Emmys and Fathers Day in NYC

It’s true… I am a full week behind in my blogging. So, I am going to give you two this weekend. Can you handle it? I know you are just biting your nails waiting for this next installment! Just lie to me and let me think you are up at night wonderding where I am and what I am doing. OK, so let me take you back to New York City and the Emmys.

I left you all in Manhattan at The Benjamin Hotel . Peter, Eva and I took a walk in the morning down Lexington Avenue from 50th street to 26th. It was a perfect morning in the city… not too hot, no humidity and you could smell the dirty water dogs being loaded into their carts for the busy day ahead. I was in the market for a spray tan… a fake and bake… I needed to look “goddess” for the evening ahead and I found a place down on 26th that had California Tanning for $15! I pay $24 at home… so, I wanted the bargain. Peter took Eva to a nearby park to play while I stood naked being sprayed with self tanner. (Good visual… huh?) I have to say… the results were amazing. The only problem was that unlike Mystic Tan, this one was sticky and I could feel it seeping onto my clothes. Oh, well.. at least I was not staining good clothes!

My cousin, Melissa hooked me up with a girl from her work to babysit Eva while Peter and I went to the Emmys. We dressed and headed over to The W Hotel on Lexington and met my friend Dov for a little pre-game cocktail. We then hopped in a car and headed to Jazz at Lincoln Center for the main event.

We were first ushered into a room for a cocktail reception and light dinner. The room was amazing with floor to ceiling windows with great views of the Park and Central Park South. We all mingled and had another few drinks before making our way to the theater. It was fun to see who was there… Alex Trebec, Christopher Llyod, the guy from Cash Cab and Oscar the Grouch. You heard me right… Oscar the freak’n grouch was there! (Which might be one of the coolest star spottings of my career)

We were nominated in three categories and we lost all three. Kind of a bummer… but it was super cool to be there again. I think when you start to expect a nomination or if you take any part of this business for granted… is when you start to lose sight of things. I still have one of the coolest jobs on the face of the earth and it affords me a ton of opportunities and plenty of cool travel and things to do. Who am I to be bummed? (And did I tell you about my shoes!!! Diane Von Firstenberg… gold… to channel the Emmy gods. They did not work… but, they looked good.)After the Emmys we went out for a few drinks and snacks and then Peter and I turned into pumpkins to relieve our babysitter back at the hotel.

The next morning, we all got up bright and early and grabbed some Starbucks as we made out way to Central Park. Eva and I planned to take Peter on a carriage ride through Central Park for Father’s Day… and it was special! I highly reccomend it… its just one of those quintessential New York Experiences. It cost me $40 and the ride was around 20 minutes. At the end of the 20 minutes you are really done and ready to walk on your own.

After the ride, we took Eva into the park to ride the carousel. Another true NY experience.. and I am so glad that she is getting these opportunities to experience New York.

After a bit more playtime, we decided to walk over to 74th street for a little pizza at Patsy’s on the upper west side. We love this place because it has great pizza and it is family friendly. (Translation… big enough to sit at a table and enjoy some air conditioning and a clean bathroom) We ordered a yummy cheese pizza that came bubbly with fresh mozzarella and dark green basil leaves. Peter and I ate the entire thing… what did I care? The Emmys were yesterday!

That night we met my Uncle Art, Aunt Jill and cousins Melissa and Adam for dinner to celebrate HER Emmy win! Yes, my cousin’s show beat MY show in the Special Class category. She works on MADE and I have to say… its a great show. If you have not seen it… check it out on MTV. We all met at TAO on 58th between Park and Madison. I have to say… YUM-mmm-MY! I think we ordered EVRYTHING on the menu! The girls all ordered Lychee Martinis which were awesome. We also had … well, seriously everything. We ordered a ton of food and not one bite was not delish. I highly reccomend it. Another great part about Tao is the ambiance. This place is just huge and Eva loved watching the fish in the koi pond under the giant buddha in the back of the place. Just amazing… and totally worth the splurge.

