New York, New York

Juz came back from 3 days in New York. As my brother was there… it was 3 art-filled days…

Spent the first day in MoMA where I was mesmerized by Monet’s triptych and Pollack’s huge drip-art painting. Also saw a number of paintings that I’ve only heard of before.. Dali’s Persistence of Memory, Van Gogh’s Starry Night… There was also an amazing photograph gallery. It snowed at night when we were at West 4th…

2nd day was back to Chelsea’s art galleries. There was a collection called Liquidation that I fell in love with… the dreamy landscapes and secretive trees… If I have the money… I’ll definitely buy at least 2-3 of the works… We split up to different shows at night and I went to Altar Boyz, an off-broadway production that had all its audience in stitches. It was great fun althou I felt it could have gone deeper. But the songs were wonderful and it had a lot of heart in it. They got a standing ovation and the entire theatre setting was very intimate which is what I liked. For a TKTS ticket, I sat 3rd row centre which was unbelievable luck by itself. The theatre itself left an impression. Its the same theatre we watched Naked Boys Singing in, but I didn’t notice it at that time. Its a cineplex converted into a 5-theatre …erm.. theatreplex? Quite unique in a sense and thus all the theatres are quite small.

3rd day morning was spent wandering around the snow-covered Central Park while my brother searched for the elusive Bethesda fountain. We started from our hostel st. at 106th and walked by the Conservatory and North Meadows which is a area I’ve never explored before. Spent approx 2 hours simply crossing from one point to another… after which I left for my play while they went off to the Met.

Watched Seascape by Edward Albee…It was a very deep play with a veneer of comedy… I originally thought it was about the relationship between an old couple, the quirks and the way they live and think together… however, when the lizards appear, everything took on a different dimension. It turned out to be about evolution instead… but it still seems to be able to play another way… Went to Albee’s Q&A session at the Lincoln at 630 and after hearing his piece and seeing the way he answer questions… I came out with more questions than answers… Its a really interesting play. For a play written 30 years back, its still very much related to the current day situations… or perhaps its becoz people never really changes…

Had some time in between before I was to meet my mom and brother for the Wicked lottery, so I went to the library… took some time to walk through the Christmas Fair at Bryant Park which really gets one into the X’mas spirit. All the red and green and white tents done up in sparkling lights and twines… the little trinkets… There was a couple of exhibitions in the library as well to take up my time and Astor Hall was simply beautiful… a huge Christmas Tree with all the golden light reflecting off the marbled halls and steps…

Left the library slightly late and did a 10 block sprint from the 40th and 5th to the 50th and 8th in order to make it for the lottery which of coz we didn’t win… argh. But In My Life cancelled on us so we’ll try for the cancellation line on our last night in New York..

Anyway, one amazing piece of news… was on a search for this cosy restaurant on the Upper West Side…above 63rd… that P and I went to on our first trip to NYC. Remembered it had a fireplace and the food was delicious… I always thought that I read about it in my trusty DK guide but after a couple of searches, I could never find it. Spent almost an hour trawling up and down between 69th to 71st yest. afternoon with no luck. I almost gave up and thought it a lost cause. But yesterday night, mom and I left Lincoln for dinner and was just walking up Colombus planning to stop at the first promising restaurant, I actually saw it! W 68th St.! I almost couldn’t believe my eyes! And the place is still the same with the roaring fireplace and we were sat right back at the same table. The dinner menu isn’t as good as the brunch menu we ate the first time but the smoked salmon is still delicious. I’m so happy that I found it again 🙂

Was almost late for my 10pm bus at Chinatown.. did a sprint down Canel St (I seem to be running everywhere yesterday) and just made it in time. Left at 10pm and reached Boston at 2am… Slept through most of the trip…

And now its the first lazy day I’ve had in weeks… woke up at 12 and cooked lunch with P and JL… going to spend the day doing absolutely nothing….

Back and Gone..

