black. That is the basis of this fast paced legal drama written and directed by David Mamet.

Margie thought the play was so-so and that Ms Washington was weak. I liked the play better, especially the 2nd act which was a pot boiler. James Spader was really good, as you would expect.

There are rats in the 14th St/Union Square train station. That is all.

Dinner was at the Aroma Café, on 4th St. since we are seeing a off-Broadway production nearby. We didn’t get to sit in the romantic area downstairs, due to some large parties, so we sat upstairs in the bar area. Margie started with a lobster broth soup, which was a classic French fish soup. I had a Caesar salad, with some very nice anchovies and a poached egg! I have never had anything like it, and it was pretty good. The entrees were merely OK. Margie had a cod ravioli, dotted with calamari which was tough and tasteless. I had Sicilian meatloaf with Spinach and Polenta. All off it was rather tasteless. Well, unless salt is what you like. The meat itself was tough. For dessert I had a bread pudding with an almond ice cream. That was pretty good. The wine I had by the glass was decent too. All in all, this was a miss, from the well meaning but clueless service, to the loud environment, so the sometimes good, sometimes not so good food.

“Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson” was bloody, bloody brilliant! Besides a great history lesson on the “American Nazi” and 7th president, the irreverent (think: Forbidden Broadway) musical was very funny. Very, very funny. This is right up there with the best musicals we saw on this vacation, and we saw some good ones.

It will be sad to go home tomorrow, but in answer to the question, is it possible to want more after 14 shows in 10 days. Emphatically, yes!

Whole gluttony

This morning we walked to Whole Foods. It is only about a mile away, and I figured we needed to earn our babka with some exercise. We got both cinnamon and chocolate, and a vegan chocolate cake, and a chocolate scone. There is a common thread in the last sentence. Anyway, after that exhausting walk, I needed a slice or two. So I got two. Margie had something she picked up from the hot buffet at Whole Foods for lunch, and watched me eat the pizza. The picture is for my beloved daughter, who shares my love of NY pizza.

For dinner, we decided to try a Mexican restaurant, Ta Cocina on 9th Avenue. I had a Margarita for my appetizer, and Margie had a Daiquiri. For the main course, I had Mole steak enchiladas, with rice and beans, and it was quite good. The mole wasn’t super spicy, or super anything -- it just tasted good. Margie had fish tacos with a chipolte mayonnaise, black beans and rice, and liked it a lot. She only ate two of the tacos, so I filled the last one with the remainder of my Mole sauce, and it was really good that way too.

After a brief stop at Dean and De Luca, we walked to the theater on 45th Street, near where the car bomb had been planted. The police were there in force!!! Besides the NYPD TARU (Terrorist Alert Response Unit? I don’t know…), they had regular police, a bunch of police vans, and a bunch of unmarked vehicles containing who knows who. We also saw Shubert security. Shubert owns 17 of the 40 Broadway theaters. I don’t know if they were just there in a preventative way, or some big shot was eating at a restaurant there, or I they were just showing force to deter a copy-cat attack.

Anyway, we saw Next to Normal, and it was next to great! The star, and Tony winner Alice Ripley, did not appear. Instead her understudy did, Jessica Phillips. This is the danger of going to Tuesday night shows. Anyway, Jessica had a great voice, and very decent acting skills too. I wish we could have seen Alice, though.

The plot concerned a woman who has suffered a loss in her life, and is manic-depressive and delusional due to this traumatic event. Her high strung and high performing daughter, and loyal husband suffer from her issues. This doesn’t sound like a musical, does it? But it certainly was, and the music was actually pretty good. All in all we enjoyed the show, and it was definitely 5 tissues out of 5 on the emotional scale.

Our last 2 plays are tomorrow, and we also have to pack, so it should be an easy and fun day, not that they all haven’t been…

Somehow not starving

We slept in again. After 4 shows over the weekend, we were perhaps a little over stimulated. Margie said she didn’t feel like shopping, so I felt it was safe to stroll 5th Avenue. Wrong! She suddenly felt like shopping. We went into the 10 floor Lord and Taylor, and she was very excited by the whole floor of shoes (#3) but didn’t buy any. She did find a gown on floor #6 (petites), which fortunately had a cafe I could hang in too, run by some famous jam and pastry maker. She also bought a hippie blouse at another store, and a t-shirt at yet another.

It wasn’t a total bust for me, as I got to go to my favorite little deli for lunch on 42nd St. near 5th Avenue. I think it is called the 42nd St. Deli, imaginatively enough. It is next door to McDonalds. Anyway, they had fresh turkey today, so I got a warm turkey sandwich. Margie got a freshly made salad with all of her favorite vegetables.

