It’s taken me a couple of weeks to getting around to posting this New York City summary blog, but hey, better late than never.

The trip was a lot of fun, actually. We took the train to Union Station in Toronto, and then caught a shuttle bus and ferry to Toronto Island for our flight via Porter Airlines. That was a pleasure, although it left about an hour late. It was not a problem to wait in their beautiful lounge though, what with its free Internet, snacks and drinks.

The flight arrived at Newark airport only about 30 minutes late, and we quickly caught a train to Penn Station. After getting oriented, we found our hotel, the Radisson Martinique on Broadway only a couple of short blocks away. Despite being a $350/night hotel, it was pretty ordinary. I’m glad I didn’t pay $350/night, but instead used Amex points to book the room. The room stank of paint fumes, because I guess it had been recently repainted. We had to keep the windows open and the heat cranked to be comfortable. Being NYC, the room was pretty small too. I don’t consider that to be too much of an issue though.

That first night, we rested up a bit before heading out to see Harold Night at the UCBT. Seeing how the UCB runs and promote its shows was very inspiring. The sold out theatre and standby line that stretched down the block was testament to this. For the most part, the improv was excellent too.

We slept late the next day, which was relaxing. But, we still managed to get to see the Guggenheim, despite getting lost a few times on the way there. It turns out that people in NYC don’t know where things are unless they’re in their immediate neighbourhood. We knew when we were getting close to the famous giant-snail-shaped museum when people started having a clue what we were asking about. The Guggenheim turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. The big spiral ramp, which is the defining feature of the building, was closed for the installation of a new exhibit. Since the building depends on this ramp for its easy navigation, we were forced to use back staircases and elevators to get from floor to floor. We were constantly running into other confused visitors who couldn’t figure out how to get around the place. It was a bit of a relief to leave there. That night, we had awesome Korean BBQ across the street from the hotel with a friend of mine from journalism school. I haven’t seen her since 1996, but she still looks the same, although more glamorous now that she’s a TV news reporter for Time Warner.

The next day, we hit the MoMA, which was very cool. I really enjoyed seeing the Picasso works in person, which play into something that Laura and I are working on, but I’m still not ready to show yet. There was also a great exhibition about photography printing techniques, which was pretty technical and fascinating to me because I’m a geek.

That night, we walked for quite a long time looking for a place to have dinner. We eventually settled at Five Ninth, and had an amazing meal. We even got a free dessert and 20% off our bill for being subjected to the filming of their TV commercial during our dinner. After dinner, we took the subway to Central Park for the obligatory touristy horse carriage ride. I’m sure we could have negotiated a better price, but we were so excited about finding the horse carriages that we just said, “WE’LL TAKE IT!” and jumped in. Both of us, masterful businesspeople, really.

The next day, we were headed back to Canada again, reversing our route through Penn Station, Newark airport, Toronto Island airport and Union Station. It was an easy and quick ride home.

I’m posting these snaps, even though Laura hates how she looks in them. I think she looks great, and that I don’t look like much of a prize, but to me, the memories of good times are more important than the vanity. Right?

The NYC Subway system makes me feel two different ways:

I’m certain my life was shortened considerably by the air quality underground. The way it made my eyes red and watery was reminiscent of the most industrial zones of China. Especially when we passed by a guy massaging his bare blackened foot that we could smell from a distance of 50 paces.

For some interesting retrospect, here’s a photo of Times Square in the 1940’s from the Library of Congress.

I always seem to have a good time in NYC. The drive down was grueling. It took about 11 hours to get there in our rented Grand Prix, including a couple of hours waiting at the border, and a couple of hours for lunch, dinner and bathroom breaks. The border delay was the worst. Note to self: avoid Queenston Lewiston as a border crossing. Because of construction, every car entered on the far left lane that branched out to about six lanes eventually, but there was no way to know that until you were stuck in that far left lane going nowhere. It took us well over an hour to get through the border.

I think we had to stop about three times to pay tolls within about 20 minutes of the city. I found the placement of this sign just at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel toll gate somewhat ironic. If it was intentional, it’s brilliant.

Arriving in the city brings back memories from previous trips. The sights, sounds, and smells of the place aren’t always pretty, but they’re certainly unique.

At about 11, we checked into the Holiday Inn Express, between 7th and 8th Ave. on West 29th. It’s not a bad place. Pretty generic, with small rooms, small beds, and tiny pillows, but basically clean and a safe home base. A nice touch are the free apples and oranges available at the front desk at all hours. A few of us walked a few blocks to the UCB Theatre after checking in to pick up our performer passes and see some improv.

The next day I took a walk around the city. I was hunting for a place to buy the Canon 24-70mm f2.8L lens. B&H, where I normally buy equipment, is closed on Saturdays, so I couldn’t get it there. No one else seemed to be able to come even close to B&H’s price, so I decided to pick it up on Sunday morning instead, before we left for home. Later in the day I met up with Diny, and then with the rest of BiJ for lunch and warmup. We went on at 2:30pm. It’s always fun to perform at DCM, because you can bet that most of the people in the audience are hardcore improv fans, and they’re going to give you an honest reaction to your set. I think our set was decent. Our suggestion was “creme brulee” and we spun out a montage of scenes from that. We’d decided ahead of time to skip the opening and launch right into it. We’d also decided not to try to get too distracted by form and just have fun. I think the set was was balanced and connected, and we got some good laughs out of it.

After the set, I watched some of the other improv groups perform. Standouts included Them Do This and Rare Bird Show. Both of these teams were inspiring for their smart and funny play.

That night, I had dinner with Nick and some of the other folks I originally met at DSI in North Carolina a couple of years ago. A number of them, including Nick, have moved to NYC to pursue their artistic dreams and careers. That’s pretty cool. It’s certainly not an easy move, but when you’ve gotta do it, you’ve gotta do it. I admire that.

