Day Tripper
Aug. 2nd, 2008 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
logisticsladOn Thursday, I went to NYC to spend the day with my friend moltvikh, who was visiting NYC on his own for a few days. I drove to Trenton and took NY Transit to Penn Station. Whoever thought that it was a good idea to name Newark's stop Penn Station, too, should have their head slapped. I almost got off there, but quickly realized that I was not in New York. I made it there by 1:00 and due to the magic of cell phones, moltvikh and I met at the station. If I remember correctly, in the days before cell phones, we would have specified a meeting place; but I admit, it was loads easier this way. We had lunch at a Jewish deli named Ben's. I had an authentic corned beef on rye with spicy mustard and it was wonderful ! (If anyone remembers, that was what Captain Sheridan was poisoned with in the torture episode of Babylon 5, and thinking of that makes me enjoy the sandwich all the more :-)
Since we were in the Fashion District, I decided that we should take an impromptu tour of the locations for Project Runway. So we walked by Parsons School of Fashion and Design, we stopped in Bryant Park, and we went to Mood, where they often buy their materials. Mood is located on the third floor of a large building, and access is by an old fashioned elevator, complete with an operator. There is a poster of Heidi Klum introducing the show on the door, but other than that, there were no other touches from the show. It turned out that the store has three floors and is basically wall to wall fabrics, with one floor dedicated to upholstery. The aisles were not wide, and it is hard to imagine how they maneuver the cameras and lights to film the designers selecting fabrics for the show. In any event, it was fun to see where the magic happens!
Next we went to the Whitney museum of contemporary art, where they had a display on Buckminster Fuller. They had is specially designed car in a showroom, and models of his ideas for houses and the geodesic dome. There was a whole display on how he developed the mercatur projection map. It was much more interesting than I would have expected. Also in the museum was a gallery of Maplethorpe's early Polaroid photos, where one could see that he was exploring elements of lighting, subject matter, and composition that appear in his later work. There was also a room of moving architectural art, the idea being that one expects architecture to be stable, so having it move challenges one's expectations in a disturbing manner. It certainly did. There was a floor platform with four walls that swung away from the base and each had a door that opened and shut with a bang! I felt sorry for the poor attendants who had to stand there all day listening to the commotion. The regular collection had some interesting pieces, including some paintings by Hopper, that I now recognized after having seen his exhibit in the National Gallery last Fall. This was all very cool to see withmoltvikh, now that he has been studying art.
We walked through Central Park and had dinner at a Vietnamese/Thai/Asian fusion place, which was quite yummy, hung out for awhile more talking and catching up, and then I caught the train home. I had a fun time, and I'm delighted that the timing worked out so that we could both be there together.
moltvikh, who was visiting NYC on his own for a few days. I drove to Trenton and took NY Transit to Penn Station. Whoever thought that it was a good idea to name Newark's stop Penn Station, too, should have their head slapped. I almost got off there, but quickly realized that I was not in New York. I made it there by 1:00 and due to the magic of cell phones, moltvikh and I met at the station. If I remember correctly, in the days before cell phones, we would have specified a meeting place; but I admit, it was loads easier this way. We had lunch at a Jewish deli named Ben's. I had an authentic corned beef on rye with spicy mustard and it was wonderful ! (If anyone remembers, that was what Captain Sheridan was poisoned with in the torture episode of Babylon 5, and thinking of that makes me enjoy the sandwich all the more :-) Since we were in the Fashion District, I decided that we should take an impromptu tour of the locations for Project Runway. So we walked by Parsons School of Fashion and Design, we stopped in Bryant Park, and we went to Mood, where they often buy their materials. Mood is located on the third floor of a large building, and access is by an old fashioned elevator, complete with an operator. There is a poster of Heidi Klum introducing the show on the door, but other than that, there were no other touches from the show. It turned out that the store has three floors and is basically wall to wall fabrics, with one floor dedicated to upholstery. The aisles were not wide, and it is hard to imagine how they maneuver the cameras and lights to film the designers selecting fabrics for the show. In any event, it was fun to see where the magic happens!
Next we went to the Whitney museum of contemporary art, where they had a display on Buckminster Fuller. They had is specially designed car in a showroom, and models of his ideas for houses and the geodesic dome. There was a whole display on how he developed the mercatur projection map. It was much more interesting than I would have expected. Also in the museum was a gallery of Maplethorpe's early Polaroid photos, where one could see that he was exploring elements of lighting, subject matter, and composition that appear in his later work. There was also a room of moving architectural art, the idea being that one expects architecture to be stable, so having it move challenges one's expectations in a disturbing manner. It certainly did. There was a floor platform with four walls that swung away from the base and each had a door that opened and shut with a bang! I felt sorry for the poor attendants who had to stand there all day listening to the commotion. The regular collection had some interesting pieces, including some paintings by Hopper, that I now recognized after having seen his exhibit in the National Gallery last Fall. This was all very cool to see with
moltvikh, now that he has been studying art.We walked through Central Park and had dinner at a Vietnamese/Thai/Asian fusion place, which was quite yummy, hung out for awhile more talking and catching up, and then I caught the train home. I had a fun time, and I'm delighted that the timing worked out so that we could both be there together.
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Date: 2008-08-02 08:48 pm (UTC)Philadelphia's Suburban Station was recently still called Penn Station by many people, just like the next station was/is widely known as Reading Terminal. (In Philadelphia, if you remember, these two stations were connected by something they used to call, "the commuter tunnel," while they were building it back on the seventies, making a single SEPTA Regional Rail network. Before that, the represented two totally disconnected rail networks.)
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Date: 2008-08-03 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-04 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-03 02:00 pm (UTC)My workplace is between Ben's and Bryant Park, at 40th and Broadway. I pass Ben's all the time (but have never eaten there) to go to a Japanese curry place on the same block.
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Date: 2008-08-04 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-03 05:25 pm (UTC)WTF?
Sounds like a great time, anyway.
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Date: 2008-08-04 03:40 pm (UTC)http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/084.html
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Date: 2008-08-04 03:54 pm (UTC)Jed: Hey, Sheridan, check me out eating this sandwich!
Sheridan: **hurk**