Charlie Says...

So this weekend I was off to Philadelphia again, but this time it was for work. Nothing crazy happened. We get there and start shooting, things are going smoothly so that's good. Things went way better than the weekend before in Cincinnati. So first thing. We get to the hotel and check in. Really busy hotel, lots going on. So I go up to my room with the dreadlocked camera man, sweet, and open the door and it's a tiny room with one bed. AWESOME. So we go back downstairs and complain and they say sorry place is booked. So then we called the travel person from ESPN and they talked to the hotel and in like a minute we had a new room. Assholes. So that's resolved. Next we go out that night to shoot. I stay behind at first to finish some things up and have some dinner. Then the PA comes to pick me up to take me to the shoot. This guy is one of the most awkward people I have ever met. I have no idea what's going on with his hair, it looks like a wig and all dead, really really weird. So he picks me up, it's only me and him in the car, great conversation, not really. I feel like he is one of those people that say really dumb stuff and not know why they even say it or they're sheltered or something, it's so weird. Like I expect him to say, "Did you know the ocean is blue because my mom loves the ocean and the color blue." It's really weird and makes me really uncomfortable. Oh and he can never wear enough sun block. Dude puts on sun block at like 2am, every damn time I turn around I feel like he's putting on sun-block. Next complaint. So I have to share a room with this dreadlock guy. It's not that bad but it's the first time i've shared a room since freshman year college, and we all know how that turned out. So this guy is nice, kind of annoying, i hate his voice and his hair. He stays up way too late too. Not that I'm a total nerd old man but this schedule for work we have is crazy and sleep is appreciated but he stays up who knows how long with the tv on and clickin on the computer keys- so damn annoying. Oh and he also likes to crank the air conditioning so it's like 20 degrees in our room, not bad for sleeping but when i wake up and start to work in the room i need to wear gloves. Oh oh oh, so this one i really hate. So he uses the bathroom, number 2 style, and then when he's done he shuts the door behind him. Now this sounds like a courteous thing to do, it's a hotel room, sure I'm gonna keep the stink in the bathroom. Oh no my friend. Because when it's time for me to go into the bathroom, the smell has been contained and it's an agonizing experience now to use the bathroom. I'd rather go through the two minutes of gross smell in the bathroom leaking into the room than my whole bathroom experience with me holding my breath. Well those are my complaints. I wish i had better things to tell of the weekend. Although it being my second time in Philadelphia i did enjoy it more. I'd live there if someone offered me a good job or their hand in marriage. So who knows what will happen. Well until next week my anonymous internet friends, and next week is new orleans so i hope something mildly interesting happens there.

High Maintenance

Caitlin has lost perspective, I see. She believes that seeing Elton John in a piazza in Europe is dull, dull, dull. I think I understand though. Have you read her other posts? She does the most amazing idyllic gourmand Eurothings every weekend, so I guess there is a nano-chance that someone in her position could find elton in a piazza worth less then gum on the bottom of her ballet flat. More power to her!! Keep those standards high girl!!!

Nicole

Caitlin in France Says...

Nothing but work for me this weekend. it sucked. and an elton john concert but to be honest, it was in a piazza with 20,000 other people and he kind of waddled around the stage for a few hours. and he is not one to enunciate, which also made it kind of difficult to get a grasp of what was happening. the jumping on the piano was a similiarly embarassing stunt. but, anyway, enough raging on the rocket man. that's it! fill in a gap here or there with some brunch, some drinks, and voila, my very boring weekend.

