My friend Floyd has been working on a new art piece. He’s been collaborating with a local artist to create this sculpture.
He’s stuccoing and painting over the wire at his art gallery Des Montes Gallery.
He told me the working title for this piece is “I got my bonus. Did you get yours?” If you look closely you’ll see the mule person is holding a wire briefcase.
While in NYC Melanie suggested I see a Broadway play. I immediately knew which one I had to see:
American Idiot! Green Day’s awesome album transformed into a musical-punk rock on Broadway! Oh man I’m getting all excited again remembering it. I’ll refrain from typing MY TOTAL EXCITEMENT!!!!! but this was the best part of the trip.
Here’s Melanie and I waiting in line to buy tickets. We got in line early before the box office was even open. By the time it was the line stretched down the street.
When we got to the ticket counter we asked for the best deal he could give us. The guy said he had just gotten off the phone with a cancellation and had two tickets center seating for the matinee show. We of course bought them (I was so grateful for my credit card right then!) We got some of the best seats in the house. The musical has several scenes that are high up on stage, and one song where the performers are flying on wires, so center stage gave us the best view. What amazing luck! The Goddess was smiling on me that day.
But it got better-so much better! It just so happened that Billie Joe Armstrong, the lead singer from Green Day, was playing the role of St. Jimmy that week. OMG I was so excited!!! We got to see the second to last show the week he was there.
I cried through the whole show. It was amazing, punk rock, radical, revolutionary, political-oh I could go on and on. It was extraordinary. I loved every single minute! Seriously it was a spiritual experience. My body was tingling all over I was so excited.
And when Billie Joe first appeared on stage the whole crowd SCREAMED. You could feel the excitement. It was a rock concert and a Broadway play at the same time. And Billie Joe-omg is that man sexy. I have a soft spot (*cough*fetish*cough*) for cute political boys so I was in love with this performance. The whole show was so inspiring and such a turn on!!!
This picture is from the American Idiot site. It shows the three main guys from the show.
And here’s a pic of Billie Joe Armstrong as St. Jimmy during the encore. (pic from this story) At the end the entire cast came out and sang Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life). So magical!
There were throngs of fans outside the theater when we left. The actors came out to sign autographs after the show and Billie Joe was supposed to come out to join them. Green Day fans were packed in.
A limo pulled up and the fans started going wild. Green Day fans started chanting his name. The crowd got bigger and bigger. So much so that they were blocking the entire street:
The theater tried to get people off the road but had no success. Cars were honking and the police showed up. It was decided that the situation was too out of hand for Billie Joe to come outside so the limo left. Even then the fans took awhile to disperse. I’ve never experienced this type of fan frenzy and wow it’s intense.
Melanie said it’s traditional to get your playbill signed. I’m not normally into autographs but I wanted the full Broadway experience. I squeezed through the crowd which was no easy feat with all the fans outside. But I got a few signatures:
This actor signed my playbill. He’s the one on the left in the American Idiot trio pic above.
Billie Joe is reprising his role as St. Jimmy! Details here and here. I wholeheartedly recommend it!!!
My last full day in NYC was wonderful. Melanie and I ate lunch at Zen Palate. Their food was delicious! This is a close up of their soy sauce dish:
We had spring rolls for an appetizer.
Melanie had a curry dish and it came in a big bowl.
I had a portobello mushroom burger with yam fries. Oh it was so good! Seriously-yam fries!! I must have these again. They were amazing.
Here’s Melanie looking adorable:
And here’s me loving my yam fries.
After lunch we went to an event that was my favorite part of the trip. More pics soon.
Sunday was my last full day in NYC. Melanie and I went out for breakfast. I had a delicious cappuccino:
My cinnamon roll and scone were so yummy.
A shot of Times Square. We actually walked through there several times during my stay.
Melanie took me to one of her favorite places to shop for vintage clothes. We had such fun trying on outfits!
