New York 2017 - Brooklyn

After three previous visits to "New York City", Rich and I really have only explored Manhattan, so on this trip our plan was to check out Queens and Brooklyn.  The Queens itinerary fell by the wayside on our last day when torrential rains induced us to hunker down instead and rest for the trip home.  We did manage to go on day trips to Brooklyn and got a good taste of this borough, although by no means did we see it all.  Along with our friends Yim and Murray, we booked a 3 hour walking tour covering the neighbourhoods of Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights, and in particular, the fascinating story behind the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.  Our tour started on the Manhattan side at the City Hall Park where we got a brief introduction on the history of Brooklyn and a glimpse of the bridge, before actually walking across it while we learned about how it was built.  Taking 14 years to build and completed in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge is the oldest cable-stayed suspension bridge in the United States and the first one constructed using steel wires.

We learned about the impetus to build the bridge, driven by the need for people and goods to cross the East River and connect Brooklyn and Manhattan.  Back in the 1600s, crossings were made by rowboat.  Later, horse powered ferry boats and then steamship ferries made the trip but were disrupted whenever the river froze.  Bridge architect John Augustus Roebling championed the construction of the bridge and designed it himself.  Unfortunately John Roebling met an untimely accident right after the construction started, when his foot was crushed by a boat while he was standing on the Bolton Pier surveying the building progress.  As was often the case in those times, it was not the accident that killed him but the subsequent medical treatment which led to the amputation of his foot and eventual death from a tetanus infection.  His work was taken over by his son Washington Roebling who also met with tragedy the next year when he along with other workers developed “decompression sickness”  from descending too quickly and for too long into the water while working on the base of the bridge.  This led to paralysis, leaving him an invalid confined to his home for the bulk of the construction.  It fell upon Washington’s wife Emily Warren Roebling to take over as chief foreman, spending the next 12 years interacting with the workers on her husband’s behalf as he supervised from his bedroom window.  To succeed at this daunting challenge, Emily studied higher mathematics, strengths of materials, bridge specifications and the intricacies of cable construction.  This was quite an incredible feat to be accomplished by a woman in the late 1800s and as was typical of attitudes toward female roles in those days, the first plaque erected for the bridge honoured John and Washington but left her out.  This was eventually rectified with a second plaque with the words “Emily Warren Roebling .. whose faith and courage helped her stricken husband Washington Roebling complete the construction of this bridge from the plans of his father John Roebling”.  While this severely understated Emily’s contributions, at least it was something.  She also had the honour of being the first person to walk across the bridge, holding a rooster as a symbol of triumph.  When misinformed rumours of the bridge collapsing led to people avoiding its use, the Barnum circus boldly marched 21 elephants and 17 camels across to prove its strength.

As we were walking along the Brooklyn Bridge, our tour guide warned us to stay to the right as the cyclists are rather aggressive if you wander into their lane to the left.  It was chilly when we started the tour, but once we got on the bridge, the winds really picked out and it was freezing!  Luckily, it was not pouring rain like it had been the day before, so we did get some nice views of both the Manhattan and the Brooklyn skylines as well as the pretty blue Manhattan Bridge which was completed 26 years after the Brooklyn Bridge. 

Exiting the Brooklyn Bridge on the other side, we arrived into the neighbourhood called Dumbo and learned some interesting facts about the area.  DUMBO stands for “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass”, referring to the area’s location relative to Manhattan.  Originally they were just going to call it “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge” but someone realized that the acronym “DUMB” might not be the most flattering and added the word “Overpass”.  I’m not sure sharing the name of your neighbourhood with a Walt Disney cartoon elephant is that much better, but that is how is how it ended up.  We learned that Dumbo became an industrial hub for manufacturing because of the proximity to water transportation.  It is known for inventions such as the cardboard box, Brillo soap pad, water meter, and eskimo pie.  Eventually as water transportation became less important, the warehouses turned into artist communities.  The Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team was named after the reputation of Brooklyn residents for being skilled at dodging and evading being hit by streetcar trolleys.  Less than 10 years ago, Dumbo was used as the dumping ground for mafia hits but the area has since gentrified and is now a desirable neighbourhood to live and work in.   Walking through the streets of Dumbo and across the Brooklyn Bridge Park, we saw some great views of both the Manhattan Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge, more of the Manhattan skyline, and even the Statue of Liberty.

Next we walked to the affluent neighbourhood of Brooklyn Heights which is known as America’s first suburb.  We passed by some beautiful brownstone rowhouses and learned of the many notable residents who have lived or still live in this area including Matthew Broderick, Paul Giamatti, Penelope Cruz, Lena Dunham, and Norman Mailer.  We walked by the house at 155 Willow Ave. where Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible while married to Marilyn Monroe, as well as a home that Truman Capote stayed at when he wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  We learned that Brooklyn Heights was heavily involved in the Underground Railroad during the US Civil War.  We saw a home that was used as a hiding spot which still had a “window” built into the ground leading to secret tunnels.  Finally we came to the Plymouth Church which was a major stop for the Underground Railroad, where its first Calvinist preacher Henry Ward Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin) pledged to help all slaves and even held an auction to bid on the freedom of slaves and asked his parishioners for donations.  A statue of Beecher stands in front of the church today.

