The “Gettin’ It Out Of Our System” Reloaded Tour 2009 – Day Six (and one-half) – New York City!!

New York City, The Discovery Of, &/Or Pre-Conceived Game Plan continues to be an evolving thing, much like learning to type on a Fisher Price-sized netbook keyboard. It can be done, it just required patience and flexibility.

During our travels, we noticed that comic and ex-husband of Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold was going to be appearing at Caroline’s, a comedy club right on Broadway. We thought that could be a genuine hoot, but have since abandoned that optional event, in lieu of trying to see as much of the city that we still have to see, as time is rapidly running out. Sorry, Tom – maybe next time.

Hey, before I forget, there’s a major American commercial going on right now here on TV (can’t remember what product – that can’t be good for the marketing campaign) that uses “Stand Tall”, by former Guess Who member Burton Cummings, from our hometown of Winnipeg in Canada.

Cool…

Anyway, trying to clear items off of our to-do list yesterday, we opted to hike out to Central Park, hence the unimaginative photo today. It is from Strawberry Fields though, so I defend my choice.

We explored Central park for about 40 minutes yesterday – I remained a fresh and vibrant flower, whilst Mrs. That Dan Guy wilted like lettuce in a toaster. Clearly, my beer and pretzel diet here is showing dividends. That’ll teach her for eating salads all the time.

We explored the aforementioned Strawberry Fields, The Lake, and The Ramble – not even one-tenth of the massive greenspace. Having gone over 40 minutes without a Starbucks, we were lagging, and needed to find our caffeine provider – almost impossible in this city – they’ve only deemed to build a single location for every block in the city - many you have to cross the street kitty-corner to access!

We endured, made it to one, and then made it back to our room alive, with coffee products.

After a break, we headed off for the sunset Harbor Lights cruise, a semi-circle boat ride around Manhattan, viewing the city skyline from the water, as well as The Statute Of Limitations. Maybe it was The Statue Of Liberty – it was large and green. A good decision, the trip was a lovely conclusion to the formal part of our explorations.

Finally, we managed to do what we’ve wanted the past few days, but kept running out of gas before we did stop in – we checked out a little piano bar for drinks and a snack – “Don’t Tell Mama”. What a howl – more singing wait staff, more incredible talent.

A cigar on the walk home, and we were two contented campers.

Today – Ground Zero, Tribeca, Soho, Little Italy, and Greenwich Village, God willing…

Chow for now!

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The “Gettin’ It Out Of Our System” Reloaded Tour 2009 – Day Five (and one-half) – New York City!!

The Sunday Morning “Nobody-Asked-Me-To, But-Here-I-Go-Anyway” concert review: Mandela Day, Radio City Music Hall, New York City

(or, Why I Will Never Be A Professional Concert reviewer…)

Before we left Calgary, Mrs. That Dan Guy was doing some preliminary research, and somehow stumbled upon the event we attended last night. Mandela Day concerts have been going on for years, in cities all around the world. Last night was the first time this carnival has rolled into America, and we had tickets for the celebration of Nelson Mandela’s 91^st birthday. In..are you ready for this…THE ELEVENTH ROW!!

OK, that’s only interesting for us, but the concert itself was the most star-studded event we have ever attended. Hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, with guest appearances by Forest Whitaker, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, and more, the Radio City Music Hall burst at the seams with a galaxy of music stars from every genre, and every nation. It was like the NATO of Boogie…

Opening the show was disco diva Gloria Gaynor, kickin’ up her heels to “I Will Survive”. Hard to believe how much legs that song still has – even the young ladies (under 20) beside us were singing and dancing along, not missing a single beat. What a start!

From there, the blend was a mix of the best artists from Africa and South Africa, European stars, and of course, some of the top names in America. Including, but nowhere near limited to Cyndi Lauper (performing a chilling and lush duet of “Time After Time” with Lil’ Kim), Jesse McCartney, Queen Latifah (killer…killer…), and Josh Groban. Josh Groban would later duet on “You Raise Me Up” with…if you can even believe it…ARETHA FRANKLIN!! The goldarn Queen Of Soul, who practically proved beyond a doubt that Radio City Music Hall is one of the most perfect sonic environments on the face of the earth. The crowd went ape-doodie during her songs, and rightfully so.

