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!

New home

Kenzi this is for you! The movers brought my stuff from Atlanta yesterday, and I actually felt horrible for them because I now live in a 4th floor walk-up on the upper east side. It's probably the biggest place that I found when I was looking, but to you Atlanta and Texas folk, it's going to seem miniscule. But it has nice, newly finished hardwood floors (which you can't see because of the boxes everywhere right now) and two entire rooms - a bedroom AND a living room. (You have no idea how difficult that is to find on a budget in this town...)



There's not much storage, but the singular closet (hidden behind those boxes) has some nice shelving in it which should help. Now my challenge is going to be where to put the rest of the stuff. I think I'm going to have to do a major mental overhaul of what absolute needed household items are. My goal is to be unpacked by the end of October. We'll see what happens...



This is my new sofabed (which was also uncool for the movers to carry up three flights of stairs, because apparently it's enormously heavy) which is going to double as the guest sleeper. The cable/phone people are coming out on Saturday morning. I still need to get a couple of things furniture-wise, but I figure I should probably unpack a little before I add to the immediate clutter. The good news is that the place was given a complete overhaul between the last tenant and myself. It's freshly painted, the bathroom is recaulked, and I have all new appliances (stove/oven and fridge.) I also mentioned the gorgeous hardwood floors, and the ceilings are high, so it doesn't feel so box-like. Big windows also help on adding airiness to the space, and there is lots of natural light.

That's the scoop on the new digs.

I <3 New York.

I've finally moved to New York city, and it's been really fun for the past two weeks. I'll try to post interesting or cool things that I see here and there. I've got to make a habit of carrying my camera around because I've missed a few cool things already. (These pics are from my cell phone, which is why they are kind of blurry and not framed well.)

Temporarily, I'm living across the street from Rockefeller Center (home of NBC studios), and over the weekend, there were people camping out (for four days!) in order to catch a glimpse of the New Kids on the Block, who were going to play the Today show plaza (pictured above) on Labor Day. It's a highly touristy area, so everything is kind of expensive, but it's close to everything, including the theater district.



Last weekend, my friends, Sam and Bari, met me at the TKTS booth. We decided to get tickets for whatever was available and make a night of it. Once we settled on Gypsy (which was ridiculously amazing - Patti LuPone completely rocks!) and got our tickets, we walked down to the new New York Times building and did a little shopping. Then they were kind enough to show me Chelsea Market, home to an entire city block of shops dedicated to food and food preparation. Once we got there, I promptly lost my mind from the sheer enormity of options.

Luckily, we got there late enough that most of the shops were closing, limiting my perusing capacity. Now that I know it is there, I will definitely go back soon, and I'll go back often. But for me, what was more exciting about that building is that the Food Network tapes their programming there. Oh, and it used to be an old Nabsico Factory. (Note the memorabilia wall pictured above.)



This photo is a mini-AJ reunion from my birthday outing. (Sidenote: Sam, the most brilliant photographer I know, took this pic with my phone, which is why it's not blurry and framed correctly. Other friends had headed home earlier, so I didn't get a shot of the whole group.) We were heading back to the subway after a night of wine and risotto in the Village. (I've been dying to pretentiously say that I "hung out in the Village last night", and now I can!) I've also been looking for apartments and slowly starting to get to know new areas of the city. There are a surprising number of parks that seem to pop out out of nowhere as you walk around, and it's nice to always find a green spot to sit down or walk through.



As for other random things: In TriBeCa, I saw the firehouse from the Ghostbusters movies on the second night of my arrival, but I didn't have my camera or phone at the time. In Times Square last weekend, we saw a bike rack which Sam said was designed by David Byrne - one of many that are scattered around town. I didn't get a pic of that either. But I did get a shot of the David Letterman studio (above photo) on my walk to work yesterday.

Charleston still rocks.

I took a quick trip to Charleston last weekend, and I was pleased to see that nothing much had changed. It was comforting to revisit a place that I have lived, where I loved almost every minute of living there.

My friends were putting on their last show for a while, and I wanted to see how far they'd come since I left to go to grad school almost two years ago.

The show was very good. The best I'd seen them do so far. The skits were amusing, the multimedia effects were timed perfectly, and the music was familiar, but were new, jazzed up versions. It was clear that a lot of people had worked very hard on this show, and the result was quite entertaining. Charleston's arts scene is truly going to miss this group of collaborators in the future. (The two main instigators of the Kiki project are moving to Chicago next month.)

A noteworthy artist: The Kiki sets were painted by artist Nathan Durfee. Some of his artwork was also hanging in the lobby of Theater 99, and I really liked what I saw on display there. Check out his website if you wish.

Otherwise, it was a quick, but laid-back visit. I stayed with a good friend out in Mt. Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston. My friend's house is very close to Sullivan's Island, which is incidentally where Edgar Allen Poe spent part of his life. Otherwise, Sullivan's has a charming main street and lush, curvacious beach with a good view of Charleston harbor. We went for a long walk on the beach and enjoyed meals at Sette IV and Mustard Seed, both excellent Mt. Pleasant restaurants. We had a divine coconut cake at Sette and a mouth-watering sweet potato ravioli at Mustard Seed.

