Helen's Huge Honkin' Trip Report, Part 5 of 5
Helen Read
What's the Deal with AFLers and Giant Trip Reports?
Helen's Big Honkin' Trip Report
by Helen P. Read
Part V: But Wait, There's More! After the Post-Show Festivities
After a long, adventure filled day at the Late Show and the Tony Mendez
Show, I finally fell into bed. I got up the next day (Friday), and went
to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I had been to the Museum of Modern
Art on both of my previous DaveCon trips, but never to the Metropolitan
Museum. It was spectacular (and *huge*), everything it's cracked up to
be. I decided to focus on ancient works (from Egypt, Greece, Rome,
Mesopotamia, South America, ....) I really got into the ancient
terra-cotta pots and urns and things, all of which had the most
intricate, detailed decorations. It's a very cool thing about the human
species that even thousands of years ago when life was a lot harder than
it is today, when people set out to make some utilitarian object--a
water jug, say, or a chair--they went out of their way to make it look
pretty. I imagine ancient artisans thinking "I know, why don't I carve a
nice symmetric pattern on this, and then paint a row of horses all
around the edge to make it look cool." Whatever they were making would
have worked just fine without the painstaking artwork, but they clearly
took a great deal of pride in making functional objects that were also
aesthetically pleasing.
After covering a good deal of ground on the first floor of the museum, I
took a snack break before heading upstairs (it's a Read family rule that
one is not allowed a full fledged lunch break when visiting a museum;
you get a quick break to rest your feet and have a cookie and a
beverage, then keep moving). One thing that I really wanted to see
upstairs was the musical instruments exhibit. Well, I walked around and
around, and saw some really cool things from South America and the
Pacific islands, but could not for the life of me find the musical
instruments. I found a route on the map that appeared to go right to it,
but twice I came to doors that were blocked off. Time was running short
by then (I had to get back to the hotel for the "chick" party), and I
was going to have to go all the way around to the other end, cutting
through the photographs and European paintings to get to the musical
instruments.
I did stop to look at some gorgeous black and white photographs taken in
New York City (early to mid 20th century, I think, but I was in a hurry
and didn't read the blurbs too closely), and then I did the patented
Read museum-fast-walk through the drawings and European paintings,
hardly giving them a glance as I walked by. It's not that I have
anything against drawings or European paintings, I just sort of felt
like I've been there, done that, and I had other things to look at on
this particular day.
Finally! After walking through room after room of European paintings, I
made it to the musical instruments. The very first display case that I
saw held a nice assortment of early trumpets and horns. I was pleased to
see the museum use the correct terminology for the instrument that I
play, the horn; I didn't see the misnomer of a prefix "French" anywhere
in sight. They even had a nice explanation of the difference between a
trumpet (cylindrical, straight) and a horn (conical, round). The bells
of most of the horns, by the way, were exquisitely decorated, in yet
another instance of making something look pretty because you can. At the
other end of the exhibit were non-European instruments, which came in
all the same categories as the European instruments that I saw first
(horns, trumpets, fiddles, percussion, etc.) It's interesting that they
split it up that way, instead of putting all of the horns together, all
of the trumpets, etc. There were lots of other cool instruments to see
along the way, like basset horns (a funky brass instrument with keys
instead of valves) and whatnot, but I had to Read-walk through the
display, because it really was time for me to go.
I made it back to the hotel just in the nick of time, before the AFL
women began arriving for the annual DaveAnon party. On my way out in the
morning, I had stopped off at the concierge desk and arranged to have a
VCR brought up to the room for us (technically, it was a VCP; it would
play tapes, but not record), and it was all set up and waiting for us
when I got back.
Libby was the first to arrive, soon followed by Karen, Renee, Cheryl,
Traci, Ann, and Rona. It took a while to get organized about food, but
eventually we called out for pizza and something from a Chinese place
(soup dumplings or something--they went so fast that I didn't even see
them, let alone try one). Meanwhile, we sent Cheryl and our Pool Boy out
for beverages and snacks, and they rode down the elevator with B.B.
King! (I had seen someone in a B.B. King T-shirt earlier, apparently a
member of B.B.'s entourage, but hadn't realized that B.B. himself was
staying at my hotel.)
We had a great party, hanging out and talking about Dave, the AFL, other
stuff. At long last--I was near collapse from low blood sugar by
then--the food arrived, and we all chowed down on pizza, assorted junk
food, and some nice chocolate chip cookies that Karen had brought.
Around 9:00 or so we finally rolled some videotape. We opened with the
annual viewing of the White Drawstring Pants, taken from one of Dave's
game show appearances in the late 1970s. This footage comes from
Password Plus, with your host Allen Ludden. Marion Ross was the other
celebrity guest on the show with Dave, and you can see her eyes keep
darting down to check out Dave's, um, pants. (Dave was actually quite
good on gameshows--he's witty and quick on his feet, and has an
excellent vocabulary--but we didn't watch the actual games this year,
just the clip of the pants.) We followed this up with some old Late
Night footage, including some favorite crash-and-burn interviews
(Crispin Glover, Van Johnson, Harvey Pekar) and a very funny, early Jack
Hanna appearance. Then we watched most of the Late Night 4th Anniversary
show (the one they did on the airplane), which was tons of fun. We
didn't quite get to see the end of it, because it was 11:35 p.m., time
to watch "our" Late Show. I'm glad we got to watch it together, and
relive everything that happened when we saw it in the theater.
