Celebrity Sightings, Volume 2: Cool or Creepy?

Ok so I don't know what's going on with my celebrity radar this week but they keep popping up everywhere. I'm not sure if I'm becoming more observant/aware or if it's just a coincidence. Anyway, I already saw SJP, which was MY 'ultimate' celeb-sighting experience, but last week I saw the person who most other New Yorkers would deem the ultimate New York celebrity-sighting: Woody Allen.

I was on my way back from work, and had decided to walk down to 68th and Lex, instead of getting on at 77th. So I'm walking south, and just as I am coming up to 70th Street, I look up and I see him. Not JUST Woody Allen, however. Woody and Soon-Yi. (Cool. But creepy. But cool. But.... creepy) She was standing there holding some sort of box of something or other, and he was standing on the corner, wearing a hat that was partly shading his face, with a cane, and on his cell phone. What interesting, though, is that unlike all of my other celebrity-sighting experiences ('hey I know that girl from somewhere... where is it? Uni? Toronto? Oh no wait... that's Mary-Kate Olsen'), this time I recognized him *immediately*. But not only did I recognize him immediately, for a brief second I actually felt like I was IN A MOVIE.

Just as I thought that, he looked up at me, ready to recognize that I was recognizing him, but only making eye contact for a moment, because I was already looking away, and he went back to his phone conversation.

Celebrity Sightings

Since moving to New York I've seen a few celebrities. Not as many as you'd think, but then again while walking down the street I tend to have my head in the clouds.

My first celebrity sighting was in Greenwich Village, in the fall of 2006, while trying to find somewhere to have lunch with my Dad. Meandering up 4th Avenue, we happened to be behind Jon Stewart who was out with his son. Weird to see such a cool and witty celeb running along the sidewalk yelling 'now we're swimming we're swimming' while miming front crawl while his two year old son ran beside him laughing and squealing. So cute though. I think I fell a little bit in love with Jon Stewart that day.

Since then I've seen a number of less well-known celebs: the mom from Knocked Up in Scoops on Bleeker, the supporting nurse from Nurse Jackie at the YMCA on the elliptical trainer opposite me, and once when I was having coffee with a friend at Joe's Coffee at 13th and 5th, Parker Posey was apparently sitting next to me, waiting for her coffee - though to be fair that doesn't really count as a 'sighting' as my friend didn't tell me that until she'd left.

Which is fair enough. With the exception of the mom from Knocked Up, who looked as though she was thrilled that I'd clearly recognized her, most celebrities probably get sick of being constantly stared at/pointed at etc.

The other day I even saw Mary-Kate or Ashley Olsen at Cafe Loup. And it's sort of weird to see someone I consider a big celeb, because I'm not used to seeing them, and so it takes me a minute sometimes to realize that I'm recognizing someone famous, as opposed to someone I recognize from uni or whatever.

But yesterday, I had probably what would be for me the ultimate celebrity sighting, and again at the YMCA (what's up with that? I thought celebrities could afford

personal trainers? Is the economy that bad??). Again, head in the clouds, I came into the Y, gave my card to the girl to scan, hopped down the stairs and just as I was about to enter the Ladies' change room, a hoard of kids came out, jerking me out of my reverie. As I glanced up to avoid them I noticed that they were with a lady, not much taller than they were, and I thought, once again: hey that lady looks familiar... (Brain: whhrr whrrr... click click...) Then as she looked up at me, everything finally clicked into place and I thought: oh my god, that's Sarah Jessica Parker! And just as I thought that she glanced away.

Wow. Awesome.

Snow days

Another point where New York diverges from Toronto: snow. Snow here is less frequent, and thus has a bigger impact on the city. NYC will get the occasional light snowfall, but now and then there will be a 'Noreaster' which is a big storm that hits the northeast corner of the States. Last week we had one of these such 'blizzards' where we got about a foot of snow, six inches of which stuck overnight, and then it all turned to slush. The morning of the blizzard I came out of my building, heading to work, and I was gobsmacked by how dead the street was. The city basically shut down for the day. I managed to get my shift at work in, but by the time I got home (2ish) stores were closing down early, everyone was heading home. And so I stayed in my apt watching the snow fall for the rest of the evening, and for the first time, in the city that never sleeps, I couldn't go anywhere.

New York Visitors

I recently had my first real visitor in my NYC studio (apart from my mum - sorry mum). I love visitors – it often means I’ll get to do things that I wouldn’t otherwise. Some highlights:

BAM: We went to see "As You Like It" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which is part of the Sam Mendes 'Bridge Project,' - a company created of both American and British actors. My friend (who, just for context, is Italian born and raised) leans over and says to me: are only some of them doing English accents? Isn't that a bit weird?

I don't think it is weird, because although I'm not that familiar with how Shakespeare is done in America, it's pretty standard these days (in Canada) to do one's own accent. (After all, the kind of English accent that Shakespeare would have had, I hear from experts anyway, sounds much more like how they speak in Newfoundland. Weird.)

Anyway, the production was ok, which was a bit disappointing considering all the hype. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't inspiring. Highlights:

Set: high production value. Orlando: flat, ugh. Rosalind: annoying, Jaques: amazing. (which by extension meant that the 'All the World's a Stage' speech almost made up for the rest of the production)

House of Yes: Saturday night was spent at The House of Yes - typical Williamsburg (well ok, Bushwick) warehouse style indie space, $10 cover, four or five bands, BYOB. We ended up leaving early (I wasn't feeling well). Still, we managed to see the first three bands, pole dancers (she looked good on the pole but we realized it was an optical illusion, since when she got down you could see that she must have been anorexic), fire-eaters, a lady about the age of a grandma yoga-dancing to the second band, and a gymnastic routine.

Who’s next?