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as promised... new york!
i stayed right in the heart of the city between 6th and broadway - very convenient - with two accomodating bridge players. they're very culturally active in ny so got a lot of advice from them
i spent my first day in new york at the met museum. wow. it's huge. there was an amazing exhibition from the costume institute on 'the model as muse' looking at models and their relationship with fashion and designers over the last 50 years. most of you would have lurved it. unfortunately that was of course the one area i couldn't take photos. the met also has an amazing armoury, full of arms and armour, mostly from europe, but also from japan, india and the ottoman empire. i kept envisaging that scene from bedknobs and broomsticks. also did you
guys know that Tiffany (as in and co) designed silverwork for weapons (mainly revolvers?). Apparently michelle obama was at the museum that day to open the new american wing, but i didn't see her at all. i had a lovely day although there was a moment i found myself extremely crabby from hunger, but i finally found something to eat in the vast cavernous halls :) bought daddy a tie based on a peacock feather design - it was on sale, yay!
when i left the museum i walked down through central park to catch the subway to times square where i bought a half price ticket at tkts for Avenue Q! huzzah, finally i got to see it! i loved it so much - soooo funny and even more adult than i knew about!
this kinda set the tone for nyc, walking/museuming in the day, show at night. tuesday i walked down broadway, through madison square park, union square, then across to 5th, down through washington park square and then wandered through soho (where i sopped at a yarn store and a fabric store) and on to chinatown, where i was promptly overwhelmed so i headed back to the safety of times square. i entered the lottery for a cheap ticket for 9-5 starring allison janney and managed to get one, yay!! it was a lot of fun. i remembered the film fondly and i really like the song (shhh) so i thought i would enjoy it and i did. loved the music, just annoyed that the cd wasn't available yet! i hung around outside the stage door and got signatures from all the main cast, and a photo with allison janney. she was so wonderfully gracious. i said that a photo with her would make my aussie friends scream and she said, well then lets make them scream! she loved working on the west wing btw (in case anyone had any doubts). so that was a very exciting night!
thursday was a bit strange, since i wasn't sure exactly what time i would go meet my cousins in long island, but i ended up not leaving until the evening. i wandered north along 5th and 6th - went shopping at a yarn store on 34th, at macy's where i bought a new purse (you can get 11% discount cards if you're a visitor btw) and went to victoria's secret, where i bought more of my new favourite bra - dream angel demi. i eventually found myself at my destination - the american folk art museum, but my stroll had taken longer than hoped, so there was no real point in going in. so i contented myself with the shop, where essie's fabric comes from and where i bought a make-you-own kaleidescope for my little cousins. again i felt the shakes from needing food, so i headed back to this place i'd found - pret-a-manger. apparently it's an english chain, but omg it's so good. actually fresh and tasty premade food :)
so i spent the long weekend with my cousins from long island, upstate at their 'cabin'. it has a cabin-y feel, but it is a house, with a verandah (deck) and a little upstairs bedroom where rebecca slept and an ensuite and a proper seperate dining room and everything. we didn't watch tv at all, though thomas (15) and i totally played guitar hero on the ps2. we also played batik, connect four and poker - we got everyone playing poker actually, that was a lot of fun and i learnt how to play 7 card stud, which i hadn't played before. so for reference, my cousins are glenn and steph, dad's cousins - steph lives upstate permanently now with her husband kenny who i hadn't met before, and glenn and laura and my second cousins, rebecca (20) and thomas live on long island. both families have dogs. penny the whippet cross who's a little mad and oreo the lab/collie cross who is just a sweetheart. it was a very cosy weekend, with a campfire and smores, a bbq, bowling and pizza (not that i ate the pizza) and a trip to the movies to see star trek (still funny). i get along really well with my cousins, surprisingly so with thomas who is a very good converstationalist for a 15 year old boy!
