Blizzard 2016 in New York

We. Love. Snow.

But let's start from the beginning.

So Friday night, about 4 hours pre-blizzard, I ran over to the Sheep Meadow to the location of Winter Jam. It turns out they cancelled it because of the blizzard that was heading our way.

Just a small hill remained from the snow they had already made before they cancelled it. Winter Jam is amazing - snowboarding, skiing, halfpipes, jumps, cross country skiing, sledding, and even quidditch this year. All cancelled. Because of snow. :/

I had to run fast (I got three personal records on this run) because I had dinner plans with Isa. We went to Delmonico's down in the Financial District because it's restaurant week so we can afford it - it was AMAZING. We both had the Filet Mignon. Plus appetizers plus dessert. For under $100. And we sat in the exclusive "Board Room."

We love food. So we loved Delmonicos.

Then we went up to Lincoln Center and watched The Big Short. Interesting and good. We definitely liked it, although we're not completely sure we understood everything. But it was entertaining.

By the time we got out of the movie, it was already snowing. :) I was very excited, so I set my alarm for 7am to go running in Central Park at sunrise before tourists got there and before CP plowed the paths. We finally went to bed around 2am.

I woke up before my alarm. Can you tell how excited I was?

I didn't set my Strava to record because I knew how much not-running I'd be doing. I didn't want the GPS to kill the phone before I got back. Basically I started at the Great Lawn, ran down through the Ramble to the Mall and out past the Sheep Meadow. It was wonderful.

Just look at these completely untouched paths in the Ramble!

Such a winter wonderland!!

At the bottom tip of the Ramble, it opens up to a view across the frozen lake to Bethesda Fountain and Terrace. You almost can't even see that far!

Finding the Mall empty is usually impossible. This shot only took about 10 minutes of waiting.

As I crossed the top of the Sheep Meadow, I looked south toward the Midtown skyline.

You can barely see the trees on the far side of the meadow. The buildings are gone!

I cut across 66th to go check and see if Church needed to be shoveled.

Church was good, so I headed down to Times Square.

Unfortunately, I was here a little too early to see Casey Neistat snowboard through.

We ate a great lunch at Jacob's Pickles, and by the time we were done the City had been effectively shut down. All non-emergency vehicles were ordered to stay off the roads. Subways were still running underground, but no outside or elevated stations. New York slowly came to a peaceful halt, and everyone came outside to play in the snow.

Everywhere we went, people were smiling, laughing, and being friendly. It was the most pleasant atmosphere I've ever experienced in the City. Not only was everyone in a great mood, but they were all relaxed and stress-free. Nobody had anything to do, anywhere to be.

Everyone was loving life.

We took a ton of photos out here - way too many for the blog. I put up an album on Facebook so you can see more.

We finished the day at a friend's apartment with hot chocolate and games. Walking home, Broadway was still closed and serene.

The next morning, the great digging out began.

We headed down to Church. Most of the sidewalks and roads were plowed and dug out, but some places were still buried. Like the seating area for Wafels and Dinges in Lincoln Square.

Such a fun blizzard! We love all this snow!!

Wonderland the Musical

Oh, Alice. What have you done?

We really wanted to like it. Really. We wanted the critics to be wrong. But wow. It just wasn't good. Which is too bad. Because the premise was great. (They set it in New York, and the service elevator dropped her down into Wonderland, where she met all the usual characters.) The actors were great (except Alice, we didn't like Alice, which is also too bad because Isa just told me she was that one girl in In the Heights - "He's packing a stretch limousine..." and we liked her in that. But not as Alice. She should have stayed on 181st Street. Wonderland does not suit her.) The music was great, although the tunes were not catchy. The lyrics.. meh. And the dancing looked like it was choreographed by a college kid doing a senior project.

