The problem with red-eye flights is that when you arrive at your destination the room is never ready. Here we are in the lobby of the NYC Times Square Renaissance trying to get a few hours sleep with lots of background clatter and firetruck sirens. It’s the city that never sleeps because of the ever present loud noise and endless variety of things to do. Dinner tonight before the performance of The Band’s Visit is at The Strip Club, not what you’re thinking but rather a popular steakhouse. We’ll do lots of eating and walking over the next few days. 

We left Portland last night at 10 with an Alaska Airlines pilot who was in a hurry. In fact, he announced that he wanted to avoid the morning rush in getting from the airport to his Jersey home, so he cut 45 minutes off our travel time. Unfortunately, that means an even longer wait for the room. I used that time to get my minimum mile run out of the way, but my wife is struggling with getting comfortable on a lounge couch in the midst of dining room preparation and more sirens. 

On the flight, I was able to watch the end of Water for Elephants and also see the bizarre Mad Max: Fury Road blockbuster. I did not recall seeing Elephants 18 years ago, one of the benefits of an aging memory, so I was able to enjoy it again. Mad Max was never my thing, so there was nothing to remember.

Yesterday, I finished up the Tin Star series on Amazon Prime, watched a library DVD of Ken Burns’ documentary on The Statue of Liberty, and listened to a podcast interview of fellow Indiana University alumni Angelo Pizzo. The focus of the latter was about the future of  IU basketball, but it evolved into talk about his movie Hoosiers. I did not realize that they were forced to cut 45 minutes out of the movie, and that those segments were on a commemorative DVD that I own but never watched before. Much of it involved the relationship of the Gene Hackman and Barbara Hershey characters. My copy is autographed by Jack Scholz, who played one of Hickory High’s opposing coaches. Pizzo revealed that he is working to produce a second basketball movie based on the book Getting Open: The Unknown Story of Bill Garrett and the Integration of College Basketball. (See Post #441)

My wife is in New York on business, and I am tagging along as a retirement puppy. She’ll also get her Broadway fix with as many as four shows. I will go simply to watch the smile on her face. After an hour-and-a-half in the lobby, they finally got us in a “junior suite” overlooking the M&M store in Times Square. Following a three-hour nap, interrupted by more sirens, we were having lunch at Junior’s and had to try their signature cheesecake. It has long been a Brooklyn favorite, so much in fact that during a 1981 fire, concerned spectators were chanting “Save the Cheesecake” to firemen. I wanted to yell at them earlier, “can’t a guy get a nap?”