Sunday, August 06, 2006
This past week was a busy one. Bill and Terri came in on Monday. After I got off work, we picked up Adam and went to see Clerks 2. It was the second time I had seen it, but it was nice to see it with other friends. Afterwards, the phrase of the moment was "I'm taking it back".
Afterwards, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. I had always heard of how good the place is, but had never ate at one. Once, in Atlanta, I went to one, but the place was so busy there was a 45 minute line to get on the waiting list. Tuesday we took the train up to NYC. The timing of the trains was good such that we got to Trenton in time so there wasn't much of a wait for the train to the city to leave.
We got to the city and walked to our hotel. I'm sure Bill will talk about the checking in process at the hotel. We then walked around the city, keeping mainly around time square. We ate lunch at the ESPNZone, but because of the heat, I didn't have much of a appetite. Coincidentally, ESPNZone was another restaurant I went to in Atlanta but didn't eat at because of the long wait.
The one plus to the hotel was its closeness to Radio City Music Hall, where the event we were going to see was being held. The event was Stephen King, John Irving, and JK Rowling reading excerpts from their works. It was great. I expected just the authors standing at a podium reading from their works. Well, it started out with Whoopi Goldberg giving a welcoming speech. Then Kathy Bates gave introduced Stephen King, which included a video montage about King. Then King came out and read from a little stage setup that looked like the outside porch of an old country home. John Irving went next, introduced by Andre Baugher and another video montage. JK Rowling went last, introduced by Jon Stewart and video clip. Both had chairs and stage setups designed to fit their writings. Afterwards, JK answered questions from the audience. We were kinda annoyed that the first two hadn't answered questions. For the most part, questions tended to stick to either asking what's going to happen in her next work or hypothetical questions similar to what trekkies would ask William Shatner at a Star Trek convention. Afterwards all three authors came out an answered questions. The first question to King was, painfully, "What scares you?" which was an original question back in the eighties. I've heard King answer this a few times over the years.
Harry Potter fans made up a majority of the audience, but I saw surprising few costumes. And I did see a "Long live the Crimson King" t-shirt which is a reference to a King work. Overall, I like the fact that Rowling went last since it meant the Potter fans would hear the other authors' works and not leave after she read.
I've seen Stephen King in interviews on tv and read his columns and hearing him in person did not disappoint.
John Irving was great. I'm definitely going to read his work. Right now, I have more than a few books in my reading queue. I'm midway through King's sixth Dark Tower book and the seventh and final one will be next. I might fit an Irving novel in after that.
I was hoping Rowling would read something from her first novel, but she read from her latest, but it was a flashback scene and didn't give spoil anything for me. Some of the discussions gave minor spoilers. There seemed to be an assumption that everybody there had already read all the Potter books, despite the presence of King and Irving fans. At one point, while answering a question, she did explicitly avoid giving a name of someone who did something just in case someone hadn't read the books. I give her credit for this. Overall I came off with a favorable impression of Rowling. The whole thing reminded me of a concert or festival where a current musician with a top-selling album nowadays, gets the headline spot over top an artist that has sold alot more albums and have a career decades longer.
Bydaway, there was an announcement that said that the whole event would be available on webcast monday (tomorrow) on msn.com. I may have heard it wrong, though.
After the event, we met up with Adam and a friend of his and went to eat at the Bubba Gump shrimp factory. I had been to the one in New Orleans, but had not eaten there. The food was good, but the air conditioner was broken, so it was hot.
The next morning we came back to my place via train. It was getting close to rush hour by the time we got in, so Bill and Terri left pretty fast.
There are other details of the trip, as well as stuff that happened later in the week, that I might write about, but for now, I'm going to try and get some sleep tonight.
Afterwards, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. I had always heard of how good the place is, but had never ate at one. Once, in Atlanta, I went to one, but the place was so busy there was a 45 minute line to get on the waiting list. Tuesday we took the train up to NYC. The timing of the trains was good such that we got to Trenton in time so there wasn't much of a wait for the train to the city to leave.
We got to the city and walked to our hotel. I'm sure Bill will talk about the checking in process at the hotel. We then walked around the city, keeping mainly around time square. We ate lunch at the ESPNZone, but because of the heat, I didn't have much of a appetite. Coincidentally, ESPNZone was another restaurant I went to in Atlanta but didn't eat at because of the long wait.
The one plus to the hotel was its closeness to Radio City Music Hall, where the event we were going to see was being held. The event was Stephen King, John Irving, and JK Rowling reading excerpts from their works. It was great. I expected just the authors standing at a podium reading from their works. Well, it started out with Whoopi Goldberg giving a welcoming speech. Then Kathy Bates gave introduced Stephen King, which included a video montage about King. Then King came out and read from a little stage setup that looked like the outside porch of an old country home. John Irving went next, introduced by Andre Baugher and another video montage. JK Rowling went last, introduced by Jon Stewart and video clip. Both had chairs and stage setups designed to fit their writings. Afterwards, JK answered questions from the audience. We were kinda annoyed that the first two hadn't answered questions. For the most part, questions tended to stick to either asking what's going to happen in her next work or hypothetical questions similar to what trekkies would ask William Shatner at a Star Trek convention. Afterwards all three authors came out an answered questions. The first question to King was, painfully, "What scares you?" which was an original question back in the eighties. I've heard King answer this a few times over the years.
Harry Potter fans made up a majority of the audience, but I saw surprising few costumes. And I did see a "Long live the Crimson King" t-shirt which is a reference to a King work. Overall, I like the fact that Rowling went last since it meant the Potter fans would hear the other authors' works and not leave after she read.
I've seen Stephen King in interviews on tv and read his columns and hearing him in person did not disappoint.
John Irving was great. I'm definitely going to read his work. Right now, I have more than a few books in my reading queue. I'm midway through King's sixth Dark Tower book and the seventh and final one will be next. I might fit an Irving novel in after that.
I was hoping Rowling would read something from her first novel, but she read from her latest, but it was a flashback scene and didn't give spoil anything for me. Some of the discussions gave minor spoilers. There seemed to be an assumption that everybody there had already read all the Potter books, despite the presence of King and Irving fans. At one point, while answering a question, she did explicitly avoid giving a name of someone who did something just in case someone hadn't read the books. I give her credit for this. Overall I came off with a favorable impression of Rowling. The whole thing reminded me of a concert or festival where a current musician with a top-selling album nowadays, gets the headline spot over top an artist that has sold alot more albums and have a career decades longer.
Bydaway, there was an announcement that said that the whole event would be available on webcast monday (tomorrow) on msn.com. I may have heard it wrong, though.
After the event, we met up with Adam and a friend of his and went to eat at the Bubba Gump shrimp factory. I had been to the one in New Orleans, but had not eaten there. The food was good, but the air conditioner was broken, so it was hot.
The next morning we came back to my place via train. It was getting close to rush hour by the time we got in, so Bill and Terri left pretty fast.
There are other details of the trip, as well as stuff that happened later in the week, that I might write about, but for now, I'm going to try and get some sleep tonight.
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