First of all I apologize for the quality of some of these photos, they are all off my phone.
Wednesday was a bit if a nothing day, we again just went exploring around little Italy, Nolita and Soho, did a little shopping and the like. NYC is such a beautiful place, as well as being quite dirty, everyone piles their rubbish bags on the street so it looks horrible but then the architecture is incredible. We also found this sweet as independent book shop, had so many great books, Kat and I were scared to go in! I didn't end up buying anything because we still have a bit of travel to do. We are going to do the bulk of our shopping in the last few days before we fly out so we don't have to lug it around..
Thursday we jumped on the subway and headed uptown. we went to Moma (the gallery) and to B & H the camera shop as well as a few other places. Took us quite a while to figure out the subway system, they need a god damn city loop train!
Moma is a pretty incredible gallery, the space is really well set up and their photography space. Wow. I know a lot of you reading this wont care but some of the stuff they have is incredibly well known and Famous and some are also seriously rare. They have images by Henry Fox Talbot, commonly thought to be the person who took the first ever photograph. Although they don't have that one, they have a few of his very early work, within the first 5-10 years if photography existing. I think everyone can appreciate that. In their collection they also have some of my favourite old process black and white images/artists. I was a little overwhelmed looking at all of this.
There was also a really interesting exhibition by Harun farocki it centers on the war in Afghanistan but they are not images of the war it's self, but about the PTSD suffered by the US soldiers who went to Afghanistan. It combined images, video installation, audio, and simulate game play as well as consultations with a psychiatrist. Really full on but a real insight to what happens to these people who go to far off places, see what they see and then come home.
I have also uploaded this blog post from my phone, so I will have to caption all the images when I get back to my laptop.
There was also a really cool exhibition of modern day addiction to technology, there was all these different gadgety things that I just loved, but also a few really amusing peices that went into modern distraction because of technology. One was what looked like the food piramid, but was actually drawn up with 'actual work' at the bottom and went up in distraction level.. With 'anything on an iphone' being the biggest distraction. Funniest thing is, as I was looking at this my iPhone rang.. My favorite work in this section was a short video, a guy had built himself a box which he sat in, simulating the inside of a computer, the box had a clear top, and was set up out in a street somewhere, so that people could interact with it, he simulated receiving and reading emails, replying and also spam emails, (penis enlargement spam was really amusing) he also 'cleaned up files' downloaded and installed software and emptied the trash. I'm really annoyed I didn't write down the guys name.
We spent close to 3 hours at MoMA, then headed out and around uptown.
Angela was hungry so we stopped for lunch, we ended up at TGI Fridays, figured we had to do at least one horribly American meal.. It wasn't the best thing iv ever eaten and was seriously overpriced.
We walked past NBC studios, and there was a line of screaming girls waiting for someone to come out, this is where a lot of the talk shows and the like are filmed so I'm guessing they were on one of those.
We went to 30 Rock, hoping Tina Fey or Alex Baldwin would come out.. No luck there..
Moved on to Nintendo world.. It's basically just a massive store dedicated to anything Nintendo themed, I may have bought Yoshi themed pj pants.. Btw they are awesome. And then to M & M world again a massive store dedicated to m & m's it was 3 levels and they had a m&m dispenser that went floor to ceiling. It was huge, but then everything seems to be in America.
We were in a round about way heading to Photography Mecca, otherwise know as B & H, we have been walking everywhere so we also get to see a bit of the place.. We walked through times square, omg that place is ridiculous. If you turned off all the billboards in times sq and the 3 block vicinity you could actually stop global warming. By this stage my phone had died and I only had my film camera so we are going to go back past and I'll take some images, not that could ever sum up what is is like to be there.. Wow..
And then to B & H, again there is many people reading this that simply won't care but I do so shut up.. It's run by a family of Jews and it runs like clockwork. They have this crazy system of roller tracks that go all around the roof, so you pick up something from one area and they send it to the counter for you, and then you go pick up all your bits and peices at the other end.
B & H is pure heaven and hell at the same time, I want one of everything and trust me they sell everything, but can't afford anything.. Kat and I are going to do a big buy up for ourselves and a list of people back home, so we only got a couple rolls of film each, a grand total of $30, at home it would have been closer to $70. I don't know how to put into words how good this place is, it's like everything you ever wanted put into one store at reasonable prices.. Probably no need to say we spent a bit of time in here..
Last stop for the day was the Chelsea Hotel, this is the hotel where Sid Vicious from sex pistols, and his girlfriend Nancy (wife, friend?) i don't know anyway they stayed there and she died while they were both high and drunk etc.. Kat is a fan so we went and had a look, and I took a few photos of Kat Coz I'm amazing.
Then back home.
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