NYU CosCafe 2015

view from NYU Kimmel was awesome

Love Live, the cutest show with great music and cosplay too.

I like this song / dance number for including a lot of energy

MoshiMoshi, a rock band that specializes in video game / anime music.
their rockin’ rendition of Pokemon wowed the entire audience.

Notes

I was invited to this event by animemiz and was happy to be able to save a table near the front for the group. J. and I were both hooked on Love Live aftewards (he checked out the game, I checked out the anime). I am really impressed with the talent and organization of anime clubs of today. Previously, I was quite impressed with how Stevens pulled off an anime convention on their campus (see post link). Now after seeing this coscafe with people cosplaying and performing was a nice surprise too. If you enjoy cosplay masquerade events at conventions, the coscafe offers great entertainment/performances. I particularly enjoyed the Love Live numbers. The group did a fantastic job putting the outfits together and also a lot of rehearsals for the steps! I also liked some of the interactive audience games they played (especially rock paper scissors group play and also T/F with anime trivia). A group of us ended up at a diner where we chilled out and talked more anime. Maybe I’ll see more friends at Anime Next?

More Reading

Love Live on Crunchyroll http://www.crunchyroll.com/love-live-school-idol-project
Youtube videos of the event: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlTbPZSVZ1LawtTLqAKx8Kv_LL-bZi-m
MoshiMoshi https://www.facebook.com/MoshiMoshiBand

Origami Meetup Group Artist Trading Card 2013

My friend Linda loves artist trading cards (ATCs) and organized a card swap for the origami meetup group with the theme “Red, Orange, and Brown”. As always, I started brainstorming and planning my concept as soon as the trade was announced. This is a bit of a break from my previously heavily geometric/hydrangea-ish cards. Although the process can be viewed as a geometric mathematical problem to make 6-inch squares into ATC sized cards.

Design inspiration

My friend Nate specializes in making ATCs out of origami paper. I liked this concept from his Origami Heaven ATC trade and wanted to try it out myself.  

While playing with paper to figure out the crease pattern, I managed to find a way to weave a basket which I used as a card/basket.

Materials

The Card/basket is made from 6inch patterned kami. Apple and carrot are each made from half of a 3inch kami. So they’re both made from rectangles.

Revisions

Unlike my very first ATC which had a “secret theme”, I did share my process/prototypes for the OMG trade with friends. I’d like to thank Linda for her paper donation. My original prototype was a very boring plain brown. Unfortunately she didn’t have enough paper for all 9 cards in the set. Luckily Doug had received a batch of pattern paper from Linda so he had donated some as well. I don’t think people will mind that their baskets are slightly different. Jason liked the basket and suggested that I add some ridges/grooves on the carrot to make it more realistic.

Final 9 cards in the set

“Harvest” (OMG ATC Trade 2013)
Red, orange, and brown are autumn harvest colors in this ATC set. The basket is made from one sheet of paper and doubles as the ATC card.   

To read more, take a look at the next page.

Art and Inspirations at MoCCa Fest 2013

Before my first experience at Museum of Comic and Cartoon Arts Festival (MoCCa Fest) this past weekend, I did not know much about indie comics/illustration. After attending some panels and browsing through the art, I gained a better understanding about this world and managed to add many artists to my to-read list. This event is also associated with Society of Illustrators and took place at the Armory building on 25th and Lexington. http://www.societyillustrators.org/Mocca_Event.aspx?id=8605

Throughout the weekend there were panels on comics, art, animation, and history. I was surprised that the panels were held in a rather humble room in the lower level, given that the Indie Game convention I went to had such a huge number of rooms etc. The main attraction was the ground floor with publishers/artists/studios displaying their works. There were also author signings/personalization available.  I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of tables/booths on the first day and decided to take it easy. The museum had several collected works on display. One was called “Day Job” and features famous people in creative industry and what they had as on the side.

Memorable Panel Moments

Zippy
I arrived toward the end of this panel when Bill Griffith was showing some funny segments of the comic and themes like bowling, laundry, and how to become a daily syndicate. He also shared how he keeps up with the news and current trends to include in the comics.
http://www.zippythepinhead.com/pages/aabillgr.html

Business Sense
The panel shared several tips: Make deadlines. Learn to work with people (agents, publishers, referrals, assistants, interns, etc). Ask for legal consultation to protect work and negotiate favorable rates. Study the market and trends. Most of all, don’t work for free. Having been to several career events, these things are not that surprising to me. But it’s good to see no matter what industry you are in, consistent work and good inter-personal relationships are always important.

