Tuesday, June 30, 2009

the A train, infinite summer

after a VERY drunken evening some time last week, i was late to work. i caught an 8:30ish train and surprisingly found a seat. "next stop, 145th street." it was a voice i recognized. it's unmistakable really. he sounds like a muppet. so as we're approaching 59th street he says, "i want to wish you a good day, and a good weekend. i won't be taking you to work any longer so hopefully we'll see each other around sometime."
i still can't decide whether he's getting laid off, or quitting, or just taken of the A route, or taken off the morning commute. but i couldn't believe that after having not been on this guy's train since late 2008, to be a passsenger on what might be his final ride seemed somehow symbolic. something about full circles, life moving on, new york being so small and also so big.
i'm still really enjoying infinite summer. though i have to say, the 5 page footnotes in teeny print are going to be the death of me. i also find that i'm thinking too hard. he'll hint something in a sentence and i'll say, "oh! he's referring to X, yay! i'm so proud of myself for picking up on that! whee, i'm smart." and then 15 pages later he'll full on spell out what i'd figured out on my own. basically, i don't need to be piecing it together so much i my head because he'll do it himself. i'm wasting lots of energy remember specific hints, clues, facts, putting them on a shelf in a special "i know he's going to come back to this, he wouldn't have said this unless i was meant to remember it" cubby. but he's kinder than i thought and more generous than i'm used to and he's gifting stuff to me instead of making me search it out. also, footnote 24 was so genius. best footnote ever. and why hasn't someone taken the time to make all those movies? or have they? footnote 304 was painful. interesting, yet painful. and what the hell is on that damn cassette! it's taking everything inside of me to not just wiki it because i know it would ruin a fair amount of suspense for the big picture. or it seems like it might...

Friday, June 26, 2009

paula, ambien, michael, return of the fake baseball player

27b/6 has a book! buy it.
this is probably going to go into the TMI file but whatever. my health insurance is on the shady/DL side so i am always reluctant to switch doctors around much. and i don't have a general practitioner because i'm not often sick. i know, i KNOW i should be having regular checkups but those are for people with real health insurance. not people like me. so suck it. so i had a lady gyno, then this old man took her place so i had to see him. and it was a bit weird for me but he's old and small and frail and supremely non threatening so i dealt with him for a few years. but now he's left and i have a new, young, nice, lady ladybits doctor! YAY! and that's not the best part. the best part is when i told her about my shady-ass insurance and how i want sleeping pills she said, "oh, try ambien, you'll love it. i'll write you a prescription for it." YES. it was THAT easy. so i'm now the proud owner of some ambien. life is good.


i think i mentioned it already but i heart the 3.0 software update for the iphone. i mean, being able to forward and delete individual text messages. hallelujah!
of course, i'm sad about michael jackson. i don't know anyone who doesn't have a bit of cognitive dissonance when it comes to the guy though. i mean, he's THE man. yet for most of my adult life, he's been pretty crazy and totally crazy-looking. in and out of court, possibly molesting children, totally bankrupt. that's what will happen to you when you get too famous too fast. but he's a legend. and P.Y.T. will always be my go-to song. so michael, RIP dear.


someone left a comment the other day saying they had a relative who shares his name with the asshole ex. apologies for any self-googling that guy does and ends up here. at least i'd posted a picture of my evil ex so that they'd know exactly who i was talking about ;)


ran into jj last night at the bar that we're apparently both regulars at even though i'd never seen him there till last friday. he sat in a booth directly opposite where i was sitting. for a while i thought i'd just ignore him but he was sat in this booth by himself, looking like a sorry loser. ted and katie were like, "jasmine, just go say hi. he looke pathetic." so i went over to make peace. "so we both like this place, we might as well be nice to each other." we started chatting, he had a version of events in his head that were not reality. among them, that a UTI was a venereal disease and that he had tried to honor our date but that he wasn't available till 9pm and that i couldn't wait for him. i'm like, "you know that none of that happened. i was there, you can't lie to me about it. you're an idiot." and he is, an idiot. maybe even verging on douchebag. and i wake up this morning to a text message he sent at 5:40am: "u going to put ur dukes down and relax or keep fuckin with me?? ur to pretty for that u should be worried about dinner and a short skirt."


i'm saving that message just as a little reminder to myself about what a waste of space this guy his, however cute he may be. he looked better yesterday because his shirt had short sleeves. but that's about all he had going for him.

