One of Tom Otterness' bronze sculptures displayed on the Upper West Side [nyc] 

One of the Big Apple street artworks spread around the city as part of Big Apple Fest [nyc] 

The view coming out of the subway station at Columbus Circle, Upper West Side [nyc] 

October 12, 2004 [Tuesday]......Hungry Like A Wolf
So this morning we go Virgin Megastore at Times Square to get a wristband that will get us in to meet Duran Duran later this afternoon. While on the way, we pass an area near 44th Street where they have blocked off the street and Duran Duran are soundchecking for a performance on ABC's Good Morning America. We take a look, then go get our wristbands (there are only a limited number they hand out when you get the new CD/DVD), before going back to the street stage area. Not long after, Duran Duran go on for their live performance, where they played 3 songs; "Hungry Like A Wolf", "Girls On Film" and the new one "Sunrise".

During the afternoon I decided to trek along Broadway on the Upper West Side, following the bronze sculpture exhibition of artist Tom Otterness. Every 5 blocks or so, there is another huge bronze sculpture in the Broadway Malls (landscaped medians) between 60th and 168th Street. I was walking along this stretch, but only made it as far as 79th Street today.

I then got side tracked at Beard Papa's. This is a relatively new store to NYC, originating in Japan, and essentially their prime purpose is to create the most delicious cream puffs in the universe. There are 3 of these stores in NYC and they are to cream puffs what Magnolia is to cupcakes. It's that good.

Later it was time to yet again line-up for Duran Duran. 2 hours later we got to meet each of the members (all the original guys) and get some cd's signed.

Actress Zhang Ziyi at the New York Film Festival premiere of "House of Flying Daggers" [nyc] 

October 9, 2004 [Saturday]......Meeting Jim
First stop tonight was over at the Gotham Comedy Club, a short walk from our apartment. The NY Underground Comedy Festival is on this week around town so there are plenty of comedy shows to choose from. We went to see Jim Gaffigan's stand-up comedy at Gotham. Jim has been in several movies and also "That 70's Show", plus I has seen him at Gotham before. Tonight he headlined the show. After he finished he did like most comedians and was selling cd's where you could also go and talk to him. I got a signed cd and a quick chat with him.

Next it was a subway ride to the Upper West Side to Lincoln Center for the New York Film Festival where we attended the sold-out "House of Flying Daggers" movie. Tickets to this sold-out weeks ago and the movie won't be released in the US for months still. This is a chinese movie in the "Crouching Tiger" tradition and both the director Zhang Yimou and leading actress Zhang Ziyi were present to introduce the movie.
By the time that was all over, it was after 2am and time to get some pizza pie before jumping back on the subway downtown.

October 8, 2004 [Friday]......Puffy AmiYumi
Went to Webster Hall tonight to see one of Japan's most popular bands, Puffy AmiYumi. They are on a US tour currently and apparently they also did a tour 2 years ago. This is pretty uncommon as there are very few Japanese bands that tour in the US. Puffy AmiYumi have a grunge side to them and the 2 singers (Ami & Yumi) plus the guys in the band sure put on a great show.
They are about to launch a new animated show on the Cartoon Network called "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi" in November.

October 6, 2004 [Wednesday]......How Not To Meet a Chili Pepper
Tonight Anthony Kiedis was making an appearance to sign copies of his new book down at Astor Place. Anthony Kiedis is the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and proved they have quite a following still judging by the size of the line of people to meet him. Anh & I went there and bought the book then waited in line. Unfortunately, we were there too late as despite a wait of around 2 hours, they cut the line and we missed out. So back we went to the store to return the book. To prove how efficient the net is, typically you can buy signed copies of these types of books hours after the in-store appearance on eBay. New York is also usually the first stop on a book signing promotional tour and each author / celebrity will sign anywhere between 300-500 copies or whatever they get through in 2-3 hours.

