I read somewhere that visitors to New York should avoid the 3Ls : lingering, loitering and looking – the 3 things we spend all our time doing. No problems so far. Eavesdropping, walking and watching seem a good way to get to know a city and we have spent our days enjoying these pastimes.
Yesterday we set off across Central Park again. Normally we have breakfast on the roof garden but we had run out of bread so we called at Le Pain Quotidian on Amsterdam Avenue and had a big basket full of varied breads to fuel us.
Steve made me offer the Schiffrin’s suggested 2$ as an entry fee to the Met instead of its suggested 20$. I’d have felt better if I could have justified this but the person on the desk just takes your money – no questions asked. It is a spectacular museum. We went up to the roof garden and saw the new roof sculpture: Roxy Paine’s Maelstrom – a huge tangle of steel you are invited to walk amongst ‘to experience the maelstrom’, so we did. I actually felt peaceful. The view across Central Park’s fresh green trees with the sparkling skyscrapers on the horizon was awe-inspiring. We also saw a new exhibition – The Pictures Generation – drawings, photos and prints and a film about one of the contributors, Cindy Sherman, who uses herself, dressed and made-up, to create varied characters as the subject for her photos. Not bad for 2$.
A fast bus ride took us down to the Tribeca Film Festival again. This time we saw a French film called Queen to Play. Slow, quirky, quiet. The director and 2 actors did the Q&A afterwards. Kevin Kline was one of the actors and there was great excitement when he appeared. I realised at the Film Festival what I like about festivals: the queuing before is companionable; there is a supportive atmosphere amongst the audience with applaud after the film and then the Q&A session is unifying – even if the questions are awful. The questions were the mix we get at Ways With Words: some challenging and thoughtful, some quite mad. After this film someone asked why there was no nudity if it was meant to be romantic. Someone else commented that the brushes on the door created an atmospheric swishing sound. The director looked as if she must have lost something in translation as she tried to answer these questions.
Chloe and Videl had recommended a restaurant in the Lower East Side – Supper - so we had supper there. Über cool as the guidebooks said. We loved it: old glass lampshades, velvet curtains, big wooden tables and delicious food. Packed with arty foodies.
Back home to our huge bed and what passes for news. Swine flu taking about 80% of air time. We saw our first swine flu mask in New York today. There is a phone-in to vote about how worried you are about it; we realised that Steve’s mother would be off the scale. Tomorrow is Obama’s 100th day in office. We shall be glued to CNN, when we aren’t engaged with the 3Ls.
Avoid looking in NYC...lol...not gonna happen. Here in Southern California, you're allowed to look. People feed off the attention.
Posted by: How to Prevent Flu | Tuesday, 04 August 2009 at 18:37