Audio Books: We listened to the entire audio recording of "Angela's
Ashes" by Frank McCourt on the way down and back-- about 14 hours,
altogether, with time out to hear "Hair", which we saw in New York at the
John Hirschbeck Theatre.
"Angela's Ashes" is a remarkable memoir, of Frank McCourt's upbringing in
dire poverty in Limerick, Ireland, in the 1930's and 40's.
The saddest song I've ever heard is "Kilkelly
Ireland" by Peter Jones, based on letters found in his grandparent's
attic. It might well be the perfect soundtrack for "Angela's Ashes".
"Kilkelly Ireland" is simply a series of letters, one to a verse, each verse
a decade, to a son who has moved away to America, updating him on family
events, expressing how wonderful it would be to see him again.
August 13, 2009
To use the toll roads on the way to New York City, you take a slip of
paper from a man in a booth and then, when you exit the toll road, hand it
to another man in a booth who calculates your fee and collects the money.
This is pretty whacky, especially if you have used the 407 in Canada, which
has an automated system. You don't even pay when you exit-- you get a
bill in the mail.
But then, we paid 5 or 6 dollars for each stretch of the toll road in the
U.S. Ontario's 407 seems to charge a lot more. Your bill is not
going to be less than $15 for even a short stretch, from the middle of
Toronto to Brampton.
Hi Marg,
We had a great trip to New York. "Hair" was fantastic, and the Museum of
Modern Art (MOMA) was also fabulous. We hung around Times Square for a
while-- it looks like a very interesting place-- lots of glitter and lots of
people around-- but not much to actually do except grab a coffee at Starbucks
and hang out. However, if you don't have tickets in advance, you can buy
heavily discounted tickets for Broadway shows there by lining up in front of
a TKTS booth and seeing what is available. These tickets are typically 40%
off, available for shows that night, most of which are in easy walking
distance of the stand. You can't miss the booth-- it's right in Times
Square. We didn't use it because we already had our tickets, and you
wouldn't have been able to get tickets for "Hair" there anyway.
We loved MOMA. It's on 53rd St. near 7th Avenue-- it's closed on Tuesdays!
Especially the 5th and 4th floors, which had a lot of Picasso and other
modern artists. Beautiful building, and we really enjoyed lunch in the cafe
on the 2nd floor. You can take pictures (no flash) and most paintings are
unprotected (no glass barriers). Right now they are also showing this
"installation" that consists of the possessions of a Chinese woman who "kept
everything". It's actually quite intriguing.
If you want a great view, there is Empire State Building of course, but you
will probably have a better experience at the Rockefeller Centre on 50th St.
also around 7th Avenue (near MOMA!).
Everything, by the way, is expensive. I find you just have to kind of
ignore prices and do what you want to do-- you came all this way and went
though all the trouble of getting there, so why not?
The Museum of Natural History is pretty good-- a bit like our ROM but
bigger. It's on the West side of Central Park (I assume you'll have a
touristy map). Oh-- there is a "Titanic" display on 44th Street, near
Times Square. I thought it would be kind of cheesy, but it is actually
very interesting. It features a lot of exhibits of items retrieved from the
wreck, beautifully presented, with lots of basic information. There is even
a recreation of a couple of state rooms and the grand stairway. Expensive
again ($25) but we thought it was worthwhile. Took about two hours to go
through.
We weren't high on Ellis Island-- they haven't done very much with the
building-- just placards, text, and pictures, really, though it was
interesting to see the island. You won't get into the Statue of
Liberty-- it's all reservations now, and they are convinced that Al Qaeda is
determined to attack it (!) so you'll have to wait in line so they can scan
your lunch bag. You do wonder if they shouldn't be investing the huge
cost of it into protecting something that really matters. It would
probably be cheaper to buy a spare Statue of Liberty and keep it in a
warehouse in Brooklyn in case it's needed.
Bill
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