How can one city be so cool?!

I know, I’m being naughty, skipping ahead of all the blogging about playing Hogmanay and Floriday with the Mark Saul Band, but instead I must share with you all the coolest three days I’ve spent in… in AGES! I give you fair warning – lots and lots of photos, and probably even more text. Just look at the pretty pictures if you like.

So, I was in Florida with Mark, Miss Sweden and the boys, right? But due to some miscommunication with our hosts, accommodation was not the most ideal, so I made the snap decision to cut short my time with the band as soon as we’d played our gigs, and jet across to visit someone I’ve been meaning to visit for ages, who lived in a city that I’ve wanted to visit my whole life.

It was time to visit Yarnmonster Jess (not to be confused with Ubiquitous Jess) in New York City. And what a time it was.

I arrived there with a relatively short list of things in my head that were essential activities that I’d always wanted to do in New York – visit Central Park, view Van Gogh’s Starry Night with my own two eyes, see a Broadway Show, glimpse the Statue of Liberty, and view Manhattan from on high.

But as I saw more things in the city, and discussed things with Jess, that list grew… and grew… and GREW!

First impressions for a geeky out-of-towner who likes to binge on pop-culture? New York is like one big film/tv set. Everywhere you look, there’s something to see that belongs in some stylish flick about sophisticates living it large in the City That Never Sleeps.

I could go on and on and on about all the strangely familiar landmarks that I recognise from films ranging from Day after Tomorrow to You’ve Got Mail, or from TV shows as iconic as Friends and as obscure as Flight of the Conchords… But that would bore you all senseless. Instead, all film/TV references will be in italics, between brackets, for those who care to enjoy at their leisure.

From the very moment I stepped off the plane at JFK, I started giggling about being in New York. I was heading to Jess’s famous flat in Brooklyn (famous because she plays hostess to an oddly high number of itinerant musicians), and my camera was out of it’s case before I’d even finished the cab ride to Brooklyn, as we were driving through Queens (The Nanny).

“Are you kidding? I am Queen’s Boulevard…” (Entourage)

Jess took me for dinner in Manhattan (just a couple of Subway stops away), where we dined near the Rockefeller Center, bedecked as it was in sparkly lights:

The next day saw us breakfasting in a lovely little coffee house in Brooklyn, where the coffees were as good as any Barrista’s in Melbourne. I took one look at Jess’s awesome handbag and coveted it. She could not be persuaded to part with it, alas , but she obligingly took me to the store from whence it came – Brooklyn Industries. You’ll get a photo of our sibling bags anon. Patience.

A short ride over the Manhattan Bridge on the subway saw us in Manhattan again by daylight, where we wandered around Chinatown, and I managed to haggle (in Chinese!!) for an “I *heart* NY t-shirt. I was chuffed at that.

Soon we traipsed into Soho, where Jess introduced me to the tastiest indian food I’ve had in ages – kinda an indian sandwhich/pancake thing, at a restaurant which I’d have never found on my own. This thing was HUGE! I was like, “you expect me to eat ALL that?” to which the YarnMonster parried with her own challenge – she was going to eat all of hers.

Man, that was a tasty sandwich-pancake thing. And Jess did finish all of hers – no mean feat for someone as teensy as she is!

By the time we’d wandered around Chinatown and Soho, it was starting to get dark, and soon our feet brought us to Times Square (Heroes, Zoolander, about a gazillion other movies) – that famous patch of urban landscape where it’s never dark. What got me about it is that you don’t realise from all the movies that it’s actually a narrow X-shaped intersection, not a fork, so the view behind us also exists in front of us (if that makes any sense):

So we were walking around Times Square, and I said to Jess, “Isn’t there a Hard Rock Cafe somewhere in New York?”

“Hmm,” says she. “I think so.”

“But where abouts in the city is it?” says I.

But before she could respond, we look to our left and Lo! there it is!

We decided to go in for a drink and a rest for our weary feet. Our bags said they needed a rest too, and demanded to be photographed at the Hard Rock Cafe:

Are they not the coolest bags you’ve, like, EVER seen?

That evening we ticked another Must Do thing off my list – a Broadway show courtesy of the half-price-last-minute ticket booth. Avenue Q has to be the funniest show I’ve seen in ages. See it if you can. The vision of Sesame Street style Muppets having fully naked sex will be burned into your mind forever-more. In a slightly wrong but utterly hilarious way.

Tuesday dawned crisp and clear, a perfect day for hopping on the (free) Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty (Ghostbusters II, countless others). It was CooOOooOOoOOOld on the ferry, but well worth it to gawk at a 200-ft French Lady:

Click on the pic for a closer view…

Then it was on to more serious things – Ground Zero:

For all it happened going on 7 years ago, the scar is still marring the Manhattan landscape, and I doubt that part of town will ever shake off what happened that day. And nor should it. It was a more introspective part of an otherwise jam-packed day.

We comforted ourselves with Cupcakes from Magnolia – a famous cupcake shop where the Olsen twins apparently go (or at least, the non-anorexic one), and where Jess takes all her guests.

Pics of yummy cupcakes and satisfied Charlotte on Yarnmonster Jess’s blog. Also, I’d like to mention now Jess’s incredible knitting talent, and her basket of winter woolies which have kept 2/5ths of my family warm when visiting the Big Apple. You can see all her marvellous creations if you explore her blog a little further.

We continued northwards up the Island of Manhattan until we reached the closed thing they have to my own personal Mecca on the East Coast – 30 Rockefeller Plaza, aka NBC Headquarters.

