NYC Days 31 & 32: In Which I Visit The Age of Empires, Eat, Walk, and Do Little

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ONE MONTH DOWN, TWO TO GO
Wow, Time flies when you're having fun, as the hackneyed cliche has it, and I have certainly enjoyed my first month in New York City. I seem to have settled into a relaxing daily routine that rarely sees me leave the apartment before 11:00am. Why rush? Especially when often I don't return to the comfort of my accommodations until eight to ten hours later. I generally have one or two main events in mind for the day, but I am just as happy to ignore both of them and sit and watch the daily life of the city unfold around me as I follow my whims, wander down unfamiliar streets, or explore buildings or stores for the first time.

 Images from the Age of Empires exhibition

For example, after visiting the Met Museum yesterday to take in the Age Of Empires exhibition, a strolled across Central Park making a bee-line for A.G.Kitchen, a restaurant at 269 Columbus Avenue, which Google in its listing describes as a "Latin American Restaurant" whose "Neuvo Latino cooking and creative burgers are the attractions at this light-filled, modern eatery." The restaurant has been on my dining 'radar' ever since it popped up on my Twitter feed with images of some of the delicious looking meals produced by its creative chefs.

I thought I might spook the greeter at the door by telling him, "There's no pressure, but I've travelled all the way from Australia to eat here tonight!" However, like the true New Yorker he was, he just took my statement in his stride, laughed, and repeated. "No Pressure!"

That Juicest Lucy Inside Out burger from A.G. Kitchen

I thoroughly enjoyed my burger and fries meal, which had been given the odd title, Juiciest Lucy Inside Out burger. The 'inside out' part referred to the cheese which had been inserted and cooked inside the beef patty. It added a lovely soft, creamy texture to the burger which I might just have to sample again before I leave New York.

From A.G. Kitchen I walked over to Riverside Park, which borders the Hudson River for many miles. I thought I could pick up an M5 bus on Riverside Drive that would take me back uptown, but I had miscalculated the point at which the bus route turned on to the drive, so it being a lovely evening I decided to walk for a while until I found an M5 bus stop.

During my stroll, I encountered an older woman working alone in a section of garden in Riverside Park, and stopped for a brief chat. It turned out that she was one of the thousands of volunteers who have dedicated themselves to maintaining and improving hundreds of city parks across New York City. Without these amazing volunteers, the city's Parks Department would have a much harder time keeping up with the massive amount of work needed to keep New York's parks looking so clean and beautiful.

I was about to leave the park in search of a bus stop when I noticed a large structure towering over the landscape a little farther up the road. Never one to miss an opportunity to discover something new -- or at least new to me -- I continued walking until I reached the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument that stands in the park right at Riverside Drive and West 89th Street on the Upper West Side. According to Wikipedia: The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Monument ... commemorates Union Army soldiers and sailors who served in the American Civil War. The monument was completed in 1902.

Imagine my surprise and delight on reaching the monument, to find a gaggle of actors in period costumes that looked like they had been transported straight out of the pages of Alexandre Dumas's book, The Three Musketeers.

Part of the audience enjoying a performance of The Three Musketeers by members of Hudson Warehouse.

Oh. Wait. In a way they had been transported from the pages of that book, because I had just stumbled into the middle of Susan Lee's adaptation of The Three Musketeers, which was being performed by the Hudson Warehouse theatre company.

From the Hudson Warehouse website, the group's Mission Statement:

"Hudson Warehouse's mission is to provide quality, exciting, innovative, and affordable classical theatre to the community. The Warehouse believes theater is a "ware" and essential for daily life. To this end, the Warehouse doesn't sell tickets, but has a "pay what you can" policy because the arts should be affordable to everyone. Those unable to pay are still welcome because the Warehouse believes everyone deserves to have the theater experience, because theater is so essential to what makes us human."

I stopped for a break and joined 50 or 60 local residents who were already watching the performance, but since I had arrived late and missed most of the play, I continued my walk after ten minutes or so in search of the ever elusive M5 bus. I did learn however, that the play will be performed this week across four more nights from Thursday 20 to Sunday 23, starting at 6:30pm.

