![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
My trip to New York
I would have blogged about my trip sooner, but I've spent the last couple of days sick in bed. Just a bad cold, but it knocked me out for a while.
I arrived in New York Thursday afternoon, got the bus from LaGuardia, and arrived at my hotel to find that I had been upgraded to a king-size bed. Not that I needed it, but upgrades are nice! After unpacking and getting myself somewhat organized, I went down to the African Burial Ground National Monument (Photos here). While I was there, I was interviewed by RAI (Radiotelevisione italiana)! Seriously! I'd noticed two women with a film camera and a mike, and they approached me and asked if they could interview me. Why not? So they asked me what I thought about the monument, and then I asked them what this was for, and they said, "Italian television"!
I'd been intending to go to the neighborhood where the Bookcrossing Meetup was, and wander around for awhile beforehand, but it started pouring and blowing and my umbrella got trashed. Instead, I went into the Monument's Visitor's Center for awhile, and then found a Starbucks and nursed a cup of tea and a book. Then went to the Meetup and acquired a couple of more books.
Friday, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
That's the rood screen in the Medieval Galleries, one of my favorite things in the museum. I went to the exhibit, The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I liked very much, but it's rather oddly set up. It's not by artist, nor theme, nor time period, but by when the MMA acquired the works. Some of the descriptions say as much about the donor as about the painting! I'd checked out the list of tours, and decided to take a guided tour of the musical instrument collection. I was the only person who showed up, so it was quite a nice, private little tour. We went first to the Studiolo from the Ducal Palace, Gubbio (only 6 persons at a time, and no photographs allowed), which was awesome. Do check out the link, and zoom in on the woodwork; it's pretty amazing. The Met has quite a nice collection of instruments, from all over, and from many periods, and some nice association pieces (like Benny Goodman's clarinet). Many of them are playable, and, of those, many are played during concerts at the Museum.
I could have stayed there all day (heck, I could stay have stayed there for my entire visit!), but instead I went down to the Morgan Library & Museum for the show Painted with Words: Vincent van Gogh's Letters to Émile Bernard, which includes not only the letters, but also paintings, drawings and watercolors by both. And of course I went and drooled over Mr. Morgan's Library.
That night, I went to see the National Theatre of Greece'sperformance of Sophocles'Electra. It was done in modern Greek, with English supertitles. It was a very spare, yet nuanced, production, and Electra was as I've always thought of her, obsessive to the point of madness, and not terribly sympathetic.
I began Saturday by going to the Museum at FIT (FAshion Institute of Technology). There were two exhibits that I wanted to see, Luxury, which, as the name implies, was luxurious, expensive, extravagant gorgeous clothes. The lack of anything by Vionnet was made up for in the second exhibit, Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum. That one even had a Bes-Ben hat.
I'd heard about
down in Battery Park, so I headed down there, thinking I'd go for a short while. Ha. What fun! Just about every New York City cultural institution had a booth there, with free literature, raffles, games for the kiddies, etc. It was tremendous fun, and, after spending scads of time there and filling my bag with info about places to go the next time I'm in New York, I went across the street to the Alexander Hamilton Custom House, which now houses the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian to see the exhibits, and also the Git-Hoan Dancers, a company of First Peoples dancers based in Seattle.
Then back to the hotel to rest up a bit before the opera, which was the reason I came to NYC in the first place.
To be continued . . .
I arrived in New York Thursday afternoon, got the bus from LaGuardia, and arrived at my hotel to find that I had been upgraded to a king-size bed. Not that I needed it, but upgrades are nice! After unpacking and getting myself somewhat organized, I went down to the African Burial Ground National Monument (Photos here). While I was there, I was interviewed by RAI (Radiotelevisione italiana)! Seriously! I'd noticed two women with a film camera and a mike, and they approached me and asked if they could interview me. Why not? So they asked me what I thought about the monument, and then I asked them what this was for, and they said, "Italian television"!
I'd been intending to go to the neighborhood where the Bookcrossing Meetup was, and wander around for awhile beforehand, but it started pouring and blowing and my umbrella got trashed. Instead, I went into the Monument's Visitor's Center for awhile, and then found a Starbucks and nursed a cup of tea and a book. Then went to the Meetup and acquired a couple of more books.
Friday, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
That's the rood screen in the Medieval Galleries, one of my favorite things in the museum. I went to the exhibit, The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I liked very much, but it's rather oddly set up. It's not by artist, nor theme, nor time period, but by when the MMA acquired the works. Some of the descriptions say as much about the donor as about the painting! I'd checked out the list of tours, and decided to take a guided tour of the musical instrument collection. I was the only person who showed up, so it was quite a nice, private little tour. We went first to the Studiolo from the Ducal Palace, Gubbio (only 6 persons at a time, and no photographs allowed), which was awesome. Do check out the link, and zoom in on the woodwork; it's pretty amazing. The Met has quite a nice collection of instruments, from all over, and from many periods, and some nice association pieces (like Benny Goodman's clarinet). Many of them are playable, and, of those, many are played during concerts at the Museum.
I could have stayed there all day (heck, I could stay have stayed there for my entire visit!), but instead I went down to the Morgan Library & Museum for the show Painted with Words: Vincent van Gogh's Letters to Émile Bernard, which includes not only the letters, but also paintings, drawings and watercolors by both. And of course I went and drooled over Mr. Morgan's Library.
That night, I went to see the National Theatre of Greece'sperformance of Sophocles'Electra. It was done in modern Greek, with English supertitles. It was a very spare, yet nuanced, production, and Electra was as I've always thought of her, obsessive to the point of madness, and not terribly sympathetic.
I began Saturday by going to the Museum at FIT (FAshion Institute of Technology). There were two exhibits that I wanted to see, Luxury, which, as the name implies, was luxurious, expensive, extravagant gorgeous clothes. The lack of anything by Vionnet was made up for in the second exhibit, Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum. That one even had a Bes-Ben hat.
I'd heard about
down in Battery Park, so I headed down there, thinking I'd go for a short while. Ha. What fun! Just about every New York City cultural institution had a booth there, with free literature, raffles, games for the kiddies, etc. It was tremendous fun, and, after spending scads of time there and filling my bag with info about places to go the next time I'm in New York, I went across the street to the Alexander Hamilton Custom House, which now houses the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian to see the exhibits, and also the Git-Hoan Dancers, a company of First Peoples dancers based in Seattle.
Then back to the hotel to rest up a bit before the opera, which was the reason I came to NYC in the first place.
To be continued . . .