and here you have my road-trip entry...
Aug. 23rd, 2003 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elsajeni... which is really a New-York entry. Nothing else. I only took notes while I was in New York, you see. So you get a New York entry. My notes, incidentally, were scrawled quickly and often on subway trains, and I'm translating them from my own bizarre form of shorthand, so there's a fair chance that I will say something entirely nonsensical. It's not my fault, it's my notes.
1. Saw a highly attractive Japanese couple checking into our hotel. The woman is tiny, wearing at least 6-inch heels but still standing about 5'4". She has curly hair and a perfect, tiny nose, and she's carrying a huge purse that looks like she shouldn't even be able to lift it. The man has an incredibly gorgeous profile, plus really splendid lips, and is wearing cowboy boots and two very thin silver chains in his left earlobe. His hairstyle is vaguely reminiscent of David Bowie in Labyrinth. (This note was written solely because a) they were both very attractive and b) I wanted to write something down.)
2. Why are there so many men wearing pink polo shirts? Inexplicable.
3. The hotel is fairly loathsome, but there's a phone in the bathroom! Seems to be broken, though. Oh well.
4. Utterly pissed on by sky in the attempt to get back to the hotel. Stupid sky.
5. Apparently exposing oneself publicly is now considered a talent. There is a man who calls himself the Naked Cowboy and stands in Times Square wearing cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, and tighty-whities and solicits tips. (I later found out that he also sells advertising space on his clothing. Why? Why? What does this say about society?)
6. Went and saw Phantom of the Opera! Lovely music, though all female parts are soprano, thereby making me vaguely bitter. The bartender in the lobby strongly resembled David Bowie, which was mildly unnerving. The Phantom himself was very impressive, but his mask appeared to be one of those cheap shiny plastic ones available at, say, Wal-Mart around Halloween time. I was also somewhat disappointed in the chandelier, which did not so much fall as drift down, rather like a hot-air balloon coming in for a landing. All the same, very loud and sexy and fun, overall not a disappointment. (Especially due to the excellent underground-lake effects, such as mist and echoing and so forth.)
7. There seem to be significant parallels between Phantom of the Opera and Pirates of the Caribbean.
8. Decided that #7 is reasonable only at 2:30 a.m. or thereabouts. Seemed terribly sensible last night (this morning), though.
9. Incredible reunion day. Lyz took us to the wrong subway station and walked us all over Manhattan in the style of a death march, but finally arrived at our destination (St. Mark's Place, or, more specifically, Burritoville) and ate lunch. Then shopped - bought all kinds of ridiculous things and tried on all kinds of much more ridiculous things that we couldn't possibly afford. Had milkshakes and then returned to my hotel. We had an exciting hunt for Antonia, as she called saying she was near room 1118 (I was in 1106) and the numbers only went up to 1111. Turned out that there was a far elevator in the lobby that went to a totally separate, secret wing with high numbers. The only way to get there was to go down to the lobby and take the other elevator. Bizarre. Then we sat around and talked about Johnny Depp for an hour.
10. I highly recommend to all John's Shanghai, on East 46th street about a block from Times Square. They have terrific fresh apple juice, which seems by the taste and greenish tint to be made from Granny Smith apples. Also, the fortune cookies dispense the best fortunes I've ever gotten. (A couple of days later I got carrot juice there and it tasted like carrots, which struck me as somewhat surreal.)
11. At the Museum of Natural History, we sat through a planetarium show about the possibility of life on other planets largely because it was narrated by Harrison Ford. We went and looked at the animal dioramas, which had adorable weasels, flying fish, and manatees.
12. The Producers was decidedly not as good as I'd hoped. It didn't leave you humming. I feel that musicals should leave one humming. Also, why do I find Mel Brooks' older work so much more amusing than his recent work?
13. Far downtown, the subway seems to sway around a lot, with big curves and weird oblique angles and the car next to yours seeming to whiplash back and forth a lot and squealy noises that makes it seem all out of control. What makes those weird squealy noises, anyway? The only possible explanation is subway gnomes. They probably resemble ferrets.
14. Everywhere I go there are firetrucks. Is this something personal?
15. I just passed two Indian girls, who looked about 14, holding hands in an extremely shy and awkward but affectionate manner. It struck me as very cute.
