Tennis Week 2016 - a grand and glorious week (part one)

Howdy, all!  I hope you missed me just a little!  I had a great time with my mom last week for Tennis Week.  Because plane fares are incredibly expensive, we had to adjust my mom's schedule, so this year we only had one day to wander around town before going to the US Open qualifying tournament.  Let me share some of the highlights of our fun...

dumb.

Monday, , my mom's flight was late and there was a nightmare traffic jam in and out of LaGuardia.  You can read all about it online - apparently, people were getting out of their cabs and walking along the highway to try to make their flights on time. Generally, my mom will get in pretty early in the morning, I'll send a car service to pick her up, and she's at my place within a half hour or so.  It took almost two hours for her to reach my place this time, which was a drag.  Especially since my building took the elevators out of service.  Gah.  So when my mom finally arrived, we decided to take her suitcase out to breakfast with us, then we went to the grocery store.  Happily, by the time we finished at the store, my elevator was back. We puttered around my apartment for a few minutes then headed out for some sightseeing.

Being from the midwest, my mom is a fan of shopping malls.  I admit it.  When she heard about the new Clearfield Mall that opened near the World Trade Center/Freedom Tower area, she wanted to check it out.  It's a bit of a trek from my place, but we got there pretty easily. I haven't been downtown in a while, so it took me a minute to figure out where we needed to go, but we finally found it.  Wow.  It looks like something out of Logan's Run or 2001: A Space Odyssey.  It's all white and bright, with ginormous ceilings and a sterile look.  The stores are all upscale, so there wasn't much shopping for us to do.  We especially wanted to get a look at the new Eataly outpost - Mom and I had gone to the Chelsea location once and it was so packed, we didn't get it.  It took us a bit (and a couple of stops to ask mall employees) to find it and when we finally did, we were annoyed to see a CLOSED TODAY sign.  We couldn't believe it!  Neither could the mall employees my mom had to tell on our way back downstairs.  Since we were now a little peckish, we walked across the vast expanse to the other mall on the other side of the street to a food court.  We bought some cookies and had some delicious ice cream. Mom and I do love us some ice cream.

After we had looked around the malls, we thought about walking down to the seaport and getting the Staten Island Ferry.  But it was pretty warm, and maybe a little too far, so we settled for wandering around the water on the Battery Park walkway and going into some grocery stores when we needed a/c (did I mention my mom is also a fan of grocery stores?).  When we were done downtown, I suggested to Mom that we ride the subway all the way back through Queens and check out Forest Hills.  I had gone there for a tennis match a couple of weeks ago and found it lovely.  I thought Mom would like it, too.  It was nice to sit down for a bit on the subway and it took us a little under an hour to get from Battery Park to Forest Hills.  We did a little shopping, had a snack at Shake Shack, and just looked around at the lovely houses.  We stopped and chatted with a resident, who may or may not have been at Woodstock and is still feeling the effects, about his gorgeous dog and generally had a quiet walk around a new-to-us neighborhood.  I had a walking tour that I wanted to take, but I stupidly left it in my apartment, so I guess we'll just have to do it another time.  After all that walking around in the sunshine, we were pretty tired, so we called it an early night.

new roof!

Tuesday morning, we set off for the tennis pretty early.  I have the US Open app on my phone, so we could see the schedule and decide where we wanted to go ahead of time. We were both a little nervous about going through the security line - it seems like every year brings a new issue, but this year was a breeze. Everyone was friendly and smiling, yet thorough in checking our bags.  It was good.  In the past, Mom and I would like to watch the pros practice in the Grandstand, but this year, there's a new Grandstand. Happily, they made the Old Grandstand a practice court but they also played some qualifying matches there.  We settled in there for our first match of the day. We watched Montanes from Spain take on Mitchell from Australia. Poor Mitchell was a tad overmatched, and his serve was completely off, so he lost pretty quickly.  There were some nice rallies, but they were few and far between.  Montanes won easily and we decided to go watch a young American on Court 17. When we got over there, though, there was a huge line to get in and there weren't many shady seats left, so we decided to go to Court 11 instead to watch American Ryan Harrison. We watched the end of the women's match beforehand, and then found some good seats to watch Harrison.  Unfortunately, it was now a really warm part of the day and there really isn't any shade at Court 11, so we only made it through the first set, which we were happy to see Harrison win in a tiebreak, after being down a break of serve earlier in the set.  

