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...