i got back to the city on tuesday and despite planning to do something during the day i ended up napping. travelling is tiring! but i got myself together to head out to the theatre, where i saw my first 'straight' play, blithe spirit, by noel coward and starring angela landsbury and rupert everett. gee he's adorable and gee she's good. she's an old bird, but that doesn't stop her. i hadn't seen blithe spirit before, it was very good, and very funny, though elvira wasn't very good at her english accent. but still she had been dead 7 years, maybe she picked up an accent in the afterlife. lol
wednesday i headed to gray's papaya as mentioned in 'fool's rush in' for a hot dog. i have to say, it WAS really good!. there was maybe also a yarn store in the area, so i headed there before going to the museum of art and design. my favourite section here was the object gallery which centred around refashioned or alternatively designed everyday items, mainly crockery and tea services. they had the most amazing items, like services made from broken bits of other services, repainted services, screen painted ones, services with their functions altered making them into art and blurring the lines between functionality and ornament, sand blasted, laser cut... etc etc etc. they also had a section of innovation - designs that are currently being considered and tested by real companies - including a porcelain usb flash drive - which i loved!
wednesday night, my hosts through circumstances had a spare ticket for momix dance company at the joyce theatre. i don't usually go to dance performances, since i don't really connect with them, but this was fantastic. they use a lot of illusory techniques and circus techniques in what is otherwise contempory ballet. the dance was 'botanica' based loosely on nature and flora and seasons. there were some amazing images that i can't really begin to explain on lj. i'm really glad i got to go, since it's not something i would have done under my own steam.
thursday i finally got to catch up with madelineanne who has been an lj friend of mine for about 5 years now. she works from broadway cares, which work out of the actor's equity building, so i met her there and we headed to a little vietnamese place for lunch, it was so great to finally meet her and hear all about her upcoming performance and get a new york actresses view of nyc!
then i headed back to the american folk art museum where i finally got to look inside and see the beautiful work of paula nadelstern who works primarily with kaleidescope based images in her quilting. it was truly amazing and by far i found it the most interesting thing in the museum. her colours are fantastic and her designs so intricate! she's the only quilter ever to have a solo exhibit there. i thought of essie the whole time! lol
thursday night i got talked into seeing an off-broadway show, which was an average experience all round. it decided to rain, which means the walk to the theatre was a bit longer and wetter than on-broadway, and the show itself was ok, but didn't live up to it's potential. i saw altar boyz and the concept is good and amusing, but the gag kinda didn't go anywhere. i felt there was so much opportunity to build on it and say a lot more with it, but instead it was just a mildly tongue-in-cheek performance by cute boys (so not a total loss!)
friday my cousin rebecca came to meet me in town. she wasn;t getting in until the afternoon so i went to the guggenheim in the morning. the line was insane, so i looked at the exhibition guide and decided there wasn't anything i HAD to see, so looked at the rotunda and the building and browsed the shop. seriously, i love museum shops! then i maybe went to two more yarn stores - oh the yarn shopping to be had in nyc...- before meeting rebecca at penn station. we grabbed tickets for the 39 steps before going to MoMA - the museum of modern art, which was free on fridays, yay! i was in a walk and glance mood, which seemed to suit rebecca too. we went to every section, but we must have missed a room, because i missed starry night :( but got to see lots of picassos and a dali and some magritte and miro and tanguy - all my favourites :). we grabbed dinner at applebees, which was pretty good. i had a white peach sangria- yum! then we went to the play which was HILARIOUS! there are 4 actors, 2 of whom play about 100 characters in a comedic hitchcock thriller. it's just a joy to watch, both as an actor and a regular audience member
saturday was a double theatre day! i saw God of Carnage in the afternoon and Guys and Dolls in the evening and went to the Rockefeller centre inbetween! God of Carnage is a play by a french playwright. i've seen and very much enjoyed one other of her plays - Art, so i thought i would enjoy this. and what a cast! marcia gay harden, hope davis, james gandolfini and jeff daniels. it was great. vicious, physical, witty, meaningful, surprising and thought-provoking. but mostly it was just hilarious. the rockefeller was lovely. it was such a beautiful day. i went up the empire state last time i was in manhattan (for 4 hours in 2000) so i decided to go up another landmark and LOOK at the empire state building instead :) the view was great and i relaxed up there for a while before taking in the plaza downstairs. then i ate at Haru, a japanese place of broadway where i had the most delicious duck - now there's a bird i don't mind getting a half of! and then it was lauren graham time. yup. lorelei gilmore was miss adelaide. my verdict? she can sing, but not so much of a dancer. oliver platt was meant to be playing nathan detroit, but he was out that night booooooooo. the understudy did a great job, but still. booooo. it was a great show to see in ny(i'd actually never seen it, do you believe it) and the did the most obvious but effective thing by using projection instead of flats for the backdrops! i've never seen them used like that and it worked so well. very effective. it was definitely a fun show! and i totally got to see lauren graham in her pasties!
