FIT-Fashion Underground

Fashion Underground by Susan Bartsch at FIT-fun and free exhibit but only until 12/5/15

Vacation On The Cheap II

A good way to spend a Friday afternoon is at the Whitney.  Not sure when, but at some time instead of hefty admission price you can pay whatever you want.  Fridays they are open until 9 PM.  Right now, there is a great exhibit by Jeff Koons.  Included with your just about free price is an audio tour and even museum tours if you hit it on the right time.

Many of the museums have pay what you want nights.  The Craft Museum on Columbus Circle has this on Thursday and Friday evenings, the MOMA has Target Fridays.  Many participate in Bank Of America weekends.  Just get a credit card and then cancel if you don't want to use it but keep the card to get into museums free.  Also, check before paying as city museums have only a suggested admission.  You can pay anything you want.  Save the $25 for lunch.

Fun City Tips

 

1.  If you love shoes, go to FIT to see Shoe Obsession.  While you might not want to wear these shoes, they are fun to look at.  You have to go, or check out the website, no pictures allowed.  You might want to wait until March 8 as a boot exhibit is opening then, or go twice.  I plan on seeing this exhibit again before it closes in August.

 

2.  Rubin Museum on 17th and 7th--a place always on my list of museums to visit and I finally got there today.  There is a great collection of Asian art.  This little museum is not crowded and has plenty of docents around to explain some of the art I just could not understand.  Pictured above is the spiral staircase in the middle of the museum.

 

 

Ignore the poor quality of picture and see how high teachers are placed in this deity.

 

3.  A walk on the High Line is always a good way to spend some time. 

 

 

I'm looking forward to warmer weather and more city adventures.







Hidden Treasure

 



I haven't written about NYC in a while, that doesn't mean I haven't been enjoying my own city.

I am embarrassed to write that I finally got to PS 1 and 5 Pointz yesterday, for the first time.  Long Island City, right in my own bag yard, is almost as foreign to me as Artic Circle.

First off, 5 Points has some of the most wonderful graffiti anyone will every see.  The buildings are truly works of art.  I'm only sorry I didn't bring my good camera. (The PS 1 website said no photos inside so I didn't bother.)  These paintings alone are worth the trip to the area.

I was not expecting much from PS 1, an annex of the MOMA, but I was sure wrong.  It is great to see this old school building put to use.  Aside from all the workshops and lectures going on, the artwork is great.  There is a fantastic exhibit by African American artists from the '60s and '70s on the ground floor and the upper levels also have some pretty interesting sculptures and artworks.  I would hope every school in the city brings their students here to see what can be done with materials at hand, particularly things others consider junk and garbage.  I am sure my husband is glad I never taught art because I know I would have a full house of this stuff.  Even without talent, I have an urge to start creating after this trip.

(above is my husband's favorite picture)

Merchant House Museum

Paid a visit to the Merchant House today.  It is New York's only family home preserved, inside and out.  Definitely a worthwhile way to spend a few hours in the city.

My pictures aren't so great.  I didn't have my good camera and flashes weren't permitted.  I loved this view from the parlor window.

(More pictures on Facebook.)

Freedom



It finally hit me.  I don't have to worry Sunday about what I will do on Monday.  There are no lessons to write, no papers to mark, FREEDOM!!!!!!

To celebrate, I decided to visit the Jewish Museum today.  The Radical Camera:  New York's Photo League, 1936-1951 is my kind of exhibit.  These wonderful photographers were really photo journalist from the era mentioned until the Communist witch hunts of the 1950's put many on black lists and ultimately led to the demise of this institution.  Anyone interested in history will love this exhibit.  Anyone following OWS will frown at the same issues photographed in the 30'.  No photo are allowed in the exhibit so you'll just have to go see it yourself.  (I did see lots of similar subjects to the kind I usually take.  Who knows, maybe one day I can have an exhibit somewhere as well.--my bathroom walls!)   In addition to this exhibit, there is one on Ezra Jack Keats.  I learned that he was the first to illustrate a book with an African American child, a child like any other who just happened to be Black.  He didn't see why race should enter into a book about a child and he never mentioned race.  His art work is exceptional and this exhibit alone would have made the trip worth while.    There is also a great menorah exhibit, menorahs picked out by Maurice Sendak.

In the past, a Sunday afternoon excursion would have ended early, but not today and not ever again.  I then headed to the Guggenheim to see the Maurizio Cattelan exhibit.  The line to get in wrapped around the block, but thanks to my husband's previous employer's sponsorship, I got in immediately and at no cost.  Time Out NY didn't particularly like this exhibit, but I did.  These strange sculptures, from Kennedy in a coffin, to the Pope being struck by a meteorite, hang from the ceiling and as you walk around the rotunda and get a close up look, you will not be sorry you came here.  Cameras were allowed and I was glad I had mine.  Pictures here. 

The day was cold but sunny.  Still, in no great hurry, I walked through Central Park and ended up at 57th and 6th.  I saw parts of the park I never saw before. 

Yeah!!!!  No more weekends spent getting ready for the week to come!

New Sight For Me

I always try to hit different streets walking around the city.  Yesterday, I walked across 97th St on my way to the Museum of City Of NY.  (Two great exhibits in this little museum--If you love fashion, and want to see a brilliant man's work Cecil Beaton and for architecture Kevin Roche--I didn't know how many of the buildings I love were designed by this man.)

Pictured above are Metro North tracks as they emerge from the tunnel and head north through the Bronx.