Mommy N' Me

Friday night, here I go drawing a blank again, hold on, I need to look in my planner....oh wait- let me not forget Thursday night because it was real nice. Mom and R. and I went to Battery Park for an outdoor performance by Ballet Hispanico accompanied by the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra who blew a good note, supported by an impeccable sound system and a mature crowd who didn't yak it up during marvelous solos that blasted, not floated, out onto the warm night air. I took my skippies off and we sat on the picnic blanket, which has seen a lot of mileage this summer, and ate sushi, chicken empanadas and banana chip muffins. Everything felt, sounded, looked, tasted, smelled good. The dancers were as excellent as they could be, swathed in gorgeous dresses and character costumes for the males (sailor, waiter, nerd) and there seemed to be a plot that revolved around there always being one girl too many at the nightclub which resulted in a lot of girlfighting and stealing dance partners away from other gals. Also they choreographed the dramatic element of it so that the guy dancers (ballerinos?) were continually swooning over the female dancers, liek fanning themselves and falling over when they sashayed by. After a while it was beginning to offend me that they were trying to put this ruse over on us. The ballerinos were so obviously gay that I kept expecting them to start pairing off and dancing with each other, and honestly kind of really wanted to see that. They should have left EVERY broad standing off to the side! Noone was buying that and I felt the performance was dated in a way, like let's be real, this is New York City, you don't have to pretend with us that these guys are in love with these girls. Shave the beards, ballerinos!
Anyway we next went over to Stone Street, the oldest street in New Amsterdam, and sat at a table outside on the cobblestone street, making nice work of a bottle of petit syrah. I really really like it over there. I went last fall for both an Oysterfest and an Oktoberfest, and I plan on going again this year. You are ALL invited! My mom LOVEDED this street. It reminded her of time spent in France and Holland. Oddly she asked a bunch of her friends who have lived in NY if they'd heard of the street and noone had. I inquired amongst some of my savvy friends as well and they hadn't heard of it either. Stop sleeping. It's beautiful there, very transcendent, and the Oysterfest was a swingin' time. Roll on down to Stone Street!
Friday I asked my mom if she wanted to see El Cantante ans to my shock she said she did! So we went to Times Square (horrors) to see it and went up four thousand escalators to get to teh theater. When we got in there and waited for things to start, I scientifically observed and then postulated that it was going to be a noisy showing. Folks were rattling in Spanish, singing, on the phone, catching up, talking back to other rows, the whole nueve. Well, when the lights went down, this group fell silent. I am going to chalk it up to Marc Anthony's captivating performance. He was REALLY GREAT!! Sexy, skinny, amazing stage presence as Hector Lavoe, beautiful singing voice, outstanding acting, especially the dramatic scenes of drug use and meltdowns...nominate him, those in charge of these things!! Very unfortunately, the movie was eaten alive by JLo. I am not saying she did a bad job, but she dominated every scene. The story was told from her point of view, and we didn't get a rounded take on Hector. Compared to her Marc didn't say a word! I feel I know JLo's character's quirks and motivations, but got very little character devlopment about Lavoe, aside from the usual reasons for fucking up an awesome career, exactly like Johnny Cash and Ray Charles- dead siblings, mean parents, relentless guilt and feelings of unworthiness. Nonetheless rent this pelicula, especially if you are all about Latin music as I am. I also think the Latinos in the theater knew this was their big chance to see their people represented on the big screen so they didn't want to yap through it and instead hung on every delicious word. The second the lights went up there were bursts of singing along with the credits, and dancing took place in the aisles. Alegrias!!!
Saturday I took my sick cat back to the vet and she is now doing worse, not better. I don't want to talk about it here in the annals of good times. You may ask me privately.
Then Mami and I went to the International Center of Photography with her friend Margie to see various exhibits- one was photographs of Amelia Earhart, who was better looking and chicer than I had ever known. Also there were portraits of sundry great African-Americans- politicians, actors, boxers, activists, etc. and some of the pictures captured some truly poignant and important moments and they all showcased some outstanding people. Afterward we went to Bryant Park to drink coffee and have a rootbeer float and watch rather unfashionable people walk by considering it was the top of Fashion Week. However there was one absolute GEM- an old lady, like older than Pat Field, with red hair and red lipstick, wearing purple crocs, a purple miniskirt, sitting with her legs way open, now and then scratching her crotch, with a huge orange Balenciaga bag at her feet, and rocking a graffiti bubble lettered t-shirt that had the nerve to say "Baby Girl" on it!!!!! WHAT!!!!GORGEOUS!! I stealthily took some shots of her on my mom's camera and if she ever sends them to me I will bless this blog with its first ever photo of Baby Girl herself!!
Sunday we had brunch in the very creatively designed back garden at Loulou in Fort Greene with Mom's friend Jacquie. Jacquie has a lot to say. She is an avid traveler and ski instructor in Vermont and she has got to be 65 years old! So brunch was dedicated to how she does it all. Very enlightening. Then Mamacita and I carried on and went to the theater to see a Flamenco show performed by Pilar Rioja. Homegirl is in her 70s and got up on stage and danced better than anyone you or I know can. She was in incredible shape, had long auburn hair, and was draped in incredible dance dresses that were sewn with full skirts to work with the pivoting moves known to Flamenco. It was a very inspiring performance, showing that you can surely do what you love as well as and as long as you want to. It was enough to convince me to take a flamenco dance lesson at the Open Center next Tuesday which is also my birthday.
Then we got home at 9:05, in time for me to miss Britney on the VMA's. I am going to go youtube that shiz right now, thanks for listening!

