A Grand Day Out

[octothorpe]

What a day! I woke up at 7am this morning, so I could get into NYC by 10am. The trains only run once an hour on sundays, so I *needed* to make that train if I wanted to meet up with thornyc, danbearnyc, baal_bill, tycho_anomaly, and Jeff and head to the Chihuly exhibit at the Bronx Botanical Gardens.

In brief: The Chihuly exhibit kinda sucked. I had a fantastic time with everyone, but I thought the installation was small, and not as visually interesting as I've seen in other locations. The single piece at the Bellagio is more spectacular than the entire BBG exhibit. If Thor and Bill's ex didn't score us free tix, I would have been a bit angry at paying $25 to see this.

I also found out that the "Night Time" exhibit ends before it actually gets dark. To top it off, you can't actually buy tickets at the BBG, you *must* buy them at Ticketmaster, which means you'll be paying an extra charge. Double ick! Oh, and those who have corporate tickets can't use them for the night showings.

So I am not really keen on going to see it again. Sorry about that.

After BBG, we hopped the train to PS1 in Queens, where we met up with badfaggot, and naylandblake, and got to see some really cool stuff. I had never been to PS1 before, so it was a lot of fun checking out all the quirky installations. In the café, they had six screens running various food-related art videos, including one starring naylandblake himself! Matt, Dan, and I sat and had a drink while watching Nayland slowly consume various foodstuffs over the course of an hour. Juxtaposed was "180 Wishes" where a (turkish?) girl tried to consume some obscene amount of grapes in three minutes. We caught up with the rest of the gang outside where we enjoyed the cool breeze. I still had (have, actually) a lot of work to do, so I had to bow out from dinner and the film.

This was the best day I've had in *quite* awhile.

Goodbye Ed. Have a lovely and safe journey back home!

Oh, I also have gobs of pics... they'll be up after I get my "homework" done.

Comments

[stormecho.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the update on the exhibit. We were away this weekend, but it sounded cool to go to, and someone had commented on your original post that he had pics, and they looked neat so was thinking maybe it would be worth it. But I guess I'll pass now.

[annoyinghandle.livejournal.com]

Speaking of art, are you entered in dencoartist's Net.Works show here next month? I could peruse his emails, but, hey, I'd rather add to your comment count...

[notdefined.livejournal.com]

Glad you had a great day and that Julie seems to be resurfacing from the deep. -G- I'd love to go on one of your walk abouts then next time I'm in town.

[danthered.livejournal.com]

I've got family in Seattle, so I'm out there from time to time. That's Chihuly's home turf, and there are some truly spectacular exhibits—free for the viewing, I might add—all around the vicinity. I'm thinking of several in particular in Tacoma. From what I saw and read a few months ago when I was last in Seattle, Chihuly™ has sort of jumped the shark and are now spending less time on the artwork and more time infighting and bitching about one another to the press and pursuing legal action and so forth.

Yeah, $25...probably not.

[hossinseattle.livejournal.com]

Did you see "into me/Out of Me" (or some such title) at PS1? I was planning my trip and it looks interesting.

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Not Turkish; Basque.

[tycho-anomaly.livejournal.com]

It was a fun day with lovely company. I enjoyed the Chihuly for the way the pieces were placed as if they were exotic, recently discovered plant species, but I'd agree that there was nothing on a spectacular scale.
I also enjoyed the tram ride (the entrie 250 acres in just 20 minutes!) which was where we got the best comment of the day: someone mentioned that Chihuly had lost an eye in an accident, and the Evil Twin said: "I bet his glass eye is fabulous!" At the next stop, most of the straight families exited the tram.

Nezaket Ekici

[badfaggot.livejournal.com]

http://www.aeroplastics.net/Nezaket_Ekici/artist_statement.html

ENVY

[poodler.livejournal.com]

Umm, a day of art is better than most anything else. Bummer that the Chihuly disappointed. I'll bet is was more fun than my day of gardening ...

[champdaddy.livejournal.com]

I understand your disappointment with how the Chihuly exhibit there was handled. Actually here in Columbus OH of all places, we have the benefit of a spectacular exhibit at Franklin Park Conservatory at only general admission price. Come visit sometime.

http://www.fpconservatory.org/exhb_fiori.htm