Getting off at 86th Street a young Japanese girl playing the violin. She stands by the stairs with her tiny violin and the case is open on the ground. Today it was filled with dollar bills. The last time I saw her it was empty. She plays fast, always the same music, or type of music and over by the wall an adult is watching over her. She never smiles, in fact her facial expression is rather unpleasant, like she doesn’t want to be there.
Tag Archive: Music
77th Street stop, I don’t think I have ever gotten off the subway here.
The only thing here is Lenox Hill Hospital. If I have to go to the hospital, I’m going in style, in an ambulance with lights and sirens!
Live music! They were willing to let me take their picture, one asked me if it was going on You-Tube. They played a cool song, I wish I had written it down because now I can’t remember. There is also a news stand here, I didn’t take a picture because the man seemed kind of grumpy, I just bought a blue Gatorade and went on my merry way.
The reason I was going to Dutchess County was to go see Cold Play with my best friend and two of her boys. It was a graduation present for one of them. My friend had also planned a surprise for her other boy, they had an extra ticket that Em was going to ‘sell’ that was actually going to be for a friend of his that had been traveling.
She ran into traffic so we had to wait and make up excuses as to why we weren’t leaving. We walked out to the parking lot, Em knew her son’s friend was close, when we didn’t get in the car he yelled, “What are we waiting for?” A voice piped up behind him, “You’re waiting for me.” It was perfection.
At the concert we got wristbands to wear, ‘part of the show’ they kept flashing on the viewscreens, which were 4 oval discs seemingly suspended in the air. After Wolf Gang (follow them on twitter! @wolfgang and make sure you get the right Wolf Gang!) and Robyn we got to Cold Play. The arena was pitch black and the wristbands lit up. Whatever color the wristband were that was the color the lights were, blue, pink, green, yellow and white (Nick collected them after the show to see if he can figure out how they work). It was glorious.
My ears were buzzing for a day, my throat is still scratchy. People are jealous I got to go.
Here’s the boy, the ticket was a present from his mom. The shirt was my present to him.
These are the wrist bands that light up.
And this is the shirt I bought myself, yes I dropped a huge chunk of change at this concert.
This was an acoustic show. Meaning no band, just him and two friends with guitars. The proceeds from this concert benefited his charity “Sidewalk Angels“. Mari even came on stage to tell a little about it and thank everyone for, in effect, donating. This is also not the first time I have seen Rob Thomas, and the reason this is not on the review blog is because I am not reviewing his show.
Instead I am writing about the experience. I went up to Em’s on Friday and we drove out to the concert. I had a migraine starting Wednesday and was still feeling it Friday even after I stayed home Thursday (I had originally planned to go to work on Thursday). Despite this I made it to the train I wanted to catch, I was even early and very proud of myself. The only thing was, since I was getting on at 125th, and I never know which direction is which, I mean I had an idea but I wasn’t sure, so I got on the front of the train instead of the back and so got off in Beacon on the wrong end of the train. Not really a problem, just confused Tigger who was waiting for me and didn’t see me come out with the rest of the people.
Fast forward to the concert, which we got lost driving to (a couple of times), and as we were sitting there Em told me that a co-worker made her feel old by saying Billy Joel is washed up, or a has been or something like that. After I scoffed at that I was looking around the arena and saw a banner hanging up, “Billy Joel” with a big 10 under his name, and under that “sold out shows in a row. A New England record. Or it was at the time. I pointed it out to Em, she read the dates “from May to July 2008”, well that was 3 years ago she remarked with a smirk. He broke a record set in 1987. Washed up my a__.
On the entertainment side, the biggest thing in the casino business, for this property and for me, was Billy Joel. It was the biggest deal I have ever been involved in. Dennis Arfa (Joel’s booking agent since 1976) and I go back years. I would always approach Dennis–from when I was in Atlantic City until I came up to New England—and ask, “How can I get Billy Joel to do a casino?” It never happened. One day, Dennis and I were having a friendly lunch and, of course, I brought the subject up again. The idea of breaking a (casino) record intrigued Billy and it intrigued us as well. We did 10 sold-out shows in a row. He sold out every show instantly. That, to me, is one of the great casino entertainment stories.
The concert was nice, Rob making his little comments, forgetting the words to a song (not his own, “Save the Last Dance”) and getting them from someone’s iPhone, then tossing it back to them (OOPS).
Then we drove home, only getting turned around once this time. The next morning I went home and that was an adventure.
First was getting to the train station, first thing was, since it was New Year’s Eve day, I wanted to get home as soon as possible, before everyone and his brother started going down to the city. I was up to late for Tigger, D wanted to get the car looked at, Em convinced him to wait for me to eat breakfast. I caught the 10:57 out of Beacon.
When I got to 125th Street I had to pee but the bathroom door was locked. Since I was going home I decided to just wait till I got there and hiked down to the #6 train. I swiped my card, and went nowhere. A 30 day MetroCard is just that, 30 days not a month. So I had to go get a new MetroCard, then I went down, I was determined to not get on the express like the last time but I hesitated on the first platform, “Uptown and the Bronx”. If I was at GCT that is the train I would take, but I was in Harlem, I ran down to the next platform as the doors were closing on the train. So I had to wait and I had to pee, not a good combination. I hate running in my apartment when I have to pee, that’s usually when I forget to lock my door and then I’m in the bathroom wondering if I locked the door or not.