According to the poster I found pinned to a nearby fence, the Hudson Warehouse actors are also staging a series of performances of Shakespeare's Henry V, from July 27 to August 20 at the same location. Although the poster fails to mention performance times and days, I did learn that performances are staged Thursday to Sunday evenings from 6:30pm.

And that, dear reader, is how I spent Day 31 in the Big Apple.

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Sunday 16, July | Expenses $41.75 ($53.40)

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On Day 32, Monday, I stayed in all day and frittered away the hours in inconsequential ways that are of no interested to anyone but myself. That this days' expenses were more than yesterday's can be put down to a fine Chimichanga and beer meal at the Refried Beans Mexican Grill at 591 Fort Washington Avenue, and a spot of grocery shopping at the Associated Supermarket store across the street.

Above: Corn chips and spicy dip to get started.

My very tasty chimichanga with beans and rice.

Some very famous Mexican artists are featured on this wall.

More Information
The Met Museum...
A.G. Kitchen...
Riverside Park...
Hudson Warehouse... 
Refried Beans Mexican Grill...

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Monday 17, July | Expenses $53.10 ($67.00)

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

NYC Days 26 & 27: In Which I Battle Hay Fever and High Humidity

Washington crossing the Delaware (click on images to view full sized)

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Wednesday 12, July | Expenses $30.75 ($40.05)

HAY FEVER BE DAMNED!
I did not bother to note in my last post that I thought I was coming down with something, and so it came to pass.

I went to bed last night feeling worse than I did before I left the house for the City Winery show, and this morning I awoke suffering from a full-blown allergic reaction to something in the New York air. Maybe my visit to the New York Botanical Garden, and Conservatory Gardens was not such a good move on my part. I spent the night trying to breathe with a succession of toilet tissue plugs pushed into my nostrils soaking up the gunk that oozed from somewhere inside my head. I slept on and off until 11.00am, and while the flood of snot, or whatever the stuff is, has eased for now (and is more white in color than green), I will be staying in today.

NEW YORK STEAK AT VICKI'S DINER
I was in no mood to cook for myself tonight, so I went to Vicki's Diner, and ordered a New York Steak with vegetables. Soup de jour was a good Greek vasolatha. The soup was lovely, but the steak was dry and over-cooked. I suppose I should not have expected much more from a short order cook, but we live and learn (mostly). Vicki and her head waiter are both Greek, although I couldn't work out if the waiter was her husband, father, or what. I do remember him from my 2010 visit, and I suspect that he has been working there for many years, as seems to be the case in many New York establishments.

Above: a small pot (it was too small to be called a bowl) of a traditional Greek bean soup called vasolatha.

Above: Apparently this a New York Steak.

Here are today's many and varied activities that I missed:

Jazz+Wednesdays @ The American Folk Art Museum
2.00pm—3:00pm. During the run of the exhibitions Eugen Gabritschevsky: Theater of the Imperceptible and Carlo Zinelli (1916–1974), the Bill Wurtzel trio will perform music that celebrates the creativity and expressiveness of the human mind. Limited seating available.

FREE: Spiral Music Series @ THE RUBIN MUSEUM, 150, West 17th Street.
6:00—9:00pm. Tonight… Indian raga blends with Andrew Shantz + Zac Colwell…

Wednesday Night Poetry Slam
9:00 PM. $10.00 - $20.00. At 236, E. 3rd Street
Hosted by Jive Poetic! Line forms outside a half hour before doors open at 9:00pm.

9:00pm—1:00am. Kennedy Administration
Club Groove, 125 MacDougal Street.

FREE: SUMMERSTAGE: Mon Laferte / Princess Nokia / ÌFÉ in association with the Latin Alternative Music Conference
5:00 pm - 10:00 pm. Rumsey Playfield, Central Park. Alt-Chilean songstress with NYC-underground tribal hip-hop and Afro-Caribbean electronica.

FREE: SUMMERSTAGE: Ladies of Hip Hop Festival with Special Guest Amirah Sackett
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm. Queensbridge Park, QUEENS. Showcase featuring all-female talent from around the globe uniting communities through dance. Featuring 7pm LOHH Dance Workshop.