Now Playing: 珊瑚海 – 周杰伦

Touched down this morning at 6am, but was delayed at the airport due to my dear student who left her passport in the magazine pocket of the plane… haiz. Blur like sotong… but she’s a sweet girl that reminds me a lot of myself. That’s something I would do when I was young too, I remember leaving my diary which was never recovered in the exact same place when I was twelve… She supposedly looks a lot like me too! Rendy kept telling me that a girl in his class resembles me and apparently its her.

The 6 day trip is full of little details that are swimming around my mind now… my first experience of being in charge of students overseas… too many to say so I’ll probably end up not saying anything… kinda miss my dear kids that are very guai but never shut up… the bus journey filled with laughter and songs and lame jokes and non-understandable games…

Met kq for dinner one night at Wu Dao Kou that looks nothing like the Wu Dao Kou I remember… wanted to go Yu Tai Lang but he recommended another Jap place with half price for sushi, it isn’t anything like the jap places that I remember but the food was delicious and we went to Sculpting in Time Wu Dao Kou’s branch for cake and tea. Yes, Diao Ke has a branch in WDK and also god-knows-where around Beijing… remember the times when there was only one branch and the afternoons I spent there staring out of the window with my work in front of me and a jug of lavender tea…. This new branch looks exactly like the Diao Ke I remember…

The Ps and Heads knew I wanted to go back to PKU for a visit so they arranged it that I could join the Beida Fuzhong group on the afternoon of the PKU tour as I was actually in charge of the Shida Fuzhong group… they are really nice pple and took great care of me when I was there… the campus was still the same… from Weimin to Wumei… I wanted to go back to Weimin at night…. But didn’t get a chance…

Met Lin in the afternoon for chestnuts. Heard so many good things about it that I had quite high expectations. It was pretty good although the first part had way too many star wars and it was a little too pink. But I loved the Rent spoofs and the past year theatre review which summed up the local theatre year scene pretty well. It’s a good way to end the year and both Jon Lim and Hossan Leong are quality humorists.

And now… to pack and bath before I have to run for another flight…and my dear brother only just got home. He was attending a full day film workshop of some sorts for the past few days and has yet to pack as well (althou he did win some film competition of sorts)….it’ll be a rush for time for the next few hours….

NYC plans…

Woke up with my back aching… so looking forward to tonight’s pilates class. Haiz. Getting old liaoz… nowadays always back ache neck ache like that..

P morning called me this morning, reminded me of some things I’ve been neglecting for the states trip… jotting them down to remind myself.

– Find a salsa place to social on the 1st night of the 4th at NYC
– Find a play to watch on the 7th
– Settle the tickets for Brokeback Mountain/Rent on the 9th
– Find out if I need to sign up for the workshop on the 13th and sign up for it
– Settle the bus tickets to and fro from NYC and Boston
– Cash in the darn usd check!

Now… a rough guide of the itinerary… mostly for P

4th – Land, meet P, check in at Jazz on the Park. Dinner at Live Café, Salsa, send P off
5th – Brooklyn Bridge and Heights in the day, Chelsea Art Galleries, Comedy Cellar
6th – Wicked at night. Don’t remember what in the day…museums/east village?
7th – Don’t remember what in the day again… watch a play at night and leave for Boston
8th – at boston.
9th – watch brokeback mountain/rent
10th – watch brokeback mountain/rent
11th – Mom arrives/Salsa social
12th – bring mom about boston
13th – bring mom about boston… salsa workshop at night
14th – P have exams/bring mom about boston
15th – Leave for NYC… Strand. Watch Woman in White
16th – don’t remember what in the day… watch In My Life at night
17th – Fly back to S’pore

Hm. A lot of empty days that are probably in Lew’s planner… or any reccs on what to do? Any recc for a good play to watch in NYC too? I don’t want any more musicals…Also need a recc on a good place to salsa in NYC…

A Day of Museums…

One good thing about summer masquerading as spring is the wonderful sunny weather one gets to appreciate the colorful riot of spring blossoms. Visited the Cloisters on Tuesday and the bountiful flowering gardens are a wonderful sight, set against the glittering East River and green lawns. The peaceful terrace gardens and monasteric exhibits give a sense of calmness… Cloisters is a branch of the Met, a museum that contains bits and pieces of various medieval monasteries and chapels, including 4 different cloisters, private monastery gardens surrounded by covered walkways. The gardens are meticulously kept, the gardeners actually tries to use only medieval plants! After visiting 4 museums on Friday, I rather enjoyed the gardens, flowers in every shade of the rainbow and the textures and scents…

And yes, I did 4 museums on Friday, in one day… Museum of Sex in the morning which was quite an attack of the senses, the Frick Collection in the afternoon, and the Guggenheim, which I visited more for the architecture, and lastly, the Asia Society which was quite a non-entity.

