Spring is here! (Hopefully)

It's supposed to be 80-something degrees this upcoming weekend, and this morning, there was actually a fair amount of sunlight streaming into my apartment through the windows. My sister-in-law was telling me last night about the amazing garden she's cultivating in Austin, and I felt pangs of desire to start my own. So here's my effort at my own urban garden.




I've planted seeds for rosemary, parsley, oregano, and basil. This weekend, I'll try to get some more pots to start seedlings of okra, cucumbers, and maybe even some flowers. I'd like to grow tomatoes and eggplant again as well - I had a lot of success with those plants last summer. We'll see how the New York summer fares for this stuff.

I have the tiniest little fire escape which will barely house these guys once they germinate, and the weather gets consistently warmer. It's plenty for a single gal like myself, though.

This plant is my lonely little gerber daisy that had beautiful brick-orange colored flowers last week. I think it'll bloom again soon, but for now, it's adding a necessary bit of green in my drywall and brick apartment.





Recap of my parents' visit: It was a lot of fun having them here. My mom took over the kitchen and my dad fixed and/or put together whatever he could in my apartment. The result - a well fed and very organized Manashi. They even bought me a small dining table, which my cousin was good enough to help my father put together. Good stuff. My parents went out to Jackson Heights one day and stocked up on Indian snacks and spices (which, apparently, I did not have enough of.) My cousin was also in town on Easter Sunday, and we all went to the Met and walked through Central Park that day. I sent my parents to see Blithe Spirit, which I raved about in a previous post. They enjoyed the play quite a lot, and I was just relieved that they got the jokes. My mom and I went to see a new Broadway show - 9 to 5 - which we both loved. The funny plot, solid acting, spectacular sets, and catchy songs all came together to make a really fun show.

(Above photo taken from the Roundabout Theater Company's website.)

And finally, last Sunday I went, with some girlfriends, to see The Philanthropist starring Matthew Broderick and Steven Weber. I really enjoyed it, but most people in the audience (my pals included) didn't really get the point of the play. It was one of those heady, absurdist plays that doesn't really have much of a plot, and I liked the subtle nuances of the oddball characters. Moreover, I was quite excited to see Matthew Broderick on stage. Steven Weber was very effective, too - I thought he made a fantastic network head on Studio 60, and it's wonderful to see him playing roles that differ from his carefree, never serious character on Wings.

Hooray for high speed rail!

I have to post this link which outlines Obama's plan for a high speed rail system. This is something I have longed for since I first went to study in England, many years ago. I loved the idea of just getting on a train and being in another country within a few hours. I went to Paris on the Eurostar so many times when I lived in London, and it was so much easier and more comfortable than dealing with the airport lines and security checks, not to mention the long-distance journeys out to the airport. I have fantasized having an efficient train system in this country - it would be so nice to jump on an overnight train and be in Atlanta the next day. No fuss, just countryside views and a place to plug in my laptop. I am not so naive as to think this plan will pass instantly, but I am thrilled that someone is finally lobbying for this type of system. Here's hoping it comes to fruition someday soon.

Busy, busy, busy

I haven't been posting much because I haven't really been taking a lot of pictures lately. The weather in New York has been absolute crap, and it hasn't made me want to do a whole lot outside of my apartment. I did go to the Frick Museum with some friends a couple of weekends ago. The Frick is a beautiful mansion on 5th Ave. overlooking Central Park. It was owned by a millionaire who was also an eccentric art collector. The collection contains a large number of Dutch masters, among other paintings and sculptures. My friend Dante and I were more interested in the architecture of the house. There seemed to be little buttons and secret panels all over the place. Unfortunately, we didn't get to peek inside the panels or push any of the buttons, but we enjoyed our visit there.

I have been seeing a lot of shows lately, too. Last month, I saw Guys and Dolls with Lauren Graham and Oliver Platt. Frankly, my Gilmore Girl obsession is what drove me to pay a ridiculous amount of money to see this show. It hasn't been getting very good reviews, and my two theater buff pals said it was "just ok." Yet, I went to see it anyway. I have to agree: it was pretty mediocre. Of course, the music is solid and excellent on it's own, but it wasn't enough to make me love this show and recommend it to my friends.

