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Our primary objective today was the Guggenheim, so we got up as early as possible and made our way over to museum mile in a light sprinkling of morning snow. Of course once we got out of the 86th street subway we started walking in the wrong direction and nearly ended up in the East River instead of on Museum Mile, but we eventually righted ourselves and there we were!
Once we'd got bought our tickets and cloaked our coats, we bypassed the couple who were rolling about on the floor of the rotunda and made our way toward the spiral. Helen was nearly bursting with excitement because she'd been looking forward to the Guggenheim since we arrived. However before we could decide where to start I was intercepted by a munchkin of no more than ten or eleven at the base of the spiral who introduced himself and then asked me what I thought about progress. Interesting question, I thought, and so I began to talk about my concept of progress as we made our way up the spiral until we were intercepted by a bright young thing of about sixteen who asked me what I'd been talking about with the munchkin. We chatted about this and that as we walked, and she even hung around when I had to duck into the loo to take care of business. After a we'd walked for a bit I was then handed over to the serious college student who asked me about how I was finding New York and didn't I think we as humans tended to be risk adverse and not want to go out on a limb these days? I wasn't sure that we all were and we talked out the concept while we walked and I was quite sorry that we didn't get to finish the conversation when I was handed over to college professor type who proceeded to tell me about Tino Sehgal and the concept of the piece that I'd gotten caught up in. It was part of the Guggenheim's50th anniversary celebrations and it wasn't so much an exhibition as an exploration of voice and movement that forces the museum visitor to be more than just a passive spectator but allows them to become part of the concept.
After that I was left to my own devices and I started making my way down the spiral, just as Frank Lloyd Wright had intended. The spiral its self had been cleared of all its artwork for the Seghal piece, but most of the side galleries were still open. After that I was left to my own devices and I started making my way down the spiral, just as Frank Lloyd Wright had intended. The spiral its self had been cleared of all its artwork for the Seghal piece, but most of the side galleries were still open. I wandered through those for a while, had a surprisingly good coffee in the cafe, ran into Helen in the gift shop, lost her again and then spent around twenty minutes running up and down the spiral trying to find her again. At one point I saw her taking photos on level three while I was on level five, so I sprinted down the stairs to try and catch up with her, but she'd vanished by the time I got there. She wasn't in Modern Masters, where Picasso was once again dogging my heels, nor was she staring into the void in the Kapoor installation. I'd left my phone in my coat so I couldn't text her and I was having these visions of spending the entire day running around looking for her and not ever finding her when I suddenly stumbled upon her having a glass of wine in the cafe. Thank god!
Because the spiral had been cleared of artwork and a couple of the galleries were closed, it didn't us as long to get through the Guggenheim as we thought it would, which was actually okay because were were meeting Marika for lunch in Greenwich Village and we had to get going otherwise we'd be late! I'm not entirely certain, but I'm pretty sure it was colder in Union Square than it was up on the Upper East Side when we got off the subway and being waylaid on Broadway by some guy collecting for charity didn't help us feel any warmer. I managed to fob him off and then we walked through the Saturday market to the Borders where we were meeting Marika. Once we found her she took us down to this cute little cafe where the breakfast special was still going, even though they'd run out of Mimosas and could only serve us Bloody Marys. I don't like Bloody Mary very much, but I gave it a go, however my poacher eggs and smoked salmon were wonderful and the coffee almost drinkable!
After lunch we all made our way up town again to the Time Warner Centre. There we parted ways with Marika who was off to do groceries and we went up to Borders to use the loo. It was about then that my lunch that seemed so nice started to bite back and for a little while I seriously thought I was going to throw up. I didn't, but I felt rather queasy for the rest of the day. Grr!
Since we were due to leave for Washington the next day, I took advantage of being in a bookstore to buy a guidebook to Washington and Helen found some Moleskin notebooks that she just had to have. Even when we don't mean to we end up shopping. It's just the way we're built, I think. Because it was so cold and we were both feeling a little unwell, we jumped on the subway instead of walking the few blocks up to the museum, however by the time we go there it was after 4pm and they were due to close at 5. That didn't leave us much time to do anything at all, really, so we had a quick wander around, took some pictures of Central Park from one of the upstairs lounges and left before they kicked us out.
By that time it was getting pretty dark, but I decided that I wanted to walk for a while so we headed up Central Park West for a few blocks, marveling in glorious architecture and laughing at the little boy walking ahead of us who kept shouting "Fifty million blocks!" whenever his dad asked how many blocks they had to walk until they were home. Hee! Eventually the cold got to us, though, so we made our way to the subway station on 86th and Broadway which took us all the way back to 23rd. We made a quick stop at Whole Foods for dinner and then back to the hotel where we both proceeded to panic about how much stuff we had when we started packing for Washington. Helen had already made one trip to FedEx to send some stuff home, and so had I, and yet we could still barely close our suitcases. Yikes! After we listened to a weather report that predicted snow, snow, snow and yet more snow for Washington and surrounds I was still questioning the wisdom of going, but we'd bought out tickets, our bags were (finally) packed and at least my replacement credit card had turned up so I could afford to eat for the remainder of my stay. Um, yay?
