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| We see you! |
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| The empty plaza... |
We had to deal with a couple of crises off the bat this
morning. First of all, we’ve been
awfully concerned about our neighbor in the next apt. The newspapers are piling up, and sometimes
we hear strange noises… we’re waiting for strange smells to emit from under the
door. But today the newspapers are gone
– and there was bustling about and noises.
Some of us suspect foul play.
Worth mentioning for the record, just in case it comes to something.
Our second crisis was more personal – last night (Sunday
night) we did a couple of loads of collective laundry, but failed to notice
that they closed (and locked) the laundry room at 10pm every night. The hours clearly state 8am-10pm, and not to
leave your laundry unattended. Well,
it’s directly across the hall – so we feel that we’re kind of attending it… but
now it’s locked up and while we can see it through the door, there is a little
concern that people will take it in the morning because we left it unattended. BM sets an alarm for 8am so that she can go
over and get the laundry as soon as they open up, but her biggest problem is
just getting out of our own door. There
are double locks, and in order for the door to open, BOTH locks have to be unlocked
at the SAME time. Tricky, I know. We hear a series of turning and clicking,
that goes on for a little while… we know what to expect next, BMc come back
into the bedroom to Dana.. “I can’t get ooooout”. But it was a great effort.
We start getting up and getting ready and it’s raining pretty good – by 9ish, we’re all starting to stir. I’m typically the first one up (unless you count Becki, who I sometime wonder if she’s slept), and then Dana, and then the kids. We are treated once again to the dulcet tones of Bm singing on the shower.. I recommend her cover of “Rumor Has It”.
Last night we had a little time to review our list of stuff that we still wanted to do, and the list is long, but doable. We nixed Coney Island for this trip just because it’s an hour train ride each way, and I just kinda want to see it. Wanted to eat a Nathan’s hotdog at Nathan’s, see the beach and the boardwalk and the rides… but maybe with everything else that we want to do we don’t want to spend 2 hours on a train just to get a hotdog and see the beach. We’ll see – but it has moved to the bottom of the list.
We start getting up and getting ready and it’s raining pretty good – by 9ish, we’re all starting to stir. I’m typically the first one up (unless you count Becki, who I sometime wonder if she’s slept), and then Dana, and then the kids. We are treated once again to the dulcet tones of Bm singing on the shower.. I recommend her cover of “Rumor Has It”.
Last night we had a little time to review our list of stuff that we still wanted to do, and the list is long, but doable. We nixed Coney Island for this trip just because it’s an hour train ride each way, and I just kinda want to see it. Wanted to eat a Nathan’s hotdog at Nathan’s, see the beach and the boardwalk and the rides… but maybe with everything else that we want to do we don’t want to spend 2 hours on a train just to get a hotdog and see the beach. We’ll see – but it has moved to the bottom of the list.
We don’t really have set plans each day – it’s always fluid
because if we feel like we’re done for the day then we head back. There are only a few things that we are
working around, like today we had tickets to the NBC tour at 11:30, and we have
tickets to get tickets to the Daily Show at 2:30. Thursday we have tickets to the 9/11
Memorial, and Wednesday night we have tickets to Tribes and Wed matinee will be
our last chance to try for Harvey tickets.
I looked online at regular tickets for the show and they’re $140 each
and there aren’t many seats left – the show with the most seats is Wed
afternoon, so if we’re first in line at the TKTS we may have a chance. We still need to do things like Central
Park, Washington Park, Empire State Building, Cake Boss, maybe a Yankees game,
walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, eat at Katz’s Deli, breakfast at Tiffany’s…
and a few other things. So we’re trying
to organize things geographically to be more efficient – but we will be getting
our money’s worth from our unlimited metro pass.
We leave the apt by about 10:15 to head down to the NBC studio tour - we
have tickets at 11:30 and have to check in by
10:55. Becki is running on empty, didn't sleep well last night after our exhausting day so she drools in
Starbucks’ windows as we walk past them. We get to 30 Rock and check in and then decide to head down to the Today Show window
because they’re still filming the 4th hour with Kathie Lee and Hoda.
