My subway stop

My stop (well, I guess others use it too ;)) for the subway(Ditmars Blvd.) is the last stop on the N/W trains. So for beginners it is nice because you don't have to worry about picking one headed the wrong direction because they are always going towards the city! :)

Touring the neighborhood

Yesterday I walked over to Astoria Park with a couple friends. The parks in NYC seem to be all huge in comparison to the neighborhood parks that I grew up with.

This particular park has a swimming pool that was used for the Olympic Trials in '36 and '64. (Check out the virtual tour listed under "Queens" here.) It's great just to stand there and envision what it must have been like - they even have a couple spots where torches were lit for the event.




The pool doesn't open until July but then it is free! Something (I believe) the city does with all public pools. The bummer is that now the once Olympic-trial famous diving area now looks like this -

The park is also set up against the East River so you can look over the water and see Manhattan.

(In case you aren't totally clear where Queens sits compared to Manhattan - here's a link to a map you can explore. I live close to LaGuardia Airport.)

Later that night a group of friends and I checked out the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden. We had to stand in line to get in. Mugs $5 and Pitchers $14. They had American and Bohemian choices for food (burgers, fries, dumplings, etc) there too. It definitely had a college party vibe to it. Mostly people were our age or younger. The garden opens @ noon and closes at 3am or 4am depending on the day. It shares the block with an elementary school. Interesting combo...
Don, Amy, me & Alvin @ the Beer Garden.

One week!

I've officially made it one week in NYC!

Decided to catch a "cheap" flick @ AMC - in NYC, movies before noon on Fri, Sat and Sun are $6 not $4. :( But still better than $11!

I saw "Oceans 13" at the Lincoln Square across from Lincoln Center. Instead of theater numbers, each theater had a name. The one I sat in was called the "Valencia".

Oceans 13 was disappointing. Fun to see the gang together again but after they said to forget Oceans 12, that they had learned from their mistakes...it didn't appear that they had. I'd still rent it over Oceans 12 but Oceans 11 is still the one to beat. I LOVE that final scene where they are all standing watching the Bellagio Fountain to that wonderful score and one by one they walk away.

Going back to Oceans 13 - I'll add that they do explain the absence of Julia Roberts and Katherine Zeta Jones - kind of abstractly but they do. And also - I was surprised by an appearance by Bob Einstein aka Super Dave Osborne. He is part of a reveal that would make me want to watch the movie again. So if you do see it - pay attention to Matt Damon's phone calls. That's all I will say...

Just another day in NYC

Today I finally caved and decided to make it laundry day. Now there are two options you can take - drop off your clothes and get charged so much per lb OR sit there and wash them yourself. Since my time is a little unstructured right now, I decided to go with the latter.

I've NEVER been to a laundromat before. I've been to basements at apartment complexes and dorms but not an actual laundromat. Since they do the drop off wash, I was quickly ushered to the back as they use the front machines. Got it.

Then discovered that they have big machines ($2.25 per load) and smaller ones ($1.50 per load). Since I hadn't used them before I wasn't sure how much the small could hold vs the bigger so I opted for the bigger realizing later that the smaller probably would have been fine.

That's okay though, I thought...the dryer is only 25 cents! Woot! Then I discovered that was 25 cents per 8 minutes. Oh.

Once the laundry was done I officially got ready for the day and headed into the city to run various errands. This is what I wore -

On the back of my Aerosmith shirt it mentions a '78 concert. A guy from behind starts talking to me before I realize that it is actually me he is talking to - he asks if I went to that concert. No - I would have been 1 at the time. It did make me chuckle though, the night before one of the student promoters for the actor class asked if I was just out of school and when I said "for a while" she was surprised. And then this guy asked if I went to a '78 concert - although he was looking at me from the back - perhaps my backside looks older?! ;) tee-hee.

I'm learning many things - one being that NYC is FULL of people to watch. Here are a few things I've seen so far - a woman who had tattoos of an eye on each boob - well, the clevage part ala Eve and her bear claws. If it is a sport from NYC it matches - I saw a man with knee high navy socks, khaki shorts, a Jets t-shirt and a Mets hat on. Smokers don't really care where they fling their cigarettes or ashes. Ashes flew in my eye yesterday after someone was flinging their cig about and then my friend told me that his girlfriend was actually burnt on the arm by a passerby's cig before. Eeek! Yet another thing to keep an eye out for when walking about I guess...

Plus, I think I've come up with a new reality show/contest - people can vie to be the best subway entertainer! Lots of varying talents at stops and on the subways. Why not? I'm sure people would watch - although I'm not sure some of the potential "talent" would be mentally stable enough to go on national television...

