Crazy Commute

There was a wacko on the subway- I know shocking.  But seriously, this one was creepy.  He started out like any number of other nut cases I've encountered in my comings and goings; just kind of miserably mumbling to himself.  Would I have preferred he not be in my car, sure but he wasn't sitting right next to me and he wasn't trying to interact with me so it was okay. 
Then, however we hit train traffic and his angry mumbling got more obnoxious.  He said how he could get the place moving again by pulling the emergency call lever and while we did move shortly after, I'm pretty sure that was coincidence as there is always a several minute delay there.  Then he started talking about all this crazy stuff like Nazis leading to the trains having the "emergency only" speeds over 100 mph- on and on he went with his insanity and I mouthed to Lauren how I was getting off if he wasn't.  He didn't so we did just that.  Lauren took it a step further and told the police to investigate him at the next station.  He had a large backpack and it is better to be safe than sorry.  It was kind of funny that the police were going to brush it off until we said he was white because apparently, white girls feeling unsafe because of a white man seems very dangerous. 
This was the right course of action but it did lead to the 4 train being stalled and us half way to our transfer station.  Because of this, we had to walk 2 blocks (in not exactly the best neighborhood but rather safe at 8:30am) to catch a cross town bus, and walk to the blue line which gets us within three blocks of work. 
Not exactly the most time efficient way to get there, not to mention it costs a bit more.  Needless to say we value our lives over 5 dollars and being on time and are bosses are sweet and understanding to also choose our safety over fifteen minutes and $5.  That sounds stupid to say but not everyone would be so okay with our occasional dramatic tardiness and we know we are luck! 
Once again, we were good humored about it because, honesty sometimes you just have to laugh.  You can't take life too seriously; the rest of the day was tons of fun (playing in the rain, spending some time with Gigi and Thomas' grandfather who's visiting, ect) and if we'd let the morning get to us, the day might have been ruined.

(almost) Free NYC

With the Week looking to be a complete washout I thought I would share some cool things to do in New York City for those traveling or, like me, those who live here and get bored easily. The thing I love about visiting Washington DC is that the museums and galleries are so cheap- most are basically by donation, and they make this fact widely available. New York also has a lot to do on a limited budget you just have to know the difference between a suggested donation and a mandatory admissions fee.

List Compiled by Time Out editors

American Museum of Natural History
Suggested adult admission $16
The Cloisters
Suggested adult admission $20
Children's Museum of the Arts
Pay what you wish Thu 4--6pm
Grey Art Gallery NYU
Suggested adult admission $3
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Pay what you wish Sat 5:45--7:45pm
International Center of Photography
Pay what you wish Fri 5--8pm
King Manor Museum
Suggested adult admission $5
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Suggested adult admission $20
Museum of Arts & Design
Pay what you wish Thu 6--9pm
Museum of Biblical Art
Suggested adult admission $7
Museum of the City of New York
Suggested adult admission $10; if you live or work in East Harlem above 103rd Street, visit the Museum free of charge. Simply walk in the entrance, say "I'm a neighbor," and the suggested admission charge will be waived.

New York City Fire Museum
Suggested adult admission $7
New-York Historical Society
Pay what you wish Fri 6--8pm
The Noguchi Museum
Pay what you wish on the first Friday of every month
MoMA PS1
Suggested adult admission $10
Queens Museum of Art
Suggested adult admission $5
Staten Island Museum
Suggested adult admission $3
Whitney Museum of American Art
Pay what you wish Fri 6--9pm

Greetings from The Great Movie Ride

Greetings from Beatlejuice's Graveyard Review

Greetings from furry, scaly, & out of this world friends

Greetings from EPCOT

Greetings from Chief Mickey

Greetings from Animal Kingdom

Greetings from Wishes

Greetings from Disney World!!

For the 11 or 12th time, I am on vacation in Orlando so I thought it would be fun to share some of it as we go through the week.

Hope you enjoy

Gigi goes to a David Cook concert

At the earliest of ages, G loved music so I would play my ipod for her and naturally this included David Cook among other artists. At some point after she learned how to talk she asked his name and soon would instantly recognized his voice. By the time Cook's album was released this summer, G had renamed a book about a boy named David "David Cook no no" which he found very funny. She's a fan so I thought why not take her to meet him?

Today Lauren and I did just that and boy did we have fun! She and David danced and wave to each other while he took meet and greet breaks, she gave him coffee (because she insisted she buy him a present) and best of all G sang "reindeer" (Rudolf) with David and the band. We then went to soundtrack where he performed three songs. All G did was smile and clap. She later called this the concert which I guess it was.

