NY Day 3- Bagels, Barbershops, and Brave Works of Art
I started today by getting coffee at Perk Kafe on the Upper East Side. It's a really neat little cafe, kinda tucked in between two bigger chain stores. I thought the coffee was very good, and I couldn't resist getting one of their glazed homemade donuts when I saw one. I was not disappointed.
I worked off the donut somewhat by walking to the Guggenheim. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, it's probably the most incredibly designed museum I've been in so far. When you walk in there's a big open courtyard area and all the exhibits sort of spiral up from there. It's a little bit on the pricier side, but your ticket does include a free audioguide that's also a tablet that senses what works your near and can provide information or links to more works by the same artist for you which was pretty nifty.
The special exhibit while I was there was on Chinese Art after 1989, the year of the Tiananmen Square protests and the fall of the Soviet Union. It was just phenomenal. Under Mao, there was basically no access to or funding for contemporary art so every piece of art there was genuinely revolutionary.
The styles and media varied widely from paintings to sculptures to videos to performance pieces, but it was one of the rare museum exhibits where I was almost more excited to read about the works than to ook at them. In general World History is an area where I have huge knowledge gaps, so getting to learn about modern Chinese history and feel the more visceral meanings of certain pieces was pretty powerful. One artist, in the wake of an earthquake, exploited Twitter's role as a website that at the time wasn't banned to tweet out the name of every schoolchild killed or injured due to under funded schools infrastructure to attempt to expose government shadiness. He was brutally beaten up for his efforts, but print outs of all his tweets were saved and the list was compiled as an art installation.
My favorite piece, by the same artist as the tweets coincidentally, was a performance piece where this guy was inspired by European fairytales that mentioned China so he paid to send hundreds of schoolchild and adults from rural China to the village in Germany where the Brothers Grimm were from and have them answer questionaires about their experience and take pictures. It was so whimsical and beautiful.
My favorite non-performance piece was an artist's rendering of the Tiananmen Square protesters being rushed to the hospital after suffering gunshot wounds, but he changed just the protestors penguins to highlight the absurdity of the violence.
The special exhibit takes up the majority of the museums seven floors, but they do also have a permanent collection of works by modern masters such as Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, and Picasso. The works are all great, but it's a pretty small collection comparatively, so if you're thinking of visiting you should probably research whatever the main exhibit is before you pay the admission fee, because that's going to be the majority of what you see. Luckily for me, I felt like I got my money's worth.
After the museum, I got a bagel at Tal Bagels which claims to have the best bagels in NYC. I'm sure most bagel places claim that, and I can't say I've had enough NYC bagels to be much of a judge but I can say that of the bagels I've ever had their garlic bagel was the best. I got a lox spread and some fresh mozzarella on it. I think I liked the gravlox from the bagel pub more as a topping, but the actual bagel was unimpeachable.
After the bagel, I took the train down to the East Village to get an authentic New York City barbershop experience. I went to On the Mark Barbers at my friend Mike's suggestion. The shop had big leather chairs, club music pulsing, and free beers for customers. All the barbers were very friendly, and at one point mine stopped cutting my hair to flirt with a woman on the street. It was wild. I was very happy with my haircut though, and I'd never had a barber use a straight razor before so that was pretty cool.
After the haircut, I ambled around the East Village for a bit. My dad seems to remember it being a pretty rough neighborhood in the 70s but nowadays there's a lot of cool bars, shops, and restaurants.
I started in a place called Obscura that had weird medical curiosities and antiques. I have absolutely no idea how they stay open.
After that I went to a shop called Gelarto, that claimed their gelato was a work of art. I got some straccietella which was really good, possibly even artistic, and the cashier told me a long dirty joke from China.
After that I stopped at a bar called Proletariat that specialized in "rare, new, and unusual beers". I got a barleywine from Long Island City Beer Project. It was very strong (10%abv) but sweet and malty. Definitely not a bad spot to spend a happy hour.
A little bit buzzed, I set out to meet my friend's Mike and Jack at a bar called Flight 151. The bar is aviation themed, which is cool, but on Wednesdays they have $1 sliders which is even cooler. I don't know if it's just because it's such a great deal or if there's something in the house sauce, but those teeny burgers are so damn good. It was great to hang out with my friends and take advantage of both the not having to drive everywhere and being in a state that has happy hour (is it just MA that doesn't?) to knock back a few cheap beers.
Socially lubricated, we all took the L to Brooklyn to go to an open mic at the Topaz. The mic is unusual in a fun way in that it's themed like a late night talk show, where guests can perform as characters and sit down and improv with the hosts, do a more traditional stand up bit, or sing a song with live piano accompaniment. It was a lot of fun to get do and see something so out of the ordinary.
I ended up getting called first in the lottery, which was tough for me because I didn't get a chance to read the room ahead of time. My improv skills were definitely a bit rusty so I felt like I had a rocky start, but once things started to get going I got the audience back and had a pretty good set. I think because they know it's a weird format they were more willing to be forgiving than some bar shows would be.
The other comics were all really funny and weird too in the best of ways. It was cool getting to see a lot of non-traditional stand up actually get pulled off very well. I really liked this one guy Alex Dzialo who did a pretty spot on parody of amateur screenwriters and had the hosts improvise lines from a script called Blood Circus 3. My favorite of the night though was definitely a guy who called himself the Williamsburg Cowboy. He told some jokes about being cowboy rivalries in Brooklyn, but then he did a parody song about a guy who loves trains even after a train kills his son. It's hard to explain, but it was to the tune of A Boy Named Sue and it was just so funny.
I was particularly glad that it was a strong show, because a few more of my friends came and surprised me there. I don't always invite people to open mics, because they are as a rule kind of unpredictable so I was very relieved that they got to see a good one. I suppose if it is really bad, that can be a good story for everyone too, but I think I prefer how this one went.
After the show, I spent a while talking my friends and getting to know some of the other comics which was a really great and warm way end the night.
Favorite Random Sightings: A very embarrassed girlfriend standing guard for her boyfriend while he peed on the street; Laundry Boy; Heavenly Rest Stop; 1-800-Divorce: For When Diamonds aren't forever; The Dumpling Man right across the street from The Sock Man; A guy's response to me almost bumping into him: "Keep your head up, baby"
Regional Observation: I get that wealth disparity is big all over the country, but it's odd seeing a bunch of homeless people on one street, turning the corner, and seeing an 8-year old in a $1000 suit on the next street
Albums Listened To: The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra by Sun Ra; Gangster Politics by Gangster Politics; Gar by Streetlight Manifesto (that is not the proper album name but somehow that's what ended up on my iPod. It's just the song "a better place, a better time")
People's Favorite Jokes:
What do you call a deer with no eyes? No eye deer. What do you call a deer with no legs and no eyes? Still no eye deer. What do you call a deer with no dick, no legs, and no eyes? Still no fucking eye deer. (I like that the barista whispered the last bit. Also I believe this now America's second favorite joke)
A naked man is lying in a field, and a little girl is going around picking mushrooms. "One Mushroom, Two Mushrooms, Three Mushrooms, Four Mushroom" At this point she grabs the man's penis "Four Mushrooms, Four Mushrooms Four Mushrooms" She gives up. The next day the man comes back to the field and does the same thing. A bear cub is walking around picking up mushrooms. "One Mushroom, two mushrooms, three mushrooms, four mushrooms". He reaches the man's penis. "Five Mushrooms"
Song of the Day