You would think we would have gained like 10 pounds the way we have been eating. But actually I am on my last belt hole, and I mean the smallest belt circumference. It must be all of the walking. I didn’t confess yet that we ate the entire cinnamon babka the morning after we purchased it! That is about a half pound of babka apiece! Cinnamon babka is like a giant thin cinnamon roll dough, rolled up, without all of the super sweet and disgusting icing, so in other words, perfect. Ours was made by Lilly’s Bake Shop in Brooklyn. I would provide a link, but Site Advisor did not bless it, so google at your own risk. Anyway, I just warmed a slice of babka in the microwave for a few seconds, and it was good. So I cut another slice for Margie and for me. And on and on, until it was gone! Cinnamon babka is not the lesser babka! Maybe we will go get another at Whole foods tomorrow, or perhaps try the chocolate one. Oatmeal is getting boring…

It is always fun watching New Yorkers in action. One guy ran after a police tow truck today. I guess it was his vehicle lodged on the back of the truck. He yelled at the guy in the truck, who shrugged and turned onto 5th Avenue and drove away. Another time *two* guys who were not together tried to cross 5th Avenue just as the light was turning red, so there were two cars, a black limo and a cab accelerating to get through the intersection. The guys stopped midway between the two lanes, and the two cars sped right by, one behind the guys, and one in front. No honking or shaking of fists, just an understanding that if either decided to make a run for it, or back-track, they would be dead and the cabbie would be in trouble and probably lose their medallion.

For dinner we went to La Masseria, our favorite Italian place in the theater district. The food is so good, and the waiters so Italian. Anyway, Margie started with the Fritto Misto del Mare, lightly breaded calamari, shrimp, and scallops, with a light tomato sauce. She mostly just drizzled lemon juice on the perfectly cooked fish. I had a Spinach salad with pear slices, nuts, with a Gorgonzola dressing. There were also little chunks of Gorgonzola in the salad. Delicious. For our main courses, I had Gnocchi al Taleggio e Radicchi, which was potato gnocchi in a creamy Taleggio cheese sauce, with Radicchio. Not the best thing for me to eat, but it sure was tasty. I don’t know how they get their gnocchi to be so tender and delicious. Last time I had their ravioli, and it was perfect too. Margie had fettuccine with duck, one of the specials. The homemade fettuccine was so light, it reminded me of versions I have had in the north of Italy. For dessert I had the crème brule, and Margie had Amaretto coffee. We also shared a perfect Chianti during dinner, a half bottle of Machesi Mazzei Chianti. Anyway, for those who visit NYC and want one special dinner in the theater district, La Masseria would be my recommendation.

Our evening show was “In the Heights”, last year’s Tony winner. We really enjoyed it, and bought the cast recording at intermission. Great music, energetic cast, and good sets and special effects make this show one of the best we have seen. Margie liked it more than Billy Elliot. The audience was very badly behaved, again, and the ushers did nothing to stop them. Prior to the show, flashes were going off all over the theater. During the show, the constant chattering and Iphone usage was really distracting, too. But the show more than made up for the rude Monday night audience.

3 Shows to go, and the Tony nominations come out tomorrow!

Blown Away?

Another hot day, and of course New York is all abuzz over the attempted bombing. Like almost everyone else, we didn’t let it ruin our plans for the day. In fact, I always assume that after something like this happens, Times Square is probably the safest place on earth to be! With all those police, I don’t expect there will be another attempt.

I sort of buy the explanation that the target was Viacom headquarters, for showing the South Park episode with Mohammad dressed as a bear, but if they really wanted those guys, wouldn’t they bomb during the weekdays when the building was more occupied? Nope, I think they wanted to kill lots of little kids seeing Lion King. Bastards!

So that is twice now, for us. The last time was 7/7/2005, my dear daughter’s birthday, when our west end theater plans were destroyed by the terrorist bombings in London. We got a late start that day, and by the time (10am) we reached the tube station (subway), they were just closing it down. The next day we attended the theater just as we would have otherwise, in solidarity with the British people, and in support of the theater. When we alter our behavior and are afraid, the terrorists win.

We’ve been using the subway almost exclusively for our transportation, although Margie did talk me into cabbing it the other night for the opera. I love how convenient the subway is, and how easy and fast it is to go from place to place. It is also very cheap when you buy a pass. I haven’t bothered to say everywhere we have gone on this blog, because it is not of general interest -- most want to read the dining/theater reviews, and not my ramblings on New York life. For example, we went to Washington Square the other day, as in the picture.

