Slipknot

On Thursday night, to make sure we had a well-rounded week, we saw a show that was a little less wholesome than The Fray or The Tyra Show: Slipknot with Trivium and Coheed and Cambria at Madison Square Garden. We got our tickets at the last minute, so our seats were in a weird location, perpendicular to the stage. It made watching the first two bands weird, but it was the perfect location to watch Slipknot. I had wanted general admission floor tickets, but after seeing the floor turn into one enormous, sweaty moshpit, I was more than happy to have seats. The first band to play was Trivium, and even though we couldn't really see them, they sounded great...The second band was Coheed and Cambria. They sounded really good, too, girly voice and all. They were pretty high energy, so all of my pictures turned out blurry, but it's not like you couldn't recognize that 'fro...Finally, Slipknot took the stage and played a toe-tappin', two-hour set. The band is absolutely amazing to watch live and actually reminds me of a hardcore version of Stomp. They used quite a few special effects (some of which even rivaled Trans-Siberian Orchestra), which made the show even better. Not to mention with nine members, there's always something to watch. I was skeptical of how the show would be, but I would go to another Slipknot concert, hands down...Their setup was sweet...We were closest to the Clown, who is Pat's favorite member because he bangs on kegs with baseball bats. He also proves that pigtails and band kids can be hardcore...I've always been partial to the one I like to call Mr. Spiky...The DJ reminds me of the winged monkeys in Wicked, he jumps and climbs on everything...Corey, the singer, taking a stroll...I like to call this one Mr. Pointy Nose...I like that even Slipknot members wear skinny jeans...This is after the concert...Photos couldn't do the special effects justice, so here are some video clips. This is the aforementioned keg hit. A keg never sounded so good...

Although I didn't get a video of it, the drum/kegset on the other side of the stage was on mechanical bull-like hydrolics that made it buck back and forth and spin while the guy was on it. The drum/kegset that was on our side of the stage could do this...

They used pyrotechnics during their bigger songs...

This is the one song of theirs that I know some words to...

During their last song the entire main drumset went sideways and started spinning as the drummer continued to play. It was awesome...

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the show. I was also surprised when the girl in front of me who was rocking out the whole time turned out to be a mom in her mid to late 40s.

Tyra Banks Show

On Thursday Pat and I attended the Tyra Banks Show. No cameras (or even cell phones) were allowed in the studio, so no photos for my blog, unfortunately. The show is taped in the same building, different floor, as the Martha Stewart Show. It seems like a pretty hardcore operation. No cell phones, or cameras or large bags allowed. Plus, everyone gets wanded after going through a metal detector. Also, just an FYI, any that gets Tyra tickets will get an e-mail stressing that their "upscale business" dress code is "STRONGLY ENFORCED." It isn't, in fact, and Pat and I wore jeans and sneakers.

When we finally got to enter the actual studio, I was absolutely dumbfounded at how small the studio is! It seriously looks 3-4x bigger on TV. It was completely bizarre. The show itself wasn't very interesting, the kids from the ABC Family show "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" were on, but it was fascinating to see how they make the studio look so big on TV. Also, even though we barely made it to the studio on time, we got really good seats (second row, center), and some of the first people who got there were in the back. This happened at Martha, too, so I think maybe it's a good thing to get to shows later.

The Tyra Show is different than the other shows we've been on (David Letterman, Martha) because it's not "live." This means that on the Tyra Show, she messes up her lines and has to restart a lot. But you might expect that from a model...just kidding...

So, are you guys The Fray?

This week has been all about The Fray. They're on Epic and their new album just came out Tuesday. They had 2 concerts and a few TV appearances in NY scheduled for this week so they were at Epic most of the day Monday. That morning I got in the elevator and lo and behold, five guys followed me into the elevator. Now, I know a few of The Fray's songs, but I didn't know exactly what they looked like. So real cool-like I asked them "So, are you guys The Fray." I'm so lame. Needless to say, it was the band (plus their manager Jason). I spent the rest of the day helping out with their "fitting." (The band has to look good on Good Morning America)...