Bryant Park Accordion Festival. Yes, this event has returned this year for another series of concerts on the Bryant Park stage. So far I have missed all of them!

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Below, for your edification, I have included some images by the wonderful Greek artist known as El Greco.

Above: The Vision of Saint John (1608-14) Oil on canvas by El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos). Greek, Iraklion (Candia) 1540/41-1614, Toledo.

The painting is a fragment from a large altarpiece commissioned for the church of the hospital of Saint John the Baptist in Toledo. It depicts a passage in the Bible, Revelation (6:9-11) describing the opening of the Fifth Seal at the end of time, and the distribution of white robes to "those who had been slain for the work of God and for the witness they had borne." The missing upper part may have shown the Sacrificial Lamb opening the Fifth Seal. The canvas was an iconic work for the twentieth-century artists and Picasso, who knew it in Paris, used it as an inspiration for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

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Below: Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara (1541-1609), ca 1600-1604. Oil on canvas by El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos). Greek, Iraklion (Candia) 1540/41-1614, Toledo.

This intense portrait depicts Fernando Niño de Guevara (1541-1609), who was named cardinal and is dressed as such here. In 1599 he became Inquisitor General of Spain but resigned in 1602 to serve the rest of his life as Archbishop of Seville. The painting probably dates from the spring of 1600 when the cardinal was in Toledo with Philip III and members of the Madrid court. El Greco had lived in Venice and in the Farnese Palace in Rome, where Titian's portraits (such as those of the Farnese Pope Paul III) would have revealed to the Greek painter the psychological possibilities of portraiture.

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Dateline: New York, New York
Thursday 13, July | Expenses $47.65 ($61.55)

I awoke this morning feeling 100 percent better than I did yesterday. The flow of gunk from my nose had slowed to a dribble rather than a flood, and with or without the help of Zirtek, I seem to have turned the corner on this latest hyperallergic reaction to -- what? I have no idea what triggered this current debilitating episode of hay fever, but I'm happy to be over the worst of it. I was even thinking about where I might go today, until...

Until I went to the toilet, did my 'bizness', and went to flush the waste away only to find the water to the building had been turned off! You've got to be kidding!, says I to myself. But no, there was no water to be had. Luckily, I had some water chilling in the fridge which I was able to boil for a mug of tea (you didn't think I was going to waste it on the toilet, did you?), so I could at least enjoy a hot drink with my breakfast.

Now What? I hadn't showered for 36 hours, and I didn't fancy the prospect of descending into the hot and humid subway system unwashed and unclean, although gawd knows there are plenty of people in a worse state down there than I would have been. Just the same, I decided to wait it out, and hope the water would be back on before the end of the day. In the meantime there was nothing for it but to pull up a chair in front of the Edgestar portable air-con, and relax and continue reading Jim Thompson's very disturbing thriller, The Killer Inside Me, one of six books purchased so far during this trip.

{time passes}

Just after midday I tore myself away from my book with an, I wonder if...? To my delight, while the hot water was still off, the cold water was flowing freely which took care of a very foul looking (and smelling) toilet bowl. I decided that I should make the effort and head out for the afternoon, and what better place to go than back to an air conditioner Metropolitan Museum. I took a cold shower in water that was about one degree above freezing and walked to the nearby M4 bus stop. Now I know what you are thinking, dear reader. Why is this guy catching buses all the time, when the much faster subway system is available. Well, I'm glad you asked, so I will explain.

It's true that the subway system is fast and efficient. Unfortunately, the A-train which also runs close to where I am staying doesn't go anywhere near Fifth Avenue, where the Met Museum is located, and where several other major museums are also to be found such as the Guggenheim, the Museum of the City of New York, the Museo del Barrio and a number of others. However, to my great convenience, the M4 bus (once it reaches Fifth Avenue), runs all the way down that famous avenue, passing all those museums on Museum Mile, as that section of Fifth Avenue is known. Indeed, the M4 travels all the way to Midtown where it terminates at 34th Street/Penn Station.

