Sorry for the delay in the LfAs - being in Brazil without e-mail
access does this to you.  But with this up to date and some
meanderings on Brazil done, hopefully I'll be back on track by the
end of the week.

Jason

___

In Letter from America this week, it's all about a trip to New York
city.  I was visiting NYC principally because I have two colleagues
at Brooklyn College, one of whom I have collaborated with before (a
physical chemist by the name of Mark Kobrak).  They had invited me
down and since it was Friday, I took the opportunity to spend the
weekend there.

Now, since I had a thesis defense to be on the Thursday before, I
decided to travel down on the Friday morning before my talk.  Given
the distance and the fact that it wouldn't be easy to get to college
from the airport, I decided to take the train.  It was a little
cheaper than flying but the total time was probably a little longer
(even if you include the waiting before flights).  I can see why
people do it as you can just walk on ten mins before you leave - but
it really doesn't work for anything longer than that.

My first impression of New York relates to getting around - because I
had to get out to Brooklyn for my talk.  The ordered nature of how
New York is set out appeals to me - with numbered avenues running
north/south and numbered streets running east/west.  It does get
slightly more complicated (throw in named streets like Park Avenue,
the fact some of the number avenues are also known as other things
(what the hell is the "Avenue of the Americas"?) and the letter
avenues on the lower east side) but actually it's easy to work out
where you are and where you have to go.  Plus, the trains are all
really easy to use and are either numbered or lettered and hence easy
to remember.

[Sidenote 1:  It's kind of funny to find the origin of certain
things.  I always associate the term "downtown" with city areas and
"uptown" to mean affluent areas.  Of course, in New York (which I
suspect is the origin of these terms) these are entirely geographical
references.  Downtown means you are going south, literally as the
numbers of the streets go down - uptown is the other way...]

Getting on the train to Brooklyn was fine (I did make a rookie
mistake when I changed trains as I ended up going the wrong way but
this was rectified fairly quickly) but getting out at the other end
was another matter.  In the entire time I've been in the US, I've
never felt quite so uncomfortable.  Walking up the stairs at the
station put me into an incredibly rundown, frankly slightly scarey
looking part of town.  And I was in a suit and carrying a computer.
There was one small sign that pointed to Brooklyn College and it was
all I could do not to run in that direction when I saw it.
Fortunately, after turning the corner the college was only about 100
m down.  The fact that it has a high fence and I had to sign in was a
little interesting though.

The campus itself is quite nice - apparently it's been voted
"prettiest campus" in some polls but it was pointed out to me that
these are voted on by the students and that, frankly, it could be
more a result of the comparison with what's just outside the fence.
It was set up in the early part of the 20th century and comprises a
series of very large buildings (the entire science faculty, using the
Australian meaning of that word, is in one ...) separated by open
green spaces.   I quite enjoyed my time there, talk went well and I
got to catch up with my mates, one of whom drove me to where I was
staying.

I ended up staying on the Lower East Side (for anyone who cares,
corner of E Houston and Avenue A).  It was in a spare room of a
friend of my landladies - which sounds like a tenuous connection but
Judy (the friend of my landlady) was fantastic.  It was cheaper than
any hotel, bigger than where I live now and just kind of nice to not
be in an 'overly managed' hotel chain.  It was also in an interesting
part of the city - people actually live and work there, yet it's only
a short commute to the 'city' itself.  It was also where my landlady
grew up and visits often so I spent a lot of time having a look
around places she suggested.  For example, I had dinner at a fabulous
little french diner.  It was so clearly a local hangout that the guy
sitting next to me asked how I found it because I "clearly wasn't
from around here".

[Sidenote 2:  I heard a Smiths song (I think it was "Heaven Knows I'm
Miserable Now") whilst in the diner and asked the guy serving what
station was playing.  Turns out it was his iTunes library and then he
switched so The Smiths played for the rest of the time I was there.
I think he was surprised/pleased that I was in favour of his music
rather than against it.]

That evening I went to pick Becca up (who had come up to visit NY at
the same time) and the next day we went looking around.  This
included visiting Katz's Delicatessen, which is (from what I can
tell) both a tourist site and a local hangout.  The former is because
it is the location for 'that scene' from "When Harry Met Sally", the
latter because it is an amazing kosher deli.  Particularly, the
pastrami sandwiches are fantastic (and contain much more meat than
bread) and you get a massive side of pickles to go with it.  In many
ways, I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't take my camera but at
least I didn't look like a tourist.

The weather wasn't great so in the afternoon we went to the Museum of
Modern Art.  It really was a fantastic space for art - massive
ceilings so that you felt that you had plenty of space and could look
at the pieces.  I'm not necessarily a big modern art fan but did
enjoy seeing some Mondrian geometrics (the black lines with blue, red
and yellow blocks), the Andy Warhol souptins and the drowning girl by
Roy Lichtenstein.  Plus, some of the sculptures were fantastically
geometric and there was a really interesting piece with all of The
Smiths albums and an associated water colour circle (which was an
interesting coincidence given the above).

