NYC Diary - Day 5

Friday 18^th July was a day I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. For today… is BATMAN DAY! That’s right, The Dark Knight was released here yesterday, so we set off to watch it on the IMAX screens up on 68^th & Broadway. Unfortunately, we got there only to discover that it’s sold out until bloody Tuesday! TUESDAY!!! It’s available on the normal screens – if you fancy going at 1am, that is. But I really, really want to see it on the IMAX Screen, so I think I’m going to wait. Much as I’d love to see it a week before all you lot, I think it’ll be worth waiting to see it on a giant bastard screen.

So anyway, we had a few stops on the walk up. We set off walking up Broadway, where we were distracted by M&Ms World. Yes, that’s an entire shop dedicated to M&Ms. There’s M&Ms of every colour you can imagine, as well as every bit of merchandise you could ever imagine – t-shirts, teddies, statues, cutlery, golf clubs, plates, glasses, playing cards… I walked around the place in a state of bafflement. Who likes M&Ms this much? It does symbolise everything I love about New York though. I can’t think of many other places in the world where you’d get an entire shop dedicated to a peanut with eyes.

Our next stop was Ellen’s Stardust Diner. We’d just been looking for somewhere to have breakfast. By the time we got there, it was practically lunchtime, so we stopped for a burger. Ellen’s is a real old-school American diner like you’d see in the movies; full of waitresses called Dee Dee who jump up on the tables to sing songs every few minutes. It’s a great laugh, and the burgers and shakes are top notch.

Well, we got to the cinema not long after that, and decided we’d walked too far not to see anything. We decided on finally watching Wall.E; which, somehow, managed to live up to the ridiculous levels of hype I’ve built up in my head for it. It’s an absolutely amazing film, fully deserving of all the accolades and 5-Star reviews. It has an alarmingly political message too, especially for what’s ostensibly a kids’ movie. It’s a damning condemnation of human apathy; towards ourselves, and our planet. Of course, if you’re a wee kiddie, you could just be laughing at the funny robots, but it’s great to see a summer blockbuster dare to be different. It’s an absolute masterpiece, reminiscent of old silent movies; I was reminded of Chaplin on more than one occasion. It had me almost crying both with laughter and just at the sheer beauty of the animation and character design. I want a Wall.E!

We got back to the hotel about five-ish. Johanna decided she wanted a quick nap before dinner, which rapidly turned into ‘I’m not getting out of this bed until tomorrow’, leaving me to spend all evening working my way through the books and DVDs I’ve bought in the last week. I’ve become utterly hooked on Death Note – I bought volume 1 of the manga a few days ago, and picked up 2 & 3 in Barnes & Noble yesterday (along with Chuck Palahniuk’s new one, Snuff, which I can’t wait to get stuck in to!). I think I’m going to have to get the entire Death Note collection while I’m here, it’s only $8 a book, compared to the €11 back home!