Neil Gaiman – 28 September

Neil Gaiman, a bit of a legend when it comes to comics (in fact, one of the very few comics writers to be lauded by the mainstream press thanks to his work on Sandman and it’s Death spin-offs), and an increasingly popular mainstream author whose work seems to have escaped the fantasy stigma (American Gods, Anansi Boys, Good Omens are all his; the last co-written by Terry Pratchett) was in town promoting his new book, Fragile Things. I already did a pretty comprehensive write-up of the evening over on a comic blog that I contribute to, but I thought I’d just mention it here as well.

Very interesting to see the following he had as well – most signings draw fifty-odd people at the most; this one drew about five hundred!

Letterman! – 25 September

…so we got the call on Sunday afternoon (as we were walking around downtown – the cunning diversion to a Broadway show only put the walking off for a day!) that we could come to the taping on Monday.

We left work early and met up at the studio, where we had to bring ID to get our tickets. We talked to one of the staff while we were in the queue and ended up getting good seats as a result of being (a) foreign and (b) smiley. An hour later (after a quick bite and queuing in the lobby) we were seated in the studio with the warm up.

It was an interesting experience, being a live studio audience. There was a warm up guy, some clips from old shows and then David Letterman himself before the show started. As we were sat in the audience clapping and cheering like loons as the credits rolled on the little monitor in front of us, it struck us that this was really weird – a lot of people had booked their vacation around tickets for the show; we had just wandered past two days before – and all the shots of New York that we’ve seen on the show before were places we’d been walking through in the past couple of months. Just slightly odd.

The show itself was good – Nathan Lane (a bit ironic, considering we saw The Producers at the weekend) and a comedian I forget the name of were on, but for me the most interesting thing was seeing how many people were milling around behind the cameras on the stage, and seeing how often David Letterman got handed rewritten jokes to accommodate what had happened earlier in the show, which he then incorporated into the show. Really, really interesting stuff.

The Producers – 23 September

Saturday – Gill was intent on walking downtown (she sometimes gets these urges) so off we set. The weather was kind of dull, so as we passed Times Square I suggested a show – we’d yet to go to a proper Broadway one (free Shakespeares in the Park don’t count) – so we stopped off at TKTS to see what was available, and picked up two tickets for The Producers matinee at 50% off.

What a great show!

Although it’s clearly no longer the draw it once was when Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane headlined, it’s still a great show – lots of memorable songs, a good cast and a lot of trademark Mel Brooks wit.

Recommended if you ever come over!

On the way back home we walked past the studio where the David Letterman Show is filmed, and stopped in to put our names in the ticket lottery, not really expecting any luck. We had to pick a couple of shows over the next month that we wanted to attend, so we left our names and a contact number not really expecting a call…

New York Rangers v New Jersey Devils – 20 September

One of the perks of working here is that we have season tickets to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Gardens. I thought it would be foolish to turn them down as we’d never seen an ice hockey game before, so Gill and I went along on the Wednesday night to go to the game.

It was a pre-season game against the New Jersey Devils – I hesitate to call it a friendly due to the number of punch-ups on the ice! Really good fun, fantastic seats and a great night – I suspect we’ll go again (at least the next time I can get ahold of some free tickets)!

Gotham Writer’s Workshop – 19 September

After an hour listening to Joe Eszterhas, I was looking forward to attending a free screenwriting workshop from GWW the next night. It was held in a school on 91st and lasted about an hour.

Pretty interesting and probably worth doing but I only want to do one course at a time (due to both cost and the amount of time it will eat up). Right now I’m torn between screenwriting and TV writing…although I really need to sign up for one of them in the next few days!

Joe Eszterhas – 18 September

I don’t know if its because I’m more aware of the opportunities around the city now, or because I now have to make the most of my evenings as I work in the day, or even because I now don’t feel so guilty about spending money as I’m working, but we have been pretty busy in the last few weeks – and ironically, if it is because of money, everything has been free.

My first Monday in the office, we went to a book signing by Joe Eszterhas – the screenwriter behind Basic Instinct, Flashdance and, er, Showgirls. So not the most cerebral of films, possibly, but certainly crowd pleasers – even Showgirls has obtained cult status now.

Eszterhas – who looks like a rugged Hell’s Angel but really isn’t – was an entertaining character; completely aware that a lot of stuff he’s written isn’t exactly critically acclaimed, a self-deprecating recovering alcoholic and an Hungarian immigrant (his latest film is actually about the Hungarian revolution of 1956, and sounds like a real departure from his previous work).

One thing that was really both horrifying and fascinating was a story he told about his father. His father brought Eszterhas and his mother to America when his son was 5 years old. He worked hard to put food on the table, and raised Eszterhas to be non-judgmental about everyone, and to be tolerant of every faith and race. In the 1990s when Eszterhas’ father was in his 70s, he was accused of war crimes, and the writer subsequently discovered that his father had indeed worked for the Third Reich during the war.

Obviously this caused him to completely reevaluate his father and his relationship with him. I imagine that this happened to a lot of people of his generation from Eastern Europe – a lot of people would have joined the army in their home country without truly realizing what they were getting into, or perhaps because they didn’t really have a choice, and ended up doing things that they would never normally do. It happens today, so why not then?

