* It's a good thing I don't live here in New York: the pull of all the amazing Broadway shows would just be too much for me! So far I've been to 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee', 'Avenue Q', 'The Apple Tree' and 'The Drowsy Chaperone' (for anyone who's interested:
http://www.spellingbeethemusical.com/about.htm

http://www.avenueq.com/about.html

(The Apple Tree: http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/studio54.htm )

http://www.drowsychaperone.com/thestory.php )

They were all so different and I loved them. It was fantastic to see Kristen Chenoweth in 'The Apple Tree'. She's amazing! And to see Kecia Lewis-Evans (who was Asaka in 'Once On This Island' (I was in a production of it at EUCMS)) in 'The Drowsy Chaperone' was great - just a small part but what a voice! Georgia Engel was also very funny in the same show (for anyone who's watched 'Everybody Loves Raymond' she was Robbie's mother-in-law). So these are photos of inside and outside the theatre for 'The Apple Tree'. The theatre is the famous Studio 54 - pretty incredible inside.

But I haven't been in theatres the whole time. I've also gone on the Staten Island ferry (past the Statue of Liberty (I will go to the statue itself in the next couple of days)),

up the Empire State Building,

to the tennis centre where the U.S Open is played and to Shea Stadium nearby (where the Beatles did the first big stadium rock performance).

I've walked in Central Park and been to Strawberry Fields (the part of Central Park dedicated to John Lennon (it's just near the Dakota building where he was killed)).

I've also done a couple of 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' sites (although not THE site yet: Tiffany's on 5th Avenue) including Holly Golightly's appartment!

And yesterday I also went to the United Nations - hey! Australia got a mention! We walked through the General Assembly Chamber and there was some youth event on and a woman was speaking to them about global warming. She used the example of Australia having introduced reusable bags at supermarkets (you know, the green ones - I didn't actual realise that was so novel til I got here and they try to give you a plastic bag for everything!) - go Australia! She also mentioned that paper bags are not much better than plastic, in fact, they're worse - they pollute 4 times as much as plastic bags do. I didn't know that.

The other day I also went to the World Trade Centre site - aka Ground Zero. That was very strange. It's still a huge whole in the ground (although now a construction site, not rubble). I wonder what that is like for people who work nearby and who were there on 9/11. It was really sad reading all the details of the day and seeing photos and especially some artworks done by children who'd lost parents on the day.

The other much more fun but still political thing I have done is go to a taping of 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart' (it is on sometimes on SBS in Australia but more on pay TV). I met some friendly people in the queue (there's a lot of queueing for stuff here in New York (imagine what it must be like in summer!)) and the show was great including a hilarious (but stupid) clip of the First Lady Laura Bush lamenting that pesky one bombing a day in Iraq that the media keep focussing on that apparently distorts the view of an otherwise peaceful situation (I paraphrase quite a bit but, really, what was she thinking!?)........................................................................................

When I queued up for theatre tickets yesterday afternoon a guy I chatted to told me about this latest George Bush joke (sorry! But he's such an easy target): http://www.imgag.com/product/full/ap/3067907/graphic1.swf.......................................................

Anyway, there are plenty more New York pix if you're intrested. Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/bec.kimpton/NewYorkCity