What Did I Do Today: Thursday, October 8, 2015

10:00 AM-ish: Kick-ass tunes. (More on that later.)

11:30 AM: Dim Sum at Nom Wah Tea Parlor, in Chinatown. 

1:30 PM: New York City ComicCon

I walked the floor, as of the two panels that interested me, one was at 11 AM (no way was I making it) and the other one was at 5:30, which was a bit late considering my evening plans. So many people; so many booths. I scored a free novel and I bought a really cool 4th Doctor tee-shirt. ‎(I also tried to buy a Rick t-shirt, but they did not have my size. Wubba-lubba-dub-dub.)

There were, of course, lots of cosplayers. The most popular costume by far seemed to be Hailey Quinn; I just missed getting bonked by giant hammers several times. I also did not recognise a lot of the costumes; I am guessing there were quite a few people dressed up as anime or game characters. 

Unfortunately, I could not get a decent picture of the floor to give an idea of how massive NYCC is.

The WWE had a booth, featuring one of the Bushwackers (Luke?) and the Honky Tonk Man signing autographs. Nobody was visiting the booth. It was hilarious in a pathetic kind of way. 

5:45: Dinner and wine at Bar Boulud, across from the Lincoln Centre.  I have now been to three Boulud restaurants. 

7:00: Tannhaüser, at the Met

Jeebus, that was long (4.5 hours). Of note, patrons showed tremendous love for Maestro James Levine, giving him long ovations when he came out to the orchestra pit prior to all three acts. 

(And, BTW, who the frak else does ComicCon and Wagner as a double-header? That's gotta count for something, methinks...)

11:45: Ginger Man, on East 36th. 

This is one of my favourite out-of-town bars. ‎However, I realised that a friend of mine who had been there more recently than I had may have had a point about the service not being tremendous.  Which lead me to go...

1:30: Back to Fool's Gold, where the bartender is actually personable. And the music rocks.

Where else can you hear 'Stuck Inside of Mobile wit the Memphis Blues Again' at 2:20 AM. 

And at 2:45, I am talking to people who evidently work on The Walking Dead and who are in town for NYCC. ‎I have no reason to disbelieve that. Brush-with-brush-with-fame! Woo hoo!

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Some Thoughts on 18 262 Days

This started off as a listicle about My Top 10 all-Time days. After 18000+ days, how hard should it be to come up with 10 great days, avoid talking about sex and write a relatively semi-funny post?

Well, it turns out, it is harder than it seems. A lot harder. 

If you have read this blog before, clever reader, you will probably have noticed the lack of references to a significant other or to children I have recognised as my own. So, right off the bat, that eliminates the usual suspects‎ from 'best days' lists:

- 'the day I got married'; 

- 'the day I met my eventual wife/husband/etc';

- 'the day the divorce papers were signed';

- 'the day my first-born was born';

- 'the day my second-born was born';

- 'the day my nth-born was born' (for you parents, I am curious: for what value of n do the returns start diminishing on that? [I'm guessing 3.] Be honest now...). 

‎So I started making a list of things that stick out in my mind:

- seeing the Boomtown Rats live in Aberdeen in November 2013;

- ‎chatting with Bob Geldof in October 2012;

- watching the Bruins raise their Stanley Cup banner in October 2011;

- etc. 

Then I realised I was basically making a list of events I attended that I thoroughly enjoyed. (Also, most of these were relatively recent, which makes sense.)  ‎But do attending these kick-ass events (well, kick-ass to me) really classify as great days? I am fairly certain than when my pee-wee hockey team (Monsieur Vanasse's North Gloucester team) won the House League ‎championship when I was 10 or 11, even though I do not remember it at all, that was probably the greatest day in my life up to that point. To go a step further, if I could remember them, would there not easily be at least10 days from when I was 6 to 10 years-old that would top by a huge margin ‎anything I have experienced since? (Frankly, this is probably true for most everybody. Being 8 years-old kicks ass.)

