Glen Hansard + the Temple of Dendur

I'm lucky to have a good friend in NYC who likes different (but really good) music.  One of her favorite artists is Glen Hansard.  You might of seen him in the movie Once or heard his song Falling Slowly if you haven't check him out.  Last night as part of the Guitar Heroes exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Glen performed in the temple of Dendur room at the Met.

The room itself is pretty cool, but add Glen, 100s of fans, and free beverages and you've got a pretty cool event.

My favorite part was when he was strumming so hard that he broke a string so he finished the song by drumming on the guitar.  While he fixed the guitar he had us all snap while he sang a song then taught us the words so we could sing along with him (it was something about everyone being Vampires).

He closed not using his guitar and singing an old Irish (or maybe Scottish, he said it wasn't known) song.

The crowd was sitting till the show started

Glen singing

Cows on the corner

As part of the Art Festival (I think) two large cows showed up hanging out on my corner.

I don't mind.

Bryant Park reading room

Beautiful weather has returned... well on and off, but its getting better.  Today after exchanging my cell phone at the Sprint store (hopefully it no longer randomly turns off) I grabbed a quick salad and headed to my favorite lunch spot in Bryant Park, the reading room. 

Today was part of their book club series and Matthew Gallaway and Seth Colter were there discussing David Foster Wallace's The Pale King.  I just walked up and had a seat and to my amusement The Pale King is about an accountant.  An accountant that works for the IRS.  Now those who know me know "I am not an accountant" but I work in an accountants world and a lot of the passages they read really hit me.  Two of the most enjoyable concepts (paraphrased from memory):

accountants are cowboys of data

and

tedious work is heroic

David Foster Wallace died before finishing this book.  However everyone who had read the book seemed satisfied.  I think I might give it a shot.

writers discussing the book

books for sale

yummy salad for lunch

Mizzou family

I tell anyone who will listen that I play football.  Well usually the conversation goes like this:  

Boss/Coworker/person in the elevator:  Got any big plans this weekend?

Me:  Not really, playing football on Saturday (or Sunday).

Boss/Coworker/person in the elevator: Oh really!  Where do you play?  Who do you play with?

Me:  All over the city, randall's island, roosevelt island, riverbank state park, etc..  I play with my Mizzou friends.

But really they have grown to be more than my Mizzou friends or my football friends to being my Mizzou family in New York.  And two weekends ago I was lucky enough to attend the wedding of the Captain and the Quarterback (aka Susan & Sean).

They wed in Madison Square Park, which is one of nicest little parks in the city.  Home of the original Shake Shack and always has art exhibits going on.  On their big day the park also had the Fonz (aka Henry Winkler) walking around and taking pictures.

the flat iron building and park art

the mister of honor, officiant, groom, and best man waiting for the bride

After the wedding we walked to Blue Smoke for the reception.  The meal was delicious.  I had brisket, pulled pork, blue grits, hushpuppy, salad, and green beans (I regretfully left the ribs and wings on the buffet). There was music, dancing, and cake!  

Tigers in wedding attire (and yes the bride and groom played the next day)

Livin' in Neon

LIC was an industrial/warehouse neighborhood for many years and still has many small shops making everything from elevators to neon signs.  The neon shop is just a block down from my apartment and I pass it all the time.  This weekend as part of some art festival they were open for looking around.  I was heading home after grocery shopping (and happy hour) and saw the door open.  I stepped inside to a pretty cool world of neon.  Its a working shop with tools scattered around.  A man was working on a computer designing signs and a very nice lady chatted with me about the shop.  The shop creates signs for businesses and broadway, but stays small (they had to turn down a job to fix the East River Pepsi sign).  The shop has been there for 30 years.  They were doing demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday, but sadly I wasn't around my hood for much of the weekend.

sadly I only had my cellphone camera

Some fancy work

An old sign and some more artistic items

Football fashion

One of the fellow bloggers I met at Central Park a few weeks ago creates a fantasy outfit every Friday, perfect for her Friday activity, but maybe a little out of her budget.  This isn't a fashion blog and I clearly need help in the area, but lately I've been wanting all the athletic gear I see... so I thought I would try it out.  

For example...  I went to buy a red shirt today and I almost bought an official US Soccer shirt, I don't even like soccer (but I do love the US).  

I'll be spending most of tomorrow playing touch football so I put together the perfect outfit for running around Randall's Island.  The most coveted item?  Turf shoes... tomorrow I'm allowed to wear cleats, but some fields are the older carpet turf and I could really use turf shoes.

Nike ribbed tee
$22 - nike.com

Nike sports activewear
25 GBP - johnlewis.com

Sports activewear
$90 - dickssportinggoods.com

Nike lace shoes
$110 - nike.com

Puma bag
$45 - nordstrom.com

Aqua Bobble(r) Water Bottle
$9.95 - crateandbarrel.com

Sin chinchas

While walking home from the subway I saw this mattress propped up by some trash cans.  I'm not sure if after the rainstorm today and sitting next to trash if bedbugs would be my only worry.  Just say no to used mattresses. 

On the curb