Best First Friday

So, there's this exhibit at the Guggenheim right now of Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang's work. Mr. Go-Qiang works primarily in the medium of explosions, gunpowder, tigers shot full of arrows, and wolves leaping into walls. The existence of this exhibit had been a nuisance to my curiosity for a while, and Friday night I went to check it out in the most logical manner possible: amongst the masses at the Guggenheim's monthly "First Friday" late-night drinking and dancing event.

The centerpiece of the exhibit: A stop motion car bomb sculpture of sorts.


Photography was against the Guggenheim rules, but, come on! A few efforts had to be made. Here you can kind of see the tigers shot full of arrows and leaping wolves, followed by cheating pictures from other exhibits (please note gunpowder art in the background here and there) to help convey the awesomeness.




Here's the wolves commencing takeoff in New York:


And, Blammo!, the point of impact (shot from my hip from around my back while a guard was staring me down...I couldn't resist!)


Karen and Holly, my awesome art party buddies for the evening.


Which reminds me! Here's the thing about First Friday: You will be waiting in a line to get in. And sometimes, you won't get in (that's what happened to me the first time I tried to go to a First Friday a couple of years ago). Other times, you will get in, but only after spending, hmmm, about two hours in the pouring-ish rain. And it's cold, real cold. But after a point it stops being crappy and starts being funny how cold and wet you are, as seen here:



Back inside...

Bummer of the Night: So much dance music (ranging from German house to Parisian house, plus a little Kylie Minogue), so little dancing.


With one exception:


Wait, nevermind. YouTube made it too dark. If you can make out a fellow in a white shirt waving his arms around, then congratulations to you.

Best Darn You, Google

Something in the internet is keeping me from being able to post pictures from my trip to the Guggenheim Friday night. For the time being, please prepare yourself for this post by reading a little about Cai Guo-Qiang's show there. Click.

Best Action Reporting

I was on the Lower East Side this afternoon, fog had come in and I thought the buildings looked cool.


But then the wind picked up viciously and I caught it ripping the head off my umbrella.


If you were in New York today than you probably know about the rain that came next, and believe me I was far from the closest subway. Grumble.

Best New Spokesmodel

Kermit the Frog for Supreme skateboards.



The Product.
The Making Of.

Best Marching Forth

Tuesday morning I woke up kind of early, felt like getting my day started, and took a totally awesome walk. (Behold the gmaps pedometer account)

The main idea of the walk was to get to the Manhattan Bridge and cross it and after that to walk along the river in Brooklyn.

To get to the Manhattan Bridge I had to go through familiar Bowery/Chinatown neighborhoods first.



I've walked the Williamsburg bridge a few times and the Brooklyn Bridge too-many times, so it was time to learn more about the Manhattan Bridge. Mostly I learned that crossing this bridge affords you some great views of some really great squalor. If you want to peer into super-depressing tiny apartments crammed full of junk, the Manhattan Bridge is the bridge to take! Also, you get a good view of that stuck up Brooklyn Bridge.












But once you get to the DUMBO side you're dealing with birdseye views of clever playgrounds and stuff.




Once in Brooklyn-proper my efforts of getting to the river were slightly confounded and I wound up walking through Brooklyn heights to the river. Would you believe I didn't take a single picture of the river? I can't. But I did sit on a bench and count 25 nannies within my view. That's a lot of strollers.

Best Get With the Program!

What do you mean you don't have a Useless Account yet?

Sheesh.

Best Three Different Things

Thing One:

One day last week, when was it. Wednesday. Wednesday afternoon I found myself in Newark and then a few hours later riding across the George Washington Bridge for the first time in 4 and a half years.








Thing Two:

If you hadn't already heard, March is Teddy Roosevelt Month. We kicked this month of history off with a visit to the TR birthplace & museum & National Park. Guess what the most important thing I learned there was? That the Teddy Roosevelt Birthplace and Museum is NOT his actual birthplace. Sure, it occupies the same space, but his home was torn down and then about only 5 years later this replica of sorts was built. Major disappointment when I learned that.

At least there were stuffed animals, hunting photographs, and old-timey political cartoons there.







These mantle items and the wax fruit were Roosevelt possessions, though. So there was that.




The highlight of the visit: seeing the shirt Roosevelt was wearing when he was shot while campaigning to be President a second time. The bullet pierced his eyeglass case and the double-folded notes for his talk before entering his chest. Upon being shot, Roosevelt coughed into a handkerchief, seeing there was no blood he assumed his lungs had not been injured and went on to give a speech for an hour and a half (and, judging by the complete cleanliness of the shirt, he must have taken the time to pre-treat the blood stain) before heading to the hospital for a week.

Regarding the incident, Roosevelt said this:

I did not care a rap for being shot. It is a trade risk which every prominent public man ought to accept as a matter of course


Me and a stuffed Teddy doll.


Thing Three:

Saturday afternoon I was possessed with a desire to take a walk, probably my single longest New York walk yet. (If you click that link you'll go to my gmaps pedometer route. That's the reward of a long walk, getting to chart it out with the gmaps pedometer afterwards.)

Early in the walk I discovered something startling and horrible. Manhattan's single Arby's has been murdered!


Trip down Manhattan Mall Arby's memory lane: One. Two.

Anyway, along my walk I saw things I walked places I had never walked before (and many places I had walked many times before...going up and down the island it's so frustrating to have to choose from the same set of avenues)




I found this absolutely epic sledding hill. Very daring grade, very prominent pylons at the base. Excellent.