Shows
Like yesterday, today was a double-show day,
matinees being held on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. It was also the day
we moved from the Library Hotel to the
Casablanca.
So we got up and ate for the last time in the Library Hotel reading room. So much for the mystery novel that Nico began to read (one of Sara Peretsky's V. I. Warshawski's ones); we ate, then we went upstairs, packed our bags, took up our computers, and walked.
The Library Hotel is on 41st and Madison, one block north of the New York Public Library. When you walk out of the front door of the hotel you will see (if you look down) brass plates embedded in the sidewalk. Each of them has a different image and message on it, and they lead to the Public Library. When you get to the end of the the walk that they make, you will be facing the steps and the lions and then beside the library will be Bryant Park.
Philip in front of the Library Hotel (forgive the focus, Nico mussee had the ague)
The Casablanca is on 43rd between 6th and Broadway, which meant it wasn't a very far walk. The staff had told us they'd send our luggage over to the Casablanca, and so we took our laptops with us.
When we got back to the Casablanca, the staff remembered us, and reminded us that they had a bottle of wine for our inconvenience. Beyond that, they offered us the choice of a suite for our stay (including the comp night). The only difficulty with the suite, they said, was that it wasn't available for one of the seven nights, but if we took it they would be responsible for moving us from the suite to the other room and then back again. Philip didn't even hesitate; and so we have a suite.
It ain't the biggest room in the world, but hey, this is New York. I think we're getting an excellent deal. The bedroom's about the size of our room at home, with a good-size closet, and it's got a king-sized bed, where the Library had a double or a queen — not sure which. There's a shot of a sample suite on the website, different from ours, but you get the idea. And we've still got complimentary breakfast in the morning, wine and cheese in the afternoon, and snacks all day long — before and after the show, and at three o'clock in the morning, for all I know.
We got to the hotel after 12, but the room wasn't ready yet. The show we were going to see — Avenue Q (Sesame Street for adults) — was not far away — on 45th between Broadway and Eighth, and because we're on Times Square, that makes it only one avenue block over and two street blocks up. We wanted to get into the room before the show so we could drop the computers off, and we did, just in time.
What can I say? The show was wonderful. Sesame Street for adults is definitely it; but the whole concept is so fresh, so irreverent, and the songs so catchy, that the whole show has stayed with us since. As with Sesame Street, the musical is set in a street (Avenue Q) that's kind of run-down — moving to the Lower East Side is moving up. Like Sesame Street, it's got people and puppets, and it's got celebrities too — Gary Coleman in this case (though he's played by an actress). I won't say much more in case people who read this are going to go and see it, but suffice to say it was really really good. I could go and see it again tomorrow. We thought of Manny all the way through; and we took this photo just for him:
It sucks to be you
After the show, we caught a taxi down to the Village, which was where we were going to see the next show, Bug. The Barrow Street Theater, which is housed in Greenwich House, a civic organization in the Village. We picked up the tickets and then wandered off in search of food. There was lots of activity; it was a beautiful clear day, and everybody and his dog was out on the street. We ate at an Asian fusion restaurant called Chow Bar, which was interesting but (we decided after seeing the stones in the bathroom sink) perhaps a little too too, and then we walked around the Village. That part of New York reminded me of Toronto. We strolled over to the Hudson and then walked back, looking at people walking their dogs (for real) and keeping an eye on the boutiques and things for later. On our way back to the theatre we passed a pair of dogs, a Great Dane and a terrier of some kind, who had been tied up in front of a shop. They were obviously together, because the leash that tied them was the same kind, and they knew each other. It was a webbing leash, which is important because as we passed the Great Dane was patiently and slowly chewing his way through the leash. I was amused, to say the least, and not a little worried that the owner would come out of the shop to find he (or she) had lost the best part of the affair.
When we got back to the theatre we had to wait for the doors to open. We sat down in the lobby area, which was nothing fancy at all, just an empty space in front of a blank wall, with a security guard facing the entrance and a box office off to the right behind a door with a plank across the middle. No frills, man. The place felt as old and as echoey as some of the faculties in Cambridge or some of the campus offices in Toronto — nothing plush or commercial about it. I liked it a lot.
Entering the theatre was even more fun: you went into a black box, which had aluminium seats with cushions stuck onto them. The risers were wooden boxes and the row numbers were spray-painted with stencils onto the concrete floor. The seat numbers were stuck onto the armrests of the chairs with scotch tape. Altogether there were about 200 seats in the space. It was freezing cold. Haven't figured out why yet, but when the show started the AC was turned off. I won't tell you much about the show — if you followed the link you'll know more than enough — but just know that the energy was high, the story intense, and whole was weirder than the sum of its parts.
Afterwards, we caught a taxi almost immediately and came back up to the hotel. When we got into the room we found that our bags had been delivered, so we unpacked a little bit and went to bed.
