Russell Has Arrived

Central Park Reservoir

Russell arrived in New York Saturday morning after changing his ticked to an earlier date. Once he got settled in his first request was to see Central Park. I obliged, so we got him a MetroCard and took the subway to the park for a walk, and what a nice walk it was! We started out walking around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir then headed toward the Great Lawn and the Turtle Pond, stopped to see the kid juggler, then arrived at the southern exit of the park. Once we exited we took a break on a shaded bench and did some people watching for 20 minutes.

After a quick break we continued our walk towards Times Square. On our was we came across the great group of break dancers, I guess you would call them - some did dancing, some did crazy acrobatics. I will post up a video here once I upload it to youtube. After watching the dancers we continued on to Times Square where we saw a huge billboard that had a picture of Mahmoud Ahmadineja, the President of Iran, with a caption reading, "He's not welcome here." It was a poster for UANI - United Against Nuclear Iran. I wonder if people know that Iran does not yet possess weapons grade nuclear capabilities and they have also signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which allows them to develop nuclear power for peaceful

Trinity Church Cemetery

purposes. Yet the US has 5,113 nuclear warheads - and don't even get me started on Israel and its illegal nuclear arsenal - talk about hypocrisy! Maybe we should think about reducing our own arsenal. I mean honestly, 5,113? Do we really need to have the power to not only destroy ourselves and our planet, but to destroy it multiple times over? I am all for a nuclear free world, but come on folks, take a look in the mirror! I could go on, but I don't want to get myself into trouble...

After a short stroll through Times Square, Russell and I headed back home for some well deserved sleep.

Trinity Church

The following Sunday we decided to take a walk through Lower Manhattan. I took Russell on the walking tour I had taken myself on previously. We began at City Hall Park and walked towards Ground Zero, stopping on the way at the Woolworth Building. There is a sign outside that says no tourists allowed in the building, but we ignored it because we wanted to see the famed gold mosaic ceiling - and it was well worth getting yelled at... so beautiful! Next was St Paul Chapel, which overlooks Ground Zero. We sat on a bench in the cemetery for a little break before moving on towards Trinity Church and Wall Street.

Last time I went on this walking tour Trinity Church was closed for the day, but this time I arrived early enough to enter the cemetery and the church. Trinity Church was Russell's favorite part of the day. He, like me, noticed that the headstones were being washed away by weathering and we talked about how life is so ephemeral. There really is no time to waste on negative emotions and feelings. This is one area where we are always on the same page - we both want to live and experience life as much as we can in happiness and joy.

New York Stock Exhange

We also went into Trinity Church. There was some sort of service going on but we stayed in a side room what was surrounded by tomb-looking memorials. The inside of the church (as well as the outside) is done in a beautiful Gothic style with dome ceilings and intricately carved walls ceilings, and statues and wooded trim around the doorways. In one side room, I am sure there is a specific name for it, we kneeled to pray and meditate. It was very peaceful and relaxing.

After leaving the church we walked down Wall Street into the Financial District to see Federal Hall, where George Washington took his oath of office to become our first President, and the New York Stock Exchange.

Staten Island Ferry

Next we walked to Bowling Green to see the Charging Bull statue, when it began raining. Since it was raining we ducked into the National Museum of the American Indian before heading to the Staten Island Ferry house for a free ferry ride past the Statue of Liberty to Staten Island. I must say that the Statue of Liberty is a bit underwhelming. I thought it would be a lot bigger. Once Russell and I arrived on Staten Island we took a little stroll around. I would have liked to go to the huge nature reserve on the island for a hike but we didn't have time. After our quick walk we caught the next ferry and headed back to Manhattan for our appointment to see a place for sublet in Harlem/Washington Heights. The place was really great - in a brownstone, right next to the Hudson River and a great natural shopping market. Today we just found out that we got the place! We will be moving there on Aug 10th until the end of September. Once we saw the place we took a park to a park on the Hudson, laid out my sarong, and relaxed there for a half hour before checking out the super market nearby. After a quick shopping trip we headed back to the subway, which ended up turning into a long walk through Columbia University and NY City College, both beautiful campuses!