16. Driving down 5th Avenue in a desperate attempt to find the way out of the city when it was time to leave (we had terrible directions), we saw a sign that said DON'T HONK: $350 PENALTY. Cab drivers, of course, were honking at the sign as if to say, "Hey! You tryin' to infringe on my God-given right to honk?"
1. Saw a highly attractive Japanese couple checking into our hotel. The woman is tiny, wearing at least 6-inch heels but still standing about 5'4". She has curly hair and a perfect, tiny nose, and she's carrying a huge purse that looks like she shouldn't even be able to lift it. The man has an incredibly gorgeous profile, plus really splendid lips, and is wearing cowboy boots and two very thin silver chains in his left earlobe. His hairstyle is vaguely reminiscent of David Bowie in Labyrinth. (This note was written solely because a) they were both very attractive and b) I wanted to write something down.)
2. Why are there so many men wearing pink polo shirts? Inexplicable.
3. The hotel is fairly loathsome, but there's a phone in the bathroom! Seems to be broken, though. Oh well.
4. Utterly pissed on by sky in the attempt to get back to the hotel. Stupid sky.
5. Apparently exposing oneself publicly is now considered a talent. There is a man who calls himself the Naked Cowboy and stands in Times Square wearing cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, and tighty-whities and solicits tips. (I later found out that he also sells advertising space on his clothing. Why? Why? What does this say about society?)
6. Went and saw Phantom of the Opera! Lovely music, though all female parts are soprano, thereby making me vaguely bitter. The bartender in the lobby strongly resembled David Bowie, which was mildly unnerving. The Phantom himself was very impressive, but his mask appeared to be one of those cheap shiny plastic ones available at, say, Wal-Mart around Halloween time. I was also somewhat disappointed in the chandelier, which did not so much fall as drift down, rather like a hot-air balloon coming in for a landing. All the same, very loud and sexy and fun, overall not a disappointment. (Especially due to the excellent underground-lake effects, such as mist and echoing and so forth.)
7. There seem to be significant parallels between Phantom of the Opera and Pirates of the Caribbean.
8. Decided that #7 is reasonable only at 2:30 a.m. or thereabouts. Seemed terribly sensible last night (this morning), though.
9. Incredible reunion day. Lyz took us to the wrong subway station and walked us all over Manhattan in the style of a death march, but finally arrived at our destination (St. Mark's Place, or, more specifically, Burritoville) and ate lunch. Then shopped - bought all kinds of ridiculous things and tried on all kinds of much more ridiculous things that we couldn't possibly afford. Had milkshakes and then returned to my hotel. We had an exciting hunt for Antonia, as she called saying she was near room 1118 (I was in 1106) and the numbers only went up to 1111. Turned out that there was a far elevator in the lobby that went to a totally separate, secret wing with high numbers. The only way to get there was to go down to the lobby and take the other elevator. Bizarre. Then we sat around and talked about Johnny Depp for an hour.
10. I highly recommend to all John's Shanghai, on East 46th street about a block from Times Square. They have terrific fresh apple juice, which seems by the taste and greenish tint to be made from Granny Smith apples. Also, the fortune cookies dispense the best fortunes I've ever gotten. (A couple of days later I got carrot juice there and it tasted like carrots, which struck me as somewhat surreal.)
11. At the Museum of Natural History, we sat through a planetarium show about the possibility of life on other planets largely because it was narrated by Harrison Ford. We went and looked at the animal dioramas, which had adorable weasels, flying fish, and manatees.
12. The Producers was decidedly not as good as I'd hoped. It didn't leave you humming. I feel that musicals should leave one humming. Also, why do I find Mel Brooks' older work so much more amusing than his recent work?
13. Far downtown, the subway seems to sway around a lot, with big curves and weird oblique angles and the car next to yours seeming to whiplash back and forth a lot and squealy noises that makes it seem all out of control. What makes those weird squealy noises, anyway? The only possible explanation is subway gnomes. They probably resemble ferrets.
14. Everywhere I go there are firetrucks. Is this something personal?
15. I just passed two Indian girls, who looked about 14, holding hands in an extremely shy and awkward but affectionate manner. It struck me as very cute.
16. Driving down 5th Avenue in a desperate attempt to find the way out of the city when it was time to leave (we had terrible directions), we saw a sign that said DON'T HONK: $350 PENALTY. Cab drivers, of course, were honking at the sign as if to say, "Hey! You tryin' to infringe on my God-given right to honk?"