It was after 1 a.m. by the time the party broke up, and everyone was
wishing we had more time.
Saturday morning, I walked up Broadway to meet up with Traci and Carl
outside the Ed so that we could pose for pictures in Carl's convertible
under the Late Show marquee. From a block away, I saw a bunch of men in
sailor suits and assumed Traci must somehow be involved (yes, she did
get a picture with them).
(Oh, and an odd thing happened earlier that morning: when I went to turn
on the shower in the hotel room, my hands turned all green, and for a
moment I couldn't figure out what was going on. Turns out one of Traci's
candy necklaces had been left in the shower when we posed for the
picture in the bathroom.)
After taking pictures outside the Ed, we popped into the Hello Deli to
pick up sandwiches for Traci and Carl (Rupert wasn't there), then drove
way downtown to dump the car. I had never been that far downtown before,
so Traci pointed out some sights, and walked with me over to the seaport
while Carl went upstairs to "freshen up." We saw a performance artist
draped in white cloth and American flags from head to toe. Not sure if
it was anything or not, but she must have been broiling.
From there we took the subway back uptown to the American Museum of
Natural History/Rose Space Center/Planetarium. This was my very first
NYC subway ride, by the way. I really don't know my way around public
transportation (there isn't any to speak of in Vermont), so when I come
to the DaveCons I either walk or take cabs when I need to get somewhere.
We had an absolute blast at the museum. The new space show (the one that
debuted in March) is fantastic. The theme is extraterrestrial life.
Harrison Ford narrates; it was written by Ann Druyan (Carl Sagan's
widow) and someone else whose name I didn't quite catch. The graphics
are stunningly gorgeous.
After the space show, we checked out various exhibits in the Rose Center
(Powers of Ten, The Big Bang, and the Hall of Planet Earth, which had
all kinds of cool stuff about volcanos and earthquakes and things). Oh,
and we saw some of the beautiful lunar photos from the Apollo missions.
Then we headed over to the main part of the museum, where we went
through exhibits on meteorites, minerals and gems, and watched part of
the meteor movie, narrated by none other than Tony Randall. The word of
the day: meteoriticists. Tony sounded kind of surprised at how the word
tumbled out of his mouth, and it sure surprised the heck out of us. We
were running out of time by then, so we bombed up to the fourth floor
for the extinct mammals (mammoths etc.) and dinosaurs.
I can't tell you how much fun it was going through the science museum
with Traci and Carl, who are confirmed science geeks as I am. We talked
about the finer points of chemical compounds, geological processes, and
whether or not Pluto is anything. (No, Pluto isn't anything. It's just a
Kuiper Belt object, an oversized ice chunk. It was nice to see that the
museum agreed with us on this, and did not count Pluto among the planets.)
After a quick stop in the gift shop as the museum was closing, we took
the subway back downtown, for a lovely dinner at the Second Avenue
Kosher Deli. When we sat down to eat, exhaustion suddenly caught up with
us, after three long, action packed days, eating at odd hours and not
getting enough sleep. The food was great at the deli, but I was almost
too tired to eat it. Traci somehow managed to carry the conversation,
while I occasionally nodded and eked out a word or two in agreement. At
one point I looked across the table at Carl and saw that his eyes were
completely glazed over. Yup, it was time to go home.
I grabbed a cab, and got back to the hotel, exhausted, by around 9 pm or
so. I arranged for a wake-up call in the morning so I'd be sure to make
my plane on time, and watched TV in bed until falling into a deep, deep
sleep.
It was a great DaveCon, everyone. My thanks to Renee (our ticket queen)
and to Late Show Audience Executive David Kay, for getting the group
tickets and getting us all dotted so we could sit right up front, close
to Dave; to Traci, for all her work organizing the big event, and for
the DaveCon buttons; to Karen, for handling the dinner reservations and
sweet-talking the restaurant into holding our table while we appeared on
the Tony Mendez Show (!); to Karen and Brad for the T-shirts; and to all
my wonderful friends from AFL who came and made this trip so memorable.
I'd also like to give a big shout-out to David Letterman and all of the
Late Show staff and crew for putting on such a great show in the first
place, and making all of this possible. There would be no DaveCon
without Dave. And a big, big shout-out to Mike McIntee, Walter Kim, and
our hero, Tony Mendez.
Next year we meet Dave, right?
--
HPR
LC
thinking about dinner preparations, but just spent some very enjoyable time
reading Helen's report and looking at all the great pictures. Also really
enjoyed the museum photos, it feels like I just made a trip to NY myself.
Thanks to all the trip reporters; it's very much appreciated!
