He Said, She Said

The pictures for this day are not in order, but I guess that doesn't really matter.  I spent some time at the library on 5th and 42 Street.  It's a beautiful building, inside and out.

 I walked in the park and passed by this pair of shoes with no owner in sight.  I looked around for a barefoot man but never saw him.  I can't explain it.

One of the many park bridges

When I first saw these geese in the water, I thought they were meekats.  I knew that was crazy and then as I got a little closer I saw they were geese.  I like the reflection of Mt Sinai and the new research center they are building.

One of the coolest things ever happened as I was heading back to the apartment.  There is a big turtle pond near the Great Lawn.  I have seen turtles on logs out in the pond.  Two park workers were bent over looking at something right beside the walkway as I passed by, and one of the guys had his cell phone out taking a picture.  I stopped and walked back and saw it was a turtle laying her eggs.  She had already laid one and I watched her lay three.  It was pretty amazing.

There was a big storm today with very loud thunder and lots of rain.  This is just after one of the downpours...St Patrick's Cathdreal.

I stopped in a souvenir shop just to take a picture like this.  I was hoping to find a collection of green Statues of Liberty but they had just a few of those.  I like how they look all bunched up together.

Overheard

While walking around the city, I have overheard all kinds of conversations.  What makes it really interesting and curious is that I hear just bits and pieces, never the whole thing.  I started making a list of all the little pieces I have heard that made me either laugh or wonder what was going on.

"And her toes like went OVER the edge of her sandals!" A young woman alone, walking in Central Park, talking on her cell phone, completely disgusted.  I was glad I had on tennis shoes.

     

While on a walk in the park, a little boy posed a question to his dad (I didn't hear the question) and the dad responded, "I like to listen to the birds WITHOUT the violin playing!"

"It's all good.  Just trying' to make it happen." A young guy passing me on the sidewalk

Walking along Madison Avenue, we heard this from a very Russian-looking man dressed in a white shirt and gray slacks.  "In the Cold War they had a reason...."

A group of teenagers, mainly girls, was walking up 5th Avenue.  They looked like they were in the city on a school trip.  One of the guys was overheard saying, "I'm not really a 5th Ave kind of guy but...."  I had a feeling that to hang with that group of girls, he was going to have to make quite a few more concessions.

On the subway, one guy speaking to another sitting across from him, "You know the funny thing is if I get that money, I don't even know what I'm going to do with it."

At the Hell's Kitchen Flea Mkt, two women were eating their lunches under an umbrella beside their booth while visiting with a guy who was working the booth next to them.  There was lots of laughter when I overheard one of the women say, "You got too many women.  You said you got too many women."  Quickly the guy said, "I don't got too many women.  I lied."  The peals of laughter could be heard all over the flea market!

Overheard at a coffee shop:  "I thought his girls were in school in Switzerland."

When kids are around, there's always something funny overheard.  I loved listening to the children as much as watching the big polar bear at the Central Park Zoo.  One little boy standing with his mom and dad and watching the bear swim back and forth said, "He swims just like you Dad!"

And a little girl asked her mom for some food to feed the polar bear.  The mom told her no, that they couldn't feed the bear and then the dad, in perfect dad form, says, "YOU are the polar bear's food!"  Sweet dreams!

And in the increasingly competitive world of NYC elite preschools, there's the mom at the zoo who was trying to give her kid a leg up (I guess).  While changing her baby (probably 18 months old), she said, "Do you think the sea lion knows opera?  You will have to teach him!"

I suppose some jobs in the city are totally boring as exemplified by the Clyde's Pharmacy doorman.  He said to a couple of the clerks as I was walking in, "Oh, we forgot to add to our list of dictators the guy in Syria, Assad."

And an admission from a man I thought I would never hear in NYC, "I was sure I was right but I wasn't smart enough to argue with him about it."  (Said to a woman!)


In a gallery of modern design highlights at The Met, a mom and her roughly 10-year-old son had this exchange: 
Son:  THAT'S JUST A CHAIR!
Mom:  [In a lower voice] It's modern art.
Son:  WELL MODERN ART IS LAME.
Mom:  Ssshhhhhhhh

Beat the Heat

Another hot day so I spent it at the Met.  Along the way I saw this sign for VBS; summer has officially begun!

