Ok, So here is my summery of events from the walking tour. Before I break it down I just want to say Robin Furth is so nice, full of energy and obviously FULL of Dark Tower knowledge! She was by far the best part of the semi anti-climatic tour (Get to that later).
I woke up early Saturday morning around 5:45am to prepare for the 3.5 hour drive to NY, that will without a doubt once there will turn into a 4 hour plus drive with the bridge/tunnel traffic.
The meeting point was a Metal Gazebo in a small park (NY concrete park) on the corner of E. 47th street and 2nd at 10:15am.
I got parked in a garage very close to the meeting point right at 10:15 for a very friendly price of $25
as I was walking to the intersection I got a call from "Todd" the man in charge making sure I was arriving, and I was waiting at crosswalk to cross street. I am not sure what Todds role or actual Job was, but he was the person obviously in charge and was a very nice down to earth guy and easy to talk to.
The first instructions in the follow up email was to find a red rose by the gazebo on the instructed street corner.
Once I crossed I seen the small crowd, Robin, and Todd. Along with what was the other 18 people chosen and a few others that I later found out were working with Todd and one security guy.
I was immediately greeted by Todd, and given a real single long steamed red rose, a black carry bag and a softcover copy of the Gunslinger with new cover from the movie.
Todd Introduced me to a few of the other contest winners and Robin, and the Director of the Dark Tower,
Nikolaj Arcel.
After a moment of lingering around, Todd addressed everyone, introduces Nikolaj again and ask us to all gather for a group picture with him. Then told us he was open to take any questions and talk to anyone.
It became a bit akward as no one really had anything to say to him, a few people approached him and ask a few questions. I talked to him a moment and had him sign the copy of the Gunslinger that I was just given, felt with the movie poster cover it was appropriate. He was a nice guy, made a little small talk about SK and then Said goodbye and was gone.
Then Robin gathered everyone and introduced herself, gave some background on what she does and how she met Stephen and got the job. Admitted that she had never read the Dark Tower books upon accepting the job from Stephen as basically keeping everything in order for him to reference back to. She said Stephen said thats cool, took her into his library and gave her copies of all the Dark Tower books and said get started. lol.
We then started the walking tour where we were located at 2 Hammarskjold Plaza, as you might find this address familiar if you read the books.
So the walking tour begins and we are encouraged to add the "Snapchat" app to our phone and see the "Portals" to the other worlds on our stops.
Well I have to say, that part was pretty cheesy. Not a fan of snapchat and the filters or whatever that were special was just kinda silly. I deleted the app right after the tour.
We went to various stops around NY, as Robin led the group, ask us Trivia along the way and showed us the city inspirations for the book. At each stop they gave us some various movie promo items, window clings, removable tattoos, Dark Tower T-shirt, Paper map and probably the best of the items, a copy of Charlie the Choo choo. 4 edition, signed by Beryl Evans. This is the item I am not 100% sure about, as we all know Beryl Evans is SK, or should I say, SK is Beryl Evans. And my copy I ordered from Cemetery Dance, is also a 4th edition and there is no signature. Now, the question is WHO actually signed this book? I know in San Diego at the comic con it was just some lady. So I do have some questions about that maybe Ms. Mod can answer for me.
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So as the tour progresses we make each stop and I have to say, Robin is so pleasant to listen to and just knows so much Dark Tower information It made me feel like I need to go revisit the entire story to refresh on all the details.
Now on to the part where I said it was semi anti-climatic. And I didn't mean that in a really negative way because we got everything that was indicated but as we are walking along, there just seems to be this kinda build up as we stopped at each place and got a cool little item, like they got a little better each time, and the Tour guy kept referencing time, but not to the group, like there was something more important at end that we had to be kinda on time for, kept kinda whispering to his other co-workers about something and the general chatter among the tour attendees kinda got our hopes up that we might meet one of the Actors or something of the sort. There was speculation that we would end the tour at the Sony offices and Idris Elba would make an appearance, or some sneak preview of movie, ect.
But that was not the case, a couple hours after it started we found our selves at 61st street where the inspiration and location of the Dixie Pig would of been and that was it. Tour over, goodbye and hope you enjoy the movie when you see it.
Robin stayed around and talked to the reaming people that wanted to. I thanked her and started the trek back to my car parked 15 blocks away.
Stopped by a gourmet cupcake shop and got my girls an overpriced but quite tasty half dozen of specialty cupcakes and got myself back on the road home, sat in bad traffic to get to Holland Tunnel and then smooth sailing.
Over all it was kinda cool, Robins energy and knowledge made it very pleasant. You can really tell she likes what she does.
I have some pictures I will post on this thread later.