9th Street on a Saturday

What would you do?

Put yourself in this situation: your child is sick with an ugly and painful sore throat for several days. You take him or her to the doctor and are told that the test for strep would come back in 1-2 days and they would only call you if it was positive. On a Friday afternoon, your spouse gets a message on the home answering machine from the nurse asking you to return the call because the test results are in. Instead of calling back the doctor, or calling you and asking you to call the doctor, your spouse leaves to do laundry. You discover the message at 6pm, after the doctor's office is closed, presumably for the weekend.

The choices:
1. You scream and yell to no avail and resume your normal life
2. You scream and yell and don't talk to your spouse for a period of 3 days, or until you get the test results, whichever is LONGER.
3. You go out to a bar, have a few drinks and spend a wild night with a stranger, for revenge.
4. You call your attorney and start the proceedings to file for divorce
5. You throw all caution to the wind and murder your spouse, making it look like suicide

My Brush with Celebrity

At my job I am the official company twitterer. While skeptical at first I have come to love the instant access to information. I was, by far, the first one I know to hear that Michael Jackson died. I knew today the second the space shuttle took off, even if I didn't bother to watch it.

By watching the Twitscoop I follow every major story such as the Sotomayor hearings without having to read about it - I know at any second who is asking a question and then I might see a tweet with a snarky remark about it.

During Michael Jackson's funeral thing, I watched the names of the celebrities who sang & spoke pop up big and then die down until the next one popped so I knew who had attended and some keywords about what they said. I didn't want or need more than that little bit of information.

But the most exciting thing to happen on twitter is when someone "retweets" your message - meaning they forward it on so the people who follow them can see it too. It's the meat of the viral aspect of twitter. Generally the people who retweet me are a small group of loyalists with a common interest (ie industry folk).

And on a rare occasion you get a celebrity. My friend at TruTV bragged for weeks about the time Ashton Kutcher (who has over 2 million followers) tweeted about TruTV. They were high on that for ages. Then they had Cindy McCain tweeting about them. So she had 2 celebrities in a row, and I had kind of a secondary one when a few weeks ago Jane Fonda posted one of my company's videos on her blog and then tweeted about it. That was exciting but it wasn't a retweet.

Then, yesterday, to my great delight, I tweeted about this amazing video. In fact, I love this video so much I broke my own personal rule of not tweeting about something more than once (unless it's something appropriate like an invitation to an upcoming event) and I sent out that video 3 times. On the 3rd time I got the best retweet of my twitter career: the lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders retweeted it. It was a day of celebration.

However, the part of this long and boring story (if you are still with me, which I doubt you are) that really tickled me was that when I called the husband to brag about my conquest I told him "the guy from Paul Revere & the Raiders retweeted me" he answered, without missing a beat, "oh you mean Mark Lindsay?" How the hell did he know that? And why then can't he remember to buy cat food?

So this link is from the same show Mark Lindsay was on (and the actual reason the husband remembered his name) and even though it is not Paul Revere OR the Raiders, it is a rendition of Hey Joe that I never in my life would have thought existed.

Judas F**ing Priest

Last night Judas Priest and Whitesnake played at Jones Beach. It was a very loud, very hard rocking evening of old classics. During this tour Judas Priest is playing all the songs from the 1980 British Steel album. This was the last album of theirs I bought so I knew all those songs, which was great because there are probably another 6-8 albums after that which I know nothing about. They did play songs off of other albums as well, but not as much as I would have liked.

Their sound hasn't changed in any discernible way in all these 30+ years, and the band has done a great job with the botox, plastic surgery and hairweaves/wigs so that they look terrific and play great. Well, Rob Halford shaves his head, but he is sporting a head tattoo, which led to a lengthy discussion about whether head tattoos hurt more than arm or back tattoos. I say no, Jeannine says yes.

Happily, Halford appeased the audience by coming out on a motorcycle at the encore. I believe he had stopped doing this for many years, but at this time, when we are in full nostalgia mode, it is a requirement to appease the old folks lest they riot.

The one oddity of the concert was Rob Halford's stance. He didn't look up for the first two songs, and for the rest of the night he sang with his body bent forward, his head tucked in, which is exactly the opposite way a normal singer stands. The classic pose of the rocker with his head thrown back, chest out, hair waving in the breeze and the microphone poised upward from his lips in that rather sexual way, is what we expect from Mr. Halford.

