Hobnobbing with the Emmy Nominee

PART I - A Night at the Emmy’s

It’s hard to describe the hype and excitement in NYC around Emmy time. Many other Emmy nominees were staying in our hotel, and so everyone was talking Emmy buzz, and we must say—we were ready to see Brad accept that Emmy trophy. We watched trailers of the competition and we (proud parents) thought our son had done as well as any of them and better than most of them. But win or lose, it was the adventure of a lifetime.

Quoting Brad from one of the many news articles about Brad,

“They were honoring Walter Cronkite, Don Hewitt and Barbara Walters,” Barber said. “There were several times I did something of a mental double-take about my even being on the same program as those folks.”

That’s pretty much how we felt: A huge privilege and opportunity to be among the talented and famous, and know that our son’s work was being voted on along with theirs.

The two-hour reception and dinner was only slightly hampered by the butterflies in our stomachs. The actual Emmy Program moved quickly through the three hours. Attending these things in person with no commercial breaks is much more interesting. The 30th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards ceremony was held at the Rose Theater, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th St.

Leaving hotel for the Emmys

Checking in at the Rose Theater

Brad at the dinner

"Resolved" Editors - Brad, Greg, and Tom

At the Emmy presentations

Leaving the Emmys with gift bag

PART II – Seeing New York City

Time with our son in NYC was filled with lots of walking, lots of subway rides, lots of sight-seeing, lots of great food, treats, and long talks. A few highlights:

--Limo service at the airport

--Staying at the Six Columbus Thompson Hotel
--Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge into the City
--Viewing the World Trade Center construction site (Ground Zero)
--Pizza at Lombardi’s
--Momofuku Bakery and Milk Bar
--Dylan’s Candy Bar
--Dinner at Joe G’s Ristorante Italiano
--Chinese at Szechuan Gourmet
--MoMA
--Dinner in the Times Warner Building at Bouchon Bakery
--Discovering “Tasti-D-Lite” is a wonderful place for a midnight treat
--Sitting on benches by the fountains in the center of Columbus Circle
--Scrumptious room service breakfast
--Walking up and down Broadway many times, seeing the billboards, but not seeing a play
-- Being at the Today show: Smiling, waving, and showing a sign we made at the last minute—anyone see us? We were on at about 9 a.m. on Monday, September 21.
--Rockefeller Center, Time Square, Grand Central Station, etc.
--Walks and Carriage Ride through Central Park
--Shopping at F.A.O. Schwarz
--New York City Public Library (started in 1895 and formerly dedicated in 1911)
--Mom and Brad’s midnight talks on the roof of our hotel (sub for talking couch)
--Eating at Whole Foods
--Watching the filming of a segment of CSINY (alarming to see a man with a gun pointed at two pretend policemen who also had guns pointing at the man)
--Seeing the Regis and Kelly studio
-- Attending church and the Manhattan Temple

Ground Zero

Brooklyn Bridge

Lombardi's Pizza

F.A.O. Schwarz

Momofuku's Bakery

Columbus Circle

Our Hotel

Manhattan Temple/Church Building

Rockefeller Center

Ann Curry right before she gave Sharlene a hug

The studio

Central Park Carriage Ride