We see the back of their heads in the studio as we cross the street, and
a Today Show barrier right behind the window, so we walk up it and I start
taking pictures.. VERY shortly after we
step up we are asked to clear this area, and we step over to the other window
where there are about 10 people waving in the window. We’re fairly sure that we were caught on
camera looking like goofballs before we
were asked to move. Patti has confirmed
that she saw us walking up to the window – and then they probably did an edit
to get us out of the shot. I must say
that every officer that asks us to move or be somewhere else is very polite
about it. They don’t have tone in their
voice like we’re idiots, you really want to help them out by moving to a
different place. We take our new place
with the other people at the window, but BP totally clears out because she
doesn't want to be on tv.But she's so cute. I ask, and according to Britt, seeing them through layers of glass totally counts as our "meeting" a famous person for the day. We’re doing pretty well.
They wrap up filming and we head over to the NBC store again, we need snacks and Becki needs caffeine. She is quite daring and gets a green apple jamba energy drink. Tastes like a
green apple jolly rancher – very puckery. We'll see how effective it is. There is also a Red Mango frozen yogurt here! Best. Yogurt. Ever. This is my plug for Red Mango, there is one in Kirkwood, and I think one in Chesterfield, if you have not heard of it or tried it – you MUST. The flavors are intense (sparkling, even) and the toppings are just as amazing. We are definitely getting some Red Mango after the tour. We also plan to eat after the tour, but we all get snacks to tide us over before getting in line.
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| ENERGY! |
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| Tickets! |
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| N B C! |
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| The city below... |
We feel official now because we have lanyards
for our tickets – we must carry our tickets in them and keep them visible the
entire time. In front of us in
line, we are joined by the team from captain obvious. There is
a video montage of NBC moments and they must
comment on EACH show as it appears,
naming it and giving commentary like, “Friends!
Oh, I love "Friends".
Then, “That's Harvey Milk, he was the first openly gay mayor”.
Becki and I exchange pained looks and then discuss how grateful we are
to have someone that we can turn to and just with a look know exactly what is
happening – whole conversation, right there, one look. I think the most painful comment to my ears
was, “Oh American Graffiti, Star Wars
directed that”… His name isn’t Star
Wars.
We getting ready to start and we get “The Rules”. I’m ready for a list of what to do, not to do but the guy walks up and down the line a couple of times and all he says is “No weapons”. This is heavily emphasized as if someone actually takes weapons. I guess people actually take weapons which is a little scary. Its also a rule that you have to have your cell phones off (collective energy will interfere with their broadcast) – which I think is hoooie – there are thousands of people in this building, all with phones, a group of 20 people will disrupt broadcast signals? I think it’s just a way of ensuring that we don’t take pictures or video, which is also a rule.. we’re a little sad by that. You can take my weapons, but don’t take my camera phone.
We enter a little theatre to watch an opening movie on the first 100 years of NBC, and it’s hosted by our friend Lester Holt!! He's everywhere that Lester. And this time the girls recognize him without prompting. We get to see the set for the nightly news with Brian Williams. The last time I went on this tour (2 years ago) there was an actual functioning newsroom behind his desk. Well, they've since moved him to a new studio that also houses his show “Rock Center” and because Americans hate change, they put a screen behind him and on it they project a loop, the same loop every night, of video of a newsroom. It's all fake. So look for the same people sitting behind him in the same clothes, doing the same thing every night. And if he turns his desk, there is another screen where they project a looping video of a control room, look for the lady with the coffee cup. Apparently she takes quite a few drinks from it. ;) Even when he does Rock Center he’s against a wall of windows, and whatever skyline is out there behind him is all fake. The only show that has real windows is the Today Show and it took a lot of technology to make that happen – if you have real windows on a set then you have lighting that you can’t control and every time a cloud passes over you have to reset lights – that’s expensive. So they have cool technology that helps them at the Today show, they have layers of screens that they lower or raise to adjust for the natural light. The only time Brian has actual live events happening behind him is when he stands to do the news and there is a wall of screens behind him that show the street view out in front of 30 Rock. Watch for it!