Beyond those highlights, how about Wyclef Jean, and will.i.am of The Black-Eyed Peas? Smokin’. What if Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics performed a duet with Carla Bruni – the First Lady of France? He did! Want a monster collaboration between Alicia Keys and Angelique Kidjo? You got it last night…

All of these performances were underpinned by the astounding Soweto Gospel Choir, who performed on their own as well, but were present to augment each and every performer – to insane effect. Truth be told, there were many occasions last night we felt like we had gone over the deep end. Of sheer delight!!

Bringing this surreal evening on home was the legendary Stevie Wonder, who closed the show with his version of “Happy Birthday” for Mr. Mandela – while the entire cast of stars and performers came out to join in.

This was like anything else we have ever seen – or may ever see again. Three-and-a-half hours of nonstop glitz and glam, in support of an amazing individual. Inspiring, entertaining, and downright mind-boggling…

Oh yeah, we also toured the Empire State Building.

It’s very tall…

Chow for now!

The “Gettin’ It Out Of Our System” Reloaded Tour 2009 – Day Four (and one-half) – New York City!!

I believe we have found our new Las Vegas. New York City is so full of energy, excitement, and diversity of entertainment options, I’m not so sure we’re ever going to think of Vegas the same again…

And, we’re trying to cram every bit of each of those options in, during our short run here. For a couple of aging tourists, the bones tend to creak a bit more with every new day that dawns. We have yet to even leave Manhattan, but there’s still so much to see and do here. Today, the plan is to hoof it over to Macy’s (the one immortalized in the Christmas classic “Miracle On 34^th Street”), and from there finally trek over to the Empire State Building. Other than that, we are attending the first-ever Mandela Day concert celebration tonight, a star-studded gala at Radio City Music Hall – featuring Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Josh Groban, Morgan Freeman, and many more artists and actors. Should be positively surreal.

We started our day yesterday (once we finally dragged our sorry carcasses out of bed) with “brunch” at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, a retro café that features singing servers. But not your run-of-the-mill singing servers- all of these platter jockeys are currently IN Broadway productions of one sort or another, and was that ever obvious when they each took their turn at the microphones. Holy Torpedo!! You could have spent your entire day just sitting there, soaking in the ambience, and hoping to digest the chili dogs without embarrassing incidence. A must-do if you ever make it here to New York.

Once we reluctantly moved on from The Stardust, we made it over to Radio City Music Hall, to take the behind-the-scenes tour. What an incredible facility that iconic hall is, and what a preview we had of what to expect tonight. The hall is stunningly beautiful, and of course, the sound is beyond belief – I believe the Soweto Gospel Choir was just coming onstage, while we were in the viewing area adjacent to one of the audio visual booths. We’d better bring smelling salts for this one…

After the tour of Radio City, we made a preliminary trek down to the Macy’s I mentioned earlier, just to see it and take a few of the 117 pictures I shot yesterday (we’re just under 400 so far, at this stage of the trip). We only had a few minutes to look around, before we hauled ass back to our hotel, to grab another super-sized street vendor pretzel for supper, and get ready to see our second Broadway play.

Wait a minute! We also stopped along the way in Times Square to grab a Tim Horton’s coffee – a little taste of Canada, in the heart of Manhattan. A true delight, and I’m happy to report it was just as busy there as it is back home.

Funny enough, we had wanted to see one dramatic/comedic production, and one musical. The hope had been the award-winning “Billy Elliott”, or “Wicked”, but both had sold out before we were able to snag tickets. Our “consolation choice” was “Blithe Spirit”, a star-studded production of the Noel Coward comedy, and a comedy it was. Featuring Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersole, and the legendary Angela Lansbury, we howled along with the rest of the audience during this madcap romp. Lansbury, despite her age chewed up the stage in her riotous character of medium Madame Arcati – even performing several Jackie Gleason-style dance maneuvers throughout the show. What a delight (even if she ducked out a side door without greeting the audience outside the stage door). I know she’s forever linked with “Murder She Wrote”, but I’ll always remember her as Elvis’ mom in “Blue Hawaii”.

After the show, we walked across the alley to get a few treats at Junior’s – yet another Broadway eatery. We have vowed to eat somewhere different every day, but know that we will not see even a fraction of the restaurants to choose from.

It won’t be without trying…

Chow for now!

The “Gettin’ It Out Of Our System” Reloaded Tour 2009 – Day Three (and one-half) – New York City!!

