Empire State of Mind...

* Empire State of Mind - Jay-Z and Alicia Keys 

Do you know why Jay-Z is called Jay-Z… he used to live in Harlem and he travelled to Manhattan each day and he had to take the J train and the Z train… the rest is history.

Today was so depressing… I stupidly decided to cram both art galleries into my last day which was fine and considering I don’t care too much for art I wasn’t too anxious.

I headed along to MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art) as soon as it opened and made a quick dash for the 4^th floor. This holds mainly pop art. Warhol, Lichtenstien etc… (there the only ones I actually know! Oh no Jasper Johns) It was really cool seeing familiar paintings actually… they were cool but I was like ok 5^th Floor… where…

 Van Gogh’s Starry Starry night – what an amazing piece of artwork. This is  probably one of my alltime faves and I think seeing it in real life it definatley is. The texture in the brush strokes of this work was a whole new level of Glory!

I then rushed round saw some Matisse, Picasso, Pollack and Monet… pretty cool but… I realised that like books… I don’t actually like looking at art I am just romanticised about the idea of looking at art. Making an art gallery quite a boring experience. Shhhh don’t tell Chris Haines.

So I left and headed to the MET… (Metropolitan Museum of Art) this is the 2^nd biggest gallery in the world. And is literally huge… situated in the middle of central park I thought mhe subway nah I can walk… its on 80^th and I was on 51^st… that’s a good 30 blocks… it took me forever! To walk there… but I made it… to find that it is shut on Mondays!

I sat on the steps and laughed and laughed – it was all I could do really!

So I took a picture of me on the MET steps for Amanda (reference gossip girl) and decided to walk back through central park. Central park must be so different in the summer… it was so bare and wintery which I quite liked it holds this mystique. I walked all the way to the other side and to Strawberry Fields which is Yoko Ono’s memorial gardens to John. There wasn’t too much to see here but there was this mosaic of Imagine. I also saw the Dakota which is where he got shot. The SanRemo was another one of the apartments on the Upper West Side which is just stunning to look at!

Caught the subway back to town chilled for a bit. Then went to see Sister Act which was great.

Then… drum roll please… 

I went with Paul and Andrew up the Empire State Building. See photo of us in the lift...

To anyone intending to go up the Empire State Building… all I can recommend is go as late at night as you possibly can! We had to walk past all the barriers for the queues that they have during the day and WOW… there must be at least 5 miles of queuing space! We wizzed through and were some of the only people up top which was pretty special!

The view was amazing! The lights so pretty and kinda cool doing it at the end of my trip as I had quite a good idea of bearings and what I was looking at.

The wind was insane and we actually had a great time leaning into it… it felt like I was flying. Such children we were! 

Billy Elliot

The choice to go see Billy Elliot came down to the last second. I was choosing between that and Chicago. The man at the box office even processed my Chicago tickets and I changed at the last moment. I spent the hour beforehand thinking I should have gone with Chicago where I knew the music and it was a bit more ”lively” and up-tempo. Well Billy Elliot couldn’t have been more lively and up-tempo.

The music was by Elton John for starters…

I was a little bit annoyed at the beginning as the boy playing billy wasn’t the main lead and he was actually asian which is kinda hard to imagine, this asian guy with a broad mining village accent. But I can’t imagine it could have been played by anyone better. This kid was an absolute STAR.

The story line gripped onto my heart and tugged hard – the relationships were well crafted and very real especially between Billy and his dead mother. The ballet teacher was perfect, initially very Miss Hannigan (from Annie) like but then she softened up and was just really well played.

The Grandma was also hilarious, this rebel figure who kept giving people the finger in a mischievous way. The actress for this was Madame Morrible in the original Broadway cast of Wicked and was just brilliant.

The thing I think that impressed me the most was the dancing. There was so much dancing in it. Im not huge on dancing, especially not ballet (perhaps why I wasn’t so keen initially to see it, but the ballet was phenomenal. There was one scene when Billy dances with an older dancer miming his moves, to Swan Lake. This was just so beautiful and bought me to tears. The stage was all smoked out and he did some wire swinging oh man just breathtaking.

They were also very clever with the set and cast integration. There were really clever movements between the miners and the police and the ballet and boxing.

All round just an incredible performance and I was so thrilled that I chose to see it.

Watch the trailer for the musical here (its awesome)

Goodbye My Coney Island Baby...

