New York calls itself the “media capital of the world” for good reason: countless newspapers, magazines, television networks, film studios, and communications companies are based in the Big Apple. Many popular American television shows are taped in the city, and several are broadcast live—often with the city’s pedestrians passing by in the background.

Here are three of our favorite ways to be part of a TV show, times to show up, and ways to get on camera.  The best part? Most of it is free.

1) The Late Show with David Letterman
Where: Ed Sullivan Theater (1697 Broadway, at 53rd Street)
When: Weekdays

Home to the “Ed Sullivan Show” from 1948-1971, the theater now hosts David Letterman’s popular late night talk show, broadcast on CBS at 11:30 PM.

Tickets in person: Tickets are free and may be requested by visiting the theater and submitting a written request for shows up to one month in advance. Audience members will be contacted by phone if their request is accepted. The ticket office is open weekdays from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM, and 10 AM to 6 PM on Saturdays and Sundays. 

Tickets in advance: To secure tickets in advance without visiting the theater, use the show’s online ticket lottery. Fill out a form and, hopefully, you will be contacted by phone and asked a trivia question before you’re granted your free tickets. Note: They are serious about this. When we were called, they asked us for the name of the owner of the “Hello Deli”. Luckily, we knew it was “Rupert.” A friend wasn’t as lucky and was turned down. Know your Letterman!

Same-day tickets: A limited number of same-day standby tickets are available on the day of taping by calling (212) 247-6497 starting at 11 AM. This phone number is only “active” when tickets are available. Seats for standby tickets usually are in the back of the theater, but hey, it’s a great last-minute way to see the show. Visit the show’s website for more information about obtaining free tickets.

Tip: Assistants from the show scope out the crowd before taping. They hone in on bubbly, smiley types who are “camera ready.” We suggest chatting up these assistants. In the best case, you will be ushered down to the first two rows. Score.

2) Total Request Live (”TRL”)
Where: MTV Studios - 1515 Broadway at Times Square
When: Mondays through Thursday at 3:30 PM

MTV, the music television behemoth, broadcasts this hour-long musical show from its headquarters overlooking Times Square four days a week. The show is a medley of music videos, celebrity interviews, and live performances, taking place inside the studio and sometimes on the street. Tourists can watch the show taping from the sidewalk (and get in everyone’s way) or get plucked from the crowd to be a part of the in-studio audience.

Advance tickets: You may email MTV to request a “chance for studio audience tickets.” Check out this page for details. According to MTV, audience members must be between the ages of 16-24 or at least look like they are.

Same-day tickets: We know (on younger brother authority) that if you want to land a same-day spot in the studio audience, you’d better get in line early and “look the part.” Meaning? Get there before 2 PM (the show airs at 3:30 PM) and wear your best retro sweatshirt. A few dozen stand-outs will get ushered upstairs for the live studio show.

Otherwise, you can watch the show tape from below and be seen, if only as a tiny speck, within the larger crowd and street shots.

3) NBC Studios
Rockefeller Center -30 Rockefeller Plaza, between 49th and 50th Streets
When: Daily and Nightly

This is the mother load. “30 Rock,” as it’s often called, houses the NBC television network’s studios and corporate headquarters. Shows produced there include Saturday Night Live, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and more.

A studio tour ($18.50) takes you behind the scenes in many of the network’s studios, although it doesn’t get you tickets to any of the shows. (You might, however, see some stars walking through the hallway or in rehearsal, like on Saturday when SNL cast members are hard at work. We got to see Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon and Sean Hayes, when we swept through last time.)

Tickets to NBC shows taped in the building are offered in advance by email or telephone. Each show has its own ticketing policy and details are offered on this page of the NBC website. The Today Show broadcasts live from its windowed street-level studios at Rockefeller Center every morning from 7 AM to 10 AM, with its hosts taking frequent trips into the noisy crowd. Bring a smile—and scream.

Brits are of course now labouring under a diet of cold turkey. Christmas generates its own extraordinary traditions across Europe, which differ greatly from country to country. There is no such thing as a standard-issue European Christmas. The English certainly like their turkey on the Christmas table, but elsewhere across the continent firm Christmas favourites include baked carp, goose, spicy hams, and roast lamb.

Christmas may have come and gone in western Europe, but we shouldn’t forget that as we move east across the continent, things change. The Orthodox Churches still organise their affairs according to the old Julian calendar, and Christmas is not celebrated in most of eastern Europe until early January. By the time Russians sit down to have their Christmas meal (on the evening of 6 January), most western and central European households have already taken down their Christmas decorations.