Nicole

AAAAAAH! HAHAHAHA!

Oh how peals of raucous laughter boomed out around the What Did You Do Last Weekend offices when I read about the TADPOLES on Charlie's hotel bathroom floor!! Run don't walk to Charlie Says and find out what I am laughing at!!

Nicole

Charlie Says...

I didn't do much friday night, went out to my local bar and met my friend Marissa who I haven't seen in about two years. It was fun although I ended up staying out way later than I had planned. I wanted to be in early because this weekend was my first weekend doing this new monday night football thing. So saturday morning I woke up before the sun came up, yes that was fun, and headed to Cincinnati. I've never been to Cincinnati so I was excited, well kinda. I arrive in Cincinnati and meet up with the other members of this team I'm with for this ESPN thing. We're riding to Cincinnati from the airport and we hear about an Oktoberfest in Kentucky, obvious reaction, we have to go. So we get to this Oktoberfest not knowing what to expect, and there was no way to know what to expect. Although when I used to live in Wisconsin I frequented many Oktoberfests and my parents still throw one every year. Lots of great merchandise at this place, wind chimes made out of beer cans, any sort of object with your address painted on it and i think one booth had all of the country's stock of tie-dyed t-shirts. These people were great, never had i seen such a close ratio of number of mouths to number of teeth in those mouths, really great Kentucky, way to go. So we finish shooting and head back to Cincinnati and check into the hotel and blah blah blah, boring work stuff. Finally the game is Monday, we go to shoot all the tailgating. I must say football fans are crazy. I'm not a huge sports fan, I like to watch sports if I'm around them, but I don't really follow teams or stats and stuff like that. We finish shooting and then go into the game. That was cool, I've never been to an NFL game before and it was nice. We had press passes so we got to hang out in the press box and have a ton of free food and it was pretty cool, nothing crazy, just a bunch of journalists with bionoculars and computers, no idea what they were looking at up close. So that was the weekend. I don't know. Not the craziest stuff. I thought it'd be more fun but who knows, it was only the first week of doing this thing. Although, I will tell you this. So I have to share my hotel room with the camera man, whatever, not a big deal. But the guy has dreadlocks. I'm telling you right now, I hate you if you have dreadlocks, so disgusting. I hate them so so so much. So not only do I have to look at these nasty ropes connected to this dudes head, but in the bathroom on the floor it looks like someone sprinkled pubes all over the floor. Not only that but some were all knotted and looked like tadpoles. So disgusting, ugh, stop this dreadlock thing. Well that's it I guess, I wish I had more to say, the airport was kind to me too, usually I run into a handful of undesirables there, but I suppose it was too early for them. Until next weekend.

