If you live anywhere near one of the theaters now showing “An Inconvenient Truth,” go see it this weekend. Or at least go next week.
If it hasn’t opened yet where you live, go as soon as it opens.

AEJ and I saw it tonight. I think everybody should see this movie.

And don’t worry — it’s not a boring lecture. It’s really enjoyable. And I can pretty much guarantee it’s better than this.

Seriously. A great, entertaining, important film. Some of it is even quite funny. And some of it — partially the inevitably resulting thought of “what could have been” — made AEJ cry.

So, go.

After the performance at Carnegie, I went with the band on a cruise around Manhattan. That went until almost 2am, and by the time I’d finished packing, I wasn’t asleep until 3am, and woke up at 5am to head to JFK to fly to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, where I’d be joining AEJ and her family on their Caribbean vacation. I’d never been to the Caribbean, and had no idea what to expect. One of the first things I learned: they drive on the wrong side of the road.

I have to say, the view from the room was great.

I mean, look at the cozy little spot on the beach!

I didn’t go there intending to watch videos, but the selection in the room consisted of the most seminal of Lil Bow Wow’s oeuvre, “Like Mike.” I was torn.

AEJ’s mom had made one of my favorite snacks, this cheese / bean / jalapeno / corn / cream cheese roll-up. Oh, I love these.

That’s AEJ’s hand in the above shot. She’s a beauty, but she doesn’t like to have her picture taken, especially by the paparazzi who follow us around wherever we go.

AEJ’s brother, Peter, found this friendly bug at the pool.

Peter was nice enough to remove the bug so I could use the mustard bottle. The proper way to apply condiments to your burger is in opposing zig-zags. If you don’t do it this way, I will never photograph your burger.

There were a lot of birds in St. Croix, and they seemed to follow us wherever we went. AEJ called them all “chicken.” Hello, chicken!

AEJ lived in St. Croix for several years when she was very young, and this was her first time back since she was 10 or 11. One of the highlights of the trip, to me at least, was the chance to see AEJ’s childhood school.

It’s a cozy place.

We stumbled upon this disturbing sight in one of the darkened classrooms. This is what happens when the government insists on only teaching abstinence. Kids need an outlet for all of those crazy urges, and now they find that outlet in art class. This is messed up.

Here’s the school building where AEJ says they had gym class, but as far as I can tell, they used the entire place to cook tagine.

Or maybe it wasn’t tagine at all. Maybe, just maybe, they were cooking babies in there. I’m not a fan of children, but even for me, this seems a little extreme. (Did you know that they taste just like chicken?)

Chicken!

At the pool, I enjoyed tasty bright blue drinks.

Chicken!

The beach.

My feet in the Atlantic Ocean. (AEJ — and the map – insists that it’s actually the Caribbean Sea, not the Atlantic Ocean, but I refuse to accept that. I think the Caribbean just has identity issues.)

AEJ’s mom has an old friend who still lives in St. Croix, and he’s an airline pilot. He was a pilot for American Airlines for almost 40 years, and he recently retired. Now he runs a private airline called Bohlke International Airways. He offered to fly us from St. Croix to St. Thomas for the day. I was pretty freaked-out about it, because, as I’ve written many times here, and as my most recent piece makes very clear, I hate to fly. I now refuse to fly in prop planes, and if I have to travel somewhere without a major airport, I insist on flying to the nearest major city, and driving the rest of the way. Tiny planes scare the crap out of me. I mean, look — even the plane is covering its eyes.

The plane was tiny — only big enough to seat 5 in the main cabin.

I was willing to do this on one condition — that I be allowed to sit in the co-pilot seat. I figured that if I could watch Bill, the pilot, as he flew, and hear everything he said to me and to air traffic control, I’d be less scared. Plus, this was a great opportunity to put my Aviator sunglasses to the test.

It was probably the least-scary flight I’ve ever been on. And the view of the islands was beautiful.

For the flight back, I was back in the cabin, and my terror of flying returned full-force. Bill suggested that I take flying lessons, as it would probably make a huge difference. I’m thinking about it…

It was a nice couple of days. The ocean was beautiful, we had some great meals. and there’s no denying that cocktails in the pool is a really, really good thing. And they have chickens!

And now, part two of the New York trip.
On Friday — after that amazing dinner on Thursday night — AEJ and I stopped by one of the early rehearsals of the National Wind Ensemble. Their concert on Memorial Day was the reason I was in New York that week — to work with H. Robert Reynolds and the group — and although I wasn’t officially working with them until Saturday morning, we stopped by to say hello on Friday. Here’s H. Bob rehearsing the group.

And here’s another shot.

After rehearsal, AEJ, Newman, Melissa, H. Bob, his daughter Kirsten, and I headed up to the top floor of the Hilton for a drink. After cocktail time, Newman, Melissa, AEJ and I headed to dinner at one of my favorite places in NY, Artisanal. We had delicious cheese fondue, followed by our usual main course, Chicken Cooked Under a Brick. This sauce : yum.