As part of our walking tour, the guide had pointed out two pizza parlours sitting side by side under the Brooklyn Bridge in Dumbo.  It was like a David and Goliath situation with the giant white Grimaldi’s Pizza towering over the tiny green and red building containing Juliana’s Pizza.  Apparently Grimaldi’s was originally a small family owned pizza parlour that resided in Julianna’s current spot, but due to popularity, it was bought up in the 1990s and turned into a chain of international restaurants.  When the lease expired on the original small Grimaldi location, the chain owner moved the restaurant to the big white bank building next door.  Unfortunately the expansion and franchising of Grimaldi's led to a marked decline in quality, much to the dismay of the original owner and founder Patsy Grimaldi.  In 2012, Patsy decided to come out of retirement and was able to relocate back in his original spot, naming the new restaurant Juliana’s and restoring the original taste and quality.  Our tour guide strongly advised us to go to Juliana’s instead of Grimaldi’s if we were planning on having Brooklyn pizza for lunch and this is exactly what we did.  We rushed over to Julianna’s right after the tour and it was a good thing we did since we snagged what was almost the last available table.  Yim and I ran ahead and arrived first while the guys sauntered leisurely.  The restaurant would not seat us until everyone had arrived so we were impatiently waving for the men to hurry up.   The first thing that we noticed when we walked into the restaurant was the shrine to Frank Sinatra who was a frequent patron of the original Grimaldi's.

We decided to order two of the specialty pizzas.  We chose the #1 which was a white pizza, made with mozzarella, scarmorza affumicata (an Italian cow’s milk cheese), pancetta, scallions and white truffles in olive oil.  Our second choice was the #6, which also happened to be a white pizza but sounded so good that we could not resist.  It had grilled chicken, mozzarella, Monterrey Jack, white cheddar, house-made guacamole and cilantro.  Both pizzas were delicious and we ate them with gusto.  They were also really filling so although we were tempted by the dessert specialty called a “Brookie Bridge” (brownie ice cream sandwich), we could not find the room and showing unexpected restraint, we passed on the opportunity.  While waiting in line for the very few washrooms on the premises, we had fun watching the chefs prepare the pizzas.  I chatted with someone else in line and found out that she had also been on the tour and came to Julianna’s (instead of Grimaldi’s).  I wonder if the tour group gets a commission.

After lunch, we went on a self-guided tour in Bushwick, another neighbourhood in Brooklyn north-east of Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights.  There was another guided walking tour available, but since all four of us had already taken graffiti tours in Toronto and knew all about the vocabulary, slangs and rules of engagement, we thought we would do it on our own.  To get to Bushwick from Dumbo, we had to take a metro that went back to the Manhattan side and then crossed again to Brooklyn.  As soon as we got off the metro and looked around, we realized that we were not in  affluent areas like Dumbo or Brooklyn Heights anymore but rather in a working class neighbourhood.  We wandered around for a while looking for areas of graffiti concentration and were a bit disappointed with what we found.  There were a few streets with some good street art, but nowhere near what we have seen in other cities including Toronto where we live.  Maybe we missed some streets that would have been shown to us if we had taken a tour.
 

It was interesting to see a grittier side of Brooklyn including one building covered with barbed wire.  One dramatic piece painted under the barbed wired building was a mirror image of a woman covering her face with her hand.  On the left side are the words “Some Things” and the right continues the message “Never Change”.  I liked the Andy-Warhol soup can reference in the mural by the artist Angela China who goes by the nickname “Gumshoeart” since all of her works include shoes (usually stilettos) and stepping on chewing gum! 

Rich and I spent the second day in Brooklyn by ourselves since our friends had returned to Toronto by then.  Our main goal for the second trip to Brooklyn was to visit the Brooklyn Museum, which we could get into for free due to our reciprocal privileges with our Art Gallery of Ontario membership.  Prior to going to the museum, we checked out a couple of sights in the vicinity.  We took a photo of the Soldiers and Sailors Arch in the Grand Army Plaza, which was the battleground for one of the first battles of the American Revolution.  It towers over the main entrance to the 585 acre Prospect Park, the largest public park in Brooklyn.  Finally we admired the magnificent door and entryway to the Brooklyn Public Library.  The massive 50-foot high entrance features bronze doors flanked by two limestone pillars with gilded relief carvings depicting science, arts, classical gods like Athena and Zeus and modern day figures including a miner and an electrician.  Fifteen bronze panels on the doors depict heroes of American literature, including Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Edgar Allen Poe’s Raven, and Brooklyn’s own Walt Whitman.  It really is a sight to behold and is quite unexpected for what is otherwise a modest-looking library.

Founded in 1895 and located in a beautiful Beaux-Arts building, the Brooklyn Art Museum is the 3rd largest museum in New York City.  Its collection includes American art starting from the Colonial period, as well as Egyptian, African and Asian art.  Featured prominently in the lobby is an impressive marble sculpture called “Fallen Angels (1893)” carved by Italian sculptor Salvator Albano.  Also in the lobby are a set of eclectic benches all of different shapes, curvatures, materials and designs.  They are produced by students in Pratt Institute’s Department of Industrial Design, possibly as school assignments.  There is a replica of the Statute of Liberty sitting in the back parking lot which can be seen from the windows of the upper stairwells.  Since we did not have that much time to spend in the museum, we decided to skip the Egyptian exhibits and the Asian/Middle East floor was temporarily closed.  We also decided not to pay an extra fee to see the Georgia O’Keefe exhibit since a similar exhibit would be coming to the Art Gallery of Ontario in May and we could see her works for free once we return home.  This left the temporary exhibits and the American art collection for us to explore.

