I took a much needed mental health day and went to see Sarah and Rob in the Big Apple yesterday. Unfortunately, Mondays are sort of quiet days for the city that never sleeps (exacerbated in this case by the Columbus Day holiday) - most museums and restaurants are closed, and while I don't begrudge these folks a day of rest, I find it a bummer that our Sabbaths coincide.
I still had a great time, however. I got to town in time for lunch, then Sarah and I walked to Grant's Tomb, took some pictures on the funky mosaic benches outside, and read the displays inside the classical-looking tomb. On the walk back, I was thinking one of the buildings we passed looked familiar, and Sarah asked if I had seen Enchanted. Turns out, the end of their block was featured heavily in the movie, and for as often as I've been to visit them, I am totally embarrassed that I did not recognize that when I was watching the movie. Ah well. . .
We had wanted to go the the Cloisters as well, and were hoping it would be open, since the Met itself was open especially for the holiday. Alas, the Cloisters were closed. So we just hung out around the apartment visiting until Rob came home from a meeting, then we planned to go to dinner at a pizza place they wanted to try on the lower East Side. Alas, the pizza place is not open on Mondays. So instead we went to an excellent Thai restaurant in Union Square, then digested a bit while feeding my addiction at the Strand (what's not to love about 18 miles of books?!), then walked to the Dessert Truck, which sells a deliciously decadent molten chocolate cake - Sarah and I split one, which was a good thing - it was so rich, I think I would have been sick had I tried eating a whole one by myself. On the walk back to the subway, we noticed the Empire State Building was lit up in green, white, and red, for Columbus Day, so Sarah and I said a little cheer for our fellow paisan, even though his claim to fame is rather dubious (my Norwegian friends are adamant that the Vikings got here first).
Today on my way out of town I did the NBC studio tour, which is a worthwhile tourist trap. We got to see the studio for the NBC Nightly News and MSNBC and the infamous Studio 8H (another pilgrimage complete), and learn all sorts of cool and interesting things along the way (like, that Brian Williams is in his suit and makeup first thing in the morning so he is camera-ready in case a story breaks during daytime programming, and that he stands at the beginning of each newscast in homage to the Huntley-Brinkley Report, who did their whole news program standing; or that each cast member and guest on SNL has a facial cast/bust made of them so the make-up artists can work on make-up design and prosthetic pieces without pulling the actors out of rehearsal).
Then I stopped by the public library to try and see the original Pooh, but he is temporarily not on display. So I looked at a small exhibit on art deco design instead, then headed for Penn Station. Along the way, I'm pretty sure I passed a film crew of some sort - lots of cameras and people and directors chairs, but no title on the back of the chairs, and no luminaries that I recognized. It could have been for a movie, or could have been a location shot for a NY-based TV show - it was right outside the au bon pain on 5th Ave, near the Empire State Building, and seemed to involve a bus.
So, that was my day and a half in New York, which was beautiful and went all too quickly, as usual. The drive was also particularly beautiful this time - the trees are pretty close to peak color in eastern PA.
And, total aside - my train reading this time was A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. My copy has an introduction by Walker Percy, who was apparently instrumental in getting the book published a decade after the author's death. Percy makes particular mention that a character like Ignatius J. Reilly was rather unprecedented at the time of the book's writing (in the early 60s). . .but as I read (about halfway through right now) it occurs to me that Ignatius certainly seems to have some contemporaries here in the early 21st century. . .his lambasting diatribes and ridiculous rhetoric are reminiscent of a certain O'Reilly over on FOXNews, as well as Stephen Colbert's satirical persona.
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