Just finished a bunch of school group tours to New York this week. Exhausting to do student tours, but rewarding (when it's over with). Right now the Texas kids are here...middle schools, high schools, junior colleges, etc. We did EVERYthing in New York including Central Park, Fifth Avenue, Harlem, Wall Street, Greenwich Village, soHo, Chinatown (God, they love Chinatown and all that cheap stuff), and of course the World Trade Center area including the new 9/11 Memorial fountains. Tomorrow I'm with people from a cruise ship, Wednesday I've nice folks (mostly Mormon) from Utah and then another school group at the end of this week. Coming up I've got some private family tours in New York. This morning I gave a 3 hour limo tour with a nice young couple from Mississippi who were up here for the 33rd annual Mississippi Picnic in Central Park. Wow...haven't been to that in a long time but it's just as much fun. Country music, yummy catfish, homemade cake, and lots ...

Just gave a New York City Jim Dykes private tour for FIVE days for a group of 49 people from the Broadway Rose Theatre group from Portland, Oregon. Such nice people-- I've done their New York trip before and I'm so glad they called me again. The arrived Wednesday and checked into the Broadway Millenium Hotel on W. 44th St. Christina Gonzalez from the hotel sales dept. was very charming and checked us in right away. Shows they saw included: NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT starring Matthew Broderick & Kelli O'Hara, MEMPHIS, SISTER ACT as a group and many folks took in extra shows including PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT, PETER AND THE STARCATCHER, THE BEST MAN, SPIDERMAN, EVITA, THE LION KING, MARY POPPINS and more! Restaurants we went to included: Butter (fabulous food but they do NOT know how to serve large groups efficiently). Dinner took 3 hours plus. Also we dined at THALIA in the theatre district; our last night together we dined in the lovely garden at BARBETTA on W. 46...

Built by famous Broadway producer Henry B. Harris, with business partner George Heye, the Hudson Theatre is one of Broadway’s oldest surviving playhouses. The Hudson Theatre, located at 141 West 44th St., opened Oct. 19, 1903 with a production called COUSIN KATE, starring 24-year old Ethel Barrymore. The theatre, according to the New York Dramatic Mirror newspaper, was “one of the handsomest theatres in the country.” Elegant Tiffany skylights, Tiffany stage trim, backlit Tiffany windows, etc combined with the latest in electric lights, fireproofing, sprinklers and 28 exits made the Hudson the safest theatre in New York. Patrons entered on W. 44th St, while actors and staff entered thru W. 45th St. which was a first. Also the lobby is 100 feet long which adds to the feel of grandeur as one enters. In 1908 Harris bought out his partner Heyes for $800,000. 4 years later Harris and his wife Irene were returning from Europe on the TITANIC. Mrs. Harris had slipped and injured herself...

OMG-there's so much "shoe spam" on the internet these days, but this is a real item about shoes: I just rode home on the subway and once again was noticing the shoes people wear on the filthy, dirty, uneven pavement of New York City! It's absolutely gross, not to mention unhealthy...many people are wearing flip-flops (!!), sandals, ballet slippers (!!), "jazz shoes", BEDROOM SLIPPERS, BEACH SHOES and all kinds of other ridiculous footwear ON THE STREETS OF NEW YORK. It's absolutely unbelievable the kinds of things people wear and the way they treat their feet! Women especially are wearing quirky little things they slip-on...God their feet at night must be FILTY...I would need to soak my feet in sanitizer for an hour and throw out the footwear! What are people thinking? I wear leather shoes and occasionally sneakers, but nothing more extreme than that. A few years ago I was having extreme foot pain from walking around Manhattan and climbing subwa...

What a crazy week...several audtions and a LOT of private tours, both bus and walking. I had a lovely group of older people from Hartford, Connecticut early in the week who booked me for a private tour of Brooklyn Heights (one of NYC's most historic and gorgeous neighborhoods). They wanted to visit Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, which I LOVE because of the underground "railroad" history connected with the church. The church's most famous clergyman, Henry Ward Beecher (Preacher Beecher) was the brother of Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Lincoln, Dickens and many other great minds of the day came to Brooklyn (by ferry boat, before construction of the Brooklyn Bridge) to hear Beecher preach on the evils of slavery. Church historian Lois Rosebrooks was scheduled to speak to the group and she is excellent! During the planning of the trip by email and phone calls (too many emails and too many phone calls) for our simple 2-3 hour tour, Jean (the lady ...

Sarah Jessica Parker is on the move…she’s been living in an 1840’s brick townhouse on Charles Street in the West Village for over 10 years. I remember when she and Matthew Broderick purchased it for a paltry $2-3 million because it was the 90’s and it was a real “fixer-upper”. So they bought it and fixed it up…inside and out including re-building the elegant stoop, installing video camera security, child-guards on the windows, and numerous other things. She found the house, rumor has it, strolling around the neighborhood during a Sex and the City shoot (her character Carrie Bradshaw’s brownstone apt. is around the corner on Perry Street). Now, 10 years and 3 kids later, she is looking for a bigger place and has put this one on the market for $9 million. A lady realtor friend of mine confirmed several months ago that Sarah & Matthew bought an elegant 1830 townhouse (much larger) for $19.5 million on a street just off University Place and was having it decorated (also a new sto...

MATT DAMON The Upper Westside of Central Park is one of New York City’s premiere “yuppie-puppy” neighborhoods where the residents are a caricature of what the Midwest thinks is a “liberal” New Yorker: almost entirely loyal liberal Democrats (with a few exceptions), extremely open-minded (except when someone wants to do something in their backyard which they disagree with, then WATCH OUT! They will cut you down in a second with their organized protests, rallies and boycotts. The streets are FULL of Moms, Dads and Nannies—--many yoga class vegans--all pushing their children in the latest prams, listening to the latest songs on their I-Pods, while wearing the latest fashions. It’s almost a cartoon depiction of a certain lifestyle. When I first moved to New York City as a youth, we lived on The Upper Westside…but this was early 1980’s—definitely “pre-Giuliani” and this once grand old New York City neighborhood had become a low-rent, run-down section of town with gorgeous old buil...