After she went home Lauren and I went to the real concert and it was his best yet. He performed beatles songs and brought out special guests that included Steven Van Zant of the E street band. All and all it was a great day, we all had a blast and David and his brother Andrew (who was assisting or tour managing and G kept cuting it up for) loved her.

Sent from my Samsung smartphone on AT&T

The week in review

Well I had one eventful week!

Last Friday night, Lauren and I found ourselves babysitting for 8 children! It should go without saying that watching that many children is hectic; does everyone have food? can they agree on what to watch? why are they screaming? is everybody ready for bed?- but luckily it was a lot less eventful than the last time we did it and all ten of us came out of it none the worse for wear. In fact the most eventful thing that happened that night was the we managed to find BBC4'S HOLY FLYING CIRCUS on youtube, which I had been dying to see since I heard about it and wasn't airing in America in the foreseeable future. I would post it here but sadly the movie was taken down for copy-write infringement BBC = Nazis but hopefully I'll manage to get to get a review up one of these days.


Fast forward to Tuesday, which was the much anticipated (in NY area) WPLJ's Scott and Todd 20th Anniversary Concert with Duran Duran at Madison Square Garden, which had been hyped since probably Spring. I was excited for the DJs but I never had any intentions on paying to go to the show and it seemed days were dwindling to win a set. However, what I was excited about was the pre-show bash at Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square where there was live music and chances to win. At Five O'clock we went with GiGi, who decided she quite likes Rock and Roll (Girl after my own heart) and put our names in the entry box. Everybody was having a blast and things just kept getting better as our friend Bill snuck us in to the VIP section and then Lauren and I both won tickets to Duran Duran with opener Neon Trees!! Nothing like a surprise concert to get me excited!

Duran Duran from Pro Cameras, view from MSG
seats would never produce this picture

PLJ recap page

Oh And did I mention David Cook announced a concert in NYC for December?! Excitement overload


I suppose having so many nice surpirses made me adventurous because I tried Thai Food this week for the first time. Well perhaps it was half excitement half the rave review by my boss, thanks Nicole! Last week she told us how GiGi had loved her dinner play date at Room Service (166 8th Avenue) and that one day we should try it and this week we did. As per her suggestion, we split Chicken Pad Thai and Chicken Satay and it was phenomenal, my mouth is literally watering thinking about it.


All and all, I'd say it was a pretty good week, and best of all, my favorite holiday not counting david Cook album drop day is Monday!

Apple Picking

It's that time of year again. Leaves are changing, sleeves are are getting longer, I am beginning to get depressed at the idea of the return of endless cold and snow storms hot chocolates are becoming a treat option once again, and the apples are in full bloom. The weekends are beautiful- not too hot and not too cold- and a great activity choice for any age group, is apple picking.


I have been looking forward to my family's annual foray into farm life since Labor and, on a warm Autumn day, we piled into the car and made the hour long trip to the orchard.

My father in a tree, moments before he fell, landing with a leg on either side of a branch

The best part is that most orchards also have pumpkin patches so, the later you go, the more you can pick while there. The worst part of apple picking, for me, is the apple cider donuts. They taste phenomenal and are fresh out of the oil and into your bag. I am not a donuts eater except for this one time a year, but when I indulge, I really indulge. I literally ate them until my stomach started to hurt. So, I hope, for your sake, that you have better restraint than I do.

HEY LOOK, A HALFPIPE!

I have been wanting to take Gigi to this one particular park in Hudson River Park, ever since I remembered that it existed about month ago. She had really enjoyed herself there last summer; it has man made creeks running through the cement and a water tree too cool children off along with your typical playground apparatus, who wouldn't love it?


Unfortunately, when the cold weather came around last year a playground on a pier above water isn't exactly an ideal place to play and, subsequently, I had forgotten all about it until late July. Then between my vacation, G's family vacation, and a million other little things popping up we still hadn't gotten there so yesterday we decided enough is enough and Lauren, Gigi, and I headed out to play there. On the way we noticed a halfpipe on Pier 54 and thanks to Google found the info:

A massive, all-ages halfpipe demo free to the public, with tricks by professional

skateboarder Hawk, Kevin Staab, Jesse Fritsch, Mitchie Brusco, Sandro Dias,

Neal Hendrix and Elliot Sloan"

Sounded like it could be fun if we could swing it and, as luck would have it, after playing, eating and Gigi's nap, we were able to stop in. I'm glad we did; there was Alt-Rock music which I love to hear and G loved to dance to, not to mention it was my first time watching stunt skateboarding live. The things that those guys can do is truly amazing, if you ever get the opportunity you really should take in one of these.


