New York City recap

So I was just in New York City for approximately 18 hours, give or take.

Our band flew up to the Big Apple to participate in a half-hour-long show and interview with Faith Salie, and also some interview with a group called Uncensored.com.

This is us walking from the Blue Spoon Cafe down the block to the WNYC building, home of PRI, the station where we did our interview and show. I should've taken pictures in the Blue Spoon Cafe, but I ate the most amazing soup and panini there. It was Hungarian Mushroom, and probably is the only soup I've ever had that rivals the Smoky Portabello Mushroom soup from Artist Point, where I used to work.Whoops, I am slipping into Food Network mode...

Some awesome parts about the trip:

1) feeling like a rock star for flying in and out of New York for the day. heck yeah!

2) The interview with Faith Salie--She's apparently some kind of actress and comedian in addition to being a delightful radio host, and she had me laughing all over, even when she jokingly suggested I should grow a beard along with the guys if we ever go to Afghanistan. In my mind I retorted, "No thanks, I'll just wear the burka" but unfortunately that attempt at riposte just sat in my brain.

Also, Ryan and Matt taught Faith some new vocabulary words, including "dross" and "djembe." Always fun to expand the vocab.


This is my view from the piano inside the studio, with Tim on casio in the foreground and Greg on electric: Jeremy's back and Ryan as we're getting our levels and doing sound check:


This is what I see:
This is always what I see. Oh how I miss playing on Steinways:(


I was trying to be all discreet with the self portrait thing, and nixed the flash, hence the blurriness.


3) seeing Brian Cox in the lobby of WNYC.
This must be my week for spotting famous people. I saw Ryan, the radio station guy and some large man walking down the hallway, and for some reason I thought Ryan knew this fellow,(who was wearing a fedora and black overcoat, looking all sinister and important), because Ryan honestly looked like he was trying to pickpocket him, he was trailing Fedora Man so closely. The guy escorted Mr. Fedora to the elevator and then came to attend to the rest of us band members, who were lounging in the lobby. The guy came up to us and said, "That was Brian Cox." "What? Striker from X-Men 2? The bad Treadstone guy from the Bourne Supremacy?" "Yes, yes, that guy. Also, he was in Rushmore." Basically, if he hasn't rung a bell yet in your head, Brian Cox nearly always plays a shady government operative in those political thrillers. Yep. He's THAT GUY. Even if you don't recognize his name, you'd probably recognize him if you saw him.

Unless you see him randomly in a poorly lit radio station lobby near the elevator like me.

He was also in Braveheart, playing William Wallace's crazy, soup-slurping one-eyed uncle, so that's pretty cool right? And also King Agammenon in Troy (Yes, the one where Orlando Blooms' hormones cause the downfall of an entire nation...)

3) The crazy awesome Japanese food that rewarded us after all of our trekking around Manhattan.
I think it was called Sappora East, located in the East Village on Tenth Street and 1st. At any rate, the food was marvelous and pretty reasonably priced for what you get. I had the loveliest bowl of miso soup I'd ever had, a nice perfectly dressed ginger salad, pork dumplings, something like 10 pieces of sushi and chicken teriyaki.

4) Just being in New York with all of the shiny happy people. Whoever said New Yorkers are unfriendly has not spent any time there. I think I talked to more friendly strangers in those two days than in the past two months in Orlando.

The not so awesome parts:
1) lugging around our equipment and bags through the New York City subway system all day
2) some lame questions that the guys at uncensored.com asked us and the equally lame answers that I gave. I'm glad I'm surrounded by five guys who are witty and articulate and culturally-savvy enough to answer out-of-left field questions completely unrelated to music. I'm going to have to hone my interview ability.
3)Not hearing myself too well during the recording of the first track. The headphone mix seemed to improve by the second song, but it's always scary when you're singing and you can't hear yourself too well. Crazy, not melodious sounding-things can happen in those scary moments. Yowzers.
4) Having to get up at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning and book it to the airport to catch a flight that ended up being delayed.

Anyway, how about that LOST season premiere last night? Craaaaazy. The creepy pseudo-Oceanic guy that intimidated Hurley had me hiding behind a couch pillow.