New Yorker cover

Chaos and Classicism at the Guggenheim

Today my dad and I went to see Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy, and Germany, 1918-1936 at the Guggenheim Museum. Exhibited mostly in the spiraling halls of the Guggenheim, it presented art from three European countries in the time between the two World Wars. While artists were recovering from the  trauma of World War I, they looked to classical ideals and reinvented them in an attempt to re-establish order amidst chaos. However, as fascist regimes took power in Italy and Germany, art fell more and more under the control of the dictatorships, and artists were limited to presenting only fascist propaganda and political ideals by the time the mid-1930s rolled around, bringing with it the start of World War II.

Some images from the exhibit:

Picasso - combines classical Roman ideals and visual elements

Balthus - seemingly a happy street seen, but at closer glance, everyone looks slightly tense and permanently frozen. Very disconcerting scene.

This one, from the last room of the exhibit called "The Dark Side of Classicism," encompasses all of Hitler's master race ideals, and actually hung in his living room. *Shudder.*

The exhibit is on view until January 9th - check it out if you can! You also get a free audioguide at the Guggenheim which I thought contributed a lot to the exhibit. Click here to go to the really cool exhibition website.

Old School Subway Car Sighting

Yesterday I was waiting on the uptown platform of the Broadway-Lafayette station when this very old subway pulled into the station on the downtown side. Everyone took out their cell phones and tried to photograph it before it left. I couldn't get great pictures but you can get the idea. It was so cool! The seats looked like they were leather or pleather, or some kind of cushioned material that wasn't just hard plastic. There were normal passengers on it, but I'm still not entirely sure it wasn't a special train ride. Either way, I've never seen anything like it in my 22 years of subway riding!

Parade Preview

Immigrant Soles walking tour

Today I went on the Lower East Side Tenement Museum's walking tour called Immigrant Soles. The guide took us to many sites on the LES that were a part of the immigrant experience in the 19th and 20th centuries. Here are some of the highlights:

E.S. Ridley & Son, a department store built in 1874 where immigrants often came to buy American clothes

The Eldridge Street Synagogue, the first eastern European Jewish synagogue in America

Allen Street and the Manhattan Bridge

Looking uptown on Allen Street

Jarmulowsky Bank, a bank opened in 1912 by a Russian-Jewish immigrant, where immigrants kept their money. They could also buy ship tickets to bring relatives to America.

Loew's Canal movie theater, opened in 1927. That brown metal grid on top of the façade is one of the first air conditioners ever! Now it's about to be converted into a Chinatown Cultural Center, which you can read about here. (That link also shows two photos of what the Loew's theater looked like back in its heyday.)

The Jewish Daily Forward Building, which housed the bilingual English-Yiddish newspaper which helped immigrants adjust to life in America. The building, which has landmark status, is preserved, but now is filled with luxury apartments. Note the writing "Forward" on the side of the building.

P.S. 42, a public school that has been educating immigrant children and children of immigrants for over 100 years. In 1898, when it opened, students were mostly Italian and Jewish, and today the student body is primarily Chinese and Latino.

We also stood in this spot on Orchard Street, looking south from Hester Street, where this photograph was taken in 1898. At the time, it was the most populated area on earth. On earth.

Then (1898)...

...And now.
Not one person in the photo!

I also recently bought the book Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City, which contains 14 walking tours in different neighborhoods of Manhattan. I hope to tackle many of them when the weather gets warmer!

New York Eats

This winter break I've been going to some of my favorite places to eat in New York, and trying some new ones as well.

Lael and I hit up Alice's Tea Cup a few times, which I wrote about in this entry last February.

I had both brunch and dinner at Veselka, a Ukrainian diner in the East Village that's a New York institution. They were recently written up in the NYTimes in this article about their Christmas Eve banquet (which is Jan 6th on the Ukrainian Orthodox calendar). The article even includes some Ukrainian recipes. I haven't tried any of them but they look delicious!

Tonight I met my friend Carly for a hot chocolate date at Max Brenner, which I had passed many times, but it was always too crowded to go inside. We both got Mexican spicy hot chocolate - I got dark chocolate - and it was delicious. It was served in a "hug mug," which is designed so that you cup it with both hands and sip from the pointy end, "hugging" the mug. The foam on top was swirled into a heart shape!


And of course, I got some good diner food in as well. What's New York cuisine without diners?

More Snow Pictures

From the past two snows - New Year's Eve Day in NYC, and this past weekend on Long Island.

Central Park Pond

Fountain in front of the Plaza - can you see the wreaths in the windows of the Bergdorf Goodman's building?

The Plaza Hotel

Farewell, World of Disney NYC - we went uptown to go to the Disney store on the last day (which, according to its website, was 12/31/09), but it was already boarded up for good. Not even Disney could afford Fifth Avenue rent anymore.

See the snow on the branches?

The snowy woods on Long Island

Espresso Cookies and More NYC Holiday Fun

Last night I baked these Espresso Crinkle cookies. It was a new recipe so I wasn't sure how the cookies would turn out, but I think the pictures speak for themselves. They were amazing. And dairy-free, too!




Today when we left the apartment, we came across this little red-eyed snowman chillin' on the street. (Okay, pun intended.) Here he is, pictured with my mom's snowboot for scale:


I went uptown in the afternoon to visit the Museum of Natural History with Lael. There are two big evergreen dinosaurs holding wreaths at the entrance. They're both covered in lights, although you can't tell in the sunlight.


This was the first year that I've seen the museum's origami tree, which has a different theme each year. This year's theme is Origami, A to Z and features animals arranged by letters of the alphabet. The stars at the top of the tree were part of a mobile that slowly rotated.

Lots of letters, lots of animals

G is for gorilla and giraffe!

View of West 76th Street from Lael's apartment