a day in the life of TBQ

[thebratqueen]

Went into the city today avec mon pere. Had lunch at John's Pizza on 44th between 7th and 8th and I definitely recommend it. If any of you watch The Best Of you might have seen this place. It's the pizza place that used to be a church, and the stained glass in it is gorgeous. Ironically did not have the pizza, but had a great veggie soup and chicken/sundried tomato/mozzarella/fresh basil sandwich which was tasty.

After that was Movin' Out which I actually enjoyed, for all that the Richard Rogers theater HATES women. As a tip for anyone else going - pee before you get there. 'cause there's only one women's room and trust me, there's already a huge line for it from the previous show. I would've gone into the men's room except that had a line too and I think at least one person on it would've been able to guess that I didn't have a penis. Had there been no line, I would've just walked in.

Movin' Out was fun. Interesting for me since I've never really seen Twyla Tharp's work before so I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what her signature moves were based soley on what was in front of me. Gotta say some of the pieces worked better for me than others, but on the whole it was very enjoyable. I think it works best if you look at it as akin to Fosse - not really a show with a beginning, middle and end so much as it's a celebration of an artist, and the artist in this case happens to be Billy with a little Twyla thrown in. Yeah they sort of do a story but since some of the songs are meant to be totally literal and others are meant to just be mood pieces I wouldn't worry about that too much.

My one regret was that they didn't build up to a big ending. Which may be where Fosse spoiled me. I was really expecting something to just explode on the stage, and really the pieces that did that were earlier in the second act. OTOH they did finish with a surprise encore of "New York State of Mind" which made me and everyone around me burst into tears so I can't fault them for emotional impact. And the dancers were amazing. I'm not sure I can ever be a fan of Twyla on the whole but some of the stuff done was spectacular to look at, fan or not.

After the show pop and I walked around the city a bit, then snuck into a TGIFriday's for dinner. Granted, this is not the best example of Manhattan eating but A) we were hungry B) we were REALLY FUCKING COLD and C) it was the only thing around at the time that A and B came together.

In the end I'm glad we did since apparently during February they do this thing where they ask patrons to round their check up to the nearest dollar and donate the difference to a charity, the amount of which the TGIF parent company matches. I think that's the cleverest idea for a charity drive I've ever heard. Dunno if it's for the whole five boroughs or just Manhattan, but those of you in the area may want to sneak in to the varous related places (such as Dunkin' Donuts and Nathan's and a whole host of others that I can't even remember but I'm sure DD or TGIF would be happy to tell you) and participate. The charity is City Meals on Wheels, fwiw.

After that I was homeward bound to bond with my kitty who is still traumatized from my stay in Los Angeles. I'm starting to think that getting Mac a playmate needs to be a higher priority in my Things to Save Up For list. Esp since I've also realized that when I first got him I only worked in the office half days, so I had more time at home to spend with him. Now I'm working a 39 hour week and in theory doing stuff for my church (guilty look for a place I haven't been to in months but really, really, REALLY want to get back to). Methinks Mac would do well to have a friend, possibly even if that means ignoring the budget I'm supposed to be making up and tossing the initial medical expenses onto a credit card.

And I think that about covers it for today. Further bulletins as events warrent.