Today I attended the NYU Ballroom Social at which I could see my x-dance partner Katherine perform some open level standard dancing with her current partner. Click here for the videos.
On my way to work today I saw several ambulance and police cars at the intersection of 5th avenue and 14th street right next to Commerce Bank. As I came closer, I saw quite an unusual character in the stretcher... Only in New York...
I don't drink alcohol, but today I tasted 7 different brands of champagne. My friend Di has organized champagne tasting dinner at her apartment. In addition to the champagne, there was a 6-course Asian dinner prepared by the girlfriend of the "champagne ambassador". She is not Asian, but is a student at a culinary school and she knew what she was doing. The food was very delicious, but I did not care for the champagne. Different kinds of it tasted differently, but I still did not enjoy the taste that much to write home about it. In fact I don't see what the big deal is about these wine tastings and champagne tastings. Why not to have the tastings of different sorts of fruit juices? I guess because they are not as ridiculously expensive as some of the wine and champagne.
Today we spent some enchanted evening at the grand opening of "Chez Clay" - the habitat of our dear friend Clayton. He did a great job setting up the apartment for the party. The living room was spanking clean with lots of room to move around and at the same time everyone had a place to sit.
Some Enchanted Evening
After Milton sang in the video above, we were convinced that he was a man full of love and affection. He sang more love songs in peace and harmony.
Then Clayton and I decided to hype things up a little by playing our own music. I skimmed the room full of musical instruments and my focus dwelled on a saxophone - my favorite instrument to play! Ahem... :)
Saxophone Jam
Then Clayton and I delved into the world of percussion. When Milton heard the entrancing sounds of the drums, he started to change. He got up in the middle of the room and started to perform some mysterious tribal dance. Right in front of our eyes Milton transformed from loving and friendly to scary and deadly!
The Attack of Deadly Milton
I will never forget Clayton's sacrifice to save our dear Kerrie!
On the way home from work, I get the pleasure of walking by Union Square. There is always something going on there. This time there was a magician performing the tricks for the crowd on the street. From his accent I could immediately tell he was from Germany. This reminded me of the Flicking Fingers magic show that I saw several months ago put together by a group of German magicians. The magician I saw today has heard of them, but not part of their group. He was visiting New York and practiced doing closeup magic on the street. Back at home he did mostly stage magic. He visited Chamber Magic show that Kerrie and I saw more than two years ago and was quite impressed with it. I am sure performing on the street here in New York also helped to improve his English.
This week a new deli opened right next door to our office and they had a Grand Opening special in which the salad bar food was only $1.99/lb. Comparing it to regular price of about $5.99/lb, Christine and I decided to take advantage of the special offer and stock up with food for next week, since today was the last day of the special. Too bad it is Friday and the food will have to stay in the refrigerator for two days, but Christine turned out to be an expert on storing food for long term.
Today in Washington Square Park I saw a bellydance performance organized by the Bellyqueen Dance Theater. My friend Julia told me about it. She was also part of the show. I enjoyed watching the dancing. It was performed to very diverse music. The first act of the show even included elements of breakdancing. Bellydancers are known to have nice hips, and at this show there were several dancers who were quite hippy. The costumes had gothic feel to them. Basically the show fit the venue quite well. It was also my first time seeing a male bellydancer.
Today we had the third party in "Four Seasons Of Love" series named after Donna Summer's album with the same name. Since we are in the middle of hot July, the name for this party was "Summer Fever". This was the first party that was broadcast live on the internet via my webcam.
I've been going to Bastille Day Ball for years and I always have enjoyed it. But this year it was the worst ever! It no longer took place at the charming Pierre Hotel as in the past years. Instead it took place at the Puck Building which does not even come close to The Pierre in its elegance. I think the reason why they had change the venue this year is because the Pierre hotel became more expensive because of the higher demand, since the Plaza hotel where many elegant events used to take place is now closed for renovations.
This was basically a huge party, not a ball. There were what seemed to be like thousands of people crammed into 3 large rooms. And what's the worst is that the passage to go from one room to the other looked like this. We called it "The Passage Of Death", because if there was a fire or other emergency, there would be no way hundreds of people could evacuate by going through it. Being at this spot made me feel that I am at someone's house party.
One of the three rooms was on the 7th floor of the building and there were huge lines of people waiting for the elevator. We ended up taking the stairs. In all three rooms the music was very loud. It was virtually impossible to talk because there was no place to hide from the sound that bounced off the brick walls of the rectangular shaped room.
So after less than an hour of spending time walking through the crowds of people and taking a few quick pictures, Kerrie, Margaret and I went back to hang out in my apartment. I hope next year they will raise the price to something higher than $20 which hopefully will reduce the number of people who come to the ball and also I hope they will move it to a more elegant location than the Puck Building.
After dancing at Sandra Cameron we went to the Russian Samovar - a restaurant located just next door to where I live. The food was excellent and the had live piano player and a violin player. Some people were dancing and singing. Although it's a bit pricey, it was worth it. A future outing there already has been scheduled.
Today we went to Tavern On The Green on a weekday. It was a Wednesday Swing night. They had a live big band which occupied part of the dancefloor which made it even smaller than it already is. It was also exceptionally hot. I think the weather is partially to blame as well as the plethora of the lanterns - each having a hot lightbulb inside.
My friend Renee was visiting from Miami. Some of my old friends and I gathered for dinner and then met James Joanna and Angi and hung out at Union Square and watched capoiera. James and Angi are seasoned capoeira fans. I took one class with them last year. Later James Joanna and I met Clayton and a bunch of his friends at the Tavern On The Green.
I don't drink alcohol, but today I tasted 7 different brands of champagne. My friend Di has organized champagne tasting dinner at her apartment. In addition to the champagne, there was a 6-course Asian dinner prepared by the girlfriend of the "champagne ambassador". She is not Asian, but is a student at a culinary school and she knew what she was doing. The food was very delicious, but I did not care for the champagne. Different kinds of it tasted differently, but I still did not enjoy the taste that much to write home about it. In fact I don't see what the big deal is about these wine tastings and champagne tastings. Why not to have the tastings of different sorts of fruit juices? I guess because they are not as ridiculously expensive as some of the wine and champagne.
