I can't believe I just quoted Jay-Z as a post title.
Last day in NY today, a mere 3. I'm missing all the pride fun, boo, but I get to head up to the glorious cape cod, so things could be worse. I haven't made it out to lady liberty yet, cause that takes time, but I might do it on my way back in August.
Today was museum day pretty much, I did the Guggenheim, Metropolitan, and Modern Art Museums. The Guggenhiem is the famouss round spiral like one. There were quite a few things I liked in there, mostly the media projects actually. At the top of the spiral its actually qutie a long way down to jump, and the 3ft wall and sporadic guards aren't gonna do a lot if you're determined; it's a fall that'd definitely hurt, maybe if you land in the right/wrong place you'd get a death out of it.
The Museum of Modern Art was rather disappointing. Maybe it's just my taste in modern art that it doesn't appeal to, but I did the whole thing in 45 minutes. SFMoMa is way better. NY seemed to be very focused on finding what was modern that could be called art; they had dysons and televisions from the 50s and telephones and vacform plastic chairs and such,; as opposed to what's art that happens to be modern. Also, having just seen Red the night before again, reiterating the reasons why Rothko paintings are designed for dimly lit spaces, it was rather pointless to find the 3 they had in a fully bright gallery streaming with natural light. Maybe gallery curators should go see plays about the artists they exhibit...
The Metropolitan Museum however, was a pleasant surprise, much more so than I expected to be. Think the British museum, but American super-sized. This thing stretches across about 3 blocks. Inside, was a full size italian church, complete with vaulted ceilings. And that was ONE gallery. I got completely lost in there, I have no idea if I covered everything or not. They had many period rooms of american history (cause american like to pretend 200 years gives them extensive history), many stately home sytle period rooms, exhibiting renaissance european style, mostly things like rococo and french louis XVIth, and even I enjoyed wandering round those, wishing I lived in somewhere with a bookcase 12ft high made of mahogany and a marble bookstand taller than me. There was nothing exceptional I noted in the greek/roman period rooms, though the native american and south american native art gallerys had some amazing pieces in. HIGHLY worth a look if you find yourself in the New York area. Just head to the right area, you can't miss it once you're in the vicinity.
I also saw some of the good old New York shops. Barneys men's store has an entire level devoted to Armani and Prada. Aside from that, there was nothing of great interest at the moment.
Finally, I did th e Brooklyn Bridge walk today. Despite Lawrence's arguments, and whilst I acknowledge with respect the achievements of the Brooklyn Bridge, to me, it still has nothing on the Golden Gate. From the lesser weight, to the rusting paintwork, to the paltry size of the cables, it just can't compare. The Golden Gate deals with things the Brooklyn bridge doesnt. A national monument in the way,; ludicrously strong currents, a much great span distance, the golden gate is a much bigger symbol in my head. Yes, I've admitted I'm a bridge geek before. One thing I will say for the Brooklyn Bridge, it's a lot harder to commit suicide off it, still easily doable, but relatively much harder.
I think I only walked 50 city blocks and one bridge today, which is an improvement, but not by much, oh dear. Still, there will be cars with people to drive me around in them for the next little while.
Happy Birthday Joel. And sorry for the headache you're about to receive.
Song of the moment: Jacob Diefenbach - Last One Running
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