sunday i had brunch with madeline at pigalle, which is a sweet little french style bagatelle. we hung out until 2 when maddy had to head off and i had to go get tickets for the sunday matinee and my last show in new york. i saw another straight play and it was possibly the best thing i saw in nyc. it was neil le bute's reasons to be pretty. it was so emotionally involving that i found myself with my hand across my mouth leaning forward in my seat, tears pricking my eyes as i wanted to stand up and shout at the main characters. it was also excruciatingly funny and very touching. i immediately bought the script and will be searching it for monologues and handing it to directors to read back home.
my last thing to do in ny, was head down to south street pier at the bottom of manhattan for a sailing tour. pier 17 was very cute and touristy and with the warm weather and the weekend it had a beautiful atmosphere - even if it was touristy. the sailboat - the city clipper - sailed us down around liberty island, past governor island and ellis island. it was a sunset trip with gorgeous views of the end of manhattan. i met this totally insane couple, lucia and ralph, who used to be nypd (they were there in 01, yes) and they ended up taking me to dinner at a pub on the corner afterwards where i had gumbo. mmmmmmmmm. they were just wonderful and i have promised a postcard from prague (lucia is half czech)
so monday i got on a plane to toronto and that was nyc. omg. i am exhausted again just writing that all down. i really like new york,, except for the smell in the subway - and i really enjoyed my time in america. so i will leave you with a list of things i like about the states and some photos.
Things I Love About America
and because it's only fair, things i don't love about america
and now for some photos
the met museum exterior
here come the cavalry
the rotunda at the guggenheim
central park on a lovely may day
washington park square
view north from the rockefeller
view south from the rockefeller
the town that would be closest to my cousin's cabin if it were still a town
this is what the subway stations look like - they're cute :)
the clipper city
lady liberty at sunset
and last but not least - me and allison
i stayed right in the heart of the city between 6th and broadway - very convenient - with two accomodating bridge players. they're very culturally active in ny so got a lot of advice from them
i spent my first day in new york at the met museum. wow. it's huge. there was an amazing exhibition from the costume institute on 'the model as muse' looking at models and their relationship with fashion and designers over the last 50 years. most of you would have lurved it. unfortunately that was of course the one area i couldn't take photos. the met also has an amazing armoury, full of arms and armour, mostly from europe, but also from japan, india and the ottoman empire. i kept envisaging that scene from bedknobs and broomsticks. also did you
guys know that Tiffany (as in and co) designed silverwork for weapons (mainly revolvers?). Apparently michelle obama was at the museum that day to open the new american wing, but i didn't see her at all. i had a lovely day although there was a moment i found myself extremely crabby from hunger, but i finally found something to eat in the vast cavernous halls :) bought daddy a tie based on a peacock feather design - it was on sale, yay!
when i left the museum i walked down through central park to catch the subway to times square where i bought a half price ticket at tkts for Avenue Q! huzzah, finally i got to see it! i loved it so much - soooo funny and even more adult than i knew about!
this kinda set the tone for nyc, walking/museuming in the day, show at night. tuesday i walked down broadway, through madison square park, union square, then across to 5th, down through washington park square and then wandered through soho (where i sopped at a yarn store and a fabric store) and on to chinatown, where i was promptly overwhelmed so i headed back to the safety of times square. i entered the lottery for a cheap ticket for 9-5 starring allison janney and managed to get one, yay!! it was a lot of fun. i remembered the film fondly and i really like the song (shhh) so i thought i would enjoy it and i did. loved the music, just annoyed that the cd wasn't available yet! i hung around outside the stage door and got signatures from all the main cast, and a photo with allison janney. she was so wonderfully gracious. i said that a photo with her would make my aussie friends scream and she said, well then lets make them scream! she loved working on the west wing btw (in case anyone had any doubts). so that was a very exciting night!