Regardless, it was a fascinating night.

In the Q&A session, a couple of things came out – he wrote Basic Instinct over the course of 10 days; the idea just came to him one night and completely took him over. He sold it 13 days after he started it for $3million.

One audience member asked him if he once been paid – as was the rumor - $1million for an idea. He laughed at that, and replied no – although he had been paid $4million for 4 pages of notes.

Then he laughed some more.

New York Television Festival –16 September

This one kind of snuck up on me. I found out on my Friday play on the internet that the New York Television Festival was on, and that there was a series of 3 lectures on not too far from our place on Saturday about breaking into TV – which gave me something to do!

I made it down to the place and attended all three – the first, Development 101 was pretty interesting but largely useless. The second, Production 101 was very interesting and dealt with a lot of practicalities of filming and getting your script produced, while the third, Agents 101 was the most interesting of all.

Three agents took the stage and talked about the business, how to get represented and what to do to make yourself get noticed. The key things in this area were to write, network and write some more. Nothing else will really matter. One agent who represents a few of the Lost writers, amongst others, was particularly useful – he suggested that the best thing to do was to set goals for yourself – in one year, I want to have done this, this and this.

Its good advice and some that I’ve taken to heart. I‘m writing and thinking about what I really want to do with it. It may be ten years later than it should be, but at least now I’m really considering how to take the next steps, which is something that I didn’t do before.
It was four or five hours well spent for me – very well spent.

And I had no idea that show creators could make so much money. Apparently a new show creator – ie one who hasn’t had a show on before – can expect 7.5 points of the show. To put that in context, House, which is currently airing its third season over here, is generating about $8million per point.

Do the math on that…

First day of Work – 11 September

Only I could start a job in the financial centre of New York about 3 blocks from the WTC site on the fifth anniversary of 9/11.

Luckily, I was on a course for the first two days of work so I didn’t get caught up in all the memorial stuff (although the bits I saw on TV were very moving, even more so now that we actually live here and can see the site on a regular basis.

We had a meal out at some restaurant in the village the first night – great food and good wine, so that was a nice way to ease into the role.

Work itself was okay, and in the three weeks since I’ve started to settle in - although I’m not convinced yet that the job is actually that challenging. Regardless, it gets me experience in print and media, and that’s what I want right now.

Anyway I'm now settling into the office:

Plus the view from my desk right now is great…

Bronx Zoo –10 September

The last Sunday before I started my job, Gill and I went to the Bronx Zoo – caught the subway up from 72nd for about 30-40 minutes and had a five minute walk at the other end to the zoo itself.

It’s set in a huge area, with lots of woodland – difficult to believe that its actually in the middle of the Bronx. We got a year’s membership, which lets us go back as much as we like and gives us access to the Central Park Zoo, the NY Aquarium and a few other things. This is a good thing as we didn’t actually get to see it all this trip.

We did get to see quite a lot – the impressive bird house…

The tigers….

The gorilla enclosures - and there are different ones - there's the thinkers......and there's the laid back moms...

Anyway, we also saw giraffes and ostriches…

Camels (note: That's Gill in the front and camels in the back)…

Baboons, including one very bored-looking male who insisted on playing with himself. Gill’s comment: “You’re a baboon, what else are you going to do all day?”

We also rode the Skyride – a cable car across the park which did not go down very well with Gill (who was all for it till we got up there!)

The World of Darkness was also pretty impressive – although obviously, flash photography is a no-no there (despite the idiots using it….where are the zoo staff when you need ‘em?)

All in all, a good day out and well worth the trip up there – especially as we now essentially have free tickets for the rest of the year and all next summer.

Brooklyn Bridge – 3 September

What better thing to do on a sunny Sunday afternoon in New York than walk across the Brooklyn Bridge?

We headed east from City Hall with Rich and Maisha and joined the throngs of people taking in the afternoon on the boardwalk over the traffic below – you get some pretty impressive views of the city (and even of Brroklyn) once you’re out over the East River.

We spent six hours or so propping up a bar in Brooklyn and tasting a number of fine local ales plus a very good whisky called Highland Park courtesy of a nice gent sat next to us who apparently hailed from Scotland a few generations back – honestly, nobody over here is actually from over here, which makes a kind of sense for a nation founded on immigrants, I guess. Anyway, I digress like crazy…

In the evening we made the walk back across the bridge to Manhattan, with the skyline lit up impressively.

I still can’t believe we live here…

Radio City VMAS – 1 September

MTV’s Video Music Awards were on 1 September at Radio City – lots of stars, etc turn out for this kind of thing, so I met Gill after work and we walked past.

It was absolutely heaving, with lots of people dressed to the nines (apparently, I’m living in the 1940s myself, using phrases like that!) who obviously had ticket, lots more people who obviously didn’t have tickets, and lots of camera crews.

So did we see anyone?

Not unless Jessica and Ashley Simpson’s dad counts – and I really don’t think he does – although we did see a lot of cars with tinted windows.

Ate out at Rue 57 afterwards, so the evening wasn’t a total bust.