Feb 19-20, 2005
Saturdays are short rehearsal days, noon to five with no lunch break. I'm still looking for a place to live for the month of March (I have to be out of Park Slope by March 1), so I went to check out a possibility on the west end, not far from Times Square, then walked back to the subway via Broadway. What a monster this thing is; shows everywhere of all types. Even on the inside one feels like an outsider, probably because the Square and its surroundings are designed to target outsiders. It's the gaudiest of the gaudy, playing to the cameras 24/7 with the biggest billboards, the brightest lights, and the most familiar corporate food names in middle America - Applebee's, Red Lobster and McDonald's, to name a few. it's fun to look at, but more satisfying to experience the real city, which I did this weekend. I met my cousins, Kevin and Maureen at SOB's in Greenwhich Village for Brazilian food and live music from Jorge Ben Jor. Great band.
Sunday was my first day off, so I made plans to meet Maguire and his English girlfriend Chantal in Central Park, and headed back into the city again. Along the way I happened across a small DEA museum and curiously checked it out. I found out how to make cocaine and heroin, how to hide a lab from overhead surveillance, and how to strategically place anti-aircraft weapons to ward off raids. I also learned how profits from the Afghanistan opium cash crop are used to fund international terrorism, which led me to the grim display of artifacts recovered from the rubble at the World Trade Center. What I didn't learn, though, was how portions of the DEA's annual budget end up in the pockets of corrupt bureaucrats. Maybe that's in another museum.
But Central Park is something else entirely. The entire grounds are transformed into a massive art project known as The Gates. Each path is draped in saffron fabric hanging from wooden frames of the same color. A multi-million dollar project, it is designed to raise smiles, and it does. We stayed just long enough to get a smile and a picture or two in before it got too chilly, then had a beer before going for dinner and a movie back at Chris' place. By the time I headed back to Brooklyn, the streets were covered in snow and quiet.