Tributes

Over the years on my trips I have visited many scenes of tragedies, such as the Oklahoma bombings and Hiroshima.  The next stop on my trip was the most recent and therefore the most raw of them - the site of 9/11 in New York.  The location of the World Trade Center has been turned into a memorial garden - the footprint of each of the twin towers has been turned into a memorial pool, with waterfalls going down into them.  The site is currently in the middle of a building site as many of the plots around the site are being rebuilt, including a new tower that reaches to the same height as the twin towers (with an additional aerial which reaches to 1776 to reflect US independence).  The building and the crowds meant that it wasn't necessarily peaceful, but it was a very strong memorial to those who died.  From here I went round the 9/11 Tribute Centre which was a moving reflection on the events of the day - a full museum is being built on the site itself, to open later this year.

From here I looked round a few of the smaller museums that were in the area.  The Museum of Finance looked at the financial system, including banks and the stock market, and a timeline on the financial crisis that they are going to need to extend!  Fraunces Tavern was a historic site from the war of independence where George Washington resigned his military commission, freeing him to end up running for President (and not establishing a military government).  The Museum of Skyscrapers brought some of the day's visits full circle as it reflected on the growth of New York's Skyscrapers, including models used in the building of the World Trace Center.  I then tried to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, but the signs to it sent me round in circles so I gave up and went to the New Museum instead.  This is a contemporary art gallery and had some of the "avant garde" pieces that were perhaps missing yesterday (here with some relationship to technology), but mainly from the 1960's and 70's so not that new!

I rounded off my day with a trip to see a play on Broadway.  Earlier in the day I picked up some half price tickets to see Gore Vidal's "The Best Man" (still not cheep, even at half price!).  The play was great - it is set at a political convention with two men vying for their party's nomination to run for the presidency. It stars James Earl Jones, John Larroquette (Boston Legal) and should have also starred Cybil Shepherd (Moonlighting) but obviously it was her night off last night (moonlighting elsewhere?!?).  It was a really good and captivating few hours and I am glad that I caught it.  It was also really timely as the actual political conventions are on at the moment, with the Republicans last week and the Democrats this week.  Whilst the candidacies are well and truly concluded before the conventions nowadays, they are still on "primetime" with an hour each night on the main three channels which is an amazing amount of coverage from a UK perspective!  The hour per night is actually the shortest the coverage has ever been, and on several nights speeches have significantly over-run (Bill Clinton tonight, Mitt Romney last week) - revenge on the networks??