Do I have the best aunt or what?
Booking a Friday flight two days beforehand is a little pricey but she assured me she would be able to cover it. Rock and roll time!! Except... the US Air flight to PIT from LGA had to land in Harrisburg to refuel due to bad weather. It was ultimately two hours late; we boarded, but then were told we had missed LGA's curfew window as one of their runways was closed to weather. Flight canceled, go home, we can't really help you because it's weather-related. I had a brief wavering of resolve - maybe I wasn't meant to go on this crazy trip? - but banded together with a few other twentysomething flight refugees and tried to get on a Continental flight to EWR. Surprise! It canceled too. My only option to be in NYC on time was a 6am Delta flight to JFK, and it was now just past midnight.
There was no way I'd get back to the airport in time on the bus, but I really didn't want to sleep in an airport. After being told that all the area hotels were booked (of course!) I finally found one that wasn't; amazingly enough, two of my compatriots, both post-university ladies my age, thought splitting a room would be just fine - yay low price point! Even better, they had CARS, and we set off. Well, first we had to take two noisy, yo-we-gotta-play-dis "gangsta" boys at the very nearby Sunoco for some cigarettes ("Any of you smoke?" // "No, actually I work in air quality, so I know exactly how bad that is for you..." // "Oh.") and then back to the airport so we didn't cause any harm to their shiny kicks (really). But whatever. We got to the Holiday Inn, travel-loopy, and the employees must have taken pity on us because they threw in a cot for free, and then reduced the rate to $59 when they heard we'd only be in the room for three hours tops. $20 for a shower and an hour and change of sleep was so, so worth it. Although it was the first time I've seen that side of 4am in a long time, ouch.
After a wonderfully uneventful flight and saying goodbye to Lauren and Kari (we exchanged business cards, fun!), I finally got to NYC and was at Sue's place by 9:30am. After a briefing on the event (lucky, wealthy guy's 50th bday), family, and the cameras (I ended up bringing her G12 and my G9, for maximum familiarity and minimum intrusiveness on my end), we met up with Ophelia and ate at Leña's again (yay!). A quick change and gear-grab and then we were in the car ride up to Greenwich, CT. A few more minutes of sleep for me, woo hooo! But once we arrived...
I don't think I have seen or will ever again see a private event like this. The decorations were straight out of a magazine. They had entire arms of four plantains, fruit and blooms and all. They had two tents and an outdoor area, each with a different theme. Two stages. Fancy trailored and air-conditioned port-a-johns. Ten people doing valet parking. Artifacts and mini exhibits from the birthday boy's childhood. Exotic-looking flowers galore. Even once people arrived, it seemed like there were more staff (roadies, chefs, waiters, runners, us, etc) than attendees, and there was a 500+ guest list! The food was awesome but it was hot hot hot out. I must have had at least 7 glasses of water and never really needed to pee. But it sure made for good land/skyscape shooting, which is what I tried to bring to the table.
The Outlaws played first; Cracker went on right after. David Blayne was wandering around doing magic. These are not unpopular acts! I would have been impressed with just that. But, of course, then I saw Scott Shriner standing with a beer - just in the tent! No one around! Like he's a real person and not a tiny speck from a crappy venue seat behind beefy event staff! Okay, so my brain short-circuited a bit. Sought out Sue to regroup, but she was just like "oh look, the family is over there with them, let's go take some photos." That was exactly the opposite direction I was thinking! I am, in retrospect, awfully thankful for that response, because I might never have gone over there otherwise. And I would have missed serious awesome. I came prepared with an old "if it's too loud, turn it down" tshirt and a sharpie, and was able to get it signed then by Brian, Scott and Josh Freese, their touring drummer. I then had a really nice chat with Brian about how smart it was that I was wearing earplugs, and how he didn't have any with him, which ended in me giving him a spare pair that he said he'd use later. It was probably only five seconds long but he was SO kind and really, my day had already been made. Even if a giant fireball crashed into the stage and they didn't play, I would have not minded one bit.
