Tuesday, May 22, 2012

MOMA

Last week, I visited the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.  MOMA has a fabulous collection of all kinds of art, beginning in the Impressionist period and continuing to the present day.  You start at the fifth floor and work your way down through the galleries in chronological order.  Wendy and I were in the minority...I reckon about three quarters of the many visitors were foreigners...it's a world class museum.  Here's a shot of Andrew Wyeth's famous painting, Christina's World.

Georges Seurat was a pointillist painter...taking brush in hand and dabbing the end of it on the canvas over and over to create a dappled effect.

This is Washerwomen, by Cezanne.

A Van Gogh classic, Olive Trees.

Another masterpiece by Vincent, Starry Night.  When in Amsterdam, go to the Van Gogh museum...there are hundreds of his paintings there...it's fabulous.

A cool still life by Henri Matisse.

Picasso shows up in several different galleries at MOMA, due to his long career spanning several eras.  Here's a lively rendering of three musicians having a jam session.

Bust of the great singer and actor, Paul Robeson.

Dali doing his surrealist thing.

Joan Miro, Barcelona's finest.

Girl with Ball, by Roy Liechtenstein.  MOMA has a fine section of pop art.

Andy Warhol's famous portrait of Marilyn.

This is not at MOMA, but is on an exterior wall of the Radio City Music Hall...a tribute to the Rockettes.

Wendy and I experimented with a little modern art ourselves.  The artwork consists of the man in the suit coat, superimposed on a mirror.  Blow up the pic and you can see Wendy's image in the mirror, along with me taking the photo, and a couple other people in the museum in the background.

The magnificent Art Deco glass at the entrance to the Chrysler Building.

The Metropolitan Life building at night.  Art abounds in NYC...it's everywhere!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

NYC Scenes

I frequently took solo morning walks while in NYC...Ol' Dave would still be in bed, and Wendy would be getting ready for the day.  Last Sunday I went west into Chelsea, a trendy part of Manhattan.  There are fine brownstones here, with cool iron railings on the steps of almost every building.

One of NYCs newest attractions is the High Line, along the Hudson River in Chelsea.  The line used to be an elevated railway, which was closed decades ago.  It's now gradually being landscaped and made into a pedestrian promenade, about 30 feet above the city.  In places there are even wooden chaise lounges where you can recline and watch the city pass by.

Cool billboard on the High Line.  On weekends there are vendors, food carts, maybe artists, enhancing the scene.

Had to throw in another shot of the Flatiron Building...one of my favorites.

We took a harbor cruise...thanx Suz for the recommendation!  Here we're passing the Ellis Island immigration station.  Millions of people passed through here, mostly in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  I believe my grandparents on both my father and mother's sides were here around 1909.  The prospective immigrants were given a physical examination...hundreds of thousands were rejected, and saw no more of America than New York harbor.  But over 90 percent of the people who came here were admitted...until the 1920s, when stricter immigration laws were passed. This is an issue I haven't studied much...it's a topic for research on my part.

The statue of Liberty...an American icon since 1886.  Lookin' as good as ever!

The large orange boat is the Staten Island Ferry.  It runs from the southern tip of Manhattan to Staten Island and is free!  I enjoyed the harbor cruise...the narrator provided a wealth of good info and the cruise was well worth the cost.  But now that I've done it, on future visits if I want to get out on the water I'll simply hop aboard this ferry.  Also, Staten Island is the only borough I didn't visit on this trip, so I should get over there next time.

The Brooklyn Bridge from water level.  Quite majestic, I reckon.

This picture from the cruise shows the Empire State building on the left, the Chrysler building on the far right, and a power plant in the middle.

The power plant in silhouette, probably coal fired...East coast industrial scene.  There are a lot of drab buildings on the waterfront of the East River, mostly high rise apartments constructed in the mid 20th century.  I imagine that in the coming decades, many will be replaced by more attractive structures...the process is already underway.

The two tallest buildings in this pic are new elements of the World Trade Center.  Five buildings were originally planned to replace the structures lost on 9/11; now four are slated to be built.  Two are currently under construction.  The tower on the left will be the main skyscraper; it recently passed the Empire State Building as the tallest in NYC.  When it's finished in 2014, it will be 1776 feet high.

The dazzle and vitality of New York are just too much for this elephant, who has to stand on the tip of his trunk to cope with it all.  He's near Union Square, on the corner of 14th street and Park Ave.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Doin' the Brooklyn Bridge

Went down to lower Manhattan on Sunday.  It was a flawless day; bright sun, 80 degrees, low humidity.  Here's a shot of the Woolworth Building.  Constructed in 1913, this 57 story Gothic tower was the tallest skyscraper in the world when it was finished (though the Eiffel Tower was taller).  Skyscrapers evolved rapidly in NYC during the early 20th century.  The 1902 Flatiron Building, at 21 stories, was the city's tallest at that time; just 11 years later the Woolworth was almost three times as high.  After another 18 years passed, the Empire State was opened, 102 floors of Art Deco splendor.    

