Friday, October 8, 2010

New York

Hi friends - my apologies for the lack of posts lately - things have been crazy with it being October with thesis year in full swing, student council, the sofa gallery at edna fedya let alone being in New York for a week in the last week of September - so I hope to make up for my absence with a painfully long post - here we go!

So, Darrin, his family and I were in New York taking in the amazing art food and life of the city a few weeks ago. I had really high expectations because people would tell me "You'll never get bored in New York!" So I imagined it as a huge grimey utopia of everything I could ever want (except the lake) and I have to say it met and exceeded my expectations - I would love to live there at some point.

Anyways rather than ramble on about everything I've broken the trip down day by day in point form with photos and stories...

Day 1

- arrive at hotel by Times Square and grab a falafel from the falafel stand around the corner


- visited Anthropologie (amazing and beautiful place) - bought a pretty sweater
- had a Brooklyn Lager at the Rockefeller Center
- Darrin and his oldest sister Nicole went to the Pavement concert in Central park while...
- I went to the MOMA and check out amazing art...

Kara Walker


- went to the MOMA bookstore and purchased two books (a worthy investment in my opinion) on two of my favourite artists: Dana Schutz and Louise Bourgeiose


- Darrin's other sister Andie surprised the whole family by coming in from London, England (where she currently lives) when we thought she wasn't going to be able to come on the trip!
- happy drinks at the hotel bar ensued

Day 2

- walked through Times Square to Bryant Park
- yummy brunch in Bryant Park


- strolled through Chelsea to the Meat Packing District
- walked up the Highline
* The Highline is a bunch of old railroad tracks that went unused and during that time wild life started to take over the area so some genius landscape architect turned the area into green space where people can sit and picnic on the wheeled lounge chairs sitting on the tracks or stroll along the wild plants with a view of the city





- walked through the West Village
- went to flea market and purchased cheap jewelry and vintage glasses
- lunch at the Hummus Place


- got lost on the way home and accidenly hopped on the subway and started to go over water - discovered we were in Brooklyn and backtracked making us late for...
- dinner at Sammy's Romania
* Sammy's Romania is a crazy jewish restaurant with singing, dancing, vodka, and shmalts (chicken fat you pour over your meal - Darrin Nicole and I are vegan so we did not)

(the shmalts is the yellow substance beside the ketchup)


- staggered for an hour to get ice cream from an all vegan ice cream place - amazing - I had peanut butter and cookie monster and Darrin has rootbeer and peanut butter


- walked to the Village Vanguard to see Ravi Coltrane (John Coltrane's son)


Day 3

- went to the Upper West side for breakfast
- walked around Upper West side with Darrin's cousins


- went to Whole foods
- had a picnic in Central Park


- went to the Columbia bookstore
- saw Seinfeld restaurant - it exists!


- went to Blossom (fancy organic vegan food) for dinner

Day 4

- went to Williamsburg, Brooklyn - checked out the hipster area


- ate at Bliss cafe


- walked around SOHO
- Darrin went to David Harvey's book launch
- went to Pure food and wine take-away (vegan organic raw gluten free food) near Union Square - definitely one of the best meals of the trip - lasagne, spicy thai rolls, sushi, grapefruit algae juice, blonde macaroon, rosemary 'quakers'


- went for drink at 'Beauty Parlor' (not actually a beauty parlour but a bar) - the front of the bar looked like the entrance to a salon and once inside there was a woman offering $10 manicures while you'd sit in a salon chair w/ hairdryer and sip a beer. They were also projecting clips of horror movies which was another interesting twist!


Day 5

- walked to the New York Public Library
- went to Mooshoes in SOHO - amaaaaazing cruelty free shoes and accessories
- Cheap vegan Chinese food at Wild Ginger


- took the subway to Chelsea where we met Christina (my friend Leslie's friend who goes to grad school for art in NYC) at Billy's Cupcakes
- strolled down towards the galleries where we brushed past Anthony from Sex and the City! *insert girlish scream here* (Chelsea is the gay/artsy neighbourhood)
- checked out the galleries in Chelsea where our minds were blown as we saw artists like Basquiat, Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Chuck Close back to back to back


- once the galleries closed we found a Whole Body store where I found wonderful Toms shoes
- amongst a million different breeds of dogs being walked in the cement jungle we saw a Great Dane and wondered how he could possibly fit into the shoebox-like living spaces in New York...
- went to Angelika's Kitchen in the East Village for dinner where we sat next two a man and a woman who produce the show '30 Rock'
- went to see 'The Girl Who Played With Fire' at the retro movie theatre across the street

Day 6

- moved hotels to SOHOTEL (I would highly recommend this hotel to people visiting NYC) - it is right between Chinatown and SOHO
- went to babycakes vegan cupcakes where we tried the lemon cupcake, cookie sandwich and chocolate mint cupcake


- took the subway to Brooklyn
- went to the Brooklyn Museum where 'The Next Great Artist' winner Abdi Farah's show was still on


- saw Judy Chicago's Dinner Party, and work by my other favourite artists Kiki Smith and Louise Buorgoise


- walked around Brooklyn
- lunch at Snice
- witnessed two people drop their wallets which I then had to run after to return
-found some great presents at antique stores - was careful around 2nd hand clothing because of the bed bug infestation but still cruised those shops
- Candle 79 for a fancy dinner + wine


Day 7

- walked out of our hotel and found a knit bombed bike and car!


- walked around SOHO and shopped
- lunch at Hummus Place again
- purchased new septum ring at sketchy tattoo shop
- went back to Babycakes for the red velvet cupcake


- walked to Kate's joint in the lower East side - a vegan american diner with a very cool vibe - drank Coney Island Lager

Day 8

- NYC to Minneapolis flight
- Minneapolis to Winnipeg flight cancelled
- stayed in Minni overnight
- found a raw/vegan/organic/gluten free restaurant called Ecopolitan - amazing food - possibly the best meal of the trip even though it wasn't in NYC - red wine/ purple kale and quinoa salad/ macadamia zucchini alfredo/ eco-sausage pizza/ banana ice cream parfait/ orange cardamon cookie


- slept like babies

Day 9

Home!

So NY was amazing and a word to the wise would be when you go you must be sure to jam as much into your days as possible and wear comfortable shoes.

Stay tuned for news on Arden Hill (the featured artist at Edna Fedya for October), what's going on in the thesis studios, a Rocky Horror Screening, artist cards for Pakistan, Tom Thomson's mysterious death solved, among other art news in the next post! Hope you guys are having a great fall!

2 comments:

  1. Aaaaaaah this looks amazing! I need to go one day. Also good to see you blogging! I was actually wondering the other day what happened but I figured art school = D:

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  2. haha thats nice you noticed i was gone! Yeah I was feeling very guilty about not being able to blog but things were so busy and the amount of stuff to blog about kept piling up - you know how it is :) But yes New York is amazing and you MUST go!

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