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10/19/19 - Machine Hallucinations We didn't get to any museums on this trip to New York City, but we did get to watch an environmental movie. The old boiler room in the Chelsea Market has been turned into a theater showing us Machine Hallucinations. There's a bar on the mezzanine and lots of wall space for projection. We sat on a bench towards the back, but most of the audience sat on cushions on the floor. The high resolution spatial art was projected on the walls and the floor and on the audience, so it was an immersive experience. The children present loved it. It was a strange feeling having shapes and forms all about us and lapping at our feet like waves on a beach. Click a few of the images for some video to get a better sense of the show. |
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 This is a fountain, decorated for Halloween, at Chelsea Market. It's not part of the exhibit. |
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10/18/19 - A Journey to the Wilds of Brooklyn On most of our trips to New York City, we stay in Manhattan, but this time we decided to head out to Brooklyn to see the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It was surprisingly easy. The Q train, despite rescheduling and rerouting, took us right from our hotel to the entrance of the gardens. En route, we crossed the East River on the Manhattan Bridge with great views of lower Manhattan.The gardens were still in late summer. We wandered the trails through lakes and forests. There were ripe eggplants for the picking and flowers in bloom. We made our twisty way to the iconic greenhouse and our lenses were totally fogged in the rain forest habitat, then dried crystal clear in the desert. The BBG is justifiably famous, wonderfully maintained and delightfully curated. They even had a giant horsetail planted, so we felt right at home. |
 The Brooklyn Bridge as seen from our subway car |
 The Q train in Brooklyn with at least one tree growing and vernacular apartment buildings |
 The garden path |
 A beautiful clear day |
 Water lilies, sort of a theme this trip |
 The iconic greenhouse |
 The steamy jungle |
 Probably a hydrangea - Our lenses were too fogged to read the tag. |
 Natal plum - It had a delicious sweet scent that makes us long for a way to share aromas. |
 The temperate forest |
 Greenhouse |
 Flowers |
 The desert |
 Orchids |
 Swamplands |
 More flowers |
 Another photo from the greenhouse |
 A bonsai tree from their great collection |
 Purple berries seen as we made our way back to the subway |
| The fastest way to get around New York City is to take the subway, but that means traveling underground. The next fastest way is by bicycle, but you really wouldn't want to let us ride bicycles as a matter of public safety. Then comes walking. We can walk well enough, so that's what we do to explore the city. |
 There's always stuff to look at. Zoom in and see if you can identify all of the business just in that one building on the corner. |
 Greenwich Village, an old part of the city |
 More Greenwich Village |
 We're always tempted to explore all the little gardens. |
 Down by the Hudson River, an old wharf |
 Building something that resembles a bunch of high heeled shoes |
 An illuminated rock, probably more dramatic at night |
 A path to the new World Trade Center |
 A view of New Jersey |
 Looking back at Manhattan |
 Along the waterfront |
| In Seattle, they use any excuse to close the sidewalks, sometimes even for years. It seems impossible to even sweep a sidewalk without closing it down and putting up fencing and jersey barriers to block pedestrians. In New York City, this is a rarity. Builders are expected to maintain sidewalk access by erecting what is legally known as a sidewalk shed but is just a wood and steel construct that keeps the sidewalk open and keeps things falling from the construction site from landing on passersby. Since these usually have a broad open face which can be leased to advertisers, builders will set up their "shed" as soon as they can often keep it up for years after construction is complete. The sidewalk, however, is rarely closed, but, here, in front of the Farley Post Office Building across from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden - which is nowhere near Madison Square - the sidewalk was closed. It was a little touch of Seattle thousands of miles from home. |
 A touch of Seattle |
Keywords: new york city, seattle
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10/15/19 - New York City and Central Park We were in New York City recently and had our usual wonderful time. One of the nice things about New York City is that one can walk for miles and miles and always see things that are new and interesting. We mainly wandered west of Fifth Avenue. Between the Guatemala Day parade and the Columbus Day parade, getting cross town, even on foot, was a bit of a challenge.Our hotel wasn't far from Central Park, so we wandered up to the Bethesda Fountain and discovered that it was full of water lilies. Then, we got lost in the maze of trails as we worked our way around the lake. That evening, we walked back from dinner, carefully avoiding Times Square. Still, the big city lights were impressive. |
 Central Park as seen from our hotel room |
 When in NYC, keep your eyes open for architectural detail. |
 Bethesda Fountain, full of water lilies |
 One of the water lilies |
 Another water lily |
 You would hardly know you were in a city here. |