I came to the conclusion that one of the amps was disguising a teleprompter so that he could remember the words to all these old songs. Jeannine did not agree and stuck to the theory that he was wearing a back brace that didn't allow him to stand up and sing simultaneously. I googled around but could find no evidence one way or the other, or even a reference about this new posture. I think the likely answer is that in order to get that amazing power from his voice, he has to hunch in around the microphone and tense up his diaphragm.

Glenn Tipton (through the binocs) looked hot as ever though he is actually 4 years older than both Halford and Coverdale. His face hasn't aged a day. Same for David Coverdale (Whitesnake) who looked so young that a group of men asked me, during the intermission, if I was sure that it was in fact Coverdale singing, since nobody had expressly introduced him by name. They had a very good point there.

This close up photo I found on this website, shows that in fact he is aging, and possibly had the botox recently, since none of those lines were apparent to me. However, none of this matters, since he still has an incredible voice and is one of the all time legends of rock and roll.

Weekend Kitties

Let Them Eat Cake

Amor Bakery on Avenue B has been baking up Latin and Caribbean style desserts for as long as I can remember. One added thing to make them a stand-out - they don't have a website.

Hell Bent for Jones Beach

I am inspired to see my favorite 70's band, Judas Priest at Jones Beach on Sunday. It's gonna ROCK. So I dusted off my record player and am luxuriating in pure, unadulterated hard rock. No chains can hold me down...

Manhattanhendge

According to some dude (I'm calling everyone dude just now as I hear it is the new trend) at the Hayden Planetarium, the sun will be perfectly aligned with the east/west street grid in Manhattan this weekend.

So at 8:25pm go to 14th, 23rd, 42nd etc and get that cool photo of the sun setting low on the horizon.

1st Street

When people mix up college dorm life and post-college adult living, this is where they wind up.

About Town on a Holiday Weekend

Avenue A in the middle of the afternoon.




It's hard to tell from this photo, but it's a Patricia Fields store (the clothing designer from Sex and the City).

Sonic Youth & The United Palace Theater

Sonic Youth played last night at the United Palace Theater on 175th Street & Broadway, a venue I have never even heard of, no less been to.

Sonic Youth was incredible, they were as tight as you can imagine, not so loud to be painful, and the sound was rich, thick and deep with 3 guitars. I realize as I write this that music reviewing is something I have no idea how to do. I have no words to describe music, it's just either great or bad or medium. This was great.

If Sonic Youth weren't so on spot last night, they would have been overpowered by the venue, the United Palace Theater. If you have never been there, I encourage you to get on the subway (A train to 175th St, 1 block to Broadway) TODAY and visit it. It's an unbelievable building that is lushly ornate, every square inch covered with gold plaster moldings painted with red and green highlights. It's a blast on the eyes and soul.

According to their website, the building was built in 1930 by Thomas Lamb (a year before the George Washington Bridge opened which is right on that same street) as a Loews Theater for vaudeville and movies. It was the 5th and last "Wonder Theater" that Loews opened. The church bought it in 1969, and has lovingly restored it and kept it as beautiful as the day it opened (I imagine). It also has a special type of organs, only one of five existing. For more detail on the history of the building, this site has some good information. This site has a good video with Reverend Ike who is I think the primary tenant.

My photos don't do it justice, the website has a much better selection. I cannot urge you enough to go there as soon as possible to witness this gem of a building. Unfortunately the calendar page on their website is not functioning but they have church services there all the time, and concerts, recitals and other events too.

The Swimming Cities of Serenissima

This is an incredible art project that just finished up in Venice. Floating rafts on the Adriatic Sea. Just beautiful.

Theresa

I am fairly certain I had this doll when I was a girl. I named her Theresa. When you put 2 C size batteries in a plastic pack in her back, she shuffled her feet a little and then fell over. I loved her.

My Hair is Lovely

Today I met a new neighbor in the hallway, a toothless black man who I am sure lives in the triad of craziness. But I like him since he told me my hair is beautiful.

Garden Dancing

I'm sorry I missed the annual fundraiser at the garden, but there is a nice three part video of the music and dancing.