New York (Again)

I have noticed that my visits to New York seem to have themes. My first trip was Free New York, another trip was Museums of New York, this trip was New York Parks, with a few Museums thrown in. I can't remember them all now, but I spent a lot of time wandering around or sitting in parks!

Thanks to a suggestion from Neal (feel free to make suggestions for places for me to visit, by the way. I'd like to see the places you have been and thought were wonderful, and/or go to the places you want to go, but haven't been yet), I set out on a trek to the Cloisters! The Cloisters are a satellite of the Metropolitan Museum of Art -- and worth the trip way, way up to the northern tip of Manhattan. I Took the A-train (whooo hooo!) and got off a stop too early and accidentally discovered a beautiful Park: Fort Tryon Park! It was donated by Rockefeller (I think) to the city and was the site of a fort built to keep the Brits (or was it the Americans?) at bay during the Revolutionary War! There is a beautiful view of New Jersey across the river -- gray-black bluffs of basalt rising from the river and topped with golden and green trees! "I bet it will be beautiful in a week!" I thought to my self. Yet another state where I missed the glorious fall color!

The Cloisters, for the uninitiated, is a museum designed to house buildings! It's very strange, actually, to wander from room to room, looking at the apes of one church in one room then pass through a door of another church into another room with a completely different apes and sculptures! Cool, but very odd. (furnished rooms sometimes have the same effect -- or the Throne Rooms at the Art Institute, but at a much smaller scale.) The Cloisters form a nice blending of my museum component and the park component, because of the the gardens within the three actual cloisters. I have heard they are a beautiful place to sit and enjoy the weather in the summer (it was a bit chilly the day I was there). They are planted with herbs and flowers used by Medieval Monks for medicines and such. My favorite part though, was the basement. It is full of reliquaries! I hope I don't offend any Catholics, but the idea of saving a bit of the body of a dead saint (the finger, or rib, or skull (with or without hair)) seems very strange! I find it fascinating as well -- it's the cool and creepy thing again. And the artwork, the reliquary, to house the relic, is often so beautiful. They are made with great detail and sensitivity. Faces, they are often in the form (or imagined form) of the dead saint, that are filled with anguish and hope blending together so tenderly. This is why I love Art.

Another theme, in both my life and in my art experiences in New York, is the face. Faces and hands. Those are the things that attract me in art. I was fortunate enough to see two exhibits focusing on faces. One at the Met -- the struggle between the naturalistic and the idealistic in art from the Renaissance (I think) -- and the "portraits" (both professional and private) of Annie Libovitz at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The Met is Amazing of course -- I once made my brother spend eight to ten hours wandering around the museum. I'd never been to the Brooklyn Museum. But I would agree that had it not been in the same city as the Met, it would be regarded as an amazing museum. I got kicked out after only two hours -- which was a very strange experience in itself. I walked past the guard and into a gallery. The guard says to me, "The museum is closing in two minutes." OK. I go in and have a brief look at something, when all of a sudden the guard calls out "the museum is closed!" and the lights go out. Click, click, click, bank after bank of lights get turned out and the I am left to find my way out of the gallery using only the emergency lighting! Behind the museum is a strange enclosure of fragments of sculptures, light posts and other random bit of things. It was like a cage for the broken toys. As if they were afraid the fragments would escape!

Other than the museums most of my time in NY was spent wandering the streets and visiting with Friends. Always the best of times!

To end this long and rambling entry, I'd like to leave you with a few random thoughts and images. As I walked down one street I was surprised to see the glint of a fishing line. On one end it was attached to a crumpled dollar bill. As I followed the line up, I saw a boy standing back from a second floor window with a fishing pole in his hand. He and I looked at each other and grinned. I also got to see one of Suzy's lectures. Again, I love Art History. I really enjoyed being reminded of some of my favorite spots in Rome. And it made me wonder how art/images (and architecture) are being used to control our thinking. She mentioned that the Romans exported specific building structures as a way of exerting control over the provinces -- It reminded me of McDonald's, the golden arches are the same, the food is the same, all over the world! The coffee (actually tea) shop where Ben and I hung out while he studied, seemed to characterize some of the differences I see between Chicago and New York. Chicago seems like the younger sibling. Still struggling a bit to fit it, fit into its skin. New York seems gritty and rough around the edges, but comfortable with itself that way. Chicago coffee shops are clean and the furniture sort of matches. In New York, it was old and battered and quirky.

Finally, I have seen tube mice in all three cities! Some people think mice in the subway are a pest (and I agree that rats are gross!) but the mice are good luck!