The Met

 

Francesca Woodman

Rodin

Fallen Caryatid with Urn

El Anatsui

Dusasa II 

Made of found copper wire, aluminum, and plastic disks

Anish Kapoor

The Roof Garden

The green tree tops are trees in Central Park.

 Cloud City by Tomás Saraceno

Roof Garden

From the Hall of the Knights

Fire Fighter Knight?

"Luke, I am your Faaaaa-ther."

4000 Miles and 8000 Warriors

Last night on the way home after dinner, I took a few pictures.  I absolutely love the tall buildings in NY and could stare up at them until someone on the sidewalk knocks me silly.  Below is the GM Building at 59th and 5th.

 Everyone has a dog in Manhattan!  Even the mannequins in the Bergdorf windows!

This morning I checked the weather as I was getting dressed and had to pull off my jeans!  Where am I?  Louisiana?  It was really hot today with all the concrete absorbing the heat.

Last summer I tried to see an Off Broadway play entitled 4000 Miles about a young guy who, on a coast to coast bicycle ride, loses his friend who is riding with him.  The guy goes to visit his elderly grandmother in her West Village apartment in an effort to forget...to heal...to get a free lunch....and just to get some grandmotherly affirmation.  It's a rich story told through the dialogue of primarily the young man and the grandmother.  I loved it.  I have seen some really good plays this trip, and, ironically, the one I liked the least was the one that won the Tony for Best Play of 2012.  Go figure!

After the play, I went to the Discovery Center at Time's Square to see the terra-cotta warriors from China.  I know very little about China and its history.  I barely know the region of Chinese food I like (Schezuan)!  Because it was all relatively new to me, it was all very interesting and educational.  The 8000 or so warriors were around the tomb of the First Emperor of China, Qin.  Like the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Emperor was buried with all he would need in the after-life.  How interesting that almost every ancient culture believed this life was not all there was, that there was a life 

after this one. #John14:2

The three photos below are from the Internet and are of the warriors in their original setting.

 Above, a suit of armor made from small limestone squares, found in the First Emperor's tomb mound

Below, more photos of the exhibit, terra cotta figurines and six foot warriors with their horses

Qin's Dynasty was from 221 - 207 BC.

The terra cotta warriors were discovered when farmers were digging a well for water in 1974 and struck the neck of one of the warriors.  And the rest is, as they say, history.  

The Sound of Silence

I tried to take a few pictures today in the park.  It was nice weather and there were quite a few school or camp groups in the park.  There was a lot of loud laughing and squealing.

In a big city, you quickly realize how universal many human interactions are...the group of teenagers playing kick ball, shouting in Spanish...even though I didn't understand a single word they said, I understood everything they said...and when the child walking alongside the stroller that the nanny was pushing met another child her own size, they connected in a way that's unlike any between adult and child.  They stood there staring at each other, communicating without verbal language.  And the little Asian boy who I came upon, laughing and running full speed toward his grandmother who was sitting on the park bench.  He threw his arms around her and told her how high he had swung.  I didn't understand the words she used to praise him, but I understood exactly what she said.  And when I came upon this little girl with possibly her grandfather feeding the ducks in the park, I thought of the times I had fed the ducks with my own grandfather...miles and years apart.  So many things change through the years but so many things remain the same.

An artist works on a painting of the Conservatory Water.

For the last two summers, the man who is memorialized in this photo sat on this park bench with binoculars and a telescope and offered visitors information about and views of the hawks who nested in part of the window ornamentation on a building facing 5th Avenue.  The first day Tony and I walked in the park, I mentioned that the man was always there but I did not see him.  Later I saw this little memorial.  I didn't know him but it is sad to me that he will no longer be there to tell people about the nesting birds.

 This afternoon I went to Film Forum to see the new documentary about Marina Abramovic, the performance artist who sat for three months in the atrium at MoMA and invited museum visitors to sit in front of her and stare into her face.  I am not a fan of her early stuff but the effect she had on people sitting in front of her at MoMA was astounding.  She even commented in the film that the amount of pain that most people have who sit before her is almost palpable.  The documentary does a very good job of demonstrating this truth, along with the celebrity and fame that she garnered.