We head to the Dr. Oz set next and the daughter from the captain obvious team is a HUGE fan. She looks to be about 16 and she’s like “Justin Beiber exicted” about going to the Dr. Oz set. It’s a little weird. Its teeny tiny - everything looks bigger on tv of course, but there are only about 4 rows in the audience and three sections that are 5-7 rows long – there is only one circular area in the middle where they do everything. And it's soooo cold. Yes, even I notice that it’s way cold, so you know that Becki is a frozen block of ice. Our guide explains that because they use more lights than in a normal studio while shooting this show (because they're also lighting the audience members since it’s so interactive) they have to keep it cold. AC at this temperature would have too much moisture and mess up equipment and lights, so they use refrigerated air! It's literally like a meat locker in there. I liked it. I need it.
We kind of saw the SNL studio (8H), but we couldn't go in because they're using it for a base for the London Olympics coverage. But we saw it through the large glass windows. It’s rectangle shaped, a very long set with 3 staging areas. There is the center area that looks like Grand Central, that’s where the guests come out to do monologues – but it was interesting that they also do many sketches in that same place. Anything with an easy set will be there, like Weekend Update is done right in the same spot as the monologue, same thing with the skits in the Oval Office or she used Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin as an example… The stage to the right is used for semi-permanent/complicated sets, like things with working stair cases (Wayne’s World, Coneheads) or running water (Eddie’s James Brown hot tub sketch)… and then the stage to the left is the band and the musical guest. We learned that SNL is the only truly live show that airs – other shows are live (like the news – who knew) but there is a 7 second delay so they can fix things. Because SNL airs after 11:30 they don’t have to have the delay. This was the big mistake that Ashley Simpson made – she thought they had a 7 second delay so that her gaff could be fixed and no one saw what happened. Oops.
We getting ready to start and we get “The Rules”. I’m ready for a list of what to do, not to do but the guy walks up and down the line a couple of times and all he says is “No weapons”. This is heavily emphasized as if someone actually takes weapons. I guess people actually take weapons which is a little scary. Its also a rule that you have to have your cell phones off (collective energy will interfere with their broadcast) – which I think is hoooie – there are thousands of people in this building, all with phones, a group of 20 people will disrupt broadcast signals? I think it’s just a way of ensuring that we don’t take pictures or video, which is also a rule.. we’re a little sad by that. You can take my weapons, but don’t take my camera phone.
We enter a little theatre to watch an opening movie on the first 100 years of NBC, and it’s hosted by our friend Lester Holt!! He's everywhere that Lester. And this time the girls recognize him without prompting. We get to see the set for the nightly news with Brian Williams. The last time I went on this tour (2 years ago) there was an actual functioning newsroom behind his desk. Well, they've since moved him to a new studio that also houses his show “Rock Center” and because Americans hate change, they put a screen behind him and on it they project a loop, the same loop every night, of video of a newsroom. It's all fake. So look for the same people sitting behind him in the same clothes, doing the same thing every night. And if he turns his desk, there is another screen where they project a looping video of a control room, look for the lady with the coffee cup. Apparently she takes quite a few drinks from it. ;) Even when he does Rock Center he’s against a wall of windows, and whatever skyline is out there behind him is all fake. The only show that has real windows is the Today Show and it took a lot of technology to make that happen – if you have real windows on a set then you have lighting that you can’t control and every time a cloud passes over you have to reset lights – that’s expensive. So they have cool technology that helps them at the Today show, they have layers of screens that they lower or raise to adjust for the natural light. The only time Brian has actual live events happening behind him is when he stands to do the news and there is a wall of screens behind him that show the street view out in front of 30 Rock. Watch for it!
