One of the advantages of being in the standards gig is traveling to nifty places. The first W3C WS-Addressing Working Group f2f was in NYC, my favourite city to visit. I always enjoy the entertainment, food, shopping, hotels, architecture, and energy it has. And there痴 a direct flight from Vancouver to JFK so I can avoid Toronto.
Central Park
I finally got to do a Sunday morning run in Central Park. It was just awesome being in the trees and the centre of the city. It reminds me so much of Vancouver痴 Stanley Park I could almost see the mountains and smell the ocean air. There is a non-motorized loop that痴 about 5k I went on. Lots of runners, cyclists, bladders were in action.
Roundabouts
I love the use of roundabouts in Europe. Vancouver finally has one in White Rock, but I was in awe of the Columbus Circle. This roundabout has about 7 streets hitting it with 4 lanes of traffic. Just great to see.
Hotel
Lately, I致e been trying to sample some of the boutique hotels and of course I I've got a start on some Hotel reviews. This time around I tried Ian Shrager痴 Hudson Hotel on 58th and 8th ave. This was very similar to the Soho Grande we stayed at last time. I took a few photos but ran out of battery power before finishing. In these places, the rooms are undersized and minimally furnished. There are usually a few signature pieces. In the Hudson痴 case, it was the
cool bedside lights 
and the bathroom sink, mirror, lighting combinations. 
The public places and styling are the thing. The club/lounge on the main floor was really happening.
Multiculturalism
I arrived late Saturday, so I took the opp to check out the club. What a mix of people! Maybe that痴 another reason why I heart NY, that it痴 so similar to Vancouver in the numbers of cultures and people that mix. The swiss pharamaceutical folks, the african-american who could limbo and bounce up using the back of his head, drunk older English gals that were miffed they couldn稚 steal a chair from the swiss reserved table, white guy gangstas, and the DJ playing Indian Bhangra music were all fun to hang with and watch. When the DJ put on the Bhangra music the place got just jumpin�. My friend Harm got me on to Bhangra music many years ago, and this was the first time I壇 ever heard it played at a club like Hudson痴. Wild.
Shows
I squeaked in 3 shows: Wicked, Wonderful Town and Bug. Wicked was the best of the lot. It痴 roughly a prequel to the Wizard of Oz. In the story, the wicked witch and Glinda become best friends and share a room at school. The sets were incredible, with the Dragon and Wizard done brilliantly. It痴 really funny as it presents Glinda as a blonde bimbo who teaches the 努icked� witch how to be popular. It's also pretty political. The wizard痴 evil policy of enslaving the animals results in a schism where the 努icked� witch is actually an animal liberator just being branded as wicked. A great song points out how history is written by those that speak the longest. The wizard says some poignant and political lines like 添ou call him terrorist, others call him liberator. Some call him a crusader, some call him an invader.� We see how Dorothy gets summoned to Oz, the origin of the cowardly lion, the scarecrow and the tinman, an additional perspective on the story of the Wizard of Oz and well, I値l just shut up now. It was great.
Wonderful Town is the revival of the story of a couple Ohio girls moving to the big apple to get writing and theatre jobs. Brooke Shields did a bang up job of playing the awkward Ohioan(?) maturing into NYC. But the show was stolen by her sister, played by Jennifer Hope Wills. She痴 simply stunning and has an amazing singing voice. I stayed afterwards for the talkback session. I am always interested when I see really big guys in theatre and the 6�3� 230 lb 展reck� was there. He was saying that there are always jobs for the 澱ig guys�, but Wonderful Town had a large percentage of big guys because of Brooke痴 height.
Bug was a really whacked out play, thoroughly enjoyable, about a paranoid delusional guy who believes the army implanted bugs into him and they are taking over. Really avante-garde stuff with totally nudity as he and his girlfriend look for bugs, lots of blood when he decides to pull his tooth out (because it has the egg sac of course) and then the predictable ending.
Food
I updated my NYC restaurant review page with the my visits to Helene痴, Balthazar, Les Halles, V, and Tamarind. I really enjoyed the French cuisine of Balthazar and Les Halles, but I知 quite sick of entrecote/frites now. Helene痴 was the breakfast find and Tamarind was the dinner find of the trip.
