NYC – Chiaroscuro

Day 6

Alaine Thompson on July 1, 2015July 4, 2015

The Natural History Museum. Not like it is in Night at the Museum unfortunately.

But still tonnes of dinosaurs.

We went through all of the dinosaur rooms from the T-Rex.

To something like a bird.

To an actual Pterosaur.

And some awesome giant turtle things.

This one just looks really aggravated.

This one is legitimately a cross between a frog and a lizard.

And this one is a fish that gave live birth from a sack outside of its body.

Giant armoured fish. Most likely very stupid creatures that enjoyed ramming into each other.

And then we got to the mammals. This isn’t actually a mammoth, it’s a Mastodon. But still pretty awesome.

All the mammals in this area remind me of Ice Age…

This one reminds me of an animated old lady, complete with a crocheted hat. Pixar style of course.

And back to the dinosaurs! This time it’s everyones favourite, the Triceratops.

These were so cute I just had to take a picture.

Stegasaurus.

The giant Blue Whale.

And then we went to the origins of humanity exhibit, which besides being out of date and pretty much all conjecture, it really amazed me how selfish and self-posessed the human race is that in our constant search for meaning and purpose, we not only fail to live in the moment, but in the present, as we search for meaning in the past as well. But if this trip has taught me anything it’s that humans are humans, and we have been for millenia, we may all have underlying differences and unique qualities, but the same qualities and drives are what make us human. It’s only our technology and general aptitude for information that constantly adapts and changes with each generation.

But seriously, there is an entire room dedicated to how the homo sapien came about, most of which is conjecture. I doubt any other specific species gets that kind of treatment.

One thing I did find interesting about the human exhibit was the art section.

(A horse)

(early European carvings of women).

The entrance and the Theodore Roosevelt statue.

My first incredibly salty New York pretzel.

And finally, Central Park.

In the midst of an algae bloom.

Unfortunately the bow bridge was under construction, so we didn’t get to complete that film pilgramige. But, in classic tourist fashion, in the midst of our disgust that the bridge was out of commission, and while attempting to get a good photo, we accidentally interrupted a proposal. Luckily she had already said yes before we started blabbering pointless nonsense.

Bethesda Terrace, featured in countless TV shows, including Doctor Who (hint: there’s an angel on the top of the fountain), and films…

Such as the Chinese one that was actually filming while we were there. Like I said before, New York is filled with film crews.

Also, Avengers:

Definitely, Maybe:

My new background image:

Day 5

Alaine Thompson on June 30, 2015July 2, 2015

Battery Park, the gateway to the Statue of Liberty.

Miss New York, the vessel.

And, Lady Liberty herself. Today is probably the most tourist-ey day we’ve had this whole trip.

The internal structure of the statue, made by monsieur Eiffel.

The view.

The way up to the crown. Only 50 allowed up a day.

The lowest level of the pedestal, great views of the lady in copper.

The original torch that was replaced due to leaks casuing deterioration to the copper.

The trip back on the Miss New Jersey.

After returning after about 2 hours (and WAY too many steps), we decided to split up and go shopping, mum and I going to Barnes and Noble, Forever 21 and a vegan bakery. We binged on cakes before having a rushed dinner and heading off on the subway to our discount broadway show – Hedwig and the Angry Inch, starring Darren Criss.

It was an amazing show. The songs were incredible (so much so we bought the soundtrack), the characterisation was amazing, it was all through the 4th wall, which was a nice change of pace and really allowed for the reality of the story to kick in. The lighting and set design is also used masterfully. I don’t think I stopped smiling the entire show. There were also some very interesting ‘punk’ and ‘rock’ gestures at and towards the audience, such as spitting, jirating and licking, which was fantastic and made me grateful that I wasn’t in the orchestra area. A brilliantly written and characterised show. Darren Criss was amazing, and the adlibbing was awesome. I actually bought the script and a poster as well, which was pretty cool to see from a show, selling the script that is. Another thing that’s great about Broadway – the playbills are free.

Today was probably the day that I felt most at home and like a New Yorker, like I’d been absorbed into the city somehow. The longer I’m here the better and more excited I feel. It’s surprisingly exhilirating and scary at the same time.

Day 4

Alaine Thompson on June 29, 2015July 2, 2015

Today was a lazy day. We spent the morning doing nothing until we finally decided to stop being lazy and tired and do something worthwhile and interesting.

Washington Square Park, another stop along the ‘mum-fuelled tour of famous places in films’. There was actually a small film shoot happening right next to the arch. Seriously, just walking through Chelsea on our first day, there was at least 3 photo and film shoots going on in the streets.

