We need to ban strikes

So I've about another day left in NYC, with Jem and Cheryl popping up tomorrow, just in time to enjoy the transit strike that's affecting everyone in Manhattan. The sentiment appears to be that most people in NY are seriously pissed off about this, since it's just next to X'mas. It's hard to tell how New York is reacting to this but amongst people I've polled, I have one leftist sentiment from the ang moh (caucasian) and pretty much nonchalance from the rest who stay in this house and aren't affected.

Consequently, today was spent in a pretty slow manner and not much really got done. For a start, the oversleeping didn't help - what was supposed to be an early morning turned into a pretty late start, thanks to both yours truly and company for the day Yao Quan. Yao Quan's just come in from Caltech, where he's doing his Master's in Engineering of some sorts and visiting the area. As previously explained, Stan now runs a homeless shelter right at his place. But I took the chance to hang out with Yao Quan and it's been quite a pleasant experience - his time spent in France has made him one helluva chilled character, really.

We started our day with a visit to Amir's, a local Lebanese joint that serves food pretty damn fast. This was particularly good for Xing, who had to rush to an exam at 4pm (tells you how late we left). We also met with Khalil, a Haitian-cum-Long Island resident, who's a friend of Xing. Unfortunately we didn't get time to talk but if you had to summarise him in 2 sentences, it would be that he's a cleanliness freak and that he's going to Japan. My very apt descriptions of people also explains why I'm still working on that first novel of mine.

The original plan for the day, after grabbing lunch at Amir's, was to get some discounted tickets to Tobias' favourite - the Blue Man Group, at Astor Place Theatre. This would be followed by dinner somewhere in the area before heading out to the Village Vanguard, one of the most famous jazz joints in the East/West Village areas. Of course, we forgot to consider the basic law of capitalism, which is that companies always exploit openings. For example, when the union goes on strike, this creates a massive opening for taxi companies to exploit, such as installing a fixed rate for certain travel distances to charge you a ridiculous amount on a PER PERSON basis. Geez.

Heading down to TKTS, we decided to abandon our original plan and catch something on Broadway, or within the immediate vicnity. We settled for Hairspray, since it was the winner of Best Musical just 2 seasons ago and seemed like the kind of production that would showcase Broadway to Yao Quan. This production is based on the film of the same name, so google it or wikipedia it if you want to find out more.



Is Hairspray any good? To be quite honest...it's really quite fantastic and feels like what you'll call a real musical. It's moulded in the sense of a classic musical in terms of having a simple plot, a colourful set and one helluva soundtrack. Amongst all the musicals I've watched thus far, this one has the least complications and subplots and focuses almost exclusively on the main story and how it develops. It's one of those productions that would be fantastic if you like the way "Grease" developed, for example - lots of energy, a simple story with a happy ending and colours from the 1950s. Spamalot has silliness, Avenue Q has heart and Hairspray has...music. So yes, it's definitely a production you should catch - the singing is amazing and you have probably the most infectious soundtrack of all the musicals thus mentioned.



Not much else to blog about - short day plus the strike is just irritating. Had a good chat with Yao Quan but way too much to discuss in any case. Probably should catch some sleep, I suppose. Damn striking unions. Not the way I wanted to end my NY trip.