Being a Manhattan dweller for nearly a decade now (and a native NYer to boot), it's with shame that I admit that I have barely explored Central Park. In my defense, Central Park is enormous (843 acres or 6% of Manhattan's total acreage) and home to a variety of very unique structures and gems of nature.
A few years ago, I documented my first time exploring the Conservatory Garden in Central Park which is very close to where my apartment is. And, I only first went to the Central Park Zoo 3 years ago (unfortunately I did not document that, but I will eventually ;)). However, there is one structure I have been dying to see ever since I was very young. That would be Belvedere Castle.
I still find it amazing that there is an actual castle structure nestled deep within Central Park and that I have lived here for over 30 years and have never been even close to it (despite having been to the Great Lawn more times than I can count). What better day to remedy this than July 4th?
Belvedere Castle, in addition to being the exterior shots used of Sesame Street's Count von Count's home, is also the second highest vantage point in Central Park. It was built in the late 1800s and is quite stunning to view and explore.
After completing the philosophy course I took last semester which involved far, far too much writing and teeth gnashing, I just found these comics (aptly linked from an antitheist debate about materialism vs. non-materialsm) and laughed so hard that I cried.
In an effort to document things better and stop saying things months later like 'Remember that day? Wow, I wish I had a photos' or 'I wish I could look back and remember specific things visually again', I have decided to start doing little trip vignettes.
I seem to have had some inspiration and motivation back in 2006 when I made a few posts which are fun to look back on like:
My recent trip journals (directly before this post) have inspired me to get a little bit more on the ball with NYC journaling. In the summer, S and I do so much walking and exploring in NYC that it would be tragic to not document it all even just a little bit. I have an intense love affair with NYC that doesn't seem to die out.
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This past weekend we decided to go check out the Francis Bacon exhibit at the Met (more about him later). As much guff as I hear/read about the uptown NYC area (we live on the border of Spanish Harlem and Yorkville) because it is apparently not 'cool' to live up in this 'hood, I have to say I fall more in love with it year after year. It's in walking distance of Central Park, Museum mile and a staggering variety of places to eat (which are not, contrary to popular belief, expensive...just have to know where to look). Yeah, we spend a crazy amount of time downtown (hell, even my school is all the way down by City Hall) but I can't complain about this area. It kind of rocks. All the haters who think this area sucks don't know what they are talking about ;).
Walked up to Madison and 97th to look for a place to get some breakfast grub. Found a new bagel place which was cute (as if this area needed anymore bagel places hah):
In the back outside area it had a green picket fence and a nice view of barbed wire and apartment buildings:
These are not from the same bagel place but from the one we go to normally which is across the street. Pastries with happy faces must be posted:
S and I decided we needed a little weekend getaway a few months back and settled on Philadelphia since both of us had been to Philadelphia when we were really, really young and could not remember anything about it and it really is very close to NYC which was a plus since we didn't want to travel all that much.
We have a knack for incredibly silly timing (ok, so really it's me who has a knack for that and S tends to be the victim which thankfully he finds amusing hah) and our visit definitely didn't break that trend. The Phillies won the World series just days before we arrived. To celebrate, the entire city had a huge parade on the day we made our way to Philly.
It just so happened that the enormous parade they held was literally right on the street where our hotel was located.
This was pretty funny for a number of reasons not limited to:
1) We arrived right as the parade was ending and this meant that the 30th Street Station was crawling with sports fans trying to get home and lines for cabs wrapped around the station. Their public transportation system was completely overwhelmed.
2) Deciding to hike it to our hotel (not a bad walk actually, only 15-20 blocks maybe?) the streets were covered in garbage from the parade which made everything hilariously apocalyptic as we navigated through stacks of beer cans, paper debris and ticker tape.
3) The sports fans of Philly are rabid and were extremely enthusiastic on our walk to the hotel. We were high fived repeatedly and people would randomly walk up to us screaming 'Go Phillies!!!' and almost everyone was wearing the red World Series champion shirts which was even more surreal.
Did I mention that it was also Halloween? Do I know how to pick a date for a vacation or what?! :D
The weather today is so disgustingly perfect in every, single way.
It makes me want to jump in piles of leaves, wrap my hands around a hot cup of pumpkin coffee and shiver in my hoodie.