Graham, of course, is charming and lovely, but Platt was just flat. I didn't care about his character one bit, and if I remember correctly, in the movie, he's kind of the underdog that you ARE supposed to like.


My girl friends and I made a day of it, and we had a good time overall. We started with brunch at the Eatery in Hell's Kitchen, and then we did a little browsing and shopping around Times Square and even had time to grab a drink before the show. So it was a fun day out. Here's a pic of me and Alana at the restaurant. She's getting her groove on with that cool hat.

Last month, I also saw Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit which was delightful. It stars Angela Lansbury and Rupert Everett in a very British comedy of errors involving prankster ghosts. I highly recommend this show to anyone. Also, Lansbury is a theatrical icon, and she is hilarious as spectral specialist Madame Arcati.

This month should be full of more posts... my parents are coming to visit, and the weather is starting to look up. Hopefully that means lots of touristy activities, and more shows to come.

*Photos totally pilfered from the internet - except the one of me and Alana. Our friend Jena took that one.

CNN has a new flip thing?

I totally missed the replacement of the crawl, but one of my favorite TV blogs is all over it!

I also never understood the point of the crawl - on the financial nets, it was nice to see the stock prices scrolling by, so it made sense there. But why did the news nets decide it was a good idea to distract their viewers instead of just giving them the news? Have we as a culture become so attention-deficient that we can't watch 30 minutes of straight news without video game gimmicks to keep us interested?

NYC Concert week

Last week was a big week, entertainment-wise, and it was oh-so-much fun! The entertainment-stravaganza started with seeing "Black Watch" at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon. This Scottish production about the Iraq war makes great use of multimedia effects and an usual stage space to tell a very dynamic story about soldiers who find themselves in the midst of "the worst foreign policy disaster in history." (Their words, and my sentiments exactly.) The run of this play was initially supposed to be for six weeks only, but now it's running through Dec. 21, probably due to the amazing reviews the show is receiving. I believe this is the second run for this group and this show in New York. I highly recommend that everyone see this show if they can.

Then, later on Sunday night, I went to see Marc Broussard at the Filmore at Irving Plaza. Broussard played a lively show for an eager crowd. It was a little shorter than I was expecting, and he seemed a little homesick and tired. He commented that it had been a long tour when he teared up while singing a song about his son. Very moving indeed. Seeing as my friends and I all had to get up early the next day, we were pleasantly surprised that the show was over before midnight. It was a good time.



Thursday, I saw Butch Walker at the sister theater to Irving Plaza, the Blender Theater at Gramercy. Walker's show was not only energetic, but the crowd was attentive and surprisingly quiet for a rock concert. They wanted to hear every note, and the rocker gave them a good, long earful. It was a lengthy show, starting out with several slower, introspective songs played solo by Walker. Then the band came out, and the pace picked up. Most of the setlist was made up of songs from the new album "Sycamore Meadows" which came out the week before. Many of the tunes referenced Atlanta, which, of course, made it all that more endearing to me. (The CD is really good, in case anyone is interested.)



Saturday night, I dragged my pal Sam to see Bob Schneider (who is faintly pictured above) at the Bowery Ballroom. This rock show was the most raucous of the shows I saw last week. Sam had taken a quick listen to BS's website and was not immediately impressed, but I promised that it would be a good live show. And Schneider definitely gave us more than that. He had a fantastic band backing him up. I hadn't seen these musicians with him before, but they were tight, as if they'd been playing together for years. They fed off the energetic (and intoxicated) crowd who were loudly singing along to most of the songs. Between us, Sam and I bought several CDs after the show, and we got him to sign some of our swag as well. As always, Schneider is a super nice guy, and it was worth hanging out and waiting for a quick chat. BS is playing a solo acoustic show in Brooklyn next month on Dec. 10.