Animation and Storytelling
This was my favorite panel. The guests started out by sharing their experience switching from illustration to animation. While repetitive drawing is required, brining a character to life is worth the work. After viewing their animation clips, I noticed all of them possess a knack for storytelling and for translating stories into beautifully rendered animation. 

• Twins are Weird “Cee Cee’s Bedtime Story” made the entire audience laugh/cry. Go watch it! http://twinsareweird.com/shorts/
• Signe Baumane “Rocks in my Pockets” project was really moving and deals with the subject matter of depression. Need to look for it when it’s completed.
  http://www.rocksinmypocketsmovie.com/
• Bill Plympton http://www.plymptoons.com/
  I wanted to see more of the project with cowboys. The Simpsons couch gag was amazing too.

Loot

[art book] [freedom comic] [greeting card] and
Two little booklets from the Swag Table
the lawn and dirty diamonds

Food / Drinks

Shake Shack [link to custard calendar]

Saturday special is Salted caramel. I recommend pairing it with vanilla or chocolate. Thank God for B line for saving us from the burger line that almost reached the Flat Iron Building.

Gregory Coffee [link]
Great latte that comes with latte art in a real cup to stay. Also liked  seating and art on the wall. The lighting is really unfortunate though. Doesn’t make it easy for people to linger.

IndieCadeEast 2013–Games and Creativity

While I’ve played my share of video games growing up, I didn’t know much about independent games or game development before I attended IndieCadeEast 2013. Thanks to Diana, we made our way to the Museum of Moving Image in Queens this past weekend to the first IndieCade on the east coast. After two and a half days of intense convention activities, I learned a thing or two about games, crowd energy, creative design, and play testing. Warning: this entry has a lot of media. Proceed with caution.

fancy logo. Link to Indiecade East site

just a shot of the museum entrance.

Five Memorable Convention Moments (more details after the jump)

1. Renga AI: "Your fourth harvester looks really useful now”
2. Game Design Workshop: Post-It Pirates playtest sessions
3. Hokra Play-by-Play Sports Commentary during Sports Friends Session
4. Super Shove Shove Ending Screen during CAPY keynote by Kris.
5. Three way tie for the three “Well-Played” sessions I attended. All the presenters gave engaging presentations and shed some light onto games that I had not otherwise known about.

---

1. Renga Rant

http://wallfour.co.uk/
When D. and I first lined up on Sat. night for this game in the main theater (bigger of the two theaters), we didn’t know what to expect. The volunteer who was handing out the laser pointers instructed every row to pass down the laser pointers (1 per 3 people only). Since we sat on the aisle, I decided to skip it and let my neighbor participate while we observed. Later on in the show, he was nice enough to let us try as well.

Game premise: Team space shooter
The Execution: 100-players (total strangers) + laser pointers (aka annoying red things) = crowd ecstasy and/or complete chaos.
The Twist: We are all dependent on each other to build a ship, fight off enemies, and survive!
Side effect: Continuous blabbering about how cool this game is and seeing “quads” and “radial” shapes every where.

The context for the AI comment "Your fourth harvester looks really useful now” came after we opted to built yet another harvester despite being blown to bits by enemies. The ship can build different parts after each round of attacks. A “launch” engine is said to be the primary goal because the ship needs to build four launch engines in order to go home. Then there are “silo” ship units to hold supplies and “harvesters” which are little ships that can grab supplies to bring back to the silos. Harvesters have no offense so they get destroyed easily during attack.

Self-Portraits: An All-Star Gathering at Figureworks

My friend Stephanie had always wanted to explore Brooklyn, and what better way to do so than a gallery tour? Armed with smartphone apps NY ArtBeat ($1.99, absolute essential app for art lovers, including galleries and openings around the NY area) and Art & Absinthe Guide to Brooklyn (free, with whimsical artwork and cocktail recipes), we roamed around Williamsburg on one cold January Sunday. Out of the 5 or so galleries we visited, I enjoyed The Self-Portraits exhibit at FigureWorks the most. The friendly owner Randall was kind to share stories of the artists and works with us.