thursday was a bit strange, since i wasn't sure exactly what time i would go meet my cousins in long island, but i ended up not leaving until the evening. i wandered north along 5th and 6th - went shopping at a yarn store on 34th, at macy's where i bought a new purse (you can get 11% discount cards if you're a visitor btw) and went to victoria's secret, where i bought more of my new favourite bra - dream angel demi. i eventually found myself at my destination - the american folk art museum, but my stroll had taken longer than hoped, so there was no real point in going in. so i contented myself with the shop, where essie's fabric comes from and where i bought a make-you-own kaleidescope for my little cousins. again i felt the shakes from needing food, so i headed back to this place i'd found - pret-a-manger. apparently it's an english chain, but omg it's so good. actually fresh and tasty premade food :)
so i spent the long weekend with my cousins from long island, upstate at their 'cabin'. it has a cabin-y feel, but it is a house, with a verandah (deck) and a little upstairs bedroom where rebecca slept and an ensuite and a proper seperate dining room and everything. we didn't watch tv at all, though thomas (15) and i totally played guitar hero on the ps2. we also played batik, connect four and poker - we got everyone playing poker actually, that was a lot of fun and i learnt how to play 7 card stud, which i hadn't played before. so for reference, my cousins are glenn and steph, dad's cousins - steph lives upstate permanently now with her husband kenny who i hadn't met before, and glenn and laura and my second cousins, rebecca (20) and thomas live on long island. both families have dogs. penny the whippet cross who's a little mad and oreo the lab/collie cross who is just a sweetheart. it was a very cosy weekend, with a campfire and smores, a bbq, bowling and pizza (not that i ate the pizza) and a trip to the movies to see star trek (still funny). i get along really well with my cousins, surprisingly so with thomas who is a very good converstationalist for a 15 year old boy!
i got back to the city on tuesday and despite planning to do something during the day i ended up napping. travelling is tiring! but i got myself together to head out to the theatre, where i saw my first 'straight' play, blithe spirit, by noel coward and starring angela landsbury and rupert everett. gee he's adorable and gee she's good. she's an old bird, but that doesn't stop her. i hadn't seen blithe spirit before, it was very good, and very funny, though elvira wasn't very good at her english accent. but still she had been dead 7 years, maybe she picked up an accent in the afterlife. lol
wednesday i headed to gray's papaya as mentioned in 'fool's rush in' for a hot dog. i have to say, it WAS really good!. there was maybe also a yarn store in the area, so i headed there before going to the museum of art and design. my favourite section here was the object gallery which centred around refashioned or alternatively designed everyday items, mainly crockery and tea services. they had the most amazing items, like services made from broken bits of other services, repainted services, screen painted ones, services with their functions altered making them into art and blurring the lines between functionality and ornament, sand blasted, laser cut... etc etc etc. they also had a section of innovation - designs that are currently being considered and tested by real companies - including a porcelain usb flash drive - which i loved!
wednesday night, my hosts through circumstances had a spare ticket for momix dance company at the joyce theatre. i don't usually go to dance performances, since i don't really connect with them, but this was fantastic. they use a lot of illusory techniques and circus techniques in what is otherwise contempory ballet. the dance was 'botanica' based loosely on nature and flora and seasons. there were some amazing images that i can't really begin to explain on lj. i'm really glad i got to go, since it's not something i would have done under my own steam.
thursday i finally got to catch up with madelineanne who has been an lj friend of mine for about 5 years now. she works from broadway cares, which work out of the actor's equity building, so i met her there and we headed to a little vietnamese place for lunch, it was so great to finally meet her and hear all about her upcoming performance and get a new york actresses view of nyc!
then i headed back to the american folk art museum where i finally got to look inside and see the beautiful work of paula nadelstern who works primarily with kaleidescope based images in her quilting. it was truly amazing and by far i found it the most interesting thing in the museum. her colours are fantastic and her designs so intricate! she's the only quilter ever to have a solo exhibit there. i thought of essie the whole time! lol
thursday night i got talked into seeing an off-broadway show, which was an average experience all round. it decided to rain, which means the walk to the theatre was a bit longer and wetter than on-broadway, and the show itself was ok, but didn't live up to it's potential. i saw altar boyz and the concept is good and amusing, but the gag kinda didn't go anywhere. i felt there was so much opportunity to build on it and say a lot more with it, but instead it was just a mildly tongue-in-cheek performance by cute boys (so not a total loss!)
