July 5th Believe it or not.

First news of the day.. our friend had another chance at her degree, which was great! I hadn't slept well.

Mary and I were up early to hit the "Top of the Rock". This is the viewer platform of the Rockefeller Centre.

It's higher than the Empire State Building and has a 360 degree view from the penultimate platform. There were no crowds at 9.10am (It opens at 9, so don't go too early). With another hot day promised, it was starting to warm up as we took in the amazing view of New York. Central Park features in the aerial view of the city and you can see many landmarks from here.

I don't know how these three look in your browser, but this was an attempt at an arty collage

V and W were just starting to awaken when we arrived back at the hotel. Soon we were heading off on our next adventure which was, believe it or not, Ripleys! This is a curious place. I'm really not much enamoured with it. It has some merit in terms of amusement, entertainment and a even some cultural and informative merit, but there is a strong sense of exploitation, definite cultural theft a-la-museum collections and it's pretty crass. But that's just my opinion.

W is 6'6" or 1.98m tall so this guy was tall!

That's a Mastodon behind V, but it's not dangerous any more.

I have to be honest and say I actually enjoyed it but had to put the analytic part of my brain to sleep, and that's not something I want to do much. It's like when you watch a cliched American movie and you lower your expectations accordingly and emerge from the darkness of the theatre saying... "that was OK"

Madame Tussauds was queued up for a long stay, so we baulked and headed out for lunch. We had some indecision and Brownian motion here, finally stumbling upon an John's Pizzeria deep within a magnificent old building with an amazing ceiling.

Aparently it's a restored church. The food was great and the ambience was excellent. We emerged well fed and happy to continue our explorations.

W and I headed "home" while the Mary and V headed to Madison Avenue, Trader Joes and then also back to the hotel. We all then snoozed and did some catching up with emails etc. Time suddenly accelerated and we were all getting ready for the theatre. We were off to Broadway (actually just off Broadway) to see "The Book of Mormon" by the South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. This promised to be fun. It had won a number of Tony awards for Best Musical.

From the New York Times

This was a really great show. It's irreverent, based on sound research and brilliantly performed. The singing and dancing is superb and I found myself laughing consistently. I thought the Mormon Church might not be happy about it, but apparently their reaction has been very controlled..

<"The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ."
You can read more about their response here.

I actually think the Book of Mormon does more than attempt to entertain.. it got a standing ovation and judging from the audience I reckon it does a great job.. people were thoroughly engaged. The issues regarding organised religion are definitely tackled, as well as the issue of misplaced altruism and cultural colonisation justified with euphemisms such as "helping" or "saving".  I loved it.