Well, NYC is clearly out to kill us – we had hoped to make it over to Rockefeller Center this morning to catch The Today Show, which happens to feature the Toyota Outdoor Concert Series during the summer. Scheduled for today, rockers All-American Rejects, whom even a couple of old farts like us enjoy.

Alas, after a manic day of stuffing as much into our sock as possible, we awoke AFTER the show had finished. Technically, we rejected the All-American Rejects…

However, we did manage to fill our day nicely yesterday, all things considered:

1) We trekked down from our hotel to Rockefeller Center, and booked ourselves into the NBC Studio backstage tour. Pretty cool stuff – even though photography is prohibited during the tour. We got to stand in the NBC Nightly News studio, and view where MSNBC runs like a well-oiled…TV news station. No celebrities in sight.

2) We stopped in at the freakin’ Saturday Night Live studio, and got to sit in the bleachers used as general seating – whilst gazing at the mainstage, the music stage, and the stage most of the skits are staged. I’d have liked to have taken a picture there, but being tackled by an NBC page and ejected from the building wasn’t on my to-do list for that day. Still, to sit where Belushi, Akroyd, Farley, Farrell and so many more have filmed bits for my TV at home, was pretty darn cool.

No celebrities in sight…

3) We saw the make-up room, and a mock news studio, where a couple of the common tourists were able to do news and weather. If there had been animals, Mrs. That Dan Guy would have been in like Flynn – she’s done it before, and crushed a young child’s heart in the process. Don’t mess with MTDG and the chance to get up close with a critter…

No celebrities in sight. Technically, we would have been allowed to see Jimmy Fallon rehearsing for his show, but The Jonas Brothers were in for his show, so the building was sewn up tighter than a 12^th-Century virgin’s chastity belt.

4) Leaving NBC, we booked and took the Rockefeller Center tour, and went up to the Top Of The Rock to take photos of the city. Sadly, it was pretty overcast, so our photos were less than impressive. As it was, we barely took a little over 125 shots throughout the whole day!

5) Racing back to our hotel, we grabbed a pretzel for dinner, and got ready (hastily) for our first Broadway show – “God Of Carnage”, starring the stellar Marcia Gay Harden, the radiant Hope Davis, the suave Jeff Daniels, and…James Gandolfini!!

What a show! A blistering social study masking as a comedy, the play centres around the four lead actors, initially meeting civilly over an awkward moment regarding their children. Needless to say, the civility disintegrates shortly thereafter, and the humour is relentless from there to the conclusion. What a howl!

6) Our celebrity spotting was far more successful outside of the NBC studio – after the play we got to see each of the stars (and solicit signing of our playbill), PLUS watched Jane Krakowski (30 Rock) pick up what we presumed were her parents, AND comic/writer Bruce Vilanch (Hollywood Squares). I confess – we ogled. We are SUCH shameless tourists…

7) Finally, after the show we were lured into an off-Broadway comedy club, where we actually caught a comic that we had seen at the Calgary Comedy Festival, earlier this year. Too funny – both his set, and the coincidence.

So, in light of filling our day to the brim, something had to give, and it was The Today Show. Clearly, we will be back – this place is waaaaay more addictive than Vegas.

If only we weren’t trying to get all this OUT of our system…

Chow for now!

The “Gettin’ It Out Of Our System” Reloaded Tour 2009 – Day Two (and one-half) – New York City!!

Our first-ever trip to New York City got off to a pretty good start yesterday, once we made it through the laborious process that is getting in to see the Late Night With David Letterman show. Even having pre-arranged tickets before leaving Calgary, you can’t start to breathe easy until you’ve got actual tickets in your hot little hands. Seeing as how I will be writing an official column about that process, I can’t say much about it right now. Let’s just say, it would be easier to get elected Excelsior Of Pago Pago, which is something I have checked out online recently.

What I can say is that we were present for history being made, with guest Paul McCartney appearing on the show for the first time in his career. If you watched the show last night, he elaborated to Dave on why.

Hey, wait – I’m getting ahead of myself! Before the show, we stopped in at Hello Deli, owned by Letterman recurring character Rupert Jee. His business was the trivia question I answered correctly, to get our tickets. It just felt proper to reward him by taking up space in his deli, to split a roast beef sandwich. I even kept his hand-scribbled note, indicating we ordered the “Brian” sandwich (although he should maybe have been a prescribing physician – it looks more he wrote “Pmai”).

