Last Day in NYC

We walked down for croissants at Angelina Bakery.  They were exceptional.  

Linda enjoyed her coffee in the garden school bus outside.

We wanted to do a little shopping today.  I am a big fan of museum stores and so we walked down to the Museum of Modern Art and hit their two stores.  (In our defense, we didn't have time to see the exhibits because we had tickets to see the Harlem Gospel Choir at Sony Hall.) I found the refrigerator magnet that will remind me of this wonderful trip.  I also got some earrings.  I have had a terrible time zipping up my coat every time we go outside.  I look like a kindergartner that needs help.  So I found earrings made out of zipper pulls.  It seemed so appropriate that I had to get them.  Plus they were in the sale basket of earrings no one else wanted to buy.

We walked back to our hotel on 5th Avenue passed Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral.  

We dropped off our packages and headed over to Sony Hall to order brunch before the concert.  The food was not very good, our only food fail so far.  We were crammed into the venue as we waited with eager anticipation.  

Neither of us being musicians, we had gospel music mixed up with spirituals.  We expected Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing or Down By the Riverside.  Instead we heard His Blood Still Works  and Happy by Pharrell Williams.  We were told to applaud for Martin Luther King Jr. but there was no mention of working to end oppression.  It was assumed that was accomplished.   We clapped and danced, while we wished for something that spoke more to our souls and the soul of our nation.  Linda gave the experience a 69, which is the highest failing grade for the CPA exam.

In the late afternoon we headed to Brooklyn via subway.  We made it successfully without getting lost!

We were meeting Riley, the daughter of one of our close friends, at the Brooklyn Winery where Riley works.  She was not working tonight but came in to be with us.  What a gift.  We sampled their wines and enjoyed their food and laughed and laughed.  Riley is so fun to be with and she has a quick wit.  

Before we left Riley gave us a tour of the winery.

Riley then got on the L train with us and ushered us to our next subway before heading for her home.  We got back to our hotel and packed our bags.  We leave tomorrow.

Hear Me Roar!

We hadn't yet experienced New York pizza.  So we headed to John's Pizzeria, arriving as they opened for the day.  John's is an iconic pizza place in an old Gospel Tabernacle church.  We were seated near the altar....I mean mural of NYC.

We got a "small" pizza.

Then we headed out for our fourth show, Strange Loop.  It was a cold and windy day.  But we could see blue sky.

We chose to come to New York this week because Strange Loop's last performances would be today and we didn't want to miss it.  All we knew about this musical was that it was about a Black queer writer writing about a Black queer writer.  When we got our Playbills we learned that Ru Paul, Alan Cummings and Jennifer Hudson were co-producers of the play.  The Black queer writer's name was Usher and he worked as an usher at The Lion King on Broadway as he worked on a musical he hoped to get to Broadway.  There were 6 thoughts who constantly swirled in his head telling him about how he wasn't good enough.  One of the voices that filled his head belonged to his mother, who gave him a message of love knotted up with the condemnation of God for being a gay man.  It was the "strange loop" he lived in, finally deciding to turn his back on the thoughts filling his head and face forward. I was a crying mess when the play ended and I was not alone.  It would be almost impossible to see the show and not walk out with a mirror facing you.  I left thinking about my opinions, beliefs and ideas about this world and my place in it.  As we exited the building, so did Jennifer Hudson.

Weak and heavy from the play we decided to head to Rockefeller Plaza and poke around.  We went inside FAO Schwarz and experienced what true excess really looks like.

We got fish and chips for dinner, continuing to process Strange Loop.  I told Linda if the street preacher was in Times Square as we headed home tonight I was going to have a talk with him about the damage he is doing.

Then we made our way to our fifth and final show in 2.5 days.... & Juliet.  

It was a jukebox musical telling the story of what happened to Juliet after Romeo.  The music was filled with well-known pop songs like "I Want It That Way" and "I Kissed a Girl."  It was light and fun and well done.  I had been wishing I had been here for the ticker tape of New Year's Eve.  I got my ticker tape experience in this musical.  I was covered with it when the play ended.  We laughed, we danced and I didn't leave crying.  

As we walked back to our hotel I kept my eye out for the street preacher in Times Square we had encountered the night before, but he wasn't there.  I was disappointed I didn't get to have my conversation with him.

Linda and I worked on our ratings of the two shows when we got back to our room.  What is it we are rating?  How good we felt as we left the show or how long the show would live in our gut, making us process it over and over and over again?  We gave Strange Loop an 88 and & Juliet an 87.

Give My Regards to Broadway!

The weather got much colder today.  It is in the low 30s and there has been a light dusting of snow all day. Our goal this morning was to head out by 11:30 and begin with lunch at Juniors -- an iconic Times Square diner.  The place was packed and we waited a half hour for a seat.  It made us Covid nervous as we took off our masks to eat.  The food was excellent for diner food.

We had seats for the matinee of Take Me Out, a play about a star baseball player who reveals he is gay and all that ensues from the revelation.  