The main exhibit on the first floor is called “Infinite Blue”, exploring the use of different shades of the colour blue over different time periods, by different ethnicities or cultures, featuring various mediums and subject matters.  The colour blue has often been associated with spirituality, the skies and heavens.  Some of the objects on display included an 18th Century ceremonial wine vessel on a wheeled phoenix and a early 19th Century Chinese Lion-Dog made of white porcelain mixed with a blue/green celadon glaze which is surprisingly from Japan.  There was also a beautiful blue Art Deco/Art Moderne table radio made by Walter Dorwin Teague (circa 1936) featuring striking blue mirrored glass.  In addition to objects and decorative arts, the exhibit also included lines of poetry displayed in blue neon lights, manuscripts, paintings, sculptures, prints and fabrics.

A fascinating and slightly disturbing exhibition features the work of Marilyn Minter, an American artist, feminist and provocateur who incorporates imagery of sex and eroticism in her works.  Minter’s art both provides critique and commentary on the standard male portrayal of female sexuality, and acts as a way of empowering the gender by reclaiming such images and reinterpreting them from a female artist’s perspective.  Her first works, created as undergraduate art assignment in 1969, are frank and unsettling black and white photos of her narcissistic, drug-addled mother who primps and vamps for the camera.  In the 1980s, Minter produced sexualized interpretations of pop-culture images.  Later on, she began a series of closeup photographs of isolated body parts that highlighted physical flaws including blemishes and freckles traditionally hidden by typical images of female “beauty”.

Minter also created a series of paintings that she termed “Food Porn” in which she depicts the manipulation of food as erotic acts, exploring “visual pleasure and appetites”.  The paintings combine pop-art inspired images with dripping paint that brings to mind bodily fluids.  In 1990, she created her first video titled “Food Porn 100” which she displayed as a 30 seconds commercial shown during late night TV shows, as a means of promoting her exhibition in a New York gallery.  This ad can be seen on Youtube and was aired during shows like Nightline, Arsenio Hall and David Letterman.

In a more recent 2009 video titled “Green Pink Caviar”, Minter films close-up images of a model’s mouth, lips and tongue, which lap up a variety of slimy and bubbly substances including vodka-infused and liquefied candy and cake decorations.  She used vodka as a binding agent for the metallic powdered food colouring to give it the desired thick, sticky, and semi-fluid consistency.  The filming viewpoint capturing sucking and licking motions are clearly influenced by techniques used in porn films.  Madonna cleverly used excerpts from this video as the backdrop for her opening song in her Sweet and Sticky tour.  Minter also created some of these images as large-scaled paintings, applying enamel paint and silver liquid on metal sheets, producing photographic-like effects.

Marilyn Minter's 2014 video called “Smash” was created as part of a fashion exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum featuring high-heeled shoes.  Minter’s video depicts a woman with painted toenails strutting around in a pair of bejeweled open-toed stilettos which she uses to kick through plates of glass.  The video is set to erotic music and lighting and is once again shot as a close-up featuring only the woman’s feet.  While all of Minter’s work at least flirts with or hints at the concepts of pornography, in 1989 she created a series of works that she called “Porn Grid”, based on hard-core images of pornographic acts which she embellished with suggestive paint splashes and drips.  These pieces caused great controversy and debate over whether or not they were exploitive and misogynistic when appropriated by a female artist.  In 2014, Playboy Magazine commissioned Minter to create a collage of photographs depicting close-ups of women shaving or touching their pubic areas.  While she created some fairly explicit shots, only the tamer ones were published.  Minter published the unedited versions in a book called “Plush” and some of those photos (again probably the tamer ones) were on display in this exhibition.  I had to break the news to our friend Murray who had returned to Toronto that he missed seeing the “Porn Art” exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.

After seeing all this eroticism and blatant pornography, it did not shock us at all when we came across nude sketches of the rock musician Iggy Pop, who posed for 22 artists of varying backgrounds in the New York area, resulting in the works shown in the exhibition “In Iggy Pop Life Class”.  The session was held as a performance art event led by British artist Jeremy Deller, who chose Pop because of his fame in popular culture, his importance to the rock world, and all that he has “witnessed and endured a lot”.  It was rather interesting to be viewing actual art (the sketches) that resulted from performance art (the event that led to the sketches).

In addition to these temporary exhibitions, we also toured part of the museum's permanent collection including a survey of the Decorative Arts collection.  We saw examples of furniture and decorative art pieces from a variety of time periods and styles including Rococo, Gothic Revival and Italian Post WWII designs.  As always, we were drawn to the Art Nouveau and Art Deco pieces including a gorgeous French wrought iron gate circa 1900 rendered by hand in curvilinear Art Nouveau style with a butterfly motif. 

The most striking work in the American Art section is a large mural painted with acrylic, enamel and rhinestones onto a wooden panel.  Titled “A Little Taste Outside of Love” (2007) by Mickalene Thomas, an African American woman is depicted in the archetypical pose of the sexualized reclining nude that historically is rendered as a white woman, as in Edouard Manet’s Olympia, 1863.   Where Manet’s painting depicts the black maidservant, Thomas’ work as usurps the position of the “leading lady” in her painting, casting the black character in that role.