All in all, I think everyone had a really fun Friday afternoon.













*Photos are from my phone which explains odd sizes and quality

“I wanted to see a show about Brazil not be in it”

“I wanted to see a show about Brazil not be in it”

Friday afternoon, during a normal “Is there anything interesting to do with GiGi in the city?” Google search I happened to come across PERSOL MAGNIFICENT OBSESSIONS: 30 stories of craftsmanship in film. Billed as a behind the scenes peak of movies and featuring production stills, artifacts, never before seen sketches, etc. of such classics as Terry Gilliam’s BRAZIL, … and, well I really didn’t know. The Google preview ended after Gilliam (which was good enough for me) and figured dedication to craft and sketches probably would’ve included something Disney and with thunder storms rolling in, it seemed like a good idea to try and see if GiGi could have some indoor fun at this.

We managed to make it almost the entire four blocks when the sky opened up three doors away from our destination. I mean literally, I couldn’t see in front of my own eyes. The only logical thing to do was continue ahead because it is a lot easier to push a carriage blindly for half a second, then to turn around and head home. We entered the first floor surrounded by nothing but the delightful toddler giggles of, “I’m wet.” With nobody to point us in the right direction, Lauren and I decided we’d just go in the elevator, checking every floor until we found the display or a person to lead us in the right direction. A few seconds later, there was a rather odd shift below our feet between the first and second floor and we stopped.

It is an interesting thing, when you get stuck in an elevator; the second it happens you know that you’re stuck. Even if you’ve never actually been in the situation before there is a sense that kicks in, at least it did with me, and you know this is not your usual elevator stall. I looked across the tiny chamber and saw Lauren’s eyes saying, “I am sure that everything I am saying right now is a lie,” as she cheerily said, “We’ll give it a minute, I’m sure it’ll start up again.” My equally lying face returned with, “Oh yeah,” as my brain began to say, “just don’t think about the Tower of Terror. Shit! Ok, just don’t do it again, remember the priority is GiGi.” When you are stuck in a confined space for God knows how long, it is imperative that you keep a toddler calm. Not only will screams and cries make the wait worse, you can do absolutely nothing to pacify or calm someone who can’t tell time. We needed GiGi to want to be in the elevator.

After not restarting, making the emergency call, and having men knocking outside asking if we were still in there, G seemed to notice something was different than usual. When they told us to pull the alarm to alert the company, she said she didn’t like “Loud” which we relayed after turning it off, and the men said it was okay because now whoever was going to save us, knew we were stuck. Great the noise can stay off, except, ut oh, Gigi heard the word “stuck.”

“No, no! GiGi no stuck!”

We told her that no, we weren’t stuck and Lauren told her how she wasn’t stuck because she could get out of her carriage; great quick thinking on her part. I immediately followed with, “Hey, why don’t you sing a song,” (can you tell I am a big fan of THE SOUND OF MUSIC) and she happily agreed as long as “Raurin and Lala” sing too, which is exactly what we did until she realized that we were still in an elevator and people were talking around her, so we told her we were in the middle of hide and seek and she had found a really good place for us to hide because the men still hadn’t found us. This made G very happy and we continued having a fun little time singing and laughing in our secret little world only stopping when workers would talk to us, until after 10 or 15 minutes, the doors were forced open and we stepped up a foot and, at long last, onto the second floor.

Everyone was apologetic and applauded GiGi for having been so brave but she was just happy to have been such a good hider. She was even more excited when she got to climb up two more flights of stairs (which looked extremely Brazil-esque) and everyone said hello to her on the way up. As we journeyed up, Lauren said the phrase in the title, an allusion to the scene in BRAZIL when Sam Lowry has to force his way out of a stuck “lift.”

When we got to the display we realized that there was no Disney, and no child related movies at all, but having made such an entrance, it seemed only polite to at least give the place a walk around. First stop was BRAZIL, complete with a video playing of Gilliam talking about his trials and tribulations during production and post production, which seemed like it would be interesting and I hoped I might absorb in the few seconds I figured G would wander around looking at the display.

“Who dat?” she asked. “That is the director of this movie GiGi, his name is Terry,” I replied.

“Sit,” GiGi motioned toward the couch directly adjacent. “Watch Terry.” Only after sitting through the whole video, which had to be as 10-20 minutes, would G get up and look at the artifacts, which include the famous Baby Mask. She had in fact sat there so long that Lauren took photos of the entire display around us (we didn’t see the sign until leaving) so I told her to watch the video if she wanted while G and I take a quick peek at the surrounding displays. There was TAXI DRIVER, with scenes playing but after asking me who DiNiro was, I was informed she, “no like” so we moved on to GHANDI which had a model of the set. After I explained we couldn’t play with that she told me we had to, “sit watch GHANDI,” but she quickly tired of so we looked at special effects lights and I told her how she had met Leonardo DiCaprio while still inside her mommy’s belly (“Oh, yes) at the AVIATOR installation.

