You could spend an awful lot of money here on things that would be unwearable at home. People here dress to walk the streets because they all walk; everyone is wearing coats, boots and huge designer handbags. I've noticed all the men here are very well dressed - their hair is styled, they wear shirts and coats and well-fitting, designer, trendy outfits. Very nice to see, and sad to think this style would probably be laughed at in some circles back home. It's also not uncommon to see someone wearing something totally outrageous, and yet they don't look out of place. Reading a style profile in the New Yorker, a 27 year old lawyer claimed her favourite pieces were anything fluro yellow and patent leather, and that she 'never feels ridiculous wearing anything in New York'. I've bought a lot of things that I probably won't wear that much because Palmerston North is depressingly un-chic and people (especially students) will look sideways at people dressed up during the day. And you certainly don't see many people wearing Armani coats or Manolo Blahnik shoes. I have bought a few things that wouldn't be out of place here but will look pretty ridiculous at home, and plan to wear them as much as I can.
After that I went down to the 9/11 memorial site. Because it's winter there are none of the long lines that all the tourist sites seem set up for. As with the Rockefeller Center, you have to go through airport-like security screening and have your bags screened. There are lots of uniformed security guards and police everywhere, and staff directing people and checking tickets. It's free entry but still quite a process to actually get in.
The memorial plaza is massive, and will be an open public space once the construction is finished. There are hundreds of trees, lawn areas and benches. In the footprints of the Twin Towers are two huge square holes in the ground, with waterfalls pouring down the sides. All around the edges are railings with the 3,000 names of all the victims engraved in them. Simple yet very powerful, the pools are about an acre in size and cannot be captured in photos, but here is my attempt:
This is the museum, which is nearly finished and sits next to the South Pool. One of the new buildings in the background:
I spent a while walking around the two pools and reading some of the names. They are grouped together in emergency departments, flight crews and company staff, and there is a database where you can find certain people.
I thought it was very well done, poignant and simple and a strong tribute to all those who died. It's difficult to imagine these massive pools being replaced with 100 storey buildings, and even more so to picture this peaceful area in chaos. The surrounding streets of Manhattan are so busy, how did everyone get out? How did they know where to go? I can understand the dazed confusion people talk about feeling and seeing that day.
After you exit is the visitor center which is very similar to the preview museum I went to yesterday. There were dozens of people in the room, yet everyone was silent. A film played, people telling their individual stories. Survivors, officials and family members all sharing these very personal memories and tragedies. There is a room where you can record your own message, and contributions to the museum are made from many different people and organisations. I think a facility like this will definitely ensure no one ever forgets, and people from all over the world can come to pay their respects and be thankful they weren't in New York that day. The population of the city is 8 million, but apparently during summer that number swells to 12 million because of the never-ending stream of tourists and visitors. I realised that some of the people who died at the World Trade Center would have been tourists like me.
After some more reflection and making a donation to the memorial fund for development and maintenance of the complex, I caught the subway up to Canal Street which is home to lively street markets not unlike those in Asia. In the first stall I went to I saw a suitcase that looked suitable, and the haggling process began. While those street markets are a great place to get cheap tourist stuff, I quickly got sick of the insistent vendors. Wheeling the bag behind me, I wandered around and struggled to find the subway. My map showed an orderly grid; the actual intersection of 5 streets was busy, chaotic and confusing. Eventually I got back to the hotel, had time for a 10-minute sit-down then went to the Museum of Modern Art. I was quite excited to visit this, as it has an extensive collection and many famous works. It's one of dozens of big galleries and museums in NY; people do special trips just to visit the galleries here. Other notable institutions are the Frick, the Guggenheim and the Metroplolitan, which I may go to later this week.
The building was an impressive piece of architecture and an art form itself, with 4 levels and a sculpture garden. We started at the top two levels which housed the modern art from 1870-present. Surprisingly, there were no barriers around the paintings and you were allowed to take photos although there were several security guards in each room. They had a big collection of Picasso from throughout his career, Rosseau, Mondrian, Monet and a couple by Van Gogh. They were arranged in chronological order which was great to see, especially having studied art in high school. Rather surreal seeing the priceless originals of all these paintings I have seen in textbooks, and even more so standing close enough to see the individual brush strokes and layers of oil paint.
There was a whole room dedicated to three of Claude Monet's paintings taking up whole walls, I didn't realise they were quite that large. Or quite that beautiful.
My favourite was the Pop Art section, featuring this painting which was 86 feet long and wrapped around the 4 walls of it's own little room. It was a response to taxpayer dollars funding the development of the F-11 for the Vietnam war.
They also had two paintings by Andy Warhol, again surreal seeing them in real life and close up.
On the lower floor was an exhibition called 'Sweet Violence' by a Croatian artist, Sanja Ivekovic. It contained video and still photographs describing the stories of Croatian women, their oppression and the violence and rape they experienced. Slightly unnerving, and good to see in the public sphere. The final piece was a giant statue of Nike, surrounded by newspaper clippings and scrunched up pieces of red paper.
There were also some modern sculptures, which were very strange. For example, one was a whole wall of striped canvas fabric the artist had gathered from beachside cafe awnings, with barely any modification. There were a lot of very artsy people wandering around but I wonder how many of them actually understood this:
I had an apple crumble-like snack in the cafe and then walked back to the hotel on weary legs. We went back to Times Square, slightly more bearable and photogenic when it wasn't pouring with rain. Dinner was a horrible greasy Italian fast-food place, where I ordered a vege pizza that looked nice but really wasn't. After that Dad and I went home, via a liquor store. The range of spirits here is huge, even at a tiny local store, and the prices are much cheaper than home. I decided on a cake flavored vodka, I wanted more but sadly can't afford any extra weight in my suitcases which are both full. We took a taxi to my aunt's place on the Upper West Side where I will be staying since my family leave tomorrow. Slight relief at the thought of doing my own thing and running on my own time, not a strict schedule.
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