Eye Candy Because I Badly Need It Right Now

Wow, do I need a pick me up! Today was a very VERY VERY bad day at work so here’s a little something to lighten my mood and hopefully your mood as well. Call it my tour of eye candy.

Starting with a goodie:

Some Firth action:

Indulge me:

Wish I could get his sexy voice on here too:

Vampire Segment:

And of course:

How about vampire adjacent?:

How about writer of vampire musical?:

Which obviously leads me to:

More funny guys:

I’d pay so much to be in the middle of these three:

I am hotness (and so can you!):

Another New York person:

How about some singers:

And of course, my Michael:

Yep, that never fails. 🙂

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“I know you know who I am” – Weekend Trip to NYC

So I was all in a rush this morning to get my photos developed from my last two trips to New York City and the digital CD I got of the photos is corrupt so I can’t post them on here. GRRRRR! So, just use your imagination.

Anyway, had an awesome weekend trip to NYC with friend of the blog Sarah this past weekend. We met up at about noonish and after a brief unloading of luggage at our hotel on 6th Ave, we headed out to Central Park, just gabbing and walking around for a few hours. Eventually we landed on a bench on Central Park West and just people watched for awhile. It was very nice. The weather was perfect: 80s, sunny with a nice breeze.

Here is where a picture of the Booth Theater where Next to Normal was playing would have been.

Saturday night we went to see Next To Normal which, after a full today of listening to the CD non-stop, might be my new favorite musical. Before the show and after a brief yet intense rain downpour, we went to a nifty burger place just off of Times Square for appetizers. Cannot for the life of me think of the name but the food was good and decently priced. I already have gushed about the show. After we went to another really cool restaurant off of Times Square. Can’t remember the name unfortunately but it was next to a dueling piano bar. This restaurant, and this is no joke and no exageration, had the best burger I’ve ever had in my life. The thing was huge and thick and juicy, covered with barbeque sauce that was also some of the best I’ve ever had. That burger was the best thing I’ve eaten all year, no question.

here is where a picture of what was left of the burger would have been.

Sunday morning after Sarah and I left are laughably tiny two bed hotel room, we went to walk the Brooklyn Bridge (I admit I got the directions a little wrong, sorry about that!) The Brooklyn Bridge was pretty damn awesome. I had never been there before and it’s always fun to do something new. Got loads of great pictures:

Here is me on the Manhattan side of the bridge, getting ready to go over. See I’m supporting my Mets!:

Here is a view of the Statue of Liberty, awesome cause I hadn’t seen it since I was like 4:

Here is Manhattan from the Brooklyn side of the bridge:

Here is my signature picture of Sarah and I, taken by yours truly. Gettin’ pretty good at those:

Cute right? I still hate how I look in pictures. You don’t have to disagree. 🙂

On the way back to our hotel to pick up luggage, we came across the annual gay pride parade going down 5th Ave. We had some extra time so we stopped to watch for about half an hour. It was a pretty festive atmosphere though I had expected the parade to be more flamboyant than it was. It was mostly just people marching down the street and us cheering at their various messages of diversity and sexual tolerance.

Here’s some of the floats:

Here’s one of a particularly striking queen. I really loved her frilly rainbow thing she had on:

I have to say though, I’ve seen much better drag queens walking around Provincetown but hey. 🙂

So that was pretty much it. Sarah’s bus was a little before mine so I went to the Borders by the bus stop and got the Next to Normal CD and ended up chatting with the cashier about the show which she loved too.

The bus ride home really suckedas the bus had little to no air conditioning and we got stuck in traffic for like an hour trying to get out of the city and then again getting onto the Mass Turnpike. Stuck in traffic in New York, I really thought I wasn’t going to make it. It was so hot and stuffy on that bus I could barely breathe but it did seem to get better as we went along. Still, 5 hours to get from New York to Boston is a little extreme I think. I have more to say on that subject but I’ll save it for another post.

