New York - part 2

After getting to New York Friday afternoon and sitting through an awesome rehearsal, I was free to roam the city all day Saturday. I got an early start and headed over to Rockefeller Center to take a look around. I'm a devoted television guru (especially when I'm lucky enough to stay somewhere that has cable) and NBC has a ton of my favorite shows (except for Lost...boy, they missed out on that one). Unfortunately I got a little turned around when I got to a street fair so I had to head into a church and ask for directions. This just happened to be the church that world-famous conductor James Litton (director emeritus of the American Boychoir)was holding a children's choir festival. We've worked together before at a festival in MN and, besides being a genius with kids, he is an amazing human being. I can't believe the stroke of luck I had when I wandered in here. I sat down for a while and listened.














I did eventually make it. Here's me in front of the infamous ice rink. It's converted into a market/restaurant during the warmer months.














Here's a better picture of the statue of Prometheus.















The world-famous Rainbow Room. I would have loved to catch Conan or SNL while I was here...oh well.



















Home of the Rockettes. It had never ocurred to me until this point that they were named after John D. Rockefeller himself. I guess I just thought they named them that because they rocked or something.



















After walking around a bit (and buying a sweet t-shirt from the NBC Experience Store) I bought a ticket for the "Top of the Rock" tour to the roof of the building. There were several stops on the way up and, at one spot, there was this cool crystal chandelier.














Then there were 3 films on this triple-screen. Two were pretty interesting (one was about the history of the center itself...built in the depression, etc...the other was about the history of NBC) and the third was ultra-lame. It was about being a Rockette and was scored with some cockamamie, dime-store MIDI orchestra. Seriously...this is NBC! They couldn't spring for an orchestra? And it wasn't even the "good" MIDI samples that sort-of sound like real instruments. Totally lame...and are Rockettes really that important? It must be a New York thing to go and see them because I couldn't care less.














Once you board the elevator to the roof it goes completely dark. This is when you notice that the ceiling is made of plexiglass. They projected some cool, colorful things on it during the short ride in the fast machine.














The roof of the Rockefeller Center has some understandably amazing views. Looking south at a national landmark.














Looking north at Central Park. It's crazy how big this thing is. I wish I could have had some extra time to head there and take a look around.














That's me reflected in the plexiglass. I love this picture. I feel like the High Evolutionary when I look at it.














The geometry of architecture is something that's interested me since my mother became an architect. I love the interplay between the grid-like windows on the larger, more prominent buildings in this picutre and how they are juxtaposed with all the "clutter" on the roofs of the smaller buildings around/below them.



















After Rockefeller Center I headed to the Museum of Modern Art to have a look around. Luckily, they allow no-flash photography (I HATE museums that say no pictures at all...totally lame). It's nice to have a record of what you saw even though it leads to photos that can be a little blurry up close sometimes. Here's Claude Monet's The Japanese Footbridge.














A closeup of his brushstrokes. So cool...















Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon ("The Ladies of Avignon").



















Gustav Klimt's Hope, II.



















Picasso's Three Women at a Spring.



















Picasso's Three Musicians. I worked at a school once that had this thing painted on one of the walls in the band department.














Picasso's Two Acrobats with a Dog. Painted in 1905 during the Rose Period.



















Giacomo Balla's Swifts: Paths of Movement + Dynamic Sequences.














Close-up.














A cool painting that I failed to get info on.


















The world-famous Starry Night. I love this painting a lot...oh yeah and I happened to bring a real camera to take a picture of it rather than my wussy camera phone. What would Vince think? He'd probably cut off his other ear in protest.














Close-up. When I was in Amsterdam last summer I checked out the Van Gogh museum and got completely addicted. He was just amazing. The way he applies paint to the canvas seems violent but with some crazy degree of logic to it. I do NOT understand how a person could think this way. It completely blows my mind. I refuse to get a print of any Van Gogh work because it's a such a 3-dimensional experience.














Picasso's Fruit Dish.



















Woman's Head (Fernande) by Picasso. It's named after a model, Fernande, who influenced his Rose Period.



















A painting I didn't know but immediately liked. Henri Rousseau's The Sleeping Gypsy.