I had the pleasure of working for a week in Los Angeles and as I explored, it was only natural to try to make observations about my surroundings and life in that fair city. My hotel was in Studio City, near Universal Studios. The location was nice and not far from Hollywood.
Los Angeles is very different from NYC, of course. My favorite difference is the subway system. It is sparkling clean, the cars are new and it costs $3/day to ride as much as you want. Also, no one uses it. I rode it a couple of times and it was a constant pleasure to ride.
Of course, the MTA trains are nothing like this. Crowded, noisy, rats on the tracks, two bucks per ride (or $7 per day), trash everywhere and liquids on the platform in the most unexpected places... All that aside, it is far more useful than LA's system. It takes you more places and is far more flexible.
If you didn't know, the past three days have been subway-free, thanks to our Mayor, MTA Employees and a general lack of civility on this earth. The issues aren't really that important to me to discuss. It was a general mess of historic proportions.
Of course, I am ever the optimist. My wife and I met up after she finished work yesterday and we walked around our neighborhood in Brooklyn. What did I discover? It is a short walk to places that take twenty minutes to get to on the subway! Target is a ten minute walk. The gym? About the same. Also, we can get to Fulton Street Mall, downtown Brooklyn, and if we pushed it a bit, Brooklyn Heights! For a city that felt so enormous, It really isn't as bad as you think. Thanks, MTA, for showing me the truth!
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Sunday, December 11, 2005
INCONCEIVABLE!
"Ha ha-- you fool! You just fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The first is: Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Only slightly less known is this: Never go against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line! Ha Ha Ha, Ha Ha Ha, Ha ha HUH!"
My career is rather boring. I try my best to avoid it in this blog, but every once in awhile it will rear its ugly head. In this case, it has to do with celebrities. In New York, celebrities are everywhere. My wife is known to go to the Meatpacking District, if only to catch glimpse of the Olsen Twins or Lindsay Lohan. It's a hobby to try to see them around.
As an opera singer, I meet people who are famous in my little world, but not much more than that. All that changed this Friday when I took an audition for an Off-Broadway play. They needed some opera singers to fill out the cast. Apparently the show had some sort of "opera within the play" and they were specifically looking for tenors in their 30s. I sent them my audition package that morning via email and they asked me to come in that afternoon. It was an exciting offer and I showed up to find that it was the call-backs. Typically, one sings for a casting agent, but when I walked into the room, there were about ten people there including The Celebrity. I've given ample hints as to who it was. The quotes that I gave were from a certain, wonderful family movie starring little Fred Savage. Ok, enough of dropping names. For those of you who knew me back in High School, this film had a huge impact on my formative years. It was all I could do to not start shouting out movie quotes in the rests between my singing!
It was my only my second brush with celebrity since moving here and it was pretty thrilling. I did sing rather well, but on the way out the monitor said that they were looking for someone either ten years older or ten years younger. So goes the show business.
My career is rather boring. I try my best to avoid it in this blog, but every once in awhile it will rear its ugly head. In this case, it has to do with celebrities. In New York, celebrities are everywhere. My wife is known to go to the Meatpacking District, if only to catch glimpse of the Olsen Twins or Lindsay Lohan. It's a hobby to try to see them around.
As an opera singer, I meet people who are famous in my little world, but not much more than that. All that changed this Friday when I took an audition for an Off-Broadway play. They needed some opera singers to fill out the cast. Apparently the show had some sort of "opera within the play" and they were specifically looking for tenors in their 30s. I sent them my audition package that morning via email and they asked me to come in that afternoon. It was an exciting offer and I showed up to find that it was the call-backs. Typically, one sings for a casting agent, but when I walked into the room, there were about ten people there including The Celebrity. I've given ample hints as to who it was. The quotes that I gave were from a certain, wonderful family movie starring little Fred Savage. Ok, enough of dropping names. For those of you who knew me back in High School, this film had a huge impact on my formative years. It was all I could do to not start shouting out movie quotes in the rests between my singing!
It was my only my second brush with celebrity since moving here and it was pretty thrilling. I did sing rather well, but on the way out the monitor said that they were looking for someone either ten years older or ten years younger. So goes the show business.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
My Life, the Carousel (You may want to look at a subway map)
Hop on the G-Train heading towards Queens. Ride the subway to the end. At Long Island City, Change to the E/V line. The "music" kicks up. It's a woman screaming obscenities at no one in particular. People quicken their pace to move past. I'm sure that there are moments when we all wish we could scream like that.
Pop onto the E/V Train and take it one stop to 51st Street. Walk up 5 flights of stairs. It is good for your heart. I could take the escalator but I fear that it ascends so high that I'll end up looking at St. Peter as I walk off. Better the devil you know, and so I take the stairs two at a time.
Walk north to 58th Street, where I go to my office job. Spend the day there, listening to the music of a Scottsman and a Brit teasing each other as they pick out $300/yard fabric.
At 5 p.m., walk back down to 51st street, Catch the E-train to 14th Street in Chelsea. Sing an opera with a small company. The music there? Amahl and the night visitors. Walk back down to 14th street, Grab the C-train to Brooklyn, transfer to the G at Hoyt-Schermerhorn and ascend the stairs to our home.
This is the New York equivalent of a perfect circle. The ups and downs are the variations that I see as I do this same loop day in and day out. The music changes as I go from station to station. I hear steel drum melodies, people playing Christmas Carols on their electric keyboards, jazz trios, and subway dancers who do flips off of the poles in the subway cars as hip-hop blares.
It is a fun ride. Hang on!
Pop onto the E/V Train and take it one stop to 51st Street. Walk up 5 flights of stairs. It is good for your heart. I could take the escalator but I fear that it ascends so high that I'll end up looking at St. Peter as I walk off. Better the devil you know, and so I take the stairs two at a time.
Walk north to 58th Street, where I go to my office job. Spend the day there, listening to the music of a Scottsman and a Brit teasing each other as they pick out $300/yard fabric.
At 5 p.m., walk back down to 51st street, Catch the E-train to 14th Street in Chelsea. Sing an opera with a small company. The music there? Amahl and the night visitors. Walk back down to 14th street, Grab the C-train to Brooklyn, transfer to the G at Hoyt-Schermerhorn and ascend the stairs to our home.
This is the New York equivalent of a perfect circle. The ups and downs are the variations that I see as I do this same loop day in and day out. The music changes as I go from station to station. I hear steel drum melodies, people playing Christmas Carols on their electric keyboards, jazz trios, and subway dancers who do flips off of the poles in the subway cars as hip-hop blares.
It is a fun ride. Hang on!
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