MIDTOWN, NEW YORK CITY
Thursday, 23 March 2006

I'm writing to you tonight from one of the world's biggest internet
cafes, located on West 42nd Street, just around the corner from Times
Square in New York City.

It's 9pm right now (1pm the next day in Sydney and Melbourne). I'm
currently listening to the highly dramatic Talk Radio of WOR 710AM
("real" talk radio, NY's first AM station in HD Digital and 77
WABC (770AM).

I am most interested to study the Left-Right political divide of Talk
Radio (a highly inflamed divide between liberals and conservatives)
here in the States and am carrying a book about American Talk Radio
Wars that I purchased at RMIT University in Melbourne last year.

Especially having listened to Los Angeles talk station KFI this
morning, and WOR this evening, it is incredible the amount of hyperbole
the announcers use here to get their point across.

A big news story here today was President Bush stressing the need to
include "internet blogs" as a means of helping to get more "good news"
about Iraq into the public sphere.

A nice little story was brought to my attention by a bloke I spoke with
on the Long Island Rail Road, in between JFK Airport and New York Penn
Station at Madison Square Garden. It's about a coyote captured
yesterday in Central Park and is front page news on the cover of
"metro", New York's version of Sydney and Melbourne's MX newspaper.

Page 2 of tonight's "metro" describes the Empire State Building as
being lit tonight with yellow and white lights for the spring season.
This monumental site greets you as soon as you leave Penn Station.

Gotta go. Must get back to Penn and get the train to Washington DC.
In such a rush that my diet today has consisted of Doctor Pepper on my
AA (American) flight to from LA to NY, plus 2 Cheeseburgers with
excessive amounts of fancy ketchup at Seventh Avenue McDonald's.

Healthwise, Things can only get better though as it is easy to shop
here. There's even a Kmart in the subway

Would love to write all night as I've been keeping notes and taking
photos, but 80% of it is better kept for when I get back home to
Australia.

Take care and I'll write again as time allows.

....From Justin (Backpacker Bearcave)