Helen's DaveCon 2003
Trip Report
Part I: Burning Time Before the Big Show
This was my fourth trip to see a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman with some friends from alt.fan.letterman, as well as my fourth trip to New York City. Months in advance, Renee arranged for group tickets for Monday, June 16. Traci handled all the leg work of inviting people, keeping track of who was coming, planning a big get-together at McGee's, and so forth. By complete luck, we would be attending Late Show #2000, which we found out when they announced there would be a guest host on Friday; otherwise, we'd have missed it by one. My original Show #2000 prediction was May 8, which ended up being way off as a result of Dave's bout with the shingles. Well, I may have lost the pool, but I'd be there in person for Show #2000. How cool is that? Hillary Clinton was the scheduled guest for the evening, and according to the website, there was also supposed to be a 5-year-old bowler. Of course, I was mainly going to see Dave, but an especially good (or bad) guest can make the show extra fun.
For logistical reasons, there wasn't going to be a "chick party" this year, and it didn't look like much else was going on over the weekend. I checked the schedules for the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center, and couldn't find anything I was interested in on Saturday or Sunday, and I also didn't want to take a lot of time away from work. So, I decided to make it a quick trip this time. I'd be taking the crack of dawn flight out of Burlington on Monday morning, and returning Wednesday afternoon, in time to make it to band rehearsal Wednesday evening.
Sunday evening, in between doing laundry, packing, checking in and printing my boarding pass via the USAirways website, I popped in on AFL a few times, and found the place deader than a doornail. It looked like half the regulars were already totally out of town. I got to bed around midnight, slept fitfully--I'm always anxious and excited the night before a trip--and swore when the alarm clock went off at 4:40 a.m. I was in the car by around 5:20 or so, and at the airport by 6:00, a good 45 minutes before my departure time.
I had assigned myself a window seat on the left side of the plane, so I had a nice view of the mountains as we headed south. The flight was uneventful, save for some unusual in-flight announcements. Turns out the USAirways crews have developed a wacky sense of humor since the last time I flew. For example, on both the flight down and the return trip--two different crews, mind you--someone in the cockpit came over the PA to welcome us aboard flight number whatever, service aboard a Boeing 747. Um...I was actually aboard a Haviland Dash 8 turboprop. On the flight down they claimed we were traveling at half the speed of sound (that's about 371 mph, which might be possible but sounds a little high); on the way back they had us travelling at Mach 2, which completely cracked me up. It's just very, very odd that they would screw around like that, and it made me question everything else that they said. Cruising altitude 14,000 feet, truth or BS?
Anyhow, I got into Laguardia around 8:15, and grabbed a cab into midtown. The highlight of the ride was when my cabbie ran a light and nearly took out a bicyclist; when he saw me smirking in the rearview mirror, he started making excuses, explaining that he would have gotten a ticket if he had stopped for the light and blocked the intersection. Uh-huh. Maybe try not entering the intersection in the first place when the light is changing? Just a thought.
I made it to the hotel (Best Western President, 48th and Broadway) a little after 9:00 a.m. They didn't have a room for me yet, and told me to come back around noon. While I was there, we took care of the paperwork, which included warning me about the phone rates: $9.75 per minute for toll calls. Yikes-a-hooty. That all taken care of, I checked my bag, and went out for a walk.
This is the part of the trip that I don't particularly care for, the waiting around burning time until it's time to meet up with everyone. I walked up past Rupert's and the Ed to see if anyone was around yet (no, though I did see one of the Stangels arriving for work, and some people unloading guitars and things from a truck), then I found a phone booth to give Traci a call at her cell number. I had a free 30-minute phone card with me (a gift from my bank), and when I went to use it I was immediately charged a three "unit" surcharge for using a payphone. Excuse me? At the end of the call, the card was down to 22 "units" remaining. Rip City.
Well, Traci was down at Rona's, and expected to get to the Chili Club where we were all meeting by around noon or so. Meanwhile, she suggested that I try to raise Brady, who was staying at my hotel. After hanging up, I realized I did not have the slightest idea of Brady's last name. I imagined a preposterous conversation at the hotel desk. "Could you connect me to a guest? He's a friend of mine, his name is Brady. No, that's his first name. His screen name is Waterclock. I don't know his last name. No, really, he's a friend." Well, so much for that.
So, I walked down through Times Square, to Herald Square, Golda Meir Square, I forget what other squares. It was a beautiful day for a walk, and it's always fun just to watch all the different people going by. Eventually it hit me that I had had about four hours sleep and could really use a nap, but I was temporarily homeless, so instead I found a place to sit for a while and had a chocolate chip cookie. If you can't sleep, eat.
