Hello dear reader and welcome back. The title? All will become apparent, read on (McDuff).
Last night while planning our day, I suggested we have the all American burger experience. There is no shortage of places of course, except I wanted something more than upmarket McDonalds. When doing my internet research, I came across a place called Bareburger where, aside from its standard offerings you can build your own burger.
Sounds pretty standard so far? They have a choice of meats: beef, bison, elk and turkey. They even extend to a vegie burger (which isn't really a burger and vegetarians should be eating someone else). There is a choice of cheeses and a variety of rabbit food to add to the burger experience. And then? A choice of bacon. Stay with me. You can have country bacon, briskett or duck bacon. What the hell is duck bacon? Jayne wanted to know if it came with quackling? Be nice, she doesn't produce many of that quality ... thankfully.
And so the day begins:
So, if I asked you how the weather forecasters went with today's forecast, your answer would be ... ? Yep, they got it wrong. Close, but not close enough. We had morning showers - not predicted and the predicted afternoon thunderstorm? It's after 4:30 and nowehere in sight.
An early start (for us) down to the subway before 9am, a quick change of trains and up to Midtown Manhattan heading for the Guggenheim, hopefully for the last time. We arrived just prior to opening time and for the first time, our CityPass allowed us to join a shorter queue that got preference when the doors opened.
Briefest of security checks, inside and up we went. The Guggenheim is 5 floors connected by a spiral ramp. Each floor houses an exhibition and then there is a separate exhibition on the ramp. Today the ramp was displaying the work of Alberto Burri whose work was constructed with industrial multi-media materials, plastics, metal, cardboard, tar, burlap (sorry, no pictures allowed). It was meant to bring life to discarded materials and to represent the Italian artist's experiences both during WWII in Europe and later as a POW in America. Aside from a display of miniatures, I rate this exhibition: meh.
The other main exhibition was of the work of Doris Salcedo (pictures OK), whose work was a series of installations and the scale of preparation was mind boggling. Salcedo is Columbian and her work reflects the dislocation of life in her country.
There were two other exhibitions, the Thannhauser Collection which had French impressionists, Picasso, van Gogh, the usual suspects, but I never tire of looking at these. A couple of really interesting early Picasso works (sorry no photos). The final exhibition was a small collection of Kandinsky (sorry, no photos) - I love his stuff - most of it should be inspiration for someone to make me a series of shirts.
Curiously, we missed the audio guide station on the way in so we had the 'self-guided' tour which meant we were out in just over 2 hours. That could only mean one thing: shopping.
Bloomingdales mkII
It was a fair walk but we struck out for Bloomingdales to buy Jayne some leather gloves and me a new pair of sunnies. Bloomingdales is the DJs of America and Macey's is Myer. Guess where we prefer to spend time. Our CityPass also had a 15% discount for Bloomingdales - mind you all o/s visitors get 10% anyway.
Gloves and sunnies purchases successful. Jayne has a red pair and a black pair of gloves, a nice match for her leather jackets and I am the happy owner of a pair of Ray Ban Aviators, just like I used to wear in the '70s (except they weren't Ray Bans because I couldn't afford them).
Then it was home time and decision time. The burger for dinner (well, late lunch) was still an option.
An early start (for us) down to the subway before 9am, a quick change of trains and up to Midtown Manhattan heading for the Guggenheim, hopefully for the last time. We arrived just prior to opening time and for the first time, our CityPass allowed us to join a shorter queue that got preference when the doors opened.
Briefest of security checks, inside and up we went. The Guggenheim is 5 floors connected by a spiral ramp. Each floor houses an exhibition and then there is a separate exhibition on the ramp. Today the ramp was displaying the work of Alberto Burri whose work was constructed with industrial multi-media materials, plastics, metal, cardboard, tar, burlap (sorry, no pictures allowed). It was meant to bring life to discarded materials and to represent the Italian artist's experiences both during WWII in Europe and later as a POW in America. Aside from a display of miniatures, I rate this exhibition: meh.
 |
| The ceiling of the Guggenheim |
 |
| Looking down from the 5th floor |
The other main exhibition was of the work of Doris Salcedo (pictures OK), whose work was a series of installations and the scale of preparation was mind boggling. Salcedo is Columbian and her work reflects the dislocation of life in her country.
