Scribbles » NYC

Time Flies

jl — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:40:55 +0000

The topic of today: time. Having lost an hour today due to daylight savings adjustment, reinforced my perception on how quickly time has passed, especially the short month of February. As expected, my trip to NY was too short, but extremely fruitful. While I haven’t blogged much last month in my usual broadcast, I had the opportunity for some very pleasant one-on-one catch up sessions.

The first catch up session was with New York City itself – bitterly cold, expensive, still amazing. Running around, catching the subway, riding the taxis, made me feel like I never left. I missed out on the remainder of DineLA week but more than made up for that in the now extended indefinitely DineNY specials. Some of the restaurants were so superb, Compass in particular, they made screwing up healthy eating totally worthwhile. The city offered more than its share of activities, food, bar scenes. If it weren’t for being so short on time, I would take advantage of the cheap transcons fares a lot more often.

My individual sessions with friends turned out more numerous and intimate than expected. Credit the tight schedule and my 5-month absence for that. We had a few larger gatherings, but the private times talking about life, love, and career gave me the reconnection I needed. The best friends are the ones that always let you pick up exactly where you left off, no matter the time in between.

I don’t foresee time becoming abundant the next few months. I’ll use that as my reminder to cherish it and spare plenty of it for the important things, like friends, good travel, and the occasional great eats.

Museum Hopping

jl — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:03:27 +0000

The best excuse for getting off my butt to seeing all the exhibits in town is to have visitors. Luckily for me, I leveraged that into seeing three exhibits over the past week. The picture below of Dali was taken on a crazy Friday night at MoMA. Crazy because I scrooged it for the free museum night, every Friday from 4-8pm, something I highly do not recommend. It’s like being stuck in the tourist mob of Times Square but without the option of ignoring the kitsch; the art is so damn enthralling that you can’t just leave. But back to Dali, one of my favorite pieces was the 6-minute Disney collaboration Destino. He started it in 1945 but the project never finished due to some controversies at the time. Disney resurrected it and completed the animation in 2003.

Too much art for too few eyeballs

The other place we stumbled upon through sheer Serendipity was the Family Guy inspired exhibit at the Paley Center for Media Arts. Other than the exhibit, which has paintings, everything else is on screen. You literally go in and watch TV all day, how’s that for people who can’t stand museums? They have several large theaters with daily scheduled projects. The George Carlin tribute featured the best of his stand-up comedy skits really impressed. Didn’t think I could connect with 70’s type stand-up but I was thoroughly entertained. I also browsed through their massive media library and watched the pilot showing of the Brady Bunch. Good family fashioned fun.

Last but not least, was the Buckminster Fuller exhibit at the Whitney Museum. Funny how ignorant I was of this extraordinary scientist, artist, architect, futurist. The exhibit, aptly titled “Starting with the Universe,” reveals the life works of Buckminster Fuller, things that we see today but never properly mentally credit, such as tetrahedron inspired architecture and structures. The man had such radical yet practical views that he shared loudly with the world. His thinking was way ahead of his time and it’d be hard for me to name a contemporary figure; the big names of today tend to be of more commercial or political fame. Of the three exhibits, all of which I thorougly enjoyed, I felt most inspired by Fuller. The geeky nature of his work applied to improving the world is something I can look up to.

Turn that Frown Upside Down

jl — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 23:26:00 +0000

That was one of sayings my good pal PGuy always told me when I felt down. Last night’s flight into LaGuardia was awful. I left our office in Orlando at 6pm and didn’t walk into the door until 1am. Needless to say, sleeping five hours after a long week, only to venture out into the rainy morning was good cause for some frowning.

But when I got out of work today, the weather was absolutely spectacular, the perfect fall temperature in the 50’s and after-rain briskness. Guess I got tired of sunny Florida. And it’s Friday. And I’m in the *city*. I walked out of the office feeling just perfect and had to snap a few shots on my handy phone.

How to capture fresh air (yes in the city) on camera?

Snapped one of Washington Square during a gloomy lunch break

It’s all smiles now baby!