Mr. Cher Scholar and I went to NYC to see The Book of Mormon. We both loved it so much we bought the book and CD. Another reason I wanted to get back to NYC was for the food.

My Thanksgiving dinner from HopKee in Chinatown.

Prawns with walnuts and a white-wine sauce. A-MA-ZING.

(Click photos to enlarge) 

 

 
I also wanted some long-missed NYC street foods: bagels (scallion cream cheese on garlic bagel), a knish (from the truck behind me), and real pizza!

 

 

  

   
 

Cher Moments: Everywhere we saw these Moonstruck cafes, which I don't remember seeing when I lived there in the late 1990s. We also went to see the Katharine Hepburn costume exhibit outside the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, so I took the fountain picture from the scene outside the opera in Moonstruck. Also a picture of Cyndi Lauper's new Broadway show.

 

 

 

 

 

Other cool finds: We stayed in a brownstone in Chelsea and our neighborhood CVS was a converted bank. I caught a leaf falling in Central Park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another reason I wanted to go to NYC around Thanksgiving was to see all the Christmas window displays. The most amazing included one in Chelsea/Greenwich Village that was inspired by pages of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time which Mr. Cher Scholar and I are both reading right now. We also visited the Macy's on 34th Street. One window had an interactive computer display which John modeled for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also visited Yonkers and Sarah Lawrence where I used to live and where went to grad school. We visited our friends Ann and Michael up there. The lion is from the ruins of the Greystone Mansion on the aqueduct trail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the highlights of the trip was meeting Cher scholar Dishy finally after all these years. He invited us over to his house to see his Cher Lair. Mr. Cher Scholar gallantly went with me and endured teasing over his mishearing of Cher lyrics, most notably his singing months ago, "The black lady laughed at me and lit the candles one by one" and that weekend's listening to Cher's new single and saying, "It's no Song for the People."

 

Dishys house is both tasteful (see left) and a neatly packed Cher library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He is the most organized Cher collector I've met. He has his cassettes, 8-Tracks, 45s, books, albums, dolls and DVDs all contained in a very compact lair, easy to access if needed at any time.

 

He had to school me in what Reel-to-Reels are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was very impressed with his Uninhibited display in the bathroom. This inspires me to try such at display in the guest bathroom of Cher Scholar.

 

 

 

 

 

He also had some nice items from Sanctuary, decorative wall items and incense (smartly displayed as related to Dishys Harry Potter library).

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then Dishy had some beautiful posters and pictures. The most I can manage is protective poster covering from Michaels. Dishy really knows how to frame some Cher art including Dark Lady foregrounded with Half Breed through a door, a great Sonny, Cher butt and Farewell tour items.

  

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dishy has some magazine covers I had never seen too, including this kooky one from the mid-70s!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most amazing was the Cher stuff Dishy made himself including the poster of the Cher Special from 1978. This is not the actual poster but a Dishy repainted recreation! It's amazing.

Dishy also made the Cher CD box below. I love the cool stuff Cher fans create.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But above all (and I'm not trying to be sentimental here), the best part of the afternoon was not the great abundance of Cher stuff, it was the Cher camaraderie. I really loved hanging out with Dishy because he's smart and fun.

He made us treats including and an awesome corn dip with chile peppers. Two Cher scholars Cher scholarin!

 

 

 

    

 

Dishy also took some smokin hot pics of Mr. and Mrs. Cher Scholar.  

All in all, we had a fabulous time in NYC and can't wait to go back. Coming back, we experienced a string of sad news: we got sick, a friend of a friend…someone I knew better when I lived in NY, Nova Gutierrez, fell seriously ill (and our prayers are going out to her and her family), two of my co-workers at IAIA started experiencing some dire events in December, the Connecticut school shooting…all sad stuff that make me look back to our Thanksgiving trip with, well, thanks giving.

I'll leave it with a common sight of Cher Scholar in NYC:

Cher Scholar has a shoe-tying disability.

Here is Mr. Cher Scholar finally getting frustrated enough to tie her shoes for her.