new york culture update #2

american museum of natural history
this is the real deal: they use real dinosaur bones in their reconstruction, not casts. the four floor monolith is incredible, and i struggled to see everything in one day. i suggest two days if you have kids in tow, or you're a kid yourself. and start on the fourth floor so you don't skimp on the dinosaurs. my word they are impressive! i also found out what badgers and racoons actually look like at last. totally worth the sore legs and the effort required to gently shovel little screaming children out of my way.

rent @ the nederlander theatre
three of the regular casts were out for the night. the understudies started shakily but warmed up quickly, such that by the end of the first act, the applauses began to feel deserved rather than polite. to be honest, i've never been one to harp about musicals, but at the end of it all, i was left less than impressed: is this the best america has to offer? isn't broadway the crown of western theatre? perhaps i should've checked out spamalot, phantom of the opera or even les mis instead...

liberty and ellis islands
it is worth getting up early so you're down at castle clinton to get your ferry tickets by 9am. the number 1 train is nice and slow (stops at all the stops) and the queue was already getting out of control by the time the first ferry was off. the statue of liberty was pretty cool, all things considered. but don't bother with ellis island: it's just a big empty building. full of history, yes; worth lining up for the ferry back to manhattan, a most definite no.

wall street
this place is phenomenal. it exceeded all my expectations. so many beautiful, tall, old buildings! i spent a good hour wandering around aimlessly looking up, always up. afterwards i kept going over the brooklyn bridge, and wandered around brooklyn heights. but i'll leave that story for later.

empire state building
the longest, craziest queue of them all: it curled around itself about three hundred times until finally, an hour and half later, i found myself on the eightieth floor, decidedly not outdoors, definitely not on the observation deck, and far from impressed. luckily, this was just a way for the capitalists to plug an audio-tour and cheesy postcards. the audio-tour is absolutely gold. i would highly recommend you secure tony's services, just to listen to his boo-ti-ful accent. the postcards were duds so i returned them, no thanks!

the view from the eighty-sixth floor was excellent. with tony in tow, i looked in all directions and spent a merry hour or so in the clear summer rays. wish i had brought my buffalo brewery hotel bucket hat with me though, i think i got second degree burns.