February 28, 2004 [Saturday]......Back to Lasker Rink
Today was week 2 of my ice hockey at Lasker Rink and managed to improve my ice skating skills a little more. It has been warming up this week and it was a mighty 10 degrees outside, very nice for this time of year, even a little warm for outdoor hockey.

February 27, 2004 [Friday]......Living Colour / Freezing My Ass Off In Long Island
Due to a snowstorm in December, the Living Colour concert was postponed until tonight. It was out in a club on Long Island which I caught the LIRR to get to. Living Colour only got back together recently after splitting apart in the mid-90's. It was a late show that didn't finish till 2am and then I had to wait another 40 minutes for the train back to Manhattan. By then it was sub-zero temperature, so that was a very long wait outside. The train trip is just under an hour, so by the time I was back home it was 4am.
Taking a chance that SNL was filming this week, I dragged Anh over to Rockefeller Plaza by 5am to line up for standby tickets. Just our chance that they weren't filming this week, so it was in vain...

February 26, 2004 [Thursday]......Photobloggers
The Apple store in SoHo has regular seminars open to the public on a variety of topics and tonight was NYC Photobloggers which I thought would be interesting. It ran 2 hours and featured 8 photobloggers from New York talking about their work. Besides the seminar, it is always nice to visit the Apple store, the best designed store anywhere with its open space and central glass staircase.

February 24, 2004 [Tuesday]......Sounds in Sweden
On the weekend I decided I would go see a band tonight called The Sounds. They are a Swedish rock band that have a very 80's sound to them. The show was at Irving Plaza and it looked like a capacity crowd. I picked up a tshirt from the show, blue, with "Sweden" emblazed across the back.

February 23, 2004 [Monday]......Old Records
Started receiving some old vinyl records that we have been buying on eBay during the last week so I can test out my the record player I picked up a couple of weeks ago.
Another NY Rangers hockey game tonight, and another loss, this time to the Montreal Canadiens.

February 22, 2004 [Sunday]......LeBron part 2
Today LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are in town for the first time at MSG to take on the Knicks. This was one of my most anticipated games. LeBron played way better this afternoon than when I saw him against the Nets and scored 20 points as the Cavs embarrassed the Knicks.

February 21, 2004 [Saturday]......Back on the Ice
This afternoon I started playing hockey again, after taking the last few months off while recovering from my fractured wrist, received from roller hockey last year. Over winter I was keen to kick things up a notch and start playing ice hockey. So for the next 6 weeks I am playing up at Lasker Rink, at the top end of Central Park. This is the sister rink for Wollman Rink and is close to the 110th street subway station where I travel to. The rink is also owned by Trump. This is an outdoor ice rink and you'll never see one of these in Australia! At the end of March the temperature climbs too high so they melt it down until next winter.

Straight after hockey I was back on the subway home, and getting ready to go over to NJ to see the Nets v Hornets basketball game. The Nets won this to keep their streak alive at 13 games straight and Jason Kidd was pretty amazing.

February 19, 2004 [Thursday]......Sport Summary
Tuesday night I saw the Knicks play the Detroit Pistons at MSG. Knicks won this in one of the most exciting matches I have seen yet coming from behind in the 4th quarter.
Tonight was over to a Rangers game, against the New York Islanders. This is the big rivalry for the Rangers and provoked the most number of fights I have seen yet in a hockey game. By the end, between 4-6 players had been ejected from the game and a bunch of others had a lot of time in the penalty box. The Islanders are one of the few teams the Rangers seem able to beat this year, taking the game 6 -2.

February 16, 2004 [Monday]......President's Day Holiday
I'm writing this a bit late, 2 weeks after the event, so I can't remember what we did if anything on this day, probably spent half of it sleeping in no doubt.
The one thing I remember President's Day being for is lots of promotions by car makers for sales. That's it.