Doesn’t she look adorable? I think she looks stunning in this dress:
There was a vintage dressmakers dummy at the shop.
It was super cool!
More NYC pics coming soon.
Saturday in NYC was such a wonderful day. After breakfast Melanie and I explored more. We visited Carl Schurz Park which is a lovely park. We also went to a local art show there.
The mixture of nature and architecture was beautiful.
I love that there is so much nature in NYC. If only Albuquerque were more like this.
A statue of Peter Pan:
Melanie walking:
A gorgeous old wall:
We didn’t even know this art show was happening! We were exploring the city and bam there it was.
This is the Gracie Square Art Show.
There was so much variety. I loved it!
This piece was so awesome:
I bought a print from this artist (who also did the skull above).
The Saturday I was in NYC was a wonderful day. We had great weather to explore the city.
This picture is looking at the East River.
Here’s a taxi boat-I didn’t know they existed.
We had a nice view of the Roosevelt Island.
Here’s Melanie-my spectacular tour guide.
Here I am.
We saw a dog playground on our walk. A bunch of little dogs were playing and were oh so cute.
A horse and carriage came by:
Some scaffolding. There was a lot in NYC.
When Abbey showed me her new purse I fell in love with it. I asked her to make me one. Check it out!
She calls it the Wild Orchid. She made her own blog post about making it.
I think it looks like a cross between a flower and a Muppet.
I did make one alteration. The opening was too big for my tastes. So I sewed up little “pinches” around the opening to tighten it.
The petals are pockets which means the purse is bigger than it looks. When looking for something I just feel the petals until I find what I’m looking for.
The handle is just a tied knot.
She did a great job on blending colors!
A close up of a petal:
The closure is an easy to work latch.
I think the purse looks most like a flower when turned upside down.
Thank you SO much Abbey! I love it so much!
While in NYC I ate such amazing food. Thebes hates big cities and Grant was visiting at the time so he stayed at home. Thebes has extreme food allergies so our diet is very restricted. But since I was on vacation by myself I ate whatever I craved. My friend Melanie is a New Yorker and took me to great restaurants. Here she is on the subway:
She took me to Katz’s Deli. They’re very well known and even have their own Wiki page.
One of it’s claims to fame is that the famous fake orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally was filmed here. There’s even a sign over the actual table. We took a funny pic:
The food was amazing. You order at the counter and sometimes get a sample. The guy making my pastrami sandwich handed me a slice of meat and said “this is the best pastrami in New York”. After eating it I believed him. It melted in my mouth. Here’s the sandwich:
So delicious! I also had a traditional Jewish drink but can’t remember what it’s called:
That was also delicious! So yummy. The pickles were excellent too.
We also got matzo ball soup:
I’m not crazy about matzo but it was nice to have one there.
More NYC pics to come. Melanie was an excellent host and introduced me to such yummy food!
Grant came out for his annual NM visit in September. He brought back the chicken hat for me to alter.
Here’s Grant rocking his funky hat:
It was a bit too short and too loose. I took out the orange trim and did some K2togs to cut the stitch count. Instead of seed stitch I did 2×2 ribbing for a snug fit.
The earflaps weren’t wide enough so I ripped them out and redid them wider and longer.
Grant also wanted the braids thicker so I redid them as well.
The alterations weren’t too bad. Luckily the legs were fine.
Here’s Grant with Thebes on the last day of his visit:
Abbey gave me some new yarn. Yay!
It’s so soft and pretty.
I have 178 yards of handspun alpaca yarn.
Abbey got the yarn from the Yarn Lounge while she was on vacation in Richmond.
Here’s a cute bird hanging out on Thebes’ antennae.
Prana brought in a half dead bird to play with the other day. We woke up at 4am to squeaking under the bed. Thebes’ used the bb gun to put it out of it’s misery and I threw it outside. Cats are such killers. Cute, adorable, fuzzy little killers.