Nadal

Once we left Court 11, we decided to sit in the shade of the food court area and have our lunch.  We had packed some snacks and a peanut butter bagel, so we relaxed and had lunch.  I was disappointed to find out that my favorite beverage, the iced tea from the Lavazza booth, isn't there anymore, they only sell coffees.  I like iced coffee, but it isn't my go-to outdoor-in-the-sun beverage, unfortunately, so I just stuck with water.  I will miss my iced teas. After lunch, we wandered over to Armstrong stadium to see what pros were practicing and much to my mom's supreme joy, we got to watch Nadal practice. He is her absolute favorite.  We didn't stay too long, because, again, there's no shade in there, but we sat and got some good photos and she enjoyed seeing him. When we couldn't take the sun anymore, we went back to the old Grandstand and watched a match between Marco Chiudinelli from Switzerland and Blaz Rola from Slovakia.  This was quite a good match, going three sets, and both players had some quality shotmaking.  I think winning the first set in a tiebreak took a lot out of Rola, though, and Chiudinelli came back to win in three. But it was a good match and since we were pleased, Mom and I decided to call it a day. We stopped and got some ice cream at the little concession stand outside the stadium, where the ice cream is priced approximately 3000% cheaper than the ice cream inside the stadium.  Ice cream that's less expensive always tastes better to my mom.  :)

I think that's enough for now.  Stay tuned for my report of days two and three of tennis, plus we made a special trip to see a special play starring a special friend!

Flashing back to...a ton of fun!

Hi again!  More auto-posting, thank you.  I was thinking about this show the other day, so I thought I'd post my review from 2006.  I didn't see it in the summer, but that's ok!  I'd love to see it again anytime!  And at the bottom of this post, yet another beautiful photo of a beautiful place I'm hoping to see in November...

10/4/2006:  I had a grand time at Jay Johnson: The Two and Only last night!  The guy is a beyond-amazing ventriloquist, plus I learned a bit about the history of ventriloquism. Very cool.  I maybe would’ve liked to understand more about the mechanics of it, but perhaps that’s like a magician showing how to do a trick.  Jay is a very genial presence on stage, with a tendency to speak a bit fast, but you tune in to him pretty quickly.

It’s just so amazing to me how he can make all of his “partners” seem so real!  You think you want to watch Jay Johnson to see if his mouth is moving, but you are so drawn to these completely real partners he’s working with!  It’s really incredible.

Of course, a highlight for me was seeing Bob from Soap.  I always loved Chuck and Bob on that show. They do a routine that is just a riot.  And we also got a special bonus vaudeville act in the process! Terrific.  Johnson also worked with his longtime pre-Bob partner, Squeaky, plus a bird (hysterical), a chimp (so funny), a snake puppet and two other characters that have to be seen to be believed.  I hate to ruin the surprises.

The show is about 90 minutes and I laughed pretty much the whole time.  The stories about how Jay was drawn to the form were really fun, too.  I will admit to thinking, sometime near the end, that I was ready for it to be over and however would he possibly finish.  The ending was quite touching, surprisingly.   So, all in all, a very fun evening.  I highly recommend it.  Apparently, the show is not selling well.  Last night, the orchestra was full, but perhaps they’re doing a lot of papering.  There are discounts out there, too. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Flashing back to...the Greeks?

We're coming up on Tennis Week (yay!) and my mom will be here (double yay!), so there won't be any posting next week while we have fun around town.  I just hope the weather cools off a tad - it will be hard to sit outside and watch tennis all day if it's 90 degrees/90 percent humidity.  If I can find a particularly fun memory, maybe I'll do an auto-post while I'm away, but we'll see.  Maybe another photo of where I'd like to go during my November adventure (oh, ok, I convinced myself, there's a photo at the bottom of this post).  Anyway, here's a blast from the past - it reminds me that I haven't been to Shakespeare in the Park for awhile!  I'll have to try harder next summer...