Figureworks Gallery

168 North 6th Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Sat / Sun 1-6pm (also check schedule for 2nd Fridays in Brooklyn)
http://www.figureworks.com/
Self Portraits Exhibit runs through March 3, 2013
All Images courtesy of Figureworks [harris@figureworks.com], taken with my iphone 4S.

Elim Mak – heart illumination

This one immediately caught my eye because it reminded me of traditional Chinese watercolors. The silver lines of the fierce tiger profile and the soft brushstrokes create a fine contrast. The heart illustration (veins and all) is straight out of a science class but doesn’t seem out of place in this composition. Fun fact: she also does comic books! [artist link]

Howard Eisman – Portrait of a Renaissance Man

Steph and I were fascinated with this piece and Randall was able to help us piece the whole thing together. The artist uses this medium for his normal works. So it makes sense for his self-portrait to reflect his medium. While it looks like it could be translucent, the entire work is actually quite heavy. You have to look closer at the real thing (this photo doesn’t do justice) to see different aspects of life that he included inside the colorful collage. Some of his other works do not have the wooden backboard, so you can imagine an abstract form floating on the wall.
[artist link]

Fred Hatt – Self Portrait

Randall said that Fred (the artist) looks exactly like this self-portrait. At a meet-and-greet event, most gallery visitors were able to recognize him. I haven’t attended an event yet but you can view a photo of the artist on his website. In the gallery, there is a video of the creative process on display next to this portrait. Steph and I were both surprised to see how the artist worked his way through the picture, without actually outlining the face first. He went straight to the eyes with blue outlines, before the beard and mouths were even formed. [artist link]

Other Notes

There were many other self-portraits of different mediums and stories. I wonder if Randall will publish a catalogue of the different pieces along with their stories. The reason why I called the title of the show “all-stars” is because most of the artists had already had their own shows at FigureWorks. If you think about it, a gallery usually features one or two artists at a time. This show is actually a great way to meet 50 artists all at once and learn about their styles and stories.

This exhibit also made me ponder what my self-portrait would look like. Probably a mix of maps/city photos/music, a multimedia experience. When I wrote about my “welcome corner” [blog entry], Steph did say it was a way to reflect my personality. Maybe subconsciously I was already starting to make my own self-portrait.

What medium and materials would you use to make your self-portrait? If you need inspiration, check out the show at Figureworks.

NYC Welcome Corner

I love bookstores with their themed tables, display corners, and books with handwritten “recommended by staff” notes. I also enjoy well-curated tourist info booths, B&Bs, and coffee shops with guest books. When I started to organize things around the apt today, I thought it would be fun to construct my own welcome corner for visitors and friends. Detailed descriptions after the jump.

Art in East Village

One can live in New York for years and still miss half of the fun stuff that goes on around the various neighborhoods. I found out about the Howl Festival in Tompkins Square Park through a MeetUp group called Origami MeetUp Group (or O.M.G.).

Origami
The Meetup event was to fold origami to include in the mural submission for the festival. See below for a close up of the origami works (power in numbers!) and the final product (portrait of Allen Gainberg, even the glasses are made out of paper). Check out Sok and crew at the Origami MeetUp Group and also at http://creased.com/

The group went to a restaurant called Westville which featured a delicious gazpacho that had jicama and avocado as ingredients, in addition to the usual suspects like tomato, cucumber, red pepper, and onion. The market plate section also featured so many good looking veggies I just have to come back. Three locations in the city, too.

Art
I also took the opportunity to walk around the park to take in the other artworks. If you haven’t been to the Howl Festival before, you should mark your calendars for next year. Art in action offers so much creative energy!

This is one of my favorite paintings around the park. I didn’t get a chance to meet the artist but he did leave his info: http://clarkcarr.cc/

I met Sam, the artist for this work below (my photo did not get the entire picture which spells out READ):  http://samita.us/ Now I just need to look into his pop up books.

I did not get a chance to jot down this artist’s info but awesome composition as well.

