Final New York pics

strange fruit seen on a fruit stall

This was often where I ate my dinner - not the Italian restaurant on the left - but from the food cart on the right. There were two carts actually; one doing fruit smoothies and the other doing filafels etc. They were open all the time. There was a second bench, where I am taking this photo from, and often I'd sit there and eat, and sometimes I'd take it back to the Y - 2 blocks away.

This is the Guggenheim - the spirals wind around the inside and a lot of the art is shown on those walls. There are also annex rooms for bigger displays. The whole museum is not too big - and I like it. It always seems to have good quality work. This time they had some great photography in a show called 'Haunted'

A fire station - seemed quite small for New York...

This subway train was especially decorated to advertise the opening of a new Target store

Down in the 'village'

Occasionally, when walking down the street, I'd look up and be surprised by another lovely piece of architecture. This is the Chrysler building.

Stretch limos always look to me like they could cave in in the middle

Last day in NY and I went to Abercrombie & Fitch - a clothing store selling casual preppy gear to a mainly young clientele. First I had to queue to get in (fire hazard they said), then go past this guy (they have them at the front all the time but I'm not sure why exactly ), and once inside the store proper it is fairly dark with limited spotlights so it is a bit difficult to be sure the exact colours of things. And there is awful music blaring. It is all designed so that people like me don't shop there - last time I was in NY I only lasted about 5 minutes there. But this time I persisted and tried things on - the change rooms had slightly better lighting. Although only a Medium I needed their Large size and that was as big as their sizes went. So they obviously didn't want their clothes on anyone too big.
This is outside the store with the queue snaking around the corner....only in New York!

Day at The Met

Saturday - The Met. I arrive around 11am and don't leave until after 8pm.

I manage to join the 11am talk on dyeing and tapestries - against a backdrop of 14th and 15th century tapestries.

Then it is up to the roof to see the work in progress by Doug and Mike Starn - twins.

It is a random construction using bamboo - and gets bigger every day.

This is the view from the mezzanine looking at the entrance

It is a beautiful building and a pleasure to wander around the galleries. They have so much I had to get selective about what to view - and I took breaks to avoid brain overload.

The view from the roof garden was good for Manhattan photos

Later in the day they started serving cocktails...and down on the mezzanine there was also music and more drinks.

I ended the day with another talk, on women in early 20th century painting, and then staggered outside to head home.

Look where I went today...

...and not a single TV camera in sight

But it was a great store - so many fabrics, so many possibilities.

Perhaps fortunately I was just there for buttons and some lining fabric and didn't dally.

But when I get back to NZ and my sewing machine I"m going to wish I could pop back.

cheap day out

Over the river is Brooklyn. And on the outskirts is a decommissioned airfield - that was once an island until connected up by landfill. The landfill was mostly made up of rubbish - and dead horses - up to 15,000 a year. This occurred from the 1850's through to the early 1900's.

So, on Monday, I took the subway and then a bus, to Dead Horse Bay. Planes flying in to JFK.

Hot, hot day - perfect place to be. Me and one other scavenging at low tide.
Each tide reveals more junk - mostly bottles, ceramics, bits of rusty metal, old shoes ....

...on and on and on.

There was also the remains of some more recent sealife

I don't know what this 'thing ' is but it looked lethal

So many bottles - so little space in my suitcase.

The other guy scavenging was a sculptor who used his treasures in works.

Back home I gave them a wee clean

But there are still some barnacles to be removed from that cup. On the right is an old milk bottle

And below is (left to right) a glass button, a bead and a marble

I couldn't help myself with some of the fragments - mosaic one day.

What treasures!

short takes

Day 1: I am staying at the YMCA Vanderbilt - which is right near the UN. So after flying in I took a walk to check out my neighbourhood.

Day 2: I have lunch with a friend from my trip to Afghanistan. Afterwards we go check out some Morroccan rugs in an art gallery. They are fascinating - sorry the focus isn't the best on the first. Apparently the Berber women can't always access wool so they will then use whatever they can find - could be fabric scraps, as in the second one, or hosiery, as in the third one.

The patterns were very free style - we were intrigued about why they would use various colours and patterns. And then there were the random black spots - maybe because they always liek to have an imperfection in the rugs to show they were definitely made by humans and not God.

Day 7: today I visited a Flea Market - I loved this stall

And this is the nearby Subway Station. All the subways have the numbers/names in mosaics but this one is pretty special because it also features a lot of pictures related to teh Natural History Museum.

Wandering back home at the end of the day...

...and this installation - very sweet.