On my own, pretending you're beside me

Had a baby bear/Goldilocks sort of day today. Earlier this week it was the "damp inferno" that Kateri referenced. Then yesterday was buckets of rain and I actually bought a sweatshirt because it was too cold to be out without one.


Today? Just right... Absolutely gorgeous day. So I walked up to the Guggenheim.





The building is famous, and rightly so. It's almost the best part of the whole deal.





The art collections aren't that well curated, in my opinion. You can tell the difference between the permanent collections (old tired looking arrangements with bad lighting) and the newer temporary collections that have much better curation. Which is weird, because the building is designed for viewers. You just follow the curving walkway and see everything as you go, ducking occasionally into the offshoot rooms. And yet still...


It's particularly noticeable in contrast to the Met, which is so beautifully curated that even squashed by 2,000 damp strangers, some pieces still take your breath away.

It probably didn't help that there's a lot of Kandinsky in the Guggenheim and I don't care for him. But there were some amazing Picassos and a couple of Renoirs I had never seen. However for every great painting by a renowned artist there was a strange contemporary "sculpture" installation. The kind of art that isn't. A wicker basket with a big metal tube through it. A sheet of gold leaf on the ground. A series of fluorescent lights installed on the ground in a half circle. This is why people think contemporary art is a joke.

And you can't put that stuff next to anything byPicasso, Miro, Calder or even Kandinsky and think that they all belong in the same category.

And unlike the Met, you aren't supposed to take pictures in the Guggenheim. However, everyone had their cameras out and the guards were just watching and looking bored. So, here's my boldly defiant self portrait in one of the installations, a room of steel and chrome. I also have a video of one of the installations, and when I figure out how to upload it, I'll post it.

Since it was such a beautiful day, I walked back through Central Park - where everyone in NYC had decided to spend the day. There was quite a bit worth seeing...

Including this fine gentleman, Thoth (who, I found out later, had his moment in the sun on "America's Got Talent!" Since Thoth is playing in Central Park, I'm guessing he had no talent...) But he does have a gold lame loincloth and his performance consists of dancing, while singing in a sort of primitive yodel and playing the violin. I think I can safely say there's nothing quite like it.


These guys were astonishing dancer acrobats who had a routine all worked out. They call their style "afrobatics"' and themselves Meek da Freak and Sugar Ray (so when they show up on David Letterman, you will have heard about them here first!). The picture right above is Sugar Ray jumping down the steps on his hands and the one above is Meek da Freak doing a handstand on Sugar's back. Very cool. And then their show ended and I hung around to see the beginning that I had missed and was privy to a very violent argument between the two performers about who had gotten the most laugh lines and who was stepping on whose jokes and who needed to 'represent' to make this whole thing work. Just like being backstage...

And walked home via Columbus Circle, above.

Lovely lovely day...