Californication: San Jose and San Francisco

Summer Adventures

Everyday is an adventure: some big, some small, some I simply cannot tell you about! But just because I’m not in Asia, doesn’t mean this Adventurer’s asides has to end!
Since coming back, my adventures have multiplied! Here are a few highlights of Summer 2009:

- Memorial Day with the Family
- Getting to know New Haven, CT, as the Hillhouse Opera Company’s Production Manager
- Ithaca, NY (Twice!) to see my sister’s family and my newest nephew, Parker; also, a good high school friend lives in town.
- Ipswich (near Boston), Mass to see another good high school friend. We saw Billy Joel and Elton John live in concert at the Pats stadium; awesome, awesome, awesome show! Two killer musicians and outstanding performers…hearing Billy Joel play Italian Restaurant rocked my world!
- Buffalo, NY to see college friend and roommate, and her fiancé (and their brand new house!)
- Slippery Rock, and Pittsburgh, PA to see cousins I haven’t seen in ages… aunts, uncles, grandparents…it was a great celebration of a soon-to-be new addition to the family.
- Washington, DC to visit my old stomping grounds and visit college friends.
- And of course, I spent plenty of time in Allentown, PA with my family—celebrated the birthdays of both my nieces, Father’s Day, Mom’s birthday, etc, AND I started Acupuncture, which I LOVE! Think about it, Chinese medicine has been around for over 3,000 years. It’s all about balancing your body. Makes sense to me! I’ve never felt better/more relaxed.
- San Jose/San Fransisco, CA to visit Roshni (high school best buddy!), Andrew (friend from my GW days) and my cousin Melora. It's crazy how you land in California, and you FEEL like you're in California. People have a whole different aura here. It's great! What a relaxing feel!

But the highlight of highlights of Summer 2009 has been living in New York City! (Despite the fact that I’ve slept on 15 different beds, sofas, cots or floors, I still had a home base, and it was Manhattan.)

I’ve lived in PA, DC London, Dublin AND Singapore (some would even count Amsterdam…I did have a key after all…), but I’ve never lived anywhere like New York. You’re talking to someone who has traveled to 4 continents, 24 countries, 32 states, and I don’t know how many cities around the world, and I am still blown away by New York City. It is unlike anywhere else in the world. And while I know I’m no expert, it’s true what they say: you can’t really understand or fully appreciate NYC until you live there.

Things I LOVE about this city:

Everyone’s a character—everywhere you turn! Yes, it’s a city full of crazy people, but it’s a vibrant, colorful city! Never a dull moment.

The subway system. I LOVE riding the subway (this is where you encounter all the characters after all!) And you can get anywhere! At first I didn’t get the base-price concept (no matter where you go, it’s $2.25), but that means you can go anywhere, and not pay more than that. And, while the unlimited passes feel like a lot, you end up using it constantly, so that saves you money. The NYC subway is easy and interesting (once you get the hang of it) and it blows my mind that I hear more languages being spoken in the subways of NYC than in half of Asia! (Singapore at least…) And you can hear better musicians playing in the subway stations of NY than in a jazz club in Singapore! And I love when a mariachi band, or a string quartet, boards the subway and plays for a stop or two. Amazing. And to see the looks on the faces of people who are experiencing this for the first time (mine was certainly a look of shock and awe, I’m sure)!

I lived on 106 and Amsterdam only a few blocks away from the Park (Central Park: another mind-blowingly amazing thing about NYC! A giant, often peaceful or serene park, which spans about 50 blocks) in the middle of the biggest, baddest city in the world! It’s almost an anomaly, but that’s what makes this city so great!

I love this neighborhood. (It’s on the cusp of the Upper West Side and Harlem… it’s gentrified name is “Morningside Heights”, not far from Columbia turf. But it has the feel of a neighborhood. I see people walking down the street that I know from my building, or the bar, or whatnot.

Amsterdam 106. It’s not just the cross-section of where I live, but also the friendly neighborhood bar, which is directly across the street. Cheap beer, great drafts, chill ambiance. Everyone in this bar is a regular. It’s inevitable that you get to know the customers and the staff. I used it as my home office. I like to go during the day when it’s quieter and I can take advantage of the free wireless Internet. Before I got to know the staff, I was also able to get some writing done during the day. (Chatty bartenders tend to get in the way of productivity!) And come 6pm, it’s packed every night til close!

Now for my favorite spot in NYC: Bryant Park. Nice midtown location, BP’s got a lot going on! The best time to people watch is during the lunch hour: you’ve got Free Chess Lessons, Bocchi Ball, people eating lunch on the grass, and my personal favorite: ping pong! In the summer they have a weekly movie screening of classics (every Mon. night at sundown). I saw Harold and Maude there.

Another intriguing thing about NYC are the nightclubs where everyone in the place is drop-dead gorgeous, so much so that you question whether you entered an alter-reality (and NO I’m not referring to a drunken state!), and then you go back the next week, only to discover that not a single person is attractive, and it makes you wonder, “did I dream up the whole thing?”

Other places/activities I loved about NYC or enjoyed while I was here:

Brooklyn! Thrift stores, second hand book-shops, music clubs with names like Goodbye Blue Monday, where everything in the bar is for sale. (My friends from Hello Society played there!)

July 4th fireworks on the Hudson (roof top terrace on the NJ side, overlooking the NYC skyline!)

Sailing around Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty. (Roommate’s birthday)

The incredible array of art and museums. I visited: The Met, the MoMA (film screenings and music and all!), The Guggenheim, The Natural History Museum, The International Center of Photography, The City Museum, The Galleries in Chelsea…
Yay for Pay What You Can nights!

Jazz clubs that are only a block away—Smoke; Afro-Cuban jazz on sun. nights, awesome!

I love that men in this city know how to flirt…they’re attractive and smart (but they know it, ugh) and they buy you drinks! (Not a big custom in Singapore…)

I love that everyone’s an actor, or singer, or painter, or musician.

I love that I meet multiple new people on a daily basis.

I spent a lot of time writing, and workshopping scripts. It was relatively easy to find people to read parts and participate in the development process. I had three readings: one, a “public” reading at NYU, of a one act play that I rehearsed and workshopped (on my roof! Add that to the list of things I love about NYC…roof top access! Oh, and while we’re at it, 24-hour deli’s that don’t overcharge!) I also had two table reads of new drafts; Atlantico, my feature length screenplay which I worked on this summer, and The Man Who Invented Himself, my Robert Capa piece which I am developing.

New York City is inspiring and there are always people who want to participate in the artistic process. Love it.

Oh! And how could I forget the theater!! Easy access to theater. I saw two Broadway plays (yay for student rush tix!): Irena’s Vow, and, Blithe Spirit. And the fact that there are always readings of new work going on—I saw a reading at the New Dramatist by an NYU professor, and a one-man show by Matthew Maguire.
And who doesn’t have love-hate relationship with Times Square? The bright lights, the seductive allure? And yet the overcrowded annoying tourists… But I love that they made Broadway into a pedestrian street and you can recline in the middle of Times Square!

Ahhh, summer in New York…who could ask for anything more?