Besides that little blip, it was a very fun weekend. And once again, I realized how much I would love to live in New York. To spend a day people watching in Central Park, go to all these fabulous shows, the museums, just walking around the city and being a part of that energy – it all appeals to me very much. Some day I guess. 🙂

Oh, and I finally have figured out where that big ass New York & Company store is in the city! East upper 50s on Lexington by Bloomingdales. Girls, we HAVE to go. It looked huge!

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“And I’m alive, I’m alive, I am so alive…” – “Next To Normal” 6/27/09 Booth Theater, NYC

I loved it, I loved it, I loved it. One of the best shows I’ve seen in years (which is saying something)… and I’m not telling you a damn thing more about it.

Sorry but this is one of those shows I can’t talk about.  I normally like to know shows before I see them but Next to Normal was a huge exception. I didn’t know a thing going in and that’s absolutely the way to see it.

Be warned Boston friends, I will be trying to persuade to go see this.

I’m serious, that’s all I’m saying about it. 🙂

ETA: In love with the CD!!!! Though one of the characters on it is different from the guy Sarah and I saw on Saturday and I prefer the one we saw live but this one’s good too. Sarah will know what I’m talking about. 🙂

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“I’m starting with the man in the mirror…”

UPDATE: Even now, this next morning, I still can’t believe Michael Jackson died. The images of fans holding vigil basically everywhere is incredibly moving. MTV ran an all-night marathon of Jackson’s videos. I woke up this morning early and watched “Thriller” and “Billie Jean” and all of those classics. Just still so sad. Of all the celebrities that have gone through struggles, I thought Michael Jackson was the one most likely to bounce back from it.

It’s just another thing from my childhood that’s gone now. Inevitable, I know, but still humbling.

Shocking. I don’t know how else to describe it. Michael Jackson died this afternoon at the very young age of 50. For all the circus surrounding him the last decade, Michael Jackson will be remembered as a revolutionary and legendary musical artist. The King of Pop. He had been making music, in collaborations and on his own, for the past 40+ years, his songs are played throughout the world…still. And the saddest part is that it seemed he was on his way back, a European tour starting in just less than a month or so.

No, wait. That isn’t the saddest part. The saddest part is that he leaves behind three children who suddenly don’t have a father. He leaves behind siblings and parents and millions of fans worldwide. I can understand their devastation. From a fan’s point of view, if a performer I was in admiration of were to one day just not be there anymore, I would be done for.

Personally, Michael Jackson brings back a lot of really fond memories for me. As the years have passed, I don’t remember much about growing up, about the time when my family was just the four of us. But I do remember our car trips, listening to my parents’ music. Most of that was Michael Jackson. I remember singing at the top of our lungs to the song “Man in the Mirror” and I remember all of us gathering around the TV for the world premiere of the “Black and White” video. I remember my mother vehemently supporting Jackson through the onslaught of legal troubles that ensued and I remember listening to Michael Jackson well after those first allegations. I remember being scared of the “Thriller” video and and watching Jackson and his sister Janet in that crazy-ass “Scream” video. For me, Michael Jackson will forever be linked with those childhood memories of when life was just a bit simpler. His was music the four of us could listen to and enjoy.

I feel for Michael Jackson’s family tonight. No matter what you thought of him, you can’t wish that kind of pain on any family. It’s just all really shocking. As my mother and I said this evening after she told me the news, death just sucks. Every time.

If nothing else, he’ll be remembered for this:

Its close to midnight and something evils lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You’re paralyzed…

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Ouch!

David Wright got hit by a pitch in last night’s shut-out loss to the Cardinals.

Again, 😦

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Crap

According to playbill.com, Will Chase is joining Billy Elliot. Grrr. I had resigned myself to not seeing this show until it tours and now an actor I would love to see again is in it.

😦

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“I buy my loaf of bread, continue with my day.”