The next morning, we took the subway up to 77th Street and took a walk over to EAT on Madison. This cafe is new from the owners of Zabars on the upper west side and for our last meal in NYC… we wanted real home cooking … Long Island Jewish Princess style! I ordered bagels lox and cream cheese that cost me $24! Peter had blintzes and we took a couple of cookies home with us (including the best cookie in the world… the black and white). My bagel came with a side order of cucmbers in a dill dressing that were so fresh and yummy… I almost forgot that I was eating a $24 bagel!!

We decided to walk back to the hotel and we stopped into my favorite hotel for a sniff of the good life. When we walked in, we found that they have a Madeline Brunch for kids every Sunday morning in Bemelman’s Bar! Bemelman’s is named after the artist who drew Madeline and Eva has one of the videos and she just loves her! So, we made a point of stopping in to see what was going on. The place was empty… but they had a woman playing kids songs on a piano and they had a full brunch display with a cupcake bar! Very fun and it will definitely be on my list for our next Sunday in New York.

On our way out of the city that afternoon, Eva said to us from the backseat of the car… “Mommy and Daddy, are we going to the big city now?”, and we replied, “This is the big city, Ev. We are going home now.” To which she replied, ” I want to stay in the big city!” That’s my kid.

LOri Rothschild Ansaldi is an Executive Producer for the Travel Channel.

New York and an Inn Keeper Named Fergus

I arrived at the gate for my flight to NY with time to spare. So, I grabbed a coffee and headed back over to the gate to wait to board my flight. About 10 minutes before were supposed to take off, they announced that the flight was cancelled and that we were all being re booked on the very next flight to NY in an hour. Here’s my question… Why? The weather was clear… the crew was on board and the plane was there are ready to take off. Do you think they gave an explanation? Nope… they just said sorry. Well, thanks Delta. So, I sat my butt in a chair at the gate and went to work rearranging my morning schedule.

I arrived in New York THREE hours later (yup… another delay on the runway) and I took a cab to downtown Manhattan to meet up with the Passport team at their office. I was really excited to meet with the other producers because today was the day that we were going to see the new Samantha Brown in her new series called Great Weekends. We have all been working really hard on our new prime time look and I could not wait to sit in an edit suite to see the first batch of footage from our Miami shoot. I am not going to give too much away here… but, even if you are a huge Sam Brown fan.. this is going to feel all new to you. Really exciting stuff.

I really love ordering lunch while I am working with this team because they have a great local deli to order from and we SWEAR that they add crack to their food. Its addictive and delish! Its called Columbine and it has some really good soups, salads and sandwiches. I always order the turkey sandwich because their turkey is roasted and juicy fresh. Its that kind of turkey sandwich that you dream of as your mom is baking the Thanksgiving day bird. You just imagine a nice roast turkey hero with a little leftover stuffing, cranberry and some drippings from the pan. Ummmmmmmm.

After the meeting, I headed to the Upper West Side to check into my lodgings for this trip. I was really not in the mood to check into an overpriced stale hotel. I wanted something that made me feel like I was back home… not on a business trip. So, I rented an apartment! Sound impossible? Its easy… and its CHEAP! There are plenty of rentals in the city and I chose one on the Upper West Side on 77th Street. It is called Country Inn the City and you can find more information on it at http://www.countryinnthecity.com

When I arrived, there was a sticky on the door of the building that looked like an old brownstone in the middle of the street. The sticky had my name on it and it said to ring the buzzer for apartment 5 when I arrived. So, I buzzed apartment 5 and a burly guy came bounding down the stairs. This was Fergus, the keeper of the Inn. I could not place his accent… but, it sounded British (don’t hold me to it tho…) His breath had the distinct smell of Listerine and he had beads of sweat on his brow…. and I was about to realize why. This building is a walk-up (translation: NO ELEVATOR) So, Fergus grabbed my 50 lb bag (we already discussed my packing issue in previous blogs… keep up) and we headed up to the 4th floor to apartment #6.

