4 posts tagged “union square”

Tony is getting ready to walk the 20 mile Out of the Darkness Overnight in memory of his brother Tim (you can sponsor him here). In preparation, we took a 12 mile walk on Saturday. It was so cool to walk out of our door in Astoria and walk to the southern tip of Manhattan!

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Here are a few of our pics:

Can you tell I love alliteration?

March is crazy hectic and I love it!  My brother and his girlfriend just visited from Asheville during his college Spring Break. We visited perhaps my favorite place on a Saturday - Union Square, went to the famous independent book store, The Strand, had lunch in Brooklyn at Grimaldis after a wait in the cold for a table.

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And made the trek again to see ASSSSCAT at the Upright Citizens Brigade. I can't tell you how awesome this free Improv show is. There were writers from several shows from the likes of Conan, Colbert, and Daily Show, very talented Improv actors that you wouldn't know outside of that scene, AND Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, and Rachel Dratch from SNL fame performing that night. You never know the lineup in advance - you just go - and laugh - ... -... -...- a lot.

The week before, upon recommendation from two of Tony's friends, we went to see Bedouin Soundclash at the Knitting Factory. I don' know what was cooler - the band or the venue:

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Such a cool week, here are the highlights:

After we rented our apartment, Tony phoned a friend in NoVA, Jenn, to talk about something totally unrelated. She told us that a dear JMU friend lives in our neighborhood in Astoria!  Mary threw a tree trimming party this week and the experience was totally joyful. She has great friends, cooked a gourmet dinner, and ... Christmas trees...a perfect recipe!

Mary asked each of the guests to bring a tree trimming ornament with the stipulations that it has to be homemade with things at your desk. I was totally intimidated because Mary - and her friends - all work in the art industry here in the city. But I did see a green post-it-note calling my name, so I brought the Charlie Brown of ornaments to the party. And of course had a fabulous time.

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This weekend, I built upon my childhood fascination / obsession of the movie, "Sound of Music". I was telling (separately) Tony and Carly, my sister, about how much I love this movie - and this weekend because of it. They both had the same reaction - they burst into laughter. I don't know if it's because they have similar, cynical senses of humor or if I'm truly that comical, but regardless, I had a perfect day yesterday. There is a new book, "Sound of Music Companion", and at a four story Barnes and Noble on the Upper West Side, the author - Laurence Maslon, the Salzburg Marionettes, the president of the Rogers & Hammerstein Foundation, and Kym Karath, "Gretl" - the youngest in the movie - gave a talk about everything Sound of Music. I was surrounded by fans like me and I felt like time stood still while listening to stories of the Von Traps, how the former child actors are all still friends, how the musical was made, and stories of Julie Andrews.

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I then headed down to Union Square. I've been dying to go here for years after reading about the market where all of the who's who of chefs shop and then form their restaurants specials based on what they find. Here's what I found - did you know that brussels sprouts grew like this? (first of all, I didn't even realize there was an 's' at the end of 'brussel'!)

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They have beautiful booths set up for the holidays. I'm dedicating the following pic to Carly, who's back for her first Christmas in three years after living in Turkey. This booth was filled with many of the same items that Carly would give us as gifts. So cool to see the familiar bowls, evil eyes, tiles, and more:

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My favorite purchase of the day is this most gorgeous fresh wreath at an unbelievable bargain price of less than $15

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After coming home to drop my packages off, I headed back into the city to Lexington Avenue - to visit the home of the "little brown bag", and when walking around the block, I stumbled upon Le Cirque, whose entrance is carved out like a horseshoe in the middle of many buildings. I was almost blinded by their Christmas trees - note the scale of the yellow cab for reference:

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Carly asked my what I love most about being here - it's really hard to say. I love that you can have a wonderful time being a party of one - when Tony travels. I really, REALLY love the Sounds of Music. Everywhere you go, you're hearing music - especially in the subway. In the past week, I've heard a mariachi group:

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A doo-wop group - didn't capture them...but they did sing Christmas songs to the tune of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - pretty sweet.

And, lastly, a very impressive classical string quintet, called Elianto (here is a video link from another passerby from a few weeks ago with other violinists)

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