The Book of Mormon!!

Trey Parker & Matt Stone have done it again!

As we're not allowed photos, this is all I've got.

Two nights ago I saw The Book of Mormon, a new Broadway show created by the South Park guys, Trey Parker & Matt Stone. To say I really liked this show would be an understatement. This was one of the best Broadway shows I've ever seen. It was as funny as you'd expect something by these guys to be and man, they really know how to make funny songs actually GOOD. It's no easy feat, but they've managed it time and again on South Park and this show is no exception. I'll be singing "Tomorrow is a Latter Day" and "Scary Hell Dream" for awhile to come. (And I'll be buying that soundtrack the MINUTE it's available!)

I don't want to give any of it away, but they do a good job of giving a condensed version of what Mormons believe (it's ridiculous, to say the least), with a narrative and without being TOO mean. (To be honest, I would've liked it to be a LITTLE meaner. haha) The cast is fantastic and likable and boy do they work hard. There is a LOT going on in this play. The sets are simply amazing as well. There really isn't anything bad I can say about this! There's also been many, MANY blogs about this, so I don't want to get repetitive, but I just wanted to make it known that I LOVE THIS SHOW! (I even read a blog by a Mormon who loved it and encourages other Mormons to go see it!) Honestly, there's a VERY good chance I will be seeing this again soon.

The only pic I dared to sneak before it started.

Tonight is opening night (I went to see it during previews month...it's cheaper. haha), and I have a feeling it's going to be sold out nightly, so I'd look into getting tickets as soon as possible. I PROMISE you will not regret it!!


The End. Tomorrow is a latter day.

PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE!

So I saw the Pee-wee play!!! Yes. Just add that to the incredibly long list of reasons to love living in New York City! Now let me start by saying something that you'll probably get mad at me for: I wasn't really a huge Pee-wee fan. I know, I know. I just didn't remember ever being REALLY into it. I knew I watched it as a kid, but I would've called myself a fan. That's all changed now. :)

First, let me just tell you HOW I got to see this show. Frakkin' FOURSQUARE, that's how! As you may have known if you follow my twitter, I'm a little addicted to foursquare badges. They do absolutely nothing and I can't even get stickers of them like you can from GetGlue. But I still need to get as many as I can. I will just walk around the city to check into places to get badges. ANYWAY, a few months back, when the Pee-wee show on Broadway first opened, Pee-wee started a little campaign with fourquare, in which one could earn a Pee-wee badge by first being his friend on foursquare, and then checking into 2 or 3 places Pee-wee checked in to. There were plenty right near my office, so I got this fairly easily. It's a great badge, it looks like his suit. I was happy. I did not know anything else would come of it.

THEN, a couple months after that, I get an email that basically says: "Dear Foursquare Badge-holder, We're having a drawing for free tickets to see Pee-wee on Broadway for a special taping of the show to air on HBO. To enter, blah blah blah." So I entered. AND I WON! 'Twas VERY exciting. Luckily I had nothing planned for that day, so I went.


And it WAS GREAT! I realised once the show started that I knew A LOT more than I thought I did about Pee-wee. I remembered SO much! I completely forgot about Penny, which was my favourite bit on that show. Not to mention Ptery and Globey! Of course there was Chairy, but I never forgot her. It was a GREAT show. Funny and fun and very nostalgic. If I hadn't been watching the last ever production, I would've been telling EVERYONE to go see it. So I'm super glad I got the chance and I thank you very much, foursquare!

But it gets better! More fourquare awesomeness! SO, at the end of the show, Pee-wee mentions that in a couple days there will be a foursquare PARTY at the new Bowlmor Lanes in Times Square (the original is in Union Square) for a select few of the badge-holders who ask to participate. I get ANOTHER email asking about this and I RSVP and the next day I'm told I can go! WOOT! Now, while this was a bowling party, I really didn't feel like bowling, so I just sat at the bar with my friend and tried some of their food. About an hour in, Pee-wee shows up and makes his way around the entire party saying hello to everyone that came. SUCH a sweetheart. He even actually OFFERED to take pictures without me even asking! I absolutely adore him now. He won me over. Too bad it's at the end of the Pee-wee train... I don't know how much more he can do with the character, but I'm considering buying the DVD set of the show... :-P

So meeting Pee-wee was definitely the highlight, but the whole experience was really cool and I only have foursquare to thank. So no longer can I be made fun of for my badge addiction! :-) (Side note: I also got $5 admission to the Whitney with my Whitney badge the other day — that's a $13 savings people!!!)