More Reading
Allen Ginsberg: http://www.allenginsberg.org/
Howl text: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179381
Howl on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVGoY9gom50
Tompkins Square: http://www.city-journal.org/article02.php?aid=1155

and finally, I leave you with a peach colored rose from the park.

Tech Review – Update on Ipad Reading Apps

Back in 2010 and 2011 I’ve written some initial reviews for ebooks (blog entry link) and Ipad first gen (blog entry link). Since many of the apps and devices have changed, thought it would be a good idea to provide an update.

This list of apps are reviewed based on my own experience with them on my ipad2 (Wifi with 3G capability on AT&T plan, version 5.0.1, with red leather smart cover). Whether or not you’re new to the Ipad/Ipad2 experience, hope you were able to find something interesting on this list.

Reading/Books (ordered by most used and most recommended)
1. Overdrive:
Probably the most used reading related app on my ipad2. Basically it hooks up to libraries’ digital book/audio book collection and works the same way as checking out books. No late fees because the ebooks automatically “return” to the library. The selection is not as large as the physical library but still pretty impressive. You would need your library card # and pin (visit your local library!) to login and you may have to do a one-time setup of the adobe ebook permission thing. Once you figure it out though, it’s a handy app to have for travelling. Just load up your Ipad with a bunch of books when you have WIFI, and then read everything offline.

2. Zite:
I’m kind of obsessed with this aggregator of news. You can subscribe to different categories “world news, business, art, etc” and also by keyword. The easy share function basically means I send a ton of articles to my friends almost daily. Here’s a screenshot of today’s front page and you can see my categories:

3. Various Magazine Ipad versions:
Until I figure out the News Stand/other Magazine services, I’m continuing to use the individual magazine apps. BusinessWeek is the only one that automatically jumped to Ipad2’s News Stand and it reads just fine. Economist app and Time app have different setup/layout but I would say are quite comparable to their print editions. Time use somewhat more interactive functions for certain sections, i.e. pop culture or quotes and charts. Economist keeps pretty true to the stories and the section breakouts (region, business, indices, etc). I don’t think I would need all the interactive stuff there. 

Just so you know, I didn’t order the electronic versions of the magazines on Itunes. I already have the three magazines in print subscription, and you can use the barcode/etc to set up digital subscriptions/Ipad editions for free. Each week I can download the old issues and read them on the ipad. Pretty useful, and you won’t miss an issue if you’re out of town when they deliver the print edition. For now, this is still cheaper than getting rid of print all together.

4. GoodReads: Not an ebook reader but rather an app to keep track of all your books. You may already know the website http://www.goodreads.com/. This is an extension and makes it more mobile. Next time you go to the bookstore and gets inspired, add the books. Unfortunately not a lot of my friends use this, so I’m keeping track of books myself. If all of them read and used this service, you can get ideas by browsing their bookshelves, too. I am happy to report that since I’ve signed up for this website, I’ve read quite a number of books (also helpful to have the library Overdrive app mentioned above.) I would recommend revising the “to-read” list though, otherwise it becomes impossible to decide what book is next.

5. Kindle/Nook: Both Kindle and Nook lost their storefront connection so I have to do an extra step of finding the books on Safari to download them. This is an inconvenience created by Apple (and I suppose that’s only fair, as they’re allowing you to even use Nook/Kindle on the device). As far as display functions, Kindle continues to have quite minimal settings for font/background etc. If you like your kindle, you should just continue using it, as the ipad version is quite different. Nook still has the wide range of font/margin/spacing customization and ability to have many colors as background (even if I don’t see myself wanting hot pink, it’s cool to have it as an option?). Since they’re making the Hunger Games series into movies, I’m going to re-read the series on my Nook app (that’s where I first bought them). I’ve actually never used a Nook device so not sure how the Ipad version compares.
 

6. iBooks: I’ve only used this for browsing and to download Beatles Yellow Submarine. A cool feature I did find was sheetmusic with enhanced media. Instead of a book with just Star Wars sheet music, the ebook comes with its own audio track (with full orchestra). pretty cool. The downside you can’t make your notations (add these pesky flats/sharps, modifications to a melody, etc).

