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29
Jan

Attending the Daily Show

By Darragh|Internship, New York, Travel|Be the first to comment!

Jon Stewart. Scourge of the Republican Party. Hero to pretty much everyone else. He’s a nice guy really.

Anyhow, he films his popular ‘Daily Show‘ in New York City and myself and my two interning buddies, Lisa and Ben, got the opportunity to go along to a filming. Tickets are notoriously hard to come by and are usually booked out several months in advance, but every so often people cancel, thus opening space for less organised people like myself to grab the opportunity to go along.

Still, getting a ticket does not guarantee a place in the the audience. One must line up outside the studio well in advance in order to achieve any certainty. So there we were – all three of us, lining up at 3.30pm in the west side of Manhatten on the coldest day since I’ve got to New York in order to get into the audience. But it was worth it – we got in.

They sit you down and let a random comedian warm you up for about 15 minutes before the filming starts. Luckily we got someone very amusing, a guy who described himself as a ‘fat Val Kilmer’ (quite accurate). I think his name was Peter. Someone in the crowd was unfortunate enough to come from Dickshills, Long Island. You can imagine what this Peter guy made of that location.

Jon Stewart then comes out to do some Q&A with the crowd. No sooner than he is out than people are firing questions at him. One guy asked if it was accurate to compare Bush to Darth Vadar and Cheney to Darth Sidious. Stewart then proceeded to give an extended history of Star Wars, talking about how Sidious’s master, Darth Plagueis had discovered the secret of immortality only to be struck down by his apprentice in his sleep and the irony that engendered.

“Bet you didn’t think I was that nerdy. Hell I even know the shit that happens AFTER the movies” – Jon Stewart.

I was pretty blown away by Stewart’s knowledge of Star Wars.

Another person asked Stewart if he plans to retire, give his show to Steven Colbert, then come and take it back years later, a clear reference to the Leno-O’Brien late night tv saga.

Obama’s State of the Union address had been the previous night, providing the Daily Show team with a lot of opportunities for joke-making. He also had on Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Nobel prize winning presidential historian. I’m not going to go into detailed specifics of the rest of the show, but the bit on the Republican’s version of the State of the Union was classic. It was interesting to note that there was little retakes of ‘bits’. They decided to reshoot the opening, removing a joke regarding Jessica Simpson farting during a business meeting but that was it – it was all done at a blistering pace.

I believe you can view the entire episode here for a brief time.

Stewart is a charismatic guy. He came out and thanked the crowd before departing, leaving everyone with big happy grins. My friends and I left, back into the bitterly cold night for some ethiopian food (which was an experience in itself) and a few drinks.

22
Jan

Bringing Back the Hoff

By Darragh|General|Be the first to comment!

My father is occasionally known for some fairly random but hilarious behaviour. I’ve made it an occasional hobby of mine to document some of his more inventive brain snaps, but not currently being in the country at the moment, I must rely on my siblings to provide with dad’s unique brand of comedy gold. The following, edited, message is courtesy of my sister, Phay.

“So i walk outside today to notice dad down on his hands and knees acid washing the tiles around the house, wearing a blue-mesh headpiece similar to what I’ve seen a few days earlier lying about the kitchen used to protect the collected mangoes from bruising – only to find that the bag really was one of the bags used to collect the mangoes.”

Oh, but it gets better.

“Dad then began to get up off his feet for me then to notice him wearing a white shirt with the disfigured face of David Hasslehoff on the front. He turned around, revealing the the back of the shirt which was adorned with the phrase ‘BRING BACK THE HOFF’ in giant letters. Ahhh the life of dear old Toshy boy.”

To clarify, this shirt was actually a shirt that I had owned for a charity fun run a few years back, that I thought I had thrown out. I think Dad may have gone lurking in the the bin for this gem.


Not quite the shirt worn by my father, but you get the idea

To be honest, I suspect he might do it on purpose occasionally, but man, I had to share this one with the world.

22
Jan

I’m now an United Nations Intern

By Darragh|Travel, United Nations, University|15 Comments


Annoying Australian allowed into the UN general assembly

It has been a hectic few days for me in the Big Apple. I’ve started my internship with the United Nations and I’m already in the thick of it. I’m working in Peacekeeping with some awesome people and I’m glad my meager skills can contribute to something that is of worldwide importance. I’m also glad that I have plenty to do because there is no risk I’ll get bored. I’m not at the secretariat building (you know the famous one that everyone knows about) but closer to Grand Central station in midtown east. I believe my section might be near the security or disarmament guys. I note a lot of example landmines on display, which is quite interesting.