I got back up to the hotel around 11:00, an hour earlier than they had told me, but fortunately my room was ready. I reclaimed by bag, tipping the guy $2 (is that enough? I'm never sure about these things), and got settled in my room. Then I headed up to the vicinity of the Ed Sullivan Theater.
The first person I saw hanging around on 53rd St. was an unfamiliar bearded gentleman who greeted me name. It was AFLer Mark Leckner, who recognized me from pictures on my website. I didn't know Mark was coming; apparently he was a last minute fill-in for someone who cancelled. CathyD was at a table outside of Rupert's, so I chatted with her for a minute, then introduced her to Mark. Soon Renee, our Ticket Queen, arrived, and we all headed up to the second floor of the Chili Club to meet up with the rest of the group. Traci and some of the others were already there, and we ordered up some lunch. I was creeped out by the orange cheddar cheese on my burger. People, people, cheddar cheese is white. Dyeing it orange is just wrong.
I think there were 26 of us going to the taping. Let's see how many I can remember. Old friends Traci, Carl, Karen, Bill Lehecka, Renee, Micah (Ballodisco), Shirlee (Foxyscribe), CathyD, Marilyn, Nick (Cybergolem), Rona, Steve31416, Brady, Greg "Westerner" Donofrio, Rocco (Doinkist), Dave (aka Dake) Sikula, Ann (Malficent), Kate (Pepsi), and Cheryl Levenbrown were in attendance, along with DaveCon newcomers "N.E. Ohio" Bob Stroud, BostonBill, Ken McMonigal, the lovely and shy Kathy (Finchhen), Mark Leckner, and Renee's friend Georgina (another last minute fill-in for someone who cancelled). Counting me, that's 26; I think I got everyone. Mark Leckner, much to everyone's delight, told us he had killfiled Nick. Oh, and Brady does have a last name. It's Cox. Brady Cox.
Brad, who was not attending the show with us this year, much to my dismay, stopped in at the Chili Club, but I only got to talk to him for a second. Kathie "Kathie8" Freeman also arrived; she would not be attending the show, but was in town for the ancillary DaveCon festivities. It was great to see Kathie, who skipped out on the last two DaveCons. "NEK" (I'm forgetting his real name here, I'm thinking Bob, but I may be way off) also came to meet everyone at the Chili Club, and joined us at McGee's after the taping. Donz came to say hi and pass out CDs while we were having lunch, arriving in shockingly good time by his standards; he traditionally shows up at the exact moment the group is being led into the theater.
Meanwhile, Traci gave everyone a DaveCon2003 button, a candy necklace, and courtesy of Pat Fleet, a pair of wax lips. (Pat had overnighted a great big box of lips to Traci.) Renee passed out copies of the letter that we needed to present in order to pick up our tickets. There was an egregious it's/its mistake in the letter, by the way, so perhaps it was just as well that Pat Fleet wasn't there to see it. With everyone accounted for, at 3:00 we went over to the Ed to claim our tickets. We didn't get dots this year, but we had tickets numbered 1 through 26, and would be seated immediately behind the dotted section. Sweet.
We had a little time to kill before the show, so we hung around 53rd St. for a while, looking for staffers to pester. We talked to Pat Farmer about the recent installment of Dropping-Stuff-Off-the-Roof. Pat had a blast doing that, and took particular glee in the way the pudding splattered all over the stage manager. Pat also told us that in addition to Hillary Clinton, Roger Clemens would be on the show, and musical guest Emmylou Harris, and that there might be cake for Show #2000. Apparently the kid bowler was out. Meanwhile Traci, in an obvious suck-up move (NTTAWWT), gave Mike McIntee his own special MikeCon button, and a candy necklace and wax lips for his daughters. Traci had also made up (yes, she makes them at home) TonyCon buttons for Tony Mendez and Walter Kim. I had a scintillating three second conversation with Biff. "Hi, Biff." "Hi." Fascinating, eh?
We talked to Rupert for quite a while, mainly about the various deli games. Someone, I think it was Micah, asked Rupert to pick a male contestant for a change some time. I asked Rupert about Nadine. He said she has gone on to other things (photography, and sculpture, or something), and is not coming back. Bummer. Rupert said he misses Nadine, but at least now there is Rufé in her place. There have been several models filling in since Nadine left, so I'm not sure which one is Rufé.
Walter Kim came outside moments before we had to go line up for the show, and from talking to Walter, it sounded like we'd be making an appearance on the TMS! I had written to Tony to tell him when we were coming, and invited him to join us at McGee's after the show and was hoping he'd put us on the TMS again this year, but Tony never answers my letters, so we never know until we get there. Walter knew about the party at McGee's, and said that he and Mike and Tony would probably come. Excellent!
4:30. Time to line up for the Big Show!
Helen Read