We head to the Dr. Oz set next and the daughter from the captain obvious team is a HUGE fan. She looks to be about 16 and she’s like “Justin Beiber exicted” about going to the Dr. Oz set. It’s a little weird. Its teeny tiny - everything looks bigger on tv of course, but there are only about 4 rows in the audience and three sections that are 5-7 rows long – there is only one circular area in the middle where they do everything. And it's soooo cold. Yes, even I notice that it’s way cold, so you know that Becki is a frozen block of ice. Our guide explains that because they use more lights than in a normal studio while shooting this show (because they're also lighting the audience members since it’s so interactive) they have to keep it cold. AC at this temperature would have too much moisture and mess up equipment and lights, so they use refrigerated air! It's literally like a meat locker in there. I liked it. I need it.
We kind of saw the SNL studio (8H), but we couldn't go in because they're using it for a base for the London Olympics coverage. But we saw it through the large glass windows. It’s rectangle shaped, a very long set with 3 staging areas. There is the center area that looks like Grand Central, that’s where the guests come out to do monologues – but it was interesting that they also do many sketches in that same place. Anything with an easy set will be there, like Weekend Update is done right in the same spot as the monologue, same thing with the skits in the Oval Office or she used Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin as an example… The stage to the right is used for semi-permanent/complicated sets, like things with working stair cases (Wayne’s World, Coneheads) or running water (Eddie’s James Brown hot tub sketch)… and then the stage to the left is the band and the musical guest. We learned that SNL is the only truly live show that airs – other shows are live (like the news – who knew) but there is a 7 second delay so they can fix things. Because SNL airs after 11:30 they don’t have to have the delay. This was the big mistake that Ashley Simpson made – she thought they had a 7 second delay so that her gaff could be fixed and no one saw what happened. Oops.
We didn't get to see Jimmy Fallon's studio because they
were getting ready for the show tonight
so we were a little disappointed. I saw it two years ago and was amazed
at how small it is. They said that they
trick the eye into thinking it’s bigger by never panning from the band to Jimmy
– they always cut back and forth so they appear to much further apart. They have an area where they show us a video
on how they do SNL make up so quickly, and then we’re ushered into a room where
two volunteers will do fake news and get a dvd of it that they may purchase on
the way out. We get a photo opp, and
posed for pics signing “NBC” and we were just do
darn cute we got a copy of it. We
get out of the tour, get our Red Mango (white peach with blackberries for me,
white peach with strawberries and giradelli
chocolate for Bm and just
plain white peach for Dana), but just as Becki was making a purchase something happened that they claim never ever happens... Their whole system went down. So we're stuck waiting for them to try and fix it because we were in the perfect stage of the process where it had already been purchased, so they can't cancel it but they can't print it. Other people in the tours behind us come up and they’re told that they have to check online with their picture number and they can order from there. Eventually they say that they can mail us the pics- but Becki gives them her cell phone number and they'll call if it gets fixed.
We are looking for the restroom and are directed downstairs, below Rockefeller Center, into this secret city. It's massive. Like a big mall underground – but limitless. Becki gets Starbucks (there are like 10 people working to wait on 3 people and it seriously takes like 15 minutes). I told Becki that we were vicariously annoyed for her, and that this stuff they made must be precious liquid. We check the map and head down the inner pathways to go get Chinese food. Seated is limited – but we’re told to go out and to the left… but still nothing, and in the meantime Becki has a call about our picture, it’s ready. So Becki and Dana head back up to get the photo and the rest of us head outside to eat it in front of 30 Rock... Again limited seats, so I sit on the curb and Becki joins me for a moment, until again, very politely, we are told that we can’t sit on the curb.
