Well, it's been a fun couple weeks. First off to New York to help Darren celebrate his 50th birthday party and then on up the coast to Cape Cod and Provincetown for a holiday and then a short visit to Boston on the way back to London.
We certainly packed a lot in for 15 days but it was joyful, illuminating, exciting and restful in equal measure.
And the jet lag hasn't been too bad this time with a little help from over the counter Sleep Aid.
Now to plan the next holiday... I wonder where it will be?
overyourhead - some irreverent musings by a gay London guy - crawling though technology, love and life... so you don't have to.
Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
Thursday, September 03, 2015
Monday, February 24, 2014
Tell Me On A Sunday...
Starring Marti Webb as 'the girl' she took us bath back 35 years to when it all began - to a zoo, that's got chimpanzees...
Tell Me on a Sunday is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black. A one-act song cycle, it tells the story of an ordinary English girl from Muswell Hill, who journeys to the United States in search of love. Her romantic misadventures begin in New York City, lead her to Hollywood, and eventually take her back to Manhattan.
Starting the show with the show-stopper Take That Look Off Your Face we knew we were in for a treat. Marti had lost little of her magnificent voice. As she gamboled through the other songs the memories all came flooding back... I'm Very You, You're Very Me... Come Back with the Same Look in Your Eyes... You Made Me Think You Were in Love...
The show is very short though. Forty-five plus encore meant fifty-five minutes after taking our seats we were back out on the street again. In previous revivals they have had a 2nd half of dancing - Song and Dance starring Wayne Sleep. This time round we didn't particularly miss the lack of Sleep.
So all in all it was a fun, albeit short, night of nostalgia. As Stuart mentioned to me on the way out she's botoxed to buggery. So ironically she won't be taking that look off her face anytime soon!
Monday, March 04, 2013
Liza Minnelli...
The crowd at the RFH had all turned into constantly clapping, constantly standing ovators. They clapped as each song started, the clapped and whooped at each mid-song pause and then they stood and clapped and cheered at the end of each. And I'm sorry to admit dear reader that I was also one of those people.
All the hits and more - Alexander's Ragtime Band, New York New York, Cabaret, Maybe This Time, Say Liza (Liza With A “Z”)... sadly no Money Money Money though.
Half way through Liza's set she performed the gay classic "What Makes a Man a Man?" With a silver sequinned top, a blacked out stage, a trembling voice and a single spotlight... 2500 of us held our breath as she sang. Utter silence. Just the soft sound of tears falling. A heartbeat after she finished... the place erupted. Boy, she knows her audience and milked it to the last drop. Adrella would have been proud.
A great show. A great woman. Show-stoppers every song. Her's to the next ten years until we see you again Liza.
And if I may divert a little, it got us talking afterwards about what actually does make a man a man. And all I could think of was what my Dad once told me, "a man makes decisions and lives with the consequences." Admittedly I was only 8 at the time and wanted to change my plain ice cream cornet for a 99 but I guess he was making a point.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
If You Can't Get It In Here...
The nice thing about flying east is that jet-lag works on your favour. You wake up early in the mornings raring to go and if you flag a little in the evenings then a cup of coffee or couple of beers keeps you going.
So awake early it was. And we would have been up early too but forced ourselves to stay in bed to acclimatise to EST- hard life, huh?
Once we did venture forth we took the red 1 subway train down to 18th St and hopped across to our favourite diner on 8th Ave - The Dish - for some breakfast. Big welcome, big portions.
There's a little clothing store right on that block too that Stu likes called Brooklyn Industries so we stopped off to pick up some t/shirts and trousers for him as we were in the area. Like you do.
We then jumped back on the downtown train to the end of the line South Ferry so we could walk through Battery Park and take some pictures across the river to the Statue Of Liberty.
We then made our way up past Wall St. to Ground Zero. To be honest things don't seem to have changed much at the World Trade Center in the four years since we last peered over the site. But I guess it's all going on underground. There were some very moving tributes near the site and there'll no doubt be an appropriate visitor's centre once it's all completed.
Overlooking WTC Plaza is our favourite discount department store Century 21. Let the shopping commence. Stu was mainly looking for underwear. I was after t/shirts. The shop wasn't quite as busy as I'd have thought it would have been - what with it being a Saturday and the craziness of the Christmad season was kicking off. Still, we were pleased to be out of there.
Bags in hand we took the train back up to Times Sq. to do a drop off before heading out for some lunch. $10 burger + beer at Charley O's. does ever eatery in New York have a flat screen showing sports?
Then on the next block down we popped into American Eagle to do some more serious pounding of the credit cards. Rather like A&F the music was way too loud and the staff way too perky but we coped. Just. Shirts, hoodies, pants, hats, gloves...
Back in oir room we had a much needed post purchasing lie-down later in the afternoon and readied ourselves for the night ahead. Disco naps are the new rock and roll.
We ate in Hell's Kitchen at the Chelsea Grill - Plymouth Gin cocktails to start, a half rack of ribs, inch thick pork chops and all washed down with Brooklyn Pilsner. Yum.
We then bar hopped - Barrage (youngish crowd, all on smart phones), Rawhide (older crowd, a go-go 'boy' stalking the bar top a la Ugly Coyote looking for money to be stuffed in his skimpy shorts), Barracuda (cute crowd, packed to the gills) and finally The Eagle (three floors of darkened industrial fun - muscles, leather, sweat and tattoos). Heavens.