Anyway, last thing I want to tell you peeps, is that the HBO taping I went to IS AIRING THIS WEEKEND! March 19th, to be exact! Set your DVRs and watch this! I will admit, if you know NOTHING of Pee-wee, you might not enjoy it quite as much, but it's still a good time. Check it out: Pee-wee on HBO!

Trailer

The End.

I Was a Spider-Man Handler

So this Thanksgiving was a pretty cool one for me as I got to be one of the Spider-Man balloon handlers for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade! Marvel managed to work it so that we could get some of our employees in on the Spidey balloon action. Last year was Spidey's return to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade since his departure in 1998. I stupidly did not volunteer to help him get through the day which I remedied this year. It was a great time.


I had to get up around 4:30AM (the downside to all of this), get to the New Yorker hotel by 6AM, change into the awesome outfit you see above and take a bus uptown to 81st St. Where Spidey was "parked."

This is my assistant Alex and I on the bus:


My other assistant, Nelson, on the bus. He brought his own special hat. Lucky!

Here's "parked" Spidey. You can see the netting on him to keep him tethered.

Spidey's balloon neighbors:




We had a little time before we had to grab hold of our ropes, so I walked around the immediate vicinity to get some pics of what was going on around us.

There were a TON of these awesome penguin peeps.


I made a lame joke about having our ducks in a row here, but then heard the announcer make the same joke. haha


These are "Springtime" clowns apparently (the sign you can't see says so):


Some cupcakes. Obviously.


"Sleepytime" clowns:


Some pirate ship I thought was cool:


These guys were my favourite. No idea what they're FOR though...


HOOPER'S STORE!!! Made my day! :-) Big Bird's mailbox is there too!

Woodstock. I believe this float followed behind (or maybe he was in front) of the Snoopy balloon:

If you look closely, you can see Snoopy peeking out behind the trees! I was in a rush to get back to Spidey so I couldn't get closer, but I kind of love the way he looks there!

On the way back to my post:

Unfortunately, my handler duties prevented me from taking pictures DURING the parade. (Though we snuck a few, you can see them on the Marvel Trades blog that Nelson regularly updates here.) But here's Spidey being deflated almost immediately after we passed by Macy's...

Then they roll him up and everyone lays down on him to get the most helium out that they can.

After we were all done, I got to see some of the other balloons turn the corner on their way to deflation:



This is one of the Pokemon floats that followed the Pikachu balloon. I think its pretty. :)

Oh and this Macy's train. I am down with this. haha


All in all, it was a great time. It was about 6 hours from when I got to the hotel to get my costume to when I got back to take it off. Then I had to rush home and shower and drive out to my aunt's house for dinner. I'm AMAZED I didn't take a nap once there. I almost ALWAYS nap on Thankgiving. This time, when I've been awake since 4:30AM, I end up playing Scene It: Box Office Smash for XBox (I'm addicted to this game now) with my cousin's until 2AM! Ridiculous. But a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving. There's a good chance I'll volunteer again next year. :-P


The End.

Busy Bee Part 2

OK! SO! After getting home at 4AM, I was VERY lazy on Saturday and didn't make it to the convention until around 5PM. Yes. I spent a mere 2 HOURS at NYCC (not counting my booth shift on Friday) in total. I just went directly to Artist's Alley to hang out with friends and get a few sketches. I managed to get three from Katie Cook, Declun Shalvey & Leandro Fernandez (I don't have them scanned right now, but I'll post 'em eventually)!