Next, we hopped on the subway and made our way home. I slept like a baby after all the walking we did that day!

Trinity Church Cemetery and Russell

Brooklyn Museum & Botanic Garden

Pink Lotus Flower - Brooklyn Botanic Garden

After a nice day at the beach on Saturday, I decided to check out the Brooklyn Museum (photos) and Botanic Garden (photos) the following Sunday. My timing really could not have been better because apparently there was a good sized storm that passed through, knocking down a couple of trees and throwing parts of northern NYC into darkness - well it was daytime out so I guess it wouldn't be darkness, but you get what I'm saying.

The Brooklyn Museum is the country's second largest museum, following the Met, and contains 1.5 million pieces and the largest Egyptian collection in the Americas. It also has an Arts of Africa exhibit, including a few video loops  offering a quick look into African customs, especially those surrounding the masks and costumes. On the second floor there were exhibits for Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Islamic, Indian, and Southeast Asian Art. The third floor was all Egyptian, but I will get to that later. The fourth floor I pretty much breezed through. It was all about fashion and had a bunch of clothes and shoes - no thanks, that is just not my cup of tea. The fourth floor also has some contemporary art, as well as (replicas of?) the interior of old houses that belonged to people who I have never heard of. The fifth floor included exhibits of American Identities and also the visible storage and study room.

Meditation - Brooklyn Museum

What is currently on the fifth floor is what originally drew me to this museum - Andy Warhol, the last decade. It is a temporary exhibit, and honestly I had much higher expectations. This could have been because there were no pieces that I recognized, but it was still very interesting.

Now, back to the third floor - the Egyptian rooms. I learned so much walking through the third floor, reading everything I could. The most interesting thing that I learned, that I had not already known, was about the positions of the statues. There are only about six different poses that you will see in Egyptian statues:

• Standing: One of the oldest poses, developed even before the Old Kingdom but remained popular throughout Egyptian history. Men are shown with their left foot advances and usually their fists clenched. Women are shown with both feet together or their left foot only slightly advanced and often hold objects or have their hands flat at their sides.
• Seated: This pose also dates back to before the Old Kingdom, when furniture was relatively rare, thus is associated with status and wealth. The Egyptian words for "nobility" and "wealth" are actually a hieroglyph showing a figure seated on a chair.
• Scribe: The scribe pose, a man seated on the ground with crossed legs, is usually shown holding a roll of papyrus spread across his lap. Being a scribe indicated the subject's education, and because education was highly valued by Ancient Egyptians, it also showed his prestige.
• Kneeling: This is considered a pose of worship or prayer, which is why most kneeling statues have been found in temples. Very few were made for non-royal people until the New Kingdom.
• Block: This pose almost always shows a non-royal figure, almost always a male, sitting on the ground, knees up, and arms folded to indicate patience. The figure is usually shown wrapped in a cloak on which inscriptions were often carved.
• Shawabti: These are small, shrouded, cross-armed funerary statues. They represent the deceased and were intended to do agricultural work in place of those persons in the afterlife - like little clones.

I am sure that I am flying my nerd flag high right now, but whatever, I think this is interesting stuff!

Stargazer Lily in Shakespeare's Garden

The one thing that I felt torn about was the mummy chamber. The museum is home to four mummies that depict the four main mummification techniques. The mummies, with the bodies still inside, have been taken out of the coffins and put on display (the dressings are still surrounding the bodies, of course). I wasn't sure how to feel about this. Removing the dead from their resting place, where they have been for thousands of years, to put them on display for people to gawk at just seems wrong. I was going to take a photo, but that felt too disrespectful to me. I can understand the argument that putting them on display is for educational and cultural purposes, and it may be better for them to be displayed in a museum rather than having someone else get their hands on them and distribute them in the black market of art, but still, I fell very torn. I would like to take a class on the ethics of displaying ancient artifacts and remains.