friday my cousin rebecca came to meet me in town. she wasn;t getting in until the afternoon so i went to the guggenheim in the morning. the line was insane, so i looked at the exhibition guide and decided there wasn't anything i HAD to see, so looked at the rotunda and the building and browsed the shop. seriously, i love museum shops! then i maybe went to two more yarn stores - oh the yarn shopping to be had in nyc...- before meeting rebecca at penn station. we grabbed tickets for the 39 steps before going to MoMA - the museum of modern art, which was free on fridays, yay! i was in a walk and glance mood, which seemed to suit rebecca too. we went to every section, but we must have missed a room, because i missed starry night :( but got to see lots of picassos and a dali and some magritte and miro and tanguy - all my favourites :). we grabbed dinner at applebees, which was pretty good. i had a white peach sangria- yum! then we went to the play which was HILARIOUS! there are 4 actors, 2 of whom play about 100 characters in a comedic hitchcock thriller. it's just a joy to watch, both as an actor and a regular audience member
saturday was a double theatre day! i saw God of Carnage in the afternoon and Guys and Dolls in the evening and went to the Rockefeller centre inbetween! God of Carnage is a play by a french playwright. i've seen and very much enjoyed one other of her plays - Art, so i thought i would enjoy this. and what a cast! marcia gay harden, hope davis, james gandolfini and jeff daniels. it was great. vicious, physical, witty, meaningful, surprising and thought-provoking. but mostly it was just hilarious. the rockefeller was lovely. it was such a beautiful day. i went up the empire state last time i was in manhattan (for 4 hours in 2000) so i decided to go up another landmark and LOOK at the empire state building instead :) the view was great and i relaxed up there for a while before taking in the plaza downstairs. then i ate at Haru, a japanese place of broadway where i had the most delicious duck - now there's a bird i don't mind getting a half of! and then it was lauren graham time. yup. lorelei gilmore was miss adelaide. my verdict? she can sing, but not so much of a dancer. oliver platt was meant to be playing nathan detroit, but he was out that night booooooooo. the understudy did a great job, but still. booooo. it was a great show to see in ny(i'd actually never seen it, do you believe it) and the did the most obvious but effective thing by using projection instead of flats for the backdrops! i've never seen them used like that and it worked so well. very effective. it was definitely a fun show! and i totally got to see lauren graham in her pasties!
sunday i had brunch with madeline at pigalle, which is a sweet little french style bagatelle. we hung out until 2 when maddy had to head off and i had to go get tickets for the sunday matinee and my last show in new york. i saw another straight play and it was possibly the best thing i saw in nyc. it was neil le bute's reasons to be pretty. it was so emotionally involving that i found myself with my hand across my mouth leaning forward in my seat, tears pricking my eyes as i wanted to stand up and shout at the main characters. it was also excruciatingly funny and very touching. i immediately bought the script and will be searching it for monologues and handing it to directors to read back home.
my last thing to do in ny, was head down to south street pier at the bottom of manhattan for a sailing tour. pier 17 was very cute and touristy and with the warm weather and the weekend it had a beautiful atmosphere - even if it was touristy. the sailboat - the city clipper - sailed us down around liberty island, past governor island and ellis island. it was a sunset trip with gorgeous views of the end of manhattan. i met this totally insane couple, lucia and ralph, who used to be nypd (they were there in 01, yes) and they ended up taking me to dinner at a pub on the corner afterwards where i had gumbo. mmmmmmmmm. they were just wonderful and i have promised a postcard from prague (lucia is half czech)
so monday i got on a plane to toronto and that was nyc. omg. i am exhausted again just writing that all down. i really like new york,, except for the smell in the subway - and i really enjoyed my time in america. so i will leave you with a list of things i like about the states and some photos.
Things I Love About America
- old fashioned lemonade
- customer service
- peanut butter and chocolate
- cinnabon. omg. for serious. open in australia please. kthxbi
- snapple
- iced tea
- victoria's secret dream angels demi bra
- poppycock (get your mind outta the gutter it's caramel corn)
- mashed potatoes
- ribs. omg the ribs.
- clam chowder
and because it's only fair, things i don't love about america
- the fact that no one can make a cuppa hot tea
- fries with everything
- tipping
- american english
- tiny dogs everywhere
- cheese in garden salads and side salads and every other type of salad you can think of
and now for some photos
the met museum exterior
here come the cavalry
the rotunda at the guggenheim
central park on a lovely may day
washington park square
view north from the rockefeller
view south from the rockefeller
the town that would be closest to my cousin's cabin if it were still a town
this is what the subway stations look like - they're cute :)
the clipper city
lady liberty at sunset
and last but not least - me and allison