the scenes on st john the divine (known as st john the unfinished) are creepy:
tableaus of modern-day disasters
and maybe that one below, with the twin towers, is a little too apocryphal
the guide shows us familiar (see above? that's the diner shot from tv's seinfeld)
and unfamilair landmarks (like the spot - an alleyway! - where obama first slept in new york)
we also tour columbia university, and see the apollo theatre
the guide takes us thru morningside park where it becomes obvious why it's such a dangerous park (i didn't bother photographing the drugs packets but our guide seemed particularly interested in them. did you know heroin comes in brands?? me neither)
along martin luther king boulevard, there seems to be a church every 3 storefronts with the sound of gospel music pouring into the streets -
we end the tour at one such church where ushers take us to our seats:
the men ushers are in black suits and wear white gloves. they are about 5 of them.
the women ushers look like nurses, with white uniform dresses, little white pillbox hats and white gloves. there are at least a dozen of these -
an usher tries to sit our tour group close to the front (we'll understand her motives later) but pepper and i grab a pew at more of the mid-point and we are sitting by the time she turns around
from our vantage point (the ones closer to the front would have to turn behind to get a good look) we can see most of the people here are white.
and carrying backpacks.
and fanning themselves with maps.
tourists.
we locate a clutch of people that must be the real congregation (they greet each other, friendly) and we can see that - not only are there double the amount of ushers as members of the congregation... but the tourists outnumber them 20 to 1!
the choir is dismall: only 5-7 members, and some not even wearing a robe. when they sing, we are all encouraged to stand up and join in the clapping. if you didn't know it was a bunch of white people, it would be a convincing performance from the street.
the focus is the collection basket - so much so that when some tourists started to leave (caught sight of the real choir, i'm guessing), the minister quickly announces a change in the order of service: the collection will happen now!
i wonder what those 40 people do with all that money, week after week?
we take the subway back to midtown (this is the only time we hear the subway announcer tell us to watch our belongings and keep electronics hidden)
meanwhile, the woman next to me was more than helpful when i asked her a question
back in time to enter and lose our usual lotteries - mormon and wicked - we notice godspell next door and their lottery sign. we enter. pepper wins!
front row seats for only $32 each (compare that to $90 each Chicago and those were seats in the second last row!) there's audience participation, a confetti canon, and we even get to go on stage at the intermission. what a blast
we stop at absolute bagel on the way to picking up our stuff at the hostel and then move to our hotel where we enjoy our private bathroom and shower. our room is bunkbeds again but each bunk has it's own tv and pepper plugs herself in. it's been 4 days since we've seen the news and it's weird to think time has been marching on and donna summer and robin gibb died without us knowing
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