Construction workers woke us up about 9AM by banging away at the railing installation outside the window. Shelley and Max were gone at work and JT was up doing some business on his computer. We had tickets to the 11AM showing of the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. JT was a trooper and decided to see the show as well. We hit up a little café for some coffee and pastries before catching a cab to Radio City Hall. The place was amazing inside, gorgeous art deco design completely made up for Christmas. We made our way to the top floor mezzanine and spent the next 90 minutes watching the Rockettes dance and sing with Santa Claus. Pretty fun. After the show we caught a cab over to Hell’s Kitchen area to stand in line for the Daily Show. We waited in line for an hour and got seats 52-54. JT decided to miss his bus back to Philly and grab another one later in the night so he could catch the show with us.
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| Radio City Music Hall decked for Christmas |
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| Waiting in line for Daily Show tickets |
We obtained our tickets and caught a cab back to the east side to meet up with JT’s girlfriend’s sister, Emily, who works at Sotheby’s auction house. She gave us a tour of Sotheby’s, showing us the current jewelry auction (featuring Estee Lauder’s personal collection) and Roman and Egyptian antiquities for auction including sarcophaguses, statues, and an Egyptian petroglyph panel. Emily then showed us her workspace and the actual auction room. Emily works in Sotheby’s Russian department. She researches any Russian pieces to help determine worth & authenticity but also works the auctions by translating for Russian clients since she is fluent in Russian. It was an amazing place to check out and she is an amazing person with an amazing job. Very neat experience!
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| Sotheby's New York |
After seeing Sotheby’s, we split up so JT and I could get JT’s bags while Mat ordered us some slices of pizza. We met up and grabbed a cab back over to the Daily show, eating our pizza in the cab. We made it to the studio at 4:30PM, went through security, and proceed to wait in line until 5PM when they opened up seating. We were seated right in front of the desk halfway up the stands. The place is small, room for only 200 people. We waited for another hour while the music got progressively louder. Anybody who pulled out their cell phones were immediately approached by security, talked to, and had their phones taken away for the remainder of the show. Security is very tight here! Eventually, at 6PM, somebody came out and started warming up the crowd with jokes. Unfortunately, his jokes were comprised of making fun of anybody who answered his questions about where they’re from and whatnot.
After getting people loosened up, they had us cheer to ensure we can cheer and applause loud enough for the taping. Finally Jon Stewart came out and answered questions from the audience. You can definitely see the studio make-up on him but man was he funny, handling all the impromptu questions with witty ease. Once taping started, the filming cameras blocked our view during the first segment and most of the second segment. But we got a clear shot during the third segment when Jon interviewed Dennis Leary. And within 30 minutes, the taping was over, Jon Stewart thanked us for coming, and we were out of the studio by 7PM. A very quick taping for hours of waiting but totally fun & worth it. I sat next to a nice couple from Santa Monica, it was fun chatting with them.
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| Leaving the studio |
After the show we hit up Zigolini’s pizza bar in Hell’s Kitchen. It was a cute little bar with a brick oven at the end, making amazing pizzas and mixers to order. JT wolfed down some food before catching the next bus to Philly. We were sad to see him go. Mat and I stayed and enjoyed our food. Next we strolled to Times Square and sat to people-watch for a while, and then we strolled over to the Rockefeller center to admire the ice skaters and Christmas tree. After a few minutes there, we strolled up 5th avenue to admire the Christmas decorations. Tiffany’s was especially fun to see with their little doll-house-like window displays. From there we walked along Central park back to the apartment where we went straight to bed.
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| At Times Square |
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| Admiring the holiday decorations |
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| Radio City Music Hall lit up |
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