NYU is right next to Washington Square Park, in particular TISCH School of the Arts and the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television. We tried to visit, but security is so tight here.

After that, we visited Grenich Village. The streets are small, lovely and green. Almost suburbia but more boutique-esque.

The building below is the narrowest building in New York. Apparently the guy who owned the building next door was sick of people using the lane way next to him for ‘inappropriate activities’ so he bought the laneway and built on it.

Originally a worker’s courtyard, designed to be adjacent from the main street, it is now one of the most expensive places to live in Grenich.

After the Village we went to TJ Max for some cheap, good quality shopping, and it just happened to be right next to the New York stock exchange – the home of the evil capitalism monster. Just kidding…

For dinner we went down to Chelsea Piers, which is some of the best use of space I’ve seen. It uses multiple piers to both host boats and create various sporting grounds for golf (there is seriously a huge driving range), basketball courts and a gymnastics area as well as food.

We wound up going out for Italian though and I had a giant calzone (and I mean giant).

After dinner we walked along the Highline, a park made from an old railway line, with the amazing views still intact.

They even had some unique artworks commissioned for the umique view of the park.

And, the Empire State looked gorgeous as usual at night.

The views and parks in New York are incredible, surprising for such a big city.

Day 3

Alaine Thompson on June 28, 2015July 2, 2015

The Met. AKA the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We arrived at the beginning of the day and there were still a lot of people there. The museum is huge, so we only had a small amount of time to go to a few exhibits, which were absolutely incredible.

We started off in ancient Egypt.

(A model of a grainery found in a tomb).

(Hair decorations reconstructed in a wig).

(Children’s toys with moving parts. The dog had a moving tail and mouth with a tongue and teeth).

(Sakhmet).

(A crocodile).

(A double harp).

(The armour room).

And then we went to the European art area, the area containing the art of the late 1800’s, including Monet, Degas and Manet.

(All of the above: Monet).

On our way out we also encountered a very familiar yet very different civilisation – Ancient Cyria.

They even worshiped similar animals to the Egyptians, the creature above looking just like the sun god Ra. The ancient Cyrian empire was actually more advanced than Egypt, but due to its poor resources and location in comparison to Egypt, it’s kind of become Egypt’s uncool cousin.

We then went and had some great Colombian food, saw the Gougenheim.

Went to B&H and bought this flashy new laptop which I am now writing this blog post on.

And then we went to the Eugene O’Neill theatre on Broadway to see The Book of Mormon, which was fan-fricking-tastic!

Seriously, it was hilariously crude and rude and made me long for South Park. The writing was great and beautifully satirical in both the book and the music and lyrics, as is to be expected from Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The set design and characterizations were also oddly exaggerated and cartoonistic, which was also very fitting for the hilarious, naive style of the musical. It was great, especially for my dad and brother who hate that kind of stuff.

Broadway is so different to Melbourne. In comparison the Melbourne arts culture is underground. On broadway, crowds come from everywhere just to see the shows andevery show almost always get a standing ovation, whereas in Melbourne the crowds seem to be constantly duller. Its interesting seeing how different the culture is over here, everyone is so serious and polite, whereas in Australia we are so layed back. Also noticing the similarities between cities, people are people afterall.

Day 2

Alaine Thompson on June 27, 2015June 30, 2015

An early start…

And we’re off to the Freedom Tower! Seriously, this place really is like a Disneyland Ride. There is so much VJing going on, so many useless interviews with construction crew, and an overload of emotionally overpowering music, in true American fashion they’ve managed to create a place that is incredibly entertaining, loud and an overload to the senses before you even get to the observation area.

(but hey, the inner building design is pretty futuristically cool).

Up on the observation deck (once we’d cleared all the inspirational and emotional music. Seriously, there was a lot of it.) The view was absolutely incredible. To the point where I took so many photos it took me a long time to sift through and find the best 11 photos.

(The one with the copper spire is the incredible Woolworth building. It is beautifully old and majestic).

The Twin Towers memorial. This is probably the most fitting and emotionally compelling memorial I have seen (other than the WW2 memorials in Berlin), as the memorial is actually two pools made from the exact base of the towers’ foundations. Being in the presence of such a massive cascade of water on the black tiles of the foundations really made you feel the impact that 9/11 really had.

This building was also in the area, and I don’t know what it was for, just that it looked awesome.

Freedom Tower from below. It really is a monolith.