* Goodbye My Coney Island Baby - Babershop Classic - Les Applegate

This morning I was lucky enough to go to brunch with Aaron and Anna and some other friends of them… I didn’t actually know these people but through a friend of a friend of a friend or somehow I stalked them down and they invited me to Brunch! We caught the F train (love how fluent I am in the Subway) to Brooklyn! Whats even more exciting was the last stop for this train was Coney Island… like THE Coney Island! (exciting) we hopped off much before that though in a wee part of Brooklyn called Park Slope. All I can say is maybe if I lived in NYC I would live in Brooklyn not the East Village – cos it was super cute. (and cos Dan Humpries lives here and I really do need optimum stalking capability) See photo below - I like to believe Dan lives here) apart from this…

We hopped off the subway and popped into Dizzy’s (http://dizzys.com/) - a finer diner. This was a great little place but unfortunately so great we had to wait for about an hour… so we went for a little walk down to Prospect Park. Apparently the story behind this park is the guy that designed Central Park didn’t quite complete it how he wanted SO he built this one as the Ultimate park. It was quite busy though filled with bikes, skates, prams and plenty of dogs (I have decided everyone in America owns a dog)

We walked all the way down to this massive memorial arch thing, then back again to the café well diner (they don’t call them café’s here) I had raspberry Waffles with Banana and dolce de luche. They also provided free muffins, glass of juice and a bottomless cup of coffee or tea… pretty much a winner! They were even giving out their muffins to passes by on the street.

We then headed down to the main village – walked through the shops which were a weird collection of upper market gifty shops, thrift shops, Laundromats and the Sunday flea markets in the children’s playground.

 

The architecture was exquisite again a lot of old buildings and beautiful big churches.

Headed back to times square – wandered round for ages, went over to the Rockefeller centre the ice rink is miraculously still in play even though its April… apparently New York (along with most of the country) had recorded highest snow this winter ever! Also walked past Radio City Music Hall – the home of the Rockettes (whoever they are/were) and the first movie theatre ever with the largest screen in the world. Then attempted to find MoMA which was quite an adventure, but it was about to close. So spent an hour in the gift shop… (Chris Haines eat your heart out) spent way to much $.

Went to Billy Elliot tonight which I cried a record amount of 1…2…3…4…5 times… man it was amazing! Will follow with a review! 

Tomorrow is my last full day in New York... Sad... :( actually really sad. I stupidly left seeing both MoMA and the MET to the last day... so... am going to go for the double happy and see them both tomorrow. 

Till then...

New York I Love You...

* New York I love you - LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver 

Today I woke up late… haven’t been feeling too well kinda a bit blocked up it was prob all that walking in the rain…

I bought a subway pass and the city was my Oyster! I caught the 1 train to downtown south ferry – where I decided I was going to go see the statue of liberty… how could I not! Turns out the queue was about a 3 hour wait and they stopped running them after that so I decided instead to catch the Staten Island Ferry.

This didn’t get as close, not really close at all but it was a joy ride and it was free. I wondered though if the Ferry had additional weights in it that balance out the side that nobody was on that didn’t see the statue of liberty.

On the way back I stood on the otherside and had a great view of the Manhattan skyline.

I then caught the Subway (this is genius… someone tell Len Brown) and hopped off at Frankton st – and made my way to Canal road which is Chinatown! I didn’t have to really look for this as it kinda hit me… shop after shop all selling exactly the same stuff. I walked up and down for about an hour. Tried to bargain a couple of items but didn’t have much luck… I hate bargaining! Was really keen for a feed as apparently the food is really good in Chinatown but I didn’t have much luck.

Then caught the subway back uptown hopped off a couple stops after times square as I wanted to find this shop that I had seen Tim’s birthday present in.

Was planning to go check out the sunset from the Empire State Building but the queue was far too long. Went to a pizza place in little Italy. 

Decided to give myself the night off - Saturday night in New York City and Roxie is being a nana watching Dr Who with a 9pm bed time... boring... in much need of a bed time that isnt 2am!

In need of a Knighthood...

So I was introduced to Wynton at 7… he became my hero, my brass idol. I then learnt the trumpet, played for 13 years, which brings me to this day where all my dreams came true and I saw the man on stage flesh and blood.

Originally I loved Wynton’s portrayal of classical music he has this immaculate crisp clear tone but he plays with such a sense of ease. Tonight was his Jazz quintet for the first half and then his septet for the second.

The show was in the Times Warner Building (Jay-Z and Beyonce live here – just saying) where they have recently built the Rose theatre along with a couple of others to make Jazz at Lincoln Centre. It was in like a shopping mall type place. In the foyer there was a student  band playing before hand, I wish I had known this I would have arrived earlier to hear them. There was also this tribute/history of jazz room. It was cool all the rooms and foyers, entrances were named after famous Jazz Musicians. Just such a rich sense of heritage.