After that a bunch of us went out for dinner. I forget the name of the place, but THIS is what I saw on the wall on the way out. Why?!?!?!?!?!

Saturday night was also the Marvel after-party, hosted by none other than the famous C.B. Cebulski! I was PLANNING on not staying out too late because I had to be up at 8AM to drive to Pennsylvania the next morning...but I should've known better. Here are the only pics from that night I will share...

Me, Jeph Loeb & Brea Grant!


And this is me with Scott Porter (of the famous Friday Night Lights that I have to watch soon)!

This guy decided around 2AM that we should turn the party into a karaoke party! It was a great idea. Everyone went nuts and had a fantastic time. I left AGAIN around 4AM, but this party was still going STRONG. Scott was a sweetheart and definitely helped turn this party up a notch. (Also, Brea was so adorable that night when she sang! haha)

So, as I mentioned I had to get up at 8AM the next morning. Which I managed to do (ok, 8:30!). And this is why. For the 8 weeks preceding this day, I had be VERY good about keeping up with the gym 2-3 times a week (a big deal for me as ever since I stopped kickboxing, I've been VERY lazy). What finally got me motivated? THE WARRIOR DASH!

What is the Warrior Dash, you ask? Well, it's an approx. 3 mile race complete with obstacle! There's climbing cargo ropes, schlepping through ICE FUCKING COLD WATER and over logs, climbing up muddy hills, crawling through mud under barbed wire, jumping over fire and MORE. So after 4 nights of drinking and being out late, and about 4 hours of sleep, I took a 3 hour drive to Quarryville, PA to compete in this.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect to win. Actual athletes will compete in this. My main goal was to a) FINISH it and b) NOT be the last of my group of friends. And in these two things I succeeded! WOOT!

Yeah, they give you a little finisher medal at the end which was pretty cool. The race was really fun. It would have been MORE fun had I properly prepared for it. I was out of breath JUST WAITING AT THE FINISH LINE. And the hardest part of the whole race was the RUNNING. I HATE running and my stamina is CRAP. Most of the obstacles were fairly easy to complete, but all the running throughout was ROUGH. Also, at about the second obstacle — climbing up and over these truck-like constructions — I jumped down off the second one and really hurt my leg, so I had to go through most of the race with THAT pain (which I'm JUST this week FINALLY getting over). But I made it through in 45 minutes! 7th out of my group of 16 friends! (Approx. 3800th out of 5111 people. haha) The best of us did it in 24 minutes (I have no idea how that's possible! :-P) and the last of us I THINK in like 58 minutes. Still pretty fucking impressive!

Throughout the race, Brightroom Photography was taking pictures of us, this is the only cool one of me that I found from the very end (I really wanted one crawling through the mud-pit under the barbed wire) but I'm not buying it b/c they are RIDICULOUSLY expensive. Jerks. (Hence the copyright logo over it, it's just the preview so you can choose which to buy.)


Here's a great group shot someone took of us. So fun.


After the race, you get hosed down (though it only does so much) and a free beer. You can also buy more beer and food and stuff. It really is a lot of fun and we're already planning on doing it again next year. This time I WILL GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP!! :)

Oh and these were my poor knees at the end of it...


So, that being the ROUGHEST part of my crazy-busy month of October, there's still so much more to come! The following Tues, I finally went back to The Comic Book Club (a weekly, live talkshow about comics that's REALLY funny) since my friend Declun was a guest on it and I had been neglecting the show (I used to go very frequently). I LOVE the guys who run the show and since I hadn't been there in so long, I hung out afterwards with them AGAIN a little too late that I should've. Oh well. It was fun.

I then followed it up on Wednesday with a ladies night with some of my favourite ladies. We had a delicious meal at Josie's East with lots of girl talk. I actually made it home at a decent hour THIS time. The other thing to happen to me on Wednesday was my good pal Scott Adsit (who plays Pete Hornberger on 30 Rock) invited me and a friend to watch the 30 Rock live episode from the luxury of the SNL Green Room! I decided to bring Declun because I honestly can't think of a bigger fan of the show (and also because my poor little cousin who I originally asked was out of state and couldn't come).

