I'm a procrastinator. That's what I am. So, I'm writing about our trip to New York about a month late. Deal with it! I will rely heavily on photos, though, since I have a terrible memory. Here we go!
We were supposed to leave the day that the Air Canada flight attendants were planning to go on strike. Luckily, they had to give 2 days warning, which allowed me to scramble and get tickets out of Toronto a day early. This gave us one extra day to explore New York before the comic-con started! I found us an affordable last-minute room at the Best Western Presidents hotel. A little kitschy, but nice enough and centrally located (we got in late, but went for a little midnight stroll only to discover Times Square just around the corner!!).
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| We ended up in the JFK room |
We didn't have an agenda for our 'extra' day in New York, aside from checking out NBC Studios, so we just wandered around, which is our favourite thing to do when we travel, anyway.
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| M&M wall!! |
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| Lego wall!! |
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| Myles admiring the Lego NYC scene. I told him to make a goofy face, which he did with considerable ease. :P |
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| It was a bit too early for the ice rink, but this is where it would be... |
We spent most of our first day at the NBC studio. It was a bit worrisome because we both slapped down a bunch of money on our very first day at the NBC store, which we thought might be a bad sign, but we were very good with spending for the rest of the weekend, so it all worked out fine.You'll see that there is a noticeable lack of photos from our day at NBC. They have pretty strict rules on taking photos....well, it's just one rule, really: DON'T. So, you won't see photos of us at the Jimmy Fallon monologue warm-up, or on our NBC tour where we saw Anna Farris, Bobby Moynihan, Nasim Pedrad, and Paul Brittain on the set of SNL (from the viewing window above the set). We considered waiting in line for tickets to the taping, since it's on Myles' bucket list, but there are some wacky people who basically set up a tent city outside the studio two days in advance. No thank you! Maybe we will try for the actual ticket giveaway that happens in August...
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| Just one of the many things I purchased at the NBC store. |
About a month before our trip, I started looking up Korean restaurants in New York that I might want to try. I found two and twisted Myles' rubber arm while leading him to "Korea Way", which is a tiny little street just off of Broadway near Times Square (hence, very close to our hotel). Myles agreed, as long as we could have a real "New York pizza-pie" at some point on our trip. Done and done!
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| Let's see how New Yorkers do Korean! |
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| Pork dolsot bi-bim bap!! YUMMMMMM!!! This place had ojinga-jjut ban-chan, which Myles dislikes, so MORE FOR ME!!! Wheee!!! |
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| Big surprise!! Myles ordered kimchi jigae!!! |
Myles and I are kinda slowing down when it comes to comic-cons. We don't obsess about getting there super early, and scheduling our every move, like we did in San Diego a few years back. Nope. We just go with the flow now, which often meant wandering around in circles around the con floor, and poking our heads into panels, and leaving early, whenever we felt like we were done for the day (in SD, we stayed until they kicked us out, every night!!).
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| Adventure Time with Finn and Jake was surprisingly popular (but very well-deserved). There were sooooo many people dressed as Finn and BMO (not very many Jakes, though). |
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| Close-up of Finn on top of the HUGE inflated Jake! |
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| Umm...I don't read The Goon (I know I should), but I still think this car is awesome. |
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| More details of the Goon car...check out the giant con bag that Myles is carrying! It's a staple of any self-respecting comic convention. |
The great thing about buying our convention tickets in January was that I knew exactly what days we would be in New York City. This was a very key piece of information because as SOON as I heard about the Matt Stone and Trey Parker musical, The Book of Mormon, I scooped up tickets for the Friday night performance. And it was a good thing, too! After the show was nominated for (and eventually ended up winning) a zillion Tony awards, it became the hottest (and hardest to get) ticket in New York! The musical is everything you would hope for and expect from the South Park creators, and more! It was far and away the best part of our entire trip. After it was over, we lurked around the stage door and Myles had his program signed by the cast, including Josh Gad!
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| I hear this might be coming to Toronto. It is a "must-see"...and most likely a "must-see again". |
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| This dude was the understudy for the lead, but he was pretty fantastic, so no complaints here! |
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| I loved this guy (I really should look up their names...). He was the lead on "Turn It Off", which was probably my favourite number in the show (but they are all so good!!). |
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Hehe...Myles almost walked away, thinking he didn't really need to meet the cast. But, knowing what I know about how he enjoys some celebrities, I suggested that he wait a bit for this dude: Josh Gad! Myles thinks that no other person could possibly play the role of Elder Cunningham. It really did feel like it was written for Josh.
We took another trip to Korea Way to find a restaurant that specializes in hand-made kalguksu (thick noodle soup). Myles is not a huge fan, but he went anyway and tried the sujaebi (hand-made doughy dumplings) and really liked it! We also shared a bottle of baek soju (kinda like a sweet saki), which went really well with our dinner.
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Mine had seafood with noodles and dumplings. Myles just had kimchi with dumplings. I would totally go back!!!
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| Myles is hoping that we can get baek soju at the LCBO. I am, too! |
Sunday at the con, we were pretty much done. There was just one panel that we wanted to see: David Cross talking about The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, moderated by H. Jon Benjamin, followed by Seth Meyers moderating a Portlandia panel with Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein, and Jonathan Krisel. It was crazy entertaining and a super awesome way to end our time at the New York Comic-con.
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My pictures of David Cross and Jon Benjamin are on my other camera and I'm too lazy to copy them over. This picture of the Portlandia panel will have to suffice.
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| I accidentally took a video of Myles with Seth. Thanks to Colette who yoinked this still image for us! |
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On our last night, Myles wanted to check out some stand-up comedy, so we started trolling the internet to see if there was anyone we wanted to see. Myles actually knows quite a few comedians, and was super-excited that Dan Naturman was doing a set at the Comedy Cellar (the club that is featured in the opening credits of Louis CK's tv show, Louie). Of course, Myles is probably one of very few people who would actually recognize Dan, too. So, when he saw him just hanging outside the club, he had to get a picture with him. Right after I snapped the shot, Colin Quinn came out of the bar, saw me taking pictures, and posed for a picture, too.
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| Louie, Louie, Louie, Looo-ay!! |
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| I think Dan Naturman was a little surprised that someone recognized him before he went on stage. Heh. |
On our last day, I kept my promise to Myles and we set out to get a slice of real New York pizza pie! Taking my sister's advice, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and found Grimaldi's Pizzeria, a famous coal brick-oven pizza place! We knew it would be good, once we saw the line-up outside. It was such a beautiful day, that we bought some ice cream and enjoyed the view of Manhattan before we packed up and headed back to Toronto.
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Walking along the Brooklyn bridge on our last day in New York.
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| The line-up was pretty long when we got to Grimaldi's, but there is a super cool dude that helps seat everyone very quickly. We only waited about 15 minutes. When we left, the line-up was twice as long! |
There are a million and one things we could/should have done while we were in New York, but if you do it all, then you have no excuse to go back! I'm not sure when we'll find our way back there, but I hope it's soon!
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