We eventually fell into a cab and made it home in one piece. I do love New York.
So awake early it was. And we would have been up early too but forced ourselves to stay in bed to acclimatise to EST- hard life, huh?
Once we did venture forth we took the red 1 subway train down to 18th St and hopped across to our favourite diner on 8th Ave - The Dish - for some breakfast. Big welcome, big portions.
There's a little clothing store right on that block too that Stu likes called Brooklyn Industries so we stopped off to pick up some t/shirts and trousers for him as we were in the area. Like you do.
We then jumped back on the downtown train to the end of the line South Ferry so we could walk through Battery Park and take some pictures across the river to the Statue Of Liberty.
We then made our way up past Wall St. to Ground Zero. To be honest things don't seem to have changed much at the World Trade Center in the four years since we last peered over the site. But I guess it's all going on underground. There were some very moving tributes near the site and there'll no doubt be an appropriate visitor's centre once it's all completed.
Overlooking WTC Plaza is our favourite discount department store Century 21. Let the shopping commence. Stu was mainly looking for underwear. I was after t/shirts. The shop wasn't quite as busy as I'd have thought it would have been - what with it being a Saturday and the craziness of the Christmad season was kicking off. Still, we were pleased to be out of there.
Bags in hand we took the train back up to Times Sq. to do a drop off before heading out for some lunch. $10 burger + beer at Charley O's. does ever eatery in New York have a flat screen showing sports?
Then on the next block down we popped into American Eagle to do some more serious pounding of the credit cards. Rather like A&F the music was way too loud and the staff way too perky but we coped. Just. Shirts, hoodies, pants, hats, gloves...
Back in oir room we had a much needed post purchasing lie-down later in the afternoon and readied ourselves for the night ahead. Disco naps are the new rock and roll.
We ate in Hell's Kitchen at the Chelsea Grill - Plymouth Gin cocktails to start, a half rack of ribs, inch thick pork chops and all washed down with Brooklyn Pilsner. Yum.
We then bar hopped - Barrage (youngish crowd, all on smart phones), Rawhide (older crowd, a go-go 'boy' stalking the bar top a la Ugly Coyote looking for money to be stuffed in his skimpy shorts), Barracuda (cute crowd, packed to the gills) and finally The Eagle (three floors of darkened industrial fun - muscles, leather, sweat and tattoos). Heavens.
We eventually fell into a cab and made it home in one piece. I do love New York.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
New York, New York.,.
So we've arrived in the Big Apple. Just. Blimey that was a bumpy flight. Sure, the Valium and alcohol helped take the edge off but it was a rollercoaster ride as we approached the eastern seaboard. I had to hold on to my drink - and my lunch! Naturally Stu slept through it all.
The queue for immigration wasn't too bad at JFK. We had to give your finger prints though. We felt like proper criminals. Cool.
The big yellow taxi to Manhattan was fast and fixed price $45 + $5.07 (for toll + city tax). So not too bad.
The Crowne Plaza Times Square was great. Our Deluxe room was way up on the ear-popping fortieth floor with a great view of the Hudson river. Nice.
We dropped off our bags in out room and headed out the door straight into the madness of Times Square on shopping's maddest day of the year, Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving).
After grabbing some pizza on 8th and 42nd we took the subway down to Christopher Street for a beer or three. We initially headed for The Dugout which rather than the bear bar we were expecting in fact had turned into a rock bar. A gay rock bar? Who knew? We had just one beer there and then headed up the street to the Hangar bar. This was much better - it was way busier, had better music and the predominately black clientele were much more friendly. To polish the evening off we popped across the road to Ty's for a night cap. They had The Wizard Of Oz on the big screen so we watched that to the witch melting end before heading off into the cold night air.
Once back in Times Sq we dropped into Walgreens pharmacy to pick up some essentials - weird tasting toothpaste and weirder tasting mouth-wash. Strange that pharmacies here sell cigarettes.
We slept like babies.
The queue for immigration wasn't too bad at JFK. We had to give your finger prints though. We felt like proper criminals. Cool.
The big yellow taxi to Manhattan was fast and fixed price $45 + $5.07 (for toll + city tax). So not too bad.
The Crowne Plaza Times Square was great. Our Deluxe room was way up on the ear-popping fortieth floor with a great view of the Hudson river. Nice.
We dropped off our bags in out room and headed out the door straight into the madness of Times Square on shopping's maddest day of the year, Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving).
After grabbing some pizza on 8th and 42nd we took the subway down to Christopher Street for a beer or three. We initially headed for The Dugout which rather than the bear bar we were expecting in fact had turned into a rock bar. A gay rock bar? Who knew? We had just one beer there and then headed up the street to the Hangar bar. This was much better - it was way busier, had better music and the predominately black clientele were much more friendly. To polish the evening off we popped across the road to Ty's for a night cap. They had The Wizard Of Oz on the big screen so we watched that to the witch melting end before heading off into the cold night air.
Once back in Times Sq we dropped into Walgreens pharmacy to pick up some essentials - weird tasting toothpaste and weirder tasting mouth-wash. Strange that pharmacies here sell cigarettes.
We slept like babies.
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