Writer & Director of "Swing Girls", Shinobu Yaguchi, discussing the movie [nyc] 

Actresses from Japanese movie "Swing Girls" talk to the audience at the USA premiere [nyc] 

Hudson River, abandoned pier location near West Village, looking over to New Jersey [nyc] 

Hudson River, south of Riverside Park, Manhattan [nyc] 

October 5, 2004 [Tuesday]......Japanese Movie Premiere
Took the day off and spent several hours rollerblading around the city. It was a ideal day for it, so I started in Central Park where I went around the 4 mile loop a couple of times before heading to the Mall stretch for a break. It was actually a quiet day there so I then went west over toward Riverside Park. Along the way I stopped at some of the stores on Broadway in the Upper West Side, also having lunch at Zabars.
Eventually I wound up over at the bike track that runs the length of the western part of Manhattan. I rollerbladed south from there, eventually ending up at Battery Park which is the southern tip of Manhattan. By then I was pretty exhausted so I took my time skating back to 26th Street.

Early evening I went down to Tower Records to see a street concert by Good Charlotte. They played for an hour or so for people that had lined up this morning to get their new cd. Later they were scheduled to stay for a signing but I had more plans elsewhere that night.

After Good Charlotte it was time to go to the USA premiere of a new Japanese movie, Swing Girls. I reserved a pass for this several weeks ago and it turned out to be popular as they had to turn people away. Swing Girls is a very funny comedy about a group of girls that form a swing band and not only was the Director present tonight but most of the cast was there. There was a Q&A session with all of them, and later, the girls performed some of the numbers live from the movie.

Dave Navarro at his book signing in New York 

October 4, 2004 [Monday]......Wrestling: Day 2
During the afternoon, I went over to Bryant Park where there was a rally held for the NY Yankees as they prepare for the start of the MLB baseball playoffs. Some past players were there reliving some past glory days in front of an enthusiast crowd.
Tonight the Monday Night WWE RAW wrestling event was held at Madison Square Garden which I went along to watch.
Meanwhile, down at Barnes & Noble at Astor Place, Anh went to the book signing for guitarist Dave Navarro. Dave is almost as famous for being married to Carmen Electra and the co-writer of the book was Neil Strauss who we had met before.

Seventh Avenue, Chelsea [nyc] 

Partial building collapse on Wooster Street, SoHo [nyc] 

October 2, 2004 [Saturday]......The 5678s
Tonight went down to the Mercury Lounge in the East Village to check out a Japanese band, The 5678's. They are a 3 piece female group that got some exposure by being in the Kill Bill 1 movie and have a very unique style by playing a 60's Californian surf music mixed with punk and with Japanese singing.

September 30, 2004 [Thursday]......Conan O'Brien
After requesting tickets almost 6 months ago, finally got sent some for today's taping of the Late Night with Conan O'Brien show. Like Letterman, the late night shows are quite difficult to get tickets to. This was filmed at the NBC studios at Rockefeller Center, and although it screens at 12:30am it is filmed at 5:30pm. Conan was very funny and even came out before the show and did some stuff for the studio audience.
This was also a good week to see his show as it was just announced earlier in the week that he will take over the Tonight Show from Jay Leno when Jay retires in 2009.

September 29, 2004 [Wednesday]......Keane
The UK group Keane was performing at Irving Plaza tonight and it had sold out weeks ago so I went to the net to try to find a ticket and managed to do so midway through the day.
Keane are a 3 piece; singer, keyboards and drums, and have a similar sound to Coldplay. It was only a short show, but the sound they put out was very sweet indeed.

Tonight Anh was in the elevator in our apartment building and there was an actor from Law & Order: SVU there also. He was visiting friends as he doesn't live here, but coincidently we had just watched the show the night before and seen him on it.

September 28, 2004 [Tuesday]......Yao Ming is 7'5 / Shooting in Chelsea
The Chinese NBA basketballer, Yao Ming released his book today and kicked off a book signing in mid-town Manhattan. Yao plays for the Houston Rockets and is an astonishing 7 foot 5 inches tall. After a wait of an hour, I got to meet Yao and he signed a book for me. He was sitting down so you couldn't see how tall he was, although his sneakers were pretty darn huge.

