Play Dates Read Online Free PDF Page B

“south”), then points out Central Park to our right (“designed by Frederick Law Olm-stead and Calvert Vaux in the nineteenth century”—so far, so good; she’s got that right). We stop at 72nd Street.
    “Ladies and gentlemen, if you look to your left, you’ll see the famous Dakota apartment building. Now who can tell me what happened there?”
    “They shot Rosemary’s Baby ,” I yell out, emboldened by Gayle’s tequila.
    “They shot John Lennon!” Mia screams.
    “Damn asshole did it because he was in love with Jodie Fos-ter, didn’t he?” Gayle asks loudly. “Fool didn’t even realize she was a les—”
    “And on your right, Strawberry Fields,” Kathie says, having cranked up her volume so that it drowns out Gayle’s editorial comment. She starts to lead the bus in the Lennon-McCartney classic. Gayle shoves her margarita cup into my hand and starts playing air guitar and shaking her blonde mane to and fro like she’s having a mild epileptic seizure. As we continue uptown, past the Museum of Natural History, all three of us are in tears, weeping dolefully for John.
    This maudlin display of sentiment necessitates a refill. Gayle pours another round as we motor through the 96th Street trans-verse, heading toward Fifth Avenue and the East Side. Enroute, Kathie explains that Fifth Avenue is the dividing line between the east and west sides of Manhattan. Coming out of the trans-verse, the driver makes a right on Fifth and we begin to shake, rattle, and roll down the section of the avenue known as Museum Mile.
    As we get to the Guggenheim Museum, the trouble begins.

    26
    Leslie Carroll
    “Ohhhhh, the teacup museum,” Mia sighs. “That was always my favorite, growing up. It still is, I think.”
    Mia’s much more into modern art than I am. I prefer the old masters and the Impressionists. Although, in college, I studied everything from the cave paintings at Lascaux to Andres Ser-rano’s “Piss Christ,” my taste pretty much runs out post-Picasso.
    With Mia, the weirder the better. I think she claims to admire really strange stuff just to get a rise out of people.
    “This unique building, which many people think is shaped like a giant teacup, is one of the most famous museums in the entire world,” Kathie tells the tour. “The inside is one giant spiral, just like if you started to peel an orange in one go. If you stood at the top of the ramped floor and dropped a marble, it would roll all the way down, down, down, right to the bottom!”
    “Imagine that!” Mia says.
    “The Guggenheim Museum was designed in the mid-twentieth century by Andrew Lloyd Webber—”
    Jesus Christ. Superstar . I can’t believe what I just heard.
    “Frank Lloyd Wright!” I call out, correcting her. How can she not know the name of probably the most famous American architect in the world? And she’s a tour guide for goodness sakes!
    “I didn’t know Andrew Lloyd Webber was an architect!”
    Gayle says, genuinely impressed. “When did he have the time to build it, between writing Cats and Evita and Starlight Express ?”
    “No! He didn’t,” I tell Gayle, leaning in so she can hear me.
    There’s a lot of traffic down below, a considerable amount of superfluous horn honking, and a bit of wind here on the upper deck. Our margaritas are sloshing around and I’m starting to treat my cup as if it contains some precious elixir. I’m going to be a real sight when I redeem Zoë from Jennifer Silver-Katz.
    “Oh, I’ve heard of him,” Gayle says, when I mention Frank Lloyd Wright. “He did that house in Pennsylvania . . . Running Water . . .”

    PLAY DATES
    27
    “Falling Water,” I whisper under my breath. (What can I say, I was an art history student.) “Yes, that’s the guy!” I add, clink-ing cups with Gayle.
    “You know, I did wonder about Andrew Lloyd Webber,” she says, her tone low and confidential. “Although it sounds like the inside of the museum is a real lot like the set for Starlight Express .