The festive season brings its own cast of secular characters. So in Russia and other eastern European countries, Ded Moroz, also known as Father Frost, rewards children with gifts. Ded Moroz lives in northern Russia (click here to read more), an unkempt spot on the Sukhona river that is attempting to cash in on Ded Moroz in much the same way that Rovaniemi in northern Finland has proclaimed its credentials as the unbelievably tacky and ultra-commercial hometown of Santa Claus. While Santa relies on a bunch of elves for assistance, Ded Moroz lucks out in having secured the services of the beautiful Snegurochka to help distribute gifts.

Globalisation may have inflected many aspects of our lives, but Christmas still throws up its own culturally-encoded customs and characters.

This is the last in a series of eight postings by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries, a Berlin-based duo who edit hidden europe magazine. They will return with more contributions to EuroCheapo in Spring 2008.

Europe has its fair share of those little tiddler states – you know the ones, territories like San Marino, Monaco and Liechtenstein which, if you cut a decent pace, you can walk across in a day.

Vatican City is the tiniest of the bunch. You can stride from one end of this theocratic state to the other in the time it takes to mumble two Hail Marys. In addition to those well known microstates, there are places like the Faroes, the Åland Islands and the Bailiwick of Guernsey which function to all intents and purposes as independent states while retaining a nominal political link to another entity. Then there are the places that aspire towards independence, but whose secessionist aspirations have not yet been internationally recognised: Abkhazia, Transdniestr and – certainly one to watch in the weeks ahead – Kosovo.

Oddest of the bunch is surely Sealand, an upstart self-styled principality on an abandoned sea fort in the North Sea. No-one really takes Sealand seriously, except for the retired British army officer who ‘occupied’ this unprepossessing lump of concrete in 1967. He and his family (all now royals of course) really assert Sealand’s right to independence, and in this fortieth anniversary year of Sealand life, devoted (or gullible) fans of Europe’s quirkiest polity can purchase souvenir mugs and T-shirts.

Last year life on the offshore statelet took a turn for the worse when a fire in a generator room destroyed what few home comforts Sealand ever possessed. Unsurprisingly, the Sealand Royal Family are minded to quit and return to the English mainland. So Sealand is up for sale. If you have 750 million euros to spare, now is the chance to splash out and buy your own (presumably slightly singed) statelet.

This is the six in a series of fortnightly blog posts by the editors of hidden europe.

The cult of Che Guevara gets a boost this week as special events across Europe commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the revolutionary’s untimely death in Bolivia on October 9, 1967. In Derry in Ireland, a week of celebrations will include the unveiling on Saturday of a new mural of Che – complementing the long standing Che Guevara mural a little further up the Foyle valley in Strabane.

Che Guevara stock remains as high as ever among European socialists, not least in Andalucía (southern Spain) where knotty issues surrounding land tenure are still a popular grievance in some agricultural communities. Stop off in Marinaleda, just forty miles southwest of Córdoba, to catch the feel of a small town that has a passion for combative action against absentee landlords. A spark of revolutionary zeal permeates the town and is reflected in graffiti, street names and murals.

Other European socialist thinkers and politicians still mould the travel plans of more politically engaged travellers. There are larger than life figures of Lenin all across Europe (from Spitsbergen to St Petersburg) and even Stalin is eulogised in a new museum in Volgograd – and of course, in his home town of Gori in Georgia where a huge statue of Uncle Jo stands in the town’s main square.

Predictably Ulyanovsk, where Lenin lived as a kid, plays the Lenin card very strongly, but affection for Lenin is not just confined to Russia. There are good Lenin museums at Ulyanovsk, at Shushenskoye (where Lenin lived in exile and was married) and at Tampere in Finland.

The socialist flame has not been totally extinguished. Hasta la victoria siempre!

This is the third in a series of fortnightly blog posts by the editors of hidden europe.

Photo by Mike Kirwan

Recently, while staying in the beautiful Ardèche region of southeastern France, we were visited by a rather friendly and energetic canine named Plume (”Feather” in French.) Plume was nice enough to lead us on an exhausting hike through the swath of mountains she calls home.

Soft spoken and with a perma-smile, Plume lives by the mantra “bark softly, but carry a big stick.” Although her countryside French accent was a bit hard to understand, we sensed from the swift wagging of her tail that she appears to enjoy l’Ardèche as much as we do.

The Ardèche region is filled with mountains and streams. And while it’s become a favored summer hiking and camping destination for French as well as international visitors, it remains off the beaten path. The region provides a provincial respite from the pace of Paris and glitz of the Mediterranean coast.

Plus, the dogs roam without leashes and even lead hikes.

Photo by Sean Kirkham

Our personality of the week is none other than Nemo, a Hungarian-born French Bulldog puppy. You can often find Nemo strolling along the Danube or catching forty winks in Millenaris Park. His owner, Csaba Faludi, assures us that he has a bright future: “He’s a lady’s man. We can’t walk more then five minutes before someone comes up to us and comments on how adorable he is.”

