US

August 25th & 26th, 2023

It was our last full day in NYC before flying out.   We were going to head to the Chelsea neighborhood where my friend Allan had lived.  I was glad that I checked to see if my friend’s favorite Vietnamese restaurant (Co Ba) was still open along with my favorite kitchen supply store in Chelsea Market.   Both of them had closed.   We decided to check out a few stores in the Bowery Neighborhood and to head over to China Town and Little Italy.

We spent most of the day wandering through neighborhoods and looking at restaurants.  We did stop at bakery in Little Italy to have piece of cake and something to drink before we headed back to a restaurant that was close to the hotel that I wanted to try.

Not the most exciting day but it was enjoyable! Continue reading →

August 24, 2023

The highlight of the week was seeing Sweeney Todd.  This is one my all-time favorite musicals.   I remember seeing a recorded version of the play with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn back in the 80s, I will never forget when they sang “A Little Priest” and realized this was musical was much darker than I thought it was. I was familiar with some of the songs including “Not while I’m around” and “Pretty Women” and had no idea of the context.

While on my flight to NYC, I received an email indicating that Annaleigh Ashford wasn’t going to be in Thursday night’s production. I learned a long time ago, to selecting shows based on what I wanted to see as opposed to the leading starts who was in them.   You never know when you show up if the you are going to see be an understudy.  I wanted to see this show, but having Josh Groban star in it made it even better.   I was glad to see he would be in the production.

Overall, the night was a walk down memory lane.   Back in the 80s, I did a project in the Hotel Edison which was next door to the Lunt-Fontanne Theater.   Back then it wasn’t nearly as nice as it is today.  The Cafe Edison restaurant that was in the hotel (known as the Polish Deli) had closed years ago and they opened up the Bond 45 restaurant.  The story behind Bond 45 was that the restaurant ordinally opened int he the space where the Bond Clothing store occupied in Times Square. The restaurant moved to the Hotel Edison.

Continue reading →

August 23, 2023

It wouldn’t be a trip to NYC without stopping by the Nintendo Store at the Rockefeller center.   After getting back from Coney Island, we walked to the Nintendo store to see what their latest and greatest t-shirts.   They used to have a small Nintendo museum with a history of the games and consoles.   I noticed that the display had shrunk to make room for more large screen displays.

After the Nintendo store we stopped by the skating rink.  It being summer, they had roller skating instead of the ice skating.  There were only a few people roller skating and I noticed the kids were using a device that was similar to a walker  to help prevent them falling down. Where is the fun in that?

We decided to check out FAO Schwarz which is right around the corner.   I should have known better, as soon as I got in the store, I found myself wanting to get away from the overly stimulated hyper active children. Continue reading →

August 23, 2023

I have been to New York city quite a few times for both work and pleasure. On this trip, I wanted to do something that I hadn’t done before.  As I looked at things to do, I saw Coney Island.   I had never been to Coney Island and yet I have seen it on TV and in the movies over and over again.  I loved the TV series Mr. Robot and the F Society was based there.  A few weeks earlier, I saw the last episode of  The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel where they all went to Coney Island.  I googled directions on how to get there and then took the Q Train through Brooklyn to get there.

The train ride was about an hour and as we went through Brooklyn, I thought of my mother who grew up there.   When I asked her questions about her childhood, she would always say that she didn’t remember much of her childhood.  I always wondered if that was true, she seemed to have very fond memories of my grandfather and how he would take her into the city.  She loved sharing the memories but besides those memories, she didn’t talk much about her childhood. Continue reading →

August 22, 2023

I love to travel, but when COVID hit, I put travel on hold.  I did not want this summer to come and go without taking a couple of trips.   I was watching the Tony awards and saw that Josh Groban was starring in one of my favorite plays – Sweeney Todd.  I spent a couple of days debating if I should or shouldn’t.  I finally came to the conclusion that life is short and should be enjoyed, I would probably regret not going.

When I fly to the east coast, I typically take an early morning flight.   This time, I decided to take an afternoon flight which landed me in Newark around 9:30 PM.  Throughout the day, I kept thinking how nice it was to have slept in, had breakfast and didn’t feel rushed getting to the airport. We arrived late evening and getting into the city was much easier than if we had landed during rush hour.

The downside to this trip was that unfortunately, my long time friend Allan Bierman, who lived in NYC,  passed away in January, 2022. It seemed strange that I was going to be in NYC and was not going to see him. Continue reading →