Well, we’ve had a great 1.5 days in NYC so far.
Thursday night, we squeeeezed into Mike’s (Acacia’s brother) car. The trunk was alrady full, so we had me in the front seat with Acacia’s smaller suitcase and Dave in the back with my suitcase and his, then poured Acacia into the tiny space between Dave and the Suitcases. Good times. Then we took 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot, during which Dave and Acacia experienced agony unlike anything felt before. I was hurtin too, but not by comparison.
We were gonna go to John’s for pizza that night, but they were closed by the time we got to the city. (Keep in mind that the 100 feet we traveled in line to pay out of the lot took three times longer than the trip to Dave’s hotel. We dropped Dave off and ate at the Astoria Diner in – get this – Astoria. Hmmm.
Then sleeping on the biggest air-mattress I’ve ever seen.
Friday morning, uo at dawn and on our way. Breakfast at the Union Square Green Market and Joetheartofcoffee. Yum yum double yum. We walked to the Pubilc to buy a lot of tickets, but the box office doesn’t open till 1pm. Okay, then.
Upupuptown to the American Museum of Natural History. We covered about 2/3 of the museum, including the planetarium, the evolution of mammals, biodiversity, and, of course, the fucking dinosaurs.
Then lunch at H&H Bagels, Grey’s Papaya dogs, more Joe’s coffee, and then a little shopping at Forbidden Planet and the Strand. I bought a tiny comic book by Jeffrey Brown.
Mike and his non-girlfriend Meg took us to a great place in Chinatown called Joe’s Shanghai. Fantastic dumplings. I could have eaten a meal of them.
Dessert was canollis in Little Italy, then we tried to get into the Housing Works coffeehaus/book store in Soho, but they were closed. Bad luck. Uptown again to 59E59, where the evening’s entertainment (see below) was happening.
Get Your War On – The Rude Mechanicals
I’ve been a long-distance fan of the Rude Mechanicals for awhile. Their mission statement was a model for me, and their projects spoke of similar taste and demeanor. In fact, I actually thought to myself, “What about making a show out of Get Your War On‘?” a few weeks before finding out that they had done precisely that. Cool.
So, suffice to say, I was very much looking forward to the Rude Mechs show at 59E59. They only let me down occasionally.
Overall, the show was cool, and compared with most of the dreck that’s made in the USA under the label of “plays” it’s a godsend. Unfortunately, David Ree’s voice from 3 years ago has been pretty-well absorbed into the mainstream (at least liberal-ish) media, certainly the portions of it that I (and, I assume, much of the actual and/or target audience for the show) pay attention to. So, some of the show comes of as a bit of liberal whining. Much of it, though, is very, very funny. And, of course, the vitriol lobbed and Bush & Co., is well-deserved. The show peaks in the middle, after the staging acheives some variety and a few non-ironically funny and actually heart-rending moments emerge. Around this time, the show was (for me) quite cathartic, and I was glad to release some of my anger through “the power of theatre”. But, the jokes then begin to wear thin, and the Mechs have little choice but to milk some of the less-funny bits, and then it just starts to seem vengeful. Only, only a thoroughbred liberal like myself could feel guily about watching a play because it might be too vengeful.