Other Apps
Fruit Ninja:
I know everyone probably has this game already (even people who don’t like to buy apps has decided this game is worth buying the full version for). I love this game. Beautiful graphics, simple play, fun unlockable items (blades, backgrounds, etc), and replay value. I also like the little things they add in the updates (new fruit and more blades/backgrounds). I wish they had better integrated the Puss in Boots version, though. Both have unique modes and it’s just strange to have complete stand-alones instead of one as an add-on or something. The challenge mode in Puss in Boots would be good for the main game. Maybe for the next update?

Shutterfly:
I love how I can just share my shutterfly photo albums on the Ipad now. Also do uploading/downloading from the Ipad itself.

Forgotten Colours:
I’m not sure why this book/app doesn’t get more press attention. So well made, a series of stories with gorgeous illustrations and interactive part. They call it children’s book but I think everyone can appreciate good art.

Museum Hopping

Back when I went to school in DC I always hopped around museums on the Mall. This usually occurred on a nice weekend afternoon or perhaps a break between intense library sessions during my reading days before exams. If the exhibit at the National Gallery didn’t last all day, I’d skip over the Freer/Sackler or Sculpture Garden or Natural Science Museum. After DC, I was a grad student in NY,  also free admission with my ID which was a luxury. If you ever look at suggested prices for museums in NY, you know they’re not cheap. I suppose becoming a member would make sense if you love one museum enough to go more than a handful of times.

Then I started working for a place that sponsors museums, which meant my badge always came with free admission (plus guest admissions) to various cultural institutions. In short, I’ve been a privileged and spoiled person indeed. Just to show you that tax dollars and corporate donations are not wasted, I do frequent museums very often and contribute to the museum cafes, gift shops, and nearby restaurants. My trips serve to enrich my limited art history knowledge which really came out of a combination of one art class in high school and random artwork in history books. The best way to learn is if there’s an exhibit featuring one artist and his/her different styles spanning a lifetime. Or perhaps an exhibit featuring various artists during a specific era.

V. and I decided to take a day off from work last week to catch up on our museum exhibits. It ended up being quite an adventure. Note for readers, don’t even think about taking the bus (no synchronized lights uptown) or subway (walking from MoMa to Lex just to go from Lex to Met again, ave walks, really?). You might as just walk and window shop! The two museums we had in mind were MoMa and Guggenheim but we ended up swinging by the Met too. Of course, as N. said later, we probably didn’t spend enough time at each location. Truth is, nobody can spend enough time at the Met. Guggenheim is focused on one special exhibit at a time so it is made for a cohesive trip. MoMa’s special exhibit on de Kooning is good but we also took time to walk by the room of Monets and Van Gaughs and Picassos. The most surprising exhibit was probably the Guggenheim Cattelan one. My favorite new artist John Marin was found and admired while visiting the Met exhibit featuring Stieglitz’s various artists.

Sound Bites
Sum of Days (white fabric tent/maze, microphone, and ambient sounds):
me- at least the fabric is nice and you can touch it, unlike other museum exhibits.
V-it reminds me of a sanitary napkin.
other museum goers: *glare

de Kooning:
me-I’m a bit scared of the teeth (on the women in some of the more abstract paintings)

Kandinsky Painting with White Border:
me-I don’t get it (and I love Kandinsky)
V-(reading the commentary next to the painting) “and it tortured me for five months!” and I just added the border because it looked nice. no social commentary!

Cattelan:
there’s way too much going on in this exhibit. I think our favs are between the Pope and the Musicians (stack of animals). or maybe Pinocchio? read the catalogue book on the various descriptions too! pigeons…enough said. and the giant foosball table. everything really!

John Marin:
me-(after seeing his earlier and later works)I like his earlier works better. although as an artist, he should be able to do different things and styles and evolve.

Rothko: (not really featured in an exhibit but came up as we were debating what kind of art to hang in our dream mansions)
me- the floating squares are quite peaceful, especially if you have nice walls
V-I’m going to get Rothko for my apt!
N-you should get the black/white one

Random fun:
Rothkomatic
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rothkomatic-for-ipad/id474351284?mt=8
If you like Rothko, check out the free ipad app that allows you to create your own Rothko. so brilliant and soothing too!

Art History Online
http://www.khanacademy.org/#smarthistory
I know everyone loves Khan Academy for math, but how about art! the Guggenheim museum video was quite informative.