The music was very laid back “lounge jazz” so to be honest wasn’t hugely my cup of tea and music that I find quite hard to listen to as performance music as it just goes round and round. But it wasn’t too bad.

Wynton impressed me heaps by his extreme humility. The guy is a fricken legend yet it was the quintet that he was all about. Every time the sax player solo’d Wynton would walk to the back of the stage and hang there for a bit, he didn’t talk much and seem quite withdrawn from the spotlight. I guess perhaps this surprised me as I expected him to be this self-indulged performer. It was nice though.

There was also this amazing sense of casualty onstage. The performers chatted away to each other and really communicated with each other. Wynton kept yelling after the guys solo’d saying like check him out, nice work etc which was quite classic. He also kept wandering round and round the stage. There were seats behind the stage and he went and started chatting to some of the audience in a couple of songs.

There was just this huge sense of a good time on stage which cant help but make you enjoy yourself.

His tone was exquisite. He had this dirty muffled jazz tone yet continued to maintain clarity underneath this.

One of my favourite parts was the last song of the 2^nd half this random old guy walked on stage picked up a tambourine and started doing like the African shoulder dance which then moved into full dancing with the tambourine and then he walked across the stage and then off again. EPIC. Turned out he was the drummer for the septet. Herlin Riley - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqGJskz0mMU what an inspiration. He was seriously amazing. So entertaining to watch cos he was just having such a good time with a massive grin.

The septet was amazing too. They used a bass clarinet and a clarinet and a trom which was quite cool.

For the last song they had both groups onstage (eleven players in total) and they had 2 drummers 2 pianists and 2 double bass players. This was super cool and they did about 20 minutes of battling it out. Which was very awesome! They ended with drums – towards the end Herlin dropped his sticks and then dropped his 2^nd pair too and the whole band were just cracking up like they completely lost it. Such a cool feeling though.

I also appreciated Wyntons attempts at high notes there were quite a few he couldn’t hit but he went for them anyways and it was kinda this whole sense of hes not perfect which is what jazz is all about.

It did feel quite weird being in this concert hall with a bunch of white upperclass people attempting to appreciate this music. Quite cool to see the historical move through music over the last 3 nights (with Memphis and Jersey Boys)

The groups were also big on getting the audience to clap along but really tricky rhythms that they would set up for us. I liked this because you were able to feel the music and the beat of what they were playing. That was cool.

The ending… well that was incredible. Basically the band came back on for about a 30 minute encore where towards the end of the piece they all started walking around the stage and then got in a line and started playing in a line and then they started singing, like chanting, all in harmony. Then they started dancing and there were about 5 guys playing cow bell. Then the horns left and it was keys and cowbell for ages then the horns returned and then they all walked out together in a line still playing and then Herlin and the other drummer had a cow bell dance party on the side of the stage then they left but the band played in the back room for about another 5 minutes while we all left.

It was this fantastic sense of the concert being about them having a good time, not so much about us listening to it. Was quite a cool sense of music and why music is made. Totally new perspective on performance.

But basically he was just incredible. Held the stage and my heart…

To put some things in perspective…

At an early age he exhibited an aptitude for music. At age eight, Wynton performed traditional New Orleans music in the Fairview Baptist Church band led by banjoist Danny Barker and at 14, he performed with the New Orleans Philharmonic. During high school, Wynton performed with the New Orleans Symphony Brass Quintet, New Orleans Community Concert Band, New Orleans Youth Orchestra, New Orleans Symphony.

At age 17, Wynton was the youngest musician admitted to Tanglewoods Berkshire Music Centre where he won the school's Harvey Shapiro Award for outstanding brass student. Wynton moved to New York City to attend Julliard in 1979, and picked up gigs around town. In 1980, Wynton joined the Jazz Messengers led by Art Blakey. In the years that followed, Wynton performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams and countless other jazz legends.

Marsalis has also written five books and recorded 12 solo CDs.

Wynton presently serves as Artistic Director for Jazz at Lincoln Center and Music Director for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Wynton has won the Pulitzer Prize along with 9 Grammy's and he was the first and only musician to ever win the Grammy for Jazz and Classical in the same year... and he has done it twice!

If you get caught between the Moon and New York City The best that you can do..... Is fall in Love!