So then on Thursday we went to the SNL studio (EEEEEE!!!!) and did just that! There was free pizza, sushi, wine, coffee and cookies in there. I saw Brian Williams in there (too nervous to talk to him, he's AWESOME) and watched the HILARIOUS east coast taping of the show on the many big screens they have there.

The guy who runs the 30 Rock twitter account took a pic of our group hanging out in the green room before the taping started and posted it on twitter:


Scott took us around for a tour of the set in between the east and the west coast tapings. We got to meet Tina Fey, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, John Lutz, Jack McBrayer, Bill Hader, Judah Friedlander and more. (I actually have met Tina, Bill & Judah before and they are super awesome.) We then took this awesome picture in front of their fake FOX news set:


Then we went back to the green room to await the west coast taping. We noticed that the screen where we watched the show was just showing the floor of the set (meaning the camera was just sitting on the floor). So when Scott left to go tape the next show, he found it and brought Rachel Dratch to say hello to us:


I have to say, it was pretty hilarious to see that in the room all of a sudden. haha I wonder what everyone else in there thought of that...

Anyway, the second taping was just as awesome as the first and included a couple of little differences that made it fun.

I got a couple more shots of the SNL studio before I left. Here's some retired costumes that are great. That's Church Lady in the middle who I LOVED when I was a kid:


In this very hall, I also met MATT DAMON!!!!!! Just a quick handshake and hello, but that was so cool. He's so awesome.


Part of the 30 Rock set being taken down at the end.


Unfortunately I don't have any pics from what followed but we ALSO went to the after party!!! Free booze, free cupcakes, mini hamburgers and other snack foods, and even free milkshakes!! I met Dot com and Tracy Morgan bumped into me. Talked to Jane Krakowski about the fatty milkshakes and stood there while Alec Baldwin talked to her right over my shoulder (it was very crowded). Had a great time hanging with Scott and his lovely lady Sandy, and also Christina Gausas who is such a doll! (She and Scott do a 2-person improv show at UCB theater called Adsit & Gausas. The next one is 11/10! GO!)

So, yet another late night home, but WELL worth it. I had such a great time and now Declun owes me for the rest of his life. haha I was so wiped out I just spent the entire weekend home playing Final Fantasy XIII, watching TV and knitting. I needed to replenish for the REST of October....


To be continued...

Today is September the 11th

I know everyone's got a story about this day; where they were, what they saw, how they heard, who they were worried for. Since today is the day and I'm thinking about it, and I recently read a friend's blog post about her experience and how it affected her, I figured I'd do what she called the "inevitable NY blog post."

So I WAS in Manhattan that day, but I was far from World Trade Center. I was in college, just started my final year at Fordham University in Lincoln Center (Google map it, you'll see, pretty far away). At this time I would have a night class on Monday night and a morning class on Tuesday mornings so I would crash at my friend's dorm room since I lived on Staten Island and it's a long commute. I remember that Monday morning on my ferry ride into Manhattan (which affords an AMAZING view of Manhattan), it was very foggy and the twin towers looked so cool because the fog made the tops of them disappear. I distinctly remember wishing I had had my camera because it was such a cool image. Ugh. I hate now especially hate that I didn't have my camera.

So Monday goes as normal and Tuesday morning I woke up a little earlier than usual, so I went to the school library to go online before class. My class was at 10AM, so I probably only got up around 9. Everyone in my friend's dorm was still asleep so I had no idea yet what happened. When I signed on to AIM, my friend immediately IMs me that two planes hit the towers. We went back and forth a few times while I thought he was just fucking with me. I seriously thought he was lying until I looked it up. I spent my remaining few minutes there with him messaging me everything he was seeing on the television before I went to class. The whole thing was swimming in my head, something completely unbelievable. Then I realised my mother worked right by there! As a kid I would go with her to visit her office sometimes and walk around that neighborhood at lunchtime looking up at the towers They made me dizzy because they were so tall and they looked like they would fall over. I'll never forget that.