The only real inconvenience with catching the bus is that it increases the length of time it takes to reach the museum I am heading to. Still, every cloud has a silver lining, they say, and since I tend to be an 'Always look on the bright side of life,' kind of guy, I have plenty of time to read my books, or just stare out the windows and watch New York City slide by in all it's raucous glory. Truly it can be said, that no two bus rides are ever the same. If nothing else, a ride of this type only reinforces the idea that driving cars in this city must be among the most stressful things any New Yorker can choose to do. Come to think of it, driving anything in this city has to be a major stressor. How there isn't an accident at every intersection I will never know.

Oh, and for the record, the M4 bus route passes up Madison Avenue, and runs all the way to Fort Tryon Park, Inwood, which, after visiting one of the museums on Fifth Avenue, also turns out to be a great convenience since I don't have to make my way across Central Park to Columbus Circle to board an A-train for the return journey to Washington Heights.

NYC Day 24: In Which My Day is Mostly Forgetable - But Not Completely

Closing time at the Metropolitan Museum
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Today was one of those non-event days. By the time I got my act together, and to be frank, I don't think I managed to even do that, it was well past midday. I planned to return to the Met Museum and spend a few hours in the larger galleries, but after a good hour or so on the M4 bus, and somewhat starved of food, on arriving at the museum I immediately headed downstairs to the cafeteria where I bought something to eat and drink. I then proceeded to update my blog with yesterday's events. By the time I had done this, I had little more than an hour to wander through a few rooms before it was time to depart.

Above and a detail below: Geometry, a fresco (transferred to canvas) dating from 1760.
Attributed to Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Girolamo Mengozzi.

 

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Above and info panel below: The Patio from the Castle of Velez Blanco.

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Above and info panel below: When I saw the above pages from a book (dating from 1434 - 35) illustrating the four Gospels, I immediately thought 'Comics!'. In a time period when few people could read or write, the best way to teach the story of the gospels was to illustrate them. 

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Above: I don't know about you but this statue of Saint James The Greater looks like it could have been the inspiration for one of the characters out of a Pirates Of The Carribean movie. According to the info panel for this statue, Saint James The Greater ('greater' than who or what?), is even wearing a hat "...emblazoned with a cockleshell emblem." Am I right, or am I right?

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BOOK SHOPPING AGAIN

At something of a loose end, I jumped on the first available bus, an M3, going down to the East Village, and alighted at 14th Street, whereupon I made my way to that most famous of all New York City book shops, the Strand Book Store (at 828, Broadway and 12th Street). This was my first visit during this trip, and I'm quite sure it won't be my last. As always, I was quite overwhelmed by the vast array of books lining its "18 miles of books," as they like to claim (and I am not about to question that claim any time soon). In deed, I wandered between dozens of towering bookshelves and display tables groaning under the weight of the books piled on them thinking to myself, Where are you supposed to start? And where are you supposed to stop?

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Of course, I had to buy something while I was there, and in the end was able to restrict myself to just three books, The Killer Inside Me, by Jim Thompson, The Bell Jar, by Silvia Plath, and Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys. All three authors and their books are highly regarded, and all have been on my radar for years, so the decision to buy was not hard. What will be hard, assuming I manage to read all six books I have bought so far, is whether to leave them behind in New York, or whether to take them back to Australia with me. Given that I returned home last year with a bag filled with books, I suspect I already know the answer to that question.

As a huge fan of Stanley Kubrick, the quote on the cover of Jim Thompson's book is of particular interest to me because it was Thompson who wrote the screenplays for two of Kubrick's earliest films, The Killing, and Paths of Glory. 

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Monday 10, July | Expenses $118.65 ($155.90)

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NYC Days 13 & 14: The Met Egyptian Wing, and Playing For Change

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Thursday 29, June | Expenses $0.0
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Today was a rest day. I didn't even leave the apartment but instead stayed in resting and reading. Some days you just have to stop and recharge.

