Aida was fantastic spectacle. Wow! The sets and costumes were incredible - a visual feast! And the two rival sopranos could really belt out the tunes. Big girls from Eastern Europe. The tenor was a fair size too - a South African. Didn't have the sheer power in his voice that the gals had, but the delivery was all there. As for animal acts, there were four horses drawing chariots. No elephants though. Budgetary constraints, I suppose.

Colin arrives from Montreal this morning on the lovely Greyhound service. We have tickets for the opera tonight. Surprise! The Barber of Seville, which I have yet to see. But before that, we will do a walking tour of Harlem (small) which is where our hostel is located. It's pretty interesting nieghbourhood, predominantly black and Hispanic. The lingo is a bit hard to decipher sometimes (a LOT of the time!) but somehow I struggle through.

Riding the subway and just walking the streets in this huge complex city, one can't help but be witness to some pretty amazing behaviour. Amazing by western Canadian standards, at least. I have come to realize that New Yorkers conduct their private lives in very public ways. In some instances it can be somewhat embarrassing to bear witness to ever occurring episodes of real life soap opera. But always fascinating and more than slightly weird. "All the world's a stage..." and I'm gonna get your attention!!! Americans mimicking American TV stars mimicking Americans!

An element of the Cheese Factor that I found quite repulsive is American television. OMG!! Everyone - contact your MP and press for support of the CBC and other Canadian broadcasters. Probably most of you already know how BAD American TV is, but not being hooked up to cable or satellite, I had NO IDEA. The cheesiest people become talk show hosts or local news anchors or reporters, and they in turn interview stupid people and ONLY stupid people. I tried several times to turn off the TV in the hostel kitchen(Wha???) but the best I could do was turn off the volume until somebody else came along 2 or 3 minutes later and turned it back up. And then there was football... And cop shows.

'Kay, enough of that. Thank God for the Metropolitan Opera!!!