Well it is our last day in NYC (for this visit anyhow) and we have a list of things to accomplish before departing our hotel at 5.45am tomorrow bound for Florida. The last few days have been action packed. It was great to see Grey Gardens with Naomi on Tuesday and our hour and a half coffee after the show ensured we caught up on the all the news. It was a good show with Christine Ebersole delivering a brilliant performance.
Wednesday night saw us seeing Tarzan – the musical which was visually spectacular with lots of aerial work and an opening scene of a shipwreck that blows your mind away. The plot however was rather thin and as for emotional content, it wasn't there! Nevertheless we had great seats and the visual and theatrical elements were well worth seeing with some great lighting effects. The music was written by Phil Collins and a trip to Virgin Records after the show saw us pick it up for $10. We had been to Virgin earlier in the day to see a performance of the cast/writers of Spring Awakening and get our programmes/cd signed. They were rather impressed that we were from Australia and enjoyed being a groupie for an hour or so!
Wednesday certainly was a big day as we headed to the Brooklyn Museum. Upon exiting from the subway we walked into a snow flurry so at least we can say it did snow during our visit to New York. The museum was great – staff very friendly. The Ron Mueck (Australian) exhibition was mind blowing. The 10 sculptures of human people were so intricate in detail that the months of work involved in one piece is well worth it. Our discovery of this artist happened as a result of an email sent to Andrew late last year with pictures of his work. Upon googling, we discovered that an exhibition would be on in Brookly so added it to our list of things to see. As an added bonus, the photographer Annie Leibovitz also had an exhibition. We joined the hundreds of old Jewish women and had a great look. They (the Jewish women) are apparently invisible to anyone else and as for speaking quietly – forget it! An experience nevertheless!
Yesterday was another full day with a quick trip to Apple to check flights and book transport from the airport in Florida. Christopher wanted to get a book on Ron Mueck so we headed to Barnes and Noble and found that there was one further across town – add that to the list of shopping for the day. Inspired by the movie we had seen on Monday we went to the Space Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. We watched a movie called Cosmic Collisions inside the dome shaped theatre which was quite surreal. A quick walk through the other parts of the space section and we were out near Central Park and indulged in an American hot dog (complete with ketchup and mustard). Catching the bus across town we finished lunch with "something sweet" at Starbucks on Lexington. Our shopping expedition then began visiting Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma, Crate and Barrel and finally Barnes and Noble to collect Christopher's book.
A nearby post office meant we could get stamps for our postcards and the woman behind the counter noted to a nearby security as we left as to how friendly we were, even if she did give us about 15 one dollar bills as change. A quick nap back at the hotel and some preliminary packing to see if we needed to extract the third suitcase we had brought inside our bags was going to be necessary. The jury is still out but will keep you posted.
The show for last night was an oldie but a goodie – Beauty and the Beast. Having just been in the show in Australia, I was keen to see if the production lived up to expectations. Well, we were blown away. It was like a movie on stage with amazing sets and special effects. The costumes were fabulous. Despite being warned that the show was a "little tired", we found the show to be energy filled plus some! The audience of children (grrrrr) and loud adults who insisted on taking photos were the only negative aspects.
The show for our last night in NYC is as yet undecided but am sure the half price ticket booth will provide something for us to see.
Hopefully we will be able to find internet access in Florida to keep you updated of our global wanderings. Fingers crossed there is an apple store near our hotel. Stay safe and thanks for the comments.
oi oi oi Miss Sarah is highly offended at the children grrrrrrr comment, but will forgive you just this once! Lucky you with the snow flurry – we never got snow in NYC. I’ll email you John’s email address as he llives in Florida now. Enjoy! Love from Shell, Steven and Sarah. xo
I am almost 2 embarrassed to mention that the highlight of my hols has been a couple of days in Melbourne for the tennis. DULL in comparison to what you 2 have been cramming in to each day and night.Still, I haven’t read any mention of the 40degree temperatures that we experienced Down South not to mention the 4 hour power failure!No doubt you will be sorry to have missed that.
I wish I had more to write about but that’s as good as it gets for some of us.
Cheers. xx
Catching up on all your news sounds like your having a great time Hope you enjoy the rest of your hol
luv to u all
Cate & Boys
Well sounds like the 2 of you are cramming in as much as you can. I must admit I am very jelous of your viewing of Ron Mueck’s work. Love what I have seen, so much work!! We are all much the same here as always, Judy is off to Tasmania for a 2 month residency. Lucky her. We are doing heaps of work and have a couple of Exhibitions in the pipeline. Will keep you informed. Cheers for now Love Di