Autumn in New York

The Empire State Building as seen from the McCarren Park running track.

I feel like we’re in the beautiful autumn days that everyone idolizes in New York. Even the scraggly trees on the medians by the BQE are turning gorgeous shades of red and yellow. I just got back from playing some freestyle bocce ball in Prospect Park where the colors were stunning. So are those in McCarren Park as shown in the image above, although I don’t notice them as much while wheezing around the running track. My goal is to be able to run a mile by the end of the year. I think this is reasonable, even if my legs do not.

Installation at the amazing Dan Flavin exhibit at the David Zwirner gallery.

Last Wednesday I saw the fantastically entertaining John Hodgman, a writer/actor/famous minor television personality that you’ve probably heard or seen on This American Life, The Daily Show, or all those Mac commercials. I understand there was a rather important “bases-ball” game that night, although Hodgman kept us updated on the score and how many ravens had been slaughtered and how many tunnels dug. The Empire Stating Building has been lit in blue and white ever since that grand bases-ball game. Hodgman’s book reading at Barnes & Noble was focused around his More Information Than You Require book and I enjoyed seeing his self-serious humor in action and liberal use of nerd references, as well as his classy three-piece corduroy suit.

Blue lights at the Dan Flavin exhibit.

Thursday is always a big night for art in New York, no matter the week. This week Elizabeth and I went to an opening at the FIAF gallery for an exhibit of French monographs. After indulging in Ricard and wine, we went to the David Zwirner gallery and saw their current Dan Flavin exhibit. It is the best exhibit I’ve seen in New York so far and I was impressed with how massive the gallery space was and how well they had adapted it to Flavin’s art.

Garage installation at the Dan Flavin exhibit.

I’d never been able to get so close to Flavin’s minimalist fluorescent light installations before. Even though it’s been 13 years since his death, Flavin’s work still seems very fresh. I guess the light sculptures alter whatever space they are in, and the colors and dispersions of the light are really the art and keep it from getting static.

Donkey dances with a fairy in the Moschino window display on 14th.

After the Dan Flavin exhibit, we walked on the Highline to 14th street. The Highline use to be a an elevated freight railroad, but now it is a park. On the way to the subway, we passed this whimsical window display at the Moschino store. I wish I had dreams like that.

Fox marionette in the Moschino window display. Maybe I should get one of these and pretend I have a dog.

Friday night I went to the Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg, where you get to drink among the brewing equipment. As much as Williamsburg sometimes irritates me by being like a haven for what John Hodgman would call jocks posing as nerds, I do love its bars and coffee shops.

Painting of Versailles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

On Saturday, we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art before watching that horrendous OU football game. I was with a friend who had never been to the Met before, so we hit the usual highlights, and saw this gorgeous panoramic painting of Versailles that I had never seen. I guess I usually don’t make it very deep into the decorative arts section. The 165 foot circular painting was created in the early 1800s by John Vanderlyn, who apparently spent years traveling around with it and exhibiting it while trying to avoid destitution. Sadly, Vanderlyn faded into an obscurity that seemed pretty permanent at his death and through the years after, but the installation of this painting at the Met in 1956 helped him to get some art history recognition.

Tonight I’m stalking the internet for apartments. I thought that applying for jobs in New York was the most demoralizing and soul-sucking activity, but that was before I started to look for apartments. Doing both at the same time makes me feel like I’m climbing up a very high mountain without oxygen. And to steal a bit from Wayne Coyne’s recent interview in Spin, I don’t know if the mountain is going to turn out to be a volcano and I’ll fall in and be incinerated or if I get to plant a miniature flag at its peak. I’m hoping for the flag, or at least a little rest at a camp with some hot chocolate.

Run, Run, Run

New York Marathon on Bedford Avenue.

Last Sunday, very early in the morning, I imagine two groups of people crossed each other: the crazy people who were just getting home from a night of Halloween debauchery and the even crazier people who were just waking up and going to run the New York Marathon. The marathon covers all five boroughs, starting in Staten Island and going up through Brooklyn to Queens, then down through the Bronx and ending at Central Park in Manhattan. That’s over 26 miles that would take long enough to cover by car or public transit, let alone by foot. Yet around 40,000 people from all over the world decided to struggle through it and many of them were already passing by McCarren Park down Bedford Avenue by the time I dragged myself out of bed.

Marathoners in Bedford Avenue. Some witches leftover from Halloween were passing out candy to the runners from the corner.

I have to say, I wasn’t expecting the marathon to be such an event. The streets were packed with people cheering, playing music, and handing out candy and fruit to the runners. Bedford Avenue being the major artery of oh-so-trendy-yet-ironic Williamsburg, there were people holding up iPod speakers playing music from Rocky, as well as a brass band (where do you put a sousaphone in an apartment here anyway?) and a keyboard/DJ duo playing some crazy Kraftwerk-style music. I imagine it must be kind of fun to run through all the different neighborhoods and see the architecture and people change along with the music. I watched from both Williamsburg and Central Park, and that was a huge difference in atmosphere.

Enthusiastic cheerer at the last mile of the marathon.

