At this rate, I’m pretty sure the iPod that’s unveiled this time next year will hold every song ever recorded, will be able to drive your car, and will be too small to see with the naked eye. Unfortunately, even at a reasonable $299, no one will be able to afford the new iPod because of the enormous debt everyone will be in after buying each of the previous five hundred iPod versions.

Apparently there will be an ice skating rink in Bryant Park this winter. Sure, there’s already one at Rockefeller Center, and there are a couple in Central Park, but this one is better. It’s free.

The Pond at Bryant Park, scheduled to open on Oct. 28, will be a portable, Olympic-size rink large enough for 500 skaters to pirouette upon (or slip and fall) among the high-rises of Midtown Manhattan. A rarity among the handful of ice rinks in Manhattan, it will have no admission charge… [Read more.]

Skate rentals will be a hefty $7.50, but that’s about the same everywhere, and the lack of an admission charge way more than makes up for it.

It rained all day yesterday, and it’s supposed to rain the rest of the week. Today, however, it didn’t rain. I took the opportunity to go to Central Park and look for autumn leaves. I was more than a little disappointed with nature’s fall line-up, but you’re welcome to check out the photos anyway.

I just want to add something to my previous post.

My absolute favorite change on the new RENT movie soundtrack is in “Goodbye Love,” where Mark finally says, “Mimi still loves you, are you really jealous?” instead of, “Mimi still loves Roger, is Roger really jealous?” and so on. Thank freaking goodness. It always sounded retarded in the original.

I got the new RENT soundtrack (the movie soundtrack, as opposed to the original Broadway soundtrack). I really like it. It’s almost identical to the original, but I greatly prefer Rosario Dawson over Daphne Rubin-Vega, and it’s nice to hear the other actors occasionally making different choices with their songs. The only things that have been cut from the original, and that I miss, are the telephone messages.

This is extremely cool: Not only does NYSee incorporate with Google Maps to let you look at live traffic cams around the city, it also lets you click any point on a street or avenue to see the “Blockview Photo” from A9. The photos are at least a year old, so the stores you see aren’t necessarily the ones that are there, but it’s still a helpful tool.

Tonight I watched a preview performance of In My Life, a new musical by Academy Award-winning composer Joe Brooks.

It’s one of the few shows on Broadway that is not based on any pre-existing piece of material. In fact, the only other one I can think of right now is Avenue Q, but even that is a parody of Sesame Street. That’s why I was so excited to see In My Life; it’s a completely new show. And I wasn’t disappointed.

The plot is a simple love story between a songwriter who has Tourette’s Syndrome and an obsessive-compulsive editor for the Village Voice. Their idiosyncrasies aren’t really the conflict of the show, however. The conflict is between them and heaven, because they’re actually players in “God’s reality opera.”

I refuse to give away any more of the plot, but it’s terrifically bizarre, and the audience is very confused at first, but eventually they’re forced to give in to its craziness. And if you’ve been curious about the billboards full of lemons… don’t worry, it’s explained pretty early in the show.

In My Life is truly refreshing…just like Dr. Pepper.