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Friday 30, June | Expenses $103.95 ($135.20)
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MET MUSEUM MEMBER FRIDAYS
I hit the Met Museum again and joined a one hour tour of the Egyptian Wing which was very informative. Many of the treasures in this section obviously go back thousands of years before the modern Christian calendar begins with the 'birth' of Jesus. What amazes over and over again is the use of what then must have been modern technology to build the huge pyramids and mausoleums beneath them. 

One also needs to acknowledge the development of the tools and expertise used to embalm and entomb the pharaohs and general citizenry of Egypt. And let's not forget the production of bright colours that were also developed thousands of years ago, and which today are almost as bright and as fresh as they were when first applied to the casks and coffins in which the dead were buried.

This and the images below: Cover and internal decorations of Egyptian burial casket.

It is hard to believe that these artifacts are thousands of years old given the quality of 

material and the vibrant colors that are still visible. 

Playing For Change Band
Highline Ballroom, 431, W 16th Street
 From the Met I slowly made my way to the Highline Ballroom where I joined the line for the days main event, a performance by the Playing For Change Band. If you are not familiar with Playing For Change (PFC), a brief recap is in order: Playing for Change is described as a multimedia music project that seeks to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music.

In 2005, Mark Johnson was walking in Santa Monica, California, when he heard the voice of Roger Ridley (now deceased) singing "Stand By Me." Roger had so much soul and conviction in his voice, and Mark approached him about performing "Stand By Me" as a Song Around The World. Roger agreed, and when Mark returned with recording equipment and cameras he asked Roger, "With a voice like yours, why are you singing on the streets?" Roger replied, "Man I’m in the Joy business, I come out to be with the people." Ever since that day, the Playing For Change crew has traveled the world recording and filming musicians, creating Songs Around The World, and building a global family. [ Source: Wikipedia]

From such humble beginnings has the Playing For Change Band grown. On this night it consisted of 12 musicians and singers, including the very popular Grandpa Elliott, who appeared in the first video for the song, Stand By Me, and who had not performed with the band for the past year or two. 

It's also worth noting that PFC also created a separate non-profit organization called the Playing For Change Foundation, which builds music schools for children around the world. Truly it is said: From little things big things grow. As anticipated, it was a great night of music delivered by musicians from as far afield as South Africa, Israel, Japan, North and South America and elsewhere. The mood was upbeat and joyous throughout, and the show capped of a busy week of gigs for me that made my second week in New York hard to beat.

New York City Day 9: Walk Like an Egyptian to The Bitter End!

The Chrysler Building basks in the glow of
late evening sunlight. 

GIGS, GIGS, AND MORE GIGS
I wrote in an earlier post that I had dubbed this visit to New York as my Music and Art Tour, and nothing that has happened since my last series of posts a week ago to change this designation. Since last Sunday 25th my evenings has included a night at The Bitter End to catch the Singer/Songwriter Sessions and the All Star Jam that follows it. On Monday night I returned to City Winery to see Michelle Shocked and the Pete Anderson trio run through her now classic album, Short Sharp Shocked, and again on Tuesday night I was there to help celebrate the 30th birthday of Jesse Paris Smith with a host of guest musicians including her brother Jackson and legendary mother, Patti Smith.

I had a night off on Wednesday, but I had reserved a ticket to see Cassandra Wilson at the Blue Note Jazz Club in Greenwich Village on Thursday night. In the end, I decided to cancel that booking, and reschedule for tonight, Sunday, July 2. My final big gig for the week saw me visiting the Highline Ballroom for a rollicking performance of the Playing For Change Band, of which more later.

A MORE FOCUSED NYC VISIT
It occurs to me that by building this visit around art and music, I am a lot more focused than I might otherwise have been. On previous visits to New York, I have concentrated on free music events more than anything else, and then left pretty much all other activities to the whims of the day. Purchasing two museum memberships (MoMA, and The Met), has allowed me to pick and choose talks and tours to attend, and while my general museum visits are still unfocused, I am enjoying the return visits to the Met Cloisters and The Met Museum in particular. While I have only made one visit to the Met Breuer at this time, I will go there again this week to take in any new works on show. I will also return to MoMA for a deeper look at the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition.

Here's my week in review along with my daily expenses in US and Australian dollars.