Some things do bother me about the subway, like the sign I have photographed to the right. Now what is going on here? Someone who is, I guess, trying to help clumsy people has put these signs all around the various subway stations of the city so that they won’t slip and fall into the 4” gap between the subway car and the curb, and they have posted it in 5 languages! No French, so I assume they know better? Or are not so skinny? Stuff like this really bothers me, as it seems to me a much greater statistical threat would be the extremely heavy cars coming into the station at 40 mph, and the slight possibility someone may fall in front of one of them! But you see no warning signs. Nor signs suggesting that banging your head on the tile floor is a bad idea. Or falling down the stairs could cause harm. Or not giving your seat to an angry elderly type might get you shived!

Our first show today, the matinee, was “Hair”. I didn’t know anyone in the cast, but Margie knew someone named Ace Young from American Idol, who played Berger, one of the leads. He was good, as was the rest of the energetic ensemble. The music was dated, of course, but the cast did such a great job of delivering the goods, that you didn’t really care. The harmonies were lovely, and of course “Hair” and “Aquarius” remain show stoppers.

My advice to anyone who wants to go is to get aisle seats. My brother-in-law Jeff had recommended that, but I didn’t manage to get them. Telecharge filled the theater weirdly, with the center orchestra packed, and the left and right empty. So at intermission we moved much closer to aisle seats in the left orchestra, and the sound was waaayyy better. Plus you interact with the cast who spend a lot of time in the aisles.

The audience was *very* badly behaved. Texting, and talking were the worst sins. But what I couldn’t understand were the people who brought their pre-teens, like the woman on my right, before we switched seats! Did she not realize that hippies cussed a lot in the 60s? Or how about the constant simulated sex onstage? Or the famous nude scene at the end of the first act? What is so hard to understand about “For Mature Audiences”? Look, I am hardly a prude, and my indignation is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and I know some kids are more mature than others, but what, you can’t afford to spring for Lion King tickets so you take your two little girls to see “Hair“ and tell them to close their eyes at the end of the first act?

At any rate, the show was fun, and they let the audience dance on stage after the curtain call. So if you go to this link at look carefully (because she is short) at about 1:19 for 2 or 3 seconds, you can see Margie make her Broadway debut…

After the show, we dined at Virgil’s BBQ on 44th St., another old favorite. They have quick service, and we only had about an hour an a half to eat between shows. I had the BBQed lamb, with mashed potatoes and gravy, greens, and cornbread, and it was all very tasty. I also had Margie’s cornbread. And I had pecan pie too! Margie had a grilled chicken salad with avocado, smoked pork belly pieces, and a honey mustard dressing which she liked very much. I forgot to take pictures. Sorry!

Our evening show was “Billy Elliot”. They now have 5 Billy’s (“you know how kids get sick, and it is better than cancelling a performance”, said the usher). None of the 5 were among the 3 who won the Tony last year. But that is OK, our Billy was first rate in both voice and dance. The show was sold out, as it always is, and it was really brilliant from beginning to end, a dynamite adaptation of the movie. The seats were uncomfortable, again, as my knees touched the seats in front of me once more. Greedy bastards! Are there no other 6’2” men who attend theater? At this point I can probably look forward to our flight home on AA for the most leg-room! Anyway, Billy Elliot was a really good show, and we were really blown away by it...

Promises kept

We're halfway done with our trip and our shows, and it has been a good run with both. The weather turned very warm today -- mid-80s! So I saw our first show of the day, the matinee, in shorts. I wasn't alone.

I would not say my gender was terribly well represented, however. The audience for Promises, Promises was three fourths female, for sure. I wasn't sure if that was because of Sean Hayes ("Will and Grace") or Kristin Chenoweth ("Wicked"). Based on the cheers each got in their first scene, perhaps a little of both, with a slight edge to Sean Hayes. I had never seen him before having never watched Will and Grace, and Margie loves the show, so perhaps we are were microcosm of the audience.
The musical itself was dated, and I mean that in a bad way. When the top two songs were Dionne Warwick hits in the 1960s ("I Say a little Prayer for You", and "I'll never fall in love again"), and the rest of the score is also by Burt Bacharach, you can perhaps understand what I mean. Phantom of the Opera, this is not!

As for the leads, Sean Hayes was a decent enough actor, with his asides to the 4th wall getting the most laughs, but his singing was suspect. Good enough for this material I suppose, but no better. Kristin has an amazing voice for a little gal, but lacked the material to get the pipes really moving.

Still, and in spite of a marginal NY Times review, the house was packed (and advance ticket sales are through the roof) at the cavernous Broadway Theatre, and everyone seemed to enjoy it, including Margie.

