Fance.: New York - A.k.a WHERE THE STORMS LIVE.

New York - Of course it was blazing sun - The day we LEFT!!!!

Home from our trip to New York yesterday. Holy holy camoleole.... ART-ARCHITECTURE-FASHION-CULTURE-BIG MASSIVE SANDWICHES AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD. We stayed in Chelsea in Manhattan (A neighbourhood made cheerful by hundreds of gay pride flags), in the Chelsea international hostel where I met such characters as D(xyz)ave (the xyz is silent), an aeronautics student from Denmark. Also Aries who gave me an earth magnet bracelet that I was instructed not to let children swallow, and Brett the hipster.

Mike and Sylvia did their best to lead our bedraggledy little group through the maze that is the NYC grid. We had to overcome subways, endless blocks of pavement, countless flights of stairs and dozens of stand up comedians.

A taste of the Cheaslsea Gaybourhood

The main galleries we visited were -

The Metropolitan museum of art (The Met)

The Whitney (The Whit)

The Museum of modern art (Moma)

The museum of contemporary art (this one has no nick name, it doesn't deserve one unless you are a huge fan of George Condo!!!)

The first thing that hit me about the Met was the sheer size of the place, we were there for about 3 hours and I still barely saw half of it. It displayed historical artifacts as well as classic and contemporary art work. I loved the armoury and the totems from Papu new guinea. I also got my first look at Koons, Giacometti, Warhol, Lichtenstein and some masters, Renoir, Degas Ingres and so on in that fashion until the reader loses interest! Sadly disaster struck halfway through the visit, my camera fritzed out and ill be lucky if I can retrieve the photos.

The Whitney was having an exhibition of Edward Hoppers work when we visited. Hopper is probably my favourite painter and I was off my head with excitement, no nighthawks sadly but i did get to see Gas in all its dusky glory! Also a really cool selection on the top floor.

Another Exhibition in the Whit was by Glenn Ligon and dealt with the origins of black identity in America.

Moma was the undisputed champion of all the galleries we visited.

Reason the first - Upon entering the first exhibit I saw was entitled "Looking at Music". LOOKING. AT MUSIC. Music and art are what make my life worthwhile, and now you are combining them into one interactive exhibit!?? It was fantastic, it looked at album sleeves, music videos, music magazines, and works that had been inspired or derived from music.

Some album jackets - Salt n Peppas in there on the left!

Reason the second - It was the only museum to feature an exhibit solely devoted to graphic design. The museum actually owns several fonts that it decided were worthy of archiving, Wim Crouwels New Alphabet and P. Scott Makelas Dead History.

Hoefler & Frere Jones - Gotham

Stefan Sagmeisters corporate identity for Casa da Musica

Milton Glaser - I ♥ NY

Wim Crouwel (the gridnik!) - New Alphabet

Neville Brody - FF Blur

Reason the third - They had an exhibit about the kitchen! Music? Check. Art? Check and Check. And now food??? Oh please you are too good to me!

Warhol - Boxes

John chick - Flux Food

Henry Dreyfuss - Josephine Anthropomorphic

Reason the fourth - Everything else about the place!!

Felix Gonzales Torres - Untitled (USA today)

YEAH I DID.

A helicopter?? In a Museum?? PREPOSTEROUS!

Louise Nevelson - Sky Cathedral (and a really cute wee school tour group!)

Cenzig Cekil - I am still alive today (That's what the stamp says, he filled a diary for a year with this stamp each day)

Yoko Ono - Wish Tree (One of the wishes near the top read: I wish the beatles were still together)

Sadly Moma was followed by the disappointment that was the museum of contemporary art. To be fair I did like Lydia Benglis' Glowing UV blob forms but other then that I am not impressed. For the same admission as the hoard that was the Met they gave us Two featured artists and one half opened exhibit on the top floor. Also, The second featured artist was George Condo, who I can't sat I'm a huge fan of. Well they did have one massive lift... I enjoyed that!

Big lift... Goodtimes...

As well as the major galleries we saw countless small galleries. Mike and Sylvia have a system, a quick scan to gauge the exhibits worth, if its substandard we move on. If its good you have 15 minutes top to soak up whatever we can before the herd moves on, with or without you! Some of the most memorable stuff included a project that explored the cases of a woman who became possessed, the artist came to the conclusion that she herself was the reincarnated ghost who possessed her subject. Another were the Huge bronze animal statues by Tom Otterness and the visual trickery of "Playing with Lights" by Ivan Navaro, who created never ending black holes using fluorescent lights and mirrors.

Tom Otterness - Animal Spirits

Ivan Navaro - Playing with lights

Playing with lights

And of course I crammed in all my touristy crack - Shopping, Time Square and Broadway, The Disney store, Toys R Us (with the life size animatronic t rex and an in store Ferris wheel!) and a Willy Wonka department, the M&M store (where I spent $20 on exclusive coloured m&ms), Chinatown, Madison avenue, central park, I had a pretzel and a hot dog from a street vendor, I drank kool aid, I had a stuffed pizza (which I am still full from!). It was incredible and I'm so grateful to Mike and Sylvia for taking us, we never would have managed without them. I have to go back someday, with warmer clothes!