‎So, what I had set out to do (Best 10 Days) is pretty much impossible. Failing that, here are 10 random great memories, in no particular order:

1.- Watching a LEM departing the Moon. I clearly remember watching this at my neighbour's in Cornwall. They had a daughter who was roughly my age, who I remember as one of my friends from when I was 4. I am not entirely clear ‎which Apollo Mission that was; it was clearly between July 1969 and June 1970, when we moved away from Cornwall.  (And, BTW, kids, we used to go to the Moon. Regularly. Fuck.)

2.- ‎Fireworks! One night either in fall 1970 or fall 1971, my Dad and the Dad next door to us got together and decided to have a fireworks night for both families. It may even have been legal back then. 

‎3.- Watching the Ottawa Rough Riders win the1976 Grey Cu‎p against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in my living room in Beacon Hill. More specifically, Tony Gabriel's catch. The craziest (the good crazy kind of crazy) I have ever seen my Dad. Also, this was the second time I had watched the Riders win the Grey Cup in three years; at the tender age of 11, I think I figured it was easy to be an Ottawa CFL fan. Yup, the football gawds had it oin for me... 

4.- Late May 1983: winning a city-wide high school 'dictée' competition. (I did not say these were all going to be exciting.)

5.- ‎Late September or early October 1996: On a house-hunting trip, on my first evening ever in Vancouver, randomly walking around and feeling like I was home. (Should have followed that feeling...)

6.- November 2004, Grey Cup Festival in Ottawa. At some point, Woodrow and I looked at each other and we agreed we had to do this every year. I lasted 9 more until my mis-placed, so-called principles got in the way.

7.- Bluesfest, oh, let's say 2009 (?): inadvertently heckling Kathleen Edwards. At some poin‎t in her encore, Kathleen and her guitarist were not on the same page as to what song to play. I thought I was muttering 'A set list would help' under my breath. Well, not only was I not muttering, there was a crowd lull. The lovely Kathleen heard me and responded. She still owes me $10 for making her sound spontaneous. 

‎8.- October 2012: Meeting Bob Geldof after he gave a kick-ass show ‎in front of 200 or so people at the Centrepointe Theatre in Nepean. I am a Boomtown Rats fanatic. Beyond that, it's Bob Fucken Geldof, Sir Bob to you. He came out afterwards to sign autographs, pose for pics and actually speak to his fans. I told him how 'The Fine Art of Surfacing' was my first favourite album; he replied I should have been pleased when he played a few songs from the album. For pictographic evidence, do check out my twitter profile: @oi_not_again. 

‎9.- November 2013: The Boomtown Rats live in Aberdeen. Self-explanatory. 

10.- 3:00 AM, October 8, 2015: Fool's Gold, NYC. They just played ' How Soon is Now'; 'Making Flippy-Floppy' (I think) by the Talking Heads just came on. Jeebus, did they know I was coming?

11.- ??? 

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T Minus 1 (October 7, 2015): What Did I Do Today

1.- 11: 30 AM: Lunch at Roberta's Pizzeria in Brooklyn. I really do not have much to add to what I wrote about the place two years ago. The pizza is still great with a light, almost fluffy thin crust. I had the Speckenwolff, which included speck, mozza, mushroom, onion and oregano.

2.- 2 PM:  The Gin Game at the Empire Theatre, starring James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson, as two residents of a seniors' home who develop a relationship over playing gin. 

There is no way to say this without sounding like a snobbish ass, but what the heck: seeing a Wednesday matinée on Broadway is not the greatest way to experience a play. The crowd did not seem to be a regular Broadway audience: there was at least one bus tour in attendance and I suspect much of the (much older) crowd may not have been to a play in at least a decade. It at times felt like I was in the audience for a Springer show, with crowd reactions being 'big' for mildly funny moments and, more importantly, for colourful (read: expletive-laced) exchanges that marked significant steps in the development of the relationship between the two characters. 

I think the audience reaction may explain why it felt the two actors, Mr Jones (it's James Earl Jones, dammit, I'm referring to him as Mr.) in particular, had difficulty in showing the evolution of the characters over the play. Then again, maybe I'm missing the point. 

One amazingly geeky note: Mr. Jones's character tells an anecdote about Ty Cobb. Hearing James Earl Jones enunciate the word 'baseball' gave me shivers. (If you do not get that reference, you have no heart.)

