New York

It's been one week to the day since I got back from New York, and I feel it's time to make a blog entry about it. Let me preface this entry by saying that this was the first real vacation I have ever been on. Growing up I would I always go with my family to visit my extended family for the Fourth of July and Christmas, but that doesn't really count because you can only go somewhere so many times before it's not new and exciting. So that being said, this was the best trip I have ever gone on.

The original plan for the trip was to go between sessions of summer school here at UCI so that no one would miss any class and three of us had planned to go: Caroline, Dory, and myself. Dory had to cancel going due to a lack of funds after applying to a large number of graduate schools. This was but the beginning of complications we would experience. We had also planned to stay with some friends of Dory, who we already knew but are more of acquaintences. After Dory cancelled we got word that these two friends were going to be extremely busy and would not be able to accomodate us. Despite these complications, Caroline and I were still determined to go. Trying to think economically, we booked a relatively inexpensive hostel, which ironically had the word "royal" in its name, but we'll get back to that.

On Wednesday August 2nd, we rushed to get ready and pack our bags amid a bad haircut and a disastrous mystic tan. After a difficult morning we got to the Long Beach Airport with a good 45 minutes to spare. Our flight took a good six hours or so but luckily we flew Jet Blue and had Direct TV, books, and a Nintendo DS to keep us entertained as we flew across the continent. So aside from the smelly man that I competed with for the arm rest the entire way, the flight was rather enjoyable. I don't think we, or at least I was really sure what to expect New York to be like. It was, among many other things, HOT. If you thought that California's heat wave was bad, New York had it worse with heaping dose of humidity. I digress.

After getting our luggage from baggage claim we waited in a really long line for a cab that we could take to the hostel. I've been in a few cabs in my life, but was certainly the most interesting/frightening ride I've ever taken. We got in the cab and told the guy where we wanted to go he took off. At first all seemed normal but then he turned up the radio. It was rather annoying because he wouldn't leave it on a single station for more than a minute, even if the station was in the middle of a song that he had started listening to. Then he started to sing. He would sing along with the most eclectic array of songs and do it all out of key and sometimes with the wrong lyrics. This was the interesting part of the ride. The scary part was his actual driving. Now I've heard that New York drivers are the worst and that you have to be really agressive to get where you're going, but this guy was ridiculous. He would drive lanes that didn't really exist, start merging with cars right next to him, completely stop in a lane so he could merge, stop halfway into an intersection, and the list goes on and on. And then he didn't know where he was going. We gave him the cross streets, which should be fairly easy to find considering the city is on a grid patter, but we spent probably 20 minutes circling a few blocks until he realized he was in the wrong spot. At long last we finally got to the hostel and pay the driver.

We go inside and after waiting a while to speak to someone in order to check in, we find that the side we were on was closed for renovation and had to walk around the black to the other side. We do so and fine a long, really slow-moving line we have to wait in to get our room key. So after some really annoying and whiny Europeans (I think they were Swiss) get their room situation figured out, we get our room key and head up to the fourth floor. We took the elevator once and only once. Aside from the rickedy construction of it, something must have died a week beforehand in the elevator shaft because it smelled awful. We get out as quickly as possible and find our room. When we got inside we realized why the room was so cheap. Aside from the funky smell, small critters we were rooming with, and dirty sheets, there also was no AC. As previously mentioned, it was extremely hot and humid. I don't know what Hell is like, but this must have been pretty close, at least in terms of heat filth. Needless to say, we got very little sleep that night. At one point I tried putting the fan they gave us in front of the mini fridge thinking that would supply some relief, but the fridge stops working when the door is open. We finally got a little bit of sleep by dosing off with a wet t-shirt and an ice pack on our faces.

The next morning we couldn't wait to get out of there and find places that had AC. After getting ready and discovering there was no mirror anywhere, we used the built-in iSight on my Macbook and Photobooth as mirror. We finally got out of there and headed for Times Sqaure. We stopped at a small deli near the hostel to get bagels because it was one of the food we had resolved to get while in New York. After eating our food we headed out again.

As we walked down Times Square we would walk a few blocks and find somewhere to stop and rest and enjoy the AC. After seeing Times Square and getting pictures of places seen in Project Runway, we headed towards 5th Ave. and that's where my test of endurance began. As anyone who knows Caroline can tell you, she loves to shop, and I don't mean that lightly. If there was an Iron Chef for shopping, Caroline would win every time. Anyway, we go to 5th Ave. and immediately start shopping. We go to H&M, Saks, Tiffany's, FAO Schwartz, and more. None of these stores had fewer than three floors and we went through all of them. Saks was ten floors and Tifanny's was seven. Now I am often confounded with the shopping stamina of the female sex. They can go all day without stopping to sit down but by hour two I'm looking for every available place to sit including the floor.