I was highly uncomfortable. Not due to anything onstage. Now these were not our best seats in terms of distance to the stage. We were in the rear Mezzanine, which seemed to start at Broadway and extend back to nearly 8th Avenue! Opera glasses would not have been inappropriate. I got what I could get, as this was one of the last plays I booked, and it was already booked pretty solid for this particular day. But eye strain was not the source of my discomfort. It was the seats! Sitting all the way back in my chair, I could not sit straight ahead without driving the seats in front of me forward with my knees. Just ridiculous, and the worst theater experience I have had in terms of being cramped, since seeing "Rent" here several years ago. I remember swearing last year that I would always book aisle seats from now on. If only that had been possible at this particular show. So anyway, in spite of the less than stellar show, in my opinion, and my discombobulated posture following the show, I took one for the team, which means Margie. She liked it a lot.

I suppose I should say a word about the plot. A NYC guy (Sean Hayes) working at an insurance company tries to advance his career by loaning his apartment out to the "Mad Men" executives for their carnal adventures. His ploy works, and he becomes a Junior Executive. But the girl (Kristin) he wants is also having an affair with his boss, one of the guys he is lending his key to most every night of the week. This might have been racy in the 1960s, but without the success of the aforementioned TV series, or the inestimable talents of the leads, I doubt anyone would have been interested.

Dinner was at an old favorite, Shun Lee on 65th. It used to be better, I think. Anyway, we shared the boiled szechwan dumplings, Neptunes platter which was a potato basket filled with seafood, and Sesame chicken, which was stringy rather than fried, and Hunan Broccoli. It was all good enough, and better than anything we get in Ashland, but for the astronomical prices, I guess I expected better.

But the location can't be beat for a show at Lincoln Center, which is right across the street. We sauntered over after the meal, and went into the beautiful Met Opera House to see "Carmen". This show has long been sold out, because it is both a stunning production, and it featured a up and coming tenor named Jonas Kaufmann as Don Jose. So we had to buy scalper tickets to get in, and we ended up with incredible seats, 10 rows back in the orchestra, mid-center. Some of the seats in the theater have memorials, and the one in front of us was for Enrico Caruso, so you know you have good seats! They are not going to give Enrico a dedication in the 5th balcony, trust me.

Carmen was played by Kate Aldrich, and she was a revelation. Beautiful, young, thin, this mezzo-soprano seems to have it all. Her acting was as stellar as her singing, and she even did a cartwheel on stage at one point! I guess you no longer have to suspend disbelief at the opera as you did when your Carmen weighed in at 250 lbs. No fat ladies sang here...

Anyway, the opera was just wonderful. Bizet's familiar music was utterly enchanting, the singers were great in every respect, and the sets were magnificent. I am so glad we decided on this particular production.

UPDATE: I wanted to let everyone know we were not in the vicinity of the car bomb that detonated but failed to explode on W 45th St. We were in the upper west side at the time this happened. But where it was located, in front of the Imperial Theater, is exactly where we will be that time this afternoon when we see "Hair" and this evening when we see "Billy Elliot". No worries. We are still planning to attend...

Fishy stories

The weather is finally warm! The high was predicted to be 74, and I think it got there, and it was nice and sunny too.

We had breakfast in the room and noticed we were running low on supplies, so we headed down to Chelsea by subway to an even closer Whole Foods (on 7th Ave near 23rd St). Everything we bought was basically for Margie. Some lunch stuff from the food bar, and various non-dairy snacks. We also bought some Cinnamon babka! Yeah, the other babka! Who knew?! They had chocolate too, and we didn't have to fight anyone for it, but Margie thought I would like the cinnamon better. We haven't opened it yet to see if there are any hairs in it, and we stayed well clear of the black and white cookies.

On the way back we had to drop by Burger King for my diet coke fix, and the stench in there from the warm weather, greasy food, and cinnabons (they share a store) was quite overpowering. On the way back to the hotel, we dropped by Victoria's Secret for some underwear. I had to sit in the chair of shame and pretend I wasn't pussy-whipped. It is hard to maintain your dignity in this situation, trust me. Some other victim got yelled at for taking a picture with his camera. So I guess the underwear really is a secret! Margie was pretty quick, though, and soon we were back in the room so I could work on this blog and organize things, and Margie could rest.

Dinner was awesome. We went to Estiatorio Milos, an extraordinary Greek Seafood place. The fish selection was amazing, and very expensive. Check out some of the prices in the picture! We started with some crispy toasted bread and amazing olive oil. I had the pre-fixe dinner, which consisted of 4 courses, starting with the crabcake, grilled shrimp, and fava bean puree appetizer. Absolutely scrumptious. That good olive oil played a role in every one of these items. The second course was an heirloom tomato salad with feta cheese sprinkled on the top. Yum! The main course was a whole Loup de Mer (Branzino) nicely boned and ready to eat. Just perfect. Margie ate lighter, starting with a beet salad of red and golden beets. For her main course she had the scallops appetizer. She loved both. That olive oil made an appearance in every dish. For dessert, we shared (well, one bite anyway) a walnut cake with lavender ice cream. The cake was forgettable, but the ice cream was nice.