MOMA

For every trip away, I need a special day in my own city.  Yesterday, we hit the Museum Of Modern Art.  I'm not usually wild about that particular museum because, no matter how hard I try, I just don't get some of the art, like this one,

Which looks like an old sink to me, or this exhibit

which is a set of curtains, walking through a maze and listening sounds of city.

The exhibit that made it worthwhile was Talk To Me, an interactive exhibit that explores the relationships between people and things.  For example, this slingshot allows the user to type a message and then shoot it at a building.

Of course there are several other exhibits I think I would have enjoyed but museums have to be enjoyed in limited doses.  More pictures on Facebook.

Nostalgia

Studying history is great, but when you can actually see something you have lived through, that is even better than great.

In my never ending quest to see everything in NYC, I took the F train to Brooklyn, a borough I barely know, and paid a visit to the Transit Museum.  Actually seeing the engineering and labor that went into creating this system was phenomenal and then actually going into the old trains, trains I remember riding, was fantastic.  But, the best part was the advertisements on the walls of each car.  The quality of the pictures are not so great (my camera is still in the shop and I accidentally turned the flash off on my little point and shoot) but they are still worth seeing.  (Pictures here.)

For anyone in the NY area, don't wait as long as I did to visit this fantastic museum.  Only one problem--it is underground and there is no air conditioning--kind of like the old days of riding the subway.

Muppets

Grab your teacher ID (it gives you free admission) and go see the Jim Henson exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image.  The only down side is the Muppet of Bloomberg in the lobby--no photos in the exhibit.

I thought the exhibit would be more kid oriented but wasn't disappointed.  I learned tons of stuff  about the genius of this man and saw many of the things he did that go way beyond his puppets.  And, if I was still going to be teaching, I would try to find a way to use his story boards as a way to solve math problems.

Summer Activity

The Museum of the City Of NY is a great place to visit on a hot, summer day.  This smaller museum does not have the crowds of the bigger ones and it is easy to see it all.

Currently on exhibit is a Joel Grey, a NY Life, with some really great photos by him and Moveable Feast: Fresh Produce and the NYC Green Cart Program, great photos, many subjects I've taken.  I wish I had the skills these photographers have.  The moving part of all this was the stories of the people behind the pics.  One photographer wrote how he never thought of the person selling the pretzel he buys in the street.  Pictured above are three Bangladash immigrants.  Five live in a two room apartment earning money to send to their families to create lives.

Not too many photos, but I did put a few here.  (My good camera is n the shop so I have been making do with my little point and shoot.)

I Should Learn To Read

My husband says I am killing him.  His idea of retirement is sitting on a recliner and playing with his cats and his i-Pad.  Mine  is getting out and seeing the world.

Today I took him to the Museum Of The Moving Image in Astoria.  I wanted to see the Jim Henson exhibit which, if I would have read, I would have known it didn't open until July 16.  But, we had a great time anyway.  It was kind of weird seeing the toys I played with and the ones my kids played with in a museum.  Even my babies have turned into antiques.  And, the best news of all, teachers get in free!  All you need to do is show a valid ID.

He did grudgingly admit the day was fun and agreed to go back once the Muppet exhibit is up and running.

(I'll post some of the interesting pictures on facebook in a few day.)

No Grass Grows Under My Feet

Yesterday, the first day of vacation, I hit Met to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit.  There was a long line and the exhibit was mobbed but it was so worth it.  I'm going again, only next time I will get there when it opens.  (NO CAMERAS WERE ALLOWED.)

As an added bonus, I saw Ringo Starr's gold drum. It was only on display until today so you'll just have to make due with the pictures above.

Fitting Place

Mobs of people were at the Guggenheim today. This was shot from one of the spirals above the lobby. Ceiling--I got yelled at for taking this picture. I knew I couldn't photograph the exhibits, I thought it was okay to take the ceiling.
The gallery was built with the wide open space so people can view others as all the artwork is taken in.

The outside. Wright died before the building was completed.

The Guggenheim has an exhibit on the works of Frank Lloyd Wright.

What a fitting place to hold the exhibit. (Wright designed the building.) the man was a genius.

If you live in the NY area, try to see it. Go soon. It closes August 23.

Enjoying NYC

I met my daughter at Penn Station and we walked uptown, through a street fair, to Central Park and then to a few museums. Beautiful day for a carriage ride in Central Park, something I have never done. I always wondered if the horses were being treated well.
Guitarist serenading himself by the pond.
The Dairy
Remote control boats in Central Park pond. At $10 a half hour, the owner of this concession was cleaning up today.

Ped bikes--I always feel sorry for these guys. At least today was not too hot.
"I Want To Believe" is an unbelievable exhibit at the Guggenheim by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. Pictured above is one of a series of cars that he placed at various heights and various stages of a car bomb explosion. Cai has received global recognition as a bold originator of new art forms whose basic material is gun powder. Videos show exactly how this art is produced. They are fascinating. My favorite part of the exhibit was the 108 life size sculptures depicting the hardships of Chinese life in the 1900's. The pain these people felt reached through the clay and into the hearts of the viewers. I recommend seeing this exhibit. It is well worth the $18 it costs to get in. Hurry, the exhibit closes May 28.

The Super Hero exhibit in the fashion institute of the Met was super! The outfits those guys (and girls) wore were great! Of course, you needed the perfect body to get into them, especially the women. Female super heroes are so exploited for their sexuality, but it is still fun to view those costumes and see the fashions they inspired.