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM MEMBERS EVENT
The Met Fifth Avenue Members Event -- Irving Penn: Centennial. Learn about the life and work of the great American photographer Irving Penn with New Yorker writer Vince Aletti, Vogue executive fashion editor Phyllis Posnick, and Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs, Jeff L. Rosenheim.

I went to The Met Museum in time to attend the Irving Penn talk. I must say I found the talk and the information about Penn's career as a (mostly) fashion photographer for Vogue magazine more interesting than I thought I would. I have never had a lot of time for fashion or the designers, their famous models or the magazines that thrive on haute couture, or the world of high fashion. However, Irving Penn took his role very seriously, and did not just shoot fashion for anyone, and that included Vogue. Phyllis Posnick, worked at Vogue for many years, and said she constantly had to persuade and convince Penn to take on assignments for the magazine. I had a quick look at the Centennial exhibition after the talk, but will return for a more leisurely look on a future visit. I also had a little time to walk through some of the Egyptian rooms and again I will return to these at a later date for a more careful look. 

However, it occurs to me after several somewhat disorganized visits to the Met Museum, that I need to be more focused about my examination of the massive art collections on offer. The best way of doing this, it seems to me is to use the museum map to plan each visit so that I can concentrate on one section at a time and so work my way through the whole building floor by floor and all 20 major departments.

Above: The Temple of Dendur

Above: detail of inscriptions on Temple of Dendur wall.

Here are the main departments moving clockwise around the First Floor: Greek and Roman Art; Africa, Oceania and the Americas; Modern & Contemporary Art; European Sculpture & Decorative Arts; Medieval Art; Robert Lehman Collection; The American Wing; Arms & Armor; Egyptian Art.

The Second & Third floors: Greek & Roman Art; Ancient Near Eastern Art; Art of The Arab Lands; 19th and Early 20th Century European Paintings and Sculpture; Modern & Contemporary Art; Photography; European Paintings 1250-1800; European Sculpture & Decorative Arts; Musical Instruments; and American Wing (mezzanine). Then there are the collections at The Cloisters, the Breuer, and of course MoMA. 

And let's not forget all the allied programs that each museum runs like talks, tours, film screenings and musical performances. And this is without visiting any of the dozens of other museums and galleries across the city! Far out! I really have to get my act together.

Above: Bat-or Kalo on stage at the Bitter End and below

posters from the 60s and 70s decorate the walls of the venue.

THE BITTER END: Singer/Songwriter Sessions & All Star Jam
I've written about the Bitter End numerous times on this blog so I won't go over old news. I will say that as a big supporter of new and emerging performers, I love how this venue has stayed close to its roots and continues to support young talent through the singer/songwriter sessions and in many other ways. It is interesting to see young performers working on their stagecraft, and sharing their songs and music in a small, intimate venue like this, knowing as I hope they do, that some of the greatest musicians, comedians, and other performers have also trodden the boards of the narrow stage on which they themselves are standing.

Note: Click on images to view full sized.

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Sunday 25, June | Expenses $49.00 ($64.55)

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NYC Day 8: The Met Cloisters, and Week 1 Expenses

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THE MET CLOISTERS
Yet another first visit, this time to the Met Cloisters, a Medieval museum located in Fort Tryon Park, at the top end of Manhattan. I timed my visit to catch a midday tour/talk entitled Wings in the Middle Ages: Birds, Beasts, Angels, and Altarpieces, led by Michael Morris an expert in this particular area. Between now and the end of August there are another eleven different gallery talks/tours that I could participate in. These take place on weekends at 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM. There are also daily Highlights tours (at 3:00 PM), and daily Gardens of the Met Cloisters tours (at 1:00 PM).

Among many other treasures, the Cloisters Museum if famous for its numerous medieval tapestries, and the most famous of these are the magnificent tapestries that are known as the Unicorn Tapestries.

Even though I have only managed to visit each of the museums and their offshoots once each to date, purchasing memberships to MoMA and The Met Museum is fast turning out to be the best thing I have done in preparation for this visit. Since I feel no obligation to exhaust myself trying to see as much as possible each time I visit one of these institutions, I find my outings are much more relaxing and less stressful than they might have otherwise been if I was trying to pack too much into each visit.