We walked to our show which was "White's Lies", about a "player" (Tuc Watkins) who finds out his Mom (Betty Buckley of "8 is enough") has cancer, and is about to die, and really wanted a grandchild. He conspires to create one by announcing that he had a daughter (Shisty Carlson Romano ("Kim Possible") out of wedlock 25 years prior, assisted by his law partner (Peter Scolari ("Newhart"). Then things get complicated. It didn't really work as a farce, and was mostly pretty silly. Everyone more or less came to see the play because they knew the actors and had seen them on TV. I had not. Anyway, although fluffy, it wasn't boring.

Three Idiots

The weather is finally shaping up, and it is supposed to actually be hot this weekend. We'll see.







After breakfast in our room, we headed down to the W. Village and went to Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books. We like small NYC bookstores, and we had never visited this one. They specialize in out-of-print books, but stock only ones they like, including a large stock of R Crumb anthologies, art books, and other jewels. We spent some time looking around, bought a few small and cheap items, and then headed to Union Square. I know, Strand's is better, but we wanted a large bookstore experience, so we went to Barnes and Noble, and bought some more things.





Naturally, searching for books makes one hungry, so we stopped by Blue Water Grill, a very stylish restaurant that used to be a bank. I had a Cobb salad, and Margie enjoyed a thai-style sushi roll with crab and shrimp in it. We both liked the sunshine, dining al fresco with all sorts of NYU students walking by.






After all that work, we subwayed back to the hotel for a rest. For dinner, we decided to go Argentine, and dined at the Chimichurri Grill. We ordered just one course, but it was substantial, and we had two sides. I had a ribeye. Margie had grilled short ribs. My plate is pictured with our sides, Broccoli Rabe, and crispy garlic and parsley french fries. It was all very tasty!











































Finally, it was time for our daily show, American Idiot, the musical based on the Green Day album of the same name. It was loud, the book was almost non-existent, as they relied on the words of Green Day, and the set was very urban, with TVs everywhere spewing the them of the moment, and, in short, it was brilliant. Now maybe if you don't like Green Day as much as we do, you wouldn't be as impressed. But we loved it. The story concerned three guys who upon reaching their early 20s, decided to set out and claim the world as their own. One quickly became disenchanted, and joined the military, being sent to Afghanistan, and...well you can guess what happens to him. Another meets a girl, and things are going so well, and then he takes up drugs. The third doesn't make the road trip at all, mostly sitting on the couch drinking beer during the entire show. Meanwhile the hard working and talented ensemble belted out Green Day lyrics, occasionally played guitar, and danced frenetically in a punk style. Good stuff. And there was one acrobatic scene that was almost dream-like. But I won't spoil it like the Village Voice did.





Which brings me to the 3 idiots. Oh you thought I was referring to the show? No, afterwards we went to the ESPN Zone bar in Times Square. There I met two Redwings fans, who were nice for being Redwings fans from Michigan, and that is saying a lot. But the Sharks won, and they went home unhappy, I'm sure. The other idiot was a guy who decided to take advantage of the ticker that went around the top of the bar, and outside too I think, to ask his girlfriend to marry him. Dude, a sports bar, really? We all congratulated him, while watching our various games. But the whole time, we wondered if she would actually go through with it. Dude was crying, and saying how much he loved her, and in general slobbering all over her and her new ring. And with that, we subwayed back to our hotel for the night.

Wednesday's problem

It is a double-bill day, as we see a matinee of The Addams family, as well as an evening performance of God of Carnage.

After breakfast (and we are finally waking up at semi-normal times for this time zone) in the room, Margie set out to do some serious shopping by herself, to the "world's largest store", the main Macy's at Herald Square across the street from our hotel. I think a sweater followed her back, just in time for the coming warm weather! Today it is windy and coldish, but not raining.

Lunch was Hale and Hearty again, and this time I opted for the Shrimp Chowder. Mmmm. Due to the cold weather, the place was mobbed. But service is surprisingly swift. Most take their soup to go.

Following lunch, we headed to Times Square on the R train again, and to the theater for the Addams. We located our seats in the Mezzanine, and settled in for a show we had been looking forward to since last year when we got these tickets (along with Spiderman, since delayed, and tickets refunded)!

