Gotham City: Part V


Wednesday we went to see Dave Letterman tape a program for later that night. It was the day after Halloween, and I suppose was kind of a let down. Anyway, the guests were pretty lame, but Dave and Paul were their usual funny selves.

We had to be at the theater by 3:30 in order to pick up our tickets. There was a line forming already at 3:15, so we joined in. We got our tickets and said that the Goddess had a bad knee, so they gave us "pre-seating." What that meant we didn't know, but figured it was some advantage. The staff told us to come back at 4:20 to be pre-seated. We did, and they took us into the lobby of the theater and sat us on metal folding chairs. I reckon there were about 15 to 18 of us in the pre-seating. One of the guys in pre-seating looked just like Jack Valenti. I swear! But, I figured that if he really was Jack Valenti he wouldn't be waiting in the lobby of Dave's theater, he'd be a guest! Turns out that he wasn't Jack Valenti, but Ernest from Toronto.

They took us into the theater first and sat us near the exits. I guess they wanted to get the gimps out first if there was a fire, but I got to tell you that we would have just slowed everyone down. Oh well, we didn't have to evacuate.

Then they began seating everyone else. There was a couple up front on about the third row that were probably supposed to be on the show. One of the staff was prompting them about what would happen. I noticed they the interns and staff were hand selecting people to sit around the couple, and it kind of looked random until realized that they were selecting the "pretty people" to make up the background. The everyday folks just go ushered into the rows a little further away. Hey, it's TV what do you expect?

The show was okay, and it was fun to see how they do it. At every commercial, the producer or whatever she was would huddle with other folks around Dave's desk. The warm up man would start clapping so we'd know to start too, and that the break was over, but sometimes the huddle wouldn't break up. Then, he'd wave us off and wait some more. It was odd that they seem to be writing the show on the fly, but I guess that's what they were doing.

After Dave, we went to the Stardust restaurant in Times Square. That's a place where the waiters and waitresses sing as well as take your order. We sat at a table between two other tables that weren't even six inchec from our table. A little too close for folks from Texas, I mean, hell we're used to wide open spaces.

PandaPorn


A couple of Pandas in a zoo in Thailand (male and female I presume) have lived in a cage together for four years without producing any little pandas. So, the zoo keepers will begin showing the male films of pandas mating in order to plant the seed in his mind. Hmmm...I don't know about that. Would they actually watch it? And if they did what will they think it is? Good thing they're not trying that in the neighboring country of Malaysia, because porn might get you the death penalty.

Rumsfelds Avgång Öppnar för Rättsprocesser


Yes, that's the headline from Dagens Nyheter in Sweden. What's it mean? It means something like "Rumsfeld's Leaving Opens the Way for Court Proceedings." Is that sound I hear the sound of shit hitting the fan? Can you say "war criminal"?

Does It Get Any Better Than This?

George Bush and the Republicans repudiated, Rumsfeld gets the can, Democrats control the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. Does it get any better? Yes, it will get better when they impeach Bush and Cheney.

I'll say it now: If the Democrat controlled House of Representatives does not impeach those two criminals, I'm finished with the Democrats for good. They've acted like a bunch of pussies for the last 6 years, and if they don't get some balls soon we'll all be eunuchs!

Gotham City: Part IV


Tuesday in NYC we went to Times Square and bought tickets for the Gray Line's Downtown Loop. It starts at Times Square goes to the Empire State Building, Macy's, thru Union Square, the West Village, Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown, Wall Street, stops at Ground Zero, the UN, Waldorf Astoria, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, and probably some I forgot. The tour is a hop-on hop-off trip which means you can get off the bus at any stop and get on another bus later to continue to the next place.

We went to the top of the Empire State Building, and the Goddess actually went out onto the observation deck (she has acrophobia). She didn't stay long, but she did go out there. After that we rode thru several stops before we got off at the Southport Mall where the Goddess bought some tennis shoes. Our guide on this leg of the tour was from Brazil who speaks Portuguese, Spanish, French, English, Italian, German and a little Swedish. He's a UN interpreter. Pretty interesting guy.