 Olmstead's design for Central Park was all about hiding the city |
 Bright lights |
 Big city |
| To be fair, these photos were taken at Newark Airport and on our flight west. The return flight is always so early that there is great dawn light for taking pictures of Newark's industrial scene. New Jersey is the heart and aorta of the region and rarely gets much love for it. |
 Airport and seaport (in the distance) |
 The seaport |
 Manhattan, where the money goes |
 Flying home, a last glimpse of Manhattan |
 Flying home, good bye New Jersey |
| Text of entry goes here |
 An appropriately titled truck |
 The High Line |
 The rail yards and a whole new neighborhood |
 More of the High Line - Note the reflections of windows on the building to the left. |
 Another building adorned with reflected window light |
 High Line garden |
 A Hudson River view |
 Another High Line View and some fall color |
 Street scene |
| We made our way through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Our goal was the Armenia exhibit. Nowadays one thinks of Armenia as being in the back of beyond, but it was a major part of the Silk Road linking central Asia and Europe. The Mongols conquered, but they left the Armenians in charge of the trade. It was the middle ages when the great churches and scriptoria were built with the wealthy patronizing the arts and literature. It was a fascinating exhibit with architectural artifacts, jewelry, ceramics and texts. |
 Central Park - dark trees |
 Hans Christian Anderson |
 There was a lot of fragrant witch hazel in bloom. |
 The toy boat lake in repose |
 Alice in Wonderland |
 It was always worth crawling under the mushroom ... |
 ... to see the strange creatures there. |
 Armenian architectural piece |
 Armenian ceramic |
 A church model for display by its patron |
 Armenian jewelry |
| We went back to Central Park and found that mandarin duck. He's quite impressive. No wonder so many people have turned out to look for him. |
 Found him! |
 That mandarin duck |
 Another view |
 Ducks in context |
 It was definitely worth trying again. |
Keywords: new york city, ducks
| We started our next day with a duck hunt, looking for that mandarin duck visiting Central Park. Then it was on to Grand Central Station, uptown a bit and then downtown to Momofuku Nishi, our first David Chang restaurant. We were quite impressed with the turbot, a wonderful fish, that usually turns up in novels set in ancient Rome. It was roasted in butter, carefully filleted and served with a host of sides that were barely necessary. Everything was wonderful. We had a vibrant wagyu beef carpaccio, two pasta dishes with perfectly cooked pasta and rich, flavorsome sauces, the turbot mentioned above an an delicious ahi tuna dish with nori and maitake mushrooms. We travel on our stomachs. |
 Central Park - duck hunt |
 No ducks yet |
 Autumn color, but still no ducks |
 A suspect |
 Maybe not a mandarin |
 More autumn color |
 Grand Central Station - The tilted image is an artistic statement trying to capture the bustling craziness of the place. Either that or carelessness. |
 The Upper East Side goes wild for autumn, but tastefully. |
 More Upper East Side |
 An old fashioned hot dog cart with not an LED sign to be seen |
 Momofuku Nishi |
| We spent most of the day caught in traffic. We wound up at the Russian Tea Room. This isn't a premature Christmas shot. The Russian Tea Room always looks like that. The food was good enough, but the prices were definitely tourist trap. They have good tequila which was just what we needed after our long ride. |
 The Russian Tea Room |
| Another day spent exploring New York City. We returned to Greenwich Village, found more hidden gardens, dined at Le Coucou, and took a long walk back after dinner. |
 A secret street |
 People taking pictures on our favorite hidden street at NYU |
 More people taking pictures which is why they call that street photogenic |
 Another view of that secret street |
 The NYU library in sunset light |
 Le Coucou |
 The bar at Le Coucou |
 At last, some Thanksgiving merch |
 Shopping in Manhattan |
 Light and space |
 The Empire State Building, always the star |
 The Bryant Park seasonal ice skating rink had just opened that day |
 More city sidewalks |
| We took a trip to New York City and did some serious exploring. Walking around the city is a lot different from walking around the North Olympic Peninsula, but there is always something interesting to see. |
 A store window |
 A gateway to a garden - click for a close up |
 Another gateway in The Village |
 Yet another gateway to a garden |
 A gateway to different kind of garden |
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 A billboard at sea |
 A realtors slogan - repent, rent, repeat - with a view of the Hudson River |
 A view downtown on a gray day |
 Brants - They took down the Brant sign at the Dungeness Spit. We never saw any brants there. They are clearly city birds. |
 The Palm Court |
 A Hudson River view |
 Ellis Island is straight ahead with the Statue of Liberty to the left |
 A view of the Empire State Building |
 A florist on our walk home |
