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.