new york

A day in the theatre

I spent most of the afternoon in Manhattan, joining my parents for a Broadway matinee and dinner out to celebrate their anniversary. We went to see A Life in the Theatre, which, despite the opportunity to see Patrick Stewart on stage, I really can’t at all recommend. I thought both he and T.R. Knight did the best they could with some very thin material, but I have to agree with Ben Brantley’s take on it:

At least as damaging is our impression that the relationship between the two men doesn’t evolve. A counterpoint between the irritable wistfulness of Robert — eager to impart his skill to his younger confrère — and the impatient heedlessness of John is established in the beginning, and any variation on that dichotomy is sparse. And in the scenes that find the actors in costume, in plays, they are as cartoonish as figures from Broadway satires in old television variety shows.

The show is kind of atypical of David Mamet, although there are a couple of c-words tossed in near the beginning, unfortunately, just to remind you whose play you’re watching.

And would somebody tell me, when did standing ovations become something audiences did at the end of shows just as a matter of course, regardless of the show?

Then we had dinner at Keens Steakhouse, which was okay.

Now I’m home and watching episodes of Fringe — seriously, when did this show get good? — and trying to finish the Sunday crossword puzzle. I think I’m going to be more successful at the former than the latter.

America’s radio sweetheart

Today was pretty similar to yesterday, except the live radio show I went to see was The Sound of Young America, not The Prairie Home Companion. (Given host Jesse Thorn’s noted dislike of PHC, hinted at in a couple of polite jokes at its expense at the top of the show, I find this scheduling coincidence quite amusing.) And instead of meeting my parents for dinner beforehand, I wound up briefly visiting New York’s High Line Park — I still like it, but I think the thrill of its newness is gone — and managing not to have any dinner at all. In fact, I’m writing this while on the train ride home, and I’ve managed to have nothing to eat or drink for about four or five hours. (I passed on the free wine and beer available at the show.) That wasn’t at all my original plan, but when your plan is basically “wander downtown and see what happens,” sometimes that’s what happens.

The show itself was a lot of fun, with guests like Judah Frielander, Amy Sedaris, and John Hodgman, plus pretty much exactly the sort of audience you’d expect at a live public radio show featuring those people. And live comedy and music. There was going to be a meet-up after, at a nearby bar, but I have an MRI at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning. And I’ve had nothing to eat since an apple after lunch, so a beer or two might not be exactly the right thing for me now anyway.

If I had to pick, I’d say I probably enjoyed last night’s show a little more, even if that hurts Jesse Thorn’s feelings or loses me public radio indie cred with the heavily Brooklynite audience tonight. But it’s a narrow margin, and this time I was actually there, not watching on a movie screen.

Now I’m just actually glad to be going home, and have something to eat.

Update: Just after I’d written that — or, rather, written up to the “going home, and…” part — my train arrived at the station, where my father was waiting to pick me up. I had a left-over turkey burger and some mac’n’cheese, and now I’m going to get myself ready for bed. I don’t expect to have a lot to do tomorrow morning, since the MRI mostly entails lying very still and trying to concentrate on anything other than the fact that my arms are kind of pinched at my side*. But it is at the unconscionable hour of 7 a.m. on a Saturday.

* I did request an open MRI, but I also told the woman who made my appointment that it wasn’t a deal-breaker, not if I could get in sooner with a closed one. She said she understood, but she didn’t say if my appointment was either one or the other. I’m hoping it won’t matter, and they’ll have an open one available. Also that it reveals exactly what’s wrong, isn’t serious, outlines a plan of action, and gets me some relief. Oh, and is full of rainbows and magic beams and gumdrops, but I think that much goes without saying, right?

The week rolls on

It poured rain here last night, and apparently hailed in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but the weather was nothing special today. In fact, this whole Tuesday was nothing special here, a decent enough day, but just one in a string of many.

Next in that string, Wednesday. This week, I guess, that’s technically my Thursday, since I’m only working a four-day week. Oh man, I hope that doesn’t mean I’ll have two Thursdays this week. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

Just a normal Monday

No days off for me until Friday this week, so it was back to work this morning. For a day that was pretty much the apotheosis of uneventful. Even Manhattan’s Columbus Day parade, which I thought I might be able to get a few photographs of, turned out to be a bust, either because it hadn’t started yet when I went out for lunch, or because pedestrian congestion and police barricades made it impossible to get to the right parts of 5th Avenue.

Next up: Tuesday.

Monday various

  • Today is the first day of the online raffle in support of the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series. There are lot of excellent prizes, from signed first drafts and story critiques to used keyboards (Neil Gaiman’s) and Tuckerizations galore, all for the cost of $1 each. I’ve not yet actually made it to a KGB reading myself — they’ve either conflicted with my schedule or I’ve been a little intimidated about going to one by myself — but I understand they put together a really great series. The raffle runs until October 25.
  • Today is also Columbus Day. (In America. Some people insist on claiming it’s Thanksgiving elsewhere.) After reading this article about the real Columbus, you may be wishing it wasn’t.
  • You know, there may very well be lots of edible mushrooms in NYC, but I think I’ll pass.
  • I was sure this was an Onion headline when I first saw it: Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic. But no, not in the least:

    The self-driving car initiative is an example of Google’s willingness to gamble on technology that may not pay off for years, Dr. Thrun said. Even the most optimistic predictions put the deployment of the technology more than eight years away. [via]

  • And finally, I find the final word in today’s Writer’s Almanac just a little odd:

    It was on this day in 1975 that Saturday Night Live premiered….There was a fake advertisement for triple-blade razors, a product obviously considered ridiculous by comedians in 1975, just after the two-blade razor came out—the faux commercial ended, “Because you’ll believe anything.” These days, there are many more blades on razors—in 2006, Schickette announced plans for a nine-bladed razor—and Saturday Night Live is now in its 35th season.