The show was OK. They made Wednesday a teen ingenue, played affably by Krysta Rodriguez (part of the original casts of "Spring Awakening" and "In the Heights"). And in this one change, you can see the whole plot emerging. Well, at least I saw it all coming last year! Wednesday brings home a man, neither the Addams nor Wednesday perhaps future in-laws like the match, and something akin to Romeo and Juliet occurs. Actually, if they had followed that plot, and both Wednesday and her suitor had died at the end, it would have been better than what actually happened! And you can probably guess it was a happy ending. Far be it to challenge anyone with non-sitcom material.


I did like the Death Mints purchased at the theater bar. They were lousy mints, but the threat of death made them worthwhile.

So you see the problem. Nathan Lane was good as Gomez (although he would have made a better Fester, in my humble opinion), Bebe Neuwirth was a perfectly adequate Morticia. The rest of the cast was top-notch, with some really good voices, decent dancing and acting, etc. The sets were good. The special effects excellent, but... The material was sadly lacking, and the music wasn't at all memorable. In fact, the only song that was even catchy was the opening number (When You're an Addams) added specifically for the New York show after the Chicago version was panned.

The comedy was decidedly low-brow, with an over-dependence on puns, and nostalgic references to the TV show. In fact, it almost seems like someone wrote the book with a checklist in hand. Morticia cuts the heads off roses. Check. Thing makes an appearance. Check. Same for a Cousin Itt cameo. Gomez wields a sword. Check. Wednesday tortures Pugsley. Ok, that was new, and not altogether pleasant! When they were both little kids, that was one thing, but when Wednesday is an older teen, stretching her brothers arms and legs, to his immense pleasure, well that is just weird. Let's save the sado-masochism for Gomez and Morticia, please?! Overall, while enjoyable, this was a miss.

We had booked a table at a Cuban restaurant in the theater district, so we headed off to Havana Central on W 46th St. near Times Square. Again, they insisted we sit front and center on the balcony. I was beginning to think maybe we looked responsible, so we wouldn't be tossing empanedas over onto the people sitting below. If only they knew my inner self!


Anyway, this table had these low, uncomfortable bar chairs, and since we were near the roof of the place, smoke from fajitas (?) or whatever accumulated. Finally, they put some huge groups of people up there! So the environment could have been better.

We started off with an appetizer sampler, pictured here. You can see the 1960s bar chairs we are sitting in as well. Included were a goat cheese and Spinach empaneda (all for me, and quite light and tasty), Tostones, Chorizo slices, Maduras, Chicken Chicharonnes, and herbed corn on the cob-ettes. It was all good.

Unfortunately, less than 5 minutes after giving us the sampler, they brought our main courses, which we sent back. As we were almost finished, they brought the main courses back again, and these were the exact same plates! My Ropa Vieja plate was practically glowing red from being under the heat lamps. But it was quite good, as was the yellow rice and bed beans which accompanied it. I make something like this at home, but not nearly as good. A new challenge!

Margie had a mango salmon salad, and since her plate could not be put under heat lamps, the salmon had gone cold. But it was still perfectly cooked and she enjoyed it. Since they had slammed us with food, we had to skip dessert. And by then the place was so filled with people and smoke we didn't want to hang around anyway. Give them 2 Castros and 1 Elian for the efforts.

Since we had lots of time before the show, we headed into the crush of Times Square to look around. We sauntered into Toys R Us to see the giant animatronic dinosaur. And Margie got some candy too. We also saw the world's most expensive legos sets, and a bunch of other high priced crap no self-respecting parent would purchase.

God of Carnage was just wonderful. This is the 3rd cast in the year plus the show has been on Broadway (2009 Tony winner), and they were cast against type. Dylan Baker (pedo in "Happiness"), who was nominated for a Tony, played the role originated by James Gandolfini. Lucy Liu took Marcia Gay Harden's place. Jeff Daniels ("Squid and the Whale") took the role that Dylan Baker had originated.

Two pre-teen boys get in a fight at school, and one knocks out 2 teeth of the other. They are never seen. The whole 90 minute one act play takes place at the home of one couple, as they try to sort out what to do, or not to do, with their boys. In the process, you learn a lot about the parents. Great acting, and a wonderful tight book give this play the highest honors.

Lending a hand

It has stopped raining for the most part, but is still windy and cloudy. A good Museum day... So we headed off to the Guggenheim Museum at 89th St and Central Park East. The main feature of the Gugg is the Gugg itself (by the way, no one but me calls it the Gugg), designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the "only building in NYC designed by the famous Mr. Wright". That is why they allow photography on the first floor only, so you can show your friends how Dr. Seuss would design an art museum.




It really is quite cleverly designed such that one can walk from top to bottom (or bottom to top, as we stupidly did) over the 6 levels without having to backtrack as in a normal square museum, except for when in the annexes. You miss nothing this way. They also give you free audio headphones for your $18 per, so you don't have to bother reading as you tour.