After the shoe purchase we rode back thru several more stops back to Times Square. We got another bus to ride to Union Square to meet Kirsten for the Halloween Parade. We went to the end of her block to watch the parade come up 6th avenue. The crowds were heavy, and we didn't get to see a lot, but I saw a few funny get ups: A guy dressed like Jackie Kennedy in a bloody pink dress with a pink pill box hat, the "Pope" being kidnapped by two Palestinian martyrs, a "toilet" with a sign that said, "George Bush speaks, then you flush."

We even got back to the hotel in time to see the news story about the Halloween Parade.

Gotham City: Part III


Monday was the Goddess's birthday. We started out at the Sunlight Diner which is run by a couple of grouchy Greeks. The food was good and the ambience was stereotypical. Pure Queens. We took the 7 train out to Flushing, because Mayor Bloomberg suggested riding the train with the most diverse passengers in the world. I have to agree. We got off at 82nd and Roosevelt where there are dentists almost every two doors. Not only that, but it looks like a Latin American city that was picked up and put down in the middle of Queens with a little of Korean mixed in.

From there we caught a bus out to La Guardia and transferred to another bus to Astoria. We caught the N train back to the 7 and back to the hotel.

That evening we went to meet Kirsten at VH1 before going to the Broadway show Rent. That's where we met Flava Flav. Oh yeah! We ate at Frankie and Johnnie's restaurant. Steak mostly. We all enjoyed the show, and afterward went to Junior's where cheesecake is king.

Gotham City: Part II

Montague Street
Sunday we met Kirsten at her apartment and went to eat at French Roast. It's a cafe in Greenwich Village that is a quaint sort of European restaurant. We had a very good breakfast, then headed for the subway and Brooklyn.

The sun was bright, but it was cold and windy. The wind blew up to about 40 mph and right thru almost everything we had on. We went to the Transit Museum which is near Borough Square. The museum has lots of good exhibits, but the ones I liked the best were the old subway cars. The oldest ones are from around the beginning of the 1900s. They all have the original ads up above the seats.

After the museum we headed over to Montague Street, a sort of restaurant row in an old but gentrified part of Brooklyn. We ate at Armando's which is an Italian restaurant. The food was great and not any more expensive than the same dish would be here in Austin.

We rode the subway back to Manhattan and Union Square. I brought my suit to wear to Rent, but I forgot a tie. We stopped at Filene's Basement which is actually two stories above street level. I bought a tie, and the Goddess bought a feather pillow (the hotel pillows lacked suitability).

We started back to the hotel thinking it was kind of late because the sky was dark. I checked the time once we sat down on the subway and it was only 6:30. Whatever the latitude is there, the night comes on faster than we're used to.

If Only George W. Would Follow Suit


"I am a deceiver and a liar."

Gotham City: Part I


We arrived at JFK on time or a little early. I had made prepaid reservations with the SuperShuttle to take us to our hotel in Queens. I called them from the special phone near the C4 baggage carrousel. The guy that answered said give me about 30 minutes. After more than 30 minutes I called back and he said the driver was at T4 and it would be about 10 minutes. Later, I concluded that T6 is where we were waiting. Anyway, the driver showed up. He said, "You're going to La Quinta in Manhattan, right?" I answered, "No, Queens." The driver muttered with exasperation, "Oh my God!" He asked if I knew the address, and I gave him the print-out of our confirmation. He called his dispatcher to get directions.

We stopped at some of the other terminals and picked up more passengers. Some of them were a family from Germany. I talked to the mom a little bit. Her English and my German were about equal (meaning pretty bad), but I explained we were visiting my daughter.

We drove for a long time and then I realized we had arrived in the general vicinity of the hotel. I called my daughter who had come over to the hotel to meet us. She was already there, and said, "Oh yeah, you're just around the corner." The driver didn't know that of course, and he turned the wrong way. It turns out we went about 40 blocks in the wrong direction before he called his dispatcher. He turned around and headed in the right, went past the hotel, and had to turn around to come back. Okay, it took about twice the amount of time it should have.

By this time we were starving, so the three of us went to eat at Vicky Punjabi Haandi and had tandoori chicken. Later we rode the subway over to Manhattan, walked around Union Square, and saw Kirsten's apartment. Later, we rode the N to Queensborough Plaza and switched to the 7 to get to our stop at 40th and Queens Blvd.

Cultural Learnings of America


Borat! Borat! Oh, yeah! Glorious Benefit for Kazakh Nation! $26.4 million? I feel this country big love.