Monday, June 22, 2009

liz becton, locanda, infinite jest

absolutely gorgeous essay by colin meloy on why he's doing infinite summer. i just got my copy in the mail. i have two bookmarks in it (one for footnotes). i'm ready ;) i'm also wondering whether it wouldn't have been better to read the thing on a damn kindle. except i don't own one but have been looking for an excuse to buy one. wonder how footnotes work in one of those things. anybody know?
and these elizabeth becton (liz becton to those in the know) e-mails are AMAZING! GAH! i want more. because you know she's deadly serious and this is how she chooses to live her life. as a spiteful, ridiculous person. she's a cartoon character brought to life! maybe her house will go up with balloons later too and we can make a happy/sad story out of it when a child dying of cancer gets to see the story.
men with hirsute toes should not wear sandals. i just saw on the train a man who had so much hair on his toes that you could have made ponytails out of them. maybe even braided it. imagine what hte rest of his body looks like! EWWWW.
i often makes jokes that only i find funny. this is why i am not considered a funny person, like, at all. caught a minute of the yankee game on saturday and saw a-rod at bat. in my head (thankfully not out loud) i said, "i thought a-rod was on vocal rest" which was funny to me. mostly because vocal rest, for singers, is meaningful but sounds like such a pussy-ish thing to do. so for a-rod to be taking days off for exhaustion or whatever seems also pussy-ish. i don't know. like i said, funny to me and NOBODY else.
last night after work i went back to locanda verde. was quoted a 50 minute wait but not minutes after i'd been handed a glass of verdicchio at the bar the host said, "we'll have a table for you in 2 minutes." rock. on. and i was sat at a cute little two-top just inside the restaurant but alongside the open veranda-style doors where they also have a few tables on the sidewalk. so not only did i get some fresh air and glorious late-afternoon sun, i also stayed dry when it started down pouring 30 minutes later. THIS RAIN MUST STOP. i ordered and relished, completely, the herbed ricotta on garlic toasts. i don't know what crack is like but this is better. it has to be.
i start reading infinite jest. i think i'm in love. i'm less than 100 pages in but, the same way i love borges, i like puzzles and this novel has a hella amount of stuff that i'm going to have to remember to piece together later. some of the lines are just amazing. and so funny. i couldn't stop thinking about it when i went to bed, i'm already fully absorbed and wrapped up in this. my stomach was in knots for young hal. fiction always tears me apart. i can't stay away but i'm not sure whether i'll ever learn to love being mangled...
vignettes during dinner which seemed appropriate, like something DFW might have appreciated. 1.) douchebag in pink polo with popped collar on a date. date leaves to go to the restroom and i catch douchebag grab date's shopping bag and rummage through it to see what she bought. i was hoping he'd get caught in the act but it was not my lucky day.
2.) a man a few tables over barks four times. they were muffled barks, down into his chest. the date looks over at the couple of girls at the next table, smiling as if barking at a restaurant is a typically jokey thing to do. the girls looked back with skeptical eyes to let her know that it was not typical. and will he please stop? it's weird.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Testing, testing

Saturday, June 20, 2009

if you read anything today

let it be this.

Friday, June 19, 2009

my life part XI: wherein i get stood up by a quasi baseball player.

 
so the fake baseball player...insisted on planning a date with me for this week. drunk texted me like crazy on tuesday. i told him i'd work till 8pm on thursday but was around after that. so yesterday at 8pm i don't hear from him, boss comes in gives us stuff that needs to get done immediately. i was busy at work, assumed date was not happening so at 8:30 i text saying, "so i guess we're not going out!" but it's rainy here, the kid lives in new jersey, i'm at work knowing i have to stay now to get this project done and just want to go home. i get a text back, "well, you never hit me up after calling me a fake baller!"
 