Along with human mummies there were also mummies of animals! Animals were routinely mummified in the same way humans were and have been found in the tens of thousands in so-called animal cemeteries at a number of sites in Egypt. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

After my very interesting museum visit, despite the rain, I decided to head to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Apparently not many people like being out in the rain, but I love it - ahh summer rain! It was great to have the gardens practically all to myself, and the rain stopped after about 15 minutes anyways. I took some really great photos and discovered that I absolutely love lotus flowers! I really wish that my friend Anne was there with me, though - she knows everything about everything when it comes to plants!

I took about an hour and a half stroll through the different gardens before closing time, and then I was back on the train heading home. Oh, and on the train there were these great performers doing dance and acrobatics - video posted below!

MoMa - Museum of Modern Art

Study for Luxe, calme et volupté, Henri Matisse

Today after cleaning Ziggy's litter box I went to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa, for short). This is the third museum I have visited, but I definitely did not save the best of the big three  for last. Actually, I'd say that I visited them in my order of preference - the Museum of Natural History, followed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), and lastly the Museum of Modern Art. I love the natural sciences and anthropology, so it mades sense the the Museum of Natural History was my favorite. The Met is a mix of anthropology and art, so it was a nice middle ground. But the MoMa... maybe I just don't get modern art. I didn't find the MoMa very striking. Of course there was some beautiful artwork that stopped my in my tracks, but there was a lot of work that left me scratching my head wondering, "So this is what they call art?"

Luncheon on the Grass, Pablo Picasso

The MoMa does house van Gogh's Starry Night, my favorite painting (well one of my favorites, now that I have been introduced to Monet and others). Besides being a New York icon, seeing Starry Night was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to the MoMa. Although I feel that Starry Night and van Gogh's other painting, Olive Trees, would have fit better at the Met.

The MoMa also had a bunch of Picasso's. I must say that Picasso is growing on me. I like all of the shapes and colors - I can search his paintings for however long I want and always find something new that I hadn't noticed before, this is especially true of his sketches.

Street Food

One exhibit that I especially liked was one called "Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfronts. This project basically re-envisions the coastlines of New York and New Jersey around New York Harbor in an attempt to put forward new ideas that would transform the harbor into “soft” infrastructures that promote good ecology, and in the future, will help prevent New York City from being inundated by rising sea levels. The plan comes is a five part solution and is actually very ingenious, if only there was enough political might and public interest in getting a project like this going. My favorite solution was Oyster-Tecture. Basically the plan is to suspend a matrix of nets below that water that will hold native oysters. There will be spaces between the clumps of oysters for sea life and for people to scuba dive, swim, and snorkel. Eventually the oyster clumps will become mini islands that will be connected by walking paths for the public to enjoy. The oyster islands will not only act as a recreational area for the people of NYC, but will also act as a storm barrier, causing waves to break up and prevent large storm surges. You can see a mini version of the plan in the photos I took.

I also liked the Tree of Wishes - a gift from Yoko Ono. You write a wish on a tab with a string then tie it onto this small tree. I wished for a peaceful end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and for the end of the war in Afghanistan. Neither are likely to happen any time soon, but one can hope. Maybe Obama will pick up Newsweek magazine this Sunday featuring a cover story by Richard Haass called "Rethinking Afghanistan: We're not winning. It's not worth it. Here's how to draw down in Afghanistan."

Radio City Music Hall

After the museum I took a walk through Rockefeller Center and the diamond district. I wonder if people are aware of where some of those diamonds come from and the circumstances in which they are obtained.

I also had some street food today. Generally street food is pretty great, but today the rice was only ok, the falafel was really dry, and the salad was tasteless. What a letdown. Oh well. I always am thankful that I have the ability to have food whenever I want it.

Also, I have met flickr's photo limit of 200. I am thinking of migrating to Goggle's Picasa. Has anyone tried out Picasa?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Another excellent weekend! After sleeping in and lounging around the house for a while I decided that i had better get outside and get moving, so I hopped on the train and decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met, for short). Again, like all of my other weekend adventures, the museum did not let down!