The best stop of the day was the Frick Collection, the collection of one very wealthy man with very good taste set in a beautiful house. The whole style is similar to the Gardner in Boston but even better. Gardner had a cluttered feel to the place somehow, but Frick’s collection is extremely well arranged, every room is artfully done in a way that all the paintings and sculptures and design meshed together for a very cohesive feel. I love all the rooms, from the stately living room to the very male library. Esp love the drawing room with the Fragonard paintings, The Progress of Love (very sensual and very sweet) and the Boucher room ( the cherubs are sooo cute!) and his 4 season paintings. The audio guide adds a special personal touch to the paintings.

Other museums visited include the Noguchi with its intimate and Zen garden filled with stone sculptures in various calming shapes and shadows. Also did the Queens Museum of Art for the breathtaking panorama of New York and the Tiffany collection which was small but did include quite a detailed explanations of the various glass used in the Tiffany productions.

Overall, that’s quite a varied museum list… and says a bit of my weird tastes…

entertainment

Went to 3 immensely entertaining shows recently that are worth a mention…

The first isn’t really a show actually, but its one that I really enjoyed. Went to the Sunday Gospel service at a Harlem church, the inspirational singing was really powerful and the way the congregation stand up and join in, singing their hearts out was very moving. The songs were hymns I think, but done in a way that made it seemed alive. There was even a part of the service that had two guys called the Sons of Light doing raps! An awesome show.

The second was at Comedy Cellar, a bar-like place with comedians taking slots on the stage. Its amazing how entertaining the comedians are, the entire thing was very casually done, the comedians just come up to the stage and talk. But their scathing remarks and dry wit simply have me bending over with laughter, I laughed so hard I was in pain at a point! The yummy desserts of truffles pyramid and tiramisiu was definitely a distracting plus.

The third was Broadway under the Stars. A concert at Bryant Park with the Broadway stars delivering songs from various shows. I think the entire New York turned out for the event, you couldn’t find a speck of lawn in Bryant Park that wasn’t taken up by 7pm and the show only starts at 830! Luckily, we were forewarned and came at the ridiculous hour of 6 and managed to grab two chairs and proceeded to sit tight (well, P did leave to get food). It was a cloudy night, so you couldn’t really say we were watching “Broadway’s brightest stars under the stars”, but it was still a great show and an enjoyable experience

a bite of the Big Apple

Finally got the internet connection up and running… It’s the sixth day in the Big Apple and New York is hot! Met a native today that recognized me as a tourist from the Lonely Planet bible in my hands (which P borrowed for me from the local library as I forgotten mine in the half an hour mess of packing I did right before my flight after rushing out the 5 day translation course outline), and he actually apologized for the weather, it’s August-summer- sweltering and seriously seems worse that Singapore! Thank goodness the nights are still relatively cool in our Brooklyn apartment…

But sauna weather aside, it still didn’t deter me from my determination to shop, I must have gotten bitten by the retail bug… went to Soho, East Village, and the Lower East Side and had quite a good haul. I do enjoy the different form of shopping from the malls, popping into individual boutiques, each unique and personal in design and browsing through their collections… stopping to rest with a glass of iced tea in quaint cafes. Esp love East Village with its good collection of vintage stores and cafes. The abundance of sushi restaurant helped as well :p Also went to the Garment District which seemed pretty much catered to wholesalers but I was sidetracked by the Asian stores of Little Korea on the 32nd anyway. However, I did manage to find the tote bag I was looking for, so am very happy 🙂

Other activities include walking around Brooklyn Heights. Went to Brooklyn Promenade for the incredible view of the Manhattan skyline and harbor with the islands as well as the harbor front park for a marvelous view of the two bridges. Strolled across Brooklyn Bridge, the weather was pretty good that day, sunny but windy so you don’t feel so sticky, and the close up look at the Gothic architecture of the bridge as well as the view you get hiked up above the traffic was worth the trek.