OKAY. first, "hit me up"? i don't know what that means because we texted back and forth all week. was i supposed to call and apologize? and second, i think the dude made plans with me JUST so he could stand me up because he was upset i called him a fake baseball player. which he kind of is! jj newman. he was drafted 3 years ago. played a few games and then got cut or retired or something. he "meets with his agent" and "has a lot on his plate" which is all code for, "i'm trying to sound important even though i'm a nobody."
 
and maybe "fake baseball player" was harsh but in that same conversation he called me a whore for having gotten a UTI a month back, something that i laughed off. then he says, "so did you google me some more?" and the audacity of that was what prompted the, "oh please, you're not even a real player. minor leagues, whatever you're not even playing right now!" which, apparently, hit quite a sore spot.
 
that being said, i actually kind of feel bad for him. this kid, you know baseball has always been his whole life. he probably isn't that bright. he's from west virginia, never finished college, so he's sheltered and been surrounded by people thinking he's some kind of star. he gets drafted (35th round or something lame) and plays like one season in the minors, gets hurt, recovers and plays again but only for  a couple games. he's literally listed as "retired" on that website. so really, the high point of his life happened 3 years ago, he's only 25, and it's all been downhill for him from there. i'm sure he's totally insecure about all that. he's a man who's missing his penis, basically. still, he doesn't have to be a dick about it.
 
he also shouldnt meet people in bars and imply he's still a professional player when he's not and he certainly needs to get that chip off his shoulder. too bad he can't also get rid of the huge, hideous tattoo of this on his arm. so lame, right? the night we met him he was wearing a sleeveless shirt which was so B&T of him that we couldn't even decide whether he was good looking! he's also not tall so his arms looked stumpy. i mean, he clearly has a pretty face but the rest of the packing was so faulty and distracting. that's mean, but it's true. and YES. I GOT STOOD UP BY THIS GUY, HOW MUCH OF A MORON DOES THAT MAKE ME? for realz.
 
people: this is what guys are like in new york. they all think they're so fabulous when really, they're all a dime a dozen. i mean, who isn't? i'm a freaking lawyer. we're a cent a dozen, if that. these hedge fund losers who think that because they make a million a year that they deserved to be worshipped. i meet these guys and just think, "i know a hundred people who make more than you. and they're taller and better looking." and their egos are just as big and they're all assholes.
 
i want an artist, but not a starving artist. i make more than enough money to take care of myself, my shopping and eating habits, and then some but i still need a guy with a job. someone creative with a real career. and the hunt continues...

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

on iran

i've been captivated by everything happening in iran right now.
 
i've been glued to andrew sullivan's site which has been on top of this shit like maple syrup on a waffle.
 
so go green on facebook, please. it sounds stupid and small but everything that lets all those young people there, fighting for freedom and putting their lives on the line...we should do what we can to let them know we're watching. we may be otherwise helpless but we care and we support them.
 
anecdotal stories sent in talk about fake numbers, ballot boxes being tampered with so even if they were to recount, i think the ballots themselves are likely faulty.
 
andrew also has a lot of heartbreaking video of the police ruthlessly running down the streets and into peoples houses and beating the lives out of them. it's horrendous. for all my debauchery over the weekend, i thought about this a lot. i was as afraid the day of their elections as i usually am on days of my own.
 
so watch the videos. see the pictures. pray for these people.

drunkenness, grey gardens burlesque, baseball players

alex's birthday party ended up being loads of fun. lots of broadway people showed up and then some nyc ballet folks. her friend mike (currently in rock of ages) said he's got yankees season tickets that he doesn't use and that he'd let me know next time they were available. score! he brought a friend with him, this guy justin, who i actually went to college with but wasn't friends with. so we chatted for a bit. he's still dating the girl he dated in college, etc. i'm thinking, "oh, i had no idea justin was so nice!" but, of course, it seems i spoke too soon. mike tells me later that justin asked him, seriously, whether he thought i'd let him touch my boobs. which is funny kinda but also not really because he's straight and has a girlfriend. and of course he said this in front of mike's girlfriend who was uber offended on my behalf. for some reason, shit like this doesn't make me feel all that objectified. i get fondled ALL THE TIME by my gays (and this little korean guy named junho who isn't gay but acts gay so he gets away with more than he should) and i'm pretty open, and generally free with my body.