The most impressive part of the permanent collection is an installation called “The Dinner Party” which is housed in its own wing in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Centre for Feminist Art on the 4th Floor.  Taking 5 years to complete in 1979, the Dinner Table is considered a milestone in feminist art which celebrates the achievements of 1038 real and mythical female figures, as a representation of all women whose stories have been lost to history.  Created by Judy Chicago in collaboration with hundreds of other artists, the massive work consists of three long tables forming an equilateral triangle (the symbol of equality) where 13 place settings are displayed on each side.  Each setting commemorates a "guest of honour" and is designed through the embroidered table runners, napkins, utensils and painted china porcelain plates in the style reflecting the honoree.   The names of another 999 women are inscribed in gold on the floor below the table.

Each side of the triangular table represents a separate grouping of women in a period of history.  The first “wing” encompasses ancient goddesses to the Greeks and Romans, including characters like “Amazon” representing powerful women warriors in Greek mythology.  The second wing spans from start of Christianity through to the Reformation and is represented by figures like Marcella who founded the first Christian convent providing safe haven for women and Queen Elizabeth I who retained her independence by refusing to marry.  The last wing contains representation of women from the American Revolution through to the Suffrage Movement and the “women’s revolution”, including Virginia Wolfe, Emily Dickinson, and Georgia OKeefe.  A flip-card booklet gave descriptions for each of the 39 place settings, explaining the relevance and accomplishments of the honorees.  Judy Chicago’s masterpiece caused a bit of an uproar due to the vagina and vulva motifs found in most of the plates and dishes.  This was an incredible exhibit to see and a great way to end our visit to the Brooklyn Museum.

New York 2017 - Eating in Manhattan - Part 2

Rich and I were walking around New York with our friends Yim and Murray on one of our first days in the city when we came across a sign advertising "National Paella Day".  It was at the restaurant Barraca (81 Greenwich Ave) and featured "$1 Sangria" if you ordered the paella.  We checked out the menu when we got home and realized that the paella dishes were very expensive and probably not worth it just to get cheap drinks.  However the daily Happy Hour menu looked good, offering tapas for $6 per item, and the regular price for the sangria was just $6 a glass.  This sounded like a better deal and fit into our plans for the next day, so we decided to give it a try.   There were 10 different types of tapas on the Happy Hour menu and they all sounded so good that we decided we were going to try them all.  When the waiter asked which tapas we would like and Yim said "all of them", he looked at us like we were crazy, or at very least, gluttons!  Somehow, we seem to get this reaction a lot when the four of us dine together.  It didn't help that Rich had gone to the bathroom so that it looked like just three of us planned to eat all this food. 

Next we had to select our sangria and it was not just the usual choice of white or red wine with some standard fruit combination.  There were actually 7 different combinations of sangria to choose from and they were all pre-made and available "on-tap" from large dispensers sitting in the bar area.  We started with the red Rioja wine with tempranillo (black Spanish grape), blackberry, cherry, cranberry and kaffir lime.  Later on, Rich and Yim tried another sangria made with white Canarias wine from the Canary Islands with chardonnay grapes, tropical chelimoya fruit, elderflower and white pepper.  It sounded exotic but both declared that the first one was better.

Since we had ordered so many tapas, we asked the waiter if he could stagger their arrival so that we could eat them a few at a time.  We started with homemade marinated Spanish olives and toasted almonds, pickled white anchovies with piparra peppers, dates wrapped in bacon with almonds and blue cheese and some sharp cured La Mancha sheep's milk cheese served with grapes and toast.  While we were eating these dishes, we saw several other tables being served something long and pink that looked like crabs legs.  We did not see this on the tapas menu so we wondered what they had ordered and how we missed it?  Then we got our serving of this dish and it turned out to be long pieces of toasted bread with chopped tomato mixed with olive oil.  This arrived at the same time as a fluffy Spanish omelette mixed with potatoes and onions that came in a serving which resembled a slice of cake.

Our final four tapas dishes included the deep-fried potato and beef ball served with aioli and spicy sauce, chorizo sausage croquettes with a creamy mustard sauce, chilli garlic shrimp in olive oil, and potato bravas, which are crispy home fries with  tomato and aioli sauce.  All the items were really good and we were happy that we could sample all of them.  I'm not sure if I should admit this, but not only did we finish "all the tapas on the menu", but we actually ordered a second helping of the shrimp and the bacon-wrapped dates.  This restaurant was a very fortuitous find that we enjoyed very much.  We tried to compensate a bit for all this eating by walking 40 minutes to get home as opposed to taking the metro.

Another unexpected but pleasant discovery was Le French Diner (188 Orchard St), which we spotted one evening on our way home.  Decked out in the blue, white and red colours of the French flag, this little gem seemed out of place sitting in the middle of the Lower East Village just a few blocks away from our apartment.  Rich investigated online and found out that this tiny restaurant had received rave reviews so we decided to try it the next day.  When we walked into the dimly lit place just after 8pm, there were a few people sitting at the bar and the one and only(!) sit-down table was available.  We took the table but wondered whether this place was as popular as advertised?  We got our answer over the next half hour as people continued to pour in and took up the rest of the sixteen seats at the bar.  We realized how lucky we were to score this sole table in the restaurant which was by the window no less.