Some thoughts for a cold and dreary Wednesday:

• It has been such a gloomy, rainy, cold and blah month of June that I think I’m even beyond complaining about it. It’s just a way of life now. I had heard earlier in the week that it would get warm this weekend and that is definitely not happening now. The good news is that tomorrow and next Tuesday seem to be, as of right now, sunny days. The weekend looks hit and miss. Oh well.
• I, and it seems many of my fellow commuters, am tired of waiting for summer to get here. I’ve been defying the watery skies, bravely daring to wear sandals on some these rainy days. Though my feet are getting quite wet and cold, it feels good to be doing something – ANYTHING – remotely summery. I highly recommend it.
• For the love of God, MBTA, turn on the fucking air on your buses and T trains. In this kind of humidity, when everyone has long pants and rain jackets on, it is absolutely boiling on those vehicles. Every year we go through this and it is just ridiculous. You don’t have to blast the AC, just get the air circulating or something. PLEASE!
• So my boss is getting married in August and for the past few months I’ve seen him have to suffer through all the preparation for the big day. This has prompted me to not want to do a wedding. He keeps complaining about the money and his lack of time and all that and it just seems to me that it isn’t worth it in the end for me. I still say eloping is the way to go, spend the money on the honeymoon and then come back and have a reception for everyone.
• Harvard announced yesterday it plans to lay off 275 employees within the next weeks. So glad now I didn’t get hired there 3 years ago. I would definitely have been let go, though…well I won’t talk about that on here I guess. 🙂
• Even the sportscasters on WFAN broadcasting the Mets/Cardinals game are complaining about the rain!
• Speaking of, Huffington Post has a feature on NY sports stars and their significant others and David Wright’s girlfriend is, unfortunately, insanely hot.  So not fair.

TIMELINE:

• 3 days until Nicki and Sarah’s big New York adventure and Next to Normal! To those I told I could get you the CD, my coworker has not given it to me yet so sorry about that.
• 1 week until Johnny Depp and his new movie Public Enemies
• 3 weeks until Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!!! Midnight show baby!
• 4.5 weeks until Rent!
• A month and a half until Nicki, Laura and Alyssa’s great adventure to New York! I’m getting more and more ideas ladies! Ones I think you’ll actually like.
• Less than 3 months until the first Patriots game. If I think back, 3 months ago I had just turned 26. Not that long to go then. 🙂

So there you have it. The news is just too depressing right now, I can’t even think about it. Between the chaos in Iran, North Korea threatening to shoot a missle at Hawaii (WTF?), the endless fighting between the Dems and the Republicans/media blowhards, the continuing economic struggles and then this weather, I desperately need to focus on keeping my mood up. That usually means I need to post a picture:

Aw, they look so young!

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Totally Chucked – Update

Yes, I know I was supposed to post this Saturday but time has run away from me. Hope to get it up by the end of the week.

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OMG, that is terrifying!

This is all over the web this morning but I couldn’t resist. Photos from Tim Burton’s upcoming film Alice in Wonderland were released and, well, OH MY GOD:

That’s Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. Seriously guys, that is terrifying to me and not in a good way. You know I’m scared of clowns and Depp in this picture looks like the scariest type of clown I can imagine, with that sinister grin and those creepy-ass eyes! Staring at this picture makes me feel like I’m going to go insane.

And this sucks because I really wanted to see this movie, coming out in 2010 (putting my fear of this picture aside, the movie sides wicked awesome). But I don’t know how I can sit through a movie with a character in it like that. I mean, I can barely look at it. Wow.  Look at the hands! It’s like he’s a dead clown that crawled out of a grave or something.

What do you guys think?

Side note: Equally horrifying picture:

Look at how clean Obama’s Oval Office desk is! This picture is from June 10th! My desk wasn’t that clean the first day I got it!

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“Just stand out there and stick your glove out in the air”

ETA: I think Jon Stewart and his family might have been at the game yesterday. At the beginning, they showed him on the big screen holding his daughter (adorable btw) saying “Let’s Go Mets!” It looked like the same kind of live video they did throughout the rest of the game so it is possible he was really there. That’d be kind of random if it was a canned video that they show, though maybe they have  a special celeb greeting at all the games? I don’t know.  Cool to see him on the big screen though!

Double bonus points if you can name the movie that quote comes from.

