NY_2007_Sat_Aug_3

This morning we slept in as late as we could. Good Morning America had a special broadcast from Bryant Park (in front of our hotel) so it was pretty noisy, pretty early.

The bridge collapse was still all over the news. It just is so strange to be watching all of these events unfold just a couple of miles from our home, and yet we are so far removed right now.

We ducked into a little deli/convenience store near our hotel for brunch, Zeytinz (24 W 40th Street). They have everything from salads to exotic olive oils, to ice cream and candy bars. After an expensive dinner last night, it was nice to have a full brunch for about $10.



After brunch we began our journey to Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum and the Guggenheim. We walked up 40th to 5th street and followed 5th until we hit Central Park.

Central Park is a really amazing expanse of greenway in the midst of skyscrapers. It is absolutely a paradise within chaos. Chris was really interested in all of the huge rock outcroppings within Central Park. I think we are going to try to look up some history on the creation of Central Park to better understand if they were a part of the natural landscape – or developed to enhance the beauty of the park.

There are so many different types of settings in Central Park. You will come across everything from a zoo, to wooden pagodas and of course, expansive lawns. It would be easy to spend an entire day wandering there.



We exited the park around 70th street and walked up 5th to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We were really interested in checking out a fashion exhibit, the Poiret exhibit.

Poiret was a couture designer and self-proclaimed “King of Fashion” during the early 1900’s. He is credited largely with the creation of the chemise and overall was instrumental in deconstructing the clothes that women wore at the time. Poiret moved away from corsets, which were a mainstay of women’s clothing at the time. Instead he pulled from both eastern and Greek history to develop new silhouettes. He was highly concerned with the drape of clothes, working “on model” in three dimensions vs. use of complex patterns to develop his clothes.

What was striking to me when viewing this beautiful collection was how relevant and contemporary so many of his designs appear nearly 100 years after they were initially conceived.

After the Poiret exhibit, we took in some of the modern art at the Met. It has an extensive collection of masterworks by greats such as Klee, Leger, Picasso, Renior, Stuart Davis, Braque and many, many others.

Chris was very taken with a number of the cubist works. It was fun to learn that we share an appreciation for this way of viewing the world.



We also made it up to the rooftop installation of Frank Stella works. These large, abstract sculptures were created fairly recently by Stella, in the 1990’s. I really loved the “Chinese Pavilion” piece, which looks like a big ball of bold brushstrokes, except the strokes are made of carbon fiber instead of paint.

It was also a great place to stop and contemplate the rooftops of NY. We got a little lemonade and found a bit of shade from which to take in the impressive view.

After the met we wandered a bit farther up 5th to the Guggenheim. The façade is being renovated right now, so you don’t get to see much of its brilliant white, sculptural shell however once inside you are still transported via an immense, spiraling interior.

Chris had heard that Frank Lloyd Wright had intended for visitors to take in the gallery from the top down, however the museum had in years since reworked exhibits to unfold from bottom up. With this in mind, we took the elevator up to the top and began our downward circle.

En route we took in so many amazing visions I can hardly remember them all. Our favorite works were by Yuken Teruya and Pipilotti Rist.

Yuken Teruya took every day shopping bags from Tiffany’s, McDonalds, Banana Republic and the like and cut detailed two dimensional trees out of one side that he then folded inward to create incredibly life-like three dimensional sculptures (of trees).

Pipilotti Rist took everyday objects and assembled them into a large installation of an apartment or house. Littered throughout were small to medium scale videos projected on various items from a stack of books to an empty bottle of alcohol. The effect was intended (according to the Guggenheim) to refer to the secret lives of inanimate objects. However for me the effect seemed more about ghost objects, or the life that is burned into the space objects occupy, that exists even when they disappear. The exhibit reminded me a lot of Tom Robbins’ novel, Still Life with Woodpecker. I haven’t read this in years but it made me want to pick it up again.

There is so much to see at the Guggenheim that I began to get pretty visually overloaded. We decided to end our gallery touring (abandoning our initial plan to also check out the Cooper Hewitt museum) and seek out a nice café for lunch.

It took us a while to come across something other than pizza, noodles or bagels. So when we stumbled into Geronimo it was an air-conditioned relief!

Geronimo (at 3rd and 90th street) isn’t a place I’d exactly go out of the way to experience, however they do have great salsa and provide a never-ending basket of homemade chips. This was reason enough for us to stop in, as all the walking had made us ravenous! For entrees, we ordered chicken soup (with rice, Pico de Gallo and avocado) and chicken flautas (with home-made guacamole that was delicious). Both were quite respectable, though nothing you couldn’t find elsewhere.

After leaving Geronimo it started to rain. We decided to abandon our initial plan to walk back to the hotel and instead took the subway. There were times it was raining hard enough that pedestrians simply lined up under awnings to wait out the downpour. Within a few minutes we spotted a street vendor selling umbrellas. You are never far away from some sort of street vendor when wandering NY!

Upon returning to the hotel we took some time to relax and shower. Riding a packed subway with hundreds of sweaty folks like yourself leaves one feeling less than fresh! Then we brought the laptop over to Bryant Park to do a little research in preparation for the evening.

Chris found a number of music events, but most of them were far away or we were too late to get a ticket. We searched our guidebooks (provided by the hotel) and decided to check out The Artisanal (2 Park at West 32nd) as it was supposed to have the best cheese selection in the U.S.

The walk to the restaurant was pleasant, as the temperatures were beginning to drop a bit. We were disappointed when we got there, as the environment and experience overall wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for.

The space was huge and patrons were packed in elbow to elbow. It had more of a suburban vibe vs. something quaint and unique. The waiter knew nothing about the cheese courses. He couldn’t even describe the cheeses I ordered for me, but kept referring me back to the menu. The wine list was respectable, at least. I did enjoy a nice sauvignon blanc with some sheep cheese from the Basque region. Chris had a French pinot noir and chicken cooked under a brick.

I was glad that I had gone with simple, light fare as Chris’ chicken came piled on top an enormous mound of mashed potatoes that were swimming in a moat of salty gravy. It looked like the typical fare you might expect from a chain restaurant like Champs. It was palatable, but it certainly wasn’t unique or special in any way.

We enjoyed the cooler evening and took our time getting back to the hotel. For the first time during our trip we saw a number of homeless folks bedding down for the night under cardboard boxes, or sometimes, simply sprawled out along side a building.

It was surprising to me to see so many homeless folks as in the last decade NY has done so much to clear the homeless folks off the streets. Though the result may be pleasant for visitors to NY, the means of providing this result so has done little to help the homeless problem overall. Homeless folks in NY are simply thrown in jail.

After dinner, Chris would have loved to check out more of the music/nightlife but unfortunately that was not to be. There was lightening in the sky as we walked back to our hotel and by the time we had settled in, thunder began to crackle and then there was the steady patter of rain. Personally, I was relieved to simply fall into bed for the night.