Mandel Takes Manhattan

This past week, I was fortunate enough to go to New York along with some of the "Reality Remix" gang including Lynn and Alex from "The Amazing Race."

Why New York? If you were able to catch some of this week's shows, you would have seen that we were able to get access to the finale party for "The Amazing Race" at CBS Black Rock and "The Apprentice 4's" finale party red carpet at Planet Hollywood in Times Square.

I had such a great time there! The last time I was in New York was about 7 or so years ago when I visited my friend Sam while he was still living out there. And even then, it was just for a day or so. This is the longest trip I had taken out there. I stayed at the Paramount Hotel on 46th near Broadway, so I was deep in the heart of Times Square.

I didn't realize how close it was to pretty much everything. Just a few blocks away was the "Good Morning America" studio. Pretty much just across the street from there were the TRL studios. WOO, Damian! Oh, sorry...got in the TRL mood there. And of course, along the street were musicals like "Fiddler on the Roof," "Mamma Mia," "The Lion King," "The Producers," just to name a few. Right across the street from my hotel were "Movin' Out" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."

As a coworker rightly predicted, I had many moments of sensory overload. I was lucky enough to have a little bit of time to do some exploring. I was literally a kid in a candy store at the Hershey's Store. The Toys R Us store was HYOOGE, to use a Trump-ism!

The shoots I oversaw for "Remix" were awesome. Lynn and Alex were our correspondents for "The Amazing Race" finale. Got to meet Phil Keoghan and chatted with many of the families including the winning Linzes (YAY!) and the Paolos, who could NOT be any sweeter. I take back anything bad I said about them earlier in my blog. After the viewing party at CBS Black Rock, we rushed over to Planet Hollywood for TARCon. I had read about past TARCons for years on Television Without Pity, but had never been able to go one. Quite an interesting mix of people. Not only were there fans, but there were also Racers from the past and present there.

Wednesday, we taped a bunch of segments with Lynn and Alex around the Big Apple for "Reality Remix's" special version of "The 12 Days of Christmas." The song will make its broadcast debut as part of our big holiday show this Friday. A version should be available online quite soon. I'll post the link when it's up.

And Thursday, Heidi Bresseler from "The Apprentice 1" served as our correspondent as we covered "The Apprentice 4's" season finale party red carpet. Got to interview all the big names from the show and even got some time to talk with George, Carolyn, and the Donald!

But that's not all that happened during my trip to NYC. I also had a bit of time to catch up with some friends while out there. My first day there I had lunch with my friend Vatnak from college whom I had not seen since we graduated! It was great hearing about many people whom I had not heard about since college. Made me realize that I need to rekindle some of those old college fires.

Wednesday night was an even bigger doozy...I got together for dinner with my friend, Ben. Now, here's the thing...Ben was one of my best friends in grade school from 1st up until about 8th grade when he left to go to another school. We lost touch with each other. He went off to Yale as I went to Harvard. And then a couple of years ago, I did some random name searching on Friendster and found his name. I dropped him a message and didn't hear back from him...until this past Thanksgiving weekend. I opened my E-mail box and there was a message from him...telling me that he lived in L.A. for two years up until recently when he moved to New York. D'oh!

But how fortuitous was it that I had a trip for work to New York not too long after? I called him up and we arranged to meet up for dinner in Chelsea Wednesday night. It was WONDERFUL. It was so great to see him after not having talked to him in 15 years. There was much to catch up and I think we covered quite a lot of ground. And judging from how great dinner went, I think we won't be having to wait another fifteen years until we see or talk with each other again. It's amazing how even with a great separation of time, one can still feel a bond with somebody.

Drew connected me with his ex, Ryan, who lives in New York. And after I was done with dinner with Ben, Ryan showed me around the Chelsea area. We went to a few bars and he was quite the awesome tour guide. Ryan, if you're reading this, thanks for SUCH a fun night! It was cool seeing Chelsea. It was hip in its own way compared to West Hollywood. The crowd also was a bit less homogeneous.

All in all, I really loved New York. This trip definitely sold me on visiting there more often. I still could never see myself living out there, but I'm not going to wait seven years until I go back there again.

Thanks to everybody who made the trip such an enjoyable one! Pics to come tomorrow!