The issue with the MetroCard meant I didn’t go shopping. That turned out to be good because by waiting until today the dress I wanted was 50% off.
Thursday Em came to the City, she and I were planning on going to the Today Show to watch Coldplay perform. I don’t know how she found out about my huge crush on Chris Martin, but she did so when she got Fan Passes for Coldplay she invited me.
She spent Thursday night at my apartment. I woke up at 2:00 am, I don’t know why but then I couldn’t get back to sleep, partly because someone was snoring (whoever said people don’t snore when sleeping on their side was LYING!) and partly because I wasn’t feeling well. About 4:30 I couldn’t take it anymore and started to get dressed, I was going to find out if Duane Reade really does stay open all night (the one near my apartment does). I got some medicine for my tummy, then I took some Tylenol for my head. We left to catch the subway our destination the Today Show.
The show is free, but you still pay. You pay by signing up online hoping to get fan passes. We did. You pay by getting up earlier than you normally do, for some of us, like me. You pay by standing in the cold from 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. to hear them play, while you can’t see them because you are too short/there are too many people/some skanky girl is standing on the barricade you are standing behind. They played 5 songs. The sound wasn’t good, not for the music but for the interviews. It was fantastic.
Afterwards we got breakfast and then Em had an appointment for a salt scrub. I wandered around, kind of dead on my feet from lack of sleep and standing in one spot for 2-½ hours. Looking for shoes at TJ Maxx and then Marshall’s. Then she was done and we were trying to meet up, the other store she wanted to go to was closed. She had managed to move her nail appointment to earlier so we went back to my place so she could get her stuff. She told me I could stay there, she getting her nails done and going home. I was so tired, so tired, that was kind of it for me.
And that’s all, she says.
So once again I have become negligent in my blogging and am having to play catch up. It won’t be easy this weekend since I am going to see Green Lantern with Gwen on Friday, going to NYC on Saturday with Em and then going to see the Staten Island Yankees on Monday. Plus the Yankees have no off days coming up.
Tonight I had to type posts on about 4 games that I was behind. Now that I’m caught up there,
My phone is here, I spent all last evening getting my apps loaded and my books downloaded and my music synced. Then I forgot it at home when I went to work. Not only that, I twisted my ankle running to catch the train. I didn’t really hurt my ankle, just scraped the side of it with the strap on my shoe.
Yesterday morning my right eye was completely blood shot. It is still a little bit red but I can’t wear my contacts. Tomorrow I am wearing mascara and eyeliner. Mainly because I don’t think make-up is the cause of this.
Not much else to say. I think I will look a the pictures on my camera to make up for the missing posts.
Today when I got back from lunch one of my co-workers walked into the building before me. As he held the door he was smiling and commented that I was ‘in my own little world.’
Yes I was, just me and the Flobots, or maybe the Foo Fighters. It has to be an F group, I’ve been listening to my F playlist for days. I was plugged into my iPod and tuned out from the world.
This is why the personal safety experts say not to wear headphones or ear buds while running. Because you can’t hear when the serial killer sneaks up behind you to grab your 25 year old, 5’2″, 125 pound body and throw it in his white panel van. Or is the pedophiles that have the white panel van?
Well anyway, the jokes on them because I weigh 136 and am not even in my 20’s. They do check I.D.s don’t they?
Went to see the Plain White T’s at the Highline Ballroom. Got in at 2 a.m.
Quick look through my mail. AT&T and my union want to give me a phone, Bank of America wants to give me a MasterCard and look! Mr. Obama sent me a check.
Happiness.
Belleza
just a city girl 
Comment moderation is on
Recently I read the following blog post about getting more comments on your blog. 40 Dead Simple Ways to Get More Comments on Your Blog This was one of the suggestions, copied directly from the post, “10 – Don’t moderate comments. Nothing about the words ‘Your comment is awaiting moderation’ encourages a reader to comment more. Nothing.” The next suggestion seems to be written for me “11 – If you do moderate, approve comments as quickly as possible.” since this blog will always have comment moderation. I am way to much of a control, OCD psychotic freak to just let people write whatever they want and me not approve everything on this blog. Please, you are talking about the person who goes back over 3 month old posts to correct typos. Comment Moderation is on.
However, something that will NEVER be on this blog is word verification. I hate word verification. In fact I was just leaving a comment on a blog when I clicked to post the comment, missed that I needed to put in the word verification and when the page came back up, my comment was gone. So I left the blog, without leaving a comment.
Something else that will never be on this blog is music. When I first started blogging and reading blogs, I would go to some blogs and the music would start. “Oh that is kind of cool” was my first thought, and I searched around trying to figure out how to put it on my blog, I never found out how. But as time went by and I read more blogs, I discovered that a lot of people don’t like it. I would just mute my computer if I didn’t like the music that was playing, but now that I think about it, it is kind of intrusive, putting your taste in music off on your readers, so if you don’t like hearing strange music come out of your computer speakers, this blog is safe for you to read.
That’s all. Says she. Have anything you want to add?