Break from Memorial Day recap.... Sex and The City

So I don't know if any one knows, but this little film about the Sex And The City tv show came out two weeks ago. Not a big feature film or anything, no reference to New York, nope nothing at all to care about. Seriously, it was a big deal here, even if people think the movie is kinda lame. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I got to go to a SatC party. Here's my summary of that evening.

So, my friend Alison works at Maxus. It's this media planning company that is the sister firm to Mindshare. I doubt you've heard of either of them. Anyway, they do work with TV Guide. Alison got invited to go the the Sex AndThe City party that TV Guide was throwing. It was at the bar that the actor who plays "Mr Big" owns. I have no clue who this character is other than he's Sarah Jessica Parker's love interest. Anyway, I end up going with her. It was ok I guess. It was an open bar with finger foods. No one famous was there. It was mainly a small party. I think if we drank it would have been more fun, but alas, we don't. We had some cherry cokes (which the bar tender had never heard of before!? crazy!), snacked on some food, and talked to some people Alison knew. We ended up staying for about 45 minutes... basically leaving around 8ish... way early for any party in New York.

The only really entertaining thing that happened was when we were leaving. So Alison stops to say bye to her TV Guide rep that invited us, and right when we are about to leave, this other TV Guide lady came up and asked us if we had gotten our share of the free Trojan Condoms they were giving out. See, Maxus had just gotten a contract with Trojan and they worked it to do a little product placement at the party, thus the free condoms. Anyway, when you're a 22 year old it's hard for people to imagine that no you don't want them, nor will you be using them any time soon. So when we said we didn't get any and were preceding to explain way, we were cut off and had condoms forced on us to take home. So yes folks, I am now the "proud" owner of a handful of condoms... sheesh. What in the world am I supposed to do with them!? If anyone wants them...well, don't let me know, I really don't want to know about that part of your lives... eww. Anyway....When we finally got out, we were laughing none stop for a few about the whole thing.

So the party was a bit of a bust, but it ended on an entertaining note.

Oh as a side...

I know a couple of people who read this aren't to "up on blogging", so just so you know, if you click on a picture, i'tll show you a larger one so you can see better details. Enjoy!

The ACK-attack weekend Catch-up Part 2: Friday

So, where did I leave off? Oh yes, Friday.

Friday was an interesting day for me. First of all, I didn't go to work. My wonderful supervisor let me have it off. Normally when you get a day off, you sleep in. Did I? Heck no. Why you ask? Well, you see, because I came out to New York with the rest of the BYU Comms department, that meant that there were broadcast interns throughout the city with us. One of these interns just so happens to work at the Today Show (that's the NBC morning magazine show) and she hooked up the group with VIP tickets to the Toyota Summer Concert series show that Friday where Alanis Morrissette would be playing to promote her new album that comes out June 10th. Now I realize that to most people they really don't care anything for Alanis, but I happen to be a fan of hers, so I was really excited and convinced the Trio (and Kim) to join me at 6:30 AM outside Rockefeller Center to stand in a blocked off portion of the street for three hours, to listen to as Brother Safsten puts it "Angry Lesbian Music". (Note: Alanis isn't necessarily a lesbian... she just sings about being angry at guys sometimes.) Oh the joy!

Now, I didn't really get great pictures from the Today Show, you'll need to see Kim's blog for those. I was kinda running on about four hours of sleep so I forgot my camera. But I did get a couple from Cami's camera and from screen captures of NBC.com. Speaking of which, if you go to the Today Show website, you can find the video clips of Alanis's performances, which you can see us in! Anyway, while we were there waiting, be got the great pleasure to hear the same three songs about four times each. Alanis played "Ironic", "THank You", and "Underneath"- her new single. I happened to enjoy hearing her live, she's really good live (even Ashley agreed there and she doesn't like her music), but after a while I started to have flash back to my vacation in Destin Florida in 4th grade where the local TV kept playing the "Ironic" music video over and over again. There is only so many times you can stand hearing a song with a bunch of gay guys standing in front of you singing along before you start to go mad. We hit that point at about 7:30, and we weren't leaving until 9. Anyway, point being, we got to be on the Today Show and saw a brief, but good, live concert for free, with really good "seats". Here are some pictures from the event.

This is from a screen capture on NBC.com. So that means this was shown on national television! See how close we were! Cool! I could even see reasonable well and you guys know how short I am.










Just another Screen capture. I've marked our heads with yellow dots.








This is a picture taken on Cami's camera. It does a good job at showing how close we really were.

