Spamsgiving Dinner!

I still haven't had time to set up my camera to upload my pics and post them here (and probably in a Flickr account). I hope to get that up and running tomorrow.

I have been taking pictures, though, even at my own risk. Apparently, people aren't that fond of a heavily bearded person taking random pictures.

When I landed in NYC (JFK) and got off the plane at 7:30am this past Tuesday morning, I came upon some architectural model of some section of the airport (either existing or soon to come).

I've always loved those models! Plus, this particular model had some sort of rail track that just abruptly ends - I thought that was funny.

Anyway, I whipped out the camera and started to take some pictures.

From behind me I hear, "Sir, you can't take pictures!"

The naysayer repeated it a few times before he caught up to me and could see me face to face and before I had to stop pretending not to hear him.

It was a JFK security guard and I had managed to get off one okay shot of the airport model.

(Sidenote: Isn't the phrase "This is an historic moment" wrong? Shouldn't it be "This is a historic moment?" I keep seeing "an" used before words that start with "h." I was always taught that you use "a" when it's followed by a consonant sound and "an" when it's followed by a vowel sound ...

Speaking of vowels, I just decided how I'm going to handle dropping names in this blog. I wanted to document what's going on without being too name droppy, but the reality is that I'm gonna make reference to some people who I run into or roll with. I always feel weird about mentioning people in what I write up. So, I'm going to use the BoingBoing method of "disemvowelment." When someone is trolling in their comments or just makes some really inappropriate comments, the moderator removes all of the vowels in whatever they wrote. We'll see how it works.)

Anyway, so he sez:

"I'm sorry, sir - you can't take pictures in here."

Now, I know that that's not necessarily true because it's popped up a lot lately that people are being told that they can't take pictures wherever they are because of security concerns. It's mostly just post-September 11th bullshit.

Even me taking pictures of a model of an airport - really, what could I do with that?

Likely, there will be diagrams of it online or decently available documents that had to be filed. I'm sure that even JFK's own website probably has the same info easily available.

Anyway, I let it pass because the youngish (35-40 year old - that seems youngish for a security guard), mustachioed dude is being pretty pleasant about it.

I reply, "Oh."

"Yeah, we just don't want anyone taking pictures of something and then have them blow it up!"

I found how he phrased it mind-blowing, weird, and funny all at the same time. As if that's the only reason people would ever take pictures of such things. This is a world filled with curious people - I'm one of them!

It just happens that I have a Taliban-worthy beard right now.

(From Sky Harbor to taking random pictures or just walking in NYC, I've gotten more than my fair share of weird, suspicious looks. I just kind of smile in response. Some people are disarmed by it and smile back. For others, my smile just steels their patriot's resolve.)

Anyway, the guard is still mostly nice and I doubt that he actually was profiling me because of my beard as much as he really thinks that people aren't allowed to take pictures in the airport.

I mention my love of miniature things and he tells me about a museum in Queens that has a scale model of the metropolis. Sweet!

I don't know that I'll actually get to check it out, but I'm glad that it exists.

Let's see ... I should get running along, so I'll try to wrap up:

I spent a good chunk of my last day in Phoenix with Jcq. Thanks to Applebee's Employee Appreciation Day (or something and Jcq inviting me), we got to rock out at Waterworld. The best things ever there: Black Mamba tube slidey thing, the lazy river, and the wave pool!

Jcq didn't quite get the wave pool, but I think she enjoyed it. There's not much to understand - it's a gigantic pool that has a wave machine. It slaps around and generates big waves, simulating getting stranded at sea. It was a lot of fun!

It struck me, as we were being tossed around, feeling giddy, and with the insane laughter of children filling our ears, that that's how some of our best collective experiences go. All of us sloshing around in the same moment of joy, both holding on and letting go - a convergence of everyone's worlds in a temporary union. Neat!

(I'm really fucking annoyed with iTunes!

I spent a lot off time loading up my new-to-me iBook with music. Now that I've actually been listening to it as I've been writing, I realized that it's annoyingly not perfect - or even working as expected.

When I pull up an album, it has at least one song out of the correct order, which can really kill the flow of an album for me.

