Sean's trip to New York, Vol. 2 -- Friday, March 18
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I haven't updated in a while. So here's your next installment.
On Friday, Liz and I awoke late although we had planned to do a lot of sight-seeing. We finally got out of Jeremy's apartment and on the subway around 11am or so. The first place we headed to was Lincoln Center, which is right off the A train on the West Side. We wandered around the courtyard, passing by the Juilliard School and several performance venues. We walked into the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts because I wanted to check out the Persichetti collection and see if they had the manuscripts for Shimah b'koli available. We asked the old ladies at the front desk where to find the special collections, and it took them 5 minutes to figure out that we wanted to go the research collections(!), that were on the third floor. The third floor has a coat and bag check, so we stashed our coats and my bag there, and I took in just a notebook and pencil. After we walked through security, I found the Music Collections desk and asked someone there about the manuscripts. Just my luck that when I was finally able to make it to New York, they were "processing the collection" (i.e. re-cataloging) and I couldn't view in it. "Check back in six months," he said. So much for that!
After grabbing our stuff and leaving the library, we wandered over toward the theatres, and saw what was on the Met and they NYC opera billboards. After much deliberation, we decided to see the NYCO's production of Candide that night, and after getting really confused by Ticketmaster on the phone, went inside to the ticket office and got student tickets for $15 a piece! What a deal! Reason one to live in New York -- frequent and very good performances!
Then we decided to head out to do something else, and ended up poking around in the Juilliard Bookstore for a little while (it's very tiny, but has some really great music books and CDs). With Central Park about 3 blocks away, we decided to walk over and take a stroll. On the way we decided we were hungry and grabbed hot dogs and pretzels from a street vendor (yes I'm a bad Catholic!). I really had no idea how large Central Park really was until I stepped into it. We walked quite a ways through the Park and still probably only saw 1/3 of it. This is partially my fault because I was vainly trying to find a subway entrance that was too far away to be found by normal means. So we ended walking from the west side of the park to the east side and caught the subway somewhere down on 5th avenue.
From there we decided to go to the World Trade Center. Finding it was kind of exciting, but ended up not being too hard. It's amazing the destruction that's still visible, even 3 1/2 years later. The pain was palpable, even. Even nearby buildings were still in a state of repair. Here's a few shots I took of the site. Keep in mind that there's a tall fence around the huge hole in the ground, so some of the views are obstructed.
After we had looked around at the destruction -- which you can see poignantly in both of those pics -- we went to find a bathroom. There was a Burger King on the corner, but when I headed for the bathroom, it had a coin lock on the door! Not only that, but you can't just put quarters in it, you have to go to the cashier and get a token. Luckily, there was another place across the way called Panini & Co, so we went in there. Liz got some coffee and a slice of cheesecake while I used the men's room. I too got a cup of coffee and helped her finish the cheesecake. We were pretty tired and it was nearly four o'clock so we decided to take something to eat back to Jeremy's and rest for a while before going back to Lincoln Center for the opera.
Candide. What can I say about Candide. It started out really funny, but quickly seemed to turn into banality. Don't get me wrong -- the music was great, the singing was good, the acting was ok, and the set was fabulous, but there was just something missing. I think the version of the libretto they chose was a poor one, and of course the usual complaints about the show not quite being opera, not quite being Broadway musical. Oh well, it wasn't a bad way to spend our Friday evening, and it was fairly inexpensive too.
There's much more to tell you about New York, but you'll have to wait for my next installment!
On Friday, Liz and I awoke late although we had planned to do a lot of sight-seeing. We finally got out of Jeremy's apartment and on the subway around 11am or so. The first place we headed to was Lincoln Center, which is right off the A train on the West Side. We wandered around the courtyard, passing by the Juilliard School and several performance venues. We walked into the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts because I wanted to check out the Persichetti collection and see if they had the manuscripts for Shimah b'koli available. We asked the old ladies at the front desk where to find the special collections, and it took them 5 minutes to figure out that we wanted to go the research collections(!), that were on the third floor. The third floor has a coat and bag check, so we stashed our coats and my bag there, and I took in just a notebook and pencil. After we walked through security, I found the Music Collections desk and asked someone there about the manuscripts. Just my luck that when I was finally able to make it to New York, they were "processing the collection" (i.e. re-cataloging) and I couldn't view in it. "Check back in six months," he said. So much for that!
After grabbing our stuff and leaving the library, we wandered over toward the theatres, and saw what was on the Met and they NYC opera billboards. After much deliberation, we decided to see the NYCO's production of Candide that night, and after getting really confused by Ticketmaster on the phone, went inside to the ticket office and got student tickets for $15 a piece! What a deal! Reason one to live in New York -- frequent and very good performances!
Then we decided to head out to do something else, and ended up poking around in the Juilliard Bookstore for a little while (it's very tiny, but has some really great music books and CDs). With Central Park about 3 blocks away, we decided to walk over and take a stroll. On the way we decided we were hungry and grabbed hot dogs and pretzels from a street vendor (yes I'm a bad Catholic!). I really had no idea how large Central Park really was until I stepped into it. We walked quite a ways through the Park and still probably only saw 1/3 of it. This is partially my fault because I was vainly trying to find a subway entrance that was too far away to be found by normal means. So we ended walking from the west side of the park to the east side and caught the subway somewhere down on 5th avenue.
From there we decided to go to the World Trade Center. Finding it was kind of exciting, but ended up not being too hard. It's amazing the destruction that's still visible, even 3 1/2 years later. The pain was palpable, even. Even nearby buildings were still in a state of repair. Here's a few shots I took of the site. Keep in mind that there's a tall fence around the huge hole in the ground, so some of the views are obstructed.
After we had looked around at the destruction -- which you can see poignantly in both of those pics -- we went to find a bathroom. There was a Burger King on the corner, but when I headed for the bathroom, it had a coin lock on the door! Not only that, but you can't just put quarters in it, you have to go to the cashier and get a token. Luckily, there was another place across the way called Panini & Co, so we went in there. Liz got some coffee and a slice of cheesecake while I used the men's room. I too got a cup of coffee and helped her finish the cheesecake. We were pretty tired and it was nearly four o'clock so we decided to take something to eat back to Jeremy's and rest for a while before going back to Lincoln Center for the opera.
Candide. What can I say about Candide. It started out really funny, but quickly seemed to turn into banality. Don't get me wrong -- the music was great, the singing was good, the acting was ok, and the set was fabulous, but there was just something missing. I think the version of the libretto they chose was a poor one, and of course the usual complaints about the show not quite being opera, not quite being Broadway musical. Oh well, it wasn't a bad way to spend our Friday evening, and it was fairly inexpensive too.
There's much more to tell you about New York, but you'll have to wait for my next installment!
posted by Seanicus at
3/27/2005 11:30:00 PM
