(Originally posted at Greater Democracy)

In 1983, I spent eight months traveling around the United States and Europe. It was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot about myself, my country, and the world through these experiences. I wish more people could spend time traveling like this.

I had been living in New York with a couple struggling actors and seen my share of off-off-Broadway plays. One of my roommates traveled with a company to perform in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so I made sure to pass through Edinburgh during the festival.

In spite of having access to lots of wonderful theatre in New York, Edinburgh blew me away. There was so much to see all packed into an incredibly tight schedule. I got my schedule and tried to figure out which plays to see and when to see them. I read the reviews in the Scotsman, and posted on the walls around Edinburgh. I saw five or six plays a day, and stumbled through my nightly pubcrawls, my mind spinning with many new thoughts.

I went back to Edinburgh several years in a row after that, and only stopped going when children made travel more difficult. How I have longed for such an overwhelming smorgasbord of artistic stimulation.

Now, living outside of New York City, and having covered the Democratic National Convention as a credentialed blogger, I have been trying to figure out what I want to do. As I noted in a previous entry, I’m particularly interested in the Progressive Tourist Bureau happening at The Tank, which will also be my home base for blogging when I’m in the city.

There is so much going on in New York next week, that I am feeling similarly overwhelmed as I did when I used to go to Edinburgh. Some of the big events include the United for Justice and Peace Massive NYC Protest on the Eve of the Republican National Convention on the 29th. This is an event that has been in the news a lot with the questions about where the march will be and various lawsuits back and forth.

In parallel with this, and with many of the other events going on throughout the week, the Billionaires for Bush will be keeping everything in perspective.

On the 31st, the War Resisters League is calling for http://www.warresisters.org/RNC_CD.htm >nonviolent direct action, with a march from the site of the World Trade Center to the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden, where they will have a “die-in”. This is not an event for the typical tourist, however, and there will be training in nonviolence on the days leading up to the “die-in”.

The next day, September 1st, for those who like large demonstrations is The Unemployment Line being organized by People For the American Way, The Imagine Festival of Arts and several other interesting groups.

The Republicans have been promising to try and take advantage of any chaos that ends up surrounding the demonstrations to illustrate why we need a strong commander in chief who will be tough on terrorist, evil doers and anyone who opposes them.

This leads me back to on of the organizers of The Unemployment Line. The Imagine Festival of Arts has a schedule of artistic events that reminds me of the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. They have a long list of plays, films, movies, discussions, and all kinds of other events. I’ve spent a lot of time reading through the schedule, trying to figure out which events to try and attend.

I plan to write more about these events over the next couple days as I work out my plan. However, one thing is clear already. There are so many great events going on, whether you are interested in demonstrations or in artistic events, that New York City is the place to be during the Republican Convention.