Art for a Saturday

Being in NYC is a privilege that I often forget. Recently I volunteered at a corporate sponsored arts mentoring event that made appreciate just how lucky we all are.

My work place has corporate membership for various arts institutions in NYC, the Met, Guggenheim, Whitney, Natural History, you name it. Yet how does one single employee really contribute to arts by simply walking around the exhibits? Sure, I’ve enriched my knowledge of different styles/eras/history, but I haven’t quite impacted the world too much with my knowledge. Through the volunteer/mentoring event, I was able to see the impact of my contributions.

The organization that put together the event is Free Arts NYC (http://www.freeartsnyc.org/). Our particular event was one day only, where the volunteers get paired with a child (1:1) and guide them through arts and crafts projects. At the end of the day, the child will bring home his/her creations. No cell phones, no negativity, just encouragement, art, and a lot of fun. The event was extremely rewarding.

10 Memories:

1. picking colors and materials for all the projects. the number of items was overwhelming
2. my buddy named one of her creations after me (a pink stuffed octopus…)
3. a kid asked me if he could bring back an extra box of raisins for his baby sister back home. he is 3, she is 2. 
4. my buddy showing the fun photo to all her friends (separate from the arts/crafts projects, they’ve set up a photo area where volunteer and kid can play dress up with hats and props. then the photo is printed and given to the kid as a souvenir)
5. creating purple out of red and blue clay. beautiful color magic.
6. sitting on glitter by mistake and flipping out…
7. marching arm in arm to find my buddy’s group leader at the end of the day (hard to say good bye)
8. helping clean up after projects are completed. (I was never this helpful when I was younger…clearly I was spoiled rotten)
9. realizing that I was better at speaking/hanging out with kids than I had expected.
10. apple juice, the kids’ drink of choice. who said I couldn’t survive without coffee?

America’s Beloved Capital: Day 2

A continuation of my Oct post [link to day 1].

Stamps and letters
Next to Union Station, there is a Post Museum [link] that I managed to miss during my four years of living in DC. Beautiful space with plenty of educational and fun exhibits for kids and adults alike.
My family has always enjoyed collecting stamps so I grew up saving and looking at different stamps. I suppose this museum will be equally fascinating and mysterious for kids growing up today without knowing anything about snail mail or stamps.

Some exhibits that I enjoyed:
-Victory mail: You’ve probably heard about war time letters between soldiers and their family/sweethearts, but did you know they had developed vmail in order to reduce the amount of cargo weight? Reading their letters made me nostalgic for the days when people captured their feelings through handwritten letters, and waited quite a while for a response. Receiving a letter then must have been an exciting event and a relief. With technology today it is possible to text/call/tweet/IM/Skype but people find it harder to express their feeling in coherent ways.

-International stamp gallery [link]: Ever wondered what kind of stamps other countries used? This small room with pull-out plates holds a vast amount of stamps. If you want to see everything you may need a day. I recommend Italy, France, Japan, and Spain. They had really unique and artistic stamps.

-Stamps A-Z: Educational but such a short-lived exhibit! I wish they had made a book or a pamphlet of the alphabet.

The souvenir store also has many goodies for stamp lovers. I bought a series of travel related stamps for my parents: trains, ships/boats, planes, and overall transportation (including hot air balloons!)

A little bit of art
I dragged T. to the National Gallery of Art [link], mostly for the Edvard Munch exhibit [link]. Besides his famous Scream painting, he’s done plenty of other works that deserve attention. I liked all of the prints where he depicted people and their interactions in a fluid manner. The way people curved and surrounded each other was interesting. He also captured red flowing hair of the female subjects that is both dreamlike and dynamic.

T. recommended that we check out the Arcimboldo exhibit [link]. How do you merge people and fruit/vegetables? He’s found a way, even as early as the 16th century. My favorite series was the 4 seasonal one. Four different portraits with seasonal produce! Below is a statue someone built in his style.

I tried to introduce Rothko to T. without too much success. I don’t even remember when I started to appreciate Rothko’s works. Most likely after seeing enough exhibits in MoMa and Whitney and realizing that although abstract, those paintings had a certain mood and texture that was not found in other works. 