Once we'd got bought our tickets and cloaked our coats, we bypassed the couple who were rolling about on the floor of the rotunda and made our way toward the spiral. Helen was nearly bursting with excitement because she'd been looking forward to the Guggenheim since we arrived. However before we could decide where to start I was intercepted by a munchkin of no more than ten or eleven at the base of the spiral who introduced himself and then asked me what I thought about progress. Interesting question, I thought, and so I began to talk about my concept of progress as we made our way up the spiral until we were intercepted by a bright young thing of about sixteen who asked me what I'd been talking about with the munchkin. We chatted about this and that as we walked, and she even hung around when I had to duck into the loo to take care of business. After a we'd walked for a bit I was then handed over to the serious college student who asked me about how I was finding New York and didn't I think we as humans tended to be risk adverse and not want to go out on a limb these days? I wasn't sure that we all were and we talked out the concept while we walked and I was quite sorry that we didn't get to finish the conversation when I was handed over to college professor type who proceeded to tell me about Tino Sehgal and the concept of the piece that I'd gotten caught up in. It was part of the Guggenheim's50th anniversary celebrations and it wasn't so much an exhibition as an exploration of voice and movement that forces the museum visitor to be more than just a passive spectator but allows them to become part of the concept.
After that I was left to my own devices and I started making my way down the spiral, just as Frank Lloyd Wright had intended. The spiral its self had been cleared of all its artwork for the Seghal piece, but most of the side galleries were still open. After that I was left to my own devices and I started making my way down the spiral, just as Frank Lloyd Wright had intended. The spiral its self had been cleared of all its artwork for the Seghal piece, but most of the side galleries were still open. I wandered through those for a while, had a surprisingly good coffee in the cafe, ran into Helen in the gift shop, lost her again and then spent around twenty minutes running up and down the spiral trying to find her again. At one point I saw her taking photos on level three while I was on level five, so I sprinted down the stairs to try and catch up with her, but she'd vanished by the time I got there. She wasn't in Modern Masters, where Picasso was once again dogging my heels, nor was she staring into the void in the Kapoor installation. I'd left my phone in my coat so I couldn't text her and I was having these visions of spending the entire day running around looking for her and not ever finding her when I suddenly stumbled upon her having a glass of wine in the cafe. Thank god!
Because the spiral had been cleared of artwork and a couple of the galleries were closed, it didn't us as long to get through the Guggenheim as we thought it would, which was actually okay because were were meeting Marika for lunch in Greenwich Village and we had to get going otherwise we'd be late! I'm not entirely certain, but I'm pretty sure it was colder in Union Square than it was up on the Upper East Side when we got off the subway and being waylaid on Broadway by some guy collecting for charity didn't help us feel any warmer. I managed to fob him off and then we walked through the Saturday market to the Borders where we were meeting Marika. Once we found her she took us down to this cute little cafe where the breakfast special was still going, even though they'd run out of Mimosas and could only serve us Bloody Marys. I don't like Bloody Mary very much, but I gave it a go, however my poacher eggs and smoked salmon were wonderful and the coffee almost drinkable!
After lunch we all made our way up town again to the Time Warner Centre. There we parted ways with Marika who was off to do groceries and we went up to Borders to use the loo. It was about then that my lunch that seemed so nice started to bite back and for a little while I seriously thought I was going to throw up. I didn't, but I felt rather queasy for the rest of the day. Grr!
Since we were due to leave for Washington the next day, I took advantage of being in a bookstore to buy a guidebook to Washington and Helen found some Moleskin notebooks that she just had to have. Even when we don't mean to we end up shopping. It's just the way we're built, I think. Because it was so cold and we were both feeling a little unwell, we jumped on the subway instead of walking the few blocks up to the museum, however by the time we go there it was after 4pm and they were due to close at 5. That didn't leave us much time to do anything at all, really, so we had a quick wander around, took some pictures of Central Park from one of the upstairs lounges and left before they kicked us out.
By that time it was getting pretty dark, but I decided that I wanted to walk for a while so we headed up Central Park West for a few blocks, marveling in glorious architecture and laughing at the little boy walking ahead of us who kept shouting "Fifty million blocks!" whenever his dad asked how many blocks they had to walk until they were home. Hee! Eventually the cold got to us, though, so we made our way to the subway station on 86th and Broadway which took us all the way back to 23rd. We made a quick stop at Whole Foods for dinner and then back to the hotel where we both proceeded to panic about how much stuff we had when we started packing for Washington. Helen had already made one trip to FedEx to send some stuff home, and so had I, and yet we could still barely close our suitcases. Yikes! After we listened to a weather report that predicted snow, snow, snow and yet more snow for Washington and surrounds I was still questioning the wisdom of going, but we'd bought out tickets, our bags were (finally) packed and at least my replacement credit card had turned up so I could afford to eat for the remainder of my stay. Um, yay?
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