And here’s another shot, with that super-creamy French butter on the background. Nothin’ beats European butter. If you tell me otherwise, you’re a commie.

We ended dinner with chocolate fondue, then headed back to Jonathan & Melissa’s place. AEJ got up at the crack of dawn the next morning to fly to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands for a family vacation. I stayed in NY to “work,” and headed to the Hilton for my first official rehearsal with the National Wind Ensemble. The group sounded great from the beginning, and I knew it was going to be a fantastic couple of days.

One of the pieces on the program was “Fanfare: Chronicles 13:8” by a young composer named James Territo. (I say young because he’s, like, 5 years younger than I am.) Jim is a high school band conductor in Detroit. Being both a composer and a conductor, H. Bob asked Jim if he’d like to rehearse the band for a few minutes on his piece. Jim took the podium, and his energy and enthusiasm totally lit up the band.

It was a blast watching Jim work with the students, and he packed enough adrenaline into those 10 minutes to last the band far beyond Monday’s concert. It’s hard to tell from the size of this picture, but H. Bob, on the far right, loved it, too.

That night, I walked to the Upper East Side for pizza at my favorite Manhattan pizza place, Giorgio’s.

I’d been playing phone tag with my friend and frequent collaborator, choreographer Robert Battle (with whom I wrote Juba, Strange Humors, Damn, Rush Hour, Breakdown Tango, Mass, and others), for about three days. We finally connected after dinner, and headed out for a drink, ’cause that’s what Robert and I do best: cocktail time.
Robert has enormous hands.

Next to the hotel, a huge crew was shooting “Spiderman 3” all weekend.

You’ll just have to take my word for it, but that tiny red figure in the center of this picture is Spiderman.

And here, parked on 53rd Street, is the delivery truck for The Daily Bugle — with no Peter Parker anywhere in sight.

Sunday afternoon, Jonathan and Melissa picked me up at the hotel and we headed to a big nature preserve in Queens. Here’s the incredibly welcoming Visitor Center.

And here, kids, is what poison ivy looks like.

Yes, we may have been in the middle of nature, but that doesn’t mean I leave business back at the hotel. No, sir. I believe in this shot, I’m saying into my cell phone, “You’re breakin’ my balls, Gary. You know, I’m just like the fetuses, Gary. I wasn’t born yesterday, either. Uh huh. Breakin’ my balls, Gary. How about ten and a quarter? …Balls, Gary. Breakin’ ’em.” (If you get that reference, you get a sticker.)

Goose crossing!

After walking through nature — within eye-shot of JFK — we headed to Brooklyn to have dinner at Junior’s. Newman and I share a love of pickled beets. (Maybe I’ll write a piece called “Pickled Beats.” I suspect that Montoya will beat me to it.)

Who’s a happy guy? That’s right, it’s Newman, with his Brisket Melt sandwich — brisket on garlic bread with sauteed onions, muenster cheese, and French fries.

Melissa went a little lighter, with the biggest reuben I’ve ever seen.

And I went for something called “Something Different,” beef brisket between two potato pancakes, served with au jus and apple sauce.

We were too stuffed right then for Junior’s famous cheesecake (as seen on QVC!), so we got one to go. Later that night, back at Newman’s, we found the strength to eat again. Mmm…

The next day — Monday, Memorial Day, the day of the concert — I stopped by Ruby Foo’s for sushi. Spicy tuna roll and eel sushi. Best spicy tuna roll anywhere.

After lunch, I headed to Carnegie Hall for the dress rehearsal. Back stage, here’s somebody trying to play a contrabassoon for the first time. Have you ever heard somebody play contrabassoon for the first time? It’s a lovely sound.

Here’s the poster, outside of Carnegie.

And here’s the hall, about 30 minutes before the concert. There were probably a good 2000 people at the concert.

And here’s H. Robert Reynolds conducting Redline Tango at Carnegie Hall. Wow, it was a great performance. Bob takes full advantage of all of the contrasts in the piece, and it makes all the difference. This was up there with the best Redline Tango performances — and the hall wasn’t too bad, either!

The concert also included the best high school band I’ve ever heard, the Logan High School Wind Ensemble of Union City, California, conducted by Ramiro Barrera. Ramiro is one of the consortium members of the piece I’m currently writing, and now I feel like I can write just about anything for his group.

So, that was New York — my first trip back since moving to LA in September. It was great to be back, and I’d definitely missed it, and missed my friends there, but Southern California is, to me, a nicer place to live. The weather, the amount of living space — all it’s really missing are my friends back in NY. I hear that Steve Bryant is considering moving to LA in 2007. Now I just need to convince Robert, Jonathan, Melissa, Damien, and a bunch of others.
It’ll be a challenge, especially with Newman and Damien, but I’m willing to make whatever sacrifices it requires.