Seems all my fave shows right now are at NBC or one of its affiliates – 30 Rock, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Studio 60, Friday Night Lights, Scrubs… Not to mention old faves like Friends and Seinfeld.

For anyone who watches 30 Rock, the Rockefeller centre is a must. After all, the show’s named after 30 Rockefeller Plaza and is a comedy show about a fictional comedy show on NBC, which gently pokes fun at all things NBC and New York. For anyone who’s NOT seen 30 Rock – WATCH IT! It’s HILARIOUS!

Here’s me basking in my own private Mecca:

Also filmed at the Rockefeller Centre is Conan O’Brien – late night American Comedy show. To be in the audience, tickets are free – you just need to rock up early enough in the morning. Or in our case, get pulled aside by an NBC page inside, and asked if we’d like to see a Conan show.

Like we’d turn THAT down!? Besides, we knew that Bell X1 would be playing, an utterly hip Irish band who my brother has talked about for ages, and I’ve been wanting to catch them since forEVER! Thus followed the Saga Of Waiting To Get Into A Conan Taping. Simon of the Flying Sea Bass has accused me of making my story drag out longer than the actual wait that we had to endure for the show, so I’ll cut it short. As you can see below, we were totally excited at the prospect of a Conan taping:

But no friends, no. Look CLOSER at the ticket:

Squint and turn your head to the side, and you might read the words “Stand-by ticket – does not assure admission”. Well, long story short, there were around 40 people behind us, and exactly 48 people ahead of us in the line, but after about 2 1/2 hours of waiting, the first 42 people in the line ahead of us get seats in the studio, while Jess and I, along with the six people ahead of us in line, are told to have a great day, buh bye now.

*sigh*

But we shrugged, because the (long) version of the story is probably better than the actual Conan taping itself. And besides, it put us back on track for our original plans for that evening – another Broadway show.

I had two shows that I really wanted to see before I arrived – Wicked, and Avenue Q. Getting tickets at short notice for Wicked these days is harder than poaching an egg on Pluto, so I gave up on that one pretty quick. Avenue Q was sorted the night before. So my 3rd choice took a bit more research. The moment I read that a wee show called The Farnsworth Invention had been written by Aaron Sorkin (of West Wing and Studio 60 fame) I just HAD to convince Jess that this was the show to see. And Jess, being the most gracious host a New York Noob could hope for, kept me company for one of the finest shows I’ve seen in ages. Snappy dialogue, classic Aaron Sorkin tempo, with humour that’s not comedy per se, but rather intelligent wit. If you fancy watching the trailer (I didn’t even KNOW that they did trailers for Broadway shows!!) you can catch it by clicking here.

And yes, the handsome guy in the striking dark suit is the lovely Hank Azaria who, if you recognise from NO other film, you’d recognise his voice from countless Simpsons characters – Moe, Chief Wiggun, Dr Nick, Apu, and too many others to name. The guy’s a legend.

But best performance hands down came from young Jimmi Simpson (in the waistcoat above, right) in the eponymous role of Philo Farnsworth, the arguable inventor of the Cathode Ray Tube (AKA Television). I dunno, there’s something about the way stage actors have to deliver their lines side on to face the audience, that I find somehow appealing – it makes all the dialogue seem more forceful and passionate… Does that make any sense at all?

The show was also fitting for My First New York Experience, cause it featured events like the founding of NBC and the building of of Radio City:

Anyway, back to reality for a moment (it’s tough, I know). If you’re not interested in any kind of television, of the NBC or Broadway varieties then the Rockefeller centre will offer you something more tangible – some of the best views in New York. It’s a tall building, after all:

And unlike the Empire State Buliding, you don’t have to wait 2 hours in a queue to go up. PLUS if you’re for some reason obsessed with the Empire State Building (Sleepless in Seattle, countless others), you’ll get a much better view of it from Rockefeller:

And looking the other way, you’ll see Central Park. It’s just a little patch of grass really… Not so big… Ahem:

Central Park was definitely a must, though it was SOOO cold that we didn’t spend long there, just walked through and took in some of the sights:

Above – the lovely Jess showing off another oft-featured New York landmark.

Anyone seeing a Dr Who episode spring to mind? “Don’t turn around, don’t look away, don’t even BLINK!”

Alice in Wonderland, a delightful bit of whimsy in a city of whirlwind action…

By this stage, we were about ready for the ground to turn into a soft warm fluffy pillow and bear us into the land of blissful cupcake dreams, but we still had one very important thing on our list:

Words cannot describe.

Speechless.

A Picasso, just hanging on a wall, no glass over it, no rope around it. I felt like I was in the land of my mother’s youth, where you were allowed to walk amongst the rocks at Stonehenge. I got up so close to Starry Night I was practically nose to nose with the iconic cyprus tree – I’d never realised before how much blank canvas is in that picture. I even felt a little weird snapping a photo, though you can take as many pics as you like in MoMA – so long as you forgo the flash.

One more pic to share, before I leave you – the Reading Room at the New York Public Library (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Day After Tomorrow, Ghostbusters):

Stunning.

I wish I could have spent more time in New York, it was truly breathtaking. My sincerest thanks go to the wonderful Yarnmonster Jess, who was the most enthusiastic and generous hostess and tour guide (and friend!) I could ever have hoped for. I can tell you, we felt pretty proud of ourselves by the time my hour of departure befell us. We’d done New York City VERY well.

So for now, New York, goodbye. I shall return.

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