that being said, straight men shouldn't be grabby. nor should they talk too much about being grabby. and no, i wouldn't have let him had he asked. i'd have laughed, then said "no" which is pretty laid back of me i think. i dont know how many other women could hear that question without flinching and then have a good sense of humor about it. but anyways, men are stupid. and THEN lame mike, after telling him i wanted yankees tix, says he'd accept topless pictures in return. mike ALSO has a girlfriend. men are DOGS. not all men, obviously, but a lot of the ones here sure are. i'm so over it.

 
this past weekend i drank. a lot. and i'd been cleansing so the alcohol had two to three times the effect it would have normally had.
 
i reunited with a friend from high school who i haven't seen in 11 years. she's in nyc working on a couple films until september and we had SO MUCH FUN. we met these cute boys (children, really, barely able to get into the damn bar) who played baseball. but neither of them would say it, they just kept making references to professional athletes they knew, made over exaggerated faces when we asked if they'd seen the yankees/mets game that had ended earlier (HOW CRAZY that the dude dropped that ball?! when does that EVER happen? and in the bottom of hte 9th?! AWESOME) and they both said, "yeah. we SAW it" all dramatic-like. then this cute dude turns around and has a major league baseball logo tatooed onto his arm. so we try to google him when he goes to the bathroom. nothing comes up and we're both like, "who the hell knows. maybe he's nobody." but a couple hours later he wants to use my phone to look something up in youtube, for some reason clicks into safari and though i'd closed out the search window (iphone people will know what i'm talking about) i'd left the search in the google search box. so he starts laughing hysterically, "dude! they were trying to google me!" and, busted, i jumped to our defense, "well you obviously keep hinting that you're somebody but we couldn't find you so you can't be THAT important." he stuck his last name in and had been drafted by the mets a couple years ago, played for their minor league team or something but is injured so isn't really playing at all. read: not all that impressive.
 
i confessed my love of robinson cano and they told me he was gay! NOOOOOO!!!!!! but then an hour later told me he wasn't really gay, just a loser, which I didn't believe. they're just jealous!
 
but he was really really cute, had a ridiculous smile, crazy arms and made me laugh so much. so he got my number and then immediately called me to tell me he'd wanted to invite me to his house (he lives in new jersey, ick) to play wii but that he didn't want to come across as being too forward. and he sounded so earnest about it, and because he's a child, i actually think he really wanted to play wii and wasn't using "playing wii" as a euphemism for "having sex." but anyway, that's what all my friends are saying now. it's the new lingo. he insisted that we go out on saturday night. i'd planned to stay in but told him if i went out, that we'd meet up.
 
so ted texts with an invite i can't refuse: "grey gardens festival in harlem, soul food from amy ruth's first." am ruth's is great. FRIED CHICKEN AND WAFFLES. enough said. and then we head to this "festival" which was really just a freak show. we knew it would kind of be full of weirdos but i don't think we understood the extent of the freakishness that we actually encountered. they'd re-created the edie's bedroom and had this crazy looking stuffed cat on a bed. they were serving cheap pate on ritz crackers. people wore crazy outfits. and then the performance started. MCed by this lame drag queen they showed lots of "never before seen" clips cut from the documentary which were awesome. but then had these awful burlesque people coming through to do these performances. terrible. ted and i just could not stop laughing. it ended with an impromptu performance by a homeless person in a maroon curly-haired wig who calls himself "hooker jay" singing, "i'll be seeing you." it was a night i will NEVER ever forget, no matter how much i might want to.
 
