the city that never sleeps...

my brother's pilot premiere was on thursday night. my dear mother was kind enough to offer to watch the children while we attended. and since we were unable to go cruising and our tenth anniversary year ends in a matter of days we were excited to take a few days in a city we both love.

we left wednesday after amy stayed up late packing and i worked through the night. hannah took the girls to violin and we dropped michael at school and ella at co-op. we rushed to the airport and flew off.

on the flight i met my favorite mormon (post-mormon) director--richard dutcher. i'm not in the habit of meeting famous people, so i asked, 'is your name richard?' 'yes' 'richard dutcher?' 'yes' 'hi my name is paul frandsen and i am a big fan of your work. god's army 2? great.'

and that was that. he was nice and the encounter was brief.

stephen and hillary picked us up from the airport--very kind of them to brave the traffic. amy and i were beat after sleeping so little so we went out for pizza and crashed at stevie's. stephen did not crash as he had a night's work ahead of him. he and the director of the pilot worked through much of the night on finishing the color etc...

thursday was the premiere so while he finished final preparations we went directly from the subway in brooklyn to the natural history museum off central park. i had never been and thoroughly enjoyed it. below are the pictures from the museum.


the natural history museum is impressive fare. favorites? the big whale and most of the ocean exhibit. the exhibit on evolution. meteor rocks. and the dinosaur bones! lots and lots of real-life bones with impressive evolutionary trees showing their progression and time-line. the earthquake-meter.

after spending several hours in the bowels of the museum we surfaced for air and realized we hadn't yet seen the city skyline in the light of day (the museum has an underground subway entrance.)

i love the new york skyline. the enormity of the city is astounding. its scale is grand but old, dirty and dilapidated at the same time. after seeing the skyline from the window of the museum i got the itch to strike out on the town. we headed out on the subway to rockefeller square and did the very touristy tour of nbc studios. the highlight was seeing diddy dirty money during his photo shoot for snl. we also saw jimmy fallon and toured his set. at the end, amy and i did our own faux news broadcast. i captured a shot of amy in front of the green screen, but the final product was $30 for the footage. amy is an adorable weathergirl. i would tune in :)



we rushed from the rockefeller tree to fontana's bar in chinatown near where some of the scenes from the pilot were shot. we stopped in for chinese dumplings with stephen and hillary where we met some friends of theirs (liz and brian) and joined them in a quick bite to eat. brian is a creative executive for AMC and liz teaches at a charter school in harlem.

the premiere was great. it was a fun melding of personal and professional acquaintances of stephen and hadley. the different groups melded well and there were a lot of hugs and smiles. there was cheering and clapping through the closing credits. it was fun to see stephen and hadley's relief build as they carried off the project well. they both looked ready for a long nap and relaxing weekend after staying up most nights all week in preparation for the premiere.

stephen did all the music for the project and it was a shining element of the show. there were multiple comments about how great the music was. the color was beautiful, suspense held the group's attention, and the violence etc was tasteful :) my favorite part was hanging out after the premiere with friends and co-workers of stephen's lingering. it was fun to hear them speak highly of stephen--including his professionalism, work ethic, convivial nature etc. etc. my favorite moments of the trip were the random relaxed moments with stephen, hillary, and amy...

we took pictures together near the impressive photo/poster that stephen and hadley produced.

adam and kellyn posing with us...

brothers...

stephen and hillary were our perfect hosts on the weekend...

friday was a day for more culture. we started out at the 'frick' museum (the best named institution we visited on the weekend.) it was a cool example of a private art collectors gallery turned museum. a little renior...

we left the 'frick' for the apple store with the floating apple and the burger joint (hidden in the parker-meridian hotel.) notice stephen's signature 'i love apple' salute.

then it was off to free MOMA night presented by target. i love the MOMA. highlights? the eye. starry night. picasso. the line exhibit.

my impressionist impression of the painting...

and for the grand finale that night? the new neil la bute play, 'the break of noon.' neil is a former mormon and renowned modern playwright. he attended byu with aaron eckhart.

the play was provocative. we went not knowing exactly what to expect. la bute is a former mormon who converted to mormonism at BYU and is known for his portrayals of evil/badly behaving men. his play in the late 90's of lds people doing violent things lead to him ultimately parting amicably with the church. he has developed into one of the more renowned modern american playwrights. his play, 'the break of noon' premiered off-broadway 2 weeks ago with david duchovny as the lead.