Between all of the venues, I think the Blender at Gramercy was my favorite. It was intimate, there were seats (yes, I'm old), and the acoustics were premium.

And Sunday, I went to see the new 007, "Quantum of Solace." I don't really think I need to give any additional details on this movie, since there are about 1000 reviews online. I love this kind of spy-action stuff, Daniel Craig is hot, and who doesn't love a British accent? So I liked the movie. 'Nuff said.

This week should be less fun, er... active, as I am working an evening shift. So my mornings will be filled with laundry, grocery shopping, and catching up on bills. I'm heading to Atlanta to see the fam' for some kind of big foodie holiday that's happening a couple of Thursdays from now. Atlanta folks - I'll see y'all soon.

My job is something else

Since I'm in a new city now, I've been trying out a lot of things lately - I'm constantly going to many different events in an effort to meet new people and make new friends. As a result of that, I've been in full-time explanation mode - what's my name? where did I move from? why did I move? what do I do? etc, etc, etc. I don't mind these questions. I inquire the same things from people, because it's a way to find commonality or obtain familiarity with someone new.



As I was sitting in the control room for hours this afternoon, watching election rehearsals and waiting for the 8pm special to begin, I thought a lot about the "Get to know Manashi" Q&A sessions at which I'm becoming quite adept. I'm feeling a bit drained from all the new introductions and fielding questions. And as I thought more deeply about it, I realized that working in TV news is one of the only professions where people find it acceptable to bombard me with criticism within seconds of discovering what I do.

I can't remember the last time I was at a party where the IT guy and the lawyer were challenged on the performance of their companies. Do firefighters or hairdressers get chastised at parties about their daily grind? Yet as soon as I tell people that I work in cable network news, their ideas for how the network SHOULD operate immediately becomes the topic of conversation.

While I can appreciate most of the commentary that people have to share, my technical geek status doesn't seem to register with anyone. Unfortunately, I don't deal with editorial content, nor do I have the power to change what stories are covered or how they are covered. Of course, I can make suggestions to the powers-that-be if something strikes me as really troubling, but in general, I don't get super bothered about the content on my network. What we do, we do pretty well. Like any company, our output has flaws, but it also has a great deal of merit.

One of the complaints I've heard a lot recently is that most news programs repeat the same stories every hour (or even more frequently.) It was pointed out that certain international networks do not do this... but it occurs to me now that the int'l nets that were used as examples were not 24-hour networks. Obviously those networks cover more world news stories, and I do wish we did that more. But otherwise, we're pretty solid. And that brings me back to the point of repetitive storytelling...

Does anyone outside of the TV news biz really know how hard it is to fill 24 hours of air time with NEW content? Give me a break. Unless you know how to research it, write it and produce it, you have no idea what that entails - cost-wise, resource-wise, or otherwise. What's worse, with sister websites constantly clamoring for updates, the frenzy for new content is even greater. Trying to satiate the ever-increasing appetite of internet savvy news-junkies while news organizations cut costs (and jobs!) is nearly impossible.



News doesn't make much money for the parent broadcasting companies. Think about it - we get our best ratings when there's breaking news. When there's breaking news, we're not running any ads. Ads are our revenue source. No ads = no money. (It's not the best business model, really, but the utopian idea behind a news outlet is to inform the public - to provide a public service.) So you have limited resources, an increasing demand for new content and, well, not much news happening at the pace that people want new information. Hence, the repetitive content.

The bottom line, for me, is that I love the magic of television. As a kid, I'd always wanted to know how they get pictures from one end of the camera into my home, and that's the stuff that still fascinates me. I'm lucky that I'm able to work in an unconventional job, because I like doing something that's unique. And I do love being able to say that I work at a certain reputable cable news outfit, but I don't like having to defend the company every time I meet someone new. It's exhausting. (And as shocking as this may sound, my job is not my life.)

So please, people, if you have something to say about any television network, they all have public information offices that field grievance calls. Call them. Tell THEM your thoughts... someone higher up than me might actually listen and do something about it.