By the time we had finished listening to heightened sounds used in cinema, one of which- bugs- Gigi hilariously kept mimicking on the way home, Lauren was done and the three of us headed toward the exit. That is until GiGi yelled “Terry.” We went back to BRAZIL and showed her that Gilliam was still there talking on the wall and asked her if we could leave. Luckily she replied, “yes, ok, bye Terry.” Then she blew the screen a kiss. I think she’s a fan.

A blog to make you think

"Nothing's permanent... Not even death"
~Johnny Depp, IMAGINARIUM OF DR PARNASSUS

Fun fact: I see dead people, specifically one dead person.

I’m not talking about dreams where those I have lost appear to me (though yes that happens) I mean during the day, walking among the living. Ok, ok before you think I’m going all John Edwards, I should explain; the person that I see is a celebrity who apparently died during the last decade. For this blog I will call the said deceased Robin as it can be either male or female and I want to be vague. I know that seems unfair and the first time (and second) time I encountered Robin or Robin’s double I was actually going to blog about how eery it was but then, once I started to think about it, I figured it would be better to no blow Robin’s cover.

I have always laughed at people who say that Elvis is still alive (now it’s happening with Michael Jackson.) It seems like desperate thoughts by fans that cannot let go of the artist or the time in their lives that he represented. Either that or they were completely delusional because yes I’m sure they do think that they saw Elvis walking around Nashville or going through security at the airport but it was obviously one of the million impersonators who make a perfectly good living imitating him. I’ve seen them perform in LEGENDS and they are great but not Elvis. I do firmly believe that in some cases actors who are thought to be dead *cough* Tu Pac *cough* are seen in public because they are in a witness protection situation because their lives were at risk but that is not the case with Elvis and it wasn’t with Robin’s. I was told by media that Robin was dead, saw pictures of a body bag entering an ambulance, and read the tributes and never questioned it because I am not one of those people.

Then one day I was walking around with GiGi and there, sitting in the bar across the street was someone who, if I didn’t know it was impossible, I would have sworn it was Robin. The voice was the same (except with a rather shitty accent,) the look was exact, I literally had chills run up and down my spine as if I was listening to the laughter of a ghost. I ran over to Lauren and told her and she responded that it was creepy but she hadn’t seen. I got on a train, shaking my head, thinking it was all my imagination until, about forty minutes later, my cell rang.

“Liss, G and I walked past the bar on the way home, that was Robin.”

I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had seen a person I couldn’t have seen but I continued to tell myself it was just a look alike; someone unfortunate enough to have looked like someone famous. Only, the more I thought about it, the more I could see, maybe Robin faked his/her death. It happens all the time in the movies right? And money can buy you anything, can’t it? I finally made my mind rest with the simple, “it doesn’t matter” which kept the thoughts at bay until I saw Robin walking three days before Christmas. Better view of the face which, coupled with being stuck inside because of the blizzard, made me think harder about it. Robin had done a lot of death scenes, so the practice would’ve made Robin an expert, and there were interviews that made me go, “huh?” There were a ton of coincidences- perhaps too many- and some things just didn’t add up.

I had figured out motives, yes plural, and how it might’ve been pulled off by the time I saw Robin the third time -face to face as he/she brushed by me, and have since seen on the internet that I am far from the only one to spot Robin in the postmortem years. I no longer question why, or get that eerie feeling, it simply is a fact as much as when Jude Law bumped in to me a few weeks ago. The only question I have left is, how do you do it?

There is definitely a payoff of dying young and famous, to be sure just as good old Johnny in IODP:

They're all dead.

Yes, but...

Immortal, nevertheless.

They won't get old or fat.

They won't get sick or feeble.

They are beyond fear...

Because, they are forever young.

They are gods.

Now we are told that Celebrities are just like us, so pretend for a minute you have all of the resources you would need to pull this off, you could get away with it, and whatever personal motive would make you consider such a stunt. Whatever it is, it all goes away if you just get up one morning and walk away from everything you’ve worked for. You just have to leave behind every possession you have acquired(people would notice if too much was gone) throughout your life and never see most, if not all, of the people you know in this world, unable to console them and tell them that it is ok because, to them it isn’t and never will be again.

Could you do it?