Anyone is welcome to use these shots, but please save them to your own hardrive, do not hotlink these images.

Taking the train from Stamford CT. it was a gorgeous bright 75 degree sunny day. NYC is much farther south, and the cherry blossums and magolina trees were in full bloom. The new spouts of grass were a bright green, contrasting against the garbage and grafitti that lined the train tracks.

We arrived in NYC at appoximately 2:30, Grand Central busselled with commuters. We started our trek to Times Square, armed with our heavy backpacks, streets were crowded with busy New Yorkers and tourists. Finally we made it, and it was such a sight to see Edges images and Music Rising guitar in the big diplay window out front of the Hard Rock Cafe. The guitar was really cool, made of cardboard, kinda 3-d, my mind thought how wonderful it be to have that in my hallway, or the giant poster of The Edge would have been awesome too!

We made our way inside, and down the stairs where it opened up and you could see the display. The guitar behind the Music Rising poster, is George Harrison's guitar he used for the Concert For Bangledash.

The place was empty and I casually began to take photos.

About 3 photos into it, a very large group (a mass!) of students began to decend the stairway, younger kids and parents. They seemed totally unaware of me standing there, and had some guy at the top of the stairs givng the instructions to line up in single file in front of the display. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but quickly got pushed aside by the mass of bodies. They were all talking, I looked at Cahl, who was getting quickly annoyed.

I finally asked one dad..
"What's going on here?"
"Oh" he says,
"it's a chorus group, We're having a luncheon here at the cafe"
His son chirps in..
"There's 99 of us!"
omg...

Excuse me, excuse me...
Dad: "son, why don't you move a little so the lady can take photos"
Son: whoa! that Les Paul is awesome! (son stands right in front of display)
Dad: "son..."

I dart a look at Cahl, who starts to motion, we should leave. I can't believe this is happening, to stall I go over to the table and begin to flip through the catalog, and ask the man sitting there how long these kids were going to be here. They'll be gone in a few minutes, just hang tight he says. I look at Cahl, who is beyond the threshold of "hanging tight"

Finally after a few minutes the kids move on to the next room, and once again I have the whole place to myself. I begin quickly taking photos, just in case another group starts coming

Cahl has made no attempt to take out the good camera, I'm finding myself surrendering to the fact I'll just have to settle for my crappy photos. I try and ask him if he would take out the good camera, and he sterrnly says no through clenched teeth.

Posters around the display area

Knowing fully well I am completely pushing my luck, I wander back over to the desk, and start talking to the guy about the catalog. I detect an accent
"It's a beautiful catalog, gorgeous photos of the items..." he says
"If I buy one will this go towards the auction monies?"
"yes" he politely says

Cahl comes over, and says, come on, lets go! I hmmm and haw over what to do, I certainly can't afford purchasing any of the auction items, and yet I want to do something. I take a catalog from the bottom of the pile

Cahl finally blows. "You're not buying that!"
Nice man: It's really a wonderful catalog"
Cahl: "It's 50 bucks! That's a rip-off!
Nice man's face goes pale..I smile at him, trying to assure him everything ok
Cahl: It's a waste of money..
Me:" but but..the cause, the charity.."
Cahl: "Well at least be smart and get one from the bottom of the pile, so you don't get one all mangled"
Nice Man: "she did!"

I buy the catalog, apologizing over and over for Cahl's behaviour
telling the nice man how we just drove 4 hours from Boston to see the auction items, which he seemed humbled by, and that we needed to get back to Grand Central to record a concert at 4:00pm
(which at this point it was 3:30pm)
then ask if they have a bag or something I could put it in, nice man says no..and then I ask about the posters and he seems unsure when a lady walks up with a guitar,
and overhears us talking and said posters are being sold at the auction.
Everything to do with this event is being sold at the auction
Nice man makes "there you have your answer" gesture to me

Lady went on, after midnight, this gets taken down, and we put back the Beatles display.
I chuckled to myself, U2 had bumped out the main Beatles display

Finally frazzled, I begin to walk away from the table.
Nice Man: "hon, you forgot your catalog"
I walk back, slightly embarrassed, just as the lady goes to put the guitar into the room,
the nice man finds me a postal envelope I can put the catalog in
"Hey! here you go!" he says trimuphtly waving the envelope.
I laugh and apologize again

The nice man at the desk,I had to take his picture
thank you nice man (whose name I forgot to get)

Lucky for us, our hotel is right down the street from the Hard Rock, Hotel Carter. We check in, knowing full well this hotel got only a 1/2 star in reviews, and braced ourselves for the worst.There was a nice king size bed, and a private bath, which we weren't expecting, woodwork was painted over years of chipping, bathroom was old, but not moldy, dripping faucets.But the room was clean

Me: "You were kinda rude to the guy at the Hard Rock"
Cahl:" honey, I had 70lbs. of recording equipment on my back, and your taking your sweet time,dragging your feet! I was dying"
Me:" oh, sorry I thought you had taken off your backpack"
Cahl: "well now it's too late to go to the show"
Me: So...instead can we take the good camera and go back and get good shots of the auction items?"
Cahl: "After I rest"
Me: "Nice man said it closed at 5:00pm"

I look around the room, and out the window, which is a yellow brick wall (ha) only the finest views at Hotel Carter!
But then I looked up, and was quite pleased to see this glass skyscraper towering over the yellow brick building

[note*- Before you all shake fists at Cahl for being a bit overwhelming, back in his twenties he broke his neck in a car accident, and carrying around 70lbs. of recording equipment on his back for more than an hour & half was quite tough for him ( he was afriad to put it down cause of all the kids)]

After a short rest, we grabbed the good camera and headed on back to the Hard Rock Cafe. We headed inside where the nice man just happened to come out of a room, and looked surprised to see us again.
"Is everything alright?!"
"Yes!" I said "Everything is great. We did miss our show, but..what are you gonna do"
"oh dear" the nice man said with a regretful face.

He left, and I turned to see Cahl busy taking photos

After, we shrugged and said well, might as well eat here, and went over to the desk where they had yet another poster I had't seen yet..gosh, I wanted this one!

..and yet one more poster. For the record they were quite large

We sat down, and ordered some HRC bacon cheeseburgers and I ordered a pint of Bass, thought I'd murder it in The Edge's honour, here's our view where we sat

Then I noted we were on the backside of the instruments, so I decided to go over and take shots of the backs

I said to Cahl, be cool if a U2 video came on while we were here.Cahl replied, Dream On.. While we ate, Mysterious Ways came on the video screens

I topped it all off with a hot fudge sundae. I'm allergic to chocolate, so I enjoyed every minute of it

As we left, I stopped at Edge's Les Paul and blew it a kiss goodbye
from all U2 fans around the world

Parting shot

Finishing dinner, we headed back to our plush digs at Hotel Carter, where I took a short hour nap, while Cahl watched the fuzzy TV. (for the record no, they don't have cable at Hotel Carter)

Then we got ready and headed out and got on the subway to go to the show at Knitting Factory till 3:30am

The next day went to The Green Apple Festival
and that's my story..

THE END