Oh, and did I mention it was Fleet Week, so there were a ton of sailors there? No, well now I did.











Here's Ashley and Cami. According to Kim, they woke up pretty much ten minute before they had to leave. Don't they look so happy to be awake!






After the Today Show, we went and had breakfast and then walked around Midtown. We saw St. Paul's, Sack's 5th Ave, the American Girl Store, the Macy's flag ship store, the Empire State Building, and we even had time to stop by H&M and get Kyle a snazzy new jacket. I don't know how we managed to walk as much as we did that early in the morning and on so little sleep but we did. It might have been because Kim, who was running on the most sleep, was playing tour guide for us. Thanks again Kim, you're awesome. Here are a pic from our jaunt.






This is St. Paul's. It's near Rockefeller Center. It's a cool old catholic cathedral. I could tell you all about the historical significance it plays in American art... but I'll spare you. Moving on.










I think we may have tried to do too much too soon on Friday because when we stopped by Kim's after our walk, everyone pretty much crashed. We were planning on walking down to the Brooklyn Bridge and going to get some pizza at a really good pizzeria, but no one could function. We opted to watch some of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and relax. Kyle was the main reason why we were going to watch this. He'd never seen it before and we were going to see the play that night. Well, Kyle ended up passing out about 5 minutes in. Then Cami and Ashley quickly followed. I, on the other hand, decided to head back up town and change for the play. So while everyone else slept, I was traveling on the subway. Just so you know, during the weekends here, the subway goes crazy with construction. A normal 30 minute ride turns into a hour or more. Oh joy. But I did manage to get some revenge.



Here's sleeping Kyle, unknowing having a wet-willie coming his way. Ok, so I didn't actually do it, but it was fun to pretend. He didn't even move an inch the whole time... and I got pretty close to his ear too.








After nap time, we went off to dinner at some pizza place in the Financial district. It was called Adrianne's. Like from Rocky. It was crap. We got horrible service. Our server, a little Hispanic guy, only came to us to take our orders and to give us the check. I think he was annoyed we weren't getting alcohol so he wasn't going to make a big tip. Basically he was rude and mean to us, and didn't get much of a tip at all. For dessert we got Crumb cupcakes. These are these big cupcakes that Martha Stewart likes. It wasn't half bad. Really needed some milk. I had fun feeding the sparrows my extras and scaring my friends with the birds coming close to us. (I think I was starting to get a little loopy around this time from lack of sleep.) Oh, we did see something cool though. We were down by the East River at this point, and if you've ever seen "Fool's Rush In", here's the helacopter pad from the movie where Matthew Perry decides he needs to go back to Vegas and be with Salma Hayek.

















From dinner, we preceded to head up to Times Square to see Spamalot. We got there a little early, so we killed time by heading into Toys'R'us! FUN! Really, it was. The thing you need to know about Times Square is that everything there is like mini Vegas. It's all over the top and there just to please the tourists. So inside the Toy store, they had tons of cool displays. Here are some pictures.




Times Square at Dusk
























the Trio (and Me) on the Elevator.











Kyle by the Mack 5 from the new Speed Racer movie.
















Cami at the entrance to Barbie Land.



















Me and Lego Captain Jack Sparrow. I really was on one with sparrows that night now that i think about it.














and finally.... the T-Rex!





He was animated! He moved and made sounds.















I've got a lot more from Toys'R'us, but for the time being I'll move on. Now we did eventually make it to Spamalot! It was hallrious. It was pretty much a straight rip off of the movie at times, but it was reeally fun to see. I highly recommend it to any Monty Python fan, or anyone in general. Yes even you Tiffany! You would enjoy it, I know it! Don't be a broadway snob on me just because you know a whole heck of a lot more... trust the Wise One. Have I ever lead you astray before? Anyway, sorry there, after the show, we headed back home for the night. We did have some fun on the train though. Here are the final pics for Friday's adventuring.






Here's the Sign on the corner of the Shurbert Theatre. Spamalot won Best Musical in 2005 at the Tony's.


It really was sooooooo fun.













Outside the doors, they have a cut out so you can be a (insert fake accent here) Silly French Knight. In honor of the play, here are some fun quotes to go along with the pics


Here's me!


French Soldier: I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.



















Ashley the Knight


French Soldier: You don't frighten us, English pig dogs. Go and boil your bottoms, you sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called "Arthur King," you and all your silly English K-nig-hts.













Kyle....



Knight 1: We are now no longer the Knights who say Ni.
Knight 2: NI.
Other Knights: Shh...
Knight 1: We are now the Knights who say...”Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-PTANG. Zoom-Boing. Z'nourrwringmm.











and finally Cami.