8/19/09:  After two summers of signing up nearly every day for the ‘virtual lottery’ to Shakespeare in the Park, I finally won!  I won tickets to The Bacchae last night.  Whee!  I was positive it was going to rain to negate my winning feeling, but it didn’t!  It was a lovely night for theater.

If I say to you that Joanne Akalaitis is directing a Greek tragedy with a score by Philip Glass, you get a picture in your head of what the show is going to be like, don’t you?  You can’t help it, right?  Well, let me tell you that your mental image is probably right on the money…

As you might imagine, the production, at times, was stupefyingly pretentious.  But, sort of like a car accident, I couldn’t look away.  I didn’t really like it, but I didn’t hate it, either.  I found it kind of fascinating.  Like some sort of experiment. It’s really interesting, having read an article about the production in their playbill this morning, how all of the production team talked about this play as being frightening and shocking and moving.  The PLAY may be but this production certainly isn’t.  All of the ponderous ‘what.I.am.doing.now.is.so.IMPORTANT’ acting took away all of the emotion and tragedy. I didn’t even feel for Agave when she realized what she had done to her son. The show was done so clinically, it wasn’t moving.  The only, and I mean the only moment of any feeling was when Rocco Sisto (a longtime favorite of mine) came on as the Messenger and told the story of what happened to Pentheus.  It was a lovely moment and the audience broke into spontaneous applause when he was finished.  Everyone was so happy to have one moment of clarity that they had to express their joy.  Oh, ok, I don’t know how EVERYONE felt, but I’m going to stand by the statement, lol.

One of the ways the Philip Glass score was used that I did enjoy was with the Chorus.  The harmonies and the blend of their voices were ravishing, really gorgeous.  And I liked the idea of having the Chorus sing their dialogue instead of declaim it.  Though they did declaim while singing, shockingly.  I enjoyed HOW they were singing, but not the way they were singing it.  They were the biggest perpetrators of the ‘IMPORTANT’ acting.  You all know what I mean.  Plus, their choreography was hideous and their costumes were worse. Please believe me when I describe their costumes as some combination of MC Hammer, the Solid Gold dancers and an oompa loompa.   I kid you not.

photo credit: Damon Winter

I thought Jonathan Groff made an interesting Dionysus, though I thought he went a little overboard with his ‘bwah ha ha ha ha’ laughter moments.  You almost expected him to start twirling a mustache when he did them, but he didn’t have a mustache.  He was sort of playing Dionysus as a spoiled rock star, with some strutting and some attitude.  It was a little surface-y at times, but I think he’s on his way to an interesting characterization. His voice doesn’t really gibe with the Philip Glass music, though, but that kind of became an interesting dichotomy as the evening went on.  

Anthony Mackie was quite good as Pentheus, very rigid and upright, yet still extremely charismatic.  And his transformation before heading out to his doom was very good. Andre de Shields was wonderful as Teiresias, though I wonder why he was wearing black velvet trousers with diamond spangles on them…

The other actors didn’t really register with me, unfortunately.  Though I did find the guy playing the Herdsman to be a little slllllllllllllllllllllloww, as if he was thinking ‘I only have this one monologue so I am going to take as long as I can to give it!’  Yeah, no, act faster, please.

I liked the set very much and there were some really good effects with fire and water, and I liked the majority of Glass’ score.  Actually, the components to a fine production are probably here, but everyone’s attitude of self-importance derails things.  I did see only the third preview, though, so perhaps everyone will loosen up as the run goes along. The box office had a ‘sold out’ sign, but there were plenty of empty seats around me.  No one sat on either side of me, and half the row in front of me was empty.  There were also quite a few walkouts.  But, all in all, it was a lovely night to sit outside and watch some wacky theater, plus it’s only about 100 minutes with no intermission.  Perhaps with a few cocktails, it could be a really amazing evening!!  ;)

Thoughts on The Layover

Boy, it feels like forever since I've seen a show.  I know, I know, it's only been a little over a week, but I like to exaggerate. Actually, I had forgotten about last Saturday's matinee. Second Stage Theatre sent me a survey awhile back, and after I filled it out, they kindly gave me a steep discount for their new mainstage show, The Layover.  I've heard about this playwright for quite some time, so I was happy to take advantage of the discount.  Of course, the weather was beastly last Saturday, so it did cross my mind to just skip the show and stay in my air conditioned-Olympic-watching comfort, but I finally got my lazy self out of the apartment and to midtown.  

