Jenni Ajderian

Jazz On The Park Hostel-      4 nights' stay with ISIC discount <$115      4 mornings' worth toast, eggs & coffee = free Attractions seen-      Statue of Liberty (from Staten Island Ferry) = free      Empire State Building (from the ground) = free      Time Square = free      Brooklyn Bridge = free      Band Leeroy Justice performing & filming video on Brooklyn Bridge = free      Central Park = free Museums-      MOMA = free (friday night)      Guggenheim = $1 (by donation saturday night)      the Metropolitan Museum of Art = $1 (by donation) Starbucks      Branches seen (so far) =  17    25      Money spent = $0 (see above, Jazz on the Park coffee) Food    ...

On the 8 th  of October, 1871, Catherine O'Leary was out milking her cow.      It was the dead of night, so she had an oil lantern next to her, overlooking the fact that the barn was a giant fire hazard and that cows can get twitchy when someone's pulling on their udders.      Well, wouldn't you?      The resultant fire destroyed 4 square miles of Downtown Chicago and killed hundreds of people, leaving thousands more homeless. A third of the city's property value was turned to rubble, and over 70 miles of roads burnt up beyond recognition.      So, what do you do with a chargrilled city? You rebuild, of course. Nineteenth-century Chicago found itself in prime position for all the new waves- on the northern end of the Mississippi, and the hub of most trade routes, the 'Second City' had a huge influx of funding from the federal government which was easy to divert into its rebuilding. Turned out this w...

"Program Change: Earth, Wind and Fire will perform today, ARETHA FRANKLIN WILL NOT APPEAR" Yeah. Annoying.      Still, Iman, Ellie and I saw reams of brilliant musicians at JazzFest this year, both inside and outside the festival grounds. The calibre of the average busker is incredible in the Big Easy, as is that of the bands playing the clubs in town- often an artist will play to the JazzFest audience, who've payed up to $60 apiece for a day's ticket, then head to Bourbon Street and play to people who got in for five dollars, or even for free.      Trombone Shorty did it the other way around- on Saturday night he and his band Orleans Avenue played Tipitina's Uptown, finished at about five in the morning, had breakfast, then headed into the racecourse and did it all over again.      The man does not have a single bad review. Everyone and anyone you talk to about Trombone Shorty will say how great he is, how fun the ...