Holiday 2007: Day 1 NYC - Guggenheim & Natural History Museum

OK so what can possibly be said about NYC that hasn't been said already?
Well to start with I hadn't expected to like it. NYC is the new person everybody tells you you're gonna love. Your sister things they're great, your colleagues all rave about them, your best mate thinks they're so cool, even your Mother thinks they're the best thing since sliced-bread! So you instantly go in there a sceptic. No-one's that great. Why are they so special? There's no way they're that fabulous. You know they won't impress you. Well that was me and the Big A. At first it didn't seem that fantastic. Yeah it was big, but then so is London and yeah the skyline's impressive, but Sydney's is pretty beautiful too. Yeah, nonplussed that was me.



Day one started at the Guggenheim.

Now call it jet lag if you must, but something emotional happened to both myself and Jonathan my travelling buddy at this amazing institution. Gutted that the facade was covered up during restorations (we'd been told that the building itself is the best thing about it), we didn't recognise the wow factor of the building's rotunda until we were smack bang in the middle of it looking skyward.
A wide ramp climbs snake like up the wall, round and round, you're aware of the space held around you and- there's a feeling of gravity pressing down on you as you walk slowly up it.



At each storey there is a doorway leading off to that specific floor of the Tanhausser, the part of the museum that houses different sections of the museum's permanent collection. In the Rotunda there are installations and works positioned in alcoves and niches in the walls as well as on the floor and overhanging wide open spaces. The exhibition currently showing was The Shapes of Space (showing until Sept 5) and looks at how we perceive space or as the G puts it - "the elastic notions of space".

It blew me away.

There was a guide there who explained how Dan Flavin's light installation was a way of examining light, something we usually take for granted; how it impacts upon our perceptions and how it defines the space; when she stands on the opposite side of the installation the space between us is defined by the light. She then went on to explain how modern artists use modern concepts and technologies - in this case fluorescent lighting - to examine technology and its impacts on humanity. She then tied it in to Divisionism a movement in Italy during the mid to late 19th Century; a group of artists who did similar things in relation to light and its make up of colour. This for me was a new link, that modern and traditional were in fact doing the same thing in relation to their respective time frames. How did I miss this? Her passion was engulfing, she had us both gobsmacked. and it made us look at the rest of the exhibition with new eyes. I made a point of thanking her before we left, but I really wish I'd got her name to make mention of her here.

The last exhibit was a sheet of various sized discs cut out of reflective plastic - they magnify the view through them in tiny circles making up a collage of images - fantastic concept and such a labour of love to create! Jonathan and I took photos of one another in front of it. Tired smiles, but I think you can see the journey we'd just taken over the previous few hours...

From the Guggenheim we went on a walk through Central Park. OK Central Park is the size of Nottingham I swear. Well maybe Canberra. Either way it's vast and considering the cacophony that is NYC, is surprisingly quiet and tranquil.

It's a really beautiful park and you can see why New Yorkers hold it dear.

Next up was the Natural History Museum. The facade was used for Ben Stiller's movie "A Night in The Museum" so you knew straight away what sort of museum it was going to be - or did we?

Initially it really did feel like a stuffy 70's style museum, everything in glass cabinets - look into the yellowing perspex boxes and don't touch. Yeah sure they'd got the huge Dinosaur skeletons in the lobby, but stuffed elephants and dummies wearing Indian costumes?

And then we went downstairs to the marine section. Wow! Not just seeing a giant blue whale model dwarfing the sea of people underneath it, but the way the Eco-diversity exhibit was presented with 'family trees' of animal groupings climbing the walls was astounding and a real visual treat.

Jonathan loved the space exhibit and I must admit, the full-on Dinosaur exhibit on the fourth floor bounced me back into my inner 8 year old and happily so!



We staggered back to our Pod (the hotel was called The Pod and rightly so, tiny rooms but perfectly laid out so every space is used and so well presented, iPod dock/radio, gorgeous clean bathrooms and very very funky!) for a little R&R before going out to hit the New York scene.

I'd met Martin a guy from Sydney, online about three weeks before and we'd decided it'd be funny to make out first meeting in a bar in NYC as we'd both be there at the same time.

Jonathan and I rocked up to the Bear night at the Dugout and after a couple of beers decided to head on somewhere else. Of course the world is the size of a postage stamp so it was no surprise when I ran into Martin on the street with a cute straight friend of his. We all went over the road to Ty's where we had a blast talking to strangers. One of which was a great Puerto Rican guy called Richard who we chatted to all night, persuaded to come visit Australia and then forgot to swap numbers with- so Richard if you read this remember you have somewhere to stay in Sydney!


All in all a good start to the holiday.