Yesterday, after a quick, but very worthwhile, visit to the Postal Museum right next to the station, we left Washington DC on the train bound for New York City and we arrived at about 3.00pm.
We couldn't check into the hotel straightaway so we went and found Macy's. We had a look round and a rest at the Starbucks there until we thought it would be OK to go back. We had tickets for Bodies the Exhibition and to attend their lecture which, it turned out, was about the history of drawing anatomy. There were slides, live drawing on paper stuck to the walls and a live model, who suddenly threw off ALL his clothes and struck a pose standing on a chair. It got me thinking about why nudity is OK for artistic and scientific purposes but not otherwise. Anyway, everyone was very grown up and serious about it (until they got outside where I bet a lot was said) The lecturer did go on a bit, but he was very enthusiastic about his subject. Who ever does his laundry must be in despair because he drew things in charcoal on the wall and erased it later with his jacket sleeve. The model guy was black and occasionally the lecturer drew on him to emphasise a point (stop tittering - I didn't mean that) with white chalk.
The exhibition itself was fascinating beyond belief if you are at all interested in how the body is put together and what all the bits do. It was difficult to believe they were real bodies that once belonged to real live walking talking people.
Today Gary had to visit one of his work clients so as it happened to be very close to Bloomingdales, I spent a couple of hours there looking for an outfit for Lucy's wedding. They had some lovely stuff but nothing for me for this occasion. At lunch time we had lunch with another work client. He took us to Blue Fin and we had some excellent fish. We then spent some more time in Macy's and I found a suede jacket and a navy skirt for the wedding. I will need to find something to pull the two together to wear under the jacket. I amy well knit something.
We decided next to visit the Guggenheim museum as the building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright who's work I greatly admire. We took the subway all the way there and then had a real WTF moment. The whole building was ensconced in scaffolding because they are renovating it and we couldn't see a thing. We decided to take a stroll across Central Park and return to the hotel .
These little guys adorn the entrances to the hotel:
And this is the view from our window:
The weather turned very cold and windy this evening - it had better cheer up a bit!
Tomorrow we get back on the train to Boston.
Sounds like an instructive and enjoyable trip!
Posted by: stefaneener | October 21, 2006 at 09:57 AM
it took me ages to work out what WTF means... phew i finally got it but now icant work out why "where's the fryingpan?" is an expression of shock/surprise/ disbelief. can any one enlighten me??
Posted by: carolinne Willson | October 24, 2006 at 03:51 AM
I think it originated in 1906 when a Mrs P Wilberforce caught Mr Wilberforce in bed with another lady. She ran down the hall screaming "where's the fryingpan" When she found it she chased after the semi naked pair as they ran in terror from the house, swiping at them with the heavy cast iron skillet that their cook normally used to prepare bacon and eggs every morning for breakfast. Neither Mr Wilberforce nor the unnamed lady were ever seen again.
Posted by: Jacquie | October 24, 2006 at 02:46 PM
Sounds like you had a really interesting trip!
Posted by: Cheryl | October 24, 2006 at 06:19 PM
oh that is very interesting
Posted by: carolinne Willson | October 25, 2006 at 09:14 AM