When taking the subway from Bedford to Central Park, there was still a positive electricity in the air left over from the street. I wish every weekend was Halloween/Marathon weekend. I guess there’s something moving about seeing these thousands of people really challenging themselves and showing how far people can stretch themselves. I can’t imagine running a marathon; right now a mile seems impossible. But I’m sure everyone watching the race wishes they could feel what it’s like to finish one. And I guess everyone running it struggled through their first mile at some point.

Marathon going through Central Park to the finish.

I was surprised to see so many people in costumes. As if running the marathon isn’t difficult enough, why would you put a breathing-restricting rabbit mask over your head, dress as Michael Jackson, or wear a full-body fur tiger costume? And how do you train with that?

Central Park.

Well, after hanging out at the finish line (or as close as you can get without tickets), and having my heart warmed almost to an unhealthy boiling point, I decided to walk around Central Park and savor the fall colors. I also got what might have to be my last outdoor smoothie drink of the year, because winter is definitely coming. I know winter will be brutal, but it will take a lot for me to miss the awful humidity of August.

Zombies Running in the Streets

Ghost bike in the East Village. http://www.ghostbikes.org/new-york-city

I know that a lot has happened since coming back from France, but I’m still shocked to look at the calendar and see that it’s November. Wasn’t I just spending my last night in Paris, walking along the river as lights bounced off the waving water from the boats and the bridges? Wasn’t I just watching lightning strike across the sky over the crumbled Quartz Mountains? Wasn’t I just dragging my suitcase down Lorimer Street through thick summer air and up the stairs to my Brooklyn apartment? I guess time moves quickly when you never stop moving, although I still look forward to a day when I’ll be living somewhere long enough to paint a wall or adopt a cat. Thank god for sturdy suitcases and laptops.

Spider webs woven onto a fence in the East Village.

This past weekend I got to celebrate my favorite holiday: Halloween! Considering last year I was in France, where people celebrate Halloween by going to the most “American” place in town (McDonalds), and the year before I got my wisdom teeth out, it wasn’t hard to top recent Halloweens. Apparently Dracula and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are not widely read, because no one knew who I was dressed as when I said Mina Harker. I wore basically all of my black, vaguely Victorian clothing with a red scarf, so at least some people got close with guessing steampunk. Oh well. It came together kind of last minute anyway because I was distracted by all of my job interviews last week.

A statue with a broken arm replaced by flowers at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village.

Friday night I went to a Halloween party at a friend of a friend’s apartment. I kind of like going to a party where I know only a couple of people, because I can drift around meeting everyone. I also approve of any party that has $50 scotch, as unemployment limits me to the $3 giant Styrofoam cups of cheap domestics at the Greenpoint Tavern.

Halloween sand art. Notice the ring of spiders, bones, skulls, and interior spider web. Oh, and Captain America wandering in the background.

Saturday was Halloween day, and we started by going to the Day of the Dead market at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery to see the sugar skulls. We also walked through Washington Square, where the above sand artist was making a Halloween-themed design with spiders, bones, and bats. We then went to the “Halloween Candy, Wine, and Spirits” tasting at Bottlerocket and found that candy corn goes especially well with white wine, chocolates with red, caramel with bourbon, and red hots with tequila. All for free!

Catacombs-influenced window display at Marc Jacobs.

We then walked around the window displays on Bleecker street, where fake spider webs must have been bought by the ton and children were trick-or-treating. I was especially impressed by Marc Jacobs and their Catacombs-style window display. I can only imagine the time it took to stack all those bones. And anyone who has read my novel knows I have a bit of a Catacombs obsession…

Catacombs in the windows of Marc Jacobs.

Sorry for the blurriness in the above picture, my camera is getting old. Well, it’s been old for a while, so in camera years I think it’s almost a centenarian. It still works, though, and has probably seen more of the world than most of its cousins.

Zombie crawling in a Marc Jacobs window display.

Marc Jacobs also had this awesome zombie crawling in a swamp window display. Its eyes lit up and its head twisted around as it writhed on the ground. This is a store after my heart.

Pink rat window display.

That evening we went to the McNally Jackson Halloween Embarrassment, which had literary nerd fun like scary story readings, a spooky voice contest, and paper crafts. There was also a costume contest that was won by Sylvia Plath and her oven, although Humbert Humbert and Lolita along with Jesus and the Chrysler Building (Jesus Chrysler) were close behind. Other costume highlights that I saw included Magical Realism, Foreshadowing, Nora Charles, Saul Bellow, and Lyra from the Golden Compass, And here, I just found a flickr set from the event if you want to see the nerdiness in action.  In our group, I was still Mina Harker, Elizabeth was the 1960s, Arya was himself, Sean was Tintin, and his friend Crish was Hamid Karzai.

Vincent Price had versions of this skeleton chair in his house.

Unfortunately, it rained almost all night, so we didn’t make it to the parade in time. However, just walking around the streets was like being in a parade. The streets were teeming with zombies and Lady Gagas. Even better was taking the subway back to Williamsburg and EVERYONE was in costume. I wish everyday in New York was like that. I guess it kind of is.