The building is very nice and has an old English B&B feel to it. It has cranberry walls with dark woods and hints of forest green. Kind of charming… kind of stale. It almost felt like a B&B you would find in Vermont or New Hampshire during a ski weekend. It felt warm… but, odd. Definitely not a 5-star … but I was looking for something different, right? Now, the moose head on the wall… was a little freaky. I am not into dead animals on walls. Just not for me.

Fergus lead me into the apartment which was a studio with a small kitchen, bathroom and sitting area that was also a bedroom area. It also had a huge walk-in closet and it just had a lot of living space. The coolest feature of this apartment is that it has an outside terrace that would be great in the spring and summer.

The apartment was nicely outfitted. The kitchen had a small fridge, stove top, microwave, coffee maker, toaster and all sorts of pots, pans and dishes to use. Fergus even left some milk, coffee, butter and jam in the fridge to get me started. He also left me a beautiful big bowl of fresh fruit… which I loved.

The linens were all clean and fresh and had a nice smell of being freshly laundered. The room also had a nice TV with satellite and FREE wifi! Are you ready for the price? $250 per night! AND this is in the high range! Fergus usually can go a lot cheaper on the rate depending on the demand for the apartments. Just for the record… the average daily rate of a NY hotel on the Upper West Side in March… $350.00. That is a $100 savings per night… and I did not have to pay all of the random fees that end up on your bill. Like did you ever see a Javitz Center tax on your bill? What the hell is that?

That night, I met a friend at Bettola – a small Italian cafe on Amsterdam Avenue (sebastianoitaliano.com). I found this to be a charming little place that was really relaxed and warm. They had a brick oven pizza stove at the back of the restaurant which just made the whole place feel cozy. We decided to share a salad with grilled calamari and a white pizza with mushrooms and truffle oil. The crust on that pizza was super thin and crunchy. Just perfect and a total find if you are up in that neighborhood.

After dinner, I walked over to Fairway, one of the local grocery stores to get some food for my apartment. I just picked up some yogurts, bottles of water, ice cream (again… hubby is reading this and knows me too well) and some other snacks so that I could stay healthy and not have to run out to the deli in the morning.

The next morning, I took the #1 train down to 42nd street to attend the Travel Channel Academy (see blog below…) In the afternoon, we had a shooting assignment so I went back up to the upper west side to shoot at Zabars. I love Zabars because it just reminds me of home. They have the best coffee and I just LOVE their chocolate babka and mashugana cookies. So, it was great to spend the day there with their staff. I even had the opportunity to meet Mr. Zabar himself. It was great.

I stopped in at the Zabars cafe for lunch and I ate at the bar in the middle of the place. It was great to sit between an old woman eating a white fish salad sandwich and a guy next to me with a cup of coffee and a rugalah cookie. I love that. After the shoot, I went back to the class where I almost cried (see blog #1) and then I trekked back up to the apartment to sulk and eat ice cream in my pajamas.

The next morning, I hustled my ass back downtown to start editing the piece of shit footage I shot at Zabars the day before. I edited all day and by the time 7pm rolled around, I was ready to go out and have a drink. So, I met my friend David out at the SOHO Club. This is a club in the city where you have to be invited and escorted by a member just to walk in the door (www.sohohouseny.com). David is a big shot up at the History Channel… so, he is a member. Oh, this was perfect and certainly what I needed after not having a hotel staff to serve me after a long day. All I had was Fergus and the road kill hanging on the wall. Yuk. I realized that all this girl needs is to feel a bit fabulous and I recover rather quickly.

After our drinks, I decided to meet another friend out for some dinner at Lupa (see blog #1 – where I refer to the crazy ass menu). It was fine and after dinner we wandered over the Red Lion on Bleeker (151 Bleeker Street) to watch the NY meatheads pick up chicks. I love a Friday night in NY. There is really nothing more entertaining. Well… that was before Saturday night.

