New York City, Day II, 23.Apr.2010

Our trip to the best place on earth continued on day two, Friday, April 23, 2010. The activities for day two were the following:

1. Walk Central Park, eventually getting to the Whitney Museum
2. Unexpected visit with the lovely Zola and the wisteria
3. Walk back to hotel through the Park
4. Dinner with Wynelle (Elaine's long-time friend, who lives in Harlem)
5. Subway to see The Addams Family musical on Broadway
6. Subway back to the Beacon Hotel
7. Stop at Gray's Papaya for a late night snack

First let me say that I have spent lots of time at this place - Fairway Market - when I visit NYC. It's where we get supplies, mostly food and drink. It really is the best grocery store on earth. I don't even know how to describe it. The closest thing I know to it, and this is only going to reach a niche audience as well, is the old Nature's Grocery Store in PDX, before it was bought by Wild Oats and Whole Foods.
(Photo Credit: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/d-SMgF3Q-Asc7N2SdR-M4Q)

The gang (my mom, Elaine, my mother-in-law, Janet, & Dennis) always woke before me. That is par for the course. Luckily, they were eating bagels from Fairway and coffee from Starbucks both nearby, so they enjoyed just "waking up in New York"...as my mom would say. They would have happily jaunted off without me and left my sleeping a** there, if they wanted to. :)

This day started with a walk through Central Park to get to our respective museums. We showed Dennis' mom the Dakota Apartments and Strawberry Fields along the way. Dennis and Janet were going to Guggenheim and my mom and I were heading to the Whitney Museum of American Art for the day.







On the way to the park, we met Zola, who I described in detail here...Love her. See these pics of she and my mom and the "spectacle" of a wisteria she went out of her way to show us.

It was the Whitney's 75th Biennial (this links to images/information about the art in the biennial itself - it was all art done in the last two years), and I had already visited the Guggenheim, where Dennis and his mom were going. I'm not a huge art person, but it's that old cliche': I know what I like. I do enjoy museums, but there are very specific ones I want to visit and things I want to see. I am so surprised I waited so long to visit the Whitney. Whenever I am in the city, I have a person in my party who goes to the Whitney, but I choose not to. How disappointing that I have waited this long! I really, really loved that place. I cannot believe how interested I was in each piece there. Thankfully, it's relatively small, so I could easily get through it and spend as much time as I wanted.

I don't even know where to start with the Whitney and I don't intend to go into detail about my favorite things at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) later, because I could take pictures of them and I can post them here so that you can make your judgment as to why I liked it. The Whitney allowed no photography of the exhibits/art.

The Whitney was started by a Vanderbilt as a place to show living American artists. Obviously, museums don't tend to show many living artists or American ones. Much more so now...especially with the popularity of small local galleries..but not in the 30's when Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney started this one.

I loved some of the more "regular" art like Edward Hopper's Early Sunday Morning. But I also liked (maybe not liked, but was intrigued by and glad I saw) some of the different stuff, like the 10 foot or so (in circumference) sculpture made out of African-American hair...and the vinyl, life-sized, toilet.

The most poignant installation was about 12 photos hung on a white wall around two halves of a room. Women...horribly mutilated...I won't go into detail, but some of them so badly, they didn't look human. I don't typically like "shock art" (for lack of a better term - I admit I don't know art/terminology), but I think this was just something people need to see to slap them into reality of what is going on around the world...and especially in these extreme circumstances.

O.k. enough said about the depressing stuff...but incredible. Check out the yummy sandwich (Applewood-smoked Turkey & Gouda). I had it at their cool cafe. I love the Whitney!!

My mom is the cutest thing ever: she doesn't love walking. She's like me and will walk more in NYC than anywhere, but still doesn't love to walk. She asked me to take a cab home with her. I hailed her one, and decided to walk through the park by myself. Damn, I LOVE that park. It really is incredible.

We met up at the hotel with Dennis' mom and Dennis. They loved the Guggenheim. I was disappointed that they didn't get to see the huge canvas of dead flies. It was about 8 x 8 and was black. When mom & I saw it there, I thought we were walking up to a black canvas, until we smelled the smell a few feet away. As we got closer, we realized it was a black matte of dead flies. So sad they missed that experience. Wish I did!! I digress...

We went to dinner with a dear friend of my mom's named Wynelle, who we all love and who always takes us around whenever we visit. I was so neglectful in that I didn't take a picture of her at all this time!!! How lame am I?!? Anyway, I love that lady. Dennis' mom even commented how gracious and giving she is. She takes the subway to our hotel; takes us around; rides with us to make sure we get to our show on time; and, then turns around and rides the subway back home (to Harlem)!! She's darling as she can be, too!!

We went to see The Addams Family Musical. It was definitely fun and entertaining. It is what you would expect it to be. I'd give it a B grade. We had fun. Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane on Broadway: I had to see that once in life. :)














After the show, we shopped on Broadway and bought tacky souvenirs at the tourist junk shops. Subway back to the hotel...walking there, we needed a snack. Another thing I had to cross off my list was right off the subway stop (W. 72nd and Broadway): Gray's Papaya Hot Dogs. I'd seen it on t.v. before, including this Anthony Bourdain episode. Molly told me I had to try it as well...I must say I LOVE hot dogs. They were good - as good as the "everyday New York" ones on the cart. Unlike the traditional NYC cart hot dogs, I like that Gray's are grilled and have char marks on them. This was the perfect night/time for it. One a.m. on Friday night after a show. What a great first two days & nights. More to come.