The food that we were served was very authentic French bistro fare and all quite delicious.  We started with the pork rillette (pate) with crusty bread, a chilled smoked mussel salad that was quite unique, and creamy deviled eggs with chives and paprika.  For dinner, I was torn between the grilled hangar steak in a peppercorn sauce served with potato dauphine (which I love!) or the duck confit in a mushroom sauce (mushroom being my favourite food).  I went for the steak and totally enjoyed it but I did eye Yim's duck with much yearning.  She graciously let me have a mushroom to slightly ease my envy.

We had one final incredible meal with Yim and Murray before they headed back to Toronto while we stayed on a few extra days.  We had tried to get into the Russ & Daughters food shop (179 E. Houston) over the weekend but had no success as the wait was 45 minutes or more.  Instead we went on a Wednesday night to the Russ & Daughter Cafe (127 Orchard St.) which opened in 2014 on the 100th anniversary of the shop.  The menu of the cafe comprises of dishes made from the fresh ingredients sold from the shop including bagels, lox, smoked fish, pickled vegetables, caviar, as well as homemade sodas, egg creams and cocktails.  All the decor around the cafe oozes of nostalgia as there are vintage photographs and pencil drawings of the food shop, as well as a very sweet drawing of Grandpa and Grandma Russ.  The cafe is run by the fourth generation of the Russ family and boasts expert smoked salmon slicers who carve up slabs fresh fish to place on fish boards or platters.

We started out with a trio of appetizers that included a delicious pate of kippered (hot baked) salmon mixed with cold Scottish smoked salmon spread, served with bagel chips, amazing potato latkes with wild salmon roe and creme fraiche, and Gaspe Bay Nova Scotia white fish sticks mixed with scallion cream cheese, breaded with rye crust crumbs and served with cocktail and tartar sauces.  We also ordered a plate of assorted pickled herring, which was not really my cup of tea so I left that alone.

For our main course, we shared the largest smoked fish platter, called "The Anne".  It consisted of slices of Western Nova Scotia smoked salmon, sable fish, smoked brook trout, and the "private stock" slices of sturgeon which were our favourite.  The smoked fish portions were served with more wild Alaskan salmon roe, slices of extremely fresh tomato, red onion, carrots, olives and pickled vegetables.  Sauces included sour cream, cream cheese and tartar sauce.  This assortment of smoked fish was quite different from any seafood feast that we have previously eaten and it was a fabulous treat.

One of our lunch spots was chosen under humorous circumstances.  We had just finished visiting the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum which was way up north at 91st Street and 5th Avenue and we were hungry and looking for food.  Our next destination after lunch was Rockefeller Centre at 48th St near 6th Ave. so we started walking down 5th Avenue hoping to find a restaurant.  After blocks and blocks on end, we realized that this was the Museum district and there were no restaurants to be found on this stretch.  We moved over to Park Avenue and continued south with the same result—no food establishments but just blocks and blocks of high-end clothing stores.  Yim made the comment that we were still on the wrong street since fashion models don't eat.  So we moved further east once again to Lexington Avenue, getting further and further away from Rockefeller Centre.  By now we were famished and getting desperate, when we spotted a restaurant named "Eat Here Now".  It seemed like a commandment sent from the heavens, so we meekly obeyed and filed in.  This was by no means the best or fanciest food that we ate on this trip, but it was hearty traditional diner fare and it met our immediate needs which were to quickly get nourishment into our bodies without paying an arm and a leg for it.  I ended up with a ham and asparagus cheddar melt on toast, Yim had a Nicoise salad and the guys had cheese burgers and fries.  We were served by a friendly waitress with a very strong New York accent who lived up to all of our preconceptions of what an old-styled New York waitress would be like in an old-styled New York diner.

The four of us had tried to go to Dominque Ansel Bakery on the weekend when we first arrived in New York but were discouraged by the long line-up waiting to get in.  Rich and I happened to be in the area again later in the week and this time, we were able to walk right in.  What we were after was the "cookie shooter", a thick chocolate chip cookie moulded in the shape of a shot glass, lined inside with chocolate fudge and filled with milk.  You shoot the milk, which has turned into chocolate milk due to the fudge, and then you eat the cookie. Unfortunately Yim and Murray had gone home already and missed this really fun experience.  There were other really interesting pastries including a "Champagne mango" tart that was shaped like a beautiful rose.  We could not resist buying the "Marcel the Monkey" pastry which was a French religieuse (two stacked choux pastry shells) filled with caramelized banana jam and dulce de leche ganache covered with caramel and chocolate glaze.  Not only was it "too-cute-for-words" but it was tasty too!

Rich and I had a big day planned for our last day in New York which involved traveling to Queens to visit Moma PS1, the Ngouchi Museum and a sculpture garden during the day and then visiting the Morgan Library that evening. But when we checked the weather and realized that the forecast called for torrential rains and gale-force winds, we reconsidered.  We had already been on the go for six days and were tired, so spending a lazy day at home did not sound so bad.  I could lounge around in my jammies all day while working on my travel blogs while Rich could surf the web.  After deciding on this plan, we realized that we would need food for the day.  So the previous evening, we stopped in at the high-end market Dean and Delucca in Soho and loaded up on prepared takeout items.  One of the nice things about renting an apartment instead of staying at a hotel is the availability of a full kitchen with a fridge, microwave, oven and coffee maker.  To last us through the day, we ended up with some Italian meatballs with tomato sauce, chicken fingers, kale and cauliflower salad, bocconcini and pesto pasta salad, a dill chicken salad, grilled mushrooms, cheese breadsticks, and a fruit salad for breakfast.

