1. Backdating (I know, I stole that one from Brooke, but we got back into town yesterday and I completely forgot about this.)
2. Nearly empty flights, so you can spread out and stretch out.
3. Texas prices, instead of New York prices.
4. Dr. Pepper (Which was very difficult to find in NY)
5. Getting to our home, and playing with our puppy.
1. M&Ms in ever color you can imagine.
2. A bucket full of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
3. Spiffy clocks from the MoMA Design Store.
4. Dinner, served by an alien.
5. Live stand up comedy
We slept in on Thursday, so we didn’t get out of the hotel until about 10:30 or 11:00. We hopped on the subway and headed to Chinatown. Or, well, that’s where we thought we were headed. I checked on the location and saw a picture with the “Canal Street” subway sign on it, so we grabbed the Q train downtown to Canal Street. While this was close, it put us just outside of Chinatown, but close enough that we couldn’t tell where we were supposed to go from there.
We wandered around for a while, eventually sort of just running into tons of signs with writing we couldn’t read that looked vaguely Asian in origin, so we figured that was the place. We walked around, looked in some shops at fake Louis Vuiton, Coach, Gucci, etc etc. It was all well and good. We found a little sketchy looking restaurant, went in, and discovered that nearly everything was written in Chinese. Well, there were some English names on the menu too, but it was, by far, the minority language. We ordered a couple things we recognized, Chicken Lo Mein, and Sweet and Sour Chicken, and waited for the food. It came, and we both decided it was the best we’d ever had. P.F. Chang’s, eat your heart out.
We bundled up again, and went to find this store we’d heard about. It’s called YunHong, and they sell Chopsticks. That’s all. Chopsticks. It sounded lovely, so we set out to find it. It would be an understatement to say we did a poor job. We walked all over, went the wrong way down the streets, etc etc. Then, I panicked. I realized I left my camera bag at the restaurant. We were next to a small courtyard, so Kreestone sat down while I rushed back to the store. I walked back to our table, interrupted the conversation of the people sitting there, and asked about my bag. Fortunately, the waitress saw me come in, and came and got my to tell me they had it at the front desk. *whew* As soon as I realized I wasn’t carrying it, I figured it was gone, but thanks to the wait staff there, I got it back. Cynicism: 0, Humankind: 1.
We continued on our way, on our quest to find the shop, and while we ended up walking about 10 blocks more than we needed to (with all the wrong-waying), we finally found it, and it was amazing! There were some absolutely beautiful chopsticks in there, ebony with silver gilding, mahogany, etc etc. They were absolutely beautiful. We ended up getting a set of 6, bamboo with jade ends. They’re beautiful. (Again, pictures and such later. No camera cable.)
We got back home, rested a little, and got ready to out to our second show of the week: Avenue Q. If you’re a fan of the off-color, non-politically correct, sarcastic humor, then this show is for you. I laughed more than I’ve laughed in quite a while. As with Wicked, if it comes your way, SEE THIS SHOW.
We went back to the Stardust for some shakes, then we turned in for the night. 5 excellent days, just a couple more to go before we return to real life.
1. Free breakfast.
2. Elevators.
3. Sunshine coming down between the buildings.
4. Warm clothes, cold weather.
5. Free Wifi. (As one of my professors pronounced it, “Whiffee”)
Because we were astonished to find that the MoMA is CLOSED on Tuesdays, we decided to bump those plans over to Wednesday. We got up, had some breakfast, and headed out (in the rain / snow) to the MoMA. Once there, we went straight to the top floor where they were having a special exhibit of Marlene Dumas’s work. The exhbition was called “Measuring Your Own Grave” after one of her paintings, and the work inside was just as macabre as the title. Hanging children, nude children, hands dripping with red, etc etc.
We didn’t stay there long, not just because it was a little dark, but because, honestly, we didn’t get it. Her style was subtle, with hints of 6-year-old art project, and it finished with a bit of a vinegarish flavor.
