NYC>PGH: A trail through two cities

So I'm in Pittsburgh, after two weeks in NYC. The changes to both cities is worth noting. Manhattan is now, at least below, say, 110 St. give or take, an increasingly charmless high-end shopping bazaar. I don't know which I found more disheartening: the Juicy Couture shop on Bleecker St. or the Juicy Couture billboard in Times Square.

Uptown, east or west of Central Park still has areas untouched by elements of the tourist trade contibuting to the mall esthetic. The Metropolitan Museum continues to delight with it's seemingly ever growing galleries and re-appraisal of its collections. The current Rembrandt exhibit and the new Greek and Roman wings are spectacular.

Broadway, for all of it's middle brow offerings for the bumpkins, still packs a wallop. Staight plays are creating the most excitement with August: Osage County and The Homecoming both receiving rapturous reviews. (I saw August, hope to catch the Pinter when I return in January.)

The lovely little Waverly Inn has been turned into a celeb-magnet sty, with limos and paparazzi clogging the narrow west village streets like so much portable shrubbery that trails those types as they waddle to the trough. Plainly horrible.

More on NYC and PGH soon. The hunt for the xmas ham starts today.ø