I'm Learned

Well I realize now that I have been forgetting to document the non-work oriented adventures I've been having. And you know, those may actually be more important considering that now that the free-agent period is dying down, the draft is over and the Knicks City Dancers have their final 18, there really isn't all that much to do around here. I'm having trouble balancing happy/fun time with sleep/workingout/being a healthy human being time. Oh and that whole money thing is kind of a bust too. Yet, as my pseudo-aunt said this past weekend, money, time, and distance should never be your sole reasons for not doing something. I decided to twist that a little bit and add exercise in there too because to be honest, I don't think the other girls on the dance team who are supposed to be taking the time out of their day to run a timed mile are also working 10 hours a day during the week and at least 2 on the weekends. So there. Hmph. Anyway, Monday I did my share of monitoring sports radio then went to the gym and the grocery store and passed out immediately after showering. Every day life is exhausting in NYC. Tuesday after work I met up with my friend from home whom I've gone to school with since I was a wee lad and we went to see the Philharmonic in Central Park. It was nice to sit outside in the park and hear the music, but to be honest, it was far too crowded to really get the feel of being at a concert and we were too far away from the stage to even be able to pay attention to the music we were hearing. I got to meet some of my friend's sister's friends though (you follow?) and they were all nice. Also it was nice to catch up with my friend from home because she too is working here in the city this summer and is enduring the same emotions and trials as I am. She loves the city and is enjoying her internship, but agrees on the lonely and exhausting factors. That comforts me. Another friend, who I went to middle school with and now attend Wake Forest with, is up in NY for the week to visit family so I've gotten to spend time with him as well. We went to dinner on Wednesday then took the L all the way west and walked the High Line park, my new favorite, along the Hudson. We then wandered Chelsea, my favorite area of NYC for sure, before parting ways. We met up again yesterday too, but not after I watched the Obama brigade speed down 54th street toward the NAACP. When the real people of the real city were allowed to continue their real life traffic/walking efforts on 5th ave, my friend, who I might as well say is Alex, and I met up and went to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. I was actually quite surprised at how much I enjoyed the museum. I was far too tired to really get the full effect and, to be honest, I really invest a lot of energy in museum visits because of how much thought I put into everything I see. Yet, Alex and I did make our rounds and see some pretty great things. I have the photos below so you should check them out. A little performance art, some Chinese pack-ratting, some Van Gogh, and some Warhol. I was especially pumped to see a painting depicting a Mexican revolutionary scene because of how closely we studied revolutionary art in my Latin American Politics class this past semester. I was so excited upon seeing the painting dubbed Zapatistas that I begged Alex to let me ask one of the curators (are they called curators at museums?) if they had Chilean folk art like the pieces Dr. Siavelis had brought to class. Yet, to my dismay I was deferred to the regular Metropolitan Museum which doesn't really make sense since the fabric creations made by the women during the repressive revolutionary Chilean era should in fact be considered modern. Tomayto, tomawto. Here are the pics... I'm at work so I'm using the versions from my facebook album, but they should still look good.

<-- I think this one was called The Sleeping Gypsy... or something to that extent. I liked it because of the kitty, obviously.

The two below are of the performance art piece called Height of the World I believe. It was a whole room, blank white, only with the height of the world wrapping the four walls like a border. Actually really cool. Except it kind of made me mad when I saw really short measurements because I mean OBVIOUSLY no one is a foot tall. Unless they held their baby there. In which case that's weird. I digress.

I liked this one because of the colors. Then I saw the face and was mildly creeped out. Still intriguing though.

The one below was probably my favorite. It's a Picasso piece called The Girl In The Mirror. I actually just understood it when I looked at it because I could tell how the girl was looking at a shadier version of herself, reflecting on a vision of herself that is tainted with the grimy filter of personal perception. I want a print of it for my apartment when I return from abroad.

I just liked this next one because of the pretty colors.

The next one doesn't need a caption. Van Gogh's Starry Night. Duh.

This one below was a personal favorite. It had a really unnecessarily long name referring to the beat of music or something in the background which I normally would have liked, but it was a little too obnoxiously esoteric for me to document.

RIP John Lennon... and decent rock and roll... and lyrics that represent all people, not just love-sick cocaine peddling skinny people.

The last one I liked before realizing that I was far too hungry and tired to continue feasting my eyes on morally compromising splats of paint.

I'd say in the end, I've been cultural. I plan on continuing to be cultural. And though I may not be travelling Morocco, as my dear friend Kate has (and her blog is so amazing, it made me feel like I was there... and wish I had gone with her), I am on my own kind of adventure in a far off land. Just the far off land doesn't go much further than the dimensions of my skull.