New York Thoughts

As regular readers know, I am in New York fairly often. However, I am rarely in the city during the day.

And I’m glad. This morning, as we were leaving the hotel, I surprised Ransom by suggesting we take a cab to Grand Central. Normally I’d walk the quarter mile or so to the subway, take it down to 42nd Street and transfer to the shuttle to Grand Central. But, aside from the walking, that involves a good number of stairs and I wasn’t up for that while schlepping our bags.

So we took a cab. It took FOREVER – and cost ten bucks more than the subway. We did make the train, but only just. Had we taken the subway there would have been time for a pit stop -- not so with a taxi.

The moral, not news to any New Yorker: taxis are the slowest and most expensive way to get around midtown during the day.

As for that hotel we left, the staff couldn’t have been nicer and though the breakfast room was far too small for the numbers it served, there was coffee and tea, toast, muffins and donuts, hot and cold cereal, yoghurt and even sausage and eggs (of a sort). The Wi-Fi was free, if sporadically working, the bed was too soft and, as noted previously, the room was unbelievably small. The queen-sized bed left less than a foot on one side and on the other little more than enough space for the room door to open. Accessing the closet meant shimmying sideways, as did getting into the bathroom. And the rate was $179 a night. Unfortunately, it’s really hard to do any better in Manhattan.

But the thrill of being in New York still excites me. The Korean meal after Rheingold was excellent; even better was the Turkish food at Pasha on our free night. Add to that the sinfully sweet cake slices from Magnolia bakery and shopping at the expansive Trader Joe’s, with its double escalator: one side for people, one for shopping carts, magically kept level (check it out here) – it was a great trip.

Siegfried last night was enjoyable, though the final scene, when the hero wakens Brünnhilde, was another one of those too-long duets that Wagner revels in. Still, the music was phenomenal, though I’m reminded of an Opera Without Words LP of Carmen I once owned. At the time I liked it far better than the real opera. That has changed, as far as Carmen goes; as for Wagner, well, I’ll hold my counsel.

The video effects continue to enchant. When the Forest Bird made its entrance in act two both Ransom and I were convinced it was a three-dimensional flying creation, not the video image it turned out to be.

 I’m writing the first draft of this on the train to New Haven. (Yes, the same one the Smash cast pretends to take to Boston). This afternoon I pick up the dogs and then settle in for a quiet night at home and a long sleep in our own bed. Ransom, who never stops, has to go to a degree recital. But he too will sleep in our bed, which by itself is almost as big as that hotel room.

Back Saturday for the nearly six-hour conclusion to the Ring, Götterdämmerung.