New find
Every time I find a new space somewhere in DC and NYC I’m always wondering why it took me so long to discover it. T. and I both enjoyed photo ops in front of the Capitol Building (my favorite in DC), Library of Congress, Archives Building, and more. In any case, the Navy Memorial Plaza [link] gave us a chance to rest our feet and enjoy the autumn weather. Note to self, check out the heritage center next time. One of the buildings also had intricate and navy themed stained glass window art.

Tapas and sherry to end the day
After much walking and adventuring, T. took me to Tasca [link], a tapas restaurant. I would do a full review but of course I’ve since forgotten what we’ve ordered. I do remember Serrano ham, fig and cheese, tomato garlic toast and grilled octopus…along with some others. They had a wine special that night and sherry was included. We had a bottle that we couldn’t finish…I hope T. found a way to use it in her cooking or entertaining. I’m pretty sure we got the sponge cake for dessert which was just perfect. How can you go wrong with condensed milk and evaporated milk? The place also gets bonus points for great decor and ambience. I loved the framed mirror and lighting.

Awesome weekend spent in DC. Looking forward to (re)discovering more places next time I visit.

DC Arts

Museum/Gallery
Student free admission may be nice for NYC but in DC almost everything is free for all.
Freer Along the National Mall
Sackler Walkable from above.
Ripley International Gallery close to Freer and Sackler.
National History Museum Intersection of 10th Street and Constitution Ave., NW. National Mall
Portrait Gallery Eighth and F Streets, NW, D.C., 20001, above the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metrorail station (Red, Yellow and Green lines).
National Gallery of Art (East and West Buildings)
Corcoran Gallery 17th and E St. ($10 Admission, Farragut West, Orange/Blue)
National Building Museum Judiciary Square Station (Red Line). Take National Building Museum exit and cross street to F Street entrance.

Guides/News/Blog
DCist
Post Going Out Gurus Blog

Music
Blues Alley
930 Club
Black Cat
Millennium Stage at Kennedy Center
Madam's Organ

NY Arts List

Art/Museum
MET | Cloisters
MoMa | PS1
Guggenheim
Whitney

Natural History
Museum of NYC
NY Historical Society

Jewish Museum

Neue Galerie

New Museum
Chelsea Art Museum
http://www.nyc-arts.org/

Music
Carnegie Hall
Lincoln Center
BB King Blues Club & Grill

Outdoors
New York Botanical Gardens (Bronx)
Central Park
Queens Botanical Garden
Scholar's Garden (Staten Island)

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Movies
Fandango
Moviefone

IMAX in Times Square | Lincoln Square

On Art Nouveau

Louis Comfort Tiffany is my hero.

My favorite art period has to be Art Nouveau for its flowing wrought iron works and connection with nature. There's also something to be said for clean and curved lines. Yes, sometimes the details in architecture seem too complicated and overwhelming even, but I enjoy that more than the so-call minimalist approach to modern buildings.

I don't claim to be an art historian but I do think New York is full of arts. Just walking around the city, you can find many interesting buildings and objects. Even the subway stations has plenty of art. I know New York is well known for its Art Deco (i.e. Chrystler Building), but if you look closely, you'll find plenty of Art Nouveau as well.

Why the sudden post on art? I was looking at the MET website and remembered how much I enjoyed the Tiffany exhibit, which is still running until May. The MET and MoMa are my favorite museums in New York, although I haven't been to that many. I used to love the dinosaurs and gemstones of Natural History but who can resist going back to the knights and armor room at the MET? Am I the only one who always ends up in that room when I get disoriented by the massive MET?

For those of you who have some time to learn about art, the MET has a wonderful art history timeline which I should take note. I probably would have enjoyed an art history class at college, except for all the people who complained about the endless slideshows in a dark room where 90% of the class would fall asleep. Needless to say, I was not overjoyed to test my ability to stay awake. Funny enough, most of my art history comes from gallery visits and this art project assigned to the class back in Painting 101 in high school. Everyone picked an artist, prepared a brief biography, painted a work in that artist's style, and presented the art and bio to the class. I really had my heart set on Cézanne but ended up taking Chagall. The students who picked impressionists actually did a great job with the style. Looking back, I think I would have had a lot of fun doing research and imitating Amano.

Let's hope I get to visit more galleries and museums soon. New York days and nights go by way too quickly.