baseball player called and was having dinner with his agent and said he'd be done by midnight but at 12:30 he wasn't finished and i was exhausted so i went home and texted him that i was mad at him and to never contact me again. crazy and dramatic, right? i blame the alcohol. he texted a dozen apologies and after an "all you can drink" brunch the next day i called him. our conversation is hazy but i vaguely remember complaining about UTIs and him accusing me of sleeping around. i don't know. i also maybe called him a "fake" baseball player. the rest of the day was blurry. ted called his friend tommy who just got his license revoked for drunk driving and i kept yelling in the background, "i'm sorry you can't drive! i'm sorry you can't drive!" we stopped at the cooper square hotel and the bartender there was a girl who i worked with at california pizza kitchen in chicago during high school. CRAZY. and then some rooftop party where i ate an entire bag of baked cheetos. and rode a bike. and then we got bratwurst and met some guy katie's been dating. it was a big downward spiral that i'm not sure i've recovered from yet. all the while i was texting the baseball player like mad. i usually am quite cool when it comes to men but maybe because this one is young and i don't really care to impress him the floodgates opened.
 
so i basically turned into a 15 year old. niiiiice....ugh. and he STILL wants to get together. what is wrong with this guy?! i am NOT that cute. maybe he's THAT lonely. life is funny.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Grey gardens festival!

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

TAL, broadway, free purses, cirque

um, can i make these guys my extra grandpas?! LOVE.
 
not sure whether people are still hating on james frey or not but how can you not love him a little after this? so good.
 
this episode of this american life was good but his phone call to the german shepard guy is crazy. so weird. i can't stop laughing about it. just listen.
 
aaron tveit, who i first saw at a college alumni event (and who bri subsequently signed on as a client at his talent agency) is totally blowing up. he was awesome at the tonys (he's in next to normal) and look at this. rock on. he's a cute kid, super talented. let's hope he doesn't turn into a huge douchebag! who am i kidding? he had a nice girlfriend who, if they're still together, he's probably cheated on massively. men can't just be nice if they have any amount of fame/power/money. cutie matt cavenaugh, who i graduated with and run into on occasion, i can 100% say he's stayed nice as ever. sweet thing, he's tad on the dopey side but it's charming. also, voice of an angel. go see him play tony in west side story. RIGHT NOW.
 
and how amazing is david sedaris' impression of billie holiday here? and stay on for sara vowell. AND the anne lamott act after that. sooooo good.
 
 
 thank you so much for the CA tips folks, it is MUCH appreciated! hopefully we'll buy tickets this week. flights across the coast are wicked cheap right now.
 
this girl alice bond is awesome and she's leaving bags all over the city and tweeting about their whereabouts. of course, i'm sure they're being found moments after they're left so it's not like anyone who catches the tweet has time to find it, but what good karma/publicity she's getting to bring a little girly bit of joy to some one's day, eh?
 
saw cirque du soleil this weekend. i'm always so amazed and scared and wowed the whole time by those shows. i don't like the scared part though. there were a few slips and trip ups and THANK GOD that whatever new york state liability laws are that require them to put down some netting and use a harness every once in a while. i mean, FOR REAL. in vegas i don't remember them using any nets whatsoever. and it's fucking scary! so if you see kooza here in nyc: watch out for the guys in the flying hamster wheels in act II. totally bananas.
 
it's dear alex's birthday tonight and we'd had plans to drink at a rooftop bar but gotham weather has just been so gross and wet lately. she's trying to set me up with a dude who is vaguely conan o'brien-ish which, you know, is okay if he WERE conan because i love that man. but, looking like conan when you're not conan....totally different story.
 
i've been master cleansing. i had to cheat twice for pre-planned dinners but otherwise i've been good. this time has been blissfully easy actually. i started last thursday and have had only that lemonade/cayenne pepper shit, two coffees (i had to), a fish taco and some sushi since then. i'm planning on going through friday (and maybe the next weekend depending on whether i can manage to hide from my friends for that long). but yeah, i feel good and haven't been hungry or cranky. rather, no cranky than i normally am when i'm at work doing tedious things or inefficient things (nothing makes me crankier than inefficiency!).
 