Thankfully, the subways to and from the theater were air conditioned, unlike earlier last week, when I took the day off to help a friend and the subway cars were packed to the gills and NOT air conditioned.  There are few ways to ruin a day quicker than riding a subway car with no air conditioning.  I'm afraid since my surgery I simply can't tolerate extreme heat and humidity very well.  But seeing an interesting play (or helping a dear friend) can snap me out of my self-pity pretty quickly.  :)

Since the show is still early in previews, I'm sure they're still making changes, so I'll only offer a few thoughts: I didn't know anything about The Layover, so I took a look at the blurb on Second Stage's website before leaving my apartment -  Ever wonder who that stranger is sitting next to you? What is their story? What are they hiding? Shellie and Dex dare to answer these questions after their flight is delayed on a snowy Thanksgiving night. What they discover about themselves, and each other, sends both of their lives into upheaval. A psychological drama from the darkly funny writer of Bachelorette, The Layover asks the question: Can you ever really get to know somebody when you're hiding so much yourself? 

OK, that sounded interesting.  But it didn't really prepare me for the roller coaster ride of The Layover.  First it seemed like a romantic comedy, then a battle of the sexes, then something vaguely sinister or creepy or violent.  Then back again.  It kept me on my toes and I never knew what was coming next.  My brain was whirling a million miles a minute while I was watching (in a good way, it's not as if I was thinking about other things, just about all the possibilities presented in the play!), and I appreciated the myriad of emotions that were happening to me.  I just felt vaguely off-kilter throughout, which I guess reflects what was happening onstage throughout...

photo credit:  Zachary Maxwell Stertz

We first meet Shellie and Dex on a plane that seems to be delayed on Thanksgiving; we see the first anonymous-seeming flirtations, then as they run into each other after deplaning, I began to wonder if something else was afoot.  Once the characters started talking about noir, thrillers, and Patricia Highsmith, my anxiety level began to escalate.  I was tense and nervous throughout, though often only because of where my mind was going and not where the play actually was (if that makes sense).  Each character and each situation really triggered a strong response in me, and with each change of situation and change of power structure, another strong response would take over.  So, in a very intellectual way, I was stimulated by the play, but maybe a little outside the play, too, because I was commenting to myself on what was happening to me.

Anyway, I was really taken with the characters, the situations in which they found themselves and I was completely gobsmacked by the ending.  The acting was fantastic, and I also really liked the set and sound design.  I was rather breathless when it all ended, and I was really trying to replay certain scenes from the beginning of the play to see if there had been any real clues that this was where we'd end up - as I was gathering my thoughts, I heard the house manager say there would be a talkback with the playwright and director a few minutes after the play ended.  Woo hoo!  I love a talkback and thought it would be especially helpful for this play.

I enjoyed the talkback quite a lot - the playwright and the director spoke so intelligently about the play and confirmed some of my suspicions, and refuted others.  The questions from the audience were actually pretty smart (sometimes the audience questions can be embarrassing), though many of them said they figured out what would happen at the end before we got there, so I wonder why I didn't figure it out.  The playwright seemed genuinely delighted by all of the questions and how engaged and interested the audience was in her play, so that was fun.  All in all, it was a grand afternoon, and even with battling the heat to and from the theater, I'm really glad I went to see The Layover.  I don't think I've seen anything quite like it.  I'm thinking I may have to go back to try to see inside the structure, now that I know what's going to happen.  And I just saw a press release that one of the playwright's earlier works is going to be revived this fall, so I just may check that out, too.  Maybe you should, too!  

Flashing back to my second game show 'appearance'

Hi, everyone!  Miss me?  I keep losing ticket lotteries, so that's one reason why you haven't heard from me lately.  I do have one leg of my November trip booked, so I'm pretty sure it's really going to happen! Enjoy the photo to the left of one place I hope to see when I'm there...