*All pictures from the 6/21/09 Mets v. Rays game.

Well, I did it! I went to a Mets game at Citi Field in Flushing, New York. Here’s how the trip went:

On Saturday I posted a dream scenario in which everything on Sunday went perfectly:

But on the other hand, the cab could be right on time, I could have enough time to eat breakfast at South Station before catching my empty 7am bus to New York which gets there ahead of schedule allowing me plenty of time and ease to get to Citi Field and look around (and eat!) and then the game will start – All of that happened except the bus wasn’t empty. It was a really good thing I took a cab cause I probably would not have gotten on that 7am bus using the T.

I’ll have an excellent view of David Wright from third base – which is why I paid all that money to begin with – and the Mets with Mike Pelfrey pitching will beat the Tampa Bay Rays in an exciting game of baseball that ends by 5pm. – Er, yes and no. I did have a WONDERFUL view of D-Wright throughout the entire game. OMG, the man is gorgeous! But the Mets lost 10-6 to the Rays. And the game ended at 5:30pm. Still, it was an exciting game. I got to see a home run by the Mets!

I’ll go back to Port Authority, grab the 6pm bus back to Boston and be home by midnight. Maybe a little soggy from sitting in the drizzle all day but content in knowing I had a perfect Sunday. – Perfect Sunday yes, all the rest absolutely not. It took about half an hour to get from Flushing to the Port Authority on the subway. I barely made the 7pm bus back to Boston and it was 11:30 by the time we got back here. I decided to take a cab cause I was so tired and that would have gotten me home by midnight except we got stuck in stand-still traffic on Storrow Drive for about 45 minutes.

All in all in was a really fun day but a really exhausting one, up at 4am and back to bed at 1:30 am. I considered calling out today but somehow I’m going to suffer through it and crash when I get home.

Here are some other observations from Sunday:

• Citi Field, the new home of the Mets , is effing HUGE! It makes Fenway look like a little league field. I took lots of pictures and will post them once developed. There have been lots of complaints about Citi Field but I found it very comfortable, clean (especially the women’s restroom) and enjoyable, though I also had a kick-ass seat.
  
• A person who cannot catch anything should not sit in left field. I had to constantly be on my guard for fly balls and was nervous anytime one came close. It wouldn’t be a big deal to drop it except that the entire crowd boos people who do and that’s an experience I could do without. 🙂
• The food was moderately priced at Citi Field. Beer was $6 or $7, hot dogs about $4. Nothing outrageous like I was expecting. Oh, and another comparison to Fenway. Sorry Red Sox fans but Citi Field had better hot dogs than the Fenway Frank.
  
• The home team’s players can choose their own intro music when the go up to bat. The Mets had very diverse stuff playing from rap – David Wright we need to work on your music tastes – to hot Latin music. The one I found the most interesting was Daniel Murphy who had the theme from The Departed. Odd choice since I automatically think of Boston when I think of that movie.
  
• It was not awkward at all to be there by myself. In fact, it let me pay attention to the game like I wanted to do. I think that might have surprised people around me. It was nice too because my section – all the sections – was not sold out so I had empty seats on both sides of me allowing me to stretch out a bit.
  
• I may not be a seasoned baseball fan yet but at least I DO pay attention to the game and follow the action and cheer for my team. There was a couple next to me that struck up a conversation with the family in front of me about all the things they hated about Citi Field, the Mets management and, ironically, rude Mets fans. Yet they were lifelong Mets fans themselves! The bitching lasted, no joke, through two and half innings straight, the one guy never even looking at the field throughout that entire time. I may be new to this, but at least I’m there to watch baseball not to bitch about what I can’t control. The 5 year old kid on the other side of me that kept bumping into me the whole game was a welcome distraction. At least he was excited about the game.
  
• By getting there early, I got a free Mets blanket! Cool!
• The subway to Citi Field was incredibly easy but it was one of those outside subway tracks lifted way, WAY off the ground. I felt like I was in Chicago. It was kind of scary to be honest.
  
