March 1, 2003 - Scott Hand and I were both up and showered by 10 AM so we had a pretty good amount of day to work with. Quite a day it was! We took the subway into town since he lives way out in the Bronx near the last subway stop. Our destination was the Guggenheim museum near Central Park. The museum was designed by Frank Llyod Wright, one of the most modern famous architects. I was very unimpressed with the buildings interior and exterior design. The feature exhibit is The Creston. I would classify it as psycho-erotic art. The exhibit featured so many references to other things going on in other parts of the display but I couldn't really figure out what was going on, it just freaked me out. I thought some of the photos were ultra freaky. I recommend checking out the exhibit but be prepared to be freaked out. Just outside the museum Scott and I checked out Central Park. There were lots of people running and it wasn't too cold outside which was a nice change of pace. We then got back on the subway and rode towards Greenwhich Village so that I could meet up with a work contact, Jennifer. Jennifer was sick so she didn't stick around too long but she did take us to Union Square and then up to Washington Park, and back towards Union Square where she departed for her apartment on 5th Avenue. Scott and I then walked down to the Empire State Building but they wouldn't let us walk into the lobby without standing in a huge line. We didn't want to go up to the top. I wanted to take a few pictures inside but that wasn't an option without standing in line, so we went to the mall nearby. Macy's was right there too so we walked around in Macy's for a while. The sign outside saying the worlds largest store sure is right! We kept going up the escalators until we got to the 9th floor. The building is essentially an entire city block 9 stories tall, quite impressive. At this point it was time to make it up to Harlem to meet up with Mike Holman and his new girlfriend for some dinner. We ate at Max, a great Italian restaurant in Harlem. Jennifer had recommended this restaurant but she told us about the one up closer to Midtown, not the Harlem one. I loved the lasagna and also got to try Syrah for the first time (a red wine). It was very good. I may start buying Syrah rather than Merlot now. Before dinner Mike gave Scott and I a brief tour of Columbia University where he goes to school. After dinner we took the subway deeper into Harlem to see some live jazz. The music was ridiculously awesome. On top of a $3 cover and 2 drink minimum (with $5 drinks) this was shaping up into a much better music venue than last night. At one point a guy who apparently knew the band came up and borrowed a wireless mic to do some spoken improvisation with the jazz group. I was quite impressed. The night ended with a horrible mess as we took the A train over to where it met up with a cross train over to the green line and then took the green up to Scotts. This ordeal lasted over 2 hours, whereas a taxi would have taken about 20 minutes. Argh, public transportation.