the play chronicles the story of 'john smith' who survives an office massacre where the gunman shoots 37 people and then himself. smith claims to have had a vision of god wherein he spared john's life. he then interacts with police, ex-wife, lover, stranger and detective. each interaction shows the duality of duchovny's nature as he is both good and evil in turn. mormon undertones include 'john smith' as modern day prophet (joseph smith), mutiple versions of his vision--each more elaborate than the last, and 'jesus wants me for a sunbeam' was played at one break between scenes. pretty veiled mormon ties i know. duchovny is on stage the entire play and acts opposite 3 other actors who play dual roles. the play had a lot of language and john smith is not a 'good guy' per se.

it was interesting watching the play with a presumably secular new york audience for whom it seemed very natural to laugh at the man's shortcomings and brush off his religious ministrations and manipulations. i also felt that as a believing mormon the play took on greater depth as i was asked to confront this man's shortcomings in the context of joseph's shortcomings. all the while asking me to maintain my belief in both.

the play ultimately asks the audience to accept an imperfect man as a prophet. the final scene ***plot spoiler***involves duchovny speaking in church before an audience in a sort of evangelist setting. he levitates in the final moments of his monologue and la bute asks the audience to accept that this man is what he claims.

we went for eggs benedict after the play (divine) and headed home for a movie at stephen's apartment.

oh, and on the way out of the play i met mr. michael moore and had my picture taken with him...

the next day was broadway day. we stood in line for cancellation tickets to lion king (while a scalper tried to hustle me into some 2nd row tickets that i turned down after he walked me around times square introducing me to his scalper buddies.)

amy loved the show. i thought it was so so. beautiful lighting, costumes, vocals, but still the same lion king plot-line i've seen 20+ times on tv. i would however love to take the kids someday...

times square from the minskoff theatre.



in between broadway shows amy speed shopped at H&M and we met stephen and hillary at the temple/stake center before his performance for the stake christmas concert
the final show of the evening was billy elliot. i loved it. the dancing was breathtaking, the musical numbers were powerful and the message of hardship, sacrifice and committing to yourself were motivating. the 11 year lead was an amazing dancer and brought incredible suspense at times.

that night we went 80's dancing. great times...

church was inspiring in stephen's brooklyn branch.

a relaxing sunday and waffles topped off the trip.

thank you so much stephen and hillary! congratulations on the successful premiere...

another wicked weekend...

well, time marches on.

***amy says this post is way too long. you were forewarned. stop reading when you get bored. better yet, don't read and just look at the pictures. this post may not be fully enjoyed till i die and some distant relative reads and feels like they can relate to their great grandpa...***

while my family was here for two days (just under two to be exact), the memories already feel like it was much longer. we miss them and are grateful for the memories that you will see captured below.

to begin the post, i have to lament that fact that the night before we left for the whirlwind family weekend, i mentioned to amy that we needed to take a ton of photos. the next morning we both doltedly left the camera in the its place at home on the shelf. therefore, the pictures were taken on a camera far nicer than ours, with a memory card now far farther from us than ours. mom was kind to send us these few pictures. when we get the rest i may elaborate visually on the weekends events...

the weekend began the night i got off work an hour late to pick up lafe and dad who waited at the airport for 45 minutes. they were both good sports about it (except lafe who goodnaturedly reminded me how long he had waited at the airport throughout the ride home:). i enjoyed the hugs i received at the airport and the enjoyment didn't stop till we hugged them after the fireworks show on main street, usa.

banana pancakes (nod to jack johnson and amy frandsen) were the order of the next morning. dad helped me put on the racks and the box uptop so i could bring the stroller and some beach equipment (never sadly to be used). the ride down was pleasant between all parties and we arrived, despite california traffic, within minutes of hannah's performance.

it's hard to say if i was emotional from not having seen hannah for so long, from the spectre of not making it to the beach after having driven so close to it's shores, or from the eyeshadow worn by the men on stage, but i coudln't help but tearing up several times during the performance. these high school kids created something great up there. from the music, to the dancing, to the relevant message they created...it was quality.