It was a fine day to walk the Brooklyn Bridge!  Last year, I read David McCullough's excellent book about the bridge's construction while I was on the road.  I walked across John Roebling's prototype, the Roebling bridge across the Ohio River in Cincinnati, completed in 1866.  That's about a third the size of the Brooklyn Bridge, constructed in a very similar fashion.  Roebling designed the Brooklyn span, but died just before construction began in 1869.  His son, Washington Roebling, officially supervised the entire construction process, which didn't end until the grand opening in 1883.  Washington was seriously injured by contracting the bends when inspecting caisson work early in the project, when the piers were being laid at the bottom of the East River.  He never completely recovered, but his wife Emily learned bridge engineering in his stead, and actually did most of the supervision and planning during much of the construction.

The Roeblings built the bridges in both Cincinnati and Brooklyn using a complex but very effective cable structure using wire strung diagonally from the bridge towers, and vertically from the main cables.  The result is a myriad of geometric forms.  From reading the book, I got the impression that the toughest part of the construction was sinking the caissons down to the bottom of the East River, then through the mud into bedrock to establish a base on which to construct the bridge piers, then the towers.  Once that was done, the work of stringing cable and laying the roadbed went more smoothly, not taking into consideration cost overruns, funding issues, and, in the early going, the meddling of Boss Tweed and his notorious ring.  The engineers had to deal not only with NYC politics, but also with those of Brooklyn, which was a separate city at the time.  It was annexed by New York in 1898. 

Here's Wendy, hangin' at the bridge.  Once we got into Brooklyn, she found a pizza place that was to die for!  Front Street Pizza has awesome New York pizza, with rich sauce, a fine, foldable crust, and superb flavor.  And it was authentic...the staff were Brooklyn locals, as were most of the customers.  Everyone was gorging on pizza and pasta and watching the Yankee game.  Great scene!  I liked Brooklyn a lot!

And I'm not the only one.  Check out the sign!

This is Brooklyn Heights, just south of the east end of the bridge.  Very cozy 'hood.  During the bridge construction, Washington and Emily Roebling lived in a home here, with a good view of the bridge...so they could check out the construction progress from their window.  As Washington was a semi-invalid, he would frequently have meetings of the bridge's chief engineers at his home, while Emily did the on site supervision at the bridge.

There's a fine pedestrian promenade along the East River in Brooklyn Heights...with a great view of lower Manhattan.

The east tower of the bridge, from the Brooklyn side.  Front Street Pizza...highly recommended!  is just a few blocks away on the other side of the bridge approach.

Walkin' the bridge on a Sunny Sunday.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Cruisin' the Apple

I'm in New York City...for the first time ever!  It's really pretty ridiculous that this is the case...after all, NYC is only about as far from California as Hawaii, and I've been to Hawaii at least 25 times.  But...better late than never...way better, as a matter of fact. We've been seeing a lot of interesting attractions.  Here, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, are numerous works that I've read about or seen in books all my life, but now I'm actually in the same room with them.  For example, here's Houdon's famous bust of Benjamin Franklin.  I didn't even know that it was in the Met.  I'm reading a biography of Franklin right now and there's a picture of this bust in the book.

One of Gilbert Stuart's quintessential portraits of Washington, painted in the 1790s.  It's just a little different than the one on the dollar bill, also painted by Stuart.  He did over a dozen similar likenesses of ol' George.

I love this sculpture of an American Indian, by Remington, I think.  Sublime belligerence!

There's a room full of armor at the Met...even for the horses!

I crossed an item off my bucket list by going to a game at Yankee Stadium.  I waited too long to be able to go to the original House that Ruth built, but the new stadium is really nice.

The Flatiron Building, an iconic NYC structure.  This was the first real skyscraper in the city, 21 stories high, constructed in 1902.  I love the elegant stonework...classic Edwardian!

And here's the Flatiron again, this time from the 86th floor observatory on the Empire State Building.  In just 29 years, NYC went from a 21 floor Edwardian classic to a 102 story Art Deco masterpiece!  I wonder if any people worked on both buildings...wouldn't be surprised.
And here's the Empire State Building, soaring into the sky.  The first morning I was here, I couldn't see the top...it was immersed in the clouds.

The lobby of the ESB is superb.

There are glittering Art Deco plaques scattered throughout the building.

We visited the observation deck on one of the better days of the year, after a cold frontal passage.  It was a bit chilly and blustery up there, but the scenery was superb.  This view is looking south.  The tallest building is the main structure in the new World Trade Center under construction...when finished, it will be 1776 feet tall.  It has just surpassed the Empire State as the tallest structure in the city.

Looking northeast.  Notice the pinpoint top of the Chrysler building in the middle distance.

The Chrysler Building in all its Art Deco magnificence!  Blow up the pic and see the aluminum gargoyles on the corners.  Completed in 1930, the Chrysler was briefly the tallest building in NYC, till the Empire State was completed a little over a year later.

Grand Central Station, restored to its original splendor.  There has been a major train station here since 1871...most of the current station dates from 1913, after an extensive renovation.