I was going through my old reviews, trying to find something interesting for this week's flashback.  When I saw this 'review,' I started cracking up and I knew I had to post it!  I'm going to tell you a little secret here - I HAVE NO MEMORY OF ANY OF THIS!  This entire day, except for maybe the car ride over to Kaufman Astoria studios, is gone from my memory.  I have the vaguest of memories of watching the actual show.  So I was chuckling as I read it.  I hope you do too...


8/12/07:  So, I don’t know if you all remember, but we Chain Reaction gals were called into service to be practice contestants for the new Drew Carey game show Power of 10. As it turned out, I was the only one who was free (why am I always the least busy GNO gal?!), so here is my Power of 10 report:

what I wore

I filled in the questionnaire they sent me and returned it right away.  I also replied immediately to the confirmation e-mail.  But when I called the day before to ask if it mattered what I wore, they said I never replied to them! Uh, that would be wrong!  So after trying to send another e-mail, which apparently never arrived, I faxed over my info.  Fine.  I guess the production assistant has me listed as a junk-mail recipient or something.  But they finally had my stuff.

I ended up taking the whole day off Tuesday (I was supposed to have another appt which got canceled, but I decided I didn’t want to go to work anyway ;) and was sitting in my somewhat air-conditioned apartment, watching tennis, when I got a call from a different Power of 10 PA.  She wanted to fill out more about me for Drew’s “blue card.”  So we talked for, I don’t know, a half-hour?  About the synchronized swim team, my former acting career, my love for tennis, my nephew, everything.  I’m thinking, are they really doing a version of This is Your Life?  I mean, how would all that crap about me end up in a rehearsal of a show?!  Whatever.  They called me back five minutes later to tell me to come at 3:30 instead of 3.  OK.  More time to watch tennis.

I decided it was too bloody hot to walk over to the Kaufman Astoria studios, so I called my favorite car service, so I could arrive for my date with Drew in climate controlled comfort. Plus, my hair wouldn’t get grossed out.  

I arrived at 3:30 and was taken up to a green room, where there were two other guys. We just kinda sat there, quietly, when one of them asked me, “Hey, were you on Chain Reaction?  Did you tape near Valentine’s Day?  Were you against the bowlers?”  I’m thinking, omg, I have a Chain Reaction stalker, when he says he taped that day too!  He was on the team that played against the gals from Baltimore!  Obviously, I didn’t remember him.  But he says “So, how’d you guys do?  We got our butts kicked!”  I said, “Oh, we won. We’re going to Italy.”  Silence.  Then we all talked about traveling in Italy, which was fun. Not that they’ve ever been, but they wanted to know all about our trip. The other practice guy was an actor from Hoboken who apparently was on one of the first episodes of Chain Reaction and his team got their butt kicked too.  

After about a half hour of chit chat, they take me and the actor from Hoboken down to the studio to rehearse.  We get down there, get miked up by a VERY CUTE sound guy (who is probably young enough to be my son, but still), and then go onto the set.  It’s a huge set, with a lighted floor, tons of fog machines and seating for around 200 (I asked). 

We then sat down in whatever seats the stage manager wanted to check out for camera shots.  We must’ve changed seats ten times over the course of the afternoon.  But for some reason, they were having a rehearsal before the rehearsal.  All we did was sit (and change seats), while we watched other PAs be the rehearsal winner.  

Finally, after nearly two hours of that, they let us be the “new” contestants.  So we had to practice walking onto the set about twenty times.  They are apparently changing the way they get the loser contestant off and the new contestants on.  They’re also playing with the camera angles.  I nearly got run over by the handheld camera guy and his cord-carrying pal. The cord-carrying pal nearly destroyed one of the fog machines, but hey, I’m not union.  I just stayed out of the way.

So, we get out there and are waiting for Drew Carey to come out, but no, we had yet another PA be the rehearsal host.  Apparently, Drew didn’t feel the need to rehearse.  He wanted to stay in his hotel and watch the premiere of the show.  Uh, ok.  But I wanted to meet Drew Carey!  And after watching the premiere of Power of 10, I can say with all truthfulness that perhaps Drew should rethink his disdain for rehearsal.