That evening we went to see a show on Broadway.  (Becca enjoyed
saying "We're going to the theatre", mocking my accent ...)  We
started by going to a very nice restaurant (recommended by Becca's
sister, who was an undergrad at Columbia).  The idea of a
Brazilian/Japanese restaurant ,might sound little odd but was
absolutely fantastic with the crossover focusing uncooked fish with
sushi and ceviche dominating.  The amusing thing was that the night
before while catching a cab back from the station (it was after
midnight) we had been discussing where the place we'd organised to go
for dinner was.  After Becca had indicated that she didn't know, she
looked out the window (we were halfway to the place we were staying)
and said "well, actually, there it is ..."!

The play we went to see was "The 39 Steps" - a comedy adaption of the
book of the same name with numerous references to the film of the
same name (along with other Hitchcock films - there is even a
brilliant reference to the fact that Hitchcock cameo-ed in all his
films).  It was fantastically well done and had a cast of only four
(which is amazing given the number of parts; it follows the same plot
as the film).  One of the most interesting things is that it is
actually very English (the adaptation was done by Patrick Barlow, who
along with small parts in Notting HIll, Shakespeare in Love and
Bridget Jones also was the scriptwriter and founder of the National
Theatre of Brent in which he played Desmond Olivier Dingle) and hence
I think I was amused by different things than the rest of the
audience.  But frankly, the most fun of it was to actually be in a
little theatre on Broadway (the Helen Hayes theatre - which is
actually he smallest theatre on Broadway).

Just to ensure that I did at least one touristy thing whilst in the
city, when the show got out, we walked to Times Square.  Talk about
neon overload, it was really rather overwhelming - moving signs,
flashing billboards - in fact, after about five mins it began to
bother me.  Actually, I should say that a bit stronger, I started to
freak out a little bit so we got in a cab and went home.

It is worth mentioning a few things about cabs and driving in New
York.  First of all, the cabs are all yellow, just like one might
imagine having seen TV and movies.  The one difference (which is
apparently new) is the fact that while most of them are the standard
sedan type, there are now van-type cabs, 4WD (here the term would be
SUV) cabs and even little hybrids - but they are all the same garish
yellow.  It's incredibly easy to get a cab, mainly because there seem
to be an incredible amount of them on the road at any one time -
Becca pointed out that it would be interesting to know how long the
equilibrium that now exists took to establish (as surely at one stage
there was a population boom and not enough cabs) and how long it
would take to re-establish if perturbed (say by current economic
downturn pushing people to the subway).  The latter point being made,
cabs are cheap in NYC and so easy to use.

Having mentioned cabs, it is impossible not to mention driving.
Basically, drivers in NYC put those everywhere else to shame in their
simple determination to get where they are going, no matter the
obstacles and road rules.  Effectively, even the scariest cab driver
I've ever had in Sydney wouldn't last a minute in NYC.  If indicators
are optional in Boston, they're downright forbidden in NYC.   Lines
on the road aren't considered markers of anything except a general
direction of the way you should go. Near accidents are commonplace
(in the brief time I was in cabs, I was sure we should have crashed
three times) and the number of dents on cabs and other cars indicate
this.  As does the constant screeching of brakes and the blaring of
horns.  Both of these take some time to get used to, particularly
when they form the sort of 'general background noise' that permeates
the city, even throughout the night.

The Sunday was pretty relaxed before we each caught trains back to
our respective cities.  We did have bagels for breakfast (it is NY
after all ...) and went to visit Central Park.  The latter is worth a
few comments, not least because I find it somewhat unusual that it
can still exist.  It is a massive park, making up more than 5% of
Manhattan Island (it's about 3.5 square km) and is estimated to have
a market value of over US$500 billion.  Given how crowded everywhere
else is, it really is very different.  Plus its kind of weird to see
tall buildings in the background as you wander 'round a huge park (my
favourite part was the outdoor ice skating rink, albeit not
functioning in summer).

I'm not sure if they're up and captioned yet, but photos from my
visit can be found at ...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148592&id=570906321&l=54da336d0d

(Hopefully once October is over, I'll get back to including direct
links to relevant photos ...)

Finally this week, a bit of light relief, particularly for those of
you doing any kind of writing (yes, I believe there are some of you
out there).  Some who even might have to get things read by me.  The
link below takes you to an article from the student newspaper at BC
(which I seem to remember indicating is more right wing than you
might expect for a student paper ... but there you go).  The whole
letter is amusing but the particular highlight is the discussion on
punctuation in paragraph 3.

http://media.www.bcheights.com/media/storage/paper144/news/2009/10/05...

Next time:  A conference in Brazil - hopefully to arrive middle of this week.

--
Pre-Sig - I am travelling extensively over the next month and e-mail
is likely to be limited. Please expect delays in responses until the
end of October.