• Um, I’m not moving to Queens. 🙂
  
• I think one of the coolest parts of the day was being around so many people wearing Mets stuff. It was nice to walk around and proudly display my David Wright shirt without having to suffer the horrified looks of Red Sox fans. Not to say I don’t proudly wear that shirt here too of course. 🙂
• If you’re team is playing, you don’t leave the game before it ends. I don’t care if it’s 15-0. After the rain delay – see below – there was practically nobody left in stadium. I paid all that money to go see the Mets, ain’t no way I was going to leave, even when it was apparent they were going to lose.
  

The Weather

I’d been concerned about the weather all of last week. Here in Boston, we’ve been rainy a lot and New York hasn’t been any different. I was prepared for the worst – the game being postponed – and hoping for the best case scenario – getting totally drenched while watching the game. The last one only partially happened. It started out pretty nice. When I got to Citi Field at noon, it was cloudy and windy but a pleasant temperature and it didn’t look like it was about to rain anytime soon. By the time the game started, it was only mostly cloudy with the sun doing its best to shine down on us. It was so sunny and nice through the first seven innings of the game that I have a nice sunburn on my arms to show for it. I didn’t think I would be needing sunscreen as the Weather Channel has predicted rain for the whole day.

But then we got to the top of the seventh inning. Dark clouds rolled in, in more ways than one since the Rays scored 4 runs on the Mets in that inning and dark rain clouds started to come over the field. In the span of five minutes, the sun went away, sprinkles came down and then the heavens opened up and a downpour started. They stopped the game temporarily and put out the tarp over the field (so cool to watch!). It seemed like the entire stadium emptied, everyone running for cover.

I just sat there. With the game stopped, I could put up my umbrella and it was actually kind of nice to sit there in the torrential rain. Almost nobody was out there with me but I figured it would be really crowded inside and it was the kind of rain shower you knew wouldn’t last long. They kept the music playing over the loudspeakers, those of us remaining cheering loudly when “Waterloo” started to play. Within 45 minutes, the showers ended, the game started up, and the sun came out again. The weather was so bizarre that I actually caught David Wright looking up into the sun after the rain delay and shaking his head. So the weather definitely could have been worse and overall, I’m kind of glad I got to see a rain delay up close and personal.

Let me end by commenting on the actual baseball game:

• I got to see David Wright get two base hits which was awesome but I really want to see him get more home runs. He only has 4 on the year though his batting average is among the best in the league and he has a lot of RBI’s.

• Good to see such a warm response from the crowd for Gary Sheffield, truly the surprise player of the year thus far. When the Mets signed up in the spring, everyone was saying he was too old to play and he has been absolute money for this team.
• Mike Pelfrey is freakin’ tall. He didn’t last long yesterday.
• The Phillies lost also meaning the Mets are still only two games behind in the division which is good. But here’s the sad part of this. The Phillies I think have lost 6 in a row, getting swept by Toronto I think and the Orioles yet the Mets weren’t able to take advantage of that and gain the lead. Their last three series, they’ve gone 1-2. This week is the Cardinals, with the awesome Pujols, and then the Yankees come to Citi Field this weekend. Time to get it together. Injuries can’t be an excuse all season. From after the game: “We’re not doing too many things right,” David Wright said, following yesterday’s loss to the Rays.  “When you look at the standings, we’re in striking distance, but we’re concerned about how we’re playing right now.” Yep.
  
• Brian Schneider, one of the Mets catchers, just came back off the DL and has since hit two home runs. Santos, the other catcher, has hit multiple home runs this year – remember that one at Fenway?!. My question is, what are the Mets feeding their catchers?

I think going to the Mets game has made me an even bigger fan of the team, to the point now where I want to watch every single game. Though it was an expensive – extremely expensive once you add in the cab rides – day trip, it was worth it because I had a lot of fun. If I lived in New York, I could see myself going, in cheaper seats, quite often.

I did take pictures and as soon as I get them developed, I’ll post them on here. Used a cheapo camera so I can’t promise too much quality. 🙂

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