More like a cafeteria...

I'm in the "easyInternetCafe" in Times Square in New York City, and this place is something else. This is the world's largest internet cafe - they've got 840 workstations available for rent! The place is buzzing, a bit less than half full, and there are all sorts of New Yorkers doing all sorts of things. Electronics shopping, online games, e-mail, international news, and a little blogging. They've got the workstations set up pretty well, though the first workstation I tried had a mouse that didn't function that well. Other than that, It's a decent atmosphere, not intimate, but bright and with only a bearable amount of trash littering the counters, and $1.20 per hour (I understand that the rate varies by time of day...) is a great rate, especially compared to my hotel's astronomical connection charge.


This morning I attended Redeemer Presbyterian Church, and I was impressed. They do a good job there, and Pastor Tim Keller seems to embody the "Truth and Love" priorities so necessary for a good church. If you're in Manhattan on a Sunday, I highly recommend it. Also, I don't know if it's a regular thing there, but they had Max Mclean do the scripture reading, and it was a pleasant bonus to have my favorite "Bible on CD" voice there reading in person.


After church, a stop in the upper east side's marvelous Viand coffee shop yielded not only some good breakfast, but a glimpse of Tom Brokaw stopping in for an order to go, no doubt on his way to the studio for a long day of Iraq war coverage.


I also visited the Guggenheim museum, and saw Matthew Barney's "Cremaster Cycle". I normally approach this sort of avant garde performance/film/installation art with a great deal of contempt. But I was impressed. Who would have thought that a fable based on secret Masonic rites and the construction of the Chrysler Building, involving tons of cast plastic, astroturf, and a martini bar propped up by potatoes could be good art? Or is it possible that there's no way that something containing those elements couldn't be good art?