To recap for those watching at home: A little while back I entered PlayhouseSquare's contest for a trip to the Tony Awards in New York City--the live theatre industry's equivalent to film's Academy Awards or television's Golden Globes. I forgot about entering until I got a phone call congratulating me; they're taking care of the hotel room, the airfare, and of course the most imporant part: getting me into the event.
I am not a morning person, and the flight I was originally booked on seemed like a great idea -- leaving CAK at 5:40pm. At some point I realized that by the time I got to NY that would mean that it would be too late to do much on Saturday... then I realized that I had a HHonors certificate for a free night* that was due to expire this coming Tuesday... and there's a Hilton Garden Inn right across the streeet from the airport.
Fast forward, and after a night where I wasn't really inspired to sleep I find myself stumbling to the front of the line at 0-dark-25 this morning and asked if I might be able to change from the 5:30 PM to the 6:40 AM flight. To give you a general idea of my level of alertness, the agent asked "Emergency Exit Row: Window or Asile?" and my frist try at answering was "Yes, please." (about 20 seconds later I tried "Window, please." and that seemed to be the answer she was looking for as a boarding pass printed).
Shortly after 8AM I found my way to the bus stop outside of LaGuardia, MetroCard in hand -- I that long for a matinee, then made my way to Central Park.
When I was here in January -- the first time I spent any significant time on Manhattan -- I took some pictures of a leafless, snow-covered, and desolate Central Park -- with highs in the mid-teens, I couldn't say I was suprised. Needless to say, Central Park was anything but desolate today and it had a great energy with musicians, artists, famlies and just about anything else at play.
I thought it would be interesting to try to remember where the first set of pictures had been taken and take new ones 5 months later for contrast. Unfourtunately, the one battery I forgot to charge last night was my camera so I didn't get many -- and a few I forgot about the relatively slow shutter speed of my camera. But I charged it today and I might try again tomorrow before "the event"
Along the way I grabbed a quick hot dog and soda-- we'll call it brunch. NYC has no shortage of street side vendors of quality meat products.
Following my quick jaunt through the southern half of Central Park I back tracked down 5th Avenue to the Frick Collection -- one of the museums in the Cleveland Museum of Art's Reciprocal Membership program, and one that I didn't visit in January. I have to say I wasn't terribly impressed -- sometimes I forget how much the Cleveland Museum of Art's insightful label copy helps to understand the context of a particular piece -- and the art itself didn't really tug at any emotions. I did, however, pick up a copy of "Manners for Men" a reprint of an 1897 guidebook. I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing that in the handful of pages I've thumbed so thus far I haven't really found anything that I'm not already doing yet.
Add a tinge of riding the subway just for the heck of it, a return to the TKTS booth -- trying for Promises, Promises but winding up with Fela! and a return to Burger Joint in Le Parker Meridian for my 3rd time**** -- it's no In-N-Out, but it's a pretty good burger.
And now I need to leave for Fela! So we'll (presumably) pick up with Part 2 later this evening.
Lincoln
* - It had just enough strings attached that I couldn't actually use it at any of the hotels I wanted to use it at.
** - It was like 8:45AM. Normally I'm not conscious before 9 on a weekend, cut me some slack.
*** - This is quite possibly the earliest I've checked into a hotel.
**** - Once for each visit to I've had to Manhattan wher I had time to my self.
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