I was up by 6:30 AM. While everyone else continue sleeping I headed out to the front stoop of Kurt’s house to sip on some iced tea and blog. I watched as folk of Liberty Avenue headed out for their day either to work or to school.

Yeah, yeah… we’ll get to the picture at the top later in the post. (Gah! This instant society! 😉  )

I’ve designated this stoop as “salon east”. It’s a nice house that Kurt has. Built in 1901… Kurt, Xan and Kevin (Xan’s brother) occupy the cozy first floor. There are tenets upstairs as well as in the basement. And once  the sun clears the rooftops across the street it shines on his door. From the culture I come from… this is a good thing.

Here is up the street from the house.  As I sat blogging a sudden burst of rain fell and it lasted for about 3 minutes… and the rest of the day was clear.

There would be no designated shooting for today. Xan left for yoga class so Kurt, Tommy and I headed out for a walk up “da hill”. I needed to get to a bank and it provided a great opportunity to check out Kurt’s natural habitat.

The commercial section we headed to is a charming working class neighborhood. These are sort of the neighborhoods I prefer to instead of the tourista spots that are what folk usually flock to on travel visits. It gives me a truer sense of place and people. Lots of little eateries, grocery outlets and 99 cent stores.

Once done with the bank and armed with a little moolah in the pocket we headed to the local bagel place. After this we headed on back home as we had to catch a mini-bus into New York.

Came across this  mural along a side street and when I looked around realized t was of the street in the picture below it.

It is these kinds of things that always provides me with the delight of discovery.

Back on Liberty Ave. Tommy decided to take a flower shower.

Then it was off on a mini-bus into New York City.

As soon as we got out of the Port Authority heading to Times Square… Tommy and I decided it would be prudent to catch a bite to eat. I had only had a bagel up till that point… figured that wouldn’t be able to sustain me until 7:30 PM. So we decided to get something at a street vendor.

Once our faces were stuffed we headed on down the street. Soon Times Square was in sight. The last time I was in the city was in 1981… ths pace looked a lot different than it does now. Back then it was the obvious center of sleaze. Though I couldn’t help but wonder if all this shiny, modern, tourist-friendly, disney-fied and corporate look is just a new mask for a different form of sleaze.

I did however catch a thrill when we passed The Brill. All you true music fans probably know why. See, this is why I watch all those documentaries. To most people this would just be another random building. Of course, I had to get a picture of it.

Then we got to our destination. Yes, Xan and Kurt had scored priority tickets too a taping of the Colbert show. We checked in… got our wristbands and waited in line with the throng. It was going to be a two hour wait.

The entire time in line folk were on their phones. Xan was facebooking and posted the picture below of us in line. Then Suzanne Bachner a playwright and friend from the Fringe crowd turned up. She lives in the building almost right across and happened to catch Xan’s facebooking about being in line and came by to say hello.

So now we were waiting in line in the lobby of the Ed Sullivan Theater. As a kid I had watched his show… plus, this was also where David Letterman used to do his Late Night show… so, yeah… it was hreat being here. I was impressed (always am) by the inside of old theaters.

So, now we were inside… sitting and waiting. No pictures were allowed inside. We were informed that someone would warm up the audience, the band would play and were given our cues of when to applaud and yell, etc.

Then, lo and behold… during the audience warm-up… comedian Paul Mecurio staarted pulling folk up on stage. First up were this mother and daughter.He had some fun with them on stage. We figured that was it. He then came up the aisle closest to us and started pulling up more folk. It was the two very attractive girls at the end of our row. Then he pointed to Tommy who I swear just about shat in his pants. Then he spotted me,

“And YOU… I like you I want you to come up too!”

So, yeah… I got to be on that stage. When I did get on I looked up to the spectacular dome ceiling.

Paul Mecurio had some fun with all of us. He claimed that just looking at me gave him a contact high. He chatted with all of us on stage. When it was Tommy’s turn… Tommy said something funny… Paul shot back with “Hey, I do the jokes here.”

He seemed to latch on to me for comedy purposes and came to me twice pushing the “contact high” theme. When asked I said I was here out of California… and yes, there was a cheer in the audience. I even managed too get a plug in for our project “Campus Martius”. (Am I a PR whore or what?) Paul took a ‘welfie’ oof us on stage at the end and sent us back to our seats. He said he would post it… and if he does I’ll post it here.

Anyway, the taping of the show was fun to watch. Steven Colbert’s guests includded Amy Schumer and Gabourey Sidibe. Yeah, the band rocked and a good time was had by all.

So, back out on the street… heading back to Times Square toward the Port Authority I hear,

“Marcel!”

And this didn’t come from either Xan or Kurt or Tommy… but a woman and her son who hurried up to catch up with my stride. I look and smile… racking my brain as to where I know her from.

“You were in the Colbert show… we saw you on stage.”

I’ll confess that was a bit of a relief. I was thinking she was someone either from Fresno or I met on the train visiting New York at the same time. We chatted a bit while we walked commiserating over our recent shared experience at the taping of the show. We even ran  into the mother and daughter whom Paul had first pulled up on stage at the warm-up.

Yes, it was a fun day. We ended it well with a hearty meal in a grand diner in Jersey.

Cheers!

Comments

comments