I have to say yesterday was one of my favourite days in this city.
Started with Indian food — simple and spicy and I thought of Kathy when a sign on the wall said, “Curry in a hurry.†Sandie and I walked the first 30 blocks of the day to check out Bloomingdales, Berdorfs Goodmans, and Sack 5th Ave. – Three stores we will never spend any money in. The clerks didn’t really understand us when we asked for the “sales rackâ€â€¦ anyway — it was a great walk and time with Sandie is great. Joe went to a Mets game, that would have been good too.
We re-grouped and walked to another pizza place for dinner, then took the subway back up for Newsies – a singing and dancing show featuring a lot of very cute and talented young men. Alex Wong and two others from So You Think You Can Dance were on the stage and from our third row seats — well, I’ll just say it they CAN dance, and sing and act and entertain.
Of course the night was still young though, so we went to Birdland – a jazz club with an open mic for the night. Holy moly… holy moly… holy moly!! It was incredible. Marilyn Maye sang several songs. She’s a Cabaret singer probably in her 70’s — and belted out tunes like no other. I didn’t recognize her name — but I knew her face when I saw her — one of her credits was that she had been on the tonight show 76 times when Johnny Carson was host! She blew us away. But then the night continued with William Blake. William was the guy that sat us at our front row table and manned the retail area where you buy CD’s and t-shirts. Uhmmmmm…. WOW! Then the frosting for me; Michael Orland, the musical director of American Idol played the piano for Joshua Ledet as he sang, It’s a Man’s World. Joshua was the third place guy from American Idol and say what you will about reality TV shows – this guy gave me goose bumps when he sang, and I was a huge fan, and even asked for a photo together!
Of course there were a few others with chops that performed and my hands are raw from applauding.
We are getting the walk home down to about 50 minutes – we can do some serious fast walking late at night as no one (well, not many) folks are on the streets. Our heads hit the pillow well before 3am!
I have to say – it was one of my best days in New York ever. Only two more sleeps and I’ll travel back to the other little island I love and embrace the rich life we have there.
That smile radiates some pretty far-reaching happiness, Jan. Shine on, girl!
Alex Wong and Joshua Ledet how exciting
This whole trip sounds wonderful, Jan! Fun and excite times ~ what a gift to have life-long friends, eh ~especially when they live in NEW YORK CITY!
Kathy – Sandie and Joe live in Hawaii – this is why we meet and blow out NYC every once in a while.