NYC Day 70: The Robert Lehman Collection and Sara Berman's Closet

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Thursday 24, August | Expenses $25.48 ($43.65)

Guggenheim No Go Zone
I made a decision to visit the Guggenheim Museum today. As far as I can recall, the last time I went would have been in 2010. Anyway, whatever the last year of my last visit, today I was going to make my return. I actually left the house around 11:00AM which is very early for me, and caught an M4 bus for the ride down Fifth Avenue. I got out near the museum and headed for the main entrance only to find that this much vaunted institution is closed on Thursdays. Of course I remembered this as soon as I was confronted by the closed doors and the many other visitors who were milling around the entrance wondering how their plans for the day had already started going awry.

Seriously, Guggenheim, what the heck? During the height of the tourist season, why close the doors and shut out hundreds, if not several thousand visitors? It just doesn't make economic sense. It's not as if you need to close down to do a stock take, or polish the floors, or install a new exhibition, or clean the toilets, or have a staff training session, or... [add your own spurious reason here}.

When other major museums find ways to stay open later than usual during the peak summer tourist season, the Guggenheim finds ways to justify closing its doors. I'm sure I'm not the only one who left in a confused huff, and ruled out returning when the museum was supposed to be open.

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Robert Lehman Collection
Since I was in the vicinity, there was nothing for it but to head farther down Fifth Avenue and pay another visit to the Met Museum. The first thing I did once there, was join the 2:00pm tour of the Robert Lehman Wing. The wing was built to display the Robert Lehman Collection, "one of the most extraordinary private art collections ever assembled in North America. The collection of nearly 3,000 works of art––dating from the Middle Ages to modernity––was assembled by Mr. Lehman...and by his father Philip."

And further:  "...the display of this encyclopedic collection of European paintings, drawings, manuscripts, sculpture, frames, textiles, majolica, glass, and other decorative arts recalls the ambiance of a private house and radiates the fine connoisseurship of a remarkable American family."

The docent who led the tour was well versed in the collection (or at least she was extremely knowledgeable about those works she chose to highlight), spoke loudly and clearly, and deserved the appreciative round of applause and many expressions of thanks from those of us on the 80-minute tour. Indeed, an excellent indication of her skill as a tour guide is the fact that none of the group members left the tour before it was over, as often happens on these occasions.

Sara Berman's Closet
After a much needed break for refreshments, I went up to the American Wing in search of Sara Berman's Closet. Sara Berman was born in the village of Lenin in Belarus on March 15, 1920.

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Marie Kondo, the Japanese woman who promotes the concept of decluttering your home would have been proud of Sara, had she known her and seen her minimalist closet in daily use.

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Any questions, comments or suggestions? How about complaints or compliments? Let me know via the comments box below.

NYC Day 69: The Morgan Museum and Library

The modern main entrance of the Morgan Museum

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Wednesday 23, August | Expenses $28.00 ($35.40)
Eats $15.00 ($18.95)
Recreation $13.00 ($16.45)

MORGAN MUSEUM & LIBRARY
I am way behind in recording my daily New York adventures––or at least recording the main event of the day. as I count down to the final day of my stay in the Big Apple, I feel like I have more important things to do than spend a couple of hours updating the blog each morning. Therefore, I––and you, dear reader––are going to have to settle for basic placeholders until I find time to make a better accounting of each day. More than likely, this will not happen until I return to Australia in the second week of September.

A view of the Morgan Library
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Wednesday 23, August | Expenses $28.00 ($35.40)

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Any questions, comments or suggestions? How about complaints or compliments? Let me know via the comments box below.

NYC Day 68: End Of The Line Game #3: Brooklyn By Bus

My route across Brooklyn as mapped by my Map My Walk app.

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ON THE BUSES ACROSS EAST NEW YORK
Today I had every intention of going for a long walk along Brooklyn Bridge Park, which follows the East River for some considerable distance. However, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and it didn't take long before the heat and high humidity dissuaded me from that idea. So what was I to do? After I surfaced from the A-train at the High Street/Brooklyn Bridge station in Brooklyn, I made a spur of the moment decision to board the nearest bus, and see where it would take me.

Yes folks, I was about to play the End Of The Line Game one more time.

The nearest bus turned out to be for the B25 route. I picked it up in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge on Front Street, and before too long I found myself wending my way along the miles long Fulton Street, towards Broadway Junction where I the bus was due to end its run. At Broadway Junction I boarded a B83 bus which was heading to what I assumed was a mall of some type called, Gateway Center, somewhere on the edge of Jamaica Bay (No, not that Jamaica!).

I have written before about my reasons for catching buses rather than taking the subway, which is invariably faster and more direct. However, the subway lines don't take you to every corner of greater New York City, and besides, you don't get to see much of the city while speeding through deep, dark tubes underground.

Let me just say that I am not all that familiar with the far reaches of the outer boroughs. While many parts of this vast city are well maintained, and even quite beautiful, I know that there are others parts that are in desperate need of maintenance and beautification. These areas include parts of the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn.

In Brooklyn, despite the gentrification that is slowly transforming those neighborhoods bordering the East River, the farther away you get from the river and Manhattan the worse the borough begins to look. And so it was, that as I sat on my B25 and B83 buses, I found myself, and not for the first time, as the only non-person of color, or non-Spanish speaker, gazing out the windows as we passed through the neighborhoods of Fort Greene to Crown Heights to Brownsville, and finally to East New York.

Above and Below: A couple of images from my bus seat.

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Above the Brooklyn War Memorial

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It soon became apparent that these outer neighborhoods are among the poorest and least serviced areas of the city. I was amazed at the number of shopfront churches that line the main roads through these neighborhoods. On one short Fulton Street block, there were seven such storefront churches vying for the hearts and souls of the local residents.

Seven!

Starting at 2077 Fulton Street and working your way up you will find The Melchizedk House of Prayer; the Spanish American Christian Church; the New Hope Pentecostal Church; the Blessed Assurance Church of God; Emanuel Christian Church; Gethsemane Baptist Church, and finally Saved To Serve Ministries Inc.

Other nearby churches sported names like Full Gospel Church of God #2 Inc, St. Paul's Pentecostal Church of God, and the St. Matthew Fire Baptist. The Full Gospel Tabernacle-Faith was right next to The Spiritual Israel Church and its Army, both of which were close to the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, and on and on and on. In fact all of the above churches were within a few blocks of each other as were numerous others.

If the neighborhood streets are not taken up by these 'churches', they are are filled with Crown Fried Chicken, and Kennedy Fried Chicken (and other fast food) outlets. Then there are the many Unisex Beauty Parlors, local deli's, small supermarkets and dozens of other small businesses eking out a living from some of the poorest citizens of this great city..

Above and Below: The Gateway Center.

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After nearly two hours of slow, torturous bus travel through these outer Brooklyn neighborhoods, I finally reached the Gateway Center, only to find that it was not your typical enclosed shopping mall, but a series of well-known department stores and cafes laid out in a relatively new shopping complex (surrounded by acres of parking lots), just a mile or so from JFK airport.

I found a seat inside a Panera Bread outlet and sat down to a hearty Thai Salad and a long, cold lemonade. Since I had no need for shopping, once I had finished eating I found a B83 bus, and returned once again to Broadway Junction from where I caught an A-train back to Washington Heights.

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Tuesday 22, August | Expenses $12.72 ($16.10)

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