I've been listening to Biggie's Life After Death, enjoying the hell out of it. Then, it ends with "Another" a paean to cheating on a significant other rather than the eerily appropriate / ironic "You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)."

Boo.)

I spent a good chunk of my Tuesday tracking down some sweet Wifi hotspots (Bryant Park!) and writing on deadline (Thank you, Benjamin Franklin, for time zones!*)

(When I get pictures up in this bia, the game will be a lot more real!)

I met up with Trp and Jstn of ColdTowne at UCB to catch some shows. Thanks to Trp and UCB's appearance at SXSW and ColdTowne in the spring, I got hooked up with tickets to the shows and rolled in together.

We caught their New Team Harold show (essentially, student groups) and their Harold Night.

The first group's energy was kind of low and they seemed to not get much momentum going. The second groups energy was a bit higher and they seemed to get into a decent groove. I think the funniest thing about either show was when one of the performers went backstage through one door only to make an entrance into the scene a second later from that same door - awesome.

Because of the Del Close Marathon, this whole week at UCB is a bit askew (purposely). Harold Night usually features the UCB Harold teams, but this week, they feature Harolds performed by their house teams - teams that perform during the primetime slots on weekends.

So, I was treated to Mother and Reuben Williams.

Mother is one of my favorite groups ever. I first saw them at the Chicago Improv Festival in 2002 and their mix of great improv and great acting (they're not mutually exclusive or anything, but ...) made me really dig them. I try to catch them when I can, which is usually during DCM. They had a really good show and I was glad that I got to catch 'em.

Reuben Williams had a pretty excellent show that was pretty fucking delightful in its playfulness.

We bounced to The PIT and caught their comedy showcase (I don't remember the name of it). The two improv groups that did short sets seemed to be having shaky shows. I don't know ...

No one was really interested in catching any stand up and we didn't think the showcase had any, but in between both groups, a comic was announced:

Sn Pttn

I looked at Trp and Jstn and they were giving each other quizzical looks.

Trp and Jstn go way back with Pttn from their days in New Orleans.

Randomly, the three of them just ended up in the same place.

After the show, they all caught up with each other and I was introduced.

As they decided to head out for drink, I decided to head back to UCB for their jam.

It was hosted by one off their Harold teams, The Law Firm.

It was a pretty good time.

Their jam format is to randomly pick names out of a bucket, throw them on a team, and have them perform for 10 minutes. The Law Firm kicks things off with their own 10 minute performance and a couple of their members stick around and play with the instant jam teams.

Overall, there was some good, fun stuff. In general, though, as the night went on (the jam started at 11pm and the whole show went until about 12:30am), I think everyone could feel the tiredness settling in.

They pretty much got everyone involved, which meant getting something like 60 people on stage (in about chunks of 10) at some point. The Law Firm also did a great job of noticing folks who weren't going out and getting them involved. I thought that was cool.

I had a good time and it was fun mixing it up with entirely new folks.

After the jam, I decided to head back to the hostel that I'm staying at in the upper west side (until everyone else in Phoenix shows up and we pile into a hotel that Trvs booked). As I climbed into my top bunk (yay!), i checked my phone and saw that somehow I got a late text back from an NYC friend that I had texted earlier.

He's a Brooklyn dweller and I asked if he was in Manhattan.

He apparently was, but we just didn't get to link up - I'll catch him today hopefully.

Also, I dipped by the Duane Reade (Duane Reade is a chain of drug stores out here and I love them) down the street from Madison Square Garden. I had left behind all of my shower stuff and needed to re-up.

Checking out, I saw two people wearing Kanye West shirts.

It struck me as weird ... I had a passing thought that maybe there had been a Kanye show @ MSG, but I didn't think anything of it.

It was finally confirmed a few minutes later when I saw someone waiting for a train rocking a Kanye Glow in the Dark tour shirt and toting a bag full of tour merch.

Earlier that day, I had seen an ad in a subway car touting that you too can become Kanye. I texted the website, http://www.bekanyenow.com, to Bll since I figured he'd enjoy it).

So, yeah.

(*Yes, Mck, I know that Benjamin Franklin didn't invent time zones. He only invented time - got it.)