We hopped an escalator to the next floor down, where we finally saw some stuff we liked! Cézzanne, Picaso, Van Gogh, and a few I’d not heard of before, like Henri Rousseau, Georges Braque, Yves Tanguy, and several others. (Again, I’ve got some great shots of these guys’ paintings, but I forgot my cable. I’ll post about them later) We were surrounded by cubism, impressionism, and all manners of Art modern. We finished perusing the floor and hopped down another one.
Now, I like Art, whether it be with words, pictures, movies, paint, sculpture, etc. I really do. But I think my definition of Art must be a little too narrow, or some painters are just a little too pretentious. For example. Barnett Newman is one of those painters who paints lines on a canvas. Just lines, vertical stripes. He calls these things fine art. The most pretentious, I think, was his painting called “The Wild” (Click the link, you can see it). If it’s unclear in the picture, the whole of the painting is a 1-inch by 6.5 foot strip of canvas painted red. Now, what on EARTH, could that do for anyone seeking truth, beauty, or the American way? I just don’t quite get it, I guess.
In any event, we wandered around, saw some neat stuff, saw some ridiculous stuff, and after we’d been there for about 4 hours, we decided to get some lunch and get some rest at the hotel. Well, we made a grave error in our lunch decision. Because we were so close to the hotel, we thought we’d just grab the lunch buffet at the restaurant here before we headed upstairs. Little did we know that by doing so, we were destined for a world of hurt. Or, at least, a world of ridiculously expensive lunches. We ate, it was delicious, then they brought us the receipt to sign to charge it to our room. $54 later, we were riding the elevator back to the room in shock and despair. It was rather unfortunate.
We got to the room, promptly fell alseep, and didn’t wake up until around 6. We went back out to times square, to see the things we hadn’t seen yet, and stopped in for dinner at what has now become my favorite place in New York City. The Stardust Diner. The wait staff takes turns serenading the patrons with show tunes, country, and myriad other genres. It was great fun. Oh, AND? Their chocolate shakes were just as good as Howard Johnson’s were before they closed, so that sealed the deal.
We walked around a bit more before packing it in for the evening. We’ve seen new things every day, and it’s been a lot of fun, but I’m realizing more and more every day that there’s so much more that we want to see that we won’t be able to. This city is just so big, there’s no way to see it all in a week, even if we didn’t take a nap in the middle of the day. Guess we’ll just have to come back sometime.
Tuesday was also a pretty big day. Although we got a later start than we wanted, we still had a lot of fun. First, we got out and grabbed a couple hotdogs at a vendor, then we headed just down the street to the Museum of Modern Art, which is only half a block from the Hotel. We got there only to discover that it’s closed on Tuesdays.
Closed on Tuesdays? Really? This is New York City, dammit, the city that never sleeps! Or closes! Right? RIGHT? In any event, we checked out the MoMA shop across the street and figured out what we were going to do instead. We decided to go see the New York City Aquarium, because, hey, fishes and things are cool. We figured out what trains we needed to take and set out to head there.
We got on the train, and waited. And waited and waited and waited. We were on that train for nearly an hour before we got to the stop we needed, but it was well worth it. The aquarium is close to Coney Island, and while this is the third time I’ve been to NYC, I’ve never been down to that area. Really, I was taken aback. There’s something very different walking down a boardwalk than walking down broadway. Rather than being surrounded by an ocean of people, we were more or less alone, with the city on one side and a beach on the other. I guess I should know better, but when I think about NYC, I don’t think beach.
In any event, we saw all sorts of cool fishes, and other marine life, but the best by far was the California Sea Lion show. I’ve got some pictures, but I don’t have my cable, so whenever I get back home, I’ll make one big photo post, (like Ree over at The Pioneer Woman does). The show consisted of a number of his tricks, and I don’t care if it was designed for kids, it was a hell of a lot of fun.
After that, we hopped the hour-long train back to the hotel, got ready, grabbed a pretzel, and saw Wicked at the Gershwin Theater. I’ve seen the show before, in Dallas, but let me tell you, the NYC company absolutely blew them away. The show was phenomenal, even if Galinda accidentally threw her wand off stage and Elphaba accidentally whacked Fiyero in the head with her broom. If you’re ever in New York, see this show. That’s really all there is to it.
Despite the fact that Kreestone and I were being a little cranky yesterday, it was yet another great day.