Also went to Chelsea for gallery-hopping today and saw a couple of collections that I liked (minus the whole lot of abstract paint-flinged-onto-canvas and stuffing a mixture of stuff into stockings and piling them up). Esp. liked the one by a French photographer detailing her 92-day trip to Tokyo, counting down to the day she got her heart broke on the very last day. Another gallery had a video clip comprising of a collection of photographs of daily New York scenes superimposed with garish cartoon like splashes of color depicting war scenes of destruction set to the soundtrack of lullabies and a radio report with helicopter noises in the back. It really strikes the heart, esp the familiar scenes of knee deep snow piled in parks and people walking their dogs….there’s a chant inserted somewhere in the soundtrack…”Its never going to end” which seems so true.. as long as there are human beings, there’ll always be war…

Broadway show count is at 4 currently, with Naked Boys Singing on the top of my list. Perhaps I’m just not a big production kind of girl, always do like the smaller budget shows that seem to be more personal somehow and speaks to me in a way…

New York – Last Impressions

The fifth day was quite straightforward and filled with queues… we started off by queuing for tickets to the La Cage aux Folles matinee show at the Times Square TKTS outlet that sells tickets for the day at 50% off. I really wanted to watch this show after reading about it on the Playbill. It didn’t take as long as expected and we got the tickets at 1030am for the 2pm show (we started queuing at 930 and they start selling at 10).

Since we have some time to kill but not enough to go anywhere serious… we decided to go to Serendipity 3, we actually attempted this yesterday but the queue was too crazy…but since Serendipity opens at 11, we figured we could get there early and maybe miss the queue… well, we were half right and half wrong… there was a long queue already… but since most of the people left… we only ended up queuing for approx 20 minutes! Well.. Serendipity, filled with jostling people and Tiffany lampshades, was an experience in iconic dining…The food was okay, the frozen hot chocolate was yummy (althou P said it tasted like milo), the menu was interesting…and worth the queue maybe once in a lifetime. I won’t go back if I have to queue again…

After the show, we went for dinner at a French restaurant that proves 3 course dining is something you should only do if you have a lot of time to kill…but the crabmeat crepe was delicious…so it was worth the rush we did for our coach back to Boston…which was the worst metro ride we had in our 5 days here… the metro line we wanted apparently didn’t exist! And we got on an express line that missed our stop making us have to go back and forth like mice in a tunnel…but we managed to catch a coach just before it left (and thus didn’t have to stand outside in the cold waiting), and we made good time home, reaching at the dot of midnight and caught the last T back to home sweet home…ending our eventful 5 days in New York…

The Met.

Walked through the wintry Central Park on our way to the Met on our fourth day. I really like the frosty feel of the park… light snow covering the green lawns, stark tree branches stabbing into the azure skies…lakes frozen over reminding me of Weimin…I just love winter…

The Met was enormous and packed…luckily, I didn’t plan to see everything in the first place… concentrated on the American Wing first before cutting through the Asian Wing to see my favorite Monet and the other Impressionists. I liked the American wing and the way they recreated several rooms to show how the people lived in the eras before us… reminded me of the Mark Twain House and the House of Seven Gables I visited before…I liked several of the American paintings too… but I simply fell in love with the Tiffany stained glass windows…they are so stunning… There were several Tiffany vases and a fountain on display as well which are so lovely…

I didn’t expect the Met to have such a good collection of Monet! Even better than the Louvre…There was several good pieces of Manet as well as the famous van Gogh Cypresses and a couple other of his works but the Monets really lighted up my day =) Esp since there were several landscapes that I fell in love with, the colors and strokes he used…

Now to the highlight of the day… we went for the $20 dollar lottery tickets for tonight’s performance of Rent. They sell the first two rows by lottery about 2 hours before the show, you put your name in at 530, and they draw at 6pm. I crossed my fingers…and I won! I don’t think I ever won any lottery in my life! I was sooo happy and excited =)

Since we had 2 hours before the show began, we went to Toys’R’Us flagship store.. apparently the biggest toy store in the world.. complete with a ferris wheel in the store.. haha.. felt like such a kid.. but P and I always love toy stores…

Liberty & Ellis

Day 3 was a cold cold day….so cold that my finger hurt whenever I take them out from my gloves for a few fleeting moments to take pictures. But it didn’t look like such a hell-froze-over day! The skies was an unbelievable shade of blue and the sun shone brightly… shows how looks can be deceptive..

We visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, a very fun excursion if you don’t take the weather into account. Liberty looks beautiful up close, her green patina shining in the sun; we managed to get one of the free tickets to the observation pedestal, and took quite a number of perfect pictures, including some of the Manhattan skyline. The museum was informative and I find it interesting how the guides emphasized that the statue was a gift from the people of France to the people of America. Before the guide left, he asked us to spend a moment thinking of the people that did not have the freedom to visit the statue and to think about what Liberty really means…

Had very yummy fried chicken and hot chocolate before boarding the ferry for Ellis Island..

I heard so much about Ellis Island before that it’s almost surreal to visit this immigration museum… There was a feeling of deja vu when I stepped onto the linoleum floor…you can literally feel the place with its belly full of stories and secrets…so many broken dreams and tightly held hopes… I watched the film but skipped the guide due to time constraint. Somehow, they all seem so commercialized… too entertaining for such a place that tells its own story through the silence of the walls…

Somehow, both islands matched… the sonnet of Lazarus seems to be written for Ellis as much as for Liberty… “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”..

Ground Zero was our last stop that day, a big crater with white lights shining…It looks like an ordinary construction site…We went into the World Financial Center to escape the cold, and there was an unexpected good view over the site…Looking around at the luxurious settings of the WFC, and imagining the difference in the view I was looking at a couple of years ago on the night P tutored me in Java… fate has a quirky sense of humor…

We had dinner by the setting sun on Hudson River, a collage of gold and navy amidst the lit skyline…before heading for the Broadway show…

New York – First Impressions

Our New York trip started off quite smoothly, the coach ride was uneventful and punctual, dropping us off in New York’s Chinatown precisely at 12 noon. We walked through the bustling Canal Street, giving in to the alluring scent of honey roasted nuts on the way to the T. Our first impression of New York… there are soooo many people! It might have been winter, but the pure body heat emitting from the masses thronging through the weekend market street warms the entire place up…Check-in was smooth sailing too, although we actually only reserved a room for one, they managed to find a double room for us, proving that crossing fingers really works 😛

We had lunch at a lovely restaurant with a ornate fireplace, the food was delicious… I had smoked salmon with caviar cream and P had blueberry pancakes… yumm.. Its so cozy to be tucked in a corner with a fireplace enjoying good warm food when its winter…

We did simple things the first day… walked down Times Square and 5th Avenue…visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Saks and various other department stores…The highlight of the day was Rockefeller Centre with its Christmas Tree and lighted angels…It was just opposite Saks which gave a pretty show with its blue lit snowflakes too…The place was packed but beautiful…New York sparkles in Christmas… all the lights and trees and decorations wherever you go…We walked down Times Square at night to see all the neon lights and billboards coming alive…the heart of New York…

The second day was spent visiting a couple of galleries while walking through SoHo…We headed to Chinatown for lunch. One of the cheapest meal we had for really good food…we had chicken congee and soy sauce chicken, and the congee was done just the way I liked it…

We walked around Chinatown and Little Italy which was all decked up for Christmas, there was even a procession pushing a baby Jesus down to the road while playing Christmas carols! We walked from Little Italy to Greenwich Village and saw a hilarious street performer Joey doing stunts and terrorizing a Korean volunteer at Washington Square…haha.. did a lot of walking today…Night was our first Broadway performance, or actually, off-Broadway in this case. And it was snowing when we got out of the show… soft flakes falling…with neon lights and billboards and Christmas Trees and golden bulbs lighting our way home…Christmas in New York…