A lot of people
find places like the nature, spa or Bali, to go to relax and get their lives
together. But to me, my spiritual Mecca is New York City. It’d come as a
surprise that actually the air in New York ain’t that bad. And to a depressed,
oppressed software geek like me that’s totally obsessed with art, what’s more
can a person ask for besides the cultural Epic center of America.
From the South to
the North, there’s countless museums, those concert halls, from Carnegie Hall to
Lincoln Center, the definition of fine art and music and the very popular
Broadway, where can you find more live drama and musical that very well
define an artist’s very craft as an actor? There’s no retake, all on the
spot, live.
If you are tired
and bored by the hustle and bustle of the city, just climb up a rock in Central
Park and you’ll find your oasis of silent.


Well, when you are
in New York, there’re 2 museums that corner the 2 sides of Central Park like a
belt on its waist. One is the very definition of art itself, The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, and the other, with the world famous, fame of the movie Night At
The Museum, American Museum of Natural History.
As for those that
really enjoy Art, there’s the Monet ever so mesmerizing Lily Pond, Rambrandt
haunting portrait, Renoir lively people, and of course the psychedelically
dreamy Starry Night from Van Gogh, all the dark medieval armor and lifelike
cheselicious roman statue you can look at and one of the largest Egyptian
artifacts collection in the United States. And a very fortunate me, due to the
Fashion Week Season, also get to see some of the most amazing costumes ever
created in our time scanned and recreated frame by frame in digital glory. Of
course if you are interested, there’s also a fairly LARGE collection of Asian
Buddha Statue and porcelain. Imagine these, a mile long and half a mile wide of
hall space, a whole floor, filled with paintings, then the same area, filled
with statue and artifacts, and then another filled with parts of buildings and pillars
and statues. And that is only half of what they have. So if you really need
time to closely admire the work of artists, it’s cost less to buy a membership
that allow you limitless access for the whole year.
There is however a side track moment
whenever you visit the Metropolitan, because they have a second museum at the
Cloister Castle where they house some of the medieval era artifacts and
Christian’s art. Overseeing the Hudson river atop the Fort Tryon
Park in the Washington Heights is a marvelous sight to behold of to another
side of the city too.

Right across the
Park, is the American Museum of Natural History, that is to say it mildly,
cause it is more than 2 mile long walk to cross Central Park. But if you are
also a Science Geek like me, AMNH is also a magnificent Monument of Science.
There you go the very definition of New York City, Art and Science, all Gather
in the same city. While many is coming into AMNH for Dumb Dumb or the
Tyrannosaurus Skeleton, the Skeleton at the Lobby is much more magnificent than
the one in the movies, and there are plenty of Dinosaurs Skeletons in the
Fossil area. There’s a lot of stuff animals, plenty of wax statue. The section
where we can learn about human evolution, plant, the Giant Whale hanging on the
roof of the sea life, the ultimate Solar system Model in the Planetarium
section, with 2 amazing theater to recreate the creation of Planet and Stars
and the Big Bang. If you really like walking through time, this is the place to
be.
Of course besides
these 2 museums there are plenty of museum that’s worth visiting, like the
Museum of Modern Art. There’s 2 reason to visit MoMA, that is because it houses
one of the largest collection Warhol, and the Second is the fact that it is the
museum that define what the modern transcending art form should feel like for
all the current trendsetter to understand where we are in art and where they
should walk to. It is a huge differentiation from the classics that is housed
in Metropolitan, it’s like those are the basics, and this is the advanced
future course. Of course to walk through 50’s to 90’s you can’t avoid from all
the display of sexual liberation and freedom of expression era that
surprisingly seem extreme to current time. Have we actually gone backwards? Or
the resistance to the obscenity of such display have actually won after so many
years?
Well, it is advised that parents should be prepared to explain what and why are those pictures or paintings called art to their young child. And a lot of time it seems like you are in the twilight zone, because modern art means a lot of photography, projected image, basic forms, and walking through things that’s from a recent past or future not far from now, glued together to become statue or those funny time when everyone is staring right into the abyss of a all white only or all black only painting and contemplate why it cost 300 thousand haha!
Well, it is advised that parents should be prepared to explain what and why are those pictures or paintings called art to their young child. And a lot of time it seems like you are in the twilight zone, because modern art means a lot of photography, projected image, basic forms, and walking through things that’s from a recent past or future not far from now, glued together to become statue or those funny time when everyone is staring right into the abyss of a all white only or all black only painting and contemplate why it cost 300 thousand haha!



And in the Summer, you get all the
perks in the park, free concert, free movies on the grass, all the sports
activity. One place that everyone herded over is the Sheeps Meadow. Even if you
are not a people person, the meadow is vast enough for anyone to find a spot to
just lie down and be yourself, sunburn and all.
Of course as one of the city with
permanent theatre fixture, such summer entertainment doesn’t escape from the
Park. There’s a round wooden open air theater in the park near the castle
that’s Called Shakespeare in the Park, as the name suggested there’s free
Shakespeare to be enjoyed, which is most suitably.
I’ve only got in once, because the line
to getting the free tickets is usually several miles long and people would line
up since the early morning before the sun rises. The show that I went to is
King Lear, don’t you think that since it’s free that the production is not
worth watching, the cast usually are great actor and actresses mix with new
comers. King Lear is cast with John Lithgow and Annette Bening, both are Oscar
nominated, and John Lithgow is also twice Tony Winner. And I believe the only
reason I got the ticket is because that the weather forecast the storm was
approaching that night, the few days of rain that I’ve experience in New York
really. However, the forecast is right, it rains heavily that night, but it is
a sunny enough day, so a little bit of rain wasn’t too bad. But it does beg to
show to stop for a while for fear of the electrocution from the equipment. But
we stayed and it might be the best King Lear ever. Because the rain came the
second time when it was at the scene when King Lear gone main in the woods on a
stormy night, with God have made the most suitable add in to the most dramatic
scene ever of the whole play ever.
We shall discuss more about the Theater
on my next chapter.