We were warned in an email before we went that there would be full frontal nudity.  Our phones would be put in pouches as we arrived at the theater so that no one could record any of the show.  When we learned that, Linda was glad we had seats in the Mezzanine.  On the way to the theater we found the Naked Cowboy in Times Square, a warmup for what we were about to experience.

I will say that I did see more male nudity in the 2 hours of this show than I have in the whole rest of my life.    The first half of the show was delightful and funny.  The second half of painful and complicated...and deep and rich.   Jesse Tyler Ferguson (from Modern Family) was in the play -- in a non-nude role.  We came out of the play needing to process and debrief.  We gave it a 95 combined rating.

We had reservations at a Chinese restaurant called Blue Willow.  It was about 12 blocks away and we had 15 minutes to get there.  We got our phones out of their pouches and rushed out into the cold.   We didn't quite make it but we hustled through the crowds and arrived before they gave our seat away.  We had a delicious dinner while we unpacked the play.

We slowly ambled back towards our hotel enjoying everything about the Big Apple.

We didn't stay long because we had tickets for another Broadway Show, Hadestown.  It is a musical that tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.  The stage was so exceptional.  

The orchestra was on stage and all were amazing but the trombone player stands out.  Hermes was a true star.  The Fates could harmonize like nobody's business.  The choreography was unmatched.  We were in awe, as was the rest of the crowd.  We each wrote down our ratings and then shared them with each other.  We both put down 97.  Linda was so pumped up from this musical she was ready to return to Times Square and pull the cord out of the sound system of the horrible street preacher we had heard the night before.  

Fender Guitars, Piano Lessons and More

We slept in again today because we stayed up so late.  The first words out of Linda's mouth this morning were, "Do you think I can safely climb up onto the table?"  We are staying at the Hard Rock Hotel and one of their amenities is the delivery of a Fender guitar and headset to your room.  We reserved one for this morning.  I had to put down a deposit for the entire cost of the guitar. I got up, showered and dressed.  Linda decided that her bedhead hairdo was perfect for her Fender guitar photoshoot.  I called down to the front desk and asked for our guitar to be delivered.  Once we finally figured out how to make the headset work we were in rock heaven.  Let's just say, we had a couple hours of fun!

My son and his husband own and operate their own cottage industry bakery in Vegas.  I asked my son where I should get pastries in New York City.  Without hesitation he said, "Supermoon Bakehouse".  So yesterday I ordered a small box of pastries to be delivered to our hotel this morning.  The window for delivery was anytime between 9:30 and 1:30.  At 1:30 Linda and I gave up waiting.  I had the hangries by then.  We walked around the corner to a little hole in the wall place and got sandwiches.  We sat at the window counter and watched two guys haul trash to the curb while we ate.  It felt very New York City.

We decided to head out for another stroll through New York.  We started at Rockefeller Center.  We walked through some of the shops, watched the ice skaters and enjoyed the tree.

We decided to go inside St. Patrick's Cathedral.  

Linda lit candles in memory of her parents.

We made our way down Fifth Ave, past Tiffany's and The Plaza Hotel.  We dodged the multiple attempts to get us onto a carriage ride before we finally made it to Central Park.  Such an incredible park.

We found the ice skating opportunity there but decided to pass.  

We had a destination....Strawberry fields.  Linda was hoping we would find it free of all people so we could have our moment.  Two busloads of high school kids greeted us.  But they have shorter attention spans than we do.  

Then we sat for a few minutes to enjoy the guy playing his guitar and singing "Strawberry Fields Forever."  We gave him a few dollars and headed for the subway.  

We managed the subway like the two intelligent, well-planned women that we are.  We made it back to our hotel quickly where a delivery from Supermoon Bakehouse awaited us at the Front Desk.  

I called Brett to get his opinion on their lamination skills, etc.  Then we changed clothes and headed down to our hotel restaurant for dinner.  It is a holiday weekend and we found restaurant reservations to be full here in midtown.  Luckily we knew our hotel restaurant would no disappoint.  With Caesar Salads in front of us we listened to a live band sing CeeLo Green's song "Fuck You".  There is just something very special about NYC.

After dinner we walked over to Times Square.  We are right here but we hadn't yet fully enjoyed its chaos.  We climbed the steps for our photo opps.  

Then we walked past the horrible street preacher who didn't seem to understand that God is love.  We walked past his speaker system and realized how easy it would be to unplug one cord and shut him down.  But both of us being the rule following people that we are we decided against doing it.  We stood and watched some street acrobats get volunteers to join their show....and open up their wallets and give them large amounts of money. 

By then it was time to find our theater and the bathroom before our first Broadway play, The Piano Lesson.  We chose it because it had excellent reviews; the play is by August Wilson; and the cast includes Samuel Jackson, John David Washington and Danielle Brooks.  We got an email this week that Samuel Jackson would not be performing this week and would be replaced by Peter Jay Fernandez.  We were disappointed but still excited to see the play.  It was three hours long, the set was amazing, the actors were excellent and it left us with chills.  We gave it a combined rating of 90.

