Madison Square Garden

It's my last morning in New York, and I've been so busy that I've had barely any time to think about what I've done, forget writing about it. But there was one place where I spent two very different evenings of my trip, which I want to mention.

Saturday: Montreal Canadiens at New York Rangers

I am a huge, gigantic, crazy Montreal fan, and their game here during Steve's visit was a big reason why I decided to come to New York. I was a bit manic, both before and during the game. We arrived early and went walking around the Garden, trying to decide where to hang out and get some dinner, and happened upon the player entrance. It was surrounded by Rangers superfans trying to get a glimpse of one of the their beloved hockey heroes. Just as I was shaking my head at their lunacy, the Montreal buses pulled up. The New York fans all booed and cursed and made bad jokes about them going back to Canada, while I got a rush, seeing all my boys in there, wearing their suits, ready for the game. I said a quiet "Go Habs Go" so as not to get beaten by the opposing fans, then got so excited that I tweeted up a storm about it. It's the closest I've been to my Habs, nearly touching their windows as we rushed to get around the stopped bus and away from the crazies. Well, the other team's crazies.

We then hung out at a bar which was lousy with Habs fans, one of whom actually gave me a 'Rangers Suck' sticker, until it was time to get our seats in the arena. We luckily ended up seated in the middle of a whole row of Habs fans, some of whom were down from Montreal. From what they said, the games are always so packed at the Bell Centre that it's usually easier for the hometown fans to get away tickets.

Steve got into the spirit of the game, and hollered his voice away along with me. The Habs didn't play a great game in the first period and by the time they got it together, it was too late. They pulled to within 1, then lost it 5-3 after an empty net goal. It was tragic, but seeing them play in the flesh remains one of the greatest thrills of my life. I will continue to see them at every opportunity, and cheer like a wild woman, no matter who the home team that night might be.

Luckily, no matter where you go in North America, you'll always find lots of Habs fans. I'm usually in good company.

Sunday: Winnipeg Jets at New York Rangers

Since Steve was seeing yet another Broadway show on Sunday night, I took the opportunity to go see the new version of the Winnipeg Jets. I wouldn't say I'm much of a Jets fan at this point, but I've been supporting them this year because I love their story, and it's great to get a Canadian team back.

I got tickets significantly farther from the ice (ie didn't care to pay as much) for the Jets game, and ended up in the middle of a section of Ranger fans. I knew the Winnipeg contingent would be present but small, and even heard a few faint "Go Jets Go" chants, but NONE of that was in my section. No, my section was full of the kind of fans who hooted and screamed for the Rangers, but also booed their own team for taking too long to shoot the puck on a power play. Scary people.

I kept my mouth shut, drank my beer, and secretly wished the Jets would kick the Rangers' sorry asses. But they didn't.

The game was very evenly matched, except that the Rangers goalie was on a tear, and shut out Winnipeg. They ended up losing 3-0. And I went to meet Steve at karaoke, so I guess all's well that ends well.


Yet again, the team I went to see lost the game. It has been a couple of years since I've seen (in person) a win by a team I support. Maybe I should just do everyone a favor and stay home...

Nah.

Eugene O'Neill Theatre: The Book of Mormon

We're back at the hotel for a break after having a fantastic lunch at Marea and seeing The Book of Mormon. I think Steve's tired of me, and I'm just tired in general.

Marea was amazing, and was really a fancy place. I resisted the urge to take photos of my food, but Steve and Jay didn't. Maybe I was too busy stuffing my face. I'm starting to get a little hungry again now, a few hours later, but don't want to put anything less perfect into my stomach after that meal. We got the 2 course Sunday lunch, so I started with grilled octopus over smoked potatoes, pickled red onion, chilies and tonnato, then had their prime sirloin with bone marrow panzanella and braised romaine. So tasty!

We walked off the meal by hustling down to the theatre for The Book of Mormon. Since we arrived in New York, Steve has been bragging to everyone that we had tickets to the show, and they all told me how wonderful it was, how it would change my life, how my mind would be BLOWN.

But I'm me, so I listened politely to their praise and didn't get my hopes up, didn't set myself up for disappointment. It was a great show, dare I say it was a fantastic show? But my mind is still intact.

The best thing about The Book of Mormon is that it deals with some very serious subject matter, like religion and the tragedy of life for many Africans, with humor, but still manages to be very poignant and sweet in some ways. It's really, REALLY funny, and the whole cast does a fantastic job. It also had lots of Lion King jokes that I didn't get, and most of the cursing was totally gratuitous, just to make sure people knew it came from those South Park guys.