It's so nice outside - cooler than inside for sure, which is odd given the modern technology ofair conditioning. It's about 1:45 and we need to pick up Daily Show tickets at 2:30. Actually we should be there before 2:30, when they hand out tickets, because there is no guarantee we get in. They overbook every show to ensure that they have a full studio – so we could get there and not have tickets. We decide that instead of all 5 of us going and waiting in line for tickets that we may not get, that just Dana and I will go since it’s our names on the tickets, and we’ll let these guys finish shopping in the NBC store. If we do get tickets then the rest of our party has until 4:00 to claim them, so we’ll just text them and have them come over and get their tickets. Dana and I use our metro card and grab a bus over to the studio and leave Becki with the kids. (kidding!). The studio is in an odd place – like just looks like another store along the street, right next to a pawn shop and a Subway (like sandwich shop). We get there about 2:00 and we get tickets with no problem.
plain white peach for Dana), but just as Becki was making a purchase something happened that they claim never ever happens... Their whole system went down. So we're stuck waiting for them to try and fix it because we were in the perfect stage of the process where it had already been purchased, so they can't cancel it but they can't print it. Other people in the tours behind us come up and they’re told that they have to check online with their picture number and they can order from there. Eventually they say that they can mail us the pics- but Becki gives them her cell phone number and they'll call if it gets fixed.
We are looking for the restroom and are directed downstairs, below Rockefeller Center, into this secret city. It's massive. Like a big mall underground – but limitless. Becki gets Starbucks (there are like 10 people working to wait on 3 people and it seriously takes like 15 minutes). I told Becki that we were vicariously annoyed for her, and that this stuff they made must be precious liquid. We check the map and head down the inner pathways to go get Chinese food. Seated is limited – but we’re told to go out and to the left… but still nothing, and in the meantime Becki has a call about our picture, it’s ready. So Becki and Dana head back up to get the photo and the rest of us head outside to eat it in front of 30 Rock... Again limited seats, so I sit on the curb and Becki joins me for a moment, until again, very politely, we are told that we can’t sit on the curb.
It's so nice outside - cooler than inside for sure, which is odd given the modern technology ofair conditioning. It's about 1:45 and we need to pick up Daily Show tickets at 2:30. Actually we should be there before 2:30, when they hand out tickets, because there is no guarantee we get in. They overbook every show to ensure that they have a full studio – so we could get there and not have tickets. We decide that instead of all 5 of us going and waiting in line for tickets that we may not get, that just Dana and I will go since it’s our names on the tickets, and we’ll let these guys finish shopping in the NBC store. If we do get tickets then the rest of our party has until 4:00 to claim them, so we’ll just text them and have them come over and get their tickets. Dana and I use our metro card and grab a bus over to the studio and leave Becki with the kids. (kidding!). The studio is in an odd place – like just looks like another store along the street, right next to a pawn shop and a Subway (like sandwich shop). We get there about 2:00 and we get tickets with no problem.
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| Food Truck! |
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| Baja Shrimp - yum |
The interesting part about the tickets, that I was SUPER
paranoid about, was that there is a limit of 4 tickets per group, and they
specifically state in bold AND italic print that if you have more than 4 people
in your group, EVEN if you book separately, you will be asked to leave. So Dana and I keep a little bit of distance
between us – I have 3 tickets under my name and Dana has two tickets under her
name, and we do NOT know each other. I
start thinking of what if they check our driver’s licenses and see that we’re
both from Missouri, will they suspect that we’re really together? Dana
asks if I want her to move back in line … no we’ll be fine. I’m pretty sure… We get our tickets and text the others to
come and get their tickets (they have numbers to give to the ticket guy and
then he’ll just hand them over). Dana
and I wait in the Subway, and then we’re kind of careful not to walk in groups
like we know each other while we’re in the sight lines of the ticket guy. It’s silly.
They couldn’t care less honestly – but it was in bold and italic… they
all want to make sure that this makes the blog so that everyone can chuckle at
my paranoia.
In our absence, they have finally found and eaten at a food
truck! The Sweetery NYC, and BM had a
red velvet whoopi pie, BP got a snickerdoodle, and Becki got a brownie, and
they were all warm… they also say some
lady back her very expensive car into a phone booth (there is debate over the
kid of car it was, maybe a BMW, or a Mercedes, or aLexus depending on who you
ask… but it was expensive, they all agree).