 

Friday, June 05, 2009

Bo, improv everywhere, the end of my zappos.com love affair, infinite jest, west coasting

 
i'm a huge fan of improv everywhere. i wish i could get in on some of their smaller events. this one is amazing. and the one at the airport was soooooo hilarious...
 
my love affair with zappos is waning. the last two times i went to buy shoes there i found them close to $50 cheaper on other sites, one of which was shoes.com and they ALSO have free shipping and free returns. ALSO a 110% price guarantee! so they won't rip me off the way zappos does by overpricing their shoes or being late to put them on sale. i mean, i saw three different pairs of shoes i liked. all around $150 a pair. i google each one and see all of them for less than $100 on other sites (amazon, nordstrom, shoes.com). so, really, come on. had i not checked around zappos would have raped me to the tune of some $150 total for my order which is AWFUL. i trusted them. i liked them. i've just about had it with them. for real.
 
i'm totally doing this infinite summer thing. but the question is: buy the book or buy a kindle and then read the book on the kindle?!
 
gorgeous! i want to go. right NOW.
 
i'm planning a pch, 99, I-5 whatever drive this summer. starting in LA and up to napa/sonoma. any suggestions on where to stay a night on the way up, where to eat on the way up? i think we'll stay a night at the halfway point or somewhere near monterey? and we have friends in SF so we'll likely stay there as we spend days in napa/sonoma. help a sister out!

Monday, June 01, 2009

josh hartnett, barack and michelle obama, meryl streep = pretty much best weekend ever

DAMN people. yes, that one word might the be the only one adequate enough to describe my weekend. actually it's more DAMN! or OMGOMG!!! something to that effect.
 
first i meet erika for dinner at locanda verde, the new restaurant from acclaimed chef andrew carmellini, previously of A Voce. she stopped into the bathroom right when she got to the restaurant. when she returned she says, "jasmine, some crazy dude downstairs accosted me. he said, 'come eat with me.' i'm like, 'right now?' and he says, 'yes, let me buy you dinner.' and i told him i was with a friend and he said he'd buy us both dinner but i told him no thank you. so weird." and a minute later a good-looking late 40's guy walks through the restaurant and erika said, "that's him." and wouldn't you know it, we get sat right next to him. and he's chatty as all get out. erika takes the first chance she can get to mention her boyfriend. he seems undeterred. or at least, lonely. he buys us the most expensive bottle of barolo on the menu and starts telling us his life story which mostly involves the fact that he's filthy rich. he was a cariacture of himself and it took everything in us to not laugh right in his face with every sentence. "i founded X." (a beverage company, HUGE, think "snapple".) "I have a child from my first marriage but we divorced before X so she didn't get all my money but i still take good care of her." "i dabble in real estate, i own a few buildings in the west 70's" "i just broke up with my girlfriend of four years, she's pretty pissed. she is 38, afterall. basically, i've had a bad week." "come to my place afterwards, i have a cellar, we'll drink some really expensive wine."  so he's pompous, but highly insecure, but nice enough. he chats with us a while longer and then heads out so we can eat in peace. we promise him we'll stop by after dinner for a drink (because we're not stupid, who are we to turn down some $300 wine? also, he wasn't threatening, just a putz).
 
dinner was fantastic. they bring out this pizza bread-type stuff to start. we ordered the herbed ricotta with garlic toasts. SO GOOD. I COULD LIVE ON THIS. we had the pasta with sunday meat sauce (i looooooooove sunday meat sauces, which basically means it's been cooked for a really really long time and the meat is tender and flavors super developed), then we had the porchetta which was tender and fatty and rich but was served with bitter greens with an even more bitter lemon dressing which cut the fat nicely. service was great. and with a few glasses of wine pre-dinner and food (we obv didn't have to pay for the phat barolo) it was like $45 a piece or something ungodly cheap. i want to go back. right now.
 
