In the past, the things that I've done without telling my parents (or not tell them until waaaaayyyy after the fact):
- wandered around Paris looking for authentic French ice cream
- flew to Boston to visit friends
- drove to Scranton, PA, three times for Office-related events (don't judge...)
- drove to Hershey, PA, for Spring Awakening tour
- flew to San Francisco for Idiot's Pre-Broadway run (again, don't judge...)
- drove to State College to see Idiot tour (see above)
- went to New York for many one day trips, including that one time I missed my 1:15 am bus back to DC so I spent the night in Penn Station (a nice police officer checked up on me every hour since I was to nicely dressed to be an actual homeless person)
Besides the first point, all the rest happened during & after college. I'm an explorer. I like to travel. I like having experiences; many that I know that if I didn't I would regret.
At my high school, soccer was our major sport (we didn't have a football team while I was there; crazy since this was Florida). My senior team, our boys' team was in the regional finals, IIRC, and I really wanted to go, but I had ballet class that night. I went back and forth for a long time but I decided to go to ballet class. They lost. I hadn't missed a soccer game the entire season until that game, and now, I regret not going. So, yeah... I'll take any experience that comes my way (well, within reason...)
So, the past 7 days, I got some experiences... maybe not the best choices, in hindsight, but they were experiences.
I wasn't feeling quite well on Tuesday morning but I had gotten a screening pass to "The Bourne Legacy" for Tuesday night. Now, I know that the camera movements in all the Bourne movies are all over the place and it makes me dizzy, but I really wanted to see the movie and, quite frankly, not pay for it. (See previous post). Because it's a screening, a good seat is not guaranteed and while I ended up not being in the very front, I really wish that I was further back. I had a throbbing headache about 1/3 in the movie and just had to stare at the floor at some really jittery parts. At the end, I had to just sit in my seat for a while so I can manage to wobble out of there.
Was that a good choice to go to the screening? No, but at least I saw the movie for free. Heh...
Wednesday comes along and Bowery Electric had a weekly showcase called "Old Soul Revival," which Johnny announced that he was doing a couple of songs at.
Anyways, as the Twitpic shows, he planned on going on at 10:45. When I got there at 10:30, the set list posted outside said he was going on at 11:05. I thought "Okay. I get to hear more music. That's cool." Then 11:05 came & went. As well as 11:45. And 12:05. While most of the sets were like 3 or 4 songs, the musician right before Johnny played 10 songs. Ten long songs. Three of which he brought "special guests" on stage to play alongside him. After the 5th song, I thought maybe it was planned that he was going to have a longer set than the others, but when I looked at the sound guy, he was confused & looking over his set list, so I guess he didn't know how many songs the guy was doing either. Anyways, at around 12:50, Johnny finally plays.
I really wasn't planning on staying out past 1 am but the place was so crowded that it would have taken forever to get out anyways. I finally left around 1:15 & after missing the bus and not having enough cash for a cab, I ended up walking about 25 blocks home. Summer nights are still humid & I felt blah when I got home at around 1:45.
Was that a good choice to go to Bowery Electric? Possibly... if I left earlier. Much earlier.
Many major cities around the US have Restaurant Week (one in the summer & one in the winter) and New York isn't an exception. I took advantage of it when I lived in DC & ate at some fancy places that I couldn't afford otherwise. Basically, participating restaurants have a fixed price meal for lunch, dinner or both during the "week" (some last longer than an actual week). The price varies each year but it's usually between $22 and $25 for lunch and $30 and $38 for dinner. Last year for NYC Restaurant Week, I went to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, which was excellent. On Friday, I decided to go to Porter House, which is on the 4th floor of the Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle. Didn't realize it until I got there that their Restaurant Week menu was basically their Park View Lunch menu that they have all the time. Oh well. The food was still delish & knowing that I could have the meal again for $24, just makes me wanna go again. And the view overlooking Columbus Circle and Central Park was just so pretty.
Was that a good choice to go to Porter House? Definitely.
On Saturday, I went to the New York Comedy Club which is actually across the street from me to see my friend, Jennifer Eolin, do some stand-up. She's a very funny lady & I had a nice time. Comedy clubs are a new experience to me. Previously, I've been to Second City in Chicago, DC Improv in DC, and UCB & Gotham Comedy Club in NYC. I've also seen John Oliver do his stand-up. Anyways, Jennifer is getting back into the groove and if you have time, go to check her out. She has a new webseries called "The Tutorialists" and she has some upcoming stand-up dates as well.
Was that a good choice to go to the New York Comedy Club? Yup. Especially to see a friend do her thang.
Sunday, I caught up with one of my college friends, Matt. We decided to meet up at Rockwood before dinner. I'm pretty indecisive when it comes to food and since neither of us knew the area, we wandered a bit until we came across a small Greek restaurant called Souvlaki GR on Stanton St. The food was very tasty. Definitely going there again the next time I go to Rockwood. Afterward dinner, we went to Stage 1. We saw Jonny Grave play & he was quite good; there were about 6 people in the room at that point & I felt kinda sad that he didn't have more people hearing his music. We left after Jonny was done & got some dessert at the cafe at the corner. Then headed back to see Anna Krantz play. Loved her! She's British so most of her gigs are back in London but I hope that I get to see her again when she plays in NY.
Was that a good choice to hit up Rockwood? Certainly. I caught up with a friend, found a nice Greek restaurant & discover new musicians.
Last night (Monday night), I went to Birdland for Frank & Friends, which was a little cabaret of Frank Wildhorn's songs sung by Laura Osnes, Stark Sands, Constantine Maroulis and Melissa van der Schyff. The place was packed and for good reason because everyone blew the roof off. Such talented people. I want Melissa in another show soon. I've never heard Constantine sing but he was good. Tweeted Laura afterwards & got a lovely reply back. I was only able to talk to Stark afterwards; he's so nice & classy.
Here's "You Can Do Better Than Me" from Bonnie & Clyde, which Stark sang. The actual song is a duet with Ted & Clyde called "You Can Do Better Than Him," but since Stark was singing it solo, thus the change. Heh.
Was that a good choice to go to Birdland? I would say so, but my wallet at the end of the night wasn't really happy. Actually, my wallet wasn't happy at any of the places that I went. Oops.
So, looking back at my week, I really took in New York living... I guess. I could go on with this if I won that 302 million Megaball. This week, I plan on doing more low-key/cheaper things. Let's see if that works and if I continue to make the "best" choices.
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