Throughout the whole thing, you can't help but think that this was a high school production. A really good high school production, mind you, but definitely not broadway. The lyrics and lines were cheesy (even for us) and not very "flowy." Something about it seemed disjointed, like they were forcing it. It's not like Wicked or Les Mis or even Avenue Q where the story, songs, and scenes flow from one into the next. And talking about scenes, they used a very (VERY) minimalist approach to their props and scenery. As in, there wasn't any. We did Alice in Wonderland in my high school, and we had more props. They used lights and projections against four movable walls to show a change in scenery. It was a disappointing take on such a fantasy world that Broadway could have (and should have) done a much better job at.

Ok, enough bashing. I don't like being negative. It feels weird and icky. So, here's a picture and then we'll get to the good parts.

So what was the show's one saving grace? The Knights were hysterical. Their number about being a hero for the damsel - in as cliche boy band style as you can imagine (see below), with moves straight copied from 98 degrees and Backstreet Boys (seriously, see below) - made the show completely worth it (probably because Isa scored two tickets for less than I make in an hour. It may not have been worth it if we had paid full-price). And a new character to Wonderland was Lewis Carroll himself, and I really liked him and his thoughts and advice. And then Alice sang one song we liked toward the end. Well, we liked most of the song. And we liked Alice's daughter. I was really hopeful that she would be the main character. But she wasn't. And I was :( .

Maybe that was it, the show didn't make me fall in love with the main character, and I didn't hate the villain. I was kind of indifferent to both of them, which made me not really care what happened to either of them. But the Knight. I wanted him to win.

But to be fair, after the show, the vast majority of the theatre really seemed to enjoy it (based on eavesdropping on conversations as we exited). So go see it. But go for free.

Isa and I scoured boy bands on YouTube (that was a fun half hour) to bring you the absolute best boy band dance moves (some of these were full-on in the show last night). I give you, N*SYNC:



Ooof, that was long. I got a little carried away there. Thanks for sticking through to the end. And since you did, here's a fun treat. :)

Wicked the Musical

I've been meaning to see this for years, but I refuse to pay full-price for tickets to any Broadway show. I always do student-rush or TKTS or find some local deal or something. Wicked has a lottery before every performance, where they pick 20 or so people at random, who can then purchase orchestra level seats for $26.50. I figured that, as a local, I can keep trying to win the lottery and eventually I'd win. I'm pretty optimistic, and even after losing 15 to 20 times straight (seriously, I'm not exaggerating there - I've been trying for years now), I still figured I'd win eventually.

Three years ago, Isa gave me two tickets to Wicked for my birthday, but not really. She drew the two tickets on a piece of paper because I was still traveling frequently and she wasn't sure when we'd be able to go. I talked her out of spending that much, but told her when we finally win the lottery, she can pay.

We've tried and tried but have yet to win the lottery.

But finally, tickets went on sale through Isa's school, and she bought amazing orchestra level seats for just $25 a pop. And we went last night. Woohoo!!!

My expectations were higher for this show than for any other production I've ever been to. People have been raving about Wicked for years. "Best show on Broadway!" "Unbelievable!!" And my good friend Hayley, after seeing it for the first time, flew back home to Utah and immediately bought tickets (and another roundtrip flight across the country) to see it again a few weeks later. Could such a musical actually live up to that kind of hype? I knew all the songs - sung by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth and the rest of the originals - could the current actors possibly be that good? I had built it up so much in my mind, that I really thought there was no way it could live up to my expectations.

It blew me away.

As much as it pains me to say that Les Miserables is no longer my favorite musical, that Elphaba can out-sing Eponine, or that "Defying Gravity" is more powerful than "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables," I can't deny it. Wicked really was that amazing. The only thing it didn't have was little Cozette singing "Castle on a Cloud" to break your heart. But Wicked, besides being emotionally powerful and packed with ridiculously awesome and catchy songs, had something that Les Mis lacked: humor. Wicked was hysterical. Glinda's character almost had me in tears from laughing so hard. And it was so well written, how it ties everything together and explains and puts a back-story on all the "OZ" characters, from the scarecrow to the wizard. I just LOVED the story, from start to finish.

And although you don't need me to say it, if you haven't seen it already, GO. You'll love it.