so as we head out we call the beverage ceo. i hear erika say, "hey, it's your new best friends! oh, am i waking you up? oh! so sorry about that, okay go back to sleep. we'll do it another time!" it was 11pm. or maybe not even. so we head to this new trendy sportsbar  just around the corner, 77 warren. it's totally douchey. everyone there has too much money and is generally trying too hard to look cool. we pretty much can't stand the high maintenance crowd but we stay for a beer ($8 amstel light, BOOO. they had nothing cheaper). so we're chatting and some guy was about to walk past me but stops so a kitchen cook an come through with a huge tupperware bin full of something. the guy says, "what is that?" glancing over at the white hard things in the box i say, "um, i think it's frozen fried chicken?" "guy says, "fried chicken? really?" "yeah, i'm afraid so." the guy holding the box says firmly yet sheepishly, "this isn't fried chicken! all our chicken is fresly battered and never frozen!" and kind of starts to run away, thinking he's been caught revealing dirty restaurant secrets. "don't worry," i say, "your secret is safe with us." the guy behind me moves past me and it's josh harnett. and he's really fucking gorgeous.
 
saturday i get a massage and head to emilys where we barbequed and layed out and drank beer on her terrace. and then i headed into town to see joe turner's come and gone with the obamas. if you read my last post, you knew that i pretty much knew that they'd be there. i got a heads up and tickets reserved for me. but we got there plenty early, the entire street was closed off and there were 100 camera crews on 6th avenue which must have been where they were driving in from. we needed to show 10 policemen our tickets and then had to be escorted to the theater. at the theater they went through our bags, we walked through a metal detector and we got wanded but it was quick. the thing is that not enough people showed up early. the theatre crowds have a tendency to show up 10 minutes before hand and it caused this massive backlog. the show started a full one hour late. the obamas were there before 8 (they ate at blue hill! such a good choice! sister restaurant of this place) so they also had to sit around for a full hour, twiddling their thumbs. but we were first row mezzanine so if we stood up and leaned over the railing we could totally see them. we saw them walk in. michelle looked chic, classic little black dress. barack looked the same as he always does. i've sen obama in person maybe a dozen times. my favorite is probably a book signing he did years and years ago that had maybe 100 people at it. awesome. also, will never happen again ;) at intermission reggie love totally brushed past me to grab a program. he's a fine black man. that is all. i totally restrained myself from jumping on top of him. so that's twice in two days that i was near hotness and didn't act like a total crazy person. be proud of me. otherwise the show was good. and long. intense but also warm and funny. the only annoying thing was the sheer manic of the crowd because the first family was there. lots of people were being rude and pushy and some ladies were in our seats and didn't want to move. we were like, "yes, these are good seats. and they're ours. move your fat ass." but i couldn't shake the feeling that someone was going to get trampled and killed a'la walmart on black friday. i was kind of scared half the time. on the sidewalk outside the theater we then saw meryl streep walk out of the stage door. that woman is all cool. i wanted to reach out to touch her so that i could say "i've touched meryl streep!" but yet AGAIN, restraint was practiced.
 
afterwards we went next door to have a glass of wine and i see zeki. my infamous former stylist. he's still on the way to monkism but i guess he needs a couple more years of training. he's back in nyc for a couple months. so crazy. seeing him and after all the obama stuff, just an insanely surreal night. emily met me then (it was after midnight) and we cabbed it downtown to meet her friend for a drink. shes a sommelier at one of the best restaurants in the city but we met her at 'ino after her shift for some greco di bianco and truffled egg toast.
 
i also saw coraline the musical. it was fascinating and still managed to be whimsical and not nearly as dark as the movie. the music was interesting and moody and the instrumentation was so dream-like. it's a small space it was staged beautifully. everyone played a few characters and they all made it work and looked like they were having fun with it. i think the entire run is sold out but it's a quick sweet little show and if you have the chance, i'd recommend it. lots of dissonant chords (this is NOT bye bye birdie) but the music fits with the darkness of the show.
 
um, that grizzly thing? totally not real. his explanation is awesome. also, gaffers are hot.