PS - The above photos are the view from my apartment. I actually have trees to look at on one side and a brick courtyard that no one has access to on the other side. I love the color of the yellow tree against the brick building across the way, although I think Sam should come over and take a photo that does it justice.

October update

This photo is the view from my temporary apartment near Rockefeller Center. I had no idea I was looking at the Empire State Building everyday until Sam came over to help me move my suitcases to my non-temporary apartment. I always wondered why I could see so many light flashes at the top every night. (And yes, you can see my cell phone reflected on the window that I took the picture through.)

Since I haven't made much headway with putting my apartment together, I'm not going to put up pics from home. It's super cluttered right now - I'm trying to put too much stuff (an Atlanta apartment's worth) in too small of a space (my NY apartment.) I'll get it together eventually. My excuse is that there's much more interesting stuff to do in New York on the weekends than unpack and organize. So let's talk about that, shall we?


Speaking of fun, my cousin Anirban came to town last month for work. We managed to meet for dinner one night at a Thai restaurant near Time Warner Center. The food was really good, and we thought the rice cone that accompanied the curries looked a lot like a topor. A topor is a traditional hat that grooms have to wear in Bengali marriage ceremonies. I find it interesting that a topor resembles a dunce cap...

I've managed to keep really busy by seeing lots of plays, a couple of concerts, dinner with friends and even a long day of outlet shopping on Long Island. "A Man for All Seasons" is a play about Sir Thomas More with Frank Langella playing the title role. More was a scholar and trusted adviser to King Henry VIII, and he lost his head (literally) by refusing to sign the Act of Supremacy which gave the King of England sovereign power instead of the church. Langella's deep voice and immense height gave a great presence to the character. The Roundabout Theatre's production runs through Dec. 14.

"The 39 Steps" is not what you'd expect if you've seen the Hitchcock film of the same name. This British spoof is goofy and engaging and anything but a serious mystery. It is a thriller, though. If you love Hitchcock and other films of the same era, this play is worth seeing just to try and catch all of the kooky references. The Brits love their men in dresses and quick-change routines, so "Steps" takes that idea and has three actors and one actress playing all of the roles. My favorite part had to be the North by Northwest scene (I don't want to give away too much - you'll know it when you see it), which was over-the-top but hysterical. After several uncomfortable moments, someone on stage finally mutters the catch phrase, which just added to the ridiculousness of it. It made for a really enjoyable night out. "The 39 Steps" is showing at the Cort Theater until Jan. 11.

Here's a shot of the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Earlier this month, Obama and McCain attended a charity dinner where they both gave well-received humorous speeches. I walked by it last month when a lot of world leaders dignitaries were in town for the UN General Assembly and the Clinton Global Initiative, and I wondered why the Indian flag was displayed outside next to the American flag at the entrance. When I walked around the beautiful hotel, I saw that they had all sorts of international flags displayed all around the building. I suspect a lot of those world leaders must stay there when they're in town.



This photo shows the label from a beer called Satan. It sounds so much cooler in French than in English, and it's delicious. My grad school buddies often go to a restaurant in Tribeca on Monday nights called Le Petit Abeille. It's a Belgian place, complete with waffles, mussels and fries. The food is excellent, but we like the 1/2 price beers on Monday nights. They have a crazy number of European beers available - not limited to Blue Moon and Stella Artois, and since it was the week of Halloween, I ordered a blond beer called Lucifer. They did not have it in stock, but the bartender suggested Satan instead. I liked the label on the beer bottle and matching glass. It has a cute cartooney little devil guy on there, which is hard to see in this picture - so I lifted the logo off their website and posted it below.



Before I sign off, I have to say this: New York in the fall is absolutely stunning. Yesterday, I walked to work, crossing through Central Park, and I couldn't believe how beautiful it was with the leaves changing color. The air is crisp and cool, and it's absolutely inspiring to be here right now. I will try to post some pictures after the weekend - I didn't think to take any yesterday. I was just taking it all in. Happy Halloween, Y'all!