Day 16 - NYC

The New York Public Library is massive and full of marble and ornate paintings/carvings. The reading rooms have lofty ceilings, shelves full of books (surprise? ;) ), and plentiful information and research desks for the assistance of patrons. I read a book of poems by 20 poets who were born between 1920 and 1930. I actually read Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" in its entirety for the first time and realized how utterly scandalous is must have been back in 1956.

Behind the library is Bryant Park, full of well-kempt grass and dozens of tables and chairs, set out on the lawn and surrounding patios so people can converse or study in comfort that doesn't involve grass stains.

Next we went to the "NBC Experience," where we took a tour of the Late Nite with Conan O'Brien studio and the SNL studio. It's amazing how tiny the Late Nite studio is! It was originally a radio studio, so it didn't need to be large. However, since it is so very very very small, NBC does a bunch of camera tricks so that it appears much much larger to audiences at home. When Conan is doing his Conalogue at the beginning, he is standing probably two feet away from Max Wineburg, and he has to walk maybe 12-15 feet from his monologue to his desk. There are also only 189 people in the studio audience, but they use microphones that amplify the audience noises by 2 or 3 times!

Another interesting thing about the studio is that the entire ceiling is covered by lights and cameras and microphones hanging down ten feet from the ceiling. I'm surprised that the place doesn't have more electrical fires. ;)

The SNL studio started off as the largest radio studio in the world, and now it's just the largest television studio in the GE Building, where NBC is located. It, too is filled with oodles of electronic monitors, lights, mics, etc., and it too is much smaller than it appears. Apparently they have all of the sets built all around the place where the band plays and the host gives a monologue , in a line, and it looks like a maze from the audience. So when you're an audience member, you actually don't see very many of the skits, except from the monitors that hang from the ceiling. If you're sitting in the front row of the mezzanine level (not the ground level), the sets might extend 5 feet above your head, and you won't be able to see anything at all (except that skit!). But they are the hardest tickets to get in showbiz. They receive 100,000 ticket requests per season, and can only give 2,000 people tickets (300 people per show) - so they use a lottery system.

Oh, also, we found out that in 2009 Conan will be taking over for Jay Leno when he retires. I wonder if that means he gets a bigger set . . . ?

Afterwards we ate at Cafe 75 in Rockefeller Center (delicious), and took off for the Empire State Building. The views were great, probably even better than the Sears tower, simply because New York is such a densely compacted city that one can see each of the Burroughs and easily identify neighborhoods, etc., whereas Chicago is more spread out (but it has such a beautiful skyline!). While waiting in line to see the view, we heard at least 10 different languages (and only understood four of them).

Before heading back we stopped by the Macy's, Madison Square Garden, and Times Square, to see if we could score some cheap tickets. They were cheap, but not cheap enough. But we did see some aspiring break dancers in the Times Square subway - not as good as the ones we've seen on the west coast, but we got to give them props because we couldn't do it.

We had dinner at Ivy's Cafe, a fantastic littler Chinese/Japanese restaurant with delightfully subtle flavors. The restaurant was called upon by the Waldorf-Astoria hotel to serve delegates from the Chinese government while they were in NYC. Delicious.

Did you know that General Tso's Chicken is actually an American dish? Who cares, it's still delicious, right?

It's kind of a nice feeling being in New York - totally surrounded by people on all sides, pushing through crowds and cramming into subways, yet not feeling like your personal space has been invaded. It's a strange kind of anonymity.

It's nice to see lots of people everywhere you go - we could definitely get used to this.