The Adventures of Team Parker

It’s finally happened. I’m going off blogging. Oh noooo!!! I’m not really sure why. Think I’ve hit a real slump here. I just don’t feel like doing anything at all. The only thing that’s making me post now is the fact that I’ve checked this blog, the group blog, my gmail, Facebook, and Flickr and there has been no action on any of them! I guess I have to put out to get some. (How porno…) Anyway, here goes.

Monday we went to see the Statue of Liberty. It was near disaster. Kind of like the Eiffel Tower. We got there round 9ish and there was a queue up the wazoo. We stook in line for about two hours to board the ferry. At one point they asked us to move the line, then they started a new line where we’d broken off, then they tried to merge the lines again and about 50 people who had come after us ended up getting in first. It was only after everyone started complaining that the stopped letting newer people into the original line. We were so pissed off. But the ferry ride there was alright and the views of the statue and the bay were lovely. But once we got to the island we found that the tickets we’d bought didn’t allow us into the pedestal of the statue or the museum. (Somce 9/11, no one is allowed into the crown.) We complained that the ticket sales people hadn’t mentioned that there were different types of tickets, they just told us how much it cost and gave us the ones we had. There were a number of people also in the line who didn’t know about these special tickets that you needed for access into the pedestal. Eventually, the guards gave in and let us through but they said it was only because it wasn’t a very busy day. The museum was fairly interesting. It explained how the architects had designed the statue, how the French people helped finance it, and how every day Americans helped finance the building of the pedestal. One display case contained original letters from immigrants who had donated towards the fund, explaining why the statue had special meaning for them.

That took pretty much the entire morning. We finally got back to Battery Park around 4 in the afternoon. Really a waste of the morning. This really was like the Eiffel Tower in many ways. A long and expensive trip with lots of queuing and not a very good view. I always say it’s better to see the Eiffel Tower from afar and I think the same thing of the Statue of Liberty. If you’re in New York and thinking of going to see it, take a short ferry ride around the bay and get some nice views. Then get back to the city and do something more interesting and more rewarding.

Something else we came across as we were wandering around the Battery Park area was this - the Sphere within a Sphere sculpture. There are a number of them around the world and we’ve seen three. There is one in Dublin at Trinity College and another at the Vatican Museum in Vatican City. This one used to stand outside the World Trade Center but was damaged in the attacks on September 11th. It was recovered from the rubble and placed in Battery Park as a memorial to those lost in the attack. You can see an eternal flame burning just in front of it.

After that we headed off for the Empire State building. It was cheaper than going to Liberty Island, the queues were much shorter and the staff were a lot more organized. We got to the top in next to no time. Okay, it was about 40 minutes but after our Liberty fiasco, it really felt like no time at all. And the views of the city were absolutely amazing. You could see all the way to Central Park on the one side, the Chrysler Building on another, you could even see the Statue of Liberty from here. This was one tall building trip that was actually worth it.

While we were up there, I spotted a block of greenery in the middle of all the tall towers and I wanted to know what it was. Sameer found out that it was called Bryant Park. So when were came down, we decided to walk over that way. It was the most beautiful space. Just a lush green lawn in the center, wrought iron tables and chairs all over the place, and masses of tulips everywhere. People were just chilling, sitting around having conversations, sharing a meal, or doing work on their laptops. It was lovely.

While we were in that area, we noticed some people walking around with cupcakes that looked really yummy and along the way we passed this little hole in the wall shop called Crumbs. It was a cupcake shop and oh my god, my prayers had been answered. The cakes looked divine. We spent about 20 minutes in there trying to decide what we wanted and eventually settled for a Caramel Apple cupcake for me and an Artie Lange for Sameer. Mine was apple sponge with a stewed apple center, and a vanilla buttercream icing, topped with caramel. Sameer’s had acreamy chocolate in the center and vanilla icing on top, then chocolate fondant shavings, and chocolate and vanilla sprinkles. They were soooo good! We went back to Bryant Park with our goodies and ate them in the dark. Bliss! And being the Cupcake Aficionado, I think I’m qualified to say –Best. Cupcakes. In. The World!

After that, we weren’t sure what to do. We considered going to a Broadway show but found out that only a few of the shows are on Mondays. We also considered staying in town to check out the music scene but decided it was too risky what with us staying out in Jersey and needing to catch a bus back relatively early (11:30). Besides we had to be up early in order to queue for stand by tickets for Conan O’Brien. So we went home and had an early night.

But it didn’t really help coz we overslept and only got to NBC Studios after 8 the next morning. By that time there were 40 people in the queue and really, we had no hope whatsoever. We were sooo sad. Depressed even. So we took the NBC Studio tour. Here’s where we queued behind that overzealous mob. *grumble grumble*

What can I say about the NBC Studio tour? It was short but insightful. The pages came to collect us and they were really fun and quirky. I was uber jealous of them because they get to see all the inside stuff and meet all the stars and intern on all the cool shows. For example, our pages (I couldn’t help thinking about Kenneth from 30 Rock when I looked at them) had pins in the shape of a cartoon Conan O’Brien with the bright red hair, and they said “Conanized”. We wanted to buy ourselves some but it turns out that those aren’t for sale. Conan gives them to people who intern on his show. (More jealousy…)