The next morning, I walked over to H&H Bagles which is arguably the best bagel shop in all of Manhattan (hhbagels.com) The best part of H&H is the fact that all they do is bagels. They do not put a drop of cream cheese… they do not butter. They just hand you a fresh warm bagel and it is delicious. I chose a sesame bagel and a water and jumped in a cab for another day at the Travel Channel Academy.

Today was another shoot day for us and I ended up documenting my cousins monthly color and cut out in Hoboken. (God, the more I write about that… the more god awful it sounds.) Anyway, after I pretended to make art… I hopped back on the bus for the 10 minute ride back to the city. I was anxious to get back to the class to start digitizing my new footage.

That night, I was meeting friends out at Koi at the Bryant Park Hotel. I was trying to recreate the religious experience I had at the LA version of this sushi heaven. I ordered the exact same meal and I have to say… it was more like purgatory than heaven. It was trying to be that meal… and it just never made it. The best part was the cosmos with ciroc vodka. Just the perfect mix… and they went down nice and easy… which made my 9am class in the morning almost deadly.

Oh, wait for the next blog where I sleep at the Embassy Suites in Philly… where they are cleaning asbestos out of the building. Ummm… what?

*L*

LOri Rothschild Ansaldi is an Executive Producer for the Travel Channel.

Sleeping off the Travel Channel Academy

Sometimes I forget why I am in this business. I never get the butterflies anymore when I am on a shoot and I never feel like a rockstar when I am wearing a headset and watching a monitor while on set. I just do it and think about the next shot… the next line… what I am going to eat for dinner. Then, something happens that makes the hair on my neck (I have a few short strands there FYI…) stand on end and shows me how lucky I am to do what I do for a living. This past week I was fortunate enough to be invited to take a class called the Travel Channel Academy up in NY. Yes, I have some travel tales to tell… my Delta shuttle flight was cancelled on the way up and I chose to rent an apartment instead of stay at a hotel. I’ll get to all of that. The big story here was the Academy and if you are reading this blog… I URGE you to go sign up and take the class. It was that good. Of course you all know that I work for Travel Channel and you probably think I am just saying this because I work for them and I get some kind of kickback. Well, for the record… I don’t. I suck at sales and I am just telling you so that you have the opportunity to check it out. If you decide that it is not for you… well, that’s better for me because then I can submit my films and I will get paid and you will just go back to whatever it is that you do. OK… that’s the end of the rant. The class is run by Rosenblum Associates; a NY based production company who produced a ton of programs for Discovery and other nets. The guy who teaches the seminar is Rosenblum himself… Michael Rosenblum and he might just be the most fascinating character I have ever met. He’s a short Jewish man…maybe from Queens who dresses in all black – head to toe. Even his Prada glasses are black rimmed. He talks with a thick NY accent that reminds of a guy that I dated from Brooklyn. (Note to self… husband is a subscriber… move on) Michael starts the class with a basic shooting lesson that shows any idiot how to shoot. Close up on the hands… close up on the face… wide shot… over the shoulder and then from the side. Sounded like a simple assignment… so, I was psyched to get out into the city and shoot my first film with my little HD handycam. I went to Zabars on the upper west side and went to work. I scouted the place for like 20 minutes. I then chatted with the managers, talked to some butchers, a few fish mongers… the girl who packed the cheese. This was going to be a great piece. So, I took a break for lunch and created my shot list. Two hours later… close up on the hands, close up on the face… I was done and I was excited to bring my footage back to show Michael and the rest of the class what an Executive Producer can shoot all by herself. I went back to the class and we all started screening the student’s footage. Most of the footage was great…some a little shaky… but all in all… not bad for first timers. Then, it came time to screen my footage and I was so proud to show Michael my stunning footage. Twenty seconds into the screening Michael stopped the tape and channeled his inner Simon Cowell and said. (I will never forget the words)… “You do this for a living, right?” I nodded. He continued, “Well, its not bad… but its not good. Its a little raggedy. Its too shaky and it just looks amateur.” I started to feel a lump in my