Shawn and Laurie's New York Adventure
To see (among other things...) An Evening With Harry, Carrie and Garp

Day 1:  Monday, July 31, 2006

Time for the trip my friend Shawn and I have been waiting for -- our visit to New York City for the bookreading with superstars Stephen King, JK Rowling and John Irving!  Due to complications returning home from my last trip the night before, I didn't arrive home till 2 AM and without luggage!  So after a few hours of restless sleep it was time to get ready for more adventures in travel.

Fortunately, when I got to the airport, my luggage had arrived, so I quickly transferred some essential items from last week's suitcase to this week's suitcase, and took what I didn't need out to my car, which had been parked in long-term parking for 6 days.  That's when I discovered that my car was dead -- D-E-A-D!!  No power whatsoever -- evidently the battery was drained.  Lovely!  I placed a call to my husband and hoped that he could come to the rescue before I returned.

Off we go!  Our flights went smoothly, we caught our shuttle and checked into the beautiful Park Central Hotel on 7th Avenue in Manhattan.  It's a gorgeous hotel, very centrally located to all the things we're doing this trip.  We had a great pasta dinner at Trattoria Dello Arto on 7th Avenue and 57th Street, and went to bed, exhausted.

Day 2:  Tuesday, August 1

We got up early and hit the streets by 8 AM.  There's a record heatwave going on in New York, and people are dying each day due to heat exhaustion.  We knew we'd be walking everywhere, so we decided a good mix of indoor and outdoor activities was probably best, while taking care to keep hydrated.

Shawn's a TODAY show fan, so we headed over to Rockefeller Center where they tape.  We ran into a live performance of rock band, Five for Fighting, performing their new single, The Riddle, for the Today Show.  We slipped in to listen and cheer, then watched as hosts Matt Lauer and Campbell Brown interviewed them.  We went to Dean and DeLuca's next door for breakfast, and while we were standing in line for the restroom, a guy who was a producer at NBC offered us studio audience tickets for a new talk show called Dr. Keith Ablow.  We'd never heard of him (he starts airing nationwide in September) but we figured it would be fun, and we'd be inside in the air conditioning for awhile!  :)

  

On our way to the studio, we ran into Alan Thicke who had just been interviewed for the Today Show.  I used to love him on Growing Pains and Thicke of the Night.  He still looks good!

Sitting in the studio audience for a talk show was very interesting/enlightening.  They did one show and it took them almost 3 hours!  The topic was Women Who Always Have to Look Pretty.  They had guests wwith BDD (Bodily Dismorphic Disorder), anorexia/bulimia, cosmetic surgeries, etc., and never felt they looked good enough.  When you watch a final show, they evidently cut TONS out but towards the end it was getting fairly tedious dragging their stories out of these women.  There was a comedian there to entertain us between takes, and they gave away a few iPods (I didn't get one :(  ) and t-shirts.

When we got out we went to an early dinner at Hard Rock Cafe.  We enjoyed a good meal and shopping in their gift shop before heading to The Producers at St. James Theatre.  It was big and glitzy and very well done, despite the fact that Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are no longer in the leading roles.  But very enjoyable and a terrific fun choice for a Broadway musical.  After the show we went to Lindy's for decadent cheesecake (a NY Broadway tradition!).

                    

Shawn at Hard Rock Cafe, Eric Clapton's               Our first Broadway show -- The Producers!
guitar in the background.

Day 3:  Wednesday, August 2 -- THE day!  :)

We awoke early and took a stroll through Central Park, then got over to the NBC Studios to take the Studio Tour.  That was really cool -- we toured all the NBC news and sports studios, including Dateline, the Brian Williams Nighttime news sets, etc.  We also saw the Saturday Night Live studio -- they are on holiday so nobody's taping there, but it was really neat!

Next we went to our Broadway matinee.  After careful consideration, we chose The Faith Healer starring the incomparable Ralph Fiennes!  We wanted something one-of-a-kind and of course, Ralph Fiennes has the Harry Potter connection (he played Voldemort in Movie 4) so we thought it was a good one to attend.  Despite the very tall transvestite sitting in front of us blocking our view, we settled in.  It opened to a bare, black stage with Ralph Fiennes in a dark, shabby suit.  The play only had 3 characters, and they each did monologues -- they never interacted with each other.  It was a fascinating play -- a psychological character analysis of the same events from three different viewpoints -- but a disappointing ending.  The actors, however, were all gripping with their challenging performances, and it was great seeing it.

For dinner we went to Ruth's Chris Steak House.  Shawn had heard some of the FOX News anchors mention it, and despite truly New York prices, it was fantastic!  :)

THEN ... onto our big event ... An Evening With Harry, Carrie and Garp at Radio City Music Hall.  We arrived about 45 minutes early and the line was around the block, and separated into three separate lines.  It moved quickly, but when we got up to Security I was really bummed that they actually took my camera away from me!  Confiscated it and gave me a claim ticket.  So, no pictures of the event itself (bummer).  But let me tell ya, every time I saw flashes go off all over the auditorium, I got hot!!  Fortunately, I've found pictures of the event elsewhere on the internet, so I'm borrowing a few images (better than I what I could've taken) to supplement your enjoyment of this report...

