LUFT GANGSTER==>A

Thursday==>Wednesday was another extraordinary day for your favorite blogger here in The Big Apple, The Greatest City In The World.

At around 5:30pm, as directed/ordered, I met up with my theater-buddies Dian Crystal aka My Lady and Marty Kosarik aka Whatever outside the Shubert Theater on West 44th Street. Why was I there?

Well, My Lady and Whatever were attempting to score lottery tickets to the evening’s performance of the well-received Broadway musical MATILDA and they wanted me to participate in order to increase their odds of scoring 2 tickets. I had no choice but to agree.

A very limited number of tickets were to be made available, around 20-25, I think. These are not free tickets, just discounted tickets.

You sign up for a max. of 2 tickets between 5:30 and 6:00 and then at 6:00 the drawing begins. It was CLEARLY understood that if I won I would give my two tickets to them. I had already booked a show for the evening.

Needless-to-say ... there was a large crowd of mega-charged theater nuts, as you can see from the picture.

Well ... long story short ... we didn’t make it. Bummer.

Oh well ... we had alternate plans. We walked over to West 47th Street to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant, Meske, where we were seated at our favorite table.

As usual, we ordered our favorite meal, the Vegetarian Plate, and it was great. We were all in need of a Meske fix. The meal and conversations were great.

When dinner was over we split. My Lady and Whatever headed back to The Theater District where they were able to score free tickets to a performance of THE NANCE, starring Nathan Lane, which was being taped for a later PBS showing.

I headed down to my show at the Abingdon Theatre Complex on West 36th Street ...

LUFT GANGSTER, based on a true story about an American airman planning his escape from the hellish conditions in a German POW camp, Stalag Luft VI==>A

As a point of reference, “Luft Gangster” is the phrase Joseph Goebbels created as propaganda to convince the German people that all American flyers were actual criminals who were released from prison by the United States government in order to fight in World War II.

The show is extremely well acted, especially by the playwright, Lowell Byers, in the lead role of Lou.

As might be expected the story line is very disturbing and highly emotional. Trust me ... it is not for the squeamish.

It is performed in a very small space and the actors are often just inches away from the audience and that adds to the impact of the horrors of being a POW.

The show is directed by the legendary Austin Pendleton, who was in the sold-out audience. When the show was over I went up to him and told him what a great job he had done and he gave me a rather unexpected hug.

The show is playing at the Abingdon Theatre Complex on West 36th Street, has a running time of 1:40, with an intermission, and runs through August 24th.

Billi Pod says==>take a deep breath and then see this show.

Now ... speaking of taking a deep breath ... tonight’s entertainment event is an Off Broadway show that has just opened to basically unfavorable reviews ...

8:00==>EINSTEIN - “The life, times, struggles, genius and flaws of the scientific icon.” (Off Broadway - complimentary ticket)

This show is playing at The Theater at St. Clements on W 46th Street, has a running time of almost 3 hours, with intermission, and runs through August 25th.

As I said, it has received basically scathing, nasty and dismissive reviews, including Marty aka Whatever.

Oh well ... we will just have to see, won’t we?

Now, on to some sports ...

Last night out at Yankee Stadium, The House That Greed And Ego Built, The Bronx Bombers put on another ass-kicking as they beat the Angels by a score of 11-3.

Alfonso Soriano, a day after hitting 2 HRs for a career-high 6 RBIs, had another AWESOME day, hitting a grand slam in the lst inning and then another HR, for 7 RBIs. Ivan Nova pitched a decent game for the win.

This afternoon at 1:05pm is the final game of the 4-game series. On the mound for the surging Bombers will be the anything-but-surging Phil Hughes (4-11) vs. C.J. Wilson (12-6).

SPOILER ALERT==>After this afternoon’s game The Yankees head up to Boston to begin a 3-game series against the Boston FuckSox in that fetid cesspool known as Fenway Park. The schedule is ...

Friday @ 7:10pm

Saturday @ 4:05pm

Sunday @ 8:05pm (ESPN)

Billi Pod will remain in the confines of PHC to watch each of these games because the outcome of the season largely rests on the results of this series.

On this happy note ...

Yesterday’s Pedometer mileage==>3.96 miles (or, 8,663 steps)

Total mileage since 7/1/13==>162.73 miles (average 3.62 miles per day)

GO YANKEES!!

Billi Pod

“Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”