But of course they played. For the first time in my life, I could touch the stage. I was seeing the band at 1:1 scale. The few hundred giddy rich white people and I enjoyed the CRAP out of their show, that's for sure. I gave the birthday boy's daughter my last pair of earplugs (lesson: spares are handy!), watched his son grab the cast-off guitar, and saw the videofeed cameraman jump with the crowd, his child-weighted camera above his head. They played the Lady Gaga pokerface // MGMT Kids mashup. Rivers jumped on someone's shoulders and was taken around the tent, high-fiving and looking like he was finally enjoying shows. I was definitely surprised by that, in comparison to the other times I've seen the band. Everyone looked like they were having a really good time. Maybe the whole wife/kid/meditation thing is working after all. At that point you could have told me anything and I would have believed it. I do think theirs was unequivocally the best set of the night.
I had known they were going to take a band-with-the-family photo afterwards and though they didn't let me past as a photographer, I did queue up to get Rivers' autograph. I was kind of floored by some of the people in front of me, though - "What house were you at Harvard? Let me give you my card in case you're ever in New Orleans"... are you serious, dude, there is no way he cares about that. By the time it was my turn I just wanted to get his signature, express gratitude ("I'mahugefansohappyyouplayedheretonight"), and make sure everyone else had time to do the same. That is the logical part of me typing because the other part would just go EEEEEEEE. I couldn't get the sharpie back in the pencap, my hands were shaking so much, so I decided I would take a rest, partake in some "soft desserts" (that was actually the term used; mostly tiny cheesecakes and stuff) and lay off the camera for a while. Everclear was a good show to watch too, although I felt bad for them as the crowd had thinned out considerably by then...
By the time the night was over, seven hours after we'd arrived, my body had about had it with life. I guess running on less than two hours of sleep might do that. I am 23 and my back felt like knives and I had lost feeling on the side of my left pinkie toe - though I was happy to trade that nerve ending for the whole experience, I was completely in awe of my aunt, who was still hopping around making sure she had good shots of all the attendees. This is not easy work she does. But eventually we packed up, finagled ownership of one of the plantain branches (really couldn't pass that up. as sue said, "what a great corsage!" -- but, surprisingly freaking heavy!), collected our parting personalized soccer ball and got in a car home. Oof. After a little unwinding time - and some MUCH needed showertime, even if it was in a totally bizarre one next door because her water didn't have enough power - we watched the Empire State Building go out at 2:01am (!), a perfect ending to a crazy, crazy day.
I slept in, but not too long - hard to justify in NYC when there's so much else that you could do. Sunday was a pretty laid-back day anyway, though, just because we really didn't need to move too much after the previous day. I FINALLY learned how to use Lightroom, which we'd been planning on doing forever. What a fun tool! (I would later come back and buy my own, and had enough amazon credit to knock it from $69 to $0.79!) Once we set DVDs of the RAW and processed files a'burning, we headed over to Cornelia St. Cafe for lunch and to see Peanut's art installation. They are SO COOL! The food - indian black bean soup and the farmer's breakfast (poached egg on salad) - was perfect and I might even need to recreate them someday... Just to further the total craziness of the weekend, GROM - the super awesome gelato place Peter and I visted in Florence - is RIGHT around the corner from the Cafe. It's expensive but I had to stop in. The gelato was just as delicious as I had remembered. I got siciliana (orange and almond), extranoir, and tiramisu, and loved each one. Sue got mint and pistachio which were also very good.
We got back with a perfect amount of time to pack and get on the shuttle to the airport. Considering the trouble I had getting to the city, you'd think going out would have been fine...but the 8:30pm plane was delayed an hour. Of course! But my seat was such that I got to listen to attendant chatter, which was very funny. We arrived a few minutes after the US Air 9:30pm flight, which I remembered my newfound friend Lauren from Friday night was supposed to be on. I called her (business card WIN) and since she also lives in Shadyside, I hitched a ride and didn't even have to take the bus. SO GOOD.
Seriously. I may have used up all my summer awesome-things credit. But I wouldn't change a single part of the weekend, it was all an amazing adventure. =)
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