Some lady got out of the car while it was still running (for valet) and
it rammed into a phone booth – by all accounts a big crash – and she just gets
back in the car and drives off. I know
that I have this a little wrong – but it’s the best I can pull together. J
We have about an hour to kill before the show (they let us in at 4:30)
but there is a park just across the street.
There are benches available, but they’re in the sun – and we spot
benches in the shade within an enclosed area for a dog park so we decide to go
in there. A lady comes in with her dog –
and at first we can co-exist, but she becomes increasingly annoyed by our
presence and eventually demands that we leave the dog park area because we
don’t own dogs. I tell her that we do
actually own dogs… “Oh yah, well where are they??” … in St. Louis. We leave, no fighting on the trip – and it’s
clearly her dog park. It’s about time
to head back across the street anyway.
Just as we’re lining up it starts to rain – but we’re very lucky that
the Daily Show as a huge awning to protect their ticket holders for just such
an occasion.The show is great – we get in without anyone caring that we know each other. A comedian comes out and warms us up after about 45 minutes, he’s funny – we like him and he teaches us how to be really loud. Our mikes are set at half the power of Jon’s mike, so we have to be really loud when we cheer or laugh – we can do that. Jon comes out and chats with us for a while, we’re allowed to ask questions with the understanding that he will most likely use that question as fodder for mockery (all in good fun). One guy mentions that he’s from Florida which is where the guest is from that night (Senator Mario Rubio) and it’s also where the first Hooters was established – and Jon uses that in the opening. He gives us a briefing and reminds us that we don’t boo any guest of the Daily Show, even if we don’t agree with them we listen to them and we have a discussion – and that’s why I like the show so much. We laugh a lot – we learn a lot from the discussion, but we realize that we won’t be on camera. Our only hope is to be able to watch the show later and identify our laughs. BMc is sitting directly under a mike, so we think we’ll be able to hear her.
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| Pomegranete glazed tacos |
After the show it’s about 7:15, and Dana and Becki head back
to the apt to pee (we’re only a few blocks from our apt). They decide to do salad at the apt for dinner
so they head off to the
grocery store to get salad supplies. The Brittanys and I had talked about going over to the stage door of Letterman after the Daily Show to see if we could see Emma Stone coming out – but they tape at the same time as the Daily Show and they say the guests come out after the finish their segments, so we’re sure we’ve missed it. We have been craving Mexican (and specifically tacos) for a while so we urbanspooned (new verb) a Mexican place that was 2
blocks up and 2 blocks over called “El Centro” – we’re in the Hell’s Kitchen area of the city.
grocery store to get salad supplies. The Brittanys and I had talked about going over to the stage door of Letterman after the Daily Show to see if we could see Emma Stone coming out – but they tape at the same time as the Daily Show and they say the guests come out after the finish their segments, so we’re sure we’ve missed it. We have been craving Mexican (and specifically tacos) for a while so we urbanspooned (new verb) a Mexican place that was 2
blocks up and 2 blocks over called “El Centro” – we’re in the Hell’s Kitchen area of the city.
We get a nice little table outside and enjoy great food and
amazing weather – we all have taco variety plate and get pretty much the same
tacos. These are not your Casa tacos..
they have Baja Shrimp with a spicy aioli, a short rib with pickled cabbage, and
pomegranate glazed flank steak with caramelized onions. So good!
We are pretty close to Letterman so we walk that way to see
his theatre and we run into the theatre where Harvey is playing. Round the corner and there is the Letterman
marquee – we send a pic to Scott. He’s
a fan. We head around to the side to
see the stage door and the Hello Deli – and there is a bag (I heart NY) and an
umbrella just hanging there off of one of the barricades set up for the stage
door. It’s a nice bag too – free bag
for BP.
Back at the apartment we just hang out and share our day, try
to figure out a plan for Tuesday, and I finish up the blog for Sunday while
we’re waiting for the Daily Show at 11 so we can see if we can hear our
laughs. We think we do. J
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| In line |
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| Our fancy tickets |
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