New York State of Mind

Last night I went to see Billy Joel at Shea Stadium, which was, needless to say, amazing. It was the perfect cap to a week that contained lots of other New York-centric events, and helped me to realize just how much I'm going to miss the Big Apple when I'm in Jerusalem.

Let's start with Saturday night, when I went to see Bon Jovi in Central Park. I was lucky enough to win tickets through a lottery on MLB.com, and I was thrilled that Lauren Dana was able to come up from DC to join me. She's the biggest Bon Jovi fan I know, and since she's been going through a rough patch lately I had hopes that the concert would help lift her spirits. Thankfully, I was right. Heeding the multiple media warnings to get to the park early, Lauren and I joined the line at around 3:30 and after winding through the park we were happily situated in the back of the front section just an hour later. The concert didn't start until 8, but we enjoyed catching up and even made friends with the girls sitting on the blanket next to us. We discussed the challenges of being single Jewish females in New York City and got a kick out of the fact that the smell of pot was permeating the air courtesy of the guys on the blanket in front of us -- yet the cops standing just a few feet away pretended not to notice. Classic.

Sitting amongst a mob of people in a beautiful outdoor setting bordered by the glowing skyline made me proud to be a resident of the city that never sleeps. I was reminded of the comment that Talia made to me when we heard the New York Philharmonic play in Central Park just a few weeks earlier: "You're so lucky that you live in a city that gels so well with your personality." She's right on the money, and I love taking advantage of all of the cultural and intellectual events that this city has to offer. I only hope that I can find a similar comfort zone while living in Jerusalem. If not, I have the satisfaction of knowing that the four remaining years of my program will bring me back to the very heart of it: New York, New York.

On Sunday my whole family and I ventured up to Yankee Stadium for the All-Star futures game and celebrity softball game. Andrew and Scott were both in town, and it was nice to have all five of us together for a change -- especially since the only other time we'll all be in New York before I leave for Israel will probably be the weekend of Beth's wedding. Being a lifelong Mets fan, this was just my third visit to Yankee Stadium and will most likely be my last one before it is demolished at the end of the season. It succeeded in reminding me just why I consider the Yankees to be the Evil Empire (nevermind the fact that I spent six years living in Boston). Taco Bell was one of the corporate sponsors of the event, and as part of the deal they provided what was probably the tackiest baseball game giveaway I have ever seen: giant foam taco hats (yes, you read that right). The fans pounced all over them, and as the pushy Manhattanite amongst my family, I managed to obtain one for each of us. My brothers did not want to have any part of the hats (aside from noting that we could probably sell them on ebay later), which meant that I was stuck holding three of them. Before I knew it, an angry security guard glared at me and yanked one of the hats away, without saying a word. My mom immediately objected: "There are five of us in our party -- we have one hat each," she said. The security guard ignored her and walked away with the hat anyway, while my family was dumbfounded. Granted, these were ridiculous foam hats -- nothing worth getting upset about, of course -- but I could not believe the fact that the guard didn't even ASK me return one 

of the "extra" hats. If he had asked nicely, I would have gladly given it up. Instead, I was reminded of the age-old Yankee sense of superiority and entitlement, which probably one of the few things I will NOT miss about New York while I'm in Israel. However, I suppose the Israelis and Palestinians have entitlement arguments far worse than those that occur between Yankee and Mets fans -- but that's a story for a different day. 

Just a few more comments before I let go of the stupid hats: While waiting for the subway back to Manhattan, two guys approached my mom and I and offered to pay $5 each for two of the hats. I also managed to find a home for a third one later that night when I went to see the final performance of HMS Pinafore with the G&S troupe I work with out on Long Island. The hat bears a strong (albeit yellow) resemblance to the one Dave wears as Captain Corcoran, so I offered him the taco as a "congratulations on a great show" present. Needless to say, he got a real kick out of it.

And now, for the event that both literally and figuratively put me in a blissful New York State of Mind: Billy Joel's Last Play at Shea. The ambiance at the stadium was far different from the last time I heard Billy Joel perform in the comparatively small Cohen Auditorium at Tufts. The Tufts concert was in an intimate setting that enabled me to hear every note and every lyric, while the Shea concert was anything but -- yet, just as hearing Bon Jovi in Central Park made me proud to be a New Yorker, being there made me thrilled to be part of one of the last concerts in a stadium that holds so much history.

Billy tickled the ivories through many of his greatest hits, and while I was disappointed that he missed one of my all-time favorites ("And So It Goes"), the concert brought forth so many of my own personal memories. I thought of the the a cappella Billy Joel arrangements that Roger put together for Select Singers back in high school and of the Shibley Day Camp bus rides when we changed the chorus of "We Didn't Start the Fire" to "We didn't start the dryer, with the socks and underwear flying everywhere," or the alternative: "We didn't fart, you liar!" Oh, how mature we were. Memorizing the real lyrics to the song also provided me with an unofficial "cheat sheat" on every single history exam I've ever taken. It's no wonder why "We Didn't Start the Fire" was by far my favorite number of the evening, especially because it was accompanied by a slideshow featuring all of the historic events mentioned in the song. My dad once commented that Billy Joel should write a sequel that takes the song into the present day. However, although the song ends in 1989, the song is sadly not as dated as one might think: One of the last verses lends itself to the exact same rhyme scheme in 2008:

The original:

Begin, Regan, Palestine

Terror on the airline

Ayatollah in Iran

Russians in Afghanistan

A more contemporary version:

Israel vs. Palestine

Terror on the airline

Nuclear weapons in Iran

US in Afghanistan

It's rather disconcerting to realize that the places that Billy Joel pinpointed as political hotspots almost 20 years ago are still at the very top of the news. On the other hand, the technological growth between 1989 and the present has been enormous -- "We Didn't Start the Fire" doesn't even allude to cell phones, ipods, and, of course, the Internet. As we continue to develop our facility for disseminating information, perhaps we will be able to spend the next 20 years finding a solution for making the world a better (and safer) place.

In keeping with my Billy Joel/New York theme, I leave you with my favorite verse of this post's eponymous song:

It was so easy living day by day

Out of touch with the rhythm and the blues

But now I need a little give and take

The New York Times, The Daily News...

This song made my cry a river every time I heard it while living in Boston, so I can only imagine how I'll feel when I hear it in Israel. I hope that "a little give and take" happens soon between the Arabs and the Israelis so that the only line that will have to change in terms of how this song relates to my life while I'm in Israel is the one about the New York Times and the Daily News. Although I'll inevitably continue to read the Times, this media junkie has already added the Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz to her daily reading regimen in the hopes of better understanding how the Israelis get their news.