After going up to the top of Freedom One, we went to the Century 21 department store which was pretty crazy because it’s basically Macy’s (as in designer clothes) but discount everything. Our feet then incredibly sore, we stop for sushi, which of course New York knows how to do incredibly well, and then we took the train to Brooklyn to walk across the Brooklyn bridge. Brooklyn (or what little I saw of it) was a pretty cool and nice area, so I can quite easily see why all the trendy people live there.

The views were absolutely incredible, and if any of you are going to walk the Brooklyn bridge take the subway to Brooklyn then walk back, as you get all the incredible views of the Manhattan bridge and the beautiful New York cityscape.

The Brooklyn bridge itself is amazing, as the wires and archways create some amazing shots and views on their own.

This building is actually one of the municpal buildings and is absolutely beautiful and huge!

It also has an amazing internal structure.

In true tourist fashion, I took a photo of a squirrel while my family had an in depth converstaion about how they are so cute and why American’s dislike them so much (they’re basically like our possoms, although America also has possoms…).

Another pretty building

The incredible Woolworth building from street level. It is seriously an incredibly beautiful and old building.

We did so much walking and wandering today that my feet are killing me, but I really don’t care. I feel like the more I walk the more I understand New York and its inhabitants, both of which are incredibly normal and diverse at the same time, which I guess is just another way of saying they’re both very human.

Day 1

Alaine Thompson on June 26, 2015June 30, 2015

After a very long and stressful time flying that just happened to begin at the exact morning at which Tullamarine customs decided to go on strike, we finally arrived in the beautiful and constantly shape-shifting New York. Every corner has something new in building design, sprawl and character.

(FYI this is a photo of L.A as we had to stop over at LAX before running to catch our flight to New York as well).

One of the most common things in New York are fire escapes, and to be honest having fire escapes on the side of buildings creates some of the most beautiful architecture and unique patterns.

Everywhere, throughout every street, there are beautiful buildings with incredible facades just jutting out of the not so unique street line up.

We made our way to Union Square. There was an amazing farmer’s market with some buskers playing jazz. We saw the George Washington statue and walked around Union Square which was beautiful in the sunlight.

The Flat Iron building. Quite frankly the most amazing example of a very interesting type of building unique to New York city: the corner building.

Madison Square park. Beautiful art covering most of the walkways right next to the flat iron building and Eataly (a great gelati shop), and even had a really cute little dog park section (which really made me miss my dogs…)

Empire State.

We went to Macy’s, which is basically a better and slightly cheaper version of Myer. Inside, they still had the old escalators made from wood. That’s right wooden railings, and one even had wooden steps.

Another interesting thing about Macy’s, and somethig that I think should definitely translate to our stores, is the fact that each brand of makeup on the ground floor (at least on the day we were there) had their own DJ.

It really lifted the mood, although it was interesting because each area was a different competeing sound.

We then went on a ‘mum-fuelled tour of famous buildings that had been prominently featured in films’, starting with the New York public library, in such films as The Day After Tomorrow.

It is a truly magnificent building with a lot of interesting free events in and around the building.

Next up on the tour, Grand Central Station. Featured in pretty much every Hitchcock film ever (or at least North by Northwest and Strangers on a Train, so the two train themed ones).

The old building is so huge and beautiful, and to be honest being in the middle of this old beauty it finally hit me where I was. The grand majesty of this place is just so old and grand, and yet so present, like the whole of New York pretty much. It breaths life through its age and history as the old becomes adapted into the new.

The roof has beautiful designs of star signs, which are actually upside down.

We went to Times Square after walking around all day and went and sat on the stairs in the center (yes, the same ones in The Amazing Spiderman 2). It was incredibly calming and interesting just watching people go by and being above and detached from the huge crowds of Times Square. We actually wound up spending just over 30 minutes sitting down and people watching, while we rested our feet.

Darrel Lea is here too, which was surprising…

There’s no mistaking it’s Australian-ness.

In true American fashion, we went to a convenience store and bought bucket loads of junk food. And of course we laid it out on the counter ritualistically for the slaughter.

And for all the Mad Men fans among you…

THEY STILL EXIST! And with pretty much original packaging too.

PUPPIES!!!

Burger… Vegan NYC style.

And Finally…

… Ice Cream….

… Sandwiches…

And a vegan carrot cake for dessert. Its like christmas, but with food. Wait, what am I saying. That is christmas!

Day one is over and I’ve already learnt so much from this city. I can feel its diversity and confidence leaching into my bones. Let’s just hope it’s a permanent thing.

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