throat and knew that I was the face of the very network that was running this class… my inner voice began to chant DO NOT CRY… DO NOT CRY. After the screening some of us decided to go back out for a reshoot. So, I grabbed my camera and took the 1 train back up to the upper west side. I went right back to Zabars and just started shooting. Close up on the hands… close up on the face. No, No… its not good enough. I know, I will just shoot something else. So, I went across the street to a diner. I told them that I was from the Travel Channel and they all looked at me like I was NUTS. So, I went to a dance studio who had an 8pm salsa class. That would be great. I spoke to the owner and she asked that I come back at another time when she could have her hair colored. No go. No close up on the hands… No close up on the face. So, I put my Executive Producer business card away and took my sorry ass to Fairway and picked up some salad for dinner. (And ice cream… again, the hubby is reading this and knows me too well.) The next morning, I went back to class determined to make Michael see my shining talent. I started editing my piece and all in all it was not too bad. It was not my best work… but, I managed to make a weak chicken salad out of chicken shit. That night I met my friend Kelly out at Lupa downtown for dinner. Lupa is a Batali restaurant and it was jam packed! The food was nice… a bit too earnest of a menu. They had beets as an appetizer and there was far too many bizarre choices for an Italian restaurant. I ended up asking our waitress for a recommendation and she told us to order the octopus, the sweet breads and she absolutely loved the tripe. Eww.. no bitch… I’ll stick with the fresh pasta with the pulled pork ragu and skip the nastys. All in all.. it was all very good and worth a try if you want something less pretentious then Babbo. The next day I was back at the class and Michael had another lecture for us. Now we were going to shoot characters. We had to have real people as the focus of our short films that will be submitted to the network as our “graduation videos.” Not too hard… more close up on the hands, close up on the face… but, now we had to put action into the shots. When you take the class you will get the lecture. I cannot get into detail in the blog. At around noon, we all took to the rainy streets of Manhattan to start shooting our second piece. My first idea was to shoot with a NY cabbie. I would sit with one cabbie for a couple of hours and just get the story. Then, I had this image of the couple at the very beginning of that movie the bone collector. They grabbed a cab on their way home from the airport one night back to NY and I think they were both chopped into little tiny pieces. So, I abandoned the cab idea and called my cousin who lives in Hoboken. She was going to get her hair done today… perfect… I’ll do my piece of her getting her hair done. She is a 26 year old casting director for MTV… she would be a great character. I took bus 126 out of Port Authority and in 10 minutes was out in Hoboken, New Jersey. Eww. But, it was fine. I met her at the salon and we started shooting. Close up on the hands… close up on the face. Ok… now I am cooking. No shaky cam… read through all of my class notes. I was going to get this right. After about 3 hours of documenting her color and cut; I jumped back on the bus to start digitizing the footage. I worked for about 2 hours and then decided that I needed some rest. I needed to walk away and come back in the morning to finish it. The next morning, I went back to class and started editing. We only had until 3pm and then we were going to screen the final videos. I worked right up to the deadline and just took to my seat to wait to be creamed by Michael. He went through the videos one by one and I was beginning to squirm. I was not thrilled with my finished product… I should have stuck with the cabbie. Why did I not trust my first instinct? Oh, well… Finally it was my film to be screened and it was fine. Most of the class laughed on cue and overall it was fine. Was it art? Not by a long shot… I was upset that I was not the teachers pet. Oh well… not this time, Lori. After the class ended, I jumped into the black sudan that was ordered by my company to take me to the airport. I looked like an EP.. but I felt like a film student. I could not wait to purchase my own mini-DV cam and MAC to practice my new craft. The butterflies came back and I felt an inspiration that I had not felt in a long time. That all said, I am now dedicating myself to working on these videos. I will post them when they are ready so that you can see for yourself… close up on the hands, close up on the face. More tomorrow. Lori

LOri Rothschild Ansaldi is an Executive Producer for the Travel Channel.