A Soul Refresher

Disputably, the most famous work in the MOMA is Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, though Andy Warhol's Campbells Soup Cans might be in the running. Here's Sara standing in front of it. We've had a print of this up on our wall since we got married and had always wanted to see it. There were about a hundred other paintings there that I could go on and on about, like a bunch of stuff by Georges Seurat, including the one where he paints the frame. And there were all sorts of works by Warhol, Pollock, Matisse, Caulder, Rousseau, Cezanne...you name it, it was there. But a trip to an art museum wouldn't be complete without me posting the painting that hit me the hardest. And here it is:

Yep, its a touch strange and grotesque, but so intriguing. Its called Painting (1946) by Francis Bacon (this is NOT Sir Francis Bacon), and is considered his magnum opus. Apparently he started the paining as a monkey in tall grass, but then decided he wanted to add a bird of prey...then it sorta just turned into a bunch of chunks of animal parts...or at least I think that's what it is. I just couldn't quit looking at it. I'm so glad I married such a cultured girl. She's opened my eyes to the beauty of art, and now I just can't get enough of it. About halfway through the night Sara says, "It sure is refreshing to spend a night in an art museum", and I thought, "Wow, she's right, this feels great". That's the whole point of art. It refreshes the soul.

Look what I saw at the MOMA!

On our first night in New York City we made our way to the Museum of Modern Art. If you want to see the best of modern art, New York is the place to be. Mostly I just pin these pictures up on the blog to brag about the totally kickin' pieces of art I've seen. Its crazy how much a person's inner self can change just by looking at works of art. I know that sounds real sappy, but its so true. The museum was super busy that night, but we are so glad we went to see it. Unlike the Pompidou Centre in Paris, this place was filled to the brim with the world's most famous works of art, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting one. The picture up yonder is Sara in front of one of Monet's water lilly paintings. I think this one is most famous for being long. Down yonder is a picture of me with Picasso's Three Musicians. I'm a big Picasso fan. There were a lot of his works there, including his Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and a bunch of his abstract cubist stuff. Wow I could go on about this forever. On to the next post...

The Naked Cowboy - and my wife

So the same day that I told Sara that we were going to New York she metnioned that she's always wanted a picture with the Naked Cowboy on Times Square. Yeah. That's about all I've got to say on this one. I like how he's got a hold of the knot on Zoe's hat.

Sara, Me, Zoe, Yoko and John

Early on Sunday morning we made our way to Strawberry Fiels in Central Park. We wanted to make sure we made it to the Imagine mosaic before it was covered in people. It was one of the most gorgeous mornings I've ever had, with the birds all chriping and the sun shinging down, and a Jamba juice slipping its way into my insides. In the picture below you can see Sara and Zoe sitting on a bench in front of the Dakota, which is right across the street from Central Park. John and Yoko Lennon lived in this apartment building starting in 1973. On December 8th, 1980 John was shot in the back four times as he was entering the building. He was pronounced dead on arrival that night, and the Dakota was soon saurrounded by thousands of mourners, who kept Yoko awake. She asked them all to leave for the night, but come back the next day. Over 100,000 people came back to mourn John's death. Imagine how many people that is! You could fill Miller Park 2.3 times. Yoko contributed one million dollars to Central Park so that a memorial could be built in John's honor. Countries from all over the world donated trees, plants and money to make the memorial gorgeous. The city of Naples, Italy contributed the famous "Imagine" mosaic as seen in the video above. Strawberry Fields is a beautiful piece of land, and a very good and solemn place to sit and remember John Lennon. I had always wanted to see the Dakota, New York is such a cool town! Yoko still lives in the Dakota, by the way.

The New York Subway

It ends up that New Yorkers are very particular when they talk about their subway. All of our guidebooks told us to never ever use the colors when asking how to get from here to there, or else you'll be considered a tourist (as if the red stroller and the video camera weren't evidence enough). We knew we wanted to take the Brooklyn-bound number one to the Staten Island ferry, but I just had to take the opportunity to ask a New Yorker how to do it. I guess I wanted to make sure he didn't give me any colors, and I really wanted to call a New Yorker "guy" like they do in all the movies. My guy was pretty helpful, especially since he happened to be going the same way we were.

All in all, I'm a NYC subway fan, its harder to navigate than the Paris Metro, but much easier to navigate than the Philadelphia Stink Train. After our three rides on the system, I don't think we've put in enough hours to officially be termed New York metro rats, but, Sara did take a giant step towards becoming a feisty New Yorker. You can't just shove a stroller through the turnstyle, rather, you have to swipe your metro card and then wait for the attendant to open the big door for you. This never ever works because the attendant is always too busy trying to explain to tourists how to get to the Statue of Liberty without using the convenient color coding. On one occasion, Sara swiped her card and got tired of waiting for the attendant so I just went through and opened the door for her and Zoe (oddly enough, these doors are easily opened from the inside). Finally the attendant lady decided to pay attention and came a-runnin', accusing Sara of sneaking through without paying. Sara stood up really tall, which is pretty ferocious coming from her, and boldly explained the situation slowly. When that still didn't work she finally said, "Look lady, I paid". We went off into the train with the attendant lady yelling and screaming at us to come back. What a sad angry subway woman, but oh yeah, my wife's got all sorts of spunk.

Photo credits for the subway monkey picture go to my buddy and co-worker Malcolm, who we drug along with us to the Staten Island ferry. More on all that later!

Central Park

One of our favorite parts of New York City was Central Park. It really does feel like you're stepping into a whole different world. Zoe met all sorts of new creatures there, including some of the friendliest dogs ever. Central Park dogs are so well-behaved, probably because they're so happy to be out of the flat. She also enjoyed the horse-drawn carriages and would always follow them with her eyes until they were out of sight.

While I was at my seminar Sara went exploring and was never able to traverse the entire park, we both agree that on the other side of the park there must be even more and better stuff, but we'll never find out. We saw a whole heard of cyclists having a race, and all sorts of statues which were not racing. On our last day in New York City we bought some food at a little street vendor and ate under the shadows of the skyscrapers next to the duck pond. And how could I forget to mention that we walked by the zoo and saw some seals! That was pretty cool. All the spring flowers were coming in, and it was gorgeous. There were tons of bridges there too. If I were a troll I would live under a Central Park bridge. A lot of good can be said about a city that spends so much time, money and effort to beautify a large chunk of itself. Don't worry, I didn't forget to mention Strawberry Fields, such a site merits it's own posting.

The McArthurs Take Manhattan

Just a few weeks ago Sara and Zoe and I accomplished my life time dream of visiting the Big Apple! How could any lover of tall buildings and historical monuments consider him or herself whole without putting a push pin on New York City.

It was our good fortune that the Exam MFE (Memorization of Freakish Equations) Seminar was to be presented right next to Madison Square Gardens over the weekend. As I spent 18 hours learning about stock option pricing, Zoe and Sara went about their tourism business, and we spent the day before and after, and the evenings seeing the sights. And boy did we see them! We rushed from uptown to downtown and everywhere in between. New York is one of those cities that never ceases to deliver tourism candy. You walk down the streets and come across stores and buildings with super famous titles and you find yourself saying, "Wow, I didn't know that was here" over and over again. The highest of highs for me is to stand at the base of some incredible structure, the ones that I've read about for years, and come to the realization that it is much better than I ever imagined. This is a constant in New York City. We're so lucky to have had so many opportunities to see our nation's greatest cities, and you're so lucky to have to see all the pictures and read all my endless blah blahing about them. Off we go!