Then on Tuesday, The Fray had a free concert at the Apple store in Soho...Me, Pat and Sam headed out but unfortunately went to the wrong Apple store. At this point we weren't sure we'd be able to get in to the show because there was apparently "limited seating" and we were running late. But we finally got to the right store. Here we are waiting in a fairly long line and I glance up to the second floor and see The Fray's manager. Now, him and I go way back to Monday morning, so I waved to him. He then told security to let us cut everyone in line and we got second row, center seats for the show! The concert was the best sounding concert I've ever been to. Unfortunately there were no cameras allowed, so here's the front of the store...On Wednesday at work I got 2 free tickets to the sold-out Fray concert that night at Webster Hall. Unfortunately, we missed our dodgeball game, but the show was, once again, amazing...UPDATE: I figured out that I could upload videos to my blog, so here's The Fray's newest single "You Found Me," courtesy of my camera's surprisingly good audio/video capabilities...

American Museum of Natural History

Today we went to the American Museum of Natural History and let me just say that it is the most amazing museum I've ever been to and definitely one of the coolest things I've done here in New York. We took the train to 81st street (in the Upper West Side) and the station there is amazing...Because the museum is right next to the subway, the station walls are decorated with amazing mosaics...
This frog was my favorite, you can click on the photo to see it larger...Another perk of working at Sony is the discounts I get when I show my ID. Me and five guests can get into most of the bigger museums in the city for free (including this one). Here is the main lobby...We explored the museum from the ground up, starting with the First Floor. The first exhibit we saw was the "Hall of Biodiversity"...Next was the "North American Forests" exhibit. This massive sequoia began growing in 500 A.D. and was cut down around 1900...The amazing dioramas are definitely the highlights of the museum. This was one of the first dioramas that we saw...The next exhibit was the hall of "Northwest Coast Indians" which featured huge, intricate totem poles...The hall of "North American Mammals" is pretty self-explanatory and reminds me of Cabela's...
Then it was on to the "Milstein Hall of Ocean Life." This was my favorite exhibit room (mostly because of the enormous whale hanging from the ceiling)...A diorama of some men(?) o' war...A diorama of ancient sea life...A dark and kind of spooky diorama of a whale eating a giant squid. This exhibit is featured in the movie The Squid and the Whale...The museum is not all animals, though. Next we explored the "Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth." This is a copper model of the Earth's geography...
The "Guggenheim Hall of Minerals" was amazing. Here is a huge chunk of California gold...
In one display case was a bunch of miniature figurines made out of various minerals. This citrine lion is only about an inch long...The mom pig is about an inch long, as well. So cute!...
I can't remember what this mineral is called, but I love this color...
This is the inside of an amethyst geode...Connected to the "Hall of Minerals" is the "Morgan Memorial of Gems." This exhibit was amazing. My camera didn't capture the colors very well, but this photo shows how massive some of the gems were. The top amethyst was about two inches wide...The second floor is home to the hall of "Asian Mammals." This is a pair of Asian elephants...
A diorama of tigers...Also on the second floors is the "Akeley Hall of African Mammals." It's pretty much like a zoo, but the animals are never hiding or pooping...The third floor features the "Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples" which houses an Easter Island statue...The fourth (and last) floor is where the dinosaur exhibits are...
We were at the museum for four hours, didn't stop to read very many placards and we still didn't get to see all of the exhibits. Needless to say, we were very hungry after our visit, so we headed up to West Harlem to eat at an acclaimed BBQ restaurant called Dinosaur Bar-B-Que...The streets get a little weird up in that neighborhood, so we got a little lost on the way to the restaurant. Then, unfortunately, when we finally got there, there was a 1.5 hour wait. But we were finally seated and promptly got our food. I tried the ribs with coleslaw and baked beans. The presentation, as you can see, was nothing special, but the ribs were really good and the baked beans were weird, but delicious (they tasted like they may have had anise in them)...Pat had a pulled pork sandwich with a wedge salad and Syracuse Style Salt Potatoes. I tried the salt potatoes which were awesome and Pat said the rest was really good...For dessert we got an apple and cranberry cobbler a la mode. It was really good...All in all, Dinosaur was good, but not the best BBQ I've ever had.  It was worth the wait, though, because the prices were good and it was pretty much the only good meat we've had since we've been here. I'd go back to the museum, but probably not to Dinosaur...