My UQ colleague Fanney (also a UN intern) and myself at our orientation session

I’ve only been in the internship a few days, but we’ve done an orientation session, organised some intern activity committees and had a few social outings with my fellow interns. Orientation was interesting – we were addressed by Gillian Sorenson, senior advisor to the United Nations foundations and former assistant secretary general for external relations during Kofi Annan’s tenure as Secretary-General, as well as Anita Sharma, the North American coordinator for the UN Millennium Campaign. I’ve joined the newsletter and sports committees (naturally) and there looks to be some great little activities being organised. There are about 200 of us, so there is always something interesting planned.

Today I got my free tour of the UN secretariat building which also took in a walk through the general assembly and other interesting little exhibits.


AK-Stratocaster

I’ve sorted my accommodation. After a brief stint in Long Island City with the awesome Gabe and Jade, I’ve moved ever so slightly closer to the UN building. I’ll be moving to midtown in a few weeks but for the meantime I’m staying in a Catholic German Men’s Guesthouse in the Upper East Side. The rent is affordable and I get a free meal a day. Sure, it might be operated by some people who may or may not have inspired the character of Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers, but overall, I’m pretty happy here.


Managed to grab a shot with Ban-Ki inside the UN Secretariat.

I’m thinking of hitting up some central park ice skating this weekend, followed by a gig in Brooklyn. I note White Rabbits are playing, which is a band I’d be interested in checking out. Helps that it only cost $15!!

More…..soon.

18
Jan

Gooner Unleashed In New York

By Darragh|Arsenal, Internship, Travel|1 Comment

I know, I know. Posting the minutiae of my daily life can get a little bit tedious, but this is my blog and I can do whatever the hell I want, OK?

Most know that I’m fairly obsessive about Arsenal football club. If Arsenal lose, that immediately ruins my day. I try and watch as many matches as possible, and while I was living back in Dutton Park with my similarly obsessed house mates, I could regularly feed my addiction through cable tv coupled with the occasional late night trip to the Pig and Whistle to watch the games in the company of other fans.

Of course, one of the first thing I did when I got to New York was to seek out a place to watch football. And in Nevada Smiths, I have found the perfect place. Along with another fellow intern – a Bolton supporter (poor guy! ha!) – I went and watched Arsenal beat Bolton 2-0 at the Reebok at 11am in the morning. A few pints blurred my vision, but it was well worth it. The bar had a great atmosphere with much singing and chanting, much like you’d hear at an Arsenal pub in North London. Though, this is a football pub so many teams were represented – Villa, West Ham, AC Milan. I’d expect I’d be there every weekend from now until I return to Australia.

Anyway, work officially begins tomorrow. I’ve found permanent accommodation. Exciting times.

15
Jan

NYC: Day One.

By Darragh|Internship, Travel|2 Comments


The League of Nations United Nations Building

Good afternoon. A quick blog to let you know that I am alive, despite what was a hellish commute to New York City. By the time I emerged from JFK airport, I resembled Homer Simpson when he runs the Springfield marathon in that episode way back years ago. Big up to customs official ‘Mendoza’ for letting me into the country. I promise to be good.

I arrived at Jade and Gabe’s awesome apartment in Long Island City, which has great views on midtown Manhatten. I can see the UN builing, Chrysler Building and Empire State from their apartment. Awesome of them to put me up for a few days!


Long Island City – the place to be!

Despite hellish jetlag, I managed to do a bit of a tour of midtown east, taking in St Paddy’s Cathedral, Trump World Building, the UN building, Chrysler Building, New York Public Library. I wandered past the Empire State but due to my annoying sense of vertigo, I dare not go up there. Its bad, even the view from Mt Cooth-tha in Brisbane freaks me out.

I’m going to have a small kip before going to check out some apartments. I have a US ‘cell’ number now, which you can see on my facebook profile if you feel you want to text me (Mum, if you’re readin this, there is no need to text me things like “hi son, I’m on a bus, love mammy” – while I’m glad you’ve finally learned how to use SMS, I do not require to know your proficiency of Brisbane public transport, though I appreciate the thought, nor do I need to be woken up by such statements, there is 15 hours difference here).

Anyway, enough of my pointless rambling, it is sleep time.

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