Catching up

I seem to be seeing New York segment by segment. So Monday brought the Upper West Side. The UWS contains Columbia University (which I didn't visit), the American Museum of Natural History (which I didn't visit) and various other things that I did visit.
The top part of the UWS borders Harlem to the east, and it certainly felt slightly 'edgier' than its counterpart in the east. My first stop was Cathedral Church of St John the Divine. Work on this massive structure began in the 1890s, and optimistic estimates put the completion as being in 2050, due to various bankruptcies and fires and general bad luck. I happened upon an organ recital, which appeared to be freestyle jazz noodling. It's actually a pretty progressive cathedral all round, with AIDS memorials and work with the local schools and homeless. They run stone carving workshops for the local community, with some of the work being displayed in the gardens.
I then wandered down the west side of Central Park, stopping to have some lunch (and phone Ma), before heading down to the Lincoln Center (sic), which houses the Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Public Library for the Dramatic Arts (which I must go to one day - they have some great collections of film and music).

On Tuesday I had my first afternoon at the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company. I learned how to use the Devillainiser, The Mind Reading Machine and the Cape Tester (a series of fans for people wanting to try on capes and strike poses). It was mostly quiet, but I got to talk to lots of very sweet children doing the film-making course out the back of the shop in the workshop area. Several of them came in covered in (hopefully fake) blood, so I think there's a slasher movie afoot.

On Wednesday I visited the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, which is basically a tenement preserved in the style it would have been in during the 1870s and in 1935. My tour guide was a frustrated thespian who thought that bursting into song at any given opportunity was the best way to portray the suffering and poverty endured by new immigrants to America. Small fact: in 1908, the Lower East Side was the most densely-populated place on the planet. And with no running water/sanitation/electricity, that must have been a fun place to be! I really like the Lower East Side - a bit scrungy, lots going on, different cuisines and cultures everywhere. It feels a bit like Soho or something.

On Thursday, a friend of my flatmate had spare tickets to an exclusive VH1 event. Having nothing better to do, I was happily set up on this 'blind date'. And while Tim was a perfectly pleasant guy, there was just no spark or chemistry, so the afternoon seemed to go on forEVER. He took me to see Train do an acoustic set. All very gentle, and a nice diversion, but a more middle-of-the-road, mum-rock band you'd be hard pushed to find. In the evening, I went to see The Kids Are All Right, which is Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple. They were actually refreshingly convincing, going by all those lesbian couples I know. Oh.