NY, Chinese Food, and Pinkowitz, oh my!

All I can say is WOW!!! People say NY is rough, but I have certainly not found that to be so. Well, let me correct myself. In the past, I have found that to be so. In fact, I have always felt a little uncomfortable here, like some stranger in a strange and harsh land. This time around it is so different. Is it the M4 experience? To hospitality here is overwhelming. I’ll start with this morning (2:00pm) how long does it take 30 people to decide what they want to do in the big apple? Two hours or so… a group of us decided to go on a walking tour of NY, led by our lovely and hospitable host, Mark, who took the day off work to hang with us. There were 15 of us, and he kept a careful head count throughout the day. He led us through central park, which in my 4 times of being here I have no recollection of going.. probly with my parents when I was 12 but those times are a blur now. We rode the subway, shopped, and created general merriment all the way from the upper west side to Washington square. I got some pink undies that say I heart NY on them and of course Richard got the same undies but custom made to say ‘Dick Lizard’. We ended up in the square and there was a marchingband there, an amalgamation of the Pink Puffers and Environmental Encroachment. They had some hula hoops so of course we jumped in and it was a rocuous rousing moment, general tomfoolery ensued. The subway scene after that was a little out of control, we were down there pole dancing on the hand bars and generally annoying all the other passengers. Secretly I think they liked it… then we continued on to meet the rest of the band at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown called “Oriental Food’, where Ben Pink’s dad Andrew was buying us all dinner. It turned out it was a 7 course dinner, each a different kind of meat! There were 4 tables of us, about 40 people in total, and on every table was a bottle of scotch that was hand mixed by him, and three or so bottles of good wine. The food kept coming and the beverages flowing, until everyone was at some level or another of inebriation (a common thread to this blog) then we started the toast and it got all sappy from there…. I’ll keep that info to the band… and the fortune cookies read something like,’ it is over your head now, you must get professional help’ and ‘ forbidden fruit leads to many kinds of jams’ whilst we were in the restaraunt a thunderstorm commenced… by the time the waiters FINALLY kicked us out it was pouring outside and we ran for the cover of the subway. Our train was in the sub-subway.. the lower you get underground the more hot and muggy the air, like descending to the depths of a tortured hell… if you’re into that stuff. After a merry M4 subway ride (always an adventure) we rose up to the middle level and came upon an old man playing the keyboard, surrounded by plastic dancing dolls. Something about him made everyone drop all ideas of going anywhere else and we all had a huge dance party in the subway station. The guy was totally adorable and stoked to have created this dance party, the tips were flowing just like the water dripping through the cracks in the ceiling of this sub terrainean disco. Then he busted out ‘Brazil” and of course we all started singing along, our voices echoing through the hallways to the utter amazement and joy of the people around us, most of all our keyboard DJ. Then he neatly ended the song, and we thanked him and were on our way. Where did we go? Well Andrew (BP’s dad) and his lovely wife happen to live but 5 blocks from our effervescent host, Mark, and his lovely wife. He invited us all over for a ‘treat’ so we certainly obliged. The party there was off the hook. Ask me about it sometime. All I can say is 11th floor in Manhattan….holy shit. Ben Pink, i feel like i know you better now! and your parents ROCK. I think I’ll hit the hay early tonight at 3:30. tomorrow we're off to NJ to paint the town black and blue.