I've been busy gardening, and then I took a break to check out NYC. The entire album, Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, played in my head on a loop while I was there. It was a nice distraction from the provincial election stuff, and the NDP couldn't ask me for time or money for four whole days! I'll be voting NDP today in the advanced polls because they're the likely party to keep out the Cons in my riding, but my typical steadfast support is wavering and the badgering isn't helping. Because I run the Student Vote at school, I made a comparison chart for students, and, of course, some students complained of bias. I just took top bullet points for each category off each official website. That's not bias; it's real - and really scary. Anyway...
It was interesting to me to check all the stereotypes about NYC I had developed from movies and late night shows perpetuated particularly by Letterman and Jon Stewart.
- New Yorkers don't walk fast - at all It was a weekend, but still. Monday was no different.
- It's as clean as Toronto. The level of smoking and garbage is about the same.
- It felt as safe as home - maybe more so as there were families walking around even out past dark.
- Besides the hotel, prices were similar to Toronto. Some galleries were by donation even.
- And most surprising, based on TV perceptions, was that everybody was very polite and friendly. Bumping into someone elicited "sorry" from both parties. Just like Canada. And here I thought that was our thing.
Some of the stereotypes played out. The place is bustley and noisy and crowded. We really slept to cars honking all night. And our hotel window faced a brick wall a few feet away. Classic. We walked everywhere, and I wondered about all the cars on the road barely moving faster than our pace. It's about 20 km end to end; bikeable in an hour if you can get through traffic (and bikes get their own traffic lights!). With subways and busses and cabs everywhere, it's curious how many people have cars - although we never did figure out how to get a cab. Seriously. And the food was fantastic. Every restaurant had flavourful food that tastes differently than the other restaurants. That's not always the case in Waterloo where I swear most restaurants just heat up food from a central kitchen.
And the architecture was spectacular. It evoked that bit from Hannah and Her Sisters where they tour the city pointing out the finer pieces that few notice with their heads down.
We went to see Hedwig and the Angry Inch with Neil Patrick Harris, and he didn't disappoint - except, that is, that we missed sitting in the audience with Hugh Jackman by two days!!
The show was more physical than I expected, with NPH on stage almost the entire time - doing all costume changes while he sang. And I regretted not spending the extra cash and phone time getting front row seats for the chance to participate (i.e. have his crotch in my face). After the show, people crowded at the exit for a chance to get an autograph and picture. I hung in there for about half an hour until someone in the crowd started smoking, and I bailed.
But what makes me want to go back for more - besides that Colbert Report tickets were ungettable this time round and that my daughter and I couldn't go to the Comedy Cellar to maybe stalk spot Louis CK because she's underage at 20 - is the Met. It's too big for one day. The Central Park Zoo was negligible next to the Toronto Zoo, and the Museum of Natural History was more or less on par with the ROM, but the Met outshone the AGO by a mile. This photo is me in a gardeny installation on the rooftop. Very cool.
It was legen...wait for it...dary!
It was interesting to me to check all the stereotypes about NYC I had developed from movies and late night shows perpetuated particularly by Letterman and Jon Stewart.
- New Yorkers don't walk fast - at all It was a weekend, but still. Monday was no different.
- It's as clean as Toronto. The level of smoking and garbage is about the same.
- It felt as safe as home - maybe more so as there were families walking around even out past dark.
- Besides the hotel, prices were similar to Toronto. Some galleries were by donation even.
- And most surprising, based on TV perceptions, was that everybody was very polite and friendly. Bumping into someone elicited "sorry" from both parties. Just like Canada. And here I thought that was our thing.
Some of the stereotypes played out. The place is bustley and noisy and crowded. We really slept to cars honking all night. And our hotel window faced a brick wall a few feet away. Classic. We walked everywhere, and I wondered about all the cars on the road barely moving faster than our pace. It's about 20 km end to end; bikeable in an hour if you can get through traffic (and bikes get their own traffic lights!). With subways and busses and cabs everywhere, it's curious how many people have cars - although we never did figure out how to get a cab. Seriously. And the food was fantastic. Every restaurant had flavourful food that tastes differently than the other restaurants. That's not always the case in Waterloo where I swear most restaurants just heat up food from a central kitchen.
And the architecture was spectacular. It evoked that bit from Hannah and Her Sisters where they tour the city pointing out the finer pieces that few notice with their heads down.
We went to see Hedwig and the Angry Inch with Neil Patrick Harris, and he didn't disappoint - except, that is, that we missed sitting in the audience with Hugh Jackman by two days!! The show was more physical than I expected, with NPH on stage almost the entire time - doing all costume changes while he sang. And I regretted not spending the extra cash and phone time getting front row seats for the chance to participate (i.e. have his crotch in my face). After the show, people crowded at the exit for a chance to get an autograph and picture. I hung in there for about half an hour until someone in the crowd started smoking, and I bailed.
It was legen...wait for it...dary!
4 comments:
Our son went on a class trip to New York in his graduation year, Marie. There's no other place like it.
Good to see you blogging again, Marie. We went to NYC 13 years ago; the life, the vitality, the crowds, the restaurants, the museums all combined for an unforgettable experience.
And it's really not that far away. We took overnight buses there and back which made the travel time negligible because we slept through it, and saved the cost of hotel rooms.
Intereseting, in days past no one blogged about their simple vacation travels for the world to read. Don't quite get it...more sexier than Hamilton I suppose. I do however look forward to your blog rationale when/why the NDP sinks in your election and we end up with another crooked Liberal minority. Prepare your teen class/followers to be disappointed in the NDP...again.
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