There were two other exhibitions, the Thannhauser Collection which had French impressionists, Picasso, van Gogh, the usual suspects, but I never tire of looking at these. A couple of really interesting early Picasso works (sorry no photos). The final exhibition was a small collection of Kandinsky (sorry, no photos) - I love his stuff - most of it should be inspiration for someone to make me a series of shirts.
Curiously, we missed the audio guide station on the way in so we had the 'self-guided' tour which meant we were out in just over 2 hours. That could only mean one thing: shopping.
Bloomingdales mkII
It was a fair walk but we struck out for Bloomingdales to buy Jayne some leather gloves and me a new pair of sunnies. Bloomingdales is the DJs of America and Macey's is Myer. Guess where we prefer to spend time. Our CityPass also had a 15% discount for Bloomingdales - mind you all o/s visitors get 10% anyway.
Gloves and sunnies purchases successful. Jayne has a red pair and a black pair of gloves, a nice match for her leather jackets and I am the happy owner of a pair of Ray Ban Aviators, just like I used to wear in the '70s (except they weren't Ray Bans because I couldn't afford them).
Then it was home time and decision time. The burger for dinner (well, late lunch) was still an option.
Trends that should have never crossed the Pacific:
1. Hipsters and their beards
2. Tights as clothing
3. Exercise gear as a fashion statement
4. Starbucks
5. Puffy jackets
6. Adult sippy cups and take away cups for drink here coffee
 |
| A black squirrel in Tompkins Square |
Paul's Da Burger Joint
This place has radically mixed reviews, but we thought we'd check it out and make a decision when we got there. It looks, well, dodgy. An overgrown milkbar, Australian style, with small tables covered by checked plastic table cloths, menus were dog-earred laminated pages, the drinks menu (no wine) was aging, faded and worn. But it smelled good. Once again I had managed to turn up without my glasses, so Jayne had to read for me. We each had the same burger: a bacon cheese burger delux - that means with lettuce, tomato and fries, onions were extra. It was delicious, but not without challenges. Holding together a burger that size, including a 250 g meat patty, while trying to eat it was no easy task. The burger was nicely washed down with a Stella Artois.
Oh, I almost forgot, my patient reader, the title comes from the large poster on the wall at the back of da burger place.
The bonus of this trip? We walked past the Physical Graffiti house on St Mark's Place. Not entirely happy with the photo, but Zep lovers will remember it and that most awesome of bass lines from the Kashmir. And if you've forgotten: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsaFBNvhceA&list=PLWRhxvQASiJ580lAnt3Qo2ysnnbePsQ-n
This place has radically mixed reviews, but we thought we'd check it out and make a decision when we got there. It looks, well, dodgy. An overgrown milkbar, Australian style, with small tables covered by checked plastic table cloths, menus were dog-earred laminated pages, the drinks menu (no wine) was aging, faded and worn. But it smelled good. Once again I had managed to turn up without my glasses, so Jayne had to read for me. We each had the same burger: a bacon cheese burger delux - that means with lettuce, tomato and fries, onions were extra. It was delicious, but not without challenges. Holding together a burger that size, including a 250 g meat patty, while trying to eat it was no easy task. The burger was nicely washed down with a Stella Artois.
Oh, I almost forgot, my patient reader, the title comes from the large poster on the wall at the back of da burger place.
The bonus of this trip? We walked past the Physical Graffiti house on St Mark's Place. Not entirely happy with the photo, but Zep lovers will remember it and that most awesome of bass lines from the Kashmir. And if you've forgotten: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsaFBNvhceA&list=PLWRhxvQASiJ580lAnt3Qo2ysnnbePsQ-n
Randon fact:
1. Pedestrians do not observe road rules - much like cyclists. It appears that the light system used to guide people safely from side of the street to the other through traffic, is little more than a mere suggestion here. Now, I'm all for crossing the road if it is safe, but just walking blindly onto the street ... time and time again. We saw one dude take on a coach the other afternoon - and he won.
No comments:
Post a Comment