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05/07/18 - Soho and Canal Street We were big fans of Floyd Cardoz's restaurant Tabla, particularly the bread bar which served wonderful Indian breads and spicy Goan dishes. When it closed, we missed it. Recently, Cardoz opened his The Bombay Bread Bar, and it's basically the old Tabla bread bar. As often happens when we find a new restaurant we really like, we ate there twice. That says a lot.We also explored Soho. That's the area south of Houston Street (pronounced How-ston.) It was once a manufacturing district. Remember how old cars seem to ride a lot higher then modern cars? That's because the hypoid gear was invented in what is now Soho and transfers power in a flatter package. For a while it was a cutting edge fashion district, but now it's more major designers, the way Madison Avenue used to be. We did find an LA Burdick's chocolate shop, so we stopped in to admire their chocolate mice. We made our way down to Canal Street. This was once a canal and later a red light district. When the old World Trade Center came in and destroyed Radio Row, many of the shops moved up to Canal Street. Most of them are gone, but we found Color Wire, a shop selling modern lighting gear. This includes a broad range of LED bulbs designed to look like old fashioned incandescents. They also have all sorts of rope lights and LED panels. It was right down the block from the Canal Plastics Center which has been around since at least the 1960s and has a broad variety of plastics. It was like coming home. |
 Various mice and chocolates |
 Less conventional Soho |
 Color Wire lighting options |
Keywords: new york city, art, science
| This is the time of year we post pictures of trilliums. They are a sure sign of spring, and by this time of year, we are eager for a bit of spring. |
 A trillium |
 More trilliums |
 Yet another trillium |
 That's right. That's the High Line in New York City. |
 Definitely the city |
 Along the Hudson |
 Another Hudson view |
 Just a little fishing village, with trilliums |
 Typical New York City - health advice from a truck |
Keywords: spring, trillium, new york city
| We had an early flight out of Newark. The airport is in an industrial and shipping area and looked surreal in the early morning light. |
 Terminal B at Newark |
 Airplane and arch bridge |
 Cargo cranes |
 The Manhattan skyline |
 More cargo cranes |
 Take off |
 Early light |
 Just fifteen minutes later, the light had changed. |
 Then we were flying home over the snow covered Rocky Mountains. |
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We went to two museums on our last day in the city. At the Museum of Art and Design, we saw a rather touching exhibit Unpacking the Green Book. The Green Book was a guide for African-American motorists first published in 1936. It listed hotels, restaurants and other facilities for motorists and travelers who were not allowed to use the hotels, restaurants or other facilities available. There was a whole parallel world of places where one could explore and still be safe and welcome. The last issue of the guide was published in 1967 after the Civil Rights Act was passed.
There was also a more light hearted exhibit mixing electronic art and sound, Sonic Arcade. Then, we went on to the American Museum of Natural History for some comforting time with the dinosaurs and marine mammals. |
 A sight and sound jukebox |
 Another jukebox that looks like a pastry tray |
 The Sonic Arcade, like living in an old fashioned video game |
 Marine mammals |
 One of the dinosaurs |
 The Green Book |
 One of the collages in Unpacking the Green Book, a safe place |
| We took a long ride through Times Square and then out to Brooklyn for dinner at Peter Luger in Williamsburg. There were policemen in full SWAT gear armed with automatic rifles across the street from Peter Luger, but they reassured us that there was nothing to worry about. Peter Luger has a reputation as an old fashioned steak house, and that reputation is completely deserved. The menu was simple, steak, fries and a few other things. We didn't notice a vegetarian special. We ordered a gigantic serving of aged porterhouse steak. It was wonderful. We ate every bit, and we gnawed the bones. |
 Approaching Times Square |
 The great white way, except with colors now |
 Closer to 42nd Street |
 More intense |
 Approaching the heart |
 Is that Pandora the music service? Why do they even have a store? |
 More lights and signs |
 Past Times Square for a glimpse of the Empire State Building in a patriotic mood |
 Over the Williamsburg Bridge |
 Across from Peter Luger |
 What we ordered |
| During the day, we took a walk through Central Park, and, in the evening, we walked through Times Square. |
 Central Park |
 Alice in Wonderland |
 Hans Christian Anderson and the Ugly Duckling |
 Balto, the dog who saved Nome |
 A catamount |
 Times Square at night |
 More Times Square |
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We visited the Thinking Machines exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art which highlighted art and computing from the 1950s through the 1980s. There were a lot of old favorites there including works by Ken Knowlton, the first computer animation of a hummingbird in flight and an old Thinking Machine, a highly parallel computer from the 1980s and a physical work of art in itself. Just as the industrial revolution produced its own art of the assembly line, the dynamo and internal combustion engine, the computer revolution produced art of variation and precision, the hallmarks of the computer age.
We also wandered around in the evening and took pictures of the sunset light and the city streets. |
 A thinking machine |
 Evening light |
 The Empire State Building at sunset |
 More evening light |
 Drama |
 Evening sky |
 Twilight |
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