Before I headed home for the day I decided I needed to stop for something to drink, which became something to eat at Europa across the street from...The Ed Sullivan Theatre/Late Show with David Letterman! Although I knew I was in the area, it didn't totally dawn on me until I looked up from my sandwich and there was the marquee.

Then I walked down the street past the Bad Boy Entertainment building and saw two VERY NICE cars double parked with their flashers on - perhaps one vehicle was for P. Diddy himself?! I continued on to the subway stop. Ah...New York.

Cupcakes, Burgers and Acting Reels

So my friend forwarded me an email he got about a $5 class we could register for and find out about how to be "camera ready". Basically it would be a preview seminar for classes that were offered but they would also film you and give feedback to you - so for $5, why not?

I got myself looking "camera ready" and debated on shoe choices - flip flops seemed a little TOO casual, I debated on wearing them and changing them out, then I just decided to wear shoes I had worn a couple weeks earlier at a wedding with little problem. BIG MISTAKE. Before I even got on the subway I saw a piece of skin had been rubbed off my foot. But I was determined to tough it out, even though my friend offered to wait for me to go back and change if I needed to. I didn't want us to be late.

Before we went to the class we stopped to eat at Burgers & Cupcakes. Now the cupcake I had wasn't as good as those from Magnolia Bakery (I just did a search for Magnolia Bakery and discovered this blog - http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com/2006/06/magnolia-bakery-bleecker-street-new.html - totally unrelated but thought it was worth sharing! ;)) but the fresh cut fries were wonderful!

Then it was off to the seminar. It was informative, yet infomercial. Much like other sales pitch type things I've been too, they knew how to build excitement and it had kind of a cult vibe to it with his students touting the class. The "instructor" does know his stuff - I'll give him that. He knows how to tweak a performance to make it change dramatically.

A couple things he said was to relate to the person you talk to, draw them in and you'll draw the audience in. Movement towards causes more of a reaction than just standing there. Kind of basic things but some tactics definitely illustrated the differences in approach to film vs. stage.

I was the 2nd person to go up and read on camera. I failed to wait for "cut" and broke early. Oopsy. Rookie mistake. But even after I'd done that others went up and STILL did it, so I guess I couldn't feel that bad. Then as the class went on, he looked at me and asked if I'd gone up. Er...guess I left a HUGE impression. Later, he talked about how he never forgets a person after he has seen them on film and then remembered his boo-boo with me and emphasized "on film" I guess "in the class" doesn't count.

During the session he told a few people how they looked great on camera and he'd cast them, etc.

My friend never got to "audition" in the class and in order to sign up for future classes you have to, so he had to stick around for after the class. In an effort to get my friend out quickly - I went up to the instructor and asked him if I was a thumbs up or down for his class (you have to get approval to be in his private class) he said he thought that I would do well in the core class and then we'd talk private...only THEN adding, "You look great on camera, by the way...." Uh-huh.
I then asked if he'd audition my friend first. He did.

Cost for the class is probably reasonable compared to other costs to put together a demo reel and what not, but without a job I really don't feel like I should invest my money there right now. Plus, there were cons to balance the pros...it will be a thinker. They followed up by calling - "to make sure everyone gets a chance to register that wants to" which makes me think that not a lot registered in the first place but I could be wrong...my friend got a call too.

When the class was done, I got up to walk and it wasn't good. My feets were hurtin'. So my friend and I stopped at a Duane Reader (aka Walgreens type place) and I got bandaids made specifically for blisters! And of course discovered a stick that you can buy to rub on your feet BEFORE you get blisters that adds a protective layer. (Will use that once my current feet issues heal up. ) We stepped outside of Duane Reader and couldn't find a spot for me to sit so instead I was left to balance like a flamingo and lean on my friend and some sort of brick cone thing that was built around a tree while I was covering my ouchies.

Then it was time for a treat before heading home. Tons of Dunkin Donuts in NYC and it had been FOREVER since I'd been to one personally so we stopped at one. And we discovered that the staleness of the donuts probably meant that maybe the mustached man from the commercial ain't making them as often as he used to...

When I got home I chatted with my roommate about the day and she said that there's something about New York and shoes. She said that she had shoes that never gave her feet problems until she wore them to walk around NYC. Then she showed off her own remnants of ouchies on her feet.

So I will probably become one of those sneaker people/Mr. Roger's types that hauls the "good pair" along to save my feet. That means I may have to go shopping...for a bigger purse! ;)