 All in all, Rich and I did a much better job selecting restaurants on this trip than on our previous visits to New York, with help from our travel companions.  On our first few visits, we tried to go to the buzzy or well-known restaurants such as Nobu or Lindy's and were not that impressed.  This time we found more local gems off the beaten path and ended up with much better food, as well as more varied and enjoyable dining experiences.  In the span of five evenings, we dined at an Italian, a French, a Spanish, a Jewish and a Continental Seafood restaurant and we loved all of them.

New York 2017 - Macy's Flower Show, Museums, High Line

With our membership to the Art Gallery of Ontario, Rich and I have reciprocal privileges that get us free entry into other participating museums around North America.  We made plans to go to the museums in New York that extended these privileges—the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum and the Brooklyn Museum.  On the second day of our trip, after completing our Lower East Side eating tour, our friends Yim and Murray planned to walk the High Line Trail, an awesome stroll along an elevated public park built on a historic freight rail line, high above the streets of Manhattan.  Since Rich and I had already completed this walk on a previous trip, we decided that we would visit the Whitney Museum and then meet up with our friends again for dinner.

Prior to going to the Whitney Museum, the four of us made a stop at Macy's Department Store to check out their annual flower show which just happened to be on display during our visit.  We are always impressed by the creativity and whimsy of the displays in the Macy's store windows, which may not even advertise any of the goods sold in the store, but instead, act as attention grabbers that demand your attention.   This time the windows were designed with a bright, bold and colourful carnival theme surrounded by plants and flowers that continued inside the store as part of the flower show.

The Macy's Flower Show is an annual event held for two weeks each spring at the marquee Macy's stores in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.  Beautiful floral displays, lush blooms, and exotic plants from around the world are set up on the ground floor in midst of all the merchandise.  Millions of people visit Macy's each year for this event.  It was just lucky that we happened to be in town at the right time.  Too bad we were not as lucky for some of our other plans.  In keeping with the carnival theme, there was a ticket booth, carousel ride animals, performers on stilts and more.

Rich and I were also fortunate to visit the Whitney Museum of American Art during their Biennial, which has been held every second year since 1932 and is touted as the "longest running survey of American art".  This year, 63 individual artists and collectives present works in the forms of painting, sculpture, installation and video, providing a reflection on current and historic cultural, social and economical concerns.  Reviewing the floor plan of the museum, we decided to take the elevator up to the top floor (level 8) and work our way down.  The top two floors featured exhibits from the Whitney's permanent exhibit while the lower floors were where the Biennial was held.  To our surprise, the elevator itself seemed like a work of art.  It was a huge freight elevator with high ceilings and walls painted pale blue with an image that looked like a basket weaving.  As the gigantic doors opened at each floor, they acted like a framing device that revealed the art on the walls of the galleries.  This was a really cool experience.

The exhibit on the 8th floor was titled "Fast Forward: Paintings from the 1980s", with works focused from that decade.  The 1980s saw the shift from art in major galleries to smaller artist-run spaces where avant-garde painters explored "new interpretations of abstraction" and addressed political and social issues such as war, gentrification, feminism, racial tensions and AIDS.   I had to look twice before I properly parse the large black letters on Christopher Wool's enamel on aluminum work to read the words "Run Dog Run".  This seems to be a play on the catchphrase "See Spot Run" in the Fun With Dick and Jane books.  One of the most provocative works in this section is Eric Fischl's "A Visit To / A Visit From the Island" which juxtaposes two starkly contrasting scenes.  On the left panel, a group of wealthy white vacationers are frolicking and relaxing at a tropical resort.  On right, a group of desperate Haitian refugees land on the shores of Florida after a treacherous sea voyage.

Robert Colescott's painting reimagines the "Three Graces", mythological Greek goddesses traditionally representing youth/beauty, mirth and elegance.  Drawn in a cartoonish manner, Colescott's three graces represent Art (holding a chisel and hammer that she uses to modify a sculpture of the artist), Sex (who holds Eve's forbidden apple in her hand) and Death (grasping a daggar).  Moira Dryer's wavy painting seemed just like another piece of abstract art to me until I read the title—"Portrait of a Fingerprint" and an "ahhh" moment came over me.

When I first saw Kathe Burkhart's pop-art painting, I saw the word "PRICK" before seeing the scene painted below it.  My first thought was that this was a commentary on some obnoxious male.  As I approached and read the description, I realized that this was a drawing of a scene from the 1959 melodrama "Suddenly Last Summer" featuring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Cliff.  "Prick" actually refers to the syringe of truth serum that Cliff's character Dr. Cukrowicz is in the process of injecting into Taylor's character Catherine.  Walter Robinson took an archetypal scene from pulp spy novels and painted it on a floral-patterned bed sheet in an exploration of romance versus mass consumerism.  The secret agent looks a bit like Pierce Brosnan as James Bond while the damsel-in-distress is a generic blond.  Kenny Scharf created his work "When the Worlds Collide" in the studio of his good friend Keith Haring, so it is appropriate that it is hung on top of Haring's iconic imagery.  Scharf considers his style to be "pop surrealism", a blend of pop art with science fiction and animation.  He mixes both friendly and menacing cartoon characters with images of explosions, relaying his fear of nuclear catastrophe.  He wants his works to represent "anti-establishment" and be accessible by the common man.