Black Knight: Right, I'll do you for that!
King Arthur: You'll what?
Black Knight: Come here!
King Arthur: What are you gonna do, bleed on me?
Black Knight: I'm invincible!
King Arthur: ...You're a loony.













This is just a random pic of Ashley and Kyle on the subway... don't they look like they're checking each other out! Ha! I get a kick out of this each time I look at it.




Anyway, that's Friday. I'll be back... hopefully sooner... with Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Keep a look out.

The ACK-attack weekend Catch-up Part 1: Thursday

I promised last week that I would get around to making a "play-by-play" summary of how my Memorial Day weekend went with Ashley, Cami, and Kyle here in New York, so here we go. I'm going to break this down into days they were here. We did a whole lot of stuff, so this will be the best way to do it. So without further delay, here's the first installment of ACK-Weekend!

Thursday:

So, the traveling trio ended up taking a red-eye flight in to the city which meant they showed up around 7 in the morning. Unfortunately for them, because they were going to be staying in Kim's apartment (or one of the guy's in the ward's place in Kyle's case) and she would be off at work by the time they got into the city, they couldn't get into the apartment until that afternoon. So they came up to my place to drop off their stuff for the day and then had to go play tourist for the day until I got off work. Basically they were dead on their feet. Who knew that going with barely any sleep would make you tired? Oh or the fact the Kyle was still basically running on Sydney time because he had just gotten back from a Young Ambassadors trip on the Monday before. Crazy, no? Anyway, so I headed off to work, and they headed off around town with the help of my trusty tourist books with subway map inserts.

While I was off making a powerpoint presentation on Nielsen's latest report on America's readiness to the switch to Digital TV next year, (which just so happened to be presented to clients this past Thursday i might add) Ashley, Cami and Kyle went off and saw Tiffany's on Fifth Ave, the MET, and an unfortunately fruitless attempt at the Guggenheim which was closed that day. Here are some pictures of them during their journey.





This is Ashley and Cami outside the Tiffany's on Fifth Avenue. Each got a new ring. Honestly, I don't even want to know how much they cost... but they wore them all weekend, so they must really like them.










Here's Ashley and Kyle on the Roof top of the Met. Thursday was the only day that it was rainy the whole time they were here. They actually got really lucky and it was basically done raining by the time they got up to the I-House that morning, so it was just nasty looking, but not all that bad otherwise. It was just a little cool.

Oh, don't they look so happy to be awake! (trust me, they'll get better as the days go by... sort of.)






So, since I wasn't with them during the day, I stole these pictures off Cami's camera. This is by far my favorite of the pictures they took of the art inside the MET. Why you ask? Well, if you can't tell, they censored Perseus (the guy holding Medusa's head)! This is a tradition Greek male nude. He's supposed to look like this, no clothes and what not. Since Perseus was a guy he's... um, he's all there we'll say. When it's art, nudity can be ok to show sometimes... oh well, I'm amused at least. Must be all those art history classes paying off some.... moving on.





When I finally got to meet up with them later that afternoon, we had just enough time to get their things from my room and book it downtown to Kim's before she went off to see the new Indiana Jones movie (which I still want to go see sometimes myself... even my parents have seen it and I haven't!) Anyway, we get down to Kim's and the Trio changed clothes cause we're heading off to Wicked! Yes ladies and gents, my first ever Broadway show! And can I just say, it was great! True, it was the stereotypical musical that all Mormons are seeing now, but hey, it was still a good show. The set was cool, the music was lovely, and the cast was great. Glinda and Elphaba (that's the Wicked Witch of the West) got their hair stuck together at one point which was really funny. I think Glinda was my favorite. I will never be able to watch the Wizard of Oz again without seeing Glinda as a flighty dumb blonde again! Ha! My favorite line was one of hers. "Just let the girl and her little dog 'Do-Do' go Elphie. They're just shoes for goodness sakes!"... well, you'll get it if you see it. It's pretty darn funny. We had a good time, even if we didn't get to sit together.





Here's Ashley and Cami next to one of the posters outside the theater.









After Wicked we called it a night. We had big plans for Friday and the Travelers were basically dead on their feet at this point. So I took them back down town for beddy-bye, and headed home myself to catch as much sleep as possible so we could make it to the Today Show by 6:30 the next morning...

Well, I'll be leaving it there for now. I'll be back soon with more of the weekend events and many more pictures, maybe even a movie clip or two. You'll just have to wait and see. Night folks!