July 14, 2011 - A Night on the Town

First - a description:
This shot overlooking Sheridan Square is from an incredible penthouse terrace above the Monster.

Second - the story:
Colleen's show at the Duplex this month was her Bastille Day tribute to Cole Porter ("Pret A Porter") and it is one of my favorites in her Calendar Girl series. Tom and I went with some friends who hadn't seen her perform before and they absolutely loved it, AND the place was packed with people, including some key industry folk who hadn't seen her perform before, and they all absolutely loved it. It was a fantastic show.

Afterwards, instead of going directly home as we usually do, we joined Colleen and several other folk for dinner at a nearby restaurant (Agave - I had chicken enchiladas, yum!) After dinner, we were about to say our goodnights and go, but Colleen had been invited over to the apartment of a friend of her friend Steve R's and asked us (me, Tom, Kevin & Geoff) to stick around to walk her in. We agreed, and on the way Kevin got a text from another friend, Joe, letting us know he was in the neighborhood, so we invited him to come with us too. He met us on the next corner and was with another friend, Steve W (who we hadn't seen in a long time,) so now we were 7 heading up to this friend of a friend's penthouse.

Once inside, we knew we were going to stay for a while. The entrance to the apartment was a stone spiral staircase with a castle-like feel. It opened at the top into a little vestibule area leading to the bedroom, a little kitchen and a living room (all decorated to excess!) It was not a very big place... but then there were the terraces. Off one side of the living room was a decent-sized terrace facing south. It was set up with a dining area and had a gorgeous view of downtown Manhattan. Off the other side of the living room was a gigantic terrace which faced east and north. It had tons of seating and we quickly grabbed spots (and glasses of wine that had been graciously offered) and settled in to enjoy a beautiful evening outdoors and catch up with each other. Another guest at the party was actually someone I met in volleyball but hadn't seen for many, many years and the whole evening became a truly unique, crazy, New York type of night.

Happy Bastille Day - Vive la joie de vivre!!

July 13, 2011 - Rain, Rain, Rain

We were celebrating our friend Jack's birthday* at a restaurant called Taboon** in Hell's Kitchen and a huge crazy rainstorm came out of nowhere. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was super windy and a ton of water just seemed to crash down on everything. Weather!

* Happy Birthday again, Jack!

** Taboon was fun! The Middle Eastern food was delicious and the place was really cute. The only slightly negative thing was the slow bartender - he couldn't keep up with us :)

July 12, 2011 - Subway Smoke

So I was on the subway and just as we were pulling into a station there was a really loud "POP" from within my car. Everybody started looking around and we all quickly saw one of the overhead lights starting to smoke. Luckily, we were in the station and could all simply leave the train (we didn't need to be told to evacuate)... but within under about 10 seconds the whole platform was covered with a yellowish, stinky, fog and it would have been really scary if it had happened outside of the station.

July 11, 2011 - Harry Potter Mania

I happened to be walking past Lincoln Center last night, where fans had been waiting for up to 6(!!) days for a chance to see their favorite stars at the premiere of the final part of the final movie in the Harry Potter series. I was too far away to really see what was going on as I tried to get through the mob scene, but there were a lot of screams just when I took this picture, so I've decided that Emma Watson was blowing kisses to the crowd at that moment... and I got one - Yay!

July 10, 2011 - Family Portrait

The kids were all posed together for a picture, so I took one!

July 9, 2011 - The First Tomato

Yay - we're getting tomatoes in the backyard (our plants are as tall as our fence.) It's a crazy little patch of home-grown goodness and I can't wait till we get some that are ready for eating!

July 8, 2011 - Meet Tom, Guide to Broadway

Pretty much everyone who knows Tom knows that he loves seeing Broadway shows, but you should also all know he's not just a fan... he's like a personal guide to Broadway.

Here is why:

1. He has been to almost every single one of the Broadway theaters and knows basically every insider tip for getting discount tickets (read them here!)


2. He was an official reviewer on Broadway.com's Word of Mouth panel, not once, but twice because people liked him so much he was asked back as an "All Star" (watch one of his reviews here!)


3. Every person we know who comes to visit NYC and wants to see a Broadway show asks Tom for a recommendation. My family, his family, our friends, and (here comes the connection to the photo above) a group of theater-lovin' women from the Washington DC area.

"What," (you may be asking in regards to that last bit,) "are you talking about, and what does it have to do with the picture?" Well... one of Tom's co-workers from the DC area and her friends come to New York every year to see shows, and they always get their recommendations from Tom. He's like their own Ben Brantley (NY Times chief theater critic.) And this picture was from just after they treated us to dinner while they are in town as a thank you for all his suggestions over the years. So there you go, my point is made. Q.E.D.