WEEK 1 EXPENSES: USD$483.00
As near as I can work it out, the weekly spend for my first week in New York was just $483, which averages out to a daily figure of $69.00. This includes transport, accommodation, food, recreation, and shopping. For readers coming late to these updates, my expenses are so low due to the fact that I am apartment and cat sitting for a friend, and I am contributing a very nominal amount to help offset costs associated with maintaining this apartment. Hence the biggest expense of any trip, accommodation, is turning out to be my least expensive cost, something for which am incredibly grateful for.

NYC Arts Round-Up #4: The Met Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Credit: Benjamin Norman for The New York Times

~ Visit to the Met Could Cost You, if You Don’t Live in New York

An article in the New York Times caught my attention recently. Titled, Visit to the Met Could Cost You, if You Don’t Live in New York, the article, written by Robin Pogrebin reported that this venerable institution is thinking of charging “…a mandatory fee for non-residents.”

New Yorker’s reading this will be aware of course, that the Met currently has a suggested full priced entrance fee of USD$25. International visitors who have already been to the museum and paid the full price may not have been aware that they could have entered for free—if they had the confidence to front up and ask for free entry.

While comments for the article are now closed, there were many ‘for’ and ‘against’ arguments about the proposal among the 462 contributors, one of whom was myself. Here’s what I wrote: 

Interesting article and discussions. As it happens I live in Australia, but will be visiting New York City for almost three months over the coming summer. In preparation for this visit, just two weeks ago I paid for reduced annual membership to both The Met and to MoMA (each cost US$70 or AU$95.40).

Why? Because I intend to make multiple visits to both institutions during my stay, and paying for membership is the most economical way to enjoy the full range of benefits, along with the events and activities that both museums program across the summer months. Even if I visit each of the museums just once per week over ten weeks, my investment will have more than justified the initial expense. Of course I will miss out on the other nine months of my annual membership, but that’s part of what I call ’the cost of travel’. 

I also paid because I can. I would much rather pay for membership, even though I won’t be able to take full advantage of it over 12 months, if that membership helps those who genuinely can’t afford to visit either of these great museums, to do so for free.

Read the full article here…

A medicine vision by an unrecorded Arapaho artist (detail) ca. 1880 in Oklahoma.

~ In April, my attention was caught by an article by Katherine Brooks writing for the Huffington Post. In her piece; Native American Art Gets Its Rightful Place In The Metropolitan Museum, Brooks writes:

The American Wing of the storied Metropolitan Museum of Art has long held a collection of typically “American” artifacts: portraits of wigged colonial leaders, Tiffany chandeliers, Frank Lloyd Wright chairs, silver owned by Paul Revere Jr., quilts by unknown 19th-century makers.

Together they tell a specific, but noticeably incomplete, history of the United States.
Beginning in the fall of 2018, however, the American Wing will attempt to course correct by including a subgroup of art that has been regrettably missing from the section: Native American art. Thanks to a donation from collectors Charles and Valerie Diker, a batch of 91 works of Native American art will be headed for the American Wing, marking a historic change in the way art is curated at New York’s most famous museum.

While New York City is home to the National Museum of the American Indian (located in the old Customs House opposite Bowling Green), it is surely way past time that Native American culture was better represented at the Met Museum.

Read the full article here…

Making the Most of the Metropolitan Museum

The New York Times also has a very informative feature on how to get the best of any visit to that great institution and its massive collections. Among the highlights, Daniel McDermon includes five ‘Must See’ rooms (Greek and Roman Sculpture Court; the Vermeer Collection; Asian Art; the Impressionists; and the Temple of Dendur). He also writes about the amazing spaces within the museum, intimate treasures, what to see with kids, and much more.

Read the full guide here…

Ellis cartoon courtesy of The New Yorker

If you are looking for even more to do in New York City, the New York Times has several arts sections worth bookmarking and checking on a regular basis:

New York Times Arts…

New York Galleries this Week…

New York Times Arts & Entertainment Guide…