“Travels to a Different Time” : 17March2001: New York City: Blue Man Group and Brazilian BBQ

Up at 07:45 and Andrew and I went to purchase some apple juice and food to accompany our lobby breakfast. $1.39 for a medium sized apple juice! Triple what you would pay in Toronto. We picked up some pastries and coffee in the lobby for breakfast. We met Alex and sister Barbara at a bistro named Bateaux Ivoire and waded through the St. Patrick’s Day Parade revellers despite Sister Barbara giving us warning about legions of drunks. We did see a few dubious characters one of which spilt coffee on Andrew’s jeans. Say anything to those thugs emitting hostile vibes and I was sure they had brass knuckles. We met Alexandra and Barbara at the bistro and we had some omelets and crappy New York coffee. We ran parallel to the parade and never had to wade through it. We walked to Madame Tussaud’s museum in Times Square where sister Barbara had managed to get free passes to. Not my cup of tea but kind of fun. Andrew had his picture taken with Woody Allen sitting on a park bench. At 7 we were in Soho at the Astor Place Theatre to see the Blue Man Group. A very industrial looking theatre seating close to 500. We had great seats 6 rows back. The crowd was revved up for the performance. The show was great with industrial sounding music and lots of drum pounding. Plastic piping banged on was part of the music. Paint was sprayed all over the stage and all very bright colours. The BMG actors were in blue costumes and the show was a combination of mime and comedy. After this great performance went to Rodrigo across the street for a Brazilian BBQ. Huge skewers of grilled meats were brought to tables where you indicated what you wanted which they then placed in your plate. Beef, ribs, sausages, lamb and ham. Alexandra and Barbara headed back to her place and stuffed to the gills Andrew, Fotini and I took a cab home and watched an episode of the Sopranos and crashed out at 23:00.