We were also disappointed that there was no merchandise commemorating this once-in-a-lifetime event!  Shawn and I wanted to buy at least a t-shirt.  And knowing publishers as I do, I didn't think they'd let the opportunity to put books for sale (hope beyond hope, autographed??)  in front of 6000 rabid readers.  But no -- there were none.  This was a fund-raising event -- someone sure missed the boat there.  Despite these minor disappointments, it was really well done, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.  Radio City was beautiful and Harry Potter soundtrack music was playing throughout the auditorium as everyone got to their seats.

When it was time to start, Whoopi Goldberg opened it up, then handed it over to actor Tim Robbins to introduce Stephen King (he starred in King's Shawshank Redemption).  Each author had a little video with highlights, then Stephen King came out, emerging through a carpet of smoke.  He climbed up on a little stage set with what looked like an electric chair, and introduced what he was going to read -- it was a short story entitled, "The Revenge of Lard Ass Hogan," about a pie-eating contest with disastrous results.  It was evidently included in the movie, Stand By Me.  It was disgusting but hilarious.

Next, actor Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) came out to introduce John Irving.  John stepped on to his own set, a respectable-looking leather chair with a fireplace and library shelves.  He introduced his selection -- a portion of his book, "A Prayer for Owen Meany," about a Christmas pageant.  He read it very well and even did a funny voice for the title character, which cracked everybody up.

Then it was time for JKR!  Kathy Bates came out to introduce her, and after her video segment, she came out onto her stage -- a big throne with fancy gold statuettes around it -- a sort-of quasi Hogwarts setting.  As she settled in, someone screamed, "Don't Kill Harry!"  She heard it and smiled, said, "Oh, no pressure, then."  She looked really pretty with a black dress and cool heeled shoes.  In fact, she commented about how she felt like she was Herman and the Hermits coming out after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, but the only thing that made her feel good about it was that she had the coolest shoes.  The camera for the big screen zoomed in on them and they looked like a serpent with jeweled eyes.

She read a section from Book 6, Half Blood Prince -- a pensieve memory where Harry and current-day Dumbledore go along with a younger Dumbledore when he visits an orphanage to persuade 11-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle to become a student at Hogwarts.  She read it really well, and I loved hearing her words in her voice.

Afterward, they had four people step up to the microphones in the orchestra pit to ask JK questions.  The first one was a sweet little 9-year old boy who rambled on a little about how he hadn't read books at all before the HP series, and he really loves them, but how could Dumbledore really be dead when he's so good, and Harry relies on him to help him fight Voldemort?  By the time the kid was done, JK had her head in her hands, shaking back and forth.  When she spoke, she seemed a little teary, and she said, "You're going to ruin my career!"  Each additional question was based on things that were going to be revealed in Book 7 so she apologized, looked really harried but she couldn't answer because it would reveal a secret.

She did confirm two things:

Someone asked her what she had planned after Book 7 and she said she was halfway through a standalone book for younger readers and she would probably go back to that.  But she said she'd need a proper "mourning period" for Harry first.  Whether she'd be mourning because the series is over, or because she's going to kill him off was unclear but her comment (among a few others) worried me regarding Harry's fate.

After four questions (and JKR looking visibly distressed that she couldn't give more concrete answers) she invited the other 2 authors back onstage and they all received more pre-selected questions from the audience.  CNN reporter Soledad O'Brien was the last surprise guest, and she facilitated the Q & A session. One of the questions to Stephen King dealt with how he manages fitting into small town life when he's such a celebrity.  I really liked his answer:  "I'm an everyday guy.  Because you're seeing me on stage at Radio City Music Hall, you may have the mistaken impression that I'm a big deal.  But believe me, in a few days, I'll be home in Maine, and my wife will tell me, 'Go walk the dog and empty the dishwasher.'"

Soledad asked each author which five of their own characters they would want to have dinner with.  Stephen couldn't think of any of his own, so he picked Harry, Ron, Hermione and 2 of John Irving's characters.  John Irving had what sounded like a very clever answer, but I've actually never read his stuff so I didn't know the characters he named.  (Although I really liked him and do plan to check out one of his books.)  JKR decided on Harry ("to apologize to him," she said -- another vague foreshadowing answer that worried me), Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore and Hagrid.

Stephen King was asked if any other authors scare him, and he said he was surprised by how scary the Death Eaters were in HP3 -- Prisoner of Azkaban.  JK turned to him and said, "Yippee!  I scared Stephen King!"  They wrapped up and it was over -- sniff, sniff -- along with our fantastic NYC trip.  Shawn and I had coffee and dessert at Rosie O'Grady's then headed back to the room to pack and sleep for an early travel day.  We had a great time and we're both SO glad we went!  :)

Day 4:  Thursday, August 3 -- Travel day

It was a long day of travel, resulting in lots of delays, returning home four hours late, waiting 45 minutes for the airport crew to unload the plane of our luggage, and then, behold, my car battery was STILL dead.  :(