3.- 5 PM: Dinner and wine at Casallume in Hell's Kitchen (52nd at 9th). 

4.-7:30 PM: Il Trovatore at the Met. 

This is the eighth production I have seen at the Met; I am still honestly shocked every time at th‎e sheer quality of a Met opera. Tonight was no exception. Everything glowed, from the sets to the technical elements (lighting and sound) sound) the music to the voices. And, man, the voices...

First off, it helps that this was Il Trovatore which features classic aria after classic aria. There is a lot in here for all 4 leads to chew on. During the Second Act, I was wondering if that might not be the opera act with the most 'standards' or classic arias, starting with the Gypsy anthem.  Then the Third Act started and I was thinking the Third Act equals it.

But back to the voices. ‎Some of you will know I have a huge crush on Anna Netrebko. And, admittedly, screaming 'Take it off' when she walked on stage may not have been the height of decorum. Gawds, can the lady sing. Just sublime; the best female vocal performance I have witnessed (and that includes a Jessye Norman recital). Also, it would not have been an Anna performance without some stunt work. At some point she climbed 3 or 4 rungs of a steel metal castle gate to sing 3 or 4 lines to her lover who was imprisoned in said castle. 

The male lead, Yonghon Lee, was also spectacular I had seen Richard Margison in the role many years ago; Lee was definitely at least his equal, which I never thought I would ever say. 

I was sitting in the Family Circle, which is the highest level. That viewpoint gave me an appreciation of just how freaken huge and deep the Met stage is. 

(Again, I am not sure anybody is still reading this blog but if you are, I will reiterate [or perhaps iterate, I have lost track] going to the Met has to be experienced at least ‎once in one's life, even if one is not an opera fan.)

5.- 11:37 PM: Fool's Gold, on East Houston‎. This is the bar that I was searching for last night. It is a craft beer bar with roughly 35 taps, about a quarter of which were pumpkin ales. In case you are wondering, I had a shot of Powers Irish Whiskey at midnight. She Sells Sanctuary was playing when I walked in: a damn good omen if you ask me. 

6.- ‎Completely Random Crap:

‎- The sandwich board outside of Roberta's said 'Canadians Love Us' on one side and had a half-decent drawing of a Canadian flag on the other. When I asked the hostess about it, she said they were just being silly. 

- In 'The Gin Game', Cicely Tyson's character's sister has moved to Ottawa.

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Where Am I (October 7, 2015, 1:30 PM):

Sitting in Times Square, having a green tea. 

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Where I Was: Roosevelt Island (October 6, 2015)

Midtown Manhattan from the Riverwalk.

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Where I was: New Yankee Stadium (October 6, 2015)

The view from Section 232B, Row 10, Seat 13. 

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T minus 2 days (October 6, 2015): What Did I Do Today

In case anybody is still paying attention out in the multiverse:

- Landed at LaGuardia at 7:45. 

- ‎Got the keys for the AirBnB room I'm renting in the East Village around 9:30. It is on East 15th, between First and Second. 

- F‎ound a local branch of the NYC Public Library where I could print my ticket to this evening's AL Wild Card game. More on that below. 

- Walked around Chinatown. 

- Had dim sum at The Golden Unicorn on East Broadway. Solid; probably in the top 30 per cent of dim sum places I have visited, yet nothing sticks out. 

- Spent the better part of the afternoon on Roosevelt Island, in the East River, basically across from the Upper East Side. The riverwalk on the west side of the island provides great views of Manhattan. I will try to share a pic. Also, you can take a tram to get there!

- Attended ‎the afore-mentioned AL Wild Card Game at New Yankee Stadium, my first time attending a non-CFL play-off game. The atmosphere was electric; I was expecting Yankee fans to be a lot more blasé, given the franchise's successes and their fans'‎ approach to said successes as a fucken birthright. A lot of fun. 

- At half past midnight, I found myself wandering East Houston looking for a bar (Fool's Gold) I wanted to check out. The little voice wisely piped up encouraging me to retreat to somewhere closer to where I am staying.

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