When I had some free time, I walked around downtown, and I spent a lot of time looking at plants and produce at the Farmer's Market in Marion Square. The abundance of choices was overwhelming, and I ended up only buying some strawberries and no plants after much deliberation. (I'm now wishing I'd picked up some Black-Eyed Susans while I was there. They would've looked nice in my garden.)

And of course, the night of the show, I caught up with my good friends and former fabulous neighbors. It felt almost as if I'd never left.

Austin: the Alamo Drafthouse and Acupuncture

Ok, so it's been a while since I've posted anything. Sorry about that... things have been hectic to say the least. I spent almost three weeks out in Austin last month, and it was very relaxing. My nieces were on spring break for part of that time, and my sister-in-law had taken some time off from work. So I got to spend a lot of quality time with the fam, which was really cool.

We went to some cool Austin-ey places like Austin Java and Zilker Park. Austin Java, a funky coffeehouse with various locations around town, (I'd steer away from the airport one, though - the food doesn't seem as fresh there) serves their breakfast and lunch fare with a healthy and organic twist. A Spicy African Peanut soup caught my eye on the menu, so I tried it as a side with my turkey burger. I'm sure the other food there is tasty too, but this soup was really amazing. It was so good, in fact, when I went there to meet a friend the next day, I ordered a large bowl of only that soup. I would eat that every day if I could only figure out how they make it!

I checked out some South by Southwest stuff, and while I couldn't get into the Harold and Kumar 2 screening or the REM show (ok, I didn't really effort this one), it was really cool to be able to walk around and see everything going on. I was so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of music and video offerings that I am sure I didn't do the best job of checking things out. Now I know how navigate it next year.

I must make a special shout-out to the guys at PureVolume for hooking me up at their venue. They had some great bands, and they're doing some super cool things at their website.



Other noteworthy things from the trip include a whole lotta discussions on health, good nutrition, and alternative medicines. My sister-in-law was in the midst of trying acupuncture and Chinese medicinal therapies when I visited, so I went with her on two occasions. I also took the plunge and decided to try acupuncture for some of my minorly annoying chronic ailments (headaches and skin irritations.)

It seemed pretty weird at first... getting needles poked in various stress points on your body as a method of therapy, but I got used to it quickly. It wasn't so bad. You have to remember that once the needles are in, you can't really make a single move or you're going to be in a lot of aching pain until the doctor takes them out 30 minutes later. I learned that the hard way.

The doctor gave me some herbal powder to mix with hot water and drink after a meal. My sister-in-law got a bag of herbs which she had to boil in water and drink the extract. The running joke at the house was that it was time to drink our "foot juice" after meals, because the stuff smelled like smelly gym socks. Somehow I managed to drink most of the noxious powder before the next visit, where it was more of the same needle treatments. This time, I ended up with three bags of smelly herbs to take home with me.

It took me a lot longer than the doctor indicated it should, but after several weeks, I got through the herbal extracts. The results? Well, the headaches are still rampant, but my skin issues seem to be resolved. It was very interesting to try it, and I think I'd do it again. It just makes me wonder what's going on with regular medicine that they can only control chronic skin problems but they can't seem to cure them?

And last, but not least... in the strip mall where the Academy of Oriental Medicine (AOMA) resides, there are two other noteworthy Austin places worth checking out.

One is the Alamo Drafthouse, which fans of Friday Night Lights (gawd. I love this show! it's not about football, really) will recognize. The Drafthouse has several Austin locations, and it's essentially a movie theater where they serve food and drinks. This place shows a lot of interesting films - not just mainstream ones, and the menu, like many things in Austin, is eclectic with some unusual offerings like falafel, red pepper hummus, and Asian chicken salad. Not your typical bar fare, although those things (chicken fingers, French fries, burgers) are on the menu as well. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to see any shows there, but I'm hoping to give a full report on it after my next visit.

And the other place that my sister-in-law and I really liked is the Texpresso coffee shop. With free Internet access and a calm, quiet interior, a lot of people were just hanging around with their laptops, working. They had an amazing mocha coffee drink, which I highly recommend. It was nice to take our drinks and sit outside in the gazebo behind the strip mall, where the AOMA classrooms are situated. I was lucky, other than a whole lot of rain on a couple of days, the weather was really pleasant when I was in town.

So that's the Austin wrap-up... I'll be back soon with more on Jacque's wedding and other Atlanta activities.

A Daily Show returns... without writers

Jon Stewart says it perfectly in this clip from last night's show.

It's bittersweet to see the late night guys back on the airwaves. Selfishly I'm glad, because I can't take much more serious political punditry from the news networks, but unselfishly, I can't believe the entertainment nets still can't concede that there is in fact money to be made off Internet royalties.