After lunch, we’ll skip ahead again, to where we finally got the tickets in our hands, and were waiting to get into the Ed Sullivan Theatre. Just above us, on top of the Late Night marquee, Sir Paul was doing a sound check for a mini-concert he was doing as part of the show. “Get Back” – Holy “Let It Be”, Batman!!! Shiver me timbers…

Among our wanderings between getting the tickets, and getting in line, we wandered towards Radio City Music Hall, and ran smack-dab into Regis Philbin, crossing the street towards us, although it is unclear whether or not he even knew we were there. I think when he told me “no pictures please”, he had noticed us.

In the theatre, we ended up in the second row, off to the side. We were about 5’ from announcer Alan Kalter – 20’ from the man himself whilst sitting at his desk, with Sir Paul. We had a clear view of The CBS Orchestra, and hammy cohort Paul Shaffer. The whole thing just made your head swim. Even more surreal when action star Bruce Willis strolled out to do the Top Ten list. Fine sense of humour, Mr.Willis. He also turned up for the concert afterwards.

Oh yeah, the concert – McCartney did a half dozen songs, even though only two were broadcast as part of the show. Great blend of Wings, solo and Beatles stuff – just got our appetities whetted for the full concert next week.

But, I ramble – and we’ve got to a city to see. Tonight, our first-ever Broadway show, actually performed ON Broadway. Yee-Haw!!

Chow for now!

The “Gettin’ It Out Of Our System” Reloaded Tour 2009 – Day One (and one-half) – New York City!!

Whoa! Sensory Overload!! Despite what you’ve seen on TV or in the movies, if you’ve never been to NYC before (like Mrs. That Dan Guy and I), this city will absolutely blow you away. We arrived late afternoon yesterday, and after checking in and grabbing a bite at the French restaurant attached to our hotel, we hit Times Square. It hit us back, with explosions of sight, sound, and smell. Some smells less pleasant than others I’ll admit, but overall – fascinating and exhilarating. We’re actually staying right in Times Square, right around the corner from Broadway, which we also explored last night. I bought a 16G memory card for our camera, and could have filled it to capacity in an hour. We are SUCH hopeless tourists…

Along with all the theatres and city sites, we checked out all the little restaurants, cafes, eateries, patisseries, holes-in-the-walls, nooks and crannies, to try out after some of the shows we’ve come to see. Somehow, we’ve managed to not only pre-book a number of different New York essentials, but now that we’ve been here a whole 15 hours or so, we have now OVERBOOKED ourselves – we’re booked solid!! At the top of that list – WE’RE SEEING PAUL FREAKIN’ MCCARTNEY!!!!! TWICE!!!!!

We found out that McCartney is doing three concerts here, and we were able to pick up tix for next week’s show, in Flushing. I know, the name sounds a bit funny, but I’ve been writing all year about how much I’ve wanted to see him live, and now, we are mere days away.

Actually, much like any other average day, I stand corrected. We are mere hours away from seeing him in person. Mrs. That Dan Guy had tried to get us tickets for Late Night With David Letterman, and while we were in Las Vegas a few days ago – we got the call – WE GOT TICKETS!!! HOW MANY MORE CAPS CAN I FIT INTO THIS POST???

Letterman’s only guest tonite? PAUL FREAKIN’ MCCARTNEY!! In the Ed Sullivan Theater, where The Beatles exploded into America, on the Ed Sullivan Show. Even my goose bumps have goose bumps. This is going to be, as the kids say, off the hook…watch the show tonight, and look for the ear-to-ear grins in the audience, with security standing closely by...

So, to summarize, we are here on our “Gettin’ It Out Of Our System” tour, but I fear that we have done anything but, now that we have made our first-ever visit to New York. More like “Won’t Be Able To Get It Out Of Our System”…

And, to make us feel right at home, the toilet here in our hotel room runs – just like the ones that taunt me back in our home in Calgary.

It is a warm and fuzzy feeling…

Chow for now!

“Start spreadin’ da nooze…

We’re leavin’ today…”

After a brief recess back here in Calgary, The “Gettin’ It Out Of Our System” Tour 2009 resumes this morning! Any guesses where we’re off to?

Hint: It’s our first time ever! As Billy Joel once said - it's a state of mind...

Chow for now!!