New York
I like to travel to New York once a year, for business, but to be honest, even though it is business, it's a lot of fun for me. During the day I work, but my work is fun, and at night are concerts, which I make sure are excellent. I've grown to have an exacting ear. Which sounds like it should be something to be admired, but it's not. I like fine music and concerts, and anything less, I'd just rather miss. This means my musical treats are few and far between, but when they come, they are so delightful.
This year's trip to New was determined by my fav soprano, Reneé Fleming doing Traviata at the Met. As if this wasn't grand enough, I got primo, box seats at the Met for the performance. Here's just a little taste of what the evening was like.
Opera is that form that combines instrumental & vocal music, acting, set design, art direction, costume design all in one art form - so much for the senses - it's hard to take in the first time. For a long time it's been hidden from most because of the language, but fortunately most opera houses are over their haughty days of no subtitles - including the Met where you can see the plot as you're watching and listening to this beautiful spectacle on the stage!
Traviata is so much fun for me cause I know the opera so well. The costumes are just what I would love...a salon in Paris - what could be more decadent! A local "working girl" who has a heart of gold, falls for a young impressionable stud and agrees to go to the country with him where she finds blissful happiness, until his father shows up and appeals to the girl's sense of "rightness" and ask her to give his son so that he can marry a more proper girl. Violetta, gives up her love cause she knows it's the right thing to do, and her health deteriorates but immediately before she dies, the young man appears and she dies in his arms. Yeah, we're all crying, but the music....that's what I've come to hear, and Reneé doesn't disappoint.
Can you imagine playing across from Reneé?...I can't/don't even want to.. but Matthew Polenzani does an admirable job being virile and handsomely attracted to Violetta, and I thought the acting was above what I've seen in other productions of Violetta. Of course when Reneé sings her beautiful Addio, del passato, she's ON THE FLOOR. Being an old soprano, I'm thinking projecting my voice, support, breath control, annunciation and getting my instrument to the back of the house to be heard....but she's doing it on the FLOOR!!! I'm old enough to even just get tired thinking of this, much less doing it.
The whole evening was wonderful, made even more special by the fact that Walt found a cab on Broadway in 5 minutes - it's unheard of!!!!
The next night is Bargemusic - and if you've never been to Brooklyn in the DUMBO area, this is a treat. 
It's fun to take the Water Taxi over and have dinner at the River Cafe and watch the sun set on downtown Manhattan.
We were there early enough that we walked around the DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan and Brooklyn Overpass) area as my friend, Walt, has just has his first grandbaby, and I couldn't think of a better place to find a great little gift for his granddaughter than the DUMBO area which is thick with moms and their strollers filled with a virtual population explosion!!! He found the most precious books at this lovely store called Pomme, just up the street from Fulton's Ferry. They were the Golden Book series that we both remembered growing up with.
Titles like, The Poky Little Puppy, The Little Red Hen, The Shy Little Kitten, and I just thought these were perfect - Walt did too. Next to the books were the great old wooden blocks that I remember growing up with and I couldn't resist those.
Then to dinner and to Bargemusic....Thursday night is jazz night and I've never been disappointed at Bargemusic
Their classical concerts are as good as their jazz concerts. This nite was Aaron Weinstein on jazz violin (yes there is such a thing) with Ted Rosenthal on jazz piano. Ted has some CD's out with Jay Leonhart on iTunes, and Aaron has some CD's out on iTunes as well. They are both exceedingly talented and I recommend them highly.
But for a treat - they both had a couple of examples of their talent on YouTube.
Here's Aaron doing stardust
And then here's Ted doing his take on Tchaikovky's June - it's like this song was composed to be played the way Ted has arranged it
I think the most famous jazz violin I can remember is from the soundtrack of Manhattan by Woody Allen. But as I expected, this night's performance was excellent. Of course there was all the usual improv and impromptu little variations going on that always ads to a performance, but I was totally charmed the whole night. Mark Peskanov made a quick little appearance to assist in a piece. So there's always a surprise in the evening.
We went back to the room that night with a glow in my head from the whole evening. This is what New York is all about to me - enjoying excellent music, and in this intimate setting on Bargemusic, it's even that much more enjoyable.
Next is a little fun travel log. Both Walt and I are terrific Sooner fans, but the Baylor vs Sooner game wasn't of national significance unless Baylor beat OU, so it wasn't carried on all the more national coverage. We decided to trek to the ESPN SportsZone in midtown Manhattan to view as much of the game as we could, but we knew that Kansas and OSU would be a great game to watch.
ESPN doesn't disappoint - even the art is fun....Hockey anyone?
This one was moving - not where you would expect...the balls in the US were all moving around - it was fantastic
Just about the time you're blasé....here's a frame of some old baseball cards, and when you look at it closely (or far away) it's a portrait of the Babe!
But here's the main attraction...14 screens - two jumbo trons and the rest HD with football on all of them....Michigan vs Wisconsin, Missouri vs. Texas A&M, Clemson vs. Wake Forest, Texas vs. Texas Tech (bad calls and all), Georgia vs. Auburn, Illinois beating OSU - SEC, Big 12, ACC, Big 10 - it was all there and a lot of fun to watch.
But here is the big deal....Bear Knuckle Stout - according to Walt the best stout he's ever had - probably even had sediment in the bottom - after two of these, you're pretty much toasted!!!!
The next day we leave LaGuardia at 5:45 a.m. - our flight leaves then. We get up at 3:30 to get everything done. The good news (yes, there is good new here) is that we got back home at 11:30 in the morning.
Home Sweet Home - well this isn't my home - I'm not the governor....but it's not far from here!!!