Yesterday I took the day off to get some more rest. After putting off walking down to the grocery store for awhile, I finally ventured there around 2pm. As I got near the store, the entire intersection out front was taped off and there was NYPD everywhere. Quite a crowd had gathered and there was a lot of talk of what had happened. In the middle of the street I could see some pools of blood and evidence markers (over bullet casings) with detectives standing around.
As it turned out, literally in the hour before I got there, there was a gunman in the middle of the street and the NYPD shot him 3 times as he wouldn't surrender. This was all right out front of the Wholefoods grocery store I was headed to. Later that day I heard on the news that the gunman died in hospital from the shooting and he had gone to a messenger business nearby for revenge.

Ai Weiwei (Robert Miller Gallery) 

Art in the street, Chelsea [nyc] 

Amie Dicke "New Season, New Girls, New Looks" (D'Amelio Terras Gallery) 

September 25, 2004 [Saturday]......Art In Chelsea
We spent today in the Chelsea art gallery area on the west side between 20th and 26th street over at 10th & 11th avenue. The coolest art exhibitions are all in the Chelsea area where there is a huge congregation of galleries in a confined area. In a couple of hours, we literally saw well over 20 different exhibitions. It is a popular area, with a steady stream of visitors walking the streets in the old meatpacking district between galleries.

Some of the shows we saw today included:
- Ai Weiwei (Robert Miller Gallery)
- Colin Brown "Blackboards" (Fischbach Gallery)
- Amie Dicke "New Season, New Girls, New Looks" (D'Amelio Terras Gallery)
- Allan McCollum "Perpetual Photos" (Friedrich Petzel Gallery)
- Richmond Burton "New Paintings" (Cheim & Read Gallery)
- Mike Cloud (Max Protetch Gallery)
- Lutz Bacher "Jokes" (Colin de Land fine arts)
- Ugo Rondinone "Long Gone Sole" (Matthew Marks Gallery)
- "Trash Resources" (Kashya Hildebrand Gallery)

After all that, it was time for a break in at the Wild Lily Tea Room, a tiny Japanese tea room with a goldfish pond just inside the front door. While down there, we saw Shii-Ann from Survivor which was the 3rd time I had seen her in the Chelsea area now.

September 24, 2004 [Friday]......Lucky Cheng's
Tonight we walked around the Lower East Side before stopping in for dinner at Lucky Cheng's over on 1st Avenue. After that we stayed in the neighborhood and dropped in to the hip store, Mod World.

September 23, 2004 [Thursday]......Back In The...USA
Adelaide to New York requires 3 different flights, 25 hours and a lot of patience.
Finally back in New York now, for the second half of our stay.

Tonight was also supposed to be the first game of my NHL ice hockey games this season but there is a players strike which could delay the season for quite a while, so hockey is off for now unfortunately.

Sydney Harbour and ferry [Aus] 

August 27, 2004 [Friday]......Departing USA
Went out on the plane today bound for Australia for a trip home for a couple of weeks.
Plan is to start in Melbourne for 4 days then head to Sydney for a couple days before flying back to Adelaide for several weeks.
Will catch up with extended family over the Father's Day weekend, see my nephew Jack Henry for the first time as well as parents, grandparents, Lisa's family and Anh's family.
In Adelaide we will also check out a Dexter Jones gig, dine out at some of the old spots and catch up with friends.

August 25, 2004 [Wednesday]......Polyphonic Spree x2
After the tremendous show last night, I went back again tonight and saw the Polyphonic Spree yet again. They were only in New York for 2 shows as part of the "Together We're Heavy" tour, but if there was a 3rd show on tomorrow, I would have gone to that as well.

August 24, 2004 [Tuesday]......Polyphonic Spree
The Polyphonic Spree is a 25 member alternative rock group bordering on a cross between modern day psychedelic and a cult. They include a 9 piece choir, horn section and they all wear long, coloured robes. Really, they just play pop music, but it's delivered in one of the most original ways in a long while.

Tonight I saw them play at Irving Plaza, all squeezed up on stage and performing songs from their 2 albums. Without doubt this was one of the best concerts I have ever witnessed.