Arts and Streets in November

Canstruction near WTC

Ever wondered what you can make with canned foods? Check out annual sculpture competition for a good cause. I enjoyed all sculptures but thought it was really impressive to see a Yoshi.

http://www.sdanyc.org/canstruction/

Sunset over NJ (looking from Battery Park City near the water)

Love the color of sunset!

Street Scene

I saw this while walking around uptown (possibly west side) and just had to take a pic.

The Met Egyptian Tour

Ok, so you have been to the Metropolitan Museum, but did you ever take one of their guided tours (http://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-tours/guided-tours)? I have been to several tours including Art of Islam, Great Rooms, Museum Highlights, and Art of Greek/Roman. Recently I took the one featuring Art of Egypt and learned about this female ruler Hatshepsut (http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/544450). The gallery featuring her statues and other temple objects quickly became one of my new favorite Egypt galleries.

Broolyn Museum First Saturday

On Oct 4, I attended my first Brooklyn Museum First Saturday. For those of you unfamiliar with First Saturday, it's when the Brooklyn Museum opens its galleries for free from 5pm-11pm and throws a grand party with music, dance, and more events. Even special exhibits like "Killer Heels" and "Crossing Brooklyn" are part of this special deal. 

Music

I first heard Arturo O'Farrill's Afro-Cuban orchestra at Prospect Park as part of outdoor summer concert series and loved them. The youth orchestra Fat Afro Latin Jazz Cats were also insanely talented. They played right near the entrance way (the best concert venue I've seen around town yet)! The photo above was taken from the walkway above the entrance. The acoustics were better inside though. I'm so glad I took a jazz class one summer so that I can appreciate excellent improv a lot more. Check them out at their next concert! Practice your dance moves in the meantime.

Selections from Crossing Brooklyn Exhibit (until Jan 4, 2015)

Drew Hamilton Artist site: http://drewhamilton.net/home.html

This miniature street corner was made with incredible attention to detail. There was also a monitor nearby showing how the crowd reacted to this miniature corner when the artist left it on the same corner (check out more pics of the sculpture / video on artist site). I have not been to that street corner but now I'm curious about the grittiness (and that food truck, not pictured above). 

Paul Ramírez Jonas. artist site http://www.paulramirezjonas.com/selected/new_index.php

At first, it just looks like another statue. Look closer, you will notice it is made of entirely cork material and invites museum goers to participate by pinning something. I have to admit that I enjoyed reading these notes more than many museum exhibition notes. The experience is similar to reading people's messages in a guestbook at a coffee shop (I remember a really good one in Seattle) or graffiti on a random restaurant/cafe bathroom. and no, people did not censor themselves. 

Some people had more interesting items from their pockets/bags. I only had a receipt from the cafe (pulled pork, rice, and plantains). Would love to see this sculpture toward the end of the exhibit cycle. 

Cynthia Daignault artist site: http://cynthiadaignault.com/

According to exhibition notes, this is not just a beautiful collection of clouds and skies. Beautifully done. 

Permanent Collection

Fred Wilson artist wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Wilson_(artist)

Sanford Biggers artist site: http://www.sanfordbiggers.com/index.html

I thought it was strange to see this piano/tree sculpture so went to have look at the exhibition notes. You have to read it and visit it yourself to feel the power and horror. 

Ai WeiWei Arist site: http://aiweiwei.com/

I missed his show at Brooklyn Museum earlier this year but will have to be on the lookout for future shows.

Tips

• Enjoy the music and don't be so set on those ticketed events. I enjoyed roaming about the gallery and lobby / concert area more than doing anything else.
• Take in the view from the walkway above the lobby. Gorgeous!
• First Saturday is totally free (not a "suggested donation" thing) and no lines (except for certain craft events / lectures with seating limitations). Check out the event line up and bring your friends!
• Cafe is quite good and reasonably prized. Hey, if you're saving on admission might as well support the cafe!
• Museum is right outside 2/3 subway station for Eastern Parkway/Museum. it's next to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and fairly close to Prospect Park Zoo so you can plan for a full Saturday afternoon/evening out of it!
• Bike lovers will love the museum shop

Plan

Find out more about the next First Saturday event here: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/visit/first_saturdays.php

Artist or perfomer should check out their proposal application and sign up!

https://brooklynmuseum.wufoo.com/forms/adult-program-artist-and-performer-submissions/

Long Weekend Boogie

Memorial Day weekend is the official start of summer fun. J. and I spent most of it exploring the city and trying different food places. It's pretty amazing how much the city has to offer besides the normal BBQ and beach activities (not that there's anything wrong with those, gotta love both). A sampling below:

Lincoln Center / NYPL 

Besides the wonderful NY Philharmonic concert with Szymanowski Violin Concerto No. 1 and Prokofiev Selections from Cinderella, we also walked around the area and checked out fountains and sculptures. For library and music lovers, the NY public library performing arts library is also just across the plaza. I'm always impressed by their sheet music section and of course the expected large collection of music recordings on various forms of media.