**a caveat should be added here about men and eyeshadow. all my comments on the subject must be taken with a grain of salt, since i wore eyeshadow from middle school on**

highlights were hannah's lithe form creating an artful rendition of world hunger and world peace or gabe lee's (joe and amy's brother) high tenor notes above the mass unison below him. to be certain, this first performance was wonderful. i could have left the concert hall then uplifted and happy. my joy was less full nearly seven hours later when we were still at the same concert hall, one hour away from the pantages theater where wicked would be starting in 20 minutes...

not to be a killjoy. we had 47 hours with my parents (minus sleep) and i really enjoyed every minute. those seven specific hours were filled with talking to mom, dad, lafe, hannah, amy, bekah, michael, abby, random high-school kids and their parents. it was really nice to be with my family. no beach is worth time with them... other highlights from those seven precious hours? a target purchase of a memory card that didn't fit my mom's camera afterall, averting my girls eyes from the scantily clad midwest farmer's daughters, seeing mom kindly walk with a girl in each arm back to the theater and allowing us to go to wicked with michael dad and lafe, starting the 2nd in the twighlight series, getting dirty looks from the ushers regarding my girls' behavior, reminiscing about the time amy and i saw 'fame' in cincinatti with her parents (hannah's concert was a 'fame' event), having all-you-can eat at an 'authentic' chinese restaurant (the cooks were asian), talking with bekah, abby or michael individually during the breaks in a new environment. each of them drank in the newness in different ways. the girls are talking so much more now, and it was fun to hear what they had to say about it all. beautiful memories all crammed into seven glorious hours.

back to the issue at hand. the following pictures highlight hannah and gabe. i included gabe since his brother and sister-in-law grace our blog with their presence every now and then...and of course because he did so well.

there is video of the opening number on hannah's memory card in utah. if mom sends it to me i will add it here...

otherwise, a picture of the opening number will have to suffice:


hannah is shown here rhthmically swaying in the arms of the men in eyeshadow to the music coming from gabe's microphone.


when the first place skim board was handed out, gabe was there to accept it in all its glory.


congratulations to all the kids and to mr lunt. this was his first outright vitory at a 'fame' event (fame events showcase the best in showchoirs across the country--sort of like one big audition for byu ambassadors in several venues across the county)...

however, as with all triumphs in life, this skimboard came at a price. those members of the choir who volunteered to stay behind to accept the skimboard and then help clean-up missed the first half of wicked. i know, because gabe and several friend came busting through the curtain into the seats next to us on the balcony to see elphaba break out some really impressive and moving notes in the waining moments of defying gravity...and i thought i was dissapointed to miss my favorite song, 'loathing'(this copy made menzel's voice soft for some reason and it loses much of its punch.)

anyway, we were without a camera to capture michael's love of the theatre...and love it he did. he was enthralled much of the show, despite the fact that it started after his bedtime and that he had been watching other men in eyeshadow sing for seven hours prior to the show starting. i loved sitting next to him and enjoying the songs that truly drew me close when amy and i listened to them over and over while i sang at the top of my lungs during our drive to boise, idaho (then to amy's parents) as i tried to drown out the anxiety i felt for my medical licensing exam that had been postponed because of a power outage at the university of utah (how about that run-on sentence?)

after the show we realized we had a 1 mexapixel camera on our phone and we stood at the top the steps in the pantages theatre and snapped a quick one of the three of us reveling in what we had just seen and heard. michael's emotions are pretty evidence through the blur of the sweet camera phone lens.


we returned to the hotel to find mom had fallen asleep with the girls in her arms and then put them in their cribs later after awakening to a girl on each arm. mom was so good to us in getting the tickets and taking the kids. we appreciated every minute that she put in.

the next day found us at the happiest place on earth...and despite the colder weather, we were all certainly happy. the proof is found here:


we loved to watch our kids interact with my family. each member of the family got 'alone time' with a different kid. the kids loved it, and as far as i could tell my family didn't mind it.




a highlight for the girls was being with mom and another family member while dad jr, dad sr or mom, michael, lafe and myself went on the big kid rides. here is one shot of the girls freeloading off the paddling of those sitting in front of and behind them:


despite being barred from the big rides because of her burgeoning abdominal girth, amy found time to bond with and enjoy her kiddos, my family and the ambiance.


the night ended with a really cool, nostalgic fireworks display and we were off for the long haul home that didn't end till we got the last kid down with a little motrin for her fever at 1 am.

the weekend didn't end there, but i'll write about peter and emily's visit at a later date as this post is way too long, i haven't done the dishes and there is a pile of laundry waiting for us to watch american idol...