I think Steve's irritated with me for saying it's just a great show, which is blasphemy to him. But I was irritated with him for saying we should leave the Habs game early last night, because that's blasphemy to me. So I would definitely recommend The Book of Mormon to anyone, even the non-Broadway types like me. I really enjoyed it, it is truly a great show. But only the truly theatre-obsessed will lose their shit over it. Just like me and my hockey team.

A New York Blur

I'm so sleep deprived and puffy-eyed from allergies right now that I can barely see clearly. But I'm showered, dressed and coffee-ing up to go out in half an hour anyway. Did I mention how over-scheduled this trip is?

Here's what we did yesterday:

• Left the hotel at 9:30, grabbed breakfast at Starbucks, walked up to the subway
• Waited ages for the local, rode the subway way out of the way due to impatience, which I'm calling a tradition now instead of a year over year mistake
• Spent roughly 2 hours at the Museum of Natural History
• Came back to midtown, ate dirty water street hot dogs for lunch
• Steve went to see Follies, I went shopping at Rockefeller Plaza
• We met back at the hotel to freshen up for a few minutes, then took a walk down through the fashion district, where we found that pretty much everything, including Mood, had closed about 20 minutes earlier, sent the boys a photo
• Sat down for beers and bar food at the Local West, across from Madison Square Garden... after happening to walk by the player entrance as the Habs buses rolled in and Ranger superfans screamed Canadian slurs at them. Tweeted with awesome actor Jay Baruchel about it.
• Saw the Habs play a half crap, half decent game against the Rangers, and lose 5-3. But I love seeing them live anyway
• Hung at the Duplex with the same bartender from last year for a couple hours, drank much.
• Spent too long at the Halal cart on the way back, chatting with a drunk Canadian and purchasing delicious street meat
• Came back to the hotel to eat and pass out a little after 2am (the 2nd 2am of falling back) and got the most sleep I've had in days... just under 8 hours

Now Steve's in a tizzy to get to our lunch reservations, so great pate, but I gotta motor. This city really never sleeps, so now, neither do I...

Al Hirschfeld Theatre - How to Succeed in Business...

Full disclosure: I just spent 20 minutes writing a post about this and then accidentally wiped it out at the exact second that the auto-save feature on blogger decided to save, so I lost everything... and it's 6am Seattle time after only a few hours sleep... so this is my half-assed attempt to rewrite it...

It was probably better earlier.

I'm up too early and wiped out from exhaustion. Steve and I are back in New York for our second annual trip! I arrived last night after a long flight, just in time for dinner at Smith's Bar, and to see How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, a show that Steve isn't fond of, but which stars his favorite boy ever, Harry Potter... erm... Daniel Radcliffe.

To be fair, based on last night, that kid just might shake off the character that made him world famous. He can't dance so well, sure, but he can act and sing, which is enough. The show had a few moments that I loved, but mostly it's everything I hate about musicals. Radcliffe was fantastic, and John Larroquette, doing a much more camp performance, was also terrific.

And of course I loved to hear the narrator's voice: my wanna-be besty Andy Vanderbilt-Cooper.

The rest of the cast was good enough, despite the crap music and choreography in most of the show, except Hedy La Rue... who was supposed to be a campy sex kitten, but came off as a sketch comedy show impersonation of Judy Garland. I get using that voice for the role, but what's with all the wobbling around like the later-life, over-medicated diva? So strange.

Since it's the holiday season, it's also time for Broadway Cares, which means a chance to donate at the end of every show. The stars ask for cash and advertise some special (often signed) souvenirs for the charity normally, but last night they also had an auction for Daniel Radcliffe's famous turquoise bowtie worn in that night's performance. He took it off right in front of us, promised to sign it along with Mr Larroquette, and began the auction himself.

Steve is a charitable fellow anyway, so he immediately jumped into the auction. His limit was $800, and right around that mark, he had the winning bid... and all went silent for a moment.We thought maybe he had it. Then Daniel said he'd throw in a chance to meet himself and his co-star, which got the bidding going again. It finally got to $1250, which was a tie, so they cut it off and sold both the bowties from Act 1 and Act 2.

Steve was gutted. Especially when he realized that his employer matches any charitable donations 100% and he could've actually given $1600. Ah, well.

So after a couple beers in a random Irish bar, I got a little sleep and and this morning I'm up too early so we can hit the Museum of Natural History before Steve's afternoon show. We're very much over-scheduled on this trip, and I can already tell how exhausting it will be... but at least we're in New York, New York.

I hear it's a hell of town.