For general admission it is $20, but for students it is only $10 - yes! I've noticed that at museums around here you don't pay for admission. The sales clerks always say, "It is suggested that you make a $10 donation. Is that ok?" This time I asked the guy what would happen if I said that I didn't want to pay $10. He told me that he would just ask how much I wanted to pay and then that is what I would pay. So apparently they can't charge you, but prefer that you make the suggested donation. I think that you car really say that you don't want to make a donation and they would still have to let you in. I would try it, but $10 is nothing for a nice day in a lovely air conditioned building.

Upon entrance I went directly to the gift shop to get some postcards, which I still need to write on and mail out. I also bought two rocking blue bracelets... well I bought one at the beginning, then another one later when I decided that they would look rad as cuffs. Anyways, after that quick stop I entered that galleries. I started with the Egyptian Wing. It was full of art, sarcophaguses (or sarcophagi, whatever you prefer), sculptures, and actual walls from some of the buildings and tombs in Egypt. The Egyptian Wing was certainly one of my favorite parts of the Museum (along with Islamic, Asian, and Oceanic Art). It still creeps me out a little that we dig up bodies that have been entombed for thousands of years. Seems so disrespectful. I wonder if there will be any creatures around to to the same to us in a few thousand years. Another thing I found interesting were the ancient flip-flops on display. I guess it's true - some things never go out of style!

After the Egyptians came the American Wing....zzzzzz.... snooze. I didn't much like the over the top furnishings and huge beds... there wasn't really much art, mostly just artifacts, I guess you would call them. Early American artifacts. I went through there pretty fast and made my way through Medieval Art and on to European Sculpture and Decorative Art. I went through those two sections rather quickly. Then came a small Modern Art section, which was ok. Next was Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas - kind of an odd group to cluster together, but whatever, it was one of my favorite areas! I took some good photos in that area but when I got home some of the photos were destroyed! I was a little upset over loosing a few really good photos, oh well though, no use in staying upset. Anyways, I thought the Ambrym Silt Gongs were really neat, and really huge! They are one of the largest freestanding musical instruments on earth and can carry sound for miles enabling them to be used for communication over very long distances - even, in some cases, between islands! All of the colorful headgear and costumes were neat as well.

The last section of the first floor was the Greek and Roman Art. The art was nice but what I enjoyed even more were the sculptures. They are all so big and beautiful and all with such detail. Just as I do with art work (and sarcophaguses), I like to look at the expressions on the faces of the sculptures, well the ones who still have faces anyways.

After finishing my tour of the first floor I went on up to the second floor where I spent most of my time in the Asian Art area. I especially liked the Ancient Near Eastern Art, Islamic Art, and South Asian Art sections. Upstairs there was also sections for Cypriotic, Central Asian, Korean, Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Japanese Art, along with more American and Modern Art.

Two Cut Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh

Another area that I spent a lot of time in was the European Paintings Hall. That is where I saw my very first real life Vincent van Gogh painting, who, up until this point, has been my favorite painter with his "Starry Night," (Starry Night is not in the Met, but is at the MoMa, where I will go this coming weekend) but after seeing some Monet I think Mr. van Gogh has some serious competition in vying for the favorite spot in my book. There were two paintings that I absolutely adored, but the descriptions of them were among the photos that never made it out of my camera, so now I don't know their titles or the painter... maybe you can help? You can see them here and here.

Currently, there is Pablo Picasso exhibit going on at the Met. It is quite large and shown many of his famous works as well as many of his lesser known works that he created throughout this life. There was even one, called Erotic Scene, finished in 1982, that Picasso himself disowned and is now on display for the first time ever, well since April 2010. That painting was getting quite a lot of attention and elicited more than a few giggles. I'd say my favorite Picasso painting that is saw was Guitar and Clarinet on a Mantelpiece (1915). I also enjoyed The Dreamer (1932) and Bacchanal with Kid and Spectator (1959).

Erica on the roof of the Met

After spending some time admiring all of the artwork at the museum I must say that I think I enjoy bright, vivid colors but I also enjoy a good neutral colored painting, especially ones with blues (such as uitar and Clarinet on a Mantelpiece). I also found that I like Pointillism very much.