And I am in LOVE with Wynton Marsalis… pure genius! (the review is on its way)

Still super rainy today… even more then yesterday – again predicted snow but yet to see evidence of that! Maybe tonight. I was initially planning to do empire state bldg and statue of liberty today but as both don’t go down very well in the rain - I decided to head to Brooklyn today – via china town - but the bus was abysmal. Basically the roof was leaking everywhere and the tour guide I had was pretty lame actually so I just decided to get off in the east village and head back to the hostel. But had to walk for a few blocks to get to the other bus stop and… discovered that if I lived in NYC I think the East Village would be me… This is the lower west side… and is basically where all the students and artsy people live. It just had this something that captured me heart and soul.

I wandered round in the rain for about an hour- because im a kiwi and I don’t have an umbrella… got really really wet! Fun times all round.

* Arthurs Theme - Christopher Cross - Arthur

Jersey Boys...

(not to be confuse with the Jersey Shore - I know you were thinking that Mel Arnold and Chris Haines)

So saw Jersey Boys last night... um to be honest I am going to have to say i was ... disappointed.

WHAT i hear you all gasp. I dont know what it was about it. We had the understudy for Frankie Valli so perhaps that could have been part of it, but he was a very good Frankie so not sure. I felt the plot line perhaps lacked? and I think maybe the music wasnt my era - I wasnt bought up in the heart of The Four Seasons hits. Surprisingly I did know most of the songs - Sherry Baby, Walk like a Man, Big Girls dont cry, I love you baby...

So basically its the back story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Small town kids - go big. The highlight for me though was Bob Gaudio who was the song writer... he was pretty amazing!

It wasn't bad though, just not expectation meeting.

My Blue Manhattan...

Sooooooo ive decided im naming every post from now on with a song title or lyric... a challenge! 

To begin... My Blue Manhattan - Ryan Adams - Love is Hell

So today it was 0 degrees… and predicted snow… Headed uptown again and went all the way to harlem. Got off at Harlem for my walking tour. We stopped at the Apollo theatre which was quite exciting – this is standard music history… the Apollo is especially famous for its amateur night. Probablly most famous for discovering/nurturing… James Brown and Michael Jackson.

I then had to walk 12 blocks to the meeting point for my Harlem Rennaisance tour. I felt super out of place in Harlem… just kept thinking whats this little which chick doing in Harlem… was the only white person for a couple of miles for sure… just felt really unsafe - but I made it out alive! (dont tell my nana I went there)

Then I met Andy… so Andy was my guide for the walking tour. He was incredible… this guy was 85 (he told me) and basically took me and another family on a 2 hour walk around Harlem. He talked mainly about the architecture of the time and did a bit of a political whos who. I thought it would be more about the music and the people but it was still good.

The main highlights were we saw the original sites of the Savoy Ballroom and the Cotton Club… both weren’t very exciting but it was cool to breathe in the air and think it was consumed by the likes of Duke and Ella 80 years ago!

I then walked back to the bus stop which was even scarier as there were more people out and about I pretty much was saying a prayer a block… then I had to wait for the bus for about 30 mins. I was trying so hard to feel confident and not like I could get shot at every moment but I don’t know what it was I was just so scared!

I headed back to times square for a feed and then went to see Jersey Boys. 

See Jersey boys review…

Came back to the hostel and met some friends yay! Had a head pop round the corner and say is that a kiwi accent… met a couple of guys from Auckland. Who are legendary... shout out to Andrew and Paul! Talked theatre for about 3 hours...

The original site of the Cotton Club - is now the Mission Society!

Andy took us to his tribute Museum... about 90% was Obama Memorabilia...

Duke Ellington and his band...

Memphis...

So as I said before... I LOVED this show. I think the main thing was just the energy on stage... there is one line in it where the lead girl Felicia says rock'n'roll music is just black peoples music sped up ... and Im going to be honest it is! Seeing the roots of modern music is so much more obvious when your in the heart of where it started...

The basic plot line is white boy thinks hes black - walks into a bar - falls in love with black girl and they try and work it out.

Amongst that is this massive narrative of segregation, both racial but also generational. The mother of the which guy - Huey Calhone says at one point i just believe those black people are wrong because thats what i was told (or something of this effect) and then Huey and Felicia are all about the changing times etc etc.

So i think what also assisted the fantastic music was that the plot line actually had substance.

The leads were amazing, although as much as I loved Huey I did find him a bit too weird at times, it seemed like he was a bit too over the top with the junkie effect... (kinda like Jonny Cash towards the end of walk the line) but otherwise the leads as well as the whole cast were amazing...

Perfect mix of funny serious energetic entertaining and musical brilliance...

It was also the original broadway cast which was something special as well as 2010 Tony winner...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3nG5jGfPk&feature=related

Confused... im in Manhattan but im crazy about Memphis!