I had read that one of the best bars in Midtown Manhattan is The Rum House, directly across the street from the Barrymore Theater where we saw The Piano Lesson.  We crossed the street, entered the bar and found ourselves in the middle of a chaotic crowd.  We turned right around and headed back for our hotel.  

Our hotel has a rooftop bar and the front desk had given us two free drinks for the bar because of traveling to NYC on the day of an FAA shut down.  We grabbed our vouchers and headed for the bar.  We learned that without reservations we could not sit down.  So we ordered our drinks and headed outside to stand on the terrace overlooking Times Square.  Those who had reservations were sitting on the terrace under lush blankets.  We stood and enjoyed the view and the feel of alcohol warming our throats.

We decided to see what we could see from the terrace on the other side of the bar.  

We had that side completely to ourselves.  We sat down in the freezing cold.  Linda enjoyed seeing what one drink does to the lightweight Susan.

Back in our room we decided we needed to make a reservation for tomorrow's dinner.  Once that was done and the lights were out, I fell asleep immediately.

OMG...I Love New York

I was able to sleep in this morning....not something I can normally do. We took our time getting ready and headed out at 11:30 to walk to Columbus Circle.  We had a reservation at a restaurant called ROBERT located on the ninth floor of the Museum of Art and Design.  I found it when I researched restaurants with a great views.  

We strolled up Broadway, taking our time and gawking like the tourists that we are.  

Columbus Circle has a very tall statue of Christopher Columbus with these words:

Joy and Glory

Never Uttered a More Thrilling Call 

Than That Which Resounded

From The Conquered Ocean

In Sight of the First American Island

Land!  Land!

In another section of the monument it credits Columbus with discovering America.  I was surprised and wondered if there was any talk about removing the statue and/or changing the name of the circle.  I did some reading on it when I got back to our room.  It is controversial. 

Across the street from Columbus Circle was this globe.  

Linda and I researched this globe when we got back to the room.  It sits in front of the Trump International Hotel and Tower. So we went to a restaurant for a view and ended up with a view of Columbus and a building associated with Donald Trump.

What we discovered when we were seated at our table was that one seat had a view of Central Park.  I sat in that seat until we got to dessert and then we switched.

We each got the prix fixe menu.  The food was not only lovely, it was delicious.  

The Museum of Art and Design's current exhibition is called "Queer Maximalism."  We were intrigued.  After lunch we had a half hour before our next event so we quickly bought tickets and made a quick circuit of two floors of the museum.  It was the work of Matthew Flower, known as Machine Dazzle, who has created costumes for a variety of performance contexts  -- from street parades to cabarets.  His work is credited with adding a new chapter to the history of queer storytelling.  We wished we had more time to study these amazingly intricate costumes.

But we had "priority seats" to the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and did not want to miss the chance to watch him work.  We lined up with the hundreds of other people who had "priority seats". We lined up at 3 p.m. and finally got seated by around 4:30.  Paul Mecurio, a stand-up comedian, came out to warm up the crowd.  He made us practice screaming, clapping and laughing on cue.  Then he brought up several audience members to interview.  He was excellent.  He created, produced and starred in his one-man Broadway show called "Paul Mecurio's Permission to Speak".  When he was done we got directions from the Stage Manager and then a short concert from the Late Show's Band.  Then a Q & A with Stephen Colbert.  

The taping began around 5:30 p.m.  It was pure pleasure to be there and to hear Stephen Colbert's monologue.  I wouldn't have made it through the isolation of the pandemic without Stephen Colbert and his monologues.  We got to see two guests -- Jeremy Pope who recently starred in the movie "Inspection" about a gay Marine.  The next guest was Danai Gurira, who played Okoye in "Wakanda Forever".  

We got outside to discover a pouring rain.  Linda and I are both very prepared travelers.  We each pulled out our umbrellas.  Linda's actually changes colors when it gets wet.  We had reservations at a fine dining Mediterranean restaurant (Iris) just one block from the Ed Sullivan Theater where the Late Show tapes.  We walked through the rain to another lovely meal.  I ordered all the Mezze (appetizers) for my dinner.  Linda got the halibut and we shared our meals.  We dined on delicious hummus, olives, tzatziki (dotted with pomegranate seeds), whipped feta, roasted eggplant, sourdough pitas, and flaky delicious halibut on a fava bean puree.  We topped it off with the Mediterranean version of beignets dipped in honey and chocolate sauce.  It was amazing.  Everything we have eaten in NYC so far has been outstanding.

We walked back to our hotel down Broadway making a stop at the local CVS for some drinks for our hotel refrigerator.  Then we played cards to keep us awake until we could see ourselves on The Late Show.  We were just dots in the audience.  It was  fascinating to see how they edited the final product together.  They pulled out the part in which Stephen Colbert's phone went off in the middle of an interview.  We fell asleep with dreams of more adventures tomorrow.