Laurie
Libby
Great job with the report and photos, Helen! I especially loved the pictures in
the Natural history museum and the photo of the lobby of the Ed with all the
white plaster work. But I don't that that one shot was a T-Rex. Triceratops,
maybe?
Oh, and nice convertible, Carl.
Libby
FOXYSCRIBE
>
>Libby
*Very*!!!
FOXYSCRIBE
>>
>>Libby
>
>*Very*!!!
>
>
Hmmm.....next year, let's play "Would You Like A Ride in Carl's Baby Blue
Convertible?" Speaking of Carl, ..they *are* doing Will It Float tonight with
a bunch of bananas. Better be a *new* bunch, and not the ones that Carl
interviewed!
Pat Fleet
Helen Read
>
> Great job with the report and photos, Helen! I especially loved the pictures in
> the Natural history museum and the photo of the lobby of the Ed with all the
> white plaster work.
Thanks.
> But I don't that that one shot was a T-Rex. Triceratops,
> maybe?
Darn. I think you're right.
--
HPR
http://homepages.together.net/~hpr/daveorama.html
Donz5
>Speaking of Carl, ..they *are* doing Will It Float tonight with
>a bunch of bananas. Better be a *new* bunch, and not the ones that Carl
>interviewed!
I guess you didn't see the free appetizer at the restaurant.
Maybeso320
Maybe...trying not to be too jealous!!
FOXYSCRIBE
>
Seems like I missed *everything*!
Carl
> Convertible?"
Only if the contestants are Andrea, Nadine and Kiva.
> Speaking of Carl, ..they *are* doing Will It Float tonight with
> a bunch of bananas. Better be a *new* bunch, and not the ones that Carl
> interviewed!
As Donz hinted, he STOLE those bananas and brought them to Martini's.
Traci and Bill actually ate one together.
Disgusting.
Carl
Hasta luego, you low ridin' punks.
Tony Dickson
"Carl" <makemin...@orthodox.com> responded to:
> > Hmmm.....next year, let's play "Would You Like A Ride in Carl's Baby
Blue
> > Convertible?"
I still can't believe you drove a car that nice in Manhattan.
FOXYSCRIBE
>> Convertible?"
>
>Only if the contestants are Andrea, Nadine and Kiva.
>
>(Carl)
Well, hrumpf!
Carl
> Well, hrumpf!
I think you need to buy some vowels.
I'll make a deal with you....I'll let you ride in my car
if you'll let me call you Svetlana.
Iago
Carl
> I still can't believe you drove a car that nice in Manhattan.
I had to get there somehow.
Charlie don't surf,
and Carl don't fly.
I've driven that car thru 48 states (I'll let you guess which ones),
plus D.C., British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and
Ontario.
Manhattan is easy. Contrary to the myth, there just aren't that many
cars on the streets. Most people use mass transit.
If you really want to put your life on the line among the most
dangerously inept drivers in the U.S., try driving thru Boston.
Another great location for participating in a death race: Chicago,
where the uniform of the day isn't incompetence, but anger and
aggressiveness. It's also a great place to see some pretty bizarre
motorists. I once saw a woman on the Ike driving westbound at
about 75 mph. She had one hand on the wheel and in the other,
a large Big Gulp cup, into which she was puking. That's talent!
The best drivers in the U.S.? No contest....Texas.
Carl
Hasta luego, you low-ridin' punks.
Tony Dickson
"Carl" <makemin...@orthodox.com> wrote
> Manhattan is easy. Contrary to the myth, there just aren't that many
> cars on the streets. Most people use mass transit.
"Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded" Yogi Berra.
Marilyn
> I once saw a woman on the Ike driving westbound at
> about 75 mph. She had one hand on the wheel and in the other,
> a large Big Gulp cup, into which she was puking.
Reader's embellishment: Carl then said, "Traci, why don't you pull over and
let me drive for a while."
Cathy D
<makemin...@orthodox.com> wrote:
> If you really want to put your life on the line among the most
> dangerously inept drivers in the U.S., try driving thru Boston.
Hey! I resemble that remark!
Cathy <-- knows the secret to driving in Boston! :)
--
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Traci
> As Donz hinted, he STOLE those bananas and brought them to Martini's.
> Traci and Bill actually ate one together.
> Disgusting.
Well, Greg wasn't there so I had to share with someone.
Traci
--
Come to the Hoosierland!
Hoosierland Salutes David Letterman
http://www.cowgirls-dave.com
"Well-behaved women rarely make history"
- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Bill Lehecka
news:MPG.178af9634...@news.mindspring.com...
> Carl says...
>
> > As Donz hinted, he STOLE those bananas and brought them to Martini's.
> > Traci and Bill actually ate one together.
> > Disgusting.
>
> Well, Greg wasn't there so I had to share with someone.
Hell, I put the bananas in my knapsack and brought them home with me. My
sister had NOTHING in her apartment...
--
Bill Lehecka (OldMa...@yahoo.com)
http://www.oldmatador.com/letterman/