Wednesday 30^th March

So I am on a total buzz… have just been to see Memphis which was… sensational phenomenal incredible what other words describe it! Its so dumb I just want to take you all there!!! Was actually so so so so so good…

SO actually had the best day! One of the other girls in my hostel suggested the greyline tour which is a bus that has hop on hop off stops… so I bought a 72 hour pass and decided to take the downtown tour today.

Drove through the garment district where heaps of project runway is shot then headed past Madison square garden, then the empire state building and the flat iron bldg and then through to Greenwich Village where I hopped off. So basically this was the place in the 60s where all the musos and artists got their inspiration… in particular Bob Dylan and because its seen as quite a sacred place because of this there are laws passed that has no honking or loud stuff in the district so it was really quiet. 

So with much anticipation and book and pen in hand I kinda invisaged walking into some café and just you know being all inspired like and writing poetry or something (not that I have ever written poetry before?) 

I then wandered Greenwich village for about ½ an hour and was so lost and couldn’t find anything and it was just lame and so I was like ahhhh nah! Hopped back on the bus and then got off at SoHo… yes Soho… which is short for south of Houston Ave. and they have Noho which to be Honest I thought was like a total piss take but its not its North of Houston street. So I got off there…

Soho was cool… but still real expensive. Went to Bloomindales… seriously this is like Smith and Cougheys times one million! Soooo crazy! I saw this amazing hand bag that was quite small and I was like hmmm maybe I could afford that so looked and it was like $800 and a Marc Jacobs (so had like a gossip girl moment like when they get the latest hand bag and are like omg it’s the latest handbag) so then I got back on the bus and there was this crackups gangsta asian guy who was doing the tour… he was all like don’t no go to Chinatown with your camera round your neck cos they’lllall spot you tourists and they’ll rip your ass off… you gotta bargain the s*%t out of their asses ma nigga… was hilarious but also not very helpful… was more about giving you advice then history and kinda liked the sound of his own voice. 

 

So… I got off at ground zero which to be honest I wasn’t too keen to see but I went and it was really moving. I think seeing the effect that it has had on a nation and a city and a community more than anything? I then went to the memorial cathedral (only cos it was called st pauls) and turned and attended their lunchtime prayers for peace service and had the most special time. Also cool to read the info about how instrumental the church was during 9/11 a real community effort.

I then decided to have a Gyro for lunch… these are basically like kebabs you can get it in a souvlaki type wrap or on rice etc… they have little men on the side of the road everywhere and they are about $3 it was real yum but super dirty food really I felt pretty sick afterwards! So decided to walk it off and walked across ½ of the Brooklyn bridge – seriously I don’t know why the harbour bridge is a landmark for Auckland… weve got nothing on the 5 bridges of Manhattan… they are amazing! Such works of art! So that was super fun.

Then walked down to the financial district. Where I found wall street (its quite hidden) took a photo but wasn’t too excited. Saw the NYSE which was also cool. Couldn’t actually find the bull and the bear? kinda embarrassing I did have a good wander round too. But yea no luck. Then walked down to battery park where you catch the statue of liberty ferry from. Not much to see there… hopped back on the bus and took the tour all the way back to times square where we had a good hour drive around the lower east side and then past china town and little italy etc etc.

I then got back and randomly decided to catch the uptown tourbus at like 4pm just for fun. … but it got super cold! Like freezing! Was cool going through the upper west side (lots of celebs live here… like all the famous people!!!) and seeing the apartment buildings along central park such as… the Dakota, the san remo, the building where john lennon got shot, and the one where jerry sienfield lives… Then we headed up to see new jersey and the george Washington bridge. 

Then came back through the upper east side… man I am going to have a total new view of gossip girl and everything about manhattens elite now! So basically its amazing! So intense! Drove past the met and Guggenheim which were pretty amazing buildings!

I have to stop taking endless pictures of amazing buildings because they all look the same but they are all so beautiful… and amazing! Gothique style is super popular and awesome!

luckily when i got back the ½ price ticket booth line was really small because I jumped in line and got me tix for Memphis which was WOW!

I got a bagel beforehand and got so confused cos first you have to choose the bagel type… then you have to choose the flavour of cream cheese there are like 20 flavours… I just went for plain… and then basically he put about 2cm thick of cream cheese like im not kidding there woul probably have been half a pottle… SOOOOOOO gross! I ate 1 half of it with just a bit of creamcheese and threw the rest out… talk about heartattack! 

And Memphis it was just amazing! It won the 2010 Tony and ohhhhh! Seriously just loved it! So vibrant and full on dancing and singing and oh man just amazing! 

Peace to you all or should I say y’all