Topper's TravelsTopper Kain's blog. Topper Kain is a world-famous kazoo player and traditional norwegian food chef. He wants you to use the comments. Tuesday, November 23, 2004I've spent the last 2 days in New York and let me tell you, it's been quite a trip. I got in Sunday night and had a pleasant trip from JFK to Gramercy Park (where the cousin my family is staying with lives) with a really nice cab driver from Barbados. I got in and pretty much immediatly went to sleep. The next day was pretty jam-packed. We (my Mom, Andrew and myself), saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The power of that statue can't be overstated, it really is awe inspiring. Unfortunatly, we didn't know that you had to buy tickets ahead of time to go into the base of the statue, and the actual structure of the statue itself is still closed, so we just got to look at the outside of it. Something to look forward to. Ellis Island was cool to see, simply because some of my ancestors came through there. Overall though, I wish they'd left it in a more original state, with cattle like lines and such.After seeing those two items, we went Uptown to see my cousin Debbie's office. She, being a super high power lawyer, has a corner office with a view of central park, so we got to see all of Central park in one go. Very, very nice office I must say. The next item of business was seeing my Mom's friend Patti, who is the managing editor of Marie Claire magazine. We got a tour of the magazine office which was pretty interesting. There were designer clothes everwhere, I'm sure it was a teenage girl's dream (Tip- next season's colors are going to be pastelly oranges and stuff. Ahh who I'm kidding, I didn't know what I was looking at, ask my mom). I wasn't looking at the clothes as much though, I was more focused on the employees. The Marie Claire work ethic is very impressive, aparently to write for Marie Claire you have to be female and at look at least as hot as that month's cover shot. I wonder if they need a network tech... ;-) But seriously, the staff of Marie Claire was all very young, very hot, and very female(except for the gay guy, who I'm sure would be hot if I was gay). If I end up living in NYC I will definatly be hanging out in the bar across the street from that magazine. Next came time to go to a fabulous dinner at the Tavern on the Green, which is this extremely Ritzy resturant in Central Park. It was really cool, you took a curving hallway to one of the various dining rooms, and the hall ways were made of hundreds of little 6X6" mirrors and decorated for Christmas and stuff, and was all very nice. After sleeping off that meal we got up bright and early Tuesday, and then let Andrew go back to bed till 10 o'clock. After the late start we grabbed some grub from a street vendor and started walking toward the Empire State building. One the way we saw a guy interviewing people, so I asked a stlightly haggled-looking girl standing nearby what was going on. Apparently this guy was auditioning for a slot as a news reporter at NBC. After asking me a question though, the producing (female) was ALL OVER HIM. She was stripping off his jacket, feeling up, making out with him. Aparently what they say about sleeping with the producers is true. That, or I was involved in what could be a really funny reality TV show. After the mock interview we went into St. Patrick's cathedral. This cathedral was amazing. I've been to Notre Dame and this is better. It's a classical, gothic style cathedral that was able to take advantage of modern building materials and techniques. The stainded glass windows are incredible, the ceiling is arched is high it feels like it encompasses all of heaven, and the acoustics are amazing (you should of heard me drop my water bottle, it sounded like a german blitzkrieg). Another thing I highly suggest in NYC. After St. Patricks we stopped by the main branch of the NYC public library. Not much in the way of books, but beautiful high wood panelled ceilings, paintings and such. After the library came gazing at some of the department store christmas displays and some quick purse shopping by mom. We finally made it to the empire state building after a pizza lunch. It was a 45 minute wait to get up, but boy was it worth it. We got the audio tour, and the voice coming of that MP3 player helped me figure out more about new york geography than you could possibly believe. Beyond that, the sheer amount of humanity you see from the tower is incredible. Just people, as far as the eye can see. Seeing all the cool New York architecture at one was neat too. After the Empire state building we went to Times Square. While time square doesn't hold a candle to the gaudiness and neon on Las Vegas, it is much more pleasent than Sin City. Did you know there is an Armed Forces recruiting station in the middle of Times square? I wonder what their pool functions are... We got tickets to see "the Producers" and then went to the show after dinner (indian food). "The Producers" is a hillarous Mel Brooks comedy musical, and is highly recommended (although I wouldn't bring my little brother again). Oh and the swedish girl is HOT. We closed out the night with a trip to the rockefeller center ice rink. My feet hurt so bad I wanted to cry, but Andrew loved it. He was really happy to be skating at so famous a place, under the shadow of the unlit christmas tree. However, I have never seen so many young Jewish girls in one place in my life. Everyone looked like they could be related to me, it was disturbing! Other quick notes about NYC: New York girls are almost all very hot and well put together, but tend to look way to severe for my tastes. Street cart food vendors are awesome. Cities I live in need Gyro vendors. Get tickets to everything ahead of time. Even if it is a government run atraction it may get sold out. My feet are killing. Okay all, good night. I'll probably put up a blog about Thanksgiving if anything interesting happens. Which sure it will... sigh .: posted by Topper 9:33 PM
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