To move from floor to floor in the Whitney Museum, we chose to take the stairs leading down from the outdoor terraces where sculptural works were on display and there were some great views of the Meatpacking district and of the start of the southern end of the High Line trail.  We stood on the top terrace for a while looking to see if we could spot our friends who were walking down from the north end of the High Line trail, but we were too early and they had not arrived yet.  On the 7th floor terrace, several sculptures of the human form act as a harbinger of the exhibit on Human Interest Portraits found inside.

The Human Interest Portraits exhibit takes an interesting, non-traditional survey of the concept of a "portrait", presenting a variety of mediums ranging from painting, sculpture, photography and even video to explore the definition and representation of a portrait.  Grace Hartigan’s 1954 painting Grand Street Brides recalls the row of bridal shops that once operated near her Lower East Side studio.  The expressionless faces of the brides comment on the social rituals and gender roles thrust upon women in the 1950s.  Gaston Lachaise’s powerful bronze titled “Standing Lady” is modeled after his wife Isabel.  Situated by glass windows inside the museum, the sculpture is flanked from the exterior terrace by de Kooning’s Clamdigger and Arthur Lee’s Rhythm sculptures. The photo “Man in Front of Poster” was shot by St. Catherines Ontario born photographer Ralston Crawford.  It is always a bit of a thrill to find a Canadian reference to art found in international art galleries.  Cory Arcangel creates sculptural portraits out of flat-screen TVs that display pop culture images merged with a computer generated effect of shimmering water which he titles “Lakes”.  His Diddy/Lakes work shows a still image of rapper P.Diddy emerging from an airplane while the pool of water wavers in front of him.

Traditionally a portrait is a rendering or representation of a person, often only displaying the face, head and shoulders.  An interesting section of the Human Interest Portraits exhibit explores the concept of “Portraits Without People”, asserting that you can still tell much about a person without him physically being depicted in the painting. Joanne Verburg’s seemingly innocuous photograph of a breakfast table with its bright cheery colours carries so much more meaning when you zoom in on the subject of the “portrait”—the missing children depicted on the milk carton.  Photographer Dorothy Norman’s portrait of fellow photographer (and husband of Georgia O’Keefe) Alfred Stieglitz focuses on his hat and coat.  One of the most touching person-less portraits is the one painted by Marsden Hartley of his lover, young German cavalry officer Karl von Freyburg who died at the beginning of WWI.  Motifs in the painting include German flags and possessions of von Freyburg including a chessboard, an Iron Cross medal, and insignias from his uniform.  Gerald Murphy’s Cubism-influenced “self-portrait” Cocktail depicts the contents of his cocktail tray in his home in France, making reference to his love for giving parties and mixing cocktails.  This fascinating exhibit brings a whole new meaning to the idea of a portrait, conveying so much more about the subject than a simple rendering of his image would.

The rest of the floors of the Whitney Museum were devoted to the 2017 Biennial.  The most elaborate installation was a site-specific piece created by Raúl de Nieves, who covered an entire wall of window panes with designs made of paper,wood, glue, tape, beads, and acetate sheets in order to simulate “stained glass” windows.  The top panels depict words and images of peace, hope and love while the lower panels convey scenes of violence and death.  In front of the windows, the artist has placed various figures elaborately decorated with colourful beading and other adornments.  The overall effect is quite spectacular to see.

Jon Kessler created two clever and elaborate multi-media installations that each comment on the environmental impacts of climate change.  “Exodus” consists of a revolving round table densely populated with a variety of toys, figurines and miniatures (all apparently sourced from e-Bay) that he uses to represent the global issues of forced mass migration due to natural disasters or refugee situations caused by political turmoil.  An electronic screen displays images reflecting some of these factors.  His second piece called “Evolution” positions two youthful, tattooed mannequins decked out in swimwear and snorkel masks while surrounded by video screens displaying images of water and marine life.  The piece warns of the danger of global warming leading to melting icebergs and rising sea levels.  But it also comments on how the wealthy can ignore these issues by building taller waterfront skyscrapers, like the one that the female figure holds in her hand.  Karri Upson took an old, discarded sofa that she found on the Las Vegas strip, left it outside for over a year to further weather and stain, and sealed all the imperfections with urethane to form a strangely familiar yet warped new sculpture.

In an exploration of art and ego, John Riepenhoff created a series of papier-mâché legs attached to his own shoes and mounted other artists’ works on them, turning “himself” into a personal art gallery.  Calling the collection “Handler”, the works that he chose range in medium from painting to collage to video display.   Ajay Kurain’s series called “Childermass” takes a variety of surreal creatures who are part animal, part child, part machine, part fantasy and dangles them from ropes spanning the various levels of the Whitney Museum’s stairwell.  As you move down towards the basement level, the creatures are bathed in florescent shades of red and purple lighting. 

