14,975

A surprise gift waits those who can figure out the meaning of this post title.
Another surprise gift (a 2-hour math lesson with Dad) awaits those who cannot.
You have to be younger than 18 to participate.

Bye Bye Birdie

Yesterday, we took a train to New York to see musical Bye Bye Birdie. Max went with us as a last minute, $110 addition. He was excited to see John Stamos, but it turned out that he confused him with the blond actor playing Full House Joey character (who I confused with Jeff Daniels). It was a very frustrating charade, on the way in, trying to figure out who confused who for whom. Actor playing Conrad Birdie (playing, horribly, I must add) was some teen-star Nolan Gerard Funk. Max said that he knew the guy and so happy he was in the play. All this excitement, however, didn't stop Max from falling asleep 10 minutes into the performance. He didn't wake up until the end, 2.5 hours later. Being unable to move or stretch, while Max was resting comfortably on my shoulder, I didn't find show much enjoyable. Also didn't help, being yelled at by an overzealous usher for attempting to drink a soda in the seat during the intermission. John Stamos sucked. The guy cannot sing, ok? The teen star sucked. Gina Gershon's Rosie was good. Bill Irwin's Mr MacAfee and what-her-name Mother character were slightly overcooked. The play was in the newly restored Henry Miller's theater on 43rd, where the mezzanine is at the street level and orchestra is in the below ground pit. After the play, the actors chatted up the audience into giving to some charity, quickly auctioning two sweat-stained John Stamos' t-shirts for $250 apiece. Well-aged female fans of Full House were screaming and yelling like Conrad Birdie groupies. Ah, theater...

Fixing the Wall

Max overheard us talking about the fall of Berlin Wall (today is 20th anniversary) and asked, very concerned - are they going to fix it?

Art in New York City

Despite having to sit in traffic for hours, today's family outing in NYC was a good thing. First, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we saw Robert Frank's The Americans (b&w pictures from his trips around the country in the 50s) []. Max didn't care much for it, making a point that unlike sculptures, the pictures we can study on the Internet. So, we saw some "real 3-D art" - Greek and Roman stuff and then an amazing exhibit of Japanese arms. 14 century samurai swords [], blades smooth and shiny like a brand new Toyota. Then, some Rodin, Europeans, impressionists, until, at a Van Gogh painting[], Max declared that art makes him hungry. We got out, had hot dogs [], walked a bit and sat down for a proper lunch []. We finished the day with a stroll through the Central Park - beautiful colors, soft low late afternoon November sun, faint smell of starting to rot leaves, red berries on graying trees [].



More pictures here