J. Fruit Says...

Ah...so I headed back to NYC this weekend. It's a long weekend and one of my friends is moving to London. I manage to survive the bus ride up (which surprisingly lacked the traffic I expected), despite my imaginings of terrorist plots (who the hell is going to bomb a bus load of people coming up from DC?). This south Asian dude with a gimp walk asked to get off the bus at one of the rest stops along the NJ Turnpike. (Yeah, I can be way politically incorrect.) It's not so much that he's south Asian or even that he had some physical limitation but rather pop culture that made me think that some Keyser Sose was targeting the bus I was riding. Of course, I txt some friends to let them know, just in case. That and the fact that I always hate the whiny people who ask to stop. I don't want to spend anymore time with those folks than I absolutely have to. I just want to get to where I want to be. I arrive to my friend Cinnamon's lovely abode and head right out. I join up with A. and G. down in the East Village for a drink at Phoenix. It's gotten a little younger and a lot cuter with the years but it was still boring. A little empty because of the holiday. Bored, we head up to Chelsea bars. There were people there but still a little empty. Nothing exciting happened at all. Though one little (he must've been under 5 feet) boricua (his term not mine; I would've called him a Nuyorican because of his thick NY accent) started chatting with me. I can't remember much of what he said other than I must've been born in the Bronx the way I was chewing my gum. I think it was meant to be a compliment. He also informed me that he'd be at Splash the next night. I didn't make it.
The rest of the weekend was spent with friends who I hadn't seen as often as I would've liked. Lusty Lady and I met for lunch and walked around SOHO, LES and the EVill. Took a nap to recharge for another night out with some more gays, organized by the departing one. But first, I went over to help pack. Well, honestly, I didn't do much more than shred some documents and make drinks. Somewhere in between, we grabbed a bite at Say Cheese in Hell's Kitchen. When we were done, we went over to the Ritz to meet the others saying bon voyage. It was pretty chill. Got a little dancing in. Started flirting with a couple of boys because that's all I'm interested in right now. Oops. I don't think they thought it was anything serious though. Moved on to Barracuda and danced a little more. Ended up at Cafeteria where I ordered the steak with chimichurri.
The next day was a little slower. Had brunch at Rue 57 with J., M., B. and little M. and M.'s parents. It was cool. The waiter was nice and cute. I wasn't the best conversationalist though because I was so tired. Of course, I took the role of manny for a few minutes when necessary. Yeah, that one came to bite me in the ass when I was slow to note that my white jeans were soiled from her little booties. Fortunately, I was too tired to care/go buy a Tide To Go pen. Then, I walked around a bit with J. to Saks and through the Brazilian Independence day celebration. We parted as I went again went to help V.B. with some last minute packing. This time my help consisted of laying on the bed trying to take a nap and accompanying him to have some chips and margaritas. But I did wash the dishes and lug that heavy ass box down to the cab before sending him off to the airport. Headed up to meet J., A., G., and S. and P. for some dinner at Asia-Kan. We could've gotten free drinks by helping to inaugurate the lounge at the restaurant but apparently I hang with high rollers and didn't need to worry about free. S. and P. head back to their baby and the rest of us headed down to the Gym bar, supposedly for the "friendly" gays there. Yeah, the best I could do was have one guy move across the bar after I told him he looked good with salt and pepper hair. I guess I should've let him just stand there and watch the pool game. Extremely tired, I announce that I'm too tired to go on and we call it a night. Cinnamon will be happy to know that I didn't keep everyone out until 5PM in the morn. Labor day plans didn't pan out so I just strolled around thinking I'd grab a burger at the Shake Shack but the line wrapped around the entire bottom of the park. Ugh! I just grabbed a panini from a deli and took a seat on a bench instead. Great weather for it all weekend, so I was glad to be able to just relax and take it in like the sunbathers as the summer ended. I picked up Bram Stoker's Dracula (anyone up for a book club reading?) for the ride. The bus ride down was uneventful though this one girl that I thought was annoying actually was very sweet because she gave me her cup of soda at the Burger King at the rest stop. Yeah, I was grumpy that we stopped then too.

Caitlin in France Says...

Friday, nothing but dinner with my boyfriend's mother so that is not really "blog worthy." But, Saturday I went hiking with some friends into the Jura, which is a mountain range between France and Switzerland. We spent 6 hours hiking through the mountains and even stopped for a gourmet picnic of roasted eggplant, pesto, and fresh rasberries we found on the way. MMMmmmmm. After many a good hour exercising, we put it all to waste and finished the night with a fondue dinner (the best kind with champagne!)...Sunday I went to a barbeque in a town about an hour north of Geneva, and we sat by the lake all day and had a long picnic. Even cooler, my boyfriend went paragliding off another mountain range in Geneva. At night, a spontaneous dinner with friends and many good bottles of wine. The pictures are extraordinary. Unfortunately, we didn't have off on Monday but we do have off tomorrow (Thursday) for a Geneva holiday called "Jeune Genevoise". The holiday dates back to the late 1500s and has something to do with fasting and religion. All most people know is that it is a day off... Will keep you posted on the upcoming weekend! Tickets to Elton John, for better or worse......

Charlie Says...