Once I had seen everything I began heading for the exit when I recalled seeing a sign that pointed to an elevator to the rooftop garden - there is not way I was going to miss a rooftop garden! And good thing too, it was spectacular!!! The Met, you see, is in Central Park, so the view from the roof looks over the park towards downtown Manhattan. What an incredible view and there was a nice breeze blowing - just perfect. I decided that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a cool drink on the roof of the Met, because really how often will I get that chance. I put down $12 for a deliciously fruity martini, walked to the edge and stood drinking in the flavors, the view, the breeze, and the wonderful day.

Metropolitain Museum of Art rooftop view

Night at the Museum

Erica in the Hall of Rocks and Minerals at the Natural History Museum

Well I didn't really spend the night at the museum, but I did go to the American Museum of Natural History, where the movie Night at the Museum was filmed, and spend a good part of my day there yesterday. I heard a little boy tell his mom, "Mommy, I want to spend four days here!" Kid, I couldn't have said it better myself. Maybe it is because I could totally geek out while I was there, because I absolutely loved it!!! I spent so much time reading every informational placard around, especially within the Biodiversity Hall, the Cullman Hall of the Universe, the Hall of Planet Earth (geology), the Hall of Human Origins, and the Halls of Minerals, Gems, and Meteorites. I literally spent four hours total in those halls alone then had to rush through everything else in only and hour because the museum was closing.

Going through the different animal halls was nothing that spectacular - a bunch of stuffed animals pretty much. I would rather see them in a zoo, or even better, in real life (well only some of them, others are quite dangerous). The different cultural areas were great as well, but I didn't get to spend as much time in them as I would have liked. Going through the Mexico and Central American Hall I noticed that there were miniature models of the ruins I recently explored this past Christmas in the Yucatan. There were a bunch of people taking photos with the mini replicas, and it made me wonder how many of those people will ever have a chance to see them in real life. I felt very privileged at that moment. My favorite cultural area, though, was the Hall of Asian Peoples. I love all of the colors and art, especially out of India as well as the Buddhist culture - it is all just too beautiful. Walking through there brought back all of my desires to travel through and experience Asia.

Easter Island Head, aka "Dum-Dum"

One area that was moving was the Hall of Biodiversity, which really was about how badly we are screwing the planet and ourselves - cultural extinction, mining, over fishing, deforestation, invasive species, groundwater depletion, on and on. Basically it is there to alert the public to the critical role biodiversity plays in sustaining life as we know it, and to the ecological crisis we are now facing. Sad that I was literally the only person that stopped to read a single line, for everyone else it was just a walkthrough to the Hall of Ocean Life and the giant blue whale. Ignorance is bliss. I can't blame people for wanting to speed through to see the blue whale hanging from the ceiling in a massive hall. The blue whale is largest known creature to ever live on planet Earth, even larger than the dinosaurs. Sadly, the blue whale is now an endangered species and their numbers are dwindling below 2,500, whereas before whaling there were over 275,000 of them spread throughout the world's oceans.

Blue Whale at the American Museum of Natural History

Soon the blue whale may be joining the extinct dinosaurs and only its bones will be on display for future generations. Unfortunately for me I did not have much time to study fossils of the dinosaurs on display since I had only 15 minutes left until closing time and I wanted to make it to take a photo with Dum-dum (you remember, "Dum-dum want some gum-gum"). I did end up making it there right before they started kicking stragglers like me out.

Globe in front of the Trump Tower

Trump Tower

After the museum i went for a little walk around the streets of Manhattan in search of some delicious sushi. There were a few places that I saw but the all looked super fancy so I passed and resolved to go grocery shopping once I got closer to home instead. As I was wandering down the street towards who knows where a swarm of hundreds of motorcycles came charging down the street. At first it was total chaos with the drivers swerving in and out of traffic but eventually there were too many close calls that traffic just came to a halt (I have some video here). After that little show I continued my walk and ended up at the Trump International Tower in front of Columbus Circle. From there I headed down into the subway, where there were these fellas playing some odd musical instrument (video). If anybody knows what this instrument is called please let me know, it sounded beautiful. After a short wait I hopped on the train for the ride home.