Surprisingly enough though, the one store I enjoyed the most was not FAO Schwartz (yeah I know that's surprising considering I have action figures all around my room) but it was Tiffany's. After buying a few things from the Tiffany's here at South Coast, I've come to terms with how ridiculously expesive everything is and thus I wasn't shocked by that aspect of the store. What really left me amazed as the engagement ring floor. Aside from the fact that I was with my girlfriend and being intimidated by that, the jewelry was absolutely amazing. The whole floor was illuminated by the stunning luminesence of the shinning diamonds, saphires, emeralds, rubies, gold, and platinum that rested inside the glass cases. I finally understood why women (and dwarves) love diamonds and other precious stones. They are solid, everlasting gems that have an extreme depth to them. Their endless reflections and the limitless spectrum of colors they produce makes them one of Nature's finest masterpieces no artist can even come close to achieving. And at the risk of sounding any less heterosexual, I'm going to move on.

After working our way down 5th Ave. we eventually came to Central Park and decided to walk around there for a bit. I took a lot of pictures and we looked at all the really cute dogs running around. We eventually stumbled onto what looked like a fair in the part and sat down on a large rock overlooking the fair. During our previous night in the Hell hole, we had decided that we couldn't stay there any longer, at least not do so and enjoy the rest of our trip. So as we sat there in the park we called a few numbers that Caroline had looked up when we had stopped at a Barnes and Noble and found a nice little hotel really close by called Park Savoy. They had some vacancies so we went over and booked the room after we made sure they had AC. We got our key and then went up to check the room out. It was a cozy small room on the second floor. We cranked up the AC and then just laid down on the bed while our body temperatures returned to normal. Caroline shortly discovered that the TV in our room got Bravo and she became even more happy with the room. After having walked all day we just decided to hang out the rest of the day.

We got dinner at a small little pizza place next door to the hotel that had extremely good pizza and garlic knots. After a few hours of zoning out and digesting our food, we decided that we had to go get our stuff from the hostel. We hopped on the subway and went back to the hostel just to grab what we would need for the next day and headed back. In retrospect we should have just taken all the stuff with us but carrying everything at once would have been a burden, especially getting through the subway entrances. After taking our luggage to the hotel we went out for a bit and walked around Times Sqaure at night. Everywhere you went people tried to sell you fake bags, watches, jewelry and the like. A lot of people tried selling their spray paint artwork which was actually quite good. And everywhere there were cars, people, lights, advertisements. I loved everything about it. I understood why New York has been called the "Mecca and Hub of the cultural world." Everyone spoke a different language, looked different, and dressed differently but they were all together We got back to the hotel and then continued to just rest and plan out the rest of our trip.

Following a blissful, air-conditioned night of sleeping, we both got up and began getting ready for the day. We had to switch rooms because someone had already booked that room for the rest of our stay, but we did that quickly and then were on our way. It was Friday and we decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The museum was not too far from where our hotel was so we walked over there. We stopped by Starbucks on the way there for the typical modern American breakfast consisting of extremely sugared drinks. After our short pit stop we got to the museum, got our tickets, and went inside. Like all the shopping places we went to the day before, we thought that it would be best to start at the top floor and work our way down.

The top floor of MoMA is where their special exhibits are held, and the current exhibit was on the Dada Movement. The Dada movement originated in Europe during the time of World War I and was an artistic political reaction to the current events of the war. A lot of the work that arose from the movement appears somewhat mechanical due to the artists' rejection of the machine of war. In all honesty I'm no expert on the movement but I found the whole exhibition extremely interesting, though I could tell Caroline was more interested in seeing more familiar art. Unfortunately most museums don't let you take pictures of special exhibitions because they typically don't own all the rights for the art, so I don't have any photos.

After we left the Dada exhibit, we came to art that is a bit more familiar, at least in terms of their medium. Listing everything we saw would be a bit tedious so I'll just mention the major works and artists. The first extremely famous work we saw was Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory," which is the surrealist painting with the melting clocks. It was much smaller than I thought it would be but still equaly as beautiful. After that we came into a room where an entire wall was dedicated to a very large triptych by the impressionist Monet that depicted waterlillies on a lake (not sure if it is THE Waterlillies painting, but it was gorgeous nontheless). One of Caroline's favorite artists is Monet and she said she wanted a room in her house for that painting.