February 14, 2004 [Saturday]......SNL
One of the best shows is Saturday Night Live where tonnes of comic actors started from. Tickets are impossible to get, they go by lottery a year in advance. The only other chance is to get standby tickets on the morning of the show for any no-shows. They are handed out at 7am on Saturday mornings up at Rockefeller Center. I dragged myself out of bed early enough to go there, and arrived in time to pick one up. That's also when I found out that people literally camp out all night to be at the front of the line.
I returned that night at 11pm for showtime and along with most other people, didn't get in as only 20 or so standby tickets actually have spots inside. They usually have a decent star that hosts each week, this time it was Drew Barrymore.

Before that I spent some time over at the ice skating rink at Central Park (the Trump owned Wollman Rink) to try out my new Ice Hockey skates I picked up during the week.

February 13, 2004 [Friday]......Ralphie May
Tonight we went to the comedy club Carolines again. It is on Broadway around 50th street and when some of the bigger name comics are in town, they usually appear there. Tonight was Ralphie May, who was a finalist from the Last Comic Standing tv show last year, many people thought he should have won. Ralphie is also huge, like well in excess of 300 pounds. More about Ralphie here...

After the show he signed the program flyer so I met him and got a signature. Rich Vos also did part of his act tonight, who was another finalist from Last Comic Standing.

February 11, 2004 [Wednesday]......Carson Daly
Last week I had booked some tickets for us to attend a taping of the Last Call with Carson Daly tv show. Carson is a minor celebrity of sorts around here, having both his TRL show on MTV and his late night talk show (ala Jay Leno / Letterman) on NBC. He also dated Britney at one stage. The show is taped at 7pm, although screens at 1:30am and is filmed in the NBC studios on the 8th floor of the building at Rockefeller Plaza on 50th street. It is the same studio as Saturday Night Live is filmed in. Although tickets for all these tv shows are free, you end up waiting on lines for long periods before the show starts.

Tonight's guests on the couch with Carson were the singer / actress Eve and also Jason Bateman from the new Arrested Development show. Usually they have a music act but not tonight, they will edit one in from another taping before the show airs early next week. We had arrived in good time and were close to the front which was lucky as it turned out that we got 2 seats in the front row of the audience. That was literally 3 metres back from the couch where Carson and the guests sit - it was like being just on the other side of a living room from them. It was a quick taping, they don't retake or reshoot anything like with sitcoms so we were out of there by 8:30pm.

February 10, 2004 [Tuesday]......More Nets
Went out to see a NJ Nets v Detroit Pistons game tonight. Nets won again, something like their 9th straight win since firing their coach recently.

February 8, 2004 [Sunday]......Trip To SoHo
This afternoon we did some walking around the SoHo area. This is around 3 subway stops away, so it is very close. We visited by the Apple store, one of the sharpest shops in the city. Outside, Anh bought a hat from one of the street vendors who knits her own funky hats. Next we travelled over to Spring Street and looked in at the Saigoniste store which imports Vietnamese items. Lastly was a walk down to Chinatown, some chinese hotcakes (20 for $1) - a must in cold weather, a hot drink from Starbucks and then a vietnamese roll for dinner.

February 5, 2004 [Thursday]......Japanese Movie From Brooklyn
Tonight I went to one of the screenings of a new docu-movie made by a local film-maker from Brooklyn. It was about their trip to Japan to follow a famous Japanese photographer. Coincidentally the screening was at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, where I had taken photos of the clock out the front only 2 weeks ago. The director and producer were also on hand to answer questions from the audience at the end of the movie.

February 4, 2004 [Wednesday]......Year of the Monkey
Tonight Anh & I went to a Chinese New Year banquet, organized through one of the groups at work. It was at the Grand Harmony restaurant down on Mott Street in Chinatown. It was a traditional meal, we had 8 courses and there were 250 people there. Food was reasonable without being that memorable.

February 2, 2004 [Monday]......Hockey & Bulldozers
There was an interesting site around 24th street I noticed on the way home. With the snow accumulated in big piles still, the city had some bulldozers out scooping large amounts up and carting it away.
Later on I headed up to MSG to a Rangers hockey game, this time against the Vancouver Canucks.