Here is a synopsis of my most recent trip to New York. It may help to give you a sense of a whole trip. I will give some more suggestions in later posts:
I left by car on Friday, the second of July, late in the afternoon, with my wife and son. We stopped just off of the New Jersey Turnpike, to position ourselves to arrive by mid- morning without breaking a sweat. We dropped our bags at our hotel on Saturday morning, and went immediately to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was an exhibition of Medieval objets d'art, supplemented by a turn through the regular holdings; the Annenberg Collection was on display, as it is annually, and once more we walked through many fine Impressionist, post-Impressionist, and early Modern paintings. (A highlight of the collection is a room full of Pisarros, an often underappreciated painter). We also saw a small Hans Hoffman exhibit, and a few other minor things, and had lunch at the Met.
We next went to the Whitney for a major exhibition, which anyone going to New York, or living in the vicinity, should contemplate viewing. It is a major retrospective of 20th century American art, including film clips, posters, and designed objects, as well as paintings and sculpture, with a view to giving a sense of the development of the country through the century. Go to the website www.whitney.org, and see an online exhibit. There will be a second part in the winter and spring, concentrating on post- War art.
We dined at Tavern on the Green, for the second time. It is kookie and luxurious. The main dining room looks like an old carousel building that has had a fancy restaurant inserted. Before, they had had a reasonable pre- theatre menu, but this time everything was a la carte, and quite pricey. Afterward, we went to see "Cabaret" at Studio 54. It was wonderful, although I could only get mezzanine seats that were too packed in. It is disconcerting, though, if one is familiar with the movie, because alot of the "book" was changed.
On Sunday, we went to the American Museum of Natural History, saw a somewhat sluggish IMAX film on the Amazon rainforest, but happened upon a revamped exhibit on early hominids that was quite good. Also, the revamped section on gemstones is kind of a knockout. We went to the Museum of Modern Art, one of my favorite places, and walked through the permanent collection. There were a couple of small special exhibits, but the best was a sort of round- up of contemporary trends in residential architecture. A lot of it was modernism on steroids, so to speak, but it was really fun to look at the models and photos. We were pretty tired, so we called it a day after dinner at a mediocre Italian restaurant (damn).
On Monday, we checked out and drove around town. I drove up to the mayor's mansion, past the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, and by the Abyssinian Baptist Church, once shepherded by Adam Clayton Powell. We stopped at Columbia and took a brief spin (in was still above 100 degrees), and also showed my son the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Heading downtown, we stopped for dim- sum in Chinatown, and I let my son buy some anime videos (Japanese cartoons).
We headed out, drove down the Jersey shore as close to the ocean as we could manage, and stopped in West Atlantic City. We went on the boardwalk briefly, and I let my son peek into a casino. Then we had good Italian food, to make up for the previous night<g>.
On Tuesday, we proceeded by the beautiful Jersey shore, taking the Cape May- Lewes ferry across the Delaware Bay. It is a 75 minute trip, and one feels as if one is on the ocean for much of it. We proceeded Ocean City, Md., and glommed out for a few days. There are two things worth mentioning: we spent some time on Assateague Island, and were charmed to be surrounded, at one point, by wild ponies; and we saw Spike Lee's new movie, "Summer of Sam", which is brilliant, and which I strongly recommend... |
