Mad meandering and a rise at the Rose
My sister Lisa came into town yesterday morning and we’ve been having a grand old time. After an early lunch, we checked out the NYC Transit Museum here in beautiful Brooklyn Heights. This is the first time I’ve been back there since they reopened. It was fun. Not a large museum, but packed with all kinds of transportation trivia and factoids; ample sustenance for knowledge geeks like yours’ truly.
Then it was a quick jaunt over to the World Trade Center. Lisa had only seen the towers on TV and I believe that nobody can get their head around how BIG they were until you see, in person, the hole they left behind. After berating several vendors for selling REALLY tacky shit (postcards with the photo of the second plane crashing into the towers), we meandered over to the World Financial Center and took in the atrium (always one of my favorite spots in Battery Park City). Then we wandered down to the tip of the island to check out more parkage. Nice long walk.
It was fairly late in the afternoon by the time we got back to Brooklyn, so we didn’t have much time to firm up plans for the evening. However, things turned out just smashingly. We caught a showing of Howl’s Moving Castle, which was great. It’s by the same folks who did Spirited Away and I’d recommend it to any fan of fantastical anime. Prime stuff.
It was pouring rain when we got out of the movie, but by some miracle a cab pulled right up in front of us and we barely even got sprinkled. I’d managed to snag 7:30 reservations at Chez Michallet (one of my favorite restaurants), so it was a mad dash downtown. After circling around for a bit trying to find where Grove and Bedford intersect (not an easy task downtown), we arrived right on time. We then proceeded to eat LOTS of really good food and ingest copious amounts of excellent wine; splitting 2 bottles of a gorgeous 1997 Grand Cru and then a glass of 40 year old port each.
So we’re both flying quite well at this point.
We then arrived at my old standard, Planet Rose, and proceeded to sing up a storm. It was not too crowded when we got there, but the place was packed within an hour. Once again I found myself inundated with college kids. And in typical Planet Rose fashion, yet another dating opportunity presented itself. And in typical Planet Rose fashion, it was not something I could pursue.
I was singing “Chantilly Lace” by the Big Bopper and this young woman started up a conversation with me during the tune. I traded witty banter with her during the instrumental breaks and soon discovered that not only was she as young as she looked (probably about 21), but she was also as YOUNG as she looked. By the latter I’m talking about the difference between how a twenty-something person views the world and how a thirty-something person views the world. We were not very simpatico.
I ventured off to the bathroom and apparently this girl started grilling my sister about me. Lisa (bless her heart) informed my would-be suitor that yes, I was a very nice guy (and I didn’t even have to pay extra for that one), and yes, I was single and available, but no, I was probably not the guy for her due to our age difference and my quirky sense of honor. In other words, I wasn’t the type to have a nice fling and then forget about it.
Sometimes I wish I’d learned at some point to leave my honor at the door, ‘cause this girl was REALLY cute.
Alas, it seems that Planet Rose, while incredibly fun, will always manage to pluck my heartstrings in exactly the wrong fashion.
We exited the Rose at about 1:30 and cabbed it home. I’ve been up since about 9:30 and figured I’d give you people a fond hello.
Lisa is due to depart at 7:15 this evening. I’ve no idea what we’ll be up to today (she’s still asleep), but hopefully we’ll have some more wacky adventures before she returns to the South.
Poor girl.
Wear headphones (so not as to awaken your sister) when listening to:
Pitch Shifter - Industrial
(brutal heaviness from their pre-DnB days)
Leonard Cohen - Democracy
(give me crack and anal sex, take the only tree that's left and stuff it up the hole in your culture, folks)
Aarktica - No Solace In Sleep
(deep drone from the edge of nothingness)
Bjork - Debut
(the Icelandic one proves she is quirkier than thou)
Then it was a quick jaunt over to the World Trade Center. Lisa had only seen the towers on TV and I believe that nobody can get their head around how BIG they were until you see, in person, the hole they left behind. After berating several vendors for selling REALLY tacky shit (postcards with the photo of the second plane crashing into the towers), we meandered over to the World Financial Center and took in the atrium (always one of my favorite spots in Battery Park City). Then we wandered down to the tip of the island to check out more parkage. Nice long walk.
It was fairly late in the afternoon by the time we got back to Brooklyn, so we didn’t have much time to firm up plans for the evening. However, things turned out just smashingly. We caught a showing of Howl’s Moving Castle, which was great. It’s by the same folks who did Spirited Away and I’d recommend it to any fan of fantastical anime. Prime stuff.
It was pouring rain when we got out of the movie, but by some miracle a cab pulled right up in front of us and we barely even got sprinkled. I’d managed to snag 7:30 reservations at Chez Michallet (one of my favorite restaurants), so it was a mad dash downtown. After circling around for a bit trying to find where Grove and Bedford intersect (not an easy task downtown), we arrived right on time. We then proceeded to eat LOTS of really good food and ingest copious amounts of excellent wine; splitting 2 bottles of a gorgeous 1997 Grand Cru and then a glass of 40 year old port each.
So we’re both flying quite well at this point.
We then arrived at my old standard, Planet Rose, and proceeded to sing up a storm. It was not too crowded when we got there, but the place was packed within an hour. Once again I found myself inundated with college kids. And in typical Planet Rose fashion, yet another dating opportunity presented itself. And in typical Planet Rose fashion, it was not something I could pursue.
I was singing “Chantilly Lace” by the Big Bopper and this young woman started up a conversation with me during the tune. I traded witty banter with her during the instrumental breaks and soon discovered that not only was she as young as she looked (probably about 21), but she was also as YOUNG as she looked. By the latter I’m talking about the difference between how a twenty-something person views the world and how a thirty-something person views the world. We were not very simpatico.
I ventured off to the bathroom and apparently this girl started grilling my sister about me. Lisa (bless her heart) informed my would-be suitor that yes, I was a very nice guy (and I didn’t even have to pay extra for that one), and yes, I was single and available, but no, I was probably not the guy for her due to our age difference and my quirky sense of honor. In other words, I wasn’t the type to have a nice fling and then forget about it.
Sometimes I wish I’d learned at some point to leave my honor at the door, ‘cause this girl was REALLY cute.
Alas, it seems that Planet Rose, while incredibly fun, will always manage to pluck my heartstrings in exactly the wrong fashion.
We exited the Rose at about 1:30 and cabbed it home. I’ve been up since about 9:30 and figured I’d give you people a fond hello.
Lisa is due to depart at 7:15 this evening. I’ve no idea what we’ll be up to today (she’s still asleep), but hopefully we’ll have some more wacky adventures before she returns to the South.
Poor girl.
Wear headphones (so not as to awaken your sister) when listening to:
Pitch Shifter - Industrial
(brutal heaviness from their pre-DnB days)
Leonard Cohen - Democracy
(give me crack and anal sex, take the only tree that's left and stuff it up the hole in your culture, folks)
Aarktica - No Solace In Sleep
(deep drone from the edge of nothingness)
Bjork - Debut
(the Icelandic one proves she is quirkier than thou)
posted by Ben at 11:08 AM
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