After dinner, I checked out a few more shows. The theatre, by this point, was packed to the point that you couldn’t move, and had a relative humidity of about 98%. Knowing that that humidity was 100% human sweat made it doubly uncomfortable. I made my way back to the hotel and crashed for the night, or at least until my BiJ mates came back at 4am. We stayed up until 7am reliving the day’s events, until we realized how depressing it was that the sun was already coming up and that we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us within a couple of hours.

I slept for a couple more hours and then headed out at 9 to visit B&H again. It so happens that this Sunday is the only Sunday all year that they’re closed. It’s a Jewish holiday. I could have gone to another store to get it, but I decided that fate was trying to tell me something about buying this lens. It was not meant to happen right now. I decided to try to find it in Canada instead.

I strolled back to the hotel, soaking in the morning ambiance of the city. It’ll probably be another year before I make it back again, and I wanted to enjoy it: the smells that wrinkle your nose, the sounds that deaden your ears, and the sights that boggle your mind. It fascinates me that within a couple of months of living in NYC, these things would seem normal, and suddenly anything less would seem bland and unexceptional. That is, unless you’re exceptional and can recognize that each moment is also exceptional, no matter where you are. I’m not sure what my point is.

The drive back was pretty easy, despite Mother Nature hammering us with alternating rain and hail storms. I think we got back in less than nine hours. Sweet.

Well, it’s about to be a hectic couple of weeks. I’m glad that I just got back from an extremely relaxing mini-vacation. Laura and I went up to Collingwood to visit the Spa Scandinave. It’s owned by the same company that operates the spa in Tremblant that we enjoyed so much in January. If you’re looking for a way to unwind, I can definitely recommend it. Alternating pools of hot and cold water, infused with minerals and special salts. Menthol steam room. Finnish sauna. Oh yeah. You’ll be blissed to the point of near unconsciousness. It’s probably more pleasant than it sounds.

We stayed at the Westin Trillium House, which I booked on Aeroplan points from my constant flights to and from Montreal over the last year. What a treat.

The place was beautiful, and for $40/night, I upgraded us to a one-bedroom suite. We had a little kitchen and a living room with DVD player and gas fireplace. Our balcony had a great view of the mountain. The 4pm checkout was a nice touch too.

We also did some hiking and had some fantastic meals, either prepared by us at the hotel, or by talented chefs at restaurants around the area. Our meal at Largo’s in Thornbury was especially memorable. From the best salad I’d ever seen and tasted, to the pork chop topped with braised pork belly, I was in caveman heaven. Everything was so artistically composed that we had to meet the chef. Mark was gracious enough to come out from the kitchen to chat with us for a few moments. He’s a very humble guy who found his passion for cooking as a teen, and never looked back.

We did some hiking too, climbing to the top of the mountain, and then taking the gondola down again. Note to self: climbing ski hills in inappropriate footwear after a rain storm = difficult.

I’m really digging these fields of wildflowers that are everywhere this time of year. I’m going to have to set up some shoots that take advantage of this type of scenery.

So, the hectic couple of weeks that I mentioned starts tomorrow. I’ll be heading to NYC tomorrow morning with a pared-down Big in Japan for the Del Close Improv Marathon. When I get back on Sunday night, I’ll have a couple of days to get organized, and then a film crew is renting my place for a few days to shoot a TV series. While that’s happening, I’ll be staying in a hotel in Toronto. The Toronto improv fest is that weekend, so I’ll be shooting and performing in that.

Anyway, gotta get my act together for NYC. I’ll write more later.

I haven’t posted much about what’s going in in my life lately. Nothing bad is happening. Lots of good things have, actually. Here’s a few highlights:

• Jason Mraz concert with Hesi. That was a lot of fun. We got there late, thinking we’d missed some of Jason Mraz’s performance, but it was just his opening acts, which were also fun. I particularly enjoyed Bushwalla, a hip hop artist who wasn’t afraid to be a bit goofy, but still made serious music.
• Renovations are slowly getting underway here, as you might have guessed from my recent entries. I purchased paint today, and got a ladder in here, so there’s really no excuse not to start painting. That’s going to begin on Wednesday. I’ve also torn up the carpet a bit to see what’s underneath, making sure the floor is in good shape for putting laminate on top. I’ve decided to pay to have someone else do the flooring, partly on the advice given in blog comments here. Thanks folks.
• I did a full weekend intensive workshop with Zach Ward from the Dirty South Improv theatre in North Carolina. It was great to get a refresher workshop on improv. I haven’t had any critique of my improv for quite a long time, and taking the workshop was a great way to get that, from someone who is hella funny and a true master of comedy. I know my improv, particularly tagout skills are improved from having taken his class.
• Big in Japan is going to Chicago at the beginning of June for the mecca of improv festivals, the aptly named Chicago Improv Festival. We’re also applying for the Del Close Marathon in NYC, which happens in August. We’ve been there for the past two years running, so there’s a good chance we’ll go again. I’m excited about the team. In the last few shows, I think we’ve done the best improv we’ve done as a group in ages. We’ve got shows every Tuesday night at the Savannah Room.
• I taught a three-hour photography workshop at a high school in Oakville today. I enjoy this kind of volunteer work. It allows me to corrupt young minds with my own particular ideas about art and photography. Muahhahaha! When I got there, the teacher was leading a drama class. She’d already told them I do improv, so they demonstrated their improv skills for me. They were so into it. I offered to come back and do an improv workshop with that group later, which would be a total blast.

That’s all I have to report for now. I suppose there’ll be more boring pictures of my renovations to come soon!