The theme of the current showing is "Haunted" and there was some cool stuff. But the old favorites such as the Monet's -- seen from a distance so they look good, and besides, there are too many people crowding in front of you to get a close look -- and the Picasso's, and other avant-garde type art was great, but not our favorites.

Had I known that on this very day the Tim Burton exhibit at MOMA was closing, we probably would have saved the Gugg trip for another day. Groan! I missed Sarah Jessica Parker's severed head (from "Mars Attacks")!!! Well, it is not her best feature. And who brings a bag of oats to an art museum?

But I digress. We had a perfectly good time at the Gugg, and a nice slice for lunch for some lucky boy at the pizza place next to the 86th and Lex subway station too!

Back to the hotel for our daily nap, and later a snack since we decided...OK, I decided...to have supper post-theater, since we were seeing a 1-act, 90 minute play that started at 7pm, and because I wanted to catch game 7 of the Phx-Det hockey series. Game 7's are just special.

Anyway, after dressing for the night we took the R train to Times Square, and saw "A Behanding in Spokane" starring Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell, along with Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) and Zoe Kazan (Revolutionary Road). Unfortunately, Sam didn't show, and was replaced by Dashell Eaves. He did an OK job. But the only irreplaceable actor was Chris Walken, who was amazing. How the rest of the cast didn't laugh every time he opened his mouth, or just looked at them, I will never know.

At any rate, the plot concerned a man (Walken) who had his hand cut off 40 years prior by "hillbillies" who held his arm to a train track as a train came by. They waved goodbye to him using his severed hand. So Carmichael (Walken) wants it back. And he spends the next 40 years looking for it. He knows he can't use it or reattach it, but he just wants it. A pair of con artists (Mackie and Kazan) try to sell him a hand they steal from a museum. Meanwhile, the death-wishing clerk at the dump of a hotel Carmichael is staying at, intervenes at critical moments, and in general a good time is had by all in the audience. I loved it. But my humor runs on the dark side. And again, CW was brilliant.

Supper followed at Dempsey's Bar near Madison Square Garden and our hotel on 33rd St. I had a cheeseburger and fries, and a very decent one at that. Margie had the same but a turkey burger with chipolte mayo. The hockey game was good too.

Evil Corporations

We awoke none too early and made our way to the subway to get our MTA passes (7 days, $27, great bargain). From there we took the B train to Columbus circle at the SW corner of Central Park, where we knew a large Whole Foods was located, and bought supplies for our room. We needed containers to cook our morning oatmeal, so of course, ignoring the damp weather, we bought ice cream!

Coming back to Herald Square, we put away our stuff and had lunch at the Hale and Hearty on Broadway and 38th I had spied the previous night. For those not in the know about this NYC chain, this is the Soup Nazi's business without the attitude. Well, in NYC you always get a little attitude, especially when you hold up a long line to sample about 4 soups. Not that we did that, but others did... I had the potato-leek soup and a half of a turkey sandwich, and Margie had Tortilla soup. As usual, the soup was awesome.

After lunch, Margie did a little shopping and I tagged along. She bought a dress she had seen someone at Michael and Kristen's wedding wear, and bought a copy for herself. That perked her up, even though she was tired. I tried not to look like I was with her, sitting down like I needed to rest while she shopped around me.

After lunch, we headed back to our room to get some needed rest. The 7 hour drive from Ashland to the Bay Area, 7 hours of air travel, and general lack of sleep was catching up to us!

The pics are more views from our room, which are really quite spectacular.

For dinner, we headed to Times Square on the R train, and went to Osteria al Doge, an old favorite. Since it was Monday night, and most theaters are dark, the place wasn't as packed as usual. We were seated on the balcony overlooking the entire restaurant, although I had pleaded to the hostess that we weren't nearly fashionable enough for so prominent a post. I use the "royal we" here, as Margie always looks great. I guess she thought I was joking. At any rate, I noted that none of the tables overlooking the main dining room got candles or bottles of olive oil unlike all of the other tables. There was also a big plastic sheet covering the railing. I imagined all of the past accidents that occurred before this thought sheet was applied. Knives knocked through the railing which impaled some previously blissful diner below, Flaming olive oil bottles engulfing entire tables, and so forth. It made me want to set my umbrella on the top of the railing, just to live dangerously...

Anyway, Margie started with a lovely Tuna Carpaccio, and she spooned every last bit on pieces from the bread basket. I had a Caesar salad, which came in a Parmesan bowl with more Parmigiana on top. They wanted to make sure I got my dairy allowance for the day. It was tasty, though... For our main courses, Margie opted for the Linguine al Fruitti Di Mare, and some the very good east coast seafood (it really is better than the west coast version) delighted her, while I went for the Risotto Milanese. Usually this is just saffron rice with maybe some oxtail. But this dish had as its center some diced Italian sausage. I ate every bite. For dessert we shared a lemon tart, which was actually tart, just the way I like my desserts and my women. I confess, I ate most of it...