We wondered through the galleries a bit more and then we came to the works of Picasso. Pablo Picasso is credited with the start of Cubism and generally given the title as the Father of Post-Modern Art. Needless to say I was very excited to actually get to see his work in person. After going through a few rooms we came into the room that housed his very famous "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. This last year I had written an extensive paper about the painting and actually getting to see it was very exciting for me. I must have spent a good ten minutes in front of it and would have stayed there longer but Caroline had already wandered off and other people were crowding in around me. Luckily Picasso's "Ma Jolie" ("Angelina Jolie") was in the same room and not nearly as crowded. Many scholars view this painting this painting as the high point of his cubist career but most people don't pay much attention to it because it is so abstract. I was equally as excited to see this painting. In the very next room was Van Gogh's "Starry Night".

By this time I was a bit overwhelmed by all the masterpieces I had been seeing. Coming from California, the museums here have a lot of art, but not a lot of what comes out of Art History textbooks. So seeing all of these works that I had studied for so long finally in person was quite an experience that I will be sure to remember for the rest of my life.

We went through several other galleries and then came to a works by Warhol, including Warhol's Cambell Soup Cans. Being a soup fan, Caroline was really excited to see these and took a picture next to the Bean with Bacon soup can. We also saw one of his Marilyn Monroe silk screens. In that particular gallery, however, I was more interested in a painting by Roy Lichtenstein. Ever since I studied him in my basic Art History survey course, I've loved his work, especially his "Drowning Girl." I don't know what it is about his work and this painting in particular, but I've always found his clash of high and low Art fascinating, probably because that is something I would do if I were an artists. Anyway, getting to see "Drowning Girl" in person was really cool and probably one of my favorite pieces that I saw next to "Ma Jolie" and "Starry Night".

And then there was Jackson Pollock. Most people refer to him as the guy who just splashed paint onto a canvas and claim that they could do the same. Before I say anything about his art let me correct all those naive people who think they have the same talent as Pollock. NO, you don't. Like much of contemporary art, the end result is not always the most important factor of a work. In Pollock's case, for instance, much of the meaning in work was held in the process by which it was created. He meant to capture the energy that came from creating the work itself within the paint on the canvas. And if you look at one of his large pieces, you get a sense of that energy. The paintings seem alive and in constatn movement. If you look at some of his pieces long enough they appear to expand and extend beyond the boundries of the canvas they are on. This is why I love Pollock. I love the energy he captures and the depth of meaning in his works. I had only recently seen one of his larger works at MoCA in LA and getting the opportunity to see a lot more was really exciting.

We took a break in our gallery wanderings for a late lunch at the museum's cafe. I always enjoy eating at museums because I think their food is superb. We waited to get our food and sat down at a place that overlooked the large courtyard that MoMA has. We talked about some of the things we had seen and admired the buildings surrounding MoMA. Caroline found a particular building she would like to live in and we talked about the architecture. Our food was delicious and a bit different. It was also nice to give our feet a bit of break. We finished our meal and then went back to admiring all the art.

After a couple more hours at the museum we decided that we had seen everything we wanted to see and left MoMA after picking up some souveniors. Caroline was happy to be back outside where it was a bit warmer because she had been freezing inside the museum all day. We headed towards the Metropolitan Museum of Art to try and make a 7:15 tour that one of my friends was giving. We took the subway and then a bus over there and had an hour or so to peruse the museum's Egyptian collection before the tour started. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera because I had dropped it off at the hotel on the way over thinking I would just be back the following day and would have ample opportunity to take pictures then. We went on the Museum Highlights Tour given by my friend that highlighted key areas and works of the museum. It was a very informative and well-presented tour.

By the end of the tour we were both tired and starving and ready to find food. We headed back towards the hotel so that we could change and go find a place to eat. We were both very tired from walking around all day so rather than trying to find a more famous restaurant, we just ate at a small Italian place that was really good. The whole time we were there I don't think we really adjusted to east coast time because we always ended going to dinner at around 10 o'clock at night. After dinner we decided to walk over to the Apple Store on 5th Ave. to so I could try and find a usb cable or a card reader for my camera because I had run out of space on my card and ingeniusly left mine back home in California. When we got there we were a bit suprised at what we found.

The store is open 24/7 and is underground. A spiral glass stair case and elevator lower you into the store where it looks like most other Apple Stores, just a lot bigger. What was shocking though was the fact that it had been turned into a club of sorts. There were several live DJs taking turns spinning while an entire group of people were dancing in front of them. People kept taking turns going in and out of the group but it steadily grew larger the longer we were there. Unfortunately I couldn't find what I was looking for, but the whole experience of what happened was worth the trip.

We left the Apple Store and walked back to the hotel. After a little Bravo, we both fell asleep in our lovely air conditioned, non-bug infested room.

