PopTour: Day Four

PopTour: Day Four

Day Four: New York Day Off, Monday 6 March

   So we had a plan when we went to bed at 4.30am to leave both bands' vans full of gear in PA and take a train into NYC -- it was a good plan at 4.30am. But then we come to find out via the 'internet' (they have it on computers now, Homer) that a oneway adult fare would be $43/person, or $944 for all 11 of us, so we change our plan, but only slightly (and, as it turns out, only too slightly) -- we will drive to New Jersey and do ParkNRide, thereby not driving into the Big Bad City and exposing ourselves to the all-too-real parking and gear-stealing nightmares.
   We leave the glorious Tim/ISG mansion around 2pm, and get nearly to our exit when we have to pull over because Tim's girlfriend Stef is carsick. While she cools off in the Burger King parking lot in Bayonne NJ (I think Humpty Hump got busy in the bathroom here), Dave & I get the new $.99 Pepperjack Burger^TM which, of course, sucks ass. But we always like to try every new $.99 product, especially in exotic locales like New Jersey...
   Anyroad, Stef gets better and we proceed onto the NJ ParkNRide.
   There are two flaws to the plan -- one which is immediately apparent and one which comes up later. The immediate flaw: to get to the NJ ParkNRide, we have now driven virtually into NYC, and we probably could have found a safe parking garage for the van. But instead the 11 of us get on this smelly bus and also try to coordinate doing whatever we each want to do in the City AND stick together so can catch the last bus out together... I'll kill the suspense now and tell you that everything works out fine, but it is REALLY hard to even walk with 11 people in NYC. It's like herding cats.
   We get into the NY Port Authority around 4.30pm and head for Times Square. When we get there we see the MTV building and hundreds of screaming teens. They are not screaming for the combined raw sexuality and sensuality of PopCanon & Idiot Savant Garde (C-PIGS to you!), however -- at the very moment {HANSON} are performing live in the MTV studios. So of course we picked up some gross handlettered HANSON signs from the ground and take a picture. Fun!

   Right off Times Square is 48th Street, Music Store Row (Sam Ash, etc.) in which we kill an hour looking at beautiful instruments we can't afford. Then Alyson leaves to spend the night with her friend Janice and the rest of us set off for dinner. We cel Mason & Megan and they tell us about a place in the East Village for fabulous vegetarian Indian food: the Madras Café. We start walking over in that direction but first we go to the Empire State Building to check when the Observatory is open tonight -- mmm, New York By Night.
   But while we are on our way there we run smack into a Bill Bradley rally in Bryant Park. Today is C-PIGS Monday, the day before Phat Tuesday and also Super Tuesday (two days before Knish Wednesday), and Bradley is trying to get out the vote and trounce Al Gore. His speech is modestly interesting, but we all know he's going to drop out (as he does the next day) -- so now we have Gore/Bush, which sounds like something you'd see in the OLD Times Square before Disney and Adolf Guiliani 'cleaned it up'...
   Well, we leave the rally and walk to the Empire State Building, which all of ISG is hopped-up to do. When we find out the Observatory is open until 11.30pm, and realizing we've already wandered aimlessly for about 10 miles, we take the subway the rest of the way to the Village. But even then we have some serious walking to do to find the restaurant -- but man, is it worth it.
   The Madras Café is fantastic! Great food, great service, great company. I had a fine Mullagatawny soup for an appetizer, and then a huge party hat of potatoes -- others had 2 foot spliffs full of vegetables. It's hard to describe, but we took pictures.
   At the Other Table, Megan & Mason impress Jason no end by talking about recording at DC's famed Inner Ear studio and the various Jawbox people they know. Koven shows up at the end of the meal and takes Don & Rob off with him to his apartment, but not before first escorting us all to see the Spiral Lounge where we are going to play tomorrow night -- it looked, from the outside, to be what we in 'the biz' call a 'shithole'!

   The 11 of us (minus Alyson, Don & Rob) then walk to the Empire State Building and get there around 10.15pm. It costs $7 to go to the Observatory, but it's well worth it -- on the 86th floor the view is SPECTACULAR. We have an estimated 25 miles of visibility tonight. It's cold and clear and beautiful, and the air on the open deck is bracing and invigorating. The night is very special, but we don't much reflect on how our awesome lives as rockstars afford us this luxury because we quickly ruin our fine night by seeking the higher observation deck on the 102nd floor. [You know, much like how I question how Oral Roberts (the exquisitely noxious preacher thief) could possibly have determined that the gigantic jesus which told him to start his ministry (and later threatened to 'call him home' if he didn't pay up more money -- what's with religious icons and money management, anyway? they can create a world but they can't keep a damn nickel in their pockets? anyway...) was exactly 900 feet tall (as Roberts claimed, but how could he have possibly determined jesus was 900, instead of, say, 600 or 450 feet tall? Also, trivia tidbit: this is the story that gave MC 900 Foot Jesus his name), I question if the view of NYC is any better 16 stories higher.]
   Since the higher deck is fully enclosed for 'safety', we all hated it -- PLUS the wait to get up there was about 20 minutes! Not worth it! So eventually we skulk back down to the 86th floor (after I mock why the elevator buttons are in Braille -- what's a blind person doing on an observation deck anyway, especially an enclosed one?) and enjoy it some more.
   And then it's time to go, so we subway back to the Port Authority and wander about agitatedly trying not to miss the last bus to New Jersey. Friendly homeless guys try to help us out, and eventually we find the Last Bus Leaving.
   We get to the ParkNRide lot around 12.30am, and -- contemplating the 2hr ride back to PA and the 2hr return tomorrow to play the Spiral Lounge -- we begin to especially wish we had thought through leaving all the stuff back in PA, because I know Michael, David & I would just stay in some exotic shithole hotel in NJ tonight otherwise...
   I guess the lesson is: Always Be Prepared, like the Boy Scouts, but without all that god and country shit. (Speaking of which, I pick up an unofficial PC slogan taken from the Rev. Billy (performance artist) of NYC: 'We believe in the god that people who don't believe in god believe in -- hallelujah!'
   At the end of the PA Turnpike later, Dave & Michael switch driving, and something exciting happens, which will be revealed later!
   To top off the night the remaining C-PIGS watch some of the Bezique/Blinder video that we brought along to give to Blinder. Good clean self-indulgent fun.

On to Day Five...