A Wicked Weekend
July 15, 2007
All the kids are elsewhere - Cape Cod, Connecticut - and Italy, and Mr. Pom and I are having a Wicked weekend. (It's okay, Mom, you can keep reading.)
With a click of a mouse, we had orchestra seats to Wicked, and don't tell anyone that I snapped this pic of the curtain. They needn't worry about copyright, cause it's so blurry that you can barely tell what it is. But I couldn't resist showing you the wonderful mechanical dragon that roars and smokes in the first moments of the show.
The play is a fireball of color, movement, fantastical Victorian costumes,and fantabulous special effects, including the Wicked Witch's ascension at the end of Act I. Oh, and the singing! Mr. Pom and I marveled at the richness of the show and the entertainment that goes on every day on every stage on Broadway. Makes us wish we'd gone into the theater instead of the stodgy paper pushers that we are - entirely possible but for our lack of talent!
A later afternoon in Manhattan with no one to account to (except Fluffernutter who was fast asleep in her basement lair). We drove down to the trendy meatpacking district and had dinner at Vento, across from The Spice Market and Pastis. Here's a good travel tip to those from out of town. When you want to visit these trendy restaurants, but don't want to wait or face the pressure of rubbing elbow to elbow with the hip crowd, and you want to actually get seated by snooty maitre d's, then go on an off hour, like early supper at 6:00. You'll be seated immediately and even if it's in "Siberia", it won't matter because the restaurant will only have scattered tables filled.
We sauntered up to Vento well before the dinner hour and hours before the place turned into a gathering for the thin and rich. We chose it because it had a great view of the street and a large al fresco area. (And Vento is my grandmother's maiden name and means "wind" in Italian.)
As I confided in Mr. Pom, I used to be too intimidated to go to places like this, but when you reach a certain age, the benefit is that you know you will nevah be hip again, and that is sooooo relaxing! Mr. Pom was very entertained by the beautiful, leggy models coming and going and I was entertained by general people watching - and my drink.
The perfect way to relax as the sun sets over the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor is with gin and strawberries - yum.
The play was long and we hadn't eaten since breakfast, so we started off the meal slowly. A tray of speck, which is a t thinly sliced, cured beef, a wedge of parmigiana reggiano, a dollop of home made ricotta, and a platter of mussels marina with bruschetta. We nibbled for about an hour before they brought us our fishes dishes. Mr. Pom had halibut encrusted with pistachio over a bed of spinach.
We drove over to Bleecker Street to get gelato, but the street was closed due to a street fair and we were too hot and tired to drive around for an hour for a parking space. Bleecker Street is in the heart of Greenwich Village, which is in lower Manhattan, adjacent to Washington Square Park and NYU. Lined with charming brownstones and funky stores, it used to be the place to go for literary types and hippies. It has grown more prosperous and gentried along with the rest of lower Manhattan and now sports trendy, upscale boutiques, and skyrocketing housing costs that only the wealthy can afford. It still boasts great pastry shops, along with newbies like Magnolia Bakery, and Murray's Cheese Store, good fish stores, and little places that feature coal-fired pizza ovens and homemade gelati.
We decided to head northeast to the Bronx, where we stopped at Arthur Avenue, and discovered another street closing due a to a fair. It was a real New York experience to drive down the street and stop for a light so close to a ride with flying cars that we could almost lean out the window and touch them as the kids went squealing by over our heads.
Mr. Pom ran into a bakery for gelato. He had the real Italian experience of a Nonna behind the counter who didn't understand English and we laughed over having to switch gelato dishes several times to share the pistachio and hazelnut, since the Nonna didn't understand about giving two flavors in one bowl. But we were two happy people when we finally pulled into our driveway.
Today, we are two exhausted people. I am holed up in my air conditioned bedroom looking at an art project that needs to be done pronto. I know exactly what to do, I'm just too tired and hot to do it!
What have you done this weekend to shake of the dust of the work week?