Santa Claus is coming to town!

And he did -- right in front of the Crescent Corner Coffee Shop across from Mt Sinai Hospital in Astoria! He was playing a guitar for all and sundry at 12 noon.

A great T-shirt

I saw a guy on Lexington Ave wearing a red T-shirt that said "aNYthing", which also can read as "A New York Thing". Very clever!

A knight in shining armor

There was indeed a man dressed as a knight strolling through the gate to Central Park at Columbus Circle today. I have picked up the habit of always having a disposable camera in my coat pocket for just these moments,and got a photo.

so cute!

In the Washington Heights neighborhood, at the base of the George Washington Brisge that leads into New Jersey, is a park called J. Hood Wright Park.

Its jungle gym boasts a replica of the GW Bridge for kids to walk across.

a star sighting

I was walking by the Manhattan Center at W 34th Street and 8th Avenue and I saw some fashion event with the proverbial red carpet and paparazzi involved. They were photographing the actress Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada, Brokeback Mountain.) Even though I was across the street, I could see that she sure likes to wear red lipstick (www.imdb.com)

Not exactly Broadway-bound ...

So, because I have never had voice lessons in my life and have never sung in public on my own, it made sense for me to go to an open call for the role of Mary Magdalene in the touring company of the Broadway show "Jesus Christ, Superstar".

The audition was at Chelsea Studios in Manhattan. Apparently, the actress Chita Rivera has an office there.

I waited 4 hours to be #142 called. The place was packed with girls curling their hair, doing weird facial exercises and vocal drills. The guys who were auditioning for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" next door kept coming over to check us out, and one guy offered a girl an extra ticket to Radio City Music Hall that evening, claiming he couldn't get any of his friends to come, and if she showed up, she showed up, he would be there (transparent, but clever.) She accepted the ticket.

Now, I know I can sing somewhat, and I knew the likelihood was that I would not be all that good, so I figured I may as well fail big by attending. I chose a song from Rent, titles, quite appropriately "Take Me or Leave Me."

So I went in and discovered it is hard for me to sing loud enough with a piano accompanist. The two casting agents were nice about it, told me I was "doing it right" (although I could tell I sounded bad and only sang about 5 of the needed 16 bars of music) and congratulated me on "being over the hump" of my first Broadway audition.

Dali and Cervantes

I was walking around the Upper East Side when I found the Instituto Cervantes, a small tucked out-of-the-way Spanish cultural institute at E 49th and 2nd Avenue. I was trying to figure out what it was all about when a woman walked by and said "Come in! It's free."

Sounded good to me! I went in and enjoyed a great exhibition of Salvador Dali's pen and ink sketches.

Going to school

So, today I was a last-minute substitute dance teacher for about 40 girls at a pilot girls health program in a school in harlem.

Have I mentioned I can't dance? but the program was desperate, as the real teacher had called in sick a few hours before.

As it was the last minute, I was dressed in black sweatpants and a dark blue sweatshirt when I walked in. All 40 girls were wearing the exact same thing because apparently that is the school's gym uniform. so we instantly had that connection (as I was also wearing red lipstick and hoop earrings, which everyone from Carmen Miranda to Neneh Cherry to J Lo has made de rigeur for us brown chickies to wear.)

So I faked my way through a bellydance class (which apparently the girls wanted to learn due to Shakira), using the info I gleaned from my friend Oreet's bellydance teaching manual that I edited (www.sharqui.com). We ended with a bellydance "Soul Train", using music from india.arie.

It was a big hit!