A quick trip to New York

On Saturday 14th, I visited New York to catch up with Heather, a friend from Berkeley.  You may know her as Tiffany, my co-star in Koala Bears, the film I made for Campus MovieFest 2007 (and indeed, anyone who googles her name and is willing to click on about three links does know her as such!).

Heather, still a student at Berkeley, has been working in DC as an intern for the summer, and since she was already most of the way in my direction (visiting NY with friends), I thought I'd close the gap and see her again for the first time in several years.

I left Boston at 6am and had an easy bus ride to NY.  It was rainy in NY, so we spent our time indoors or on the subway whenever possible.  The rain did in fact slow the subway, but eventually I managed to meet Heather and her friends for lunch in Chinatown.  After some dumplings, we headed to Times Square to visit the TKTS booth, looking for some Broadway tickets.  From this point the group separated: the others had a few favourite NY culinary destinations to check out, so they waited in line before heading to them.  Heather and I went north to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  We had a few hours to wander, and saw a decent proportion of the museum.

We then headed back to midtown for dinner at Carnegie Deli.  This restaurant does what it does well, but what it does is completely unappealing to me.  A couple of sentences from its Wikipedia page summarise why: "The restaurant's motto is: 'If you can finish your meal, we’ve done something wrong'. In addition to the large servings, the restaurant is also known for its surly waiters, who allegedly try to impart some of the stereotypical gruffness of New York to visitors."

I don't see why you would want to go a restaurant to pay for food you're not going to eat, and service you're not going to like.  The sandwich I bought was ok, though it consisted of a pound of meat and basically nothing else and I could only eat 60% of it.  It was expensive, though probably the value was ok in terms of meat per dollar - but not enjoyment per dollar.

We then went to see Perfect Crime, an off-Broadway show that has been running for 24 years.  I found it enjoyable but not spectacularly so.  On searching the internet for more information, I found that it is universally derided: people basically describe it as a scam.  Touts at the TKTS booth push it hard and convince tourists to buy tickets to it instead of to a much better show.  The website reviews suggest most people walk out at intermission.  Reading all this made me wonder, am I a bad judge of theatre for enjoying it?  On reflection, I can see how we could have seen a much bigger show for a similar price, and people criticise the acting in Perfect Crime, but is the acting better in Broadway shows?  Would we have been close enough to judge?  We were in the front for for Perfect Crime, which did worry me when I first found out.  Overall, I would recommend that people make a different choice given the options available in NY, but I don't think the universal 1 star ratings were deserved.

We then found my bus stop and stopped for a beer (or coke, in my case) at a nearby pub.  My bus left at 11:10 (probably closer to 11:30), and I was back in Boston at 3:45am.