An 'Unusal...Out Of The Ordinary' day

Well, WELCOME to NYC! Today was our first full day in the area - and it was a day off, to boot. So everyone took off in their own directions, and I'm sure has their own stories to tell. I had a great day tooling around with Stephen and Jeff - known from here on out on the blog as TMB (The Mulcock Brothers). And leave it to them to make it a day to remember.
I got up and moving and got my 'Paul Newman' entry done by about....2pm...and TMB called and were ready to meet up with me. I hopped on the subway and headed towards them. We met up in Queens at PS1 Museum - an extention museum of the Museum of Modern Art. Once I finally found the CORRECT door to go in, we got moving around the Museum. It is a beautiful old school that they have converted into a full museum of art...and there was a lot of cool stuff in it. And I'm going to be honest, I'm not NORMALLY a big fan of modern art. I really enjoyed a couple of the photography exhibits...but I would have to say that my MOST favorite exhibit was the room that you go in and the ceiling has a HUGE square cut out so the sky is there...and there are benches all the way around the room. That's the art! GET IT!? Genius. So we just kicked it in there, watching the sky and the clouds roll by and relaxed. I felt so modern afterwards.

Here is the SKY ART...so...it's exactly what I said. A hole in the ceiling looking out to the sky.

Stephen and Jeff check out the Sky Art.

And I COMPLETELY forgot to tell you about THIS! The BLING-BLING WHEELCHAIR! It sat alone in this room - spinning around on a cloud of white feathers...glistening in the light. Luckily, the guard was sweet on me and she let me take a couple of shots...so I could bring the magic to all of you. This really WAS art!

Stop 2 on our day was down near Union Square at a Thai restaurant called SPICE. I have to say that it was simply delicious. They had my favorite Thai dish - Kee Mow Noodles...but they had a fun name for it called Drunk Man Noodles. I don't know about the rest of you, but to ME, that sounds like a marketing stroke of genius. I'm pretty sure people are streaming in the door asking for the Drunk Man Noodles. It was great to catch up with TMB over dinner and hear about life in the city - and tell them about the excitement of life on the road! Plus, SPICE was a VERY reasonably priced place...and I would even go as far as to say CHEAP for a GREAT meal. But the highlight of the dinner was finding a cheesecake to report on! That's right - the FIRST cheesecake for the year 2006...and it's LIVE here! It was a Caramel Apple Cheesecake...and you can read about it and SEE it below!

OK - in THEORY...this was a brilliant idea. Caramel Apple Cheesecake? Yes Please. Presentation? Amazing. You can see the chunks of apple in the cheesecake...plus the caramel drizzled on top. I wanted to LOVE it...but ALAS...being a Thai restaurant, I'm sure they send out for the cheesecake, and this was FROZEN! So SAD! On the MASE, the over all score was a high 5. And I give that high 5 sadly and with reservation.

And finally folks...we went to Stop 3, which is the stop that helped in the headline for this entry. Stephen emailed me last week and said that he had an extra ticket to show called ANOMAL - that features an Israeli Mentalizer. Well, with THAT kind of description, how could I say no! Plus, the advertising promises that Mayor Bloomberg, Ana Gasteyer and Lou Dobbs were all astounded by the show and the supernatural powers of The Mentalizer. I knew it promised something big....I just wasn't sure what. WELL...it was....WOW. I mean - even 5 hours after the show is over, I'm BAFFLED by what I saw. First of all, let me tell you that this guy is AMAZING with the mental-tricks he pulls. I mean, he made credit cards fly and bent spoons and stuff like that ALL WITH HIS MIND! NO joke. And there were people that were there from the audience WATCHING up close...and their reactions were genuine. So you know...that was cool...but when you strip away the show, his TRICKS (or should I say ILLUSIONS. As GOB would say, tricks are something whores do for money....) only would last about 20 minutes...so for the other 1 hour and 10 minutes, we had to put up with The Mentalizers "STORY" of growing up and developing his powers...acted out COMPLETELY by The Mentalizer HIMSELF. And I'm going out on a limb here by saying that I'm PRETTY sure he has NEVER had an acting lesson in his life...and he MIGHT be one of the worst actors I've ever seen. He not only played himself, but we were lucky enough to get his 'impersonation' of his kindergarten teacher, his mother, a girl in his kindergarten class, his father, and some CREEPY fortune teller lady who screamed a LOT at an Apple and Pear Fair he went to as a boy. (And the last one was COMPLETE with a shall draped over his head....did I mention he was shouting? At an Apple and Pear Fair? WHAT THE CRAP IS THAT!?) And don't even get me STARTED on the RECURRING goat joke. Now if you're COMPLETELY at a loss about what it is I actually saw, I have included the written-description of the show that I got right off the website:

In ANOMAL, Ehud Segev shares his unusual life story and his inspiring perspective on life by telling the amazing story of a young man who developed supernatural abilities.
Critically acclaimed worldwide, Segev 's one-man play offers a rare opportunity to take a brief view into the life of a psychic entertainer, displaying his relationships with others, and showing the highlights and downfalls of possessing such abilities.

I will say, again, that the MIND things he did were really cool. And I will say that it's probably one of the strangest, and yet one of the most fun, times I have ever had at the theater. During the Apple and Pear Fair portion of the show, myself AND TMB were laughing SO HARD, we were shaking and shedding tears. And we weren't alone - there were uncomfortable giggles all over the audience. I think the BIGGEST mind-bending-thing that I saw all night was the PRICE of the tickets...for $55! People PAY THAT? Poor, poor people. Stephen got some lucky free-ticket deal...so we were pretty fortunate along that road!

Here we are...POST-ANOMAL. I mean, you read the notes...BIZARRE.

A HUGE thanks goes out to Stephen and Jeff for the good time today! On the MASE, the day was a DEFINITE high 9! If the cheesecake would've been thawed, and if one of you would've gotten on stage at the show tonight somehow, then it would've been a 10! But it's hard to have a PERFECT day! They are so.....anomal....

Catch you soon...tomorrow holds more adventure....

Gussy