Friday night I went around the corner to the usual bar I go to. I met my friend Meghan for a drink or two. Oh yes, I should mention this weekend was my last weekend of my own. I have this new project with work that is traveling with monday night football so my work week is now saturday through wednesday for at least the next eight weeks. So I meet Meghan, she is there with another friend who i haven't met and some of his friends. She was a bit preoccupied with them, but it didn't matter because I fell in love at the bar. Well not really, but this one girl that goes there often I see her every so often but something about friday was different. We shared some glances and almost a smile. She was with another guy and a girl, which i didn't know if she was "with" the guy or the other girl was. In any case, of course, I didn't talk to her. For those of you out there that don't know, I'm the most socially "challenged" person of this millennium. So I'm sure i'll see her again and I'm sure i'll still say nothing, awesome, looking forward to it. So anyway. I call it an early night and head home because when the sun rose the next morning i was headed to philadelphia. One of my friends in boston has a job and he is doing a project in philadelphia, (side note, i will be typing out philadelphia every time because for some reason I hate "philly," another side note i really really hate the name phil, or philip). Also a different friend from boston is dating another of my friend's girlfriend's friend in philadelphia, still with me on that? So i head to philadelphia, which I've never been there before and I'm gonna see friends so I'm excited. I wake up, pack and leave, it's beautiful weather and I'm feeling good. I walk to the bus stop to head to port authority, still feeling good about life at this point, but how that will all change so suddenly. I'm waiting for the bus and it doesn't come, then i think well i'll get on the G train, but then i think well once i go down into the subway the bus is gonna come so i stick it out. So twenty minutes go by and i figure the bus is gonna come. I'm still waiting. I have a half hour to get to port authority and I'm still standing a block away from my apartment, great. So i get a cab, and of course i get in and look behind me and the bus pulls up right then. Whatever I'll deal. So I get to port authority and there's a line for my bus at least two bus loads deep. This has happened to me before. What the hell is the point in selling tickets to something if you're just going to sell more than you can. The purpose of selling a ticket is to guarantee the reservation of space for your person. It makes no sense the way the bus people do it. "Hey lets sell 200 people tickets to get on a 10am bus to philadelphia, best part is we're only gonna run enough buses to take 100 people, suckers." Honestly, cut the shit, i've got places to be. So back on track now. I get on the bus at eleven and we're off. Oh i definitely was the snoring guy on the bus ride down. I woke myself up because of a loud outburst of snore. Which is funny, but at the same time sad because my body was struggling to breathe. Ok fast forward. I'm in philadelphia. My friend evan picks me up and we head to the Mutter Museum (a Museum of Medical Oddities - ed. note). I've been interested in going to the Mutter for a long time. It was nice, I find early medical practices and history quite interesting and the actual building the museum is in is very pretty. From there we head to South Street, which is like the "hip" cool place. It was ok, just stores and other tourist kinda crap. I did notice a plethora of sex stores, mostly sexual attire and what have you. I thought it to be strange I guess philadelphia just has a really high demand for dental floss undies and handcuffs. Then my friends and i headed to dinner at a mexican place which was very good then we returned to the girl's apartment who my friend is dating. The apartment was amazing. She is paying less money than I am and she has this huge one bedroom apartment with laundry machines and a deck that is two to three times the size of my bedroom. Way to go New York. The rest of the night was filled with dessert and drinks. Sunday morning we were off to Eastern State Penitentiary. This was pretty cool. In the middle of philadelphia stands this huge castle looking thing that is the first ever penitentiary. It was pretty crazy and old and creepy. I thought it would be more creepy, but it was real sunny out, i bet if i were to go back at night i'd probably scare myself. So this thing is massive and old and run down. Some of the cell blocks you could go into, but they were still pretty run down, they basically let you go where ever it was safe and something wasn't gonna collapse on you. It was interesting although it's a prison and it's kinda what you would expect. Although for some reason all i could think about was the size of the cells and the size of my bedroom. So they basically built this prison different from our current prison system. The objective was to isolate prisoners for the entire time they were there. When they were brought in they were hooded and couldn't see anything and no one could see their face. And then they were put into their own cell alone. The cell was about 8x16 feet and then on the back through a door was their "backyard" as i thought of it but it was the outdoor section which was the same size of the cell (all of which is bigger than my living space). They never left their cell. There was a window in the wall which was used to send meals in. The cells were completely closed, all cement and stone. Also a fact i thought was cool was that the guards wore wool socks over their boots so the inmates couldn't hear them walking up and down the cell blocks. Anyways if you're still interested, this system clearly didn't end up working because the prison population grew and prisoners could no longer have their own cells and all that. But it was interesting, the whole goal was that a prisoner would be with himself alone for so long, that the only thing to do was reflect on themselves and learn what they did was wrong. So after the prison we went around philadelphia looking for stuff to do but most stuff was closed and then it was time to decide on dinner plans and then that got all screwed up because everyone wanted to do one thing but then one person didn't and everyone wanted to cater to eachother. Blah blah blah and so the night wasn't that fun we went to one place for drinks and then we decided to go bowling and waited two hours for a lane and still didn't get one then my ride and the friend who i was staying with didn't want to stay anymore so we left to another bar which only i was drinking because he was driving and i just gave up and wanted to go to bed because it just wasn't fun and i wanted to stay at the bowling place but since i didn't have the car or the power i was just along for the ride. Well that was philadelphia, next morning got up early headed to the bus station which was not such a clusterfuck as port authority and made it back to new york early. Did some laundry and relaxed for the rest of day. Although still wanting to go to that bar and hopefully run into that girl and look awkwardly at her and never approach her. Awesome. Well those are my weekends because from here on out i'll be working on the weekend. Although depending on how work goes they may make for interesting stories.