Many of the paintings, photographs and drawings exhibited in the Biennial have political overtones.  The title of Henry Taylor’s painting “The Times, They Ain’t A Changing Fast Enough” is a play on Bob Dylan’s iconic protest song.  The work graphically depicts the shooting death of Philando Castile at the hands of a police office in July 2016, an incident sparking nation-wide protests.  An-My Le’s provocative photograph captures graffiti scrawled on New Orleans building which reads “F*** this racist president asshole” in an obvious reference to Trump.  Celeste Dupuy Spencer’s drawing of a gathering of Trump supporters hauntingly features a couple of hooded KKK members at the back of the pack. 

While Rich and I were touring the Whitney Museum, our friends Yim and Murray were walking the High Line Trail.  I really wish that there had been time for us all to do both, but we each had to prioritize and settled for looking at the other couple’s photos.  They had a great time seeing parts of New York from above including interesting looking buildings, graffiti and street art.  They spotted several examples of political protest or commentary.  There was a window displaying a Trump doll (including the trademark hair and red tie) with the words “Lock Him Up” written above it, twisting Trump’s admonishments of Hilary Clinton during the election.  On the side of a building was painted images of peace doves and a red brick wall with the words “Walls Shouldn’t Divide Us.  They Should Unite Us” written on it.  I am hoping that one day, we return to New York in late spring or early summer so that we can walk the High Line Trail again when the weather is warm and all the flowers and plants are in bloom.

I regret not having the opportunity to see the sculpture of a man wearing a crown on his head that Yim and Murray spotted as they exited the High Line Trail.  Rich and I took another entrance and totally missed this.  There was a secret trick to this sculpture, which was demonstrated by the man standing next to it.  When you pull at the crown, it comes off like a slinky, pulling part of the sculpture’s face along with it.  How cool is that?  I’m not sure if the man demonstrating owned the sculpture but I wish I had been there to see it work.

We were very excited to visit the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum for the first time, but disappointed when we found out that half the museum was closed to prepare for a new exhibit that we would have loved to see, based on the "Jazz Age".  They compensated with a significantly reduced admission which didn't help us since we received free reciprocal admission anyways.  Making the best of it, we wandered around and looked at the few exhibits that were on display.  We were very impressed by how integrated with technology this museum was.  Its entire catalogue has been digitized, allowing for fun and informative ways for the visitors to interact with and learn about the collection.  Upon arrival, you are handed an electronic pen and an entry ticket with an alphanumeric code on it.  You can use the pen to save information about any item that interests you and all your choices are stored on the Cooper Hewitt website.  Once at home, you can use the code to access your choices and retrieve more details about each item.

Throughout the Cooper Hewitt are large interactive computer screens that allow you to further inquire about or interact with the museum’s catalogue.  The Collection Browser provides an “object river” where thousands of items flow by.  With the pen, you can drag any item down to a viewing panel to gain more information about it including its history, design theme and related items.  You can zoom in and look at the object from different perspectives.  The Process Lab allows you to design your own table, chair, lamp or other objects either by drawing your design with your pen, or dragging an object from the “river” to use as a template and then modifying it.  You manipulate the shape, dimension and colours in a panel on the left and your resulting object is displayed on the right.

The Immersion Room contains two consoles, each allowing a person to create his own design or pick and modify one from the flowing river of suggestions.  Once the design is complete, a “go” button is pressed, causing the design to be projected onto all four walls of the room, effectively creating electronic wallpaper.  Since there are two consoles, each person can override the wallpaper effect projected by the previous person.  For two competitive users, this could feel like a video game where you are trying to out-do your opponent.  The images are projected in such a way that anyone standing next to the wall will have the image reflected on his face.  The Immersion Room is usually extremely popular and busy, so we were lucky to be able to have some time to ourselves in it.

The Cooper Hewitt Museum is housed in the magnificent Georgian  estate that was the former home of industrial magnate Andrew Carnegie (known for Carnegie Hall).  It retains much of its former woodwork in the panels, trim and staircase as well as other decorative features in the walls and ceilings.  Another interactive display allows you to take a virtual tour of the house, giving historical background on how the various rooms were used by the Carnegie family and staff.  For me, the most beautiful part of the mansion was the solarium overlooking the garden.

Of items in the permanent collection that were still on display when we visited, the most interesting ones were the vintage radios, and in particular, the 1935 Art Deco Skyscraper Clock.  Made of compression-molded plaskon, metal, glass, and woven textile, this beautiful clock was inspired by the tall Deco buildings of the era.  Also eye-catching was the fire-engine red 1951 Serenader radio made of molded plastic and metal.  

There were not many exhibitions on display but the most interesting one featured items from the Whitney collection that were selected and curated by TV host Ellen Degeneres, who has a personal interest in design and architecture.  Degeneres selected furniture, art, curio pieces and more.  The most stunning piece of this exhibit is the library table that folds out into a six-foot library step ladder.  Made of mahogany, brass and felt, it was designed circa 1795 by cabinet maker Thomas Sheraton who was inspired by a similar piece made for King George IV.

Finally the basement level of the museum reviewed two final treats.  First were the tippy chairs that tilted and rolled from side to side once you lift your feet off the ground, making you feel like a “Weebles Wobble (But they don’t fall down)” toy when sitting in it.  There was one final interactive screen where you use your body to make a shape and the computer searches the collections database for an object that is of a similar shape.  So even though half the museum was closed, we still had much fun with the technology and interactive components of the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum.  As for the Jazz Age exhibit, it’s traveling to Cleveland in the fall, so maybe there’s another road trip in order … ?