We watched a video about the history of NBC which was brief but really cool. They took us through some of the studios in which they film different shows. We were kicked out of the first one - a news studio - because there had been a breaking news story and the studio was in use. Then they took us to the Conan O’Brien studios. I wish that I could have taken pictures but we weren’t allowed to. Once you see what it’s like, you realize why it’s so hard to get into the show and also, a lot of the jokes on the show become a lot more apparent. There are only about eight rows of seats in the studio and 120 seats in total! And the set is tiny! Everything is scaled down to fit, so the guests tub couches are actually about the size of a regular chair each and Conan’s desk is bitty - like a primary school desk size. No wonder he sits sideways like that all the time - his legs can’t fit under them! And the distance between the band stand (which is seriously about the size of my old bedroom and my mum’s house) and the spot where Conan does his puppet dance is literally about two paces. Then from there, where he introduces “Max Weinberg and the Weinberg Seven!” is another two paces. So as the pages were telling us, on the show when you see Conan turn over to Max and shout hello and Max yells back, the audience bursts out laughing, its because the spittle from his mouth is practically hitting Max in the face. They are literally standing right next to each other. Also, when the band plays their 30 second intro and then they cut to Conan who looks like he’s been walking from one end of this enormous set to the other and gets there all flustered and winded, it’s actually a big joke because he’s been standing around getting his makeup touched up and then he takes five steps and sits down, and acts like he’s been running to get there. So funny! Anyway, you’re probably wondering how come the set looks so huge when you watch the show on tv and that’s because they use a special lens that stretches out the screen and messes with your depth perception. That’s why they always say the camera adds 10 pounds. Apparently Conan in real life is as thin as a rake and twice as tall.

If you haven’t seen Conan yet, I recommend that you give his show a try. You will not turn back. He is hi-larious! If you have satellite, you can watch the show on CNBC Africa. If I remember correctly, they air it round 11 or 12 at night on Wednesdays and Saturdays and Sundays. Or if you have broadband, you can watch it here on NBC Direct. I actually find NBC Direct to be a bit twitchy. The Hulu website works much better so maybe try that instead.

To truly understand what I mean by the optical illusion, you have to at least go there to watch his intro and monologue. The studio looks huge! I mean, I know a lot of things on tv are fake but really. Seriously! Hectic. Biggest revelation of the whole trip for me.

We also got to see the Saturday Night Live studios and another studio that’s used for news and weather. They even showed us how the news and weather is recorded, which was quite nifty. But really, the Conan studios were the funnest bits. Ah well. Hopefully we’ll get to see Conan at some point in the future.

Anyway, after that we wandered around Little Italy and Chinatown. It was lunch time by then and the food smells wafting around were making us so lus! But we were supposed to meet up with Sameer’s friend Fadiyah soon after so we didn’t stop for lunch. In Chinatown everything was written in Chinese and everyone spoke Chinese and that was quite interesting. These were definitely areas I wouldn’t mind going back to for a closer look again.

Then we headed to Union Square to meet up with Sameer’s friend Fadiyah who is staying in New York for a few months. While we waited in the park at the rear end of Union Square, we came across something we hadn’t seen the last time we were there. It’s called a “dog run” - a fenced off area just for dogs. It’s covered with pebbles and has benches in shady spots for the people, a water fountain and bowl for dogs, and a roll of plastic bags beside a bin in which to dispose of doggy do. You enter through a double set of gates which you’re supposed to open one at a time so no dogs escape while people are going in or out. It was so nice to watch the dogs running around and playing with each other or playing fetch with their owners. I wasn’t the only one watching the dogs. There were a number of kids and older people watching them too. It was so sweet. A playground for puppies!

Anyway, Fadiyah came by shortly and we had a lunch of brownies and iced tea at the Gray Dog and chatted for ages. It was great to speak to someone from back home again. Also, she used to work at Koeberg with Sameer so we had a lot of friends and experiences in common. Afterwards she came with us and we wandered around Greenwich some more.

That evening we went back to the TKTS stand new Times Square to buy reduced price tickets for a Broadway show. On the advice of Sameer’s friend Rabia, we decided to watch Avenue Q, which is a musical with puppet characters inspired by Sesame Streets. For example housemates Rod and Nicky mirror Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street, and the Porn addicted Trekkie Monster parodies the biscuit addicted Cookie Monster. It deals with issues such as being broke and unemployed, being afraid to come out of the closet, not knowing your purpose in life, porn and racism. There was also a puppet sex scene so it’s not exactly kids stuff. It was sooo funny. (See “It sucks to be me”, the opening song from Avenue Q.) I gotto say, I really related to the characters. Also, I found it hilarious how they used kids educational show gimmicks for laughs. For example, one of the characters has a one night stand and then they cue a video which shows a night table with the caption “1″. Then they count up to 5 and a chorus of kids goes “Five! Five night stands!”. Then they count down again until there’s only one left and the kids go “One night stand!” So funny!

That was Tuesday. Wednesday was the day we left town. It was also the first day we got confused about which way were were going with the subway. That was a bit irritating because we wasted quite a bit of time going back and forth. The New York subway system is not the easiest to understand. Not all the trains have a map of where they’re going inside the train, and unlike the British, they don’t have freely available maps so you can’t just pick one up at the station. We had to use our (very poor) guidebook map.

Anyway, we spent the morning in Central Park and walked up towards Columbia University which was soooo beautiful and reminded me so much of UCT except it was more/bigger/better. We met up with Sameer’s friend Johannes and he showed us around campus for a bit. For some reason there was a flea market on the library steps so we looked through there briefly and then we went for lunch at a student hangout in the area and chatted about our plans for the future. It was a lovely restaurant and we were so glad to get out of the heat because the weather had suddenly changed from springey to summery. And Johannes is such a sweety pie, we really enjoyed his company. But soon our time had run out and we went off to the airport and headed back to Chi Town.

Sudden ending, I know but Sameer is in bed and you know the drill. How ironic. I can sleep through anything and he can’t sleep without dead silence. Ah well. In a few short months we’ll actually have another room that I can go to to blog. This studio living is not ideal.