So once I realised my mother was so close, I started frantically trying to call her to no avail. I could see everyone in the halls also trying to call others or talking with wide eyes. We were all waiting for the "classes are cancelled" announcements, but it didn't come right away, so we went to class. I remember my morning class was philosophy because I HATED that class and the teacher that I had. I remember being infuriated with him because the class was all riled up and he told us to stop and pay attention, that we were far away from the towers and were not in any danger. Seriously? Ugh.

The announcement came about 10 minutes later, though, and we ran outside and continued our frantic calls. I still could not get through to my mom so I finally called my dad and had also not heard from her yet. I didn't know what to do so I just went back to my friend's dorm room. Normally, you have to have someone come down and check you in to bring people in, but they just abandoned that and I just went right up to her room. We spent the rest of the day up there watching everything on television, huddled together under a blanket, sometimes crying, with me periodically trying to get through to my mom. I can't remember when I did, but I did and she was fine, but she was being told to stay in her building because of all smoke and ash and stuff. You know, I don't really remember much after that. Once I knew my mom was safe, I guess I kinda just checked out. Oh, I think I remember my friend putting on Spongebob to distract us, but we kept putting the news back on.

I'm pretty sure my mom made it home ok that night, I don't think she had to stay in her building over night. But there was no way for me to get downtown to the ferry because I couldn't get past the Trade Center. So I stayed over again. I remember being so desperate to just be back home and everything be normal. I remember walking to the train and spazzing out because it wasn't running downtown or something, calling my parents crying and just like "I WANT TO COME HOME!" So I took the train to Brooklyn instead and my parents were able to drive there and pick me up.

I know I don't have like the most terrifying story, I wasn't close enough to actually see anything and I (THANKFULLY) didn't lose anyone. But man was that scary. Especially because my mom was so close. I'm so lucky that I was around close friends and that my family was safe and that I was safe. Unfortunately it was no so for everyone. This was a fucked up thing that happened to us by some fucked up people. I just hate how some people use it to justify treating certain other people like shit. Don't let it do that to you and don't accept it when you see or hear others doing it.

I'll just end this by saying I absolutely LOVE this city. It's got is dirty, dark side that isn't so great, but there are so many wonderful things and wonderful people here, there's no other place I'd rather live. I'm lucky to have been born and raised here and I wouldn't have it any other way. Now I really wish the bureaucrats would get off their asses and rebuild Ground Zero!!!! (Personally, I think we should rebuild the towers exactly as they were. I thought it then and I think it now. Nothing would prove our strength more than that.)

The End.

It Was a Good Night

Quick post about last night: It was good.

haha No, that's not all, I just want to plug a few places I frequented last night!

Had a DELICIOUS (but kinda expensive for a little bit, but mine was a birthday gift! hehe) lobster roll from Luke's Lobster. I went to the one on 7th St., but there's one uptown too. I suppose it IS lobster & that's like the go-to rich person's food, so it being expensive makes sense. It was REALLY good, though.

Had a nice pitcher of Brooklyn Lager over at Grassroots Tavern on St. Marks. (No, not by myself!) I really like this place, not too crowded & fairly cheap. Cash only though! Annoying! Be prepared!

Then on the way back to the train I passed the best thing ever! (Actually I passed it GOING to Luke's and thought it smelled delicious, and was just what I needed after lobster & beer...) It's a food truck called Wafels & Dinges! They serve waffles with dinges. haha ("Dinges" is Belgian for "toppings" apparently.) SO DELICIOUS. I got like a waffle ice cream sandwich. (I can't see it on the menu on the website...) It was two crispy waffles (like a cone, but better) with vanilla ice cream in between. And you can pick your dinge to go on it. I had the Spekuloos spread that was recommended. It's like a gingerbread flavour. REALLY good.

Seriously, this shit was amazing. I just had to share. I tell you what, New York City frakkin' RULES!

The End.