Live & Direct from Nowhere in Particular...

Link: http://maxhedrm.montebellopark.com/Galleries/v/Travels/NYC2008/0523/

Friday was more of a relaxed wandering around day. I went down to the Fulton Ferry Landing to see the Telectroscope. I had lunch @ Pete’s Downtown followed by ice cream @ the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

When I met Craig back at his place, after a while we went to Brooklyn Burger Bar for dinner, since what I was craving for lunch was actually a burger. It was pretty good. The fries were yummy as was the burger. The atmosphere was nice too. A bit later we went to have a couple drinks @ the Excelsior. It was a bit more active last night than the first time we went.

I made another trip to TKTS Thursday. This time I went for Avenue Q.

After picking up the tickets I wandered around the Financial District. Happened upon the New York City Hall, then I took the train up to the 5th Ave Apple Store. Then it was time to wander back to meet Craig & Tim for food & the Musical. We ended up eating at a place called Brazil Brazil. The polenta I had was good. And their black beans that they serve with rice (as well as the black bean soup) were quite good. So was the drink that I got a free one of because the waiter spilled my water.

After dinner we headed off to the theatre for the play. The theatre wasn’t as cool as the one for Curtains but the show was excellent. Very funny. & it just so happens that it’s going on tour. So I can see it again when it comes to Ft. Worth.

Link: http://maxhedrm.montebellopark.com/Galleries/v/Travels/NYC2008/0521/

Today I wandered over to TKTS and picked up 3 tickets to Curtains (for me, Craig & Sergei) at half price. They were still $61, but they were also dead center, 10 rows back in the orchestra. Great seats.

After picking up the tickets, I swung by the Soho Apple Store. It’s the one that they had to leave the façade as it was because it was an old post office. Pretty nice store, but the retail space (excluding the genius bar & theatre) has to be nearly 60% iPod stuff.

After meeting Craig & grabbing a bite to eat while we waited for Sergei we went to the theatre, which was gorgeous, by the way. The seats are a bit tight, but the lobby & stage make up for it.

Now on to the important part. The musical was great. Positively hilarious. I recommend it highly. Niles..er..David Hyde Pierce was good as was the rest of the cast. Who’d have thought he could dance & sing with a Boston accent. & an “old west” accent. It was a murder mystery comedy musical with a show within a show, since the murders happen after the opening night of Robbin’ Hood, a musical adaptation of Robin Hood set in the Kansas of the old west. Now that I describe it that way, it reminds me a bit of Israel’s movie, Fright Flick. I guess that’s not an uncommon formula.

Of course there had to be more food after. We went to a frozen yogurt place called Red Mango. It was good & they have the cutest little tiny dark chocolate chips.

Link: http://maxhedrm.montebellopark.com/Galleries/v/Travels/NYC2008/0520/

Monday was pretty uneventful. I wandered in to Manhattan to pick up the key from Craig, and for the most part hung around his apartment a bit. For dinner we went to Purity Diner. It was ok, but the hot chocolate was weak, the tuna salad was dry & the pie was cold. The onion rings were ok though.

On Tuesday I did a bit more. I rode in to Manhattan & dropped something off with Craig, then met Sergei (Craig’s friend that works @ Il Fornetto) at Macy’s. I have been needing a jacket and have been regretting not having one with me most of the trip. So, I fixed that. I lucked out too, Macy’s was having a 40% off sale on jackets. So I picked up a Weatherproof jacket. It’s a nice grey rain proof jacket that has no fewer than 9 pockets. There’s one for a phone, one for a PDA (it has a little Blackberryesque icon & a pen loop), one for an MP3 player (with a 2nd Gen iPod icon, a hole for the headphone cord & up at the chest there are 2 little elastic loops for the headphones. Plus other more generic pockets. Then we went to see What Happens in Vegas. It was pretty good, quite entertaining & lots of shirtless Ashton.

After the movie we tracked down Craig & headed over to the Mercury Lounge where a friend of Sergei was playing. On the way we stopped at Yoshi Restaurant where we had some pretty good sushi rolls for dinner.

Sergei’s friend is Clara Lofaro. It was a pretty good little concert. Definitely worth the $10 cover. And the $10 CD. & even the $15 tshirt (in red without boobs). Especially since Craig bought my drink & CD (I was planning on buying one anyway). Her band was pretty good, the English horn in one song was a little rough, but everything else was quite good. The only odd thing is that it seems like perhaps she doesn’t exactly know how to end her songs. Some of the endings are a bit odd and unsettling.

That was pretty much it, then we headed back to Craig’s.

Sunday I wandered down to 7th Ave for breaklunch at La Bagel Delight, the Deluxe Grilled Chicken is huge. That & an iced cawfee were actually a pretty decent deal. Then I wandered back up to Craig’s & got the directions I needed to get to his office. We hung out there for a bit & I took some pictures from the 23rd floor.

Tim met us there and we wandered off for dinner. The security in Craig’s building directed us to an oriental restaurant that didn’t seem to exist, so instead we sort of wandered til we found one. In our wanderings we passed through a street festival-y thing where I saw this (this pic is for Steve. ) We ended up eating at a place called Aceluck Thai, it was pretty good, and the serving of green tea ice cream was larger than I expected.

After dinner we continued down 9th Ave toward Chelsea. We crossed over to 8th at one point which gave me a chance to get another pretty good shot of the Empire State Building. Once we got to Chelsea we got a drink at the View Bar. Nice little bar, though Craig didn’t like the art. Then we wandered on through Chelsea to the subway station that Craig took home. I hung out with Tim & spent the night in a more than slightly seedier portion of Brooklyn.

Link: http://maxhedrm.montebellopark.com/Galleries/v/Travels/NYC2008/0517/

Today I spent most of the day (about 5 hours) in Prospect Park, across the street from Craig’s. Once he was out of his class we went to a tex-mex place called Lobo with Kevin & Steve. It was actually pretty decent. Though the Strawberry margarita was a bit lack luster (& un-strawberry). Then we went to the local gay bar, Excelsior which has a pretty nice little outdoor courtyard out back, complete with pink flamingos.

Oh, there are over a hundred photos in my gallery, from the park … check them out if you’re really bored.

Tonight we took a car down to Sheepshead Bay to Il Fornetto, a restaurant where a friend of Craig’s (Sergei) works. Not bad, though I think last night’s was better, especially for the price. It’s a nice view though. Perhaps tomorrow the weather will be better & I’ll take in some sites.