Fun things and not so fun things...

Tassles and G-Strings.  Tuesday night, I found myself at a Burlesque show that was done "in the round" at a small club on Chrystie Street (see, fun things happen on Chrystie street, see my blog from last week).  Mystique Ultra Lounge was holding this event which was planned by an ex-coworker of mine who just recently started her own event planning company.  The show was part of a launch party for a deck of playing cards with a selection of the city's most well-known burlesque dancers photographed for the backs of each card.  The "Play Me Burlesque" playing cards.

I arrived a little early and had to wait a bit to get in but I had a friend with me so it was good.  Prime people watching anyway.  Once inside, and after an hour of waiting and drinking scotch, there were three back to back sets of burlesque dancers, with names like Miss Tickle, The Asian Sex-sation, Heidi Honeysuckle and others I can't immediately recall.  My favorite was Miss Tickle, if only for the elaborate costume she wore that incorporated feathers which she wore as a dress and then reassembled, at the end of her dance, into a pair of 6 foot tall wings.  They get pretty fancy with the costumes and the routines.

Jennie and I left after the second set. I was running on 4 hours of sleep, like I do, and she had work in the morning.  And it was a tad crowded.  Since I lost my seat between sets I had to sit on the floor for the second set.  Mildly uncomfortable but overall I had a good time.  This was my first burlesque show and I wonder why I never went to one before now.  It was, for lack of a more descriptive impression, pretty cool. 

And speaking of pretty cool, Lacy and I continued to explore the open mic circuit, adding Paddy Reilly's and Arctica Bar up in Murray Hill to our list.  Both of them were mediocre to fair.  Paddy Reilly's having great sound and good performers but poor attendance (and generally weak audience response...it was dead in there!).  By the time we got to Arctica Bar, several people had already signed up for the opening slots, so as the night progressed we made a decision to leave before we went on because Lacy had to drive back to Philly and it was getting late.  So after sizing up the crowd and the scene and chowing down on some spinach and artichoke dip, we bolted.  It was a great sound system but the space was odd...it was essentially a classy sports bar...which as you should know is not classy at all but merely has the appearance of class.   Either way, I think we'll try to attend both again next week before we pass any judgement on them.  Next week, we'll even try to get over to Arctica sooner and maybe get the first slot.    

On the apartment front, I don't know if I've mentioned the scene here lately.  Remember the leaky windows and walls from the nor'easter about a year and a half ago?  While, back then, we did complain to the landlord and the superintendent, nothing ever got done and, as the leak only reoccurred when the rains were accompanied by heavy winds, we never followed up all that well.  Until Hurricane Irene came through. The damage was getting worse.

Apparently, we weren't the only ones who complained either because all of a sudden there was a lot of talk about them actually doing something about it.  So what they did was they started renovating the upstairs apartments before they fixed the leak.  While I was trying to sleep after an overnight last week I heard the banging on the walls upstairs.  I found out later that they had to wait until the bricks were dry outside before they reset them.  At first this did not make sense to me, why they would fix the inside first...it was even raining the day they started renovations!  At one point, my super told us that he'd be working in our apartment sometime last week, but with one night's notice!

Of course, this didn't happen and good thing, too.  I saw Frances' apartment (the one right above me) because she beckoned me to come look at the state the workers had left it in; all the furniture moved out of the room and covered in plastic, walls and ceiling totally stripped down to the bricks.  The next morning after they started renovating upstairs, I get a panicked text from my roommate that there were now mushrooms growing out of her ceiling.  I didn't believe it until I saw it.

Ceiling Mushrooms

They must have kicked something up upstairs when they were renovating Frances' apartment.  The musty, fungal smell in the other bedroom was to the point where my roommate couldn't sleep in there let alone go in there for five seconds to get her allergy medication.

At this point, I started calling the landlord.  I left two messages before he got back to me.  And he told me that they'd be fixing the bricks outside this morning and Alex would need 2-3 days in my apartment after he finished with the apartments upstairs.  Luckily, this morning, I actually saw people outside in the alley surveying the walls and later up on the fire escape.  So hopefully, this will all be over soon. 

So there's a pretty good summary of New York life these days: live music, burlesque dancers and some pretty classic New York apartment living anecdotes.  Today, I was back to work after three nights of excitement and so tonight I've decided to stay in for my health...which is why I'm only drinking one glass of wine before bed.  Not much else to report, except that I still love this city and the weather has turned cooler all of a sudden.  It's always exhilarating to me when I take that first breath of 50 degree air in the fall.  I love the change in the air.  I was taking huge draughts of it on the walk home which I extended by getting off the train early at 4th Avenue/9th Street and walking the extra 13 blocks.  I know some people may think I'm weird for actually liking the cold but I know I'm not the only one who likes the days of sweater weather.  Bring it on, New York!