The New York Narrative-Day 1 Continues....

Our apartment is everything we could have have dreamed of and more! We have four bedrooms with a livingroom/diningroom, a full kitchen and a bathroom, all decorated with black & white photos of Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. It also didn't hurt that the price of the apartment was $48.00 per person per night--you cannot beat that price when you're staying in the heart of a major city! The charm of our brick building, circa early 1900’s, with the small balcony off of my bedroom and a decorative fire escape off the kitchen is absolutely amazing. When I look out my bedroom window I can see into someone else’s apartment across the street and I’ve decided I'm going to affectionately call it my Breakfast at Tiffany’s “Moonriver” view!

After a several hour nap the three of us (BFF, Keeley and I) headed out by bus to the MOMA; the Museum of Modern Art. We had a fabulous panini and salad lunch with marinated olives and vegetables in their Cafe 2 bistro and then explored the various floors. A display of Monet’s waterlilies was the lead exhibition and although it was crowded we each had time to sit and feel ourselves lost in the rippling reflections of Monet’s gorgeous pond. As Keeley and I visited Monet’s home and garden on our trip to Europe last year, it did not take much to imagine ourselves back there next to the shallows, marvelling at the glories of the water lilies and the way that Monet was able to capture the intensity and complexity of the reflection off the water.

The most surprising thing for me was the work of Jackson Pollock. I’ve always made fun of his work; I mean really, what does it take to make some splashes of paint on a canvas? It was something that I thought a three year old could do. That all changed however when we entered a room which contained a huge piece of his work. When you got up close to it you could see the depth, the colour and the variety of paint types and textures that he used. I’ve come to understand that his talent lies not in being able to make the splashes but in how to make those splashes look interesting and in knowing when to stop.

Seeing Van Gogh’s Starry Night was a dream come true and I’m sure I spent at least 20 minutes just staring at the heavy broad brushstrokes of his thick gloppy paint. Up close you would assume a child painted it but when you step back you have the famous French small town vista. In the same area there were paintings by Gauguin, Manet and many of my other favorite French artists. To be in the presence of such great art at times took my breathe away.

We laughed as we wandered through the rooms with the works of Picasso and Andy Warhol. In our opinion the most absurd things that we saw which are considered “modern” art was the purple string that was attached to the wall and floor in a rectangle shape and the totally black canvas in a black frame; a five year old could absolutely do those and I'm not sure I would consider those pieces Art.

After a while, when we started “interacting” with some of the compositions by copying poses and creating illusions a number of the security guards started giving us hints and encouraging us. In one photo Keeley looks like she has her foot on a stack of bricks; the security guard told her to hold in her breathe just before I snapped the camera to get it right and I posed in front of a 1950’s fridge & pretended I was on the Price is Right showing off its style. We had a lot of fun.

From the MOMA we headed down to Times Square and met my son and daughter-in-law. I’ve been to this bastion of American capitalism during the daytime but I have to say that being there at night is a completely different story. We did not stay long but caught the subway to Dallas Barbecue for some good old fashioned baby back ribs, french fries, a mess of cornbread and coleslaw. Mmmm....no doubt my cholesterol sky-rocketed but it was well worth it. The meal may not have been the best healthwise but I did wash it down with a giant size Margarita; apparently tequila stimulates the circulatory system and is an anti-inflammatory; all important things considering the sore inflamed feet I've already got!

We window shopped our way to the subway, rode to our stop, walked home to our apartment after stopping at the local 24 hour corner market for Ben & Jerry’s and fell into bed, too tired to even eat our intended desert!

Salynne ©2009