So we got up and ate for the last time in the Library Hotel reading room. So much for the mystery novel that Nico began to read (one of Sara Peretsky's V. I. Warshawski's ones); we ate, then we went upstairs, packed our bags, took up our computers, and walked.
The Library Hotel is on 41st and Madison, one block north of the New York Public Library. When you walk out of the front door of the hotel you will see (if you look down) brass plates embedded in the sidewalk. Each of them has a different image and message on it, and they lead to the Public Library. When you get to the end of the the walk that they make, you will be facing the steps and the lions and then beside the library will be Bryant Park.
Philip in front of the Library Hotel (forgive the focus, Nico mussee had the ague)
The Casablanca is on 43rd between 6th and Broadway, which meant it wasn't a very far walk. The staff had told us they'd send our luggage over to the Casablanca, and so we took our laptops with us.
When we got back to the Casablanca, the staff remembered us, and reminded us that they had a bottle of wine for our inconvenience. Beyond that, they offered us the choice of a suite for our stay (including the comp night). The only difficulty with the suite, they said, was that it wasn't available for one of the seven nights, but if we took it they would be responsible for moving us from the suite to the other room and then back again. Philip didn't even hesitate; and so we have a suite.
It ain't the biggest room in the world, but hey, this is New York. I think we're getting an excellent deal. The bedroom's about the size of our room at home, with a good-size closet, and it's got a king-sized bed, where the Library had a double or a queen — not sure which. There's a shot of a sample suite on the website, different from ours, but you get the idea. And we've still got complimentary breakfast in the morning, wine and cheese in the afternoon, and snacks all day long — before and after the show, and at three o'clock in the morning, for all I know.
We got to the hotel after 12, but the room wasn't ready yet. The show we were going to see — Avenue Q (Sesame Street for adults) — was not far away — on 45th between Broadway and Eighth, and because we're on Times Square, that makes it only one avenue block over and two street blocks up. We wanted to get into the room before the show so we could drop the computers off, and we did, just in time.
What can I say? The show was wonderful. Sesame Street for adults is definitely it; but the whole concept is so fresh, so irreverent, and the songs so catchy, that the whole show has stayed with us since. As with Sesame Street, the musical is set in a street (Avenue Q) that's kind of run-down — moving to the Lower East Side is moving up. Like Sesame Street, it's got people and puppets, and it's got celebrities too — Gary Coleman in this case (though he's played by an actress). I won't say much more in case people who read this are going to go and see it, but suffice to say it was really really good. I could go and see it again tomorrow. We thought of Manny all the way through; and we took this photo just for him:
It sucks to be you
After the show, we caught a taxi down to the Village, which was where we were going to see the next show, Bug. The Barrow Street Theater, which is housed in Greenwich House, a civic organization in the Village. We picked up the tickets and then wandered off in search of food. There was lots of activity; it was a beautiful clear day, and everybody and his dog was out on the street. We ate at an Asian fusion restaurant called Chow Bar, which was interesting but (we decided after seeing the stones in the bathroom sink) perhaps a little too too, and then we walked around the Village. That part of New York reminded me of Toronto. We strolled over to the Hudson and then walked back, looking at people walking their dogs (for real) and keeping an eye on the boutiques and things for later. On our way back to the theatre we passed a pair of dogs, a Great Dane and a terrier of some kind, who had been tied up in front of a shop. They were obviously together, because the leash that tied them was the same kind, and they knew each other. It was a webbing leash, which is important because as we passed the Great Dane was patiently and slowly chewing his way through the leash. I was amused, to say the least, and not a little worried that the owner would come out of the shop to find he (or she) had lost the best part of the affair.
When we got back to the theatre we had to wait for the doors to open. We sat down in the lobby area, which was nothing fancy at all, just an empty space in front of a blank wall, with a security guard facing the entrance and a box office off to the right behind a door with a plank across the middle. No frills, man. The place felt as old and as echoey as some of the faculties in Cambridge or some of the campus offices in Toronto — nothing plush or commercial about it. I liked it a lot.
Entering the theatre was even more fun: you went into a black box, which had aluminium seats with cushions stuck onto them. The risers were wooden boxes and the row numbers were spray-painted with stencils onto the concrete floor. The seat numbers were stuck onto the armrests of the chairs with scotch tape. Altogether there were about 200 seats in the space. It was freezing cold. Haven't figured out why yet, but when the show started the AC was turned off. I won't tell you much about the show — if you followed the link you'll know more than enough — but just know that the energy was high, the story intense, and whole was weirder than the sum of its parts.
Afterwards, we caught a taxi almost immediately and came back up to the hotel. When we got into the room we found that our bags had been delivered, so we unpacked a little bit and went to bed.
Posted: Sun - October 3, 2004 at 11:31 PM
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Published On: Oct 07, 2004 08:59 AM
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Published On: Oct 07, 2004 08:59 AM