Budapest is a very dog-friendly city. Some critics find fault with dog owner’s blasé attitudes concerning cleaning up after their dogs. Indeed, Lát-Kép, a Budapest beautification association, has even produced a movie—which can be found on youtube—promoting canine feces-free streets.

For those easily influence by the cuteness of Nemo, the puppy of your dreams can be found (for a hefty price) through europuppy.com, an online pet store with head offices located in Budapest. Also of note: the non-profit organization rex.hu is a non-kill shelter providing adoption services for Budapest’s abandoned or stray dogs.

Photo by Sean Kirkham

In Budapest, when a woman approaches you on Vaci Utca and asks you to accompany her to the local watering hole for a drink, you are naturally wary. The Russian and Hungarian mafia have for ages taken advantage of innocent tourists by luring them into seedy dives and then charging exorbitant fees.

However, when we were approached by 27-year-old Sophie Lorincz we knew we were in good shape. Sophie is a breath of fresh air. She’s Budapest’s new “it-girl,” effortlessly fluent in three languages. We recently spent a delightful afternoon with her. Well connected in the nightlife scene, she tipped us to the fact that female tourists always get in free to Budapest bars and clubs. (A perk? A curse? Ladies, you decide.)

A beautician by trade, Sophie can be found at Sebastian Grand Salon during the day—when she isn’t rushing off to the gym, that is. She also is a professional make-up artist, and does a fair amount of fashion shoot work on the side.

During the night she often frequents Mozaik, a popular restaurant in the city center. Her favorite night? “Sundays!” she exclaims. It’s when Mozaik offers a 50% discount on food.

Sebastian Grand Salon is located at Andrássy út 13, and can be reached by telephone at +36 1 268-0458. It’s open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m., and Saturday from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. Metro: Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út.

Sophie can be reached directly for an appointment at +36 70 386 4640.

Photograph by Sean Kirkham

Down Nádor Utca they stride, business men in tailored suits mixing with dapper Hungarian hipsters. It is 7 p.m., still early enough for tourists to stroll about and city buses to zoom by, though too early for the dinner set to head out for their standard night of debauchery.

Lukács Pálfalvi sips a café macchiato as he stares out at the goulash society crowd frequenting Terv Presszo, in the trendy financial district of Budapest. At the top of his game, Pálfalvi awaits his next potential client. The 31-year old is a part of Hungary’s new generation of young entrepreneurs. A graphic designer by trade, he is the owner of a small but successful web-related company, Ultramarin. Originally from the countryside, Pálfalvi has lived in Budapest for the past 13 years.

In addition to Terv—which provides an incredibly affordable cup for those on a budget—he also frequents Kultiplex for loud music and dancing.

photograph courtesy of Elen Farkas

Who is Marie-Louise von Motesiczky?

This is the question posed by a retrospective exhibition of many of the artist’s works at the Wien Museum, now through May 5. Though von Motesiczky was born in Austria, she spent most of her life outside of the country; along the way, she was very nearly forgotten by the Austrian public.

The painter was born in Vienna in 1906. She left school at the tender age of 13 and was already attending art classes in Europe—in Vienna and Paris—exhibiting only once in 1933. When Adolf Hitler declared the dreaded Anschluß in 1938, she and her mother quickly left Austria. They left behind a brother who perished at Auschwitz. After the war she quickly made her name in the visual arts world in her adopted city of London. It was during this time that von Motesiczky also met writer and Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti, who served as her companion for three decades.

For more than 70 years she painted and displayed her collection of works in different galleries and in different cities. In 1994, already established as one of the most important Austrian painters in the 20th century, the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere held a special exhibition to honor her. Two years after this recognition she died peacefully.

Find out more about Marie-Louise von Motesiczky by visiting Wien Museum at Karlsplatz, 1040 Vienna, open Tuesday to Sunday and public holidays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. General admission is €6, though groups, senior citizens, students, and the unemployed can count on reduced admission. Cheapo tip: entrance to the general collection is gratis every other Sunday.

photograph by Bernadett Szabó

Dr. Maria Schmidt, the Director of the House of Terror, is one charismatic lady. Hers is a tough position. The House of Terror details in length Hungary’s painful modern history of social control through haunting, interactive exhibits. The museum’s basement showcases the restored prison cells and torture rooms that once held countless prisoners.

Dr. Schmidt is politically engaged, as well. She’s a strong ally of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who can be credited in part with the establishment of the museum. This fact is not without controversy; in fact, some view the House of Terror as primarily motivated by politics. Recently, at a rally to commemorate the Museum’s 5th anniversary, Dr. Schmidt criticized the current government in no uncertain terms.

Though politics cannot be swept aside, it’s difficult not to be moved by the House of Terror and Dr. Schmidt’s work there. The museum is open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. It is located at Andrássy út 60.