Oh, and the “blue card” stuff for my ‘contestant interview’?  Here’s all that remained of the half hour conversation:  fake host says, ‘so, Tari, you work with writers.  What makes you feel you’re qualified to guess other Americans’ opinions?’  Whew.  Good thing they knew so much about me!!!!  

The game consists of, first, two people playing against each other, then the winner of the first round goes onto the next round to play for ten million dollars.  I didn’t make it out of the first round.  I am apparently completely out of touch with the American people. Plus, I couldn’t get the hang of my toggle switch.  The combination was not a good one.  They have these monitors that the contestants stand behind, but you’re not supposed to look at them.  I found that very disorienting.  But once I got the hang of it, I still got the answers completely wrong.

Before we officially got started, while they were trying to figure out a lighting thing, I looked up at the monitor and said, to no one in particular, “OMG, is that what my butt looks like?!  Does anyone mind if I do this part of the show hiding my butt?!”  The stage manager about laughed his head off and said boy, was I going to LOVE my first question!

Our first question was ‘What percentage of American women are happy with their bodies?” HA!  But, I actually felt I was ok on this one (my personal butt worries aside), because they just did a survey like this in one of my magazines.   I was going to choose 30%.  But I couldn’t get my toggle thing to work right, so the computer locked on my (inadvertent) choice of 65%.  All the male crew guys are like “What?!”  I said, “Hey, I couldn’t get my toggle to work!  Give me a break!”  So I expected to lose that one.  Imagine my surprise when I turned out to have won it, because the actual answer was 48% and I was closer than my opponent, who chose 8% (obviously a straight man)!  Quel surprise!  

Next question:  “What percentage of Americans say they have read a book, cover to cover, in the last six months?”  My mind is racing—oh, they did these polls before Harry Potter came out and before the summer—so I choose 40%.  My opponent chose 45%.  The answer was 60%!  I said, “Excuse me, I think they’re lying!”  So I got it wrong.

I completely forget the third question, but I got it wrong.  So the actor from Hoboken needs to get one more right to go on to the money-winning round.

Last question:  “What percentage of Americans say they have seen a UFO?”  I say 25%.  I mean, seriously.  But the answer was 9%!  Actor from Hoboken wins!  I said, “Oh, hello, they’re lying again!  I mean, I’VE seen a UFO!”  The stage manager is laughing, saying “Uh oh, she thinks Americans are liars!”  I said, “No, but I’m not sure about the truthfulness of these polled people!”

Oh, I forgot this before:  So, anyway, before we got up there, we were told that if we lost, we were supposed to come to the middle, shake the hand of the winner, then walk off the way we came in.  So I did that.  The stage manager says “Whoa!  Where are you going?!”  I said this is what I was told to do!  So another half hour was spent deciding what the loser should do after they lose.  I practiced shaking his hand and walking off, shaking his hand and staying there.  I pouted, I applauded, I shook my fist.  It was all very entertaining I’m sure.  Then they suddenly yell, “Break!  Half hour break, everybody!” Actor from Hoboken and I are like, uh, are we done?  He was very upset he didn’t get to practice winning ten million dollars!

The VERY CUTE sound guy came to take my mike back.  Not only did I have to stick my hand down my shirt to give it back to him but somehow the cord got wrapped in my jeans button! I had to unbutton my jeans to get it out!  I honestly HONESTLY have no idea how that happened!  He laughed and said “That’s a first.”  I’m sure he went home to his girlfriend and described the woman his mother’s age who had to unbutton her jeans to get the mike cord out.  Extremely embarrassing.


And that was it!  They gave me an envelope with $50 in it and I was done!  Though I didn’t get to meet Drew Carey and tell him about the time he avoided me on an airplane, it was fun.  And I watched the premiere when I got home.  The very first contestant won a million dollars!  I think the game could catch on.  Drew is good with the people, not so good with the teleprompter.  He definitely needs to practice. Hopefully, they’ll call the GNO team again to help him out!