So says The Music Man’s Professor Harold Hill, the
name taken by a traveling scam artist peddling marching band instruments in the
rural Midwest in the early 1900s.
Donna and I are heeding that sound advice by striving to
have as few empty yesterdays as possible. We recently returned from a trip to
New York City, during which we saw the magnificent Hugh Jackman in Meredith
Willson’s masterpiece and had other adventures over a couple perfect fall days.
Getting there
We took a Megabus from White Marsh to Manhattan and back for about the cost of just parking a car for two nights, never mind the tolls, gas, and stress of driving. A good way to go, but we might try a train next time. Wi-fi didn’t work either way and the seats aren’t the most comfortable. You can’t walk around except to use the restroom, so we were stiff when we got off. Nits, but still.
We arrived mid-day and Ubered to our small, pleasant hotel,
The Pearl in the heart of the Theater District, checked in, and headed out to
find a place to eat. We found a deli a block away and while we ate, noticed
that the large back room with a bar looked familiar. When we finished eating,
we walked around to investigate and realized it was where we celebrated Donna’s
and our daughter Kate’s concert at Carnegie Hall with family and friends on St.
Patrick’s Day in 2019 (here's a link to that blog). The restaurant/bar is attached to the hotel at which we
had stayed that weekend.
Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum
After lunch we ambled down the seven blocks to the Hudson and the Intrepid Museum, a destination that has been on my bucket list for years. It was worth the wait. I was like a kid in a candy store on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Intrepid, where fighter jets from the 1950s to the 2000s are arrayed, as well as an SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance plane I had longed to see.
The uniquely
shaped Blackbird entered service in 1966 and was retired in 1999. It still is
the world’s fastest (3X the speed of sound) stealth aircraft, and it has a rich
history.
We also got to tour Intrepid’s bridge, seeing the controls,
captain’s chair, officers’ quarters, and more. A highlight was seeing a
90-something-aged fellow tourer who had served on the Intrepid. He was invited
to the front of the bridge, where a docent was sharing information with us. The
veteran noted that as a sailor he had never been to the bridge. He recounted
some of his experiences on the ship and of his fear during engagements.
The Intrepid participated during the decisive Battle of Leyte Gulf,
the largest naval battle in World War II that resulted in the end of Japan’s
sea warfare capability (The
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors is a great book about the heroism of
American sailors during the Battle of Samar, the
centermost battle of Leyte Gulf). The Intrepid survived five kamikaze attacks
and a torpedo hit toward the end of WW II and served in Vietnam.
We also saw the Space Shuttle Enterprise, which is housed in
a building on Intrepid’s massive flight deck. The Enterprise was a prototype,
and never made it to space, but it was interesting to get a close-up perspective
of its enormous size, the 50,000 heat-shield tiles that kept shuttles from burning
up on re-entry to Earth, and more.
The tour featured exhibits providing context around the
terrifying Cold War era, which Donna and I well remember. Many buildings in
town had Air Raid Shelter signs, meaning if you heard the air raid sirens
warning of an imminent attack, their basements would provide refuge. My parents
had an emergency kitchen set up in our basement, and my dad was some sort of
air raid warden, but I don’t know what he was supposed to do during an attack.
We also practiced air raid drills in school, where we would
duck under our desks, which we were told would protect us from nuclear blasts.
Donna and I grew up within 30 miles of Ground Zero targets New York and
Washington, D.C., respectively. Missile guidance systems weren’t very accurate
back then, and each side had thousands of warheads to launch to make sure
targeted cities would be destroyed. Thank goodness for those desks!
We got a fascinating look into the close-quarters
life in a submarine. The crew of 90 served about 70 days at a time and rarely
saw daylight. The men slept jammed in bunks three or four beds high between the
narrow walkway that bisected the ship and the curved wall of the hull, some in
the torpedo room alongside those powerful weapons. They ate jammed in small
tables in a tiny mess hall. They 
worked jammed in tiny areas depending on their
role – navigation, fire control, communications. And they normally had to
maintain quiet to avoid enemy detection. More pictures from the Intrepid Museum are below.
Fancy dinner
After the tour we returned to the hotel and enjoyed a glass
of wine at the complementary happy hour before going to our room to change for
dinner at the fantastic La Masseria restaurant. At the table next to ours, in
the front room, was a local couple that seemingly the entire restaurant,
excluding ourselves, knew. A stream of patrons (mostly locals we think) stopped
by to chat, to gossip, or just say hello. The service, food, and wine list were
outstanding. We were pampered and treated royally by the attentive staff.
MoMA
The next morning, we visited the Museum of Modern Art, a 10-minute
walk away from our hotel. I had read about an exhibit of the work of photographer
Wolfgang Tillmans, so we started with that, which comprised the entire sixth
floor.
I’m no art buff, but I was vastly underwhelmed. Photos of
newspaper front pages. Photos that looked like snapshots. A video of a woman
spraying water with a pressure washer. It all seemed pretentious and uppity.
Yes, he was interested in how truth can be distorted, but to me his explanatory
texts that were part of the show expressed that so much better than any of his
actual art.
After spending too much time with the Tillmans exhibit, we
decided to work our way down. We stumbled onto the early works of modern art.
Picasso, Matisse, Kahlo, Johns, and Van Gogh’s mesmerizing Starry Night. That’s
art that, while much of it still leaves me with lots of questions, I can
appreciate. More pictures are below.
After the museum we walked along Fifth Avenue, stopped in St. Patrick's Cathedral, had lunch outside at an Irish pub, then did some more walking around before returning to our hotel before dinner, at Rosie O’Grady’s, then to Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre for the show.
The Music Man
The Music Man is a special musical for me. For decades I’ve loved the exuberance, the spectacle, the music, the characters, and the themes of appreciating the moment and the redemptive power of love. Robert Preston starred in the 1962 movie version I was familiar with. In the Broadway revival, Hugh Jackman takes the role to a new level. At 53, his dancing is remarkable, his interpretation of the role is terrific, his singing is pretty darn good. Sutton Foster, who plays his love interest Marion the Librarian, was stellar, as was the supporting cast.
When the lights went down, the audience became giddy; as the orchestra began the overture, it was clapping along; when the curtain went up, it laughed in glee through the opening lines; and when Jackman revealed himself, it went nuts (I should replace “it” above with “we”, because I was fully participating). I was expecting a great time and the experience exceeded my expectations.
The next morning, we packed our things and Ubered to the bus stop for our return trip to Maryland. All in all, we had a couple very full yesterdays. With luck we’ll have many full tomorrows.
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| SR-71 Blackbird |
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| F-14 |
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| SR-71 Blackbird |
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| SR 71 Blackbird |
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| USS Intrepid Bridge |
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| Donna being Donna |
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| Concorde SST |
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| USS Intrepid bridge |
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| USS Intrepid Radar Room |
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| USS Intrepid bridge |
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| USS Intrepid Captain's chair |
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| USS Intrepid bridge |
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| USS Growler |
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| USS Growler |
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| USS Growler Missile Checkout & Guidance Center |
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| USS Growler Communications Room |
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| USS Growler |
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| USS Intrepid |
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