Our show for the evening was "Enron". It was a play, not a musical, but it had a lot of music and production numbers, including one with light sabres! The guy who played Jeff Skilling, the president of Enron, was Leo Norbert Butz, and he was really good. The NY Times panned him, but liked the guy who played Fastow, the CFO with the financial schemes. The Times didn't really like the show at all, probably because it was a hit in London. We prefer to lampoon our own corporations, thank-you-very-much! Anyway, we liked it a lot. And our row 2 seats didn't detract from the action.

1 down, 13 to go!

Travel Day

Don't you just hate the airline industry? Even free travel just doesn't seem to be worth the money. Anyway, we decided to take advantage of the nuptials location of our dear nephew Michael and his lovely bride Kristen to tack on an extended east coast vacation. Since the wedding was in Burlingame, we lodged ourselves at the Holiday Inn Express, which had a "park and fly" rate and a shuttle bus to SFO. We awoke bleary-eyed at 5am, downed a forgettable free breakfast, and caught the 5:40am shuttle to the airport.

Upon arrival, we made our way to the American Airlines terminal, checked our luggage (94 pounds, 2 bags, $40) and received our boarding passes to La Guardia via Dallas/Fort Worth. Let me stop here to mention why we are flying American, a practically bankrupt airline with service to match. A long time ago (1985, maybe?), we got a notice in the mail from Bank of America that the Bonus Breakthrough program was sending. Huh? We didn't even know it had started! Anyway, on checking further, it became apparent that we were within 200 points of winning a free trip to Paris, 6 days, including airfare, hotel, and even a free deluxe meal. One cash advance later to garner the needed points, and hours on the phone to get them to actually give us the free trip, and we were off. They put us on TWA, and this was the year the airlines went nuts and offered triple miles. We shouldn't have got any miles for this trip, because it was already free. Anyway, we did. 54,000 miles each. When AA bought the remnants of TWA, these miles became AA miles, and we went to Italy a few years later on my miles, and Margie's miles (she only flew this one time on TWA) have stayed in her account since. So we used them 26 years later to go to New York. And that is why we took American Airlines.

The first leg of the flight was blissfully uneventful. But when we arrived Dallas and got to the outgoing LGA gate, there was a problem with the airplane. An hour and a half and a gate walk later, we were on our way to New York, and again, no problems enroute. Our bags appeared surprisingly quickly at baggage claim, and we had a smooth cab ride to the Hilton Garden Inn on W35th St, currently #20 of 413 New York hotels on tripadvisor.com.

We've stayed all around mid-town, and lately we have preferred staying in the southern part near Herald Square in the "Fashion District" (formerly the garment district, when garments were still actually made in the USA). Staying in Times Square, while convenient, is just a crush, and we don't like it. We don't mind staying north nearer the park, but 34th street is just a wonderful location, steps from the subway station which serves 2 major lines, half a block to the huge Macys and Broadway, 2 blocks to the Empire State Building, etc.

Anyway, we checked in, got our free bottles of water (only for the first of 11 nights, they said), and checked out our room on the 30th floors (of 31). Spectacular views from our smallish windows greeted us. Decent bathroom, but no tub. Margie wasn't too bummed. Free Wifi, microwave oven and refrigerator in the room ensures big $ savings. Mostly the reason I booked this particular hotel was the low cost, nice free amenities, and age. The hotel was built in Feb 2009, and in NYC, newness counts for a lot in terms of quality. We banished the stock pillows and had housekeeping bring us foam ones, and an extra blanket for those of the Portuguese persuasion. It is hard to believe they once conquered the world on cold and drafty ships!

Next on the agenda, food! We strolled up Broadway in the light rain and found ourselves at Abigaels, a kosher, Asian-inspired eatery with a semi-famous chef who once took on Bobby Flay for the matzo ball throwdown. We eschewed the soup, and instead went with our Spanish speaking waiters recommendation and got the light salad with mayonnaise and tomato jam, to share, followed by pecan crusted sea bass, stir fry vegetables, and jasmine rice for Margie, and Argentinean BBQed short ribs with herbed mashed potatoes and veggies for me. Both were delish. East coast fish is so much better than west coast fish. I don't know about the cows, but my short ribs were awesome. We dined upstairs so the sushi chef wouldn't feel lonely, while most everyone else (mostly Puerto Ricans and Orthodox Jews) ate downstairs. While a good meal, the incongruity of all of the nationalities struck us for sure.

Tomorrow, the Broadway show adventure begins...