So, Thursday night when we went to go see Daniel Radcliffe at the Hirschfeld Theater, Jen informed me that Bruno Mars would be playing on The Today Show for their Summer Concert Series. I decided to join her and Alexa and go see him the next morning. We decided to leave at 5:30, figuring that would be a sufficient time. Yeah. Right. That’s a joke. Not only did it take us a good forty five minutes to travel (taking the 1 to 59th and then the B to Rockefellar Plaza) by subway, but by the time we got there, it was like the concert was being held at 3 PM instead of 6 AM. There were so many people there. Lined up in the plaza, behind the plaza, next to the plaza, on the sidewalks surrounding the plaza. I shouldn’t be surprised, but really? It was nuts.
Our location to the stage. We were basically in the back of it.
I would LOVE to see Rockefellar Plaza at Christmas with the tree and all the lights and go ice skating.
When we walked up around 6:30, Bruno Mars was actually performing. We figured it was like a sound check/rehearsal. We heard “Lazy” and “Just the Way You Are” and “Runaway Baby.” So, even though we didn’t get to see him, we still heard him which was still cool.
Later we decided to try and move to where we could actually see the front of the stage.
Yeah…that wasn’t happening.
Woo! A little closer.
Matt Lauer said it was the largest crowd for the Summer Concert series they had seen yet that summer. So, I guess that’s something. At least I can say I did it. But, I think, if we had wanted to be right by the stage, we would have had to get there at, like, THREE a.m. At least.
Afterward we left and FOX was having an outdoor concert. Sister Hazel? I had never heard of them. So we stumbled upon them and heard the end of their last song. At that point we were at 51st so we walked to 59th where Columbus Circle was with the intention of going into Whole Foods. Instead we found a waffle cart and got a waffle.
So delicious. There was this spread that looked like Peanut butter but tasted like Honey Teddy Grahams that I had the guy put on mine. He said they weren’t your typical waffles because they were made from dough and not batter. There was this sugar in it that melted and gave it a “crunch.”
I enjoyed it!
Afterward we went back to I-House and I slept for an hour and a half. Glorious.
Today our group went to the Brooklyn Flea Market in Fort Greene. There was a lot of old vintage jewelry and clothing and craft-type things. If I had an apartment either in the city or back at MSU, I would have invested in some of the things I found. There were some cool wall prints and handmade dish wares that were kind of sweet, but I have already bought enough things that I don’t even know if I’ll be able to fit it in my suitcase, as that was already threatening to burst on the way out here. I’ll sit on it, if I have to.
But the Fort Greene area was gorgeous. I thought the part of Brooklyn we went to the last time we went to one of the craft fairs was great. This was definitely where more families lived and there were more brownstones than tall apartment buildings. There were a lot of parks around, including the Fort Greene Park where a music festival was taking place with Mos Def as the headliner, and the shops were more mom-and-pop shops than your typical McDonalds and Starbucks. In fact, after we left the flea market and wandered down to the more commercialized part of town, I didn’t see ONE Starbucks which is incredibly unusual for New York. There were a lot of cute deli’s and cafe’s, though. I decided that area was where I will live when I move here. It had a really comfortable and lively vibe. Maybe it was because it was summer and a beautiful Saturday, so there were a lot of people walking around, but most of them were just out taking a stroll and enjoying the day. Plus, it didn’t feel nearly as busy as some spots did in Manhattan. Like there were less people or it was more spread out or something.
It was a relaxing day, and one of the last things we did as a group – though we separated soon after we arrived – not really counting the publishing houses we’re going to visit. We have five more days, four of them full, as my train will be gone before dinner on Thursday. I can’t believe how fast my time here has gone.
P.S. I showed this photo a few weeks ago after we visited the World Trade Center site (this post) and said it was a rather large statue of George Washington outside a building, and I didn’t really know why.
Well in one of our museum tours, one of the guides showing us around (I don’t remember what we were talking about or how or why we got on this subject) said this building on Wall Street was where George Washington was inaugurated. Oh, wait. It was the New York Public Library tour. Our guide mentioned it because we saw a picture of George Washington in one of the rooms. So, yeah. Now I know why he’s there and why that building is so important. Sweet.
I Love New York. 