New York, New York--a hell of a town!

I got back late last night from a short trip up to New York. It's been about eight years since I visited New York City, which is very sad considering I lived in the DC area for five of those years. Sometimes I feel I'm getting more adventurous as I get older.

Tuesday night, some friends and I went to CBGB, the punk club I blogged about which faces eviction. It's where acts like the Ramones and Blondie got their start. We actually got there to late to see the show. D'OH! At least I got this spiffy t-shirt, and I can say that I've been there. Hopefully I'll get a second chance--sign the petition!

Here's the front and back of the shirt I got (note: I am obviously not the young man pictured in this photo.

I had some awesome pizza at Grimaldi's in Brooklyn Heights. It was originally called Patsy's and is located under the Brooklyn Bridge. Delicious pie--I highly recommend it! (And so does ZAGAT)

On Wednesday my friends and I headed into Manhattan to see something on Broadway. Because I had a 5:30 bus, we caught a revue instead of a full show. It's one that I've been wanting to see for years. It's called Forbidden Broadway--and I just about busted a gut laughing. For those of you not familiar with it, FB is a revue which skewers current and historic Broadway shows. Four singers and a pianist lambasted all the current shows very adeptly. Their current show is called "Special Victims Unit" and details the assassination of good theatre in New York, including parodies of Wicked ("Defying Chenoweth"), Hairspray, Doubt, Sweet Charity (zinged Christina Applegate but good!), Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang, Lennon, Avenue Q (and all the puppet shows), among others. One of the funniest acts was an actor impersonating Harvey Fierstein (who is starring as Tevye in the current revival of Fiddler on the Roof), but dressed up in his Hairspray drag as Edna. [NOTE: real drag. Look here for a review of the album in the coming months].

Here's a good analogy, as I see it: what Capitol Steps is to Washington, Forbidden Broadway is to New York.

I caught my bus at Penn Station on time, and made it back to DC at about quarter to 10. All and all a nice diversion, while I wait for my job to start. New York is a city that generally overwhelms me, but there's so much stuff there I want to do. IU was a great experience, but it's really good to be back on the East Coast again.