Saturday I got up early and went to several electronic and camera stores to try and find a USB cable or a card reader. Those stores are ridiculous. They take advantage of tourists like no others. I went to four different stores and every time I found what I needed they gave me an outrageous price. They wanted $80 for a compact flash card reader or $30 for a USB cable, both things cost them as a reseller no more than $5 each. I was pissed but at the same time I needed to be able to take more pictures. So I haggled one guy down to $30 for the card reader and went back to the hotel more than a little peeved. I got back and Caroline had gotten up and started to get ready. I waited for her to finish up and transferred the pictures from the previous day to my computer and we took off for the Met.

We took a cab to the Met this time because it was cheaper, faster, and cleaner than taking the subway and bus. We got in and started our adventure through one of the largest museums in the US, which was in no means chronological. Now the museum is not only very large, but it is extremely easy to get lost as learned throughout the day. Luckily we ran into my friend Jenn so she was able to get us our pins we needed so that we could avoid being guilt tripped into "donating" to the museum.

We started with the Egyptian art because we had seen a lot of it the night before and we were able to get through most if it fairly quickly before we went on to the rest of the galleries. Caroline put up with me taking my sweet time photographing all the statues, pottery, jewelry, etc. Greek, Roman, and Egyptian art are among my favorite areas to study in the field of Art History because to me it seems so rich and purely representative of the culture as a whole. I really enjoyed seeing the statues of Hatshepsut and I think Caroline's favorite was a small statue of a guy grabbing a woman's boob. One of the most amazing parts of their Egyptian collection, however, is an entire temple that was transfered to the Met after Egypt gave it to the US as a gift. It was really cool because you could walk up into the entryway and there very detailed heiroglyphs on the outside of the temple with a portrayal of Augustus, a.k.a. Octavian, in an Egyptian style.

After going through the Egyptian collection we realized that we hadn't eaten anything yet that day. We went to the small cafe (there are two cafes) and ended up just getting something to drink and sat down for a short while. As we left the cafe we admired the collection of Tiffany's glass they had on display in the courtyard including a large stained glass window that depicted a beautiful sunset over a very colorful landscape. If I could design my own house with anything in it, I would have the window.

We then decided to follow our routine and start at the top of the museum and work our way down, which we figure out later didn't work quite as well as we had hoped and ended up getting lost a few times, but we went up stairs to start in any case. We went up to the Ancient Near Eastern gallery that includes art from places like Mesopotamia and Babylon. I was elated to see two giant Lammasu guarding the entrance to the gallery. All of the relief sculpture came together at a point with these giant gryphon-like creatures. I could just imagine walking up to an ancient sacred temple and seeing these magnificient creatures guarding the entrance with their muscular bodies and sharp claws. Up close you really notice all of the fine detail and the Sumerian script, which looks a lot like Cuneiform and I'm not sure if they are the same or not. I love Philology.

Moving on we entered the galleries that were primarily modern art. The Met had a substantially larger collection of Van Gogh than did MoMA, including his famous self-portrait and one of his Iris paintings. Another famous artist whose work was on display was Georges Seurat, who most people associate with the technique known as pointilism. They had a smaller, less refined copy of his "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," which is one of his most famous works.

Most exciting for Caroline, at least I think, was the number of Monet's they had on display. An entire room of the gallery was filled with his paintings that overflowed into other adjacent rooms. The organic array of brilliant colors in his impressionist paintings reminded me of the diamonds I had seen in Tiffany's two days earlier and I could see why someone would like his work so much, though perhaps I just misread it.

Now Monet isn't to be confused with Manet, though the common confusion is completely understandable. Not only are both artists different in name by only a single letter, but the time periods in which they painted are fairly similar and even the Met has them in the same gallery but a few rooms apart from each other. Monet painted pieces with vibrant colors that often depicted scenes from nature. Manet used flat, often dull colors and commonly painted subjects like prostitutes, though his work is very good in its own right.

Naturally next to the collection of Modern Art is the collection of Post-Modern Art. Just to clarify the difference, Modern Art is generally considered to have begun in the seventeenth century and gone up to the beginning of the twentieth century. The first World War and it's impact on the cultural world is generally considered a great turning point in the development of the artistic world and thus most art following the World Wars is generally considered Post-Modern. Now I say "generally" because those are rough time periods that I can think of off the top of my head and don't know the exact dates that distinguish these two periods of art.

The Post-Modern galleries were nice but after having been to MoMA the day before, they seemed a bit small. There were a few Pollocks and a few Rauschenbergs that were cool to see, but buy this point were were getting rather tired of walking and our stomachs were growling, so we decided to go eat at the larger cafe next to the wing of American Art...

burned out again, finish writing later...