Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Live Blogging: My Afternoon with David Blaine

So I decided to treat myself this afternoon with a visit to David Blaine's Dive of Death, taking place right now at the Wollman Rink in Central Park. I figured I could live blog the experience and bring it to you, our dozens of readers. But since I don't have an iPhone and carrying my laptop around seemed silly, I'm using the word live blogging to mean I wrote things down in my notebook and took pictures with my camera phone. (I don't own a real digital camera. Sad day)


In case you aren't up to speed you can read about his stunt here and read the many people bitching about how he's not really upside down all, or even most of, the time here and here

Read about my experience after the jump.



2:02PM: I pass by some guy blowing up giant balloons attached to a harness, presumably he's going to use them to float up in the air. Little did I know that this is so much cooler than anything Blaine is up to.


2:03PM: I arrive at the Dive of Death stage, walk through some gates with signs informing me that I may be filmed and see Blaine himself, hanging about 3 feet off the ground surrounded by 200 or so people. I get in close and try to get a picture and realize all I'm going to get is a picture of people taking pictures of him. So I commit to that. I have the option of standing in line for approximately 40-50 minutes to get a picture taken up-close with Blaine, but I quickly decide there's no way in hell that's worth it. He's just hanging there talking to fans and some DJ from a local radio station with a puppet. Yeah.



2:06PM: A nice British couple comes up to me and asks if I could take a picture of them in front of the Dive of Death sign. They say they asked another "gentleman" to do it and he took their picture with their heads cut off which they inform me is wrong because "we have heads." I take another picture for them and they ask me not to tell the other guy that I took the same picture for them. British people are awesome. 

2:08PM: All the random "We love you David!"s are kind of strangely affirming. Also, I've begun to notice that David Blaine has a disproportionate amount of hot fans. I can't even begin to speculate as to why that is. 

2:09PM: David Blaine is hoisted up and then turned right-side up to stand on a raised lift platform where a doctor checks his vitals. Also, he gets some orangey sports drink. He takes his sunglasses off so that his vision can be checked. I wonder how he keeps the sunglasses on when he's upside down.  Magic! 


2:11PM: With a blanket wrapped around him, David Blaine pees.

2:11:05PM: I call Laura to tell her that I'm watching David Blaine pee. Sadly, she doesn't answer. 

2:12PM: I get hungry and decide to go look for a hot dog.

Well that was the whole experience. Pretty spectacular I say. For those of you hungry for more Blaine, I leave you this...



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