On that note, I am about to put on eccentric knee socks under my pants (and you can bet I will be wearing my hoodie) and skip to anatomy lab. Pumpkin coffee may be on the menu after lab while I am on break before my music class this evening. Oh...yes.
I am one week away from the end of a 5 week intensive Chemistry class that I needed to take now since it was a pre-req for another class I needed to take this fall. It's been a rollercoaster.
It meets 4 days a week for 4-5 hours a day. Mondays and Wednesdays are 4-5 hours of lecture, usually going over 2 whole chapters of information (which is a LOT to take in at once) and Tuesdays and Thursdays are 4-5 hours of lab. Somehow I have an A average so far since I have been kicking ass in lab (partially due to my 2 lab partners and how well we work together and are able to sit and talk out difficult problems until things click). I received a 100 on the big Nuclear Chem test which had my jaw on the floor since I was almost in tears studying for it and was convinced I was too stupid to continue the class. Go figure.
The class has just been so draining on so many levels. Since it is only 5 weeks long, we have a test every Monday and I usually am so strung out from stress on Monday mornings that the relief felt by turning in the test when I am done is massive. The concepts are very, very complex especially for someone like myself who hasn't looked at any sort of Chemistry since I had it in 9th grade which was 13 years ago! This next test tomorrow is on gas laws (using almost all Stoichiometry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoichiometric#Gas_stoichiometry) and it's sending me into minor panic mode. The really funny thing is all the math in Chemistry (and it's like 85% math!) usually uses Dimensional Analysis which is pretty cool. The issue really is remembering the conversion factors you need to use for any given problem and all the super vague, nonsensical rules and laws governing whatever you are working with.
I will be very happy after July 9th when I take the final and can breathe calmly again. I will still need to take Organic Chemistry but honestly after reading through information regarding O-Chem and seeing the topics I had to swallow in this Chem class, O-Chem almost (almost) looks more bearable.
This journal is roughly 90% Friend's Only at this point. If you were previously on my Friend's List and are not anymore, I wish you only the best and assure you that it is not you, it is me.
I will continue to post interesting art/tidbits/morsels publicly albeit rarely but the majority of my personal ramblings will be Friend's locked.
Twin Musical Tesla Coils Playing The Original Mario Bros. Theme Song
Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme song at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI. The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software.
Looking to the future to express how fashion changes throughout history, Hussein Chalayan created six mechanical dresses that would transform from one era to another, using embedded technology and smart wires, for his runway show at the Paris Fashion Week. The robotic dresses, which took six months to create with the help of the film special effects wizards of 2D3D, are not part of his new collection, but Hussein expressed that he wanted to collaborate with a technology company to make such transformations a reality.
The girl walked in and stood stock-still, dressed in a long, high-necked corseted Victorian gown. Then her clothes began to twitch, move, and reconfigure of their own accord. The mono-bosom top opened, the jacket retreated, the hemline started to rise, and—finally, amazingly—there she was, wearing a crystal-beaded flapper dress: a woman propelled through fashion history from 1895 to the twenties in the space of a minute. This was one of six incredible feats of technology and conceptual commentary at the heart of Hussein Chalayan's show. The others also moved through decades—one from the hourglass Dior New Look to the Paco Rabanne metal-link shift.
Hussein Chalayan closed his Spring/Summer 2007 collection with a dress of white shear fabric, that wound itself up into a hat, leaving the model wearing nothing but a heels and a smile. -ozoux.com
-Old news yes, but awesome. Whole show and review here. Hussein's site found here.
The other day I came across a bunch of photos of this guy playing around with lionesses, lions and hyenas and I really thought they were photoshopped but it turns out that they aren't!!
His name is Kevin Richardson (no, not the Backstreet boy) and he is an animal behaviorist who works with lions and other wild animals without the use of force and he becomes members of their prides and they have all this trust in him, enough to even play with him, groom him and let him near their cubs.
I don't have words for his. You have to see it to understand how much my jaw dropped.
I highly recommend this! I haven't been this gaga over this type of fare since Akira and Ninja Scroll. I am very glad S dragged me to this at midnight last night after some fun adventures. Now playing at The Angelika.
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