Passport to Taiwan Event 

A few weeks ago I attended a Japanese culture event in Central Park [see blog entry]. This past Sunday was the Passport to Taiwan event in Union Square. The event featured a number of yummy food stands, fun arts/crafts tables, and of course a stage area. Next year I hope to try out the "bamboo tamales" and "stir fried vermicelli" booths. There were also a number of public art that are good photo ops (see below) and poster boards with relevant stats of Taiwan. I didn't stay for all the performance but I think the band I saw near the beginning of the festival is Takao Run (打狗亂歌團). Facebook page here. I enjoyed their acoustic style songs. Check them out on this youtube playlist. 

Governor's Island

Opening day was Saturday and this year the ferry ride is free on Sat/Sun mornings and cost $2 on all rides week days and afternoon weekends. If you plan on going there often, $20 for a season pass (until end of Sept) helps you avoid lines etc. You can check more info on official site. 

J. and I rented a tandem bike which was hilarious as always. Food truck-wise, I enjoyed the pork belly and chicken buns at Momo and Buns. J. found a vendor (forgot name) that sold flaky pastry covered Shepard's pie. I'm also happy to see that Veronica's Kitchen is back this year, even though they changed location to a newly developed food area, close to the strange fire hydrant and telephone sculptures.

BBG various 

Brooklyn Botanical Garden had more blooms this time of year. While some people prefer High Line and Central Park, I like that BBG crowds is a bit more manageable (except during the annual Sakura Festival). Lunch offering is pretty good too.

Learn more about field of bluebells here on the garden site. 

field of bluebells

snowballs

lily flowers

Hunting Cherry Blossoms in Snow: DC Trip

While most people are satisfied with photos from their trip, I like to write about it. This means that after I finally uploading photos, I’m still not done. Taking trip notes helps this blogging process but self-selection and editing renders most of those notes useless. Similar to my IndieCade blog write up (link here), I’ll capture only the highlights. What better to represent highlights than my single sighting of a cherry blossom tree! Since I booked my trip before the cherry blossom forecast, I was in DC too early to see proper peak season around the Tidal Basin. Peak season this year is April 3-6.

Day 1: Monument Walk

J. and I stayed at a place within walking distance from the National Mall which meant we were also quite close to the monuments and main cherry blossom walk around the tidal basin. We passed the Washington Monument (still under construction after last year’s earthquake), World World II Memorial (fountain was off), and Martin Luther King’s Memorial before reaching Jefferson Memorial. Below is a photo from across the Tidal Basin. It was a warm day and we were able to walk around the monuments and memorials without the usual crowd. Mostly likely everyone was more on top of the cherry blossom forecast than I was.

There were also a number of treasures inside the Smithsonian Castle. My favorite item is the cup&saucer set designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Day 2: Catching Up

B. moved closer to the metro recently so of course we had to crash his place. We browsed through the Netflix selection and watched Thor (with snarky commentary of course). Overall it was a decent movie and makes me want to read more about the series and find that children’s book on illustrated Norse Mythology. Prior to this, my only exposure to Thor was through reading Marvel Civil War. His character didn’t really make an impression on me (not going to spoil it for the rest of you). Most of the other highlights of Day 2 were food related so I will leave that for later in the post.

Day 3: Sculpture Garden in the Snow

I’ve been to the National Gallery Sculpture Garden (see my fav sculpture) and the Ice Rink but somehow missed the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden all these years frequenting the National Mall. While I was waiting for the museums and galleries to open at 10:30am, I wandered around the mall and found this sculpture garden. Perfectly timed with light snow falling. Most of the signs indicating artist names were snowed over so I will have to update this next time I get the names.

Food Round-up

We ended up going to eat in Gallery Place / Chinatown several times.

• Gordon Biersch http://www.gordonbiersch.com
  Long wait for dinner but once you get going, great food, drinks, and service. I wasn’t crazy about the Miso Mahi but J’s Märzen burger looked good.
  Märzen: our favorite beer (I found this while my family tried the beer sampler at another location).
• Crepe on the Walk http://www.crepes-a-gogo.com/Menu.html
  We fought over dessert for a while but really enjoyed this place. I got the strawberry, lemon, and sugar. J. got something with nutella. The real issue with crepes is that I haven’t been to Café Bonaparte [old review] in a while and I miss it. Next time I will need to make a trip over there.