Should we come back another day? I said this to the kid every time we walked up to the Rain Room at Moma this summer. The wait was so long each time and my corporate membership wouldn't upgrade us to the shorter members line. The first time we went, the wait was 2.5 hours and we thought no way are we waiting that long, that's ridiculous, but after becoming a member to jump the line and passing by a wait of 3, 4.5 and 7 hours on the next several visits we ended up waiting 8.5 hours on the closing weekend just because we had to see it for our selves.
This is just part of the line when we arrived at 7am on Saturday morning, closing weekend
It almost felt like a punishment for not realizing that 2.5 hours was actually reasonable. We were prepared with downloaded movies and an assortment of snacks, but we thought arriving at 7am would guarantee us no longer than a 3 hour wait. When we saw the enormous line when we arrived we almost left to go back home and crawl back into bed, but the kid said NO I want to stay. Later we found out from security that people had actually spent the night in sleeping bags.
It's been over 8 hours and we are next in line, The kid is finally happy
During this painfully long wait I realized a few things. For one, I'm a sucker for a gimmick, visual feast for the eyes or photo-op. Secondly, my kid is extremely patient and a glass of wine from the food cart made me more patient. I will never wait until the final weekend to see a show in NYC ever again. And finally, my fellow New Yorkers are wonderfully fun and kind people when they are trapped in a line for multiple hours to see art.
A perfect rain shower
Showing some love on the back wall inside Rain Room
We overheard while in the line, an art collector in in the midwest, can't remember the city, had a rain room installed in their home. Now that's how you really 'make it rain'.
We snuck away from NYC for spring break this year and on our return everything from the taxis to our very own apartment smelled horrible to us both. It took a few days, ok it took a week, to acclimate back to the pace, smells and noise of our beloved city, but we are back and we love you NYC, but I'm still in awe of Oahu. I catch myself day dreaming daily of the rides along the coast in our open air jeep taking in all that beauty and wondering if the inhabitants take it for granted. On the plane home we had already started plotting a way to get back to Hawaii and explore more islands.
Here are some of our favorite places and memories...
Hanuama Bay, Oahu
Byodo-In Buddist Temple in Kaneohe, Oahu
Byodo-In Buddist Temple in Kaneohe, Oahu
On the grounds of the Byodo-In Temple
HWY 830 on the way to North Shore
Me at La'ie Point HWY 83
The kid at the entrance to Makua Cave
We called this Make a poo poo lookout
World War II Bunkers at Makapu'u
Makua Beach
Cliff Diving at Waimea Bay
Coral found near Koolina
Coral
Golf Ball
The kid paddle boarding at Ko Olina
The steep stairs at Diamond Head
Chinaman's Hat near Kane'ohe Bay
Laloni Palace
Pearl Harbor Memorial
on our last day we found thispregnant sea lion napping near our resort, a volunteer was there to protect her
Sunset our first night in Oahu we had been up for 24 hours at this point, I sure miss this view
Paradise Cove Luau
There was a very good reason for this sign being posted at the luau...
I've read many complaints about this museum and the kid was absolutely against going, asking "Why would I want to go to a museum to learn more about school stuff?" I explained to him that they had a square wheeled bicycle you could ride which I felt was worth a whirl or two. So we went and even though there are issues, more than a few exhibits were not functioning, the floor layouts are confusing and tight and there didn't seem to be anyone around to help explain the activities, we ended up having a great time.
One
of my favorite exhibits is this video projection that uses an image of
your body to make a fractal image that makes you into a tree.
Rabbit, monkey and dinosaur interlocking puzzle pieces
We painted this pattern with virtual paint brushes
There were so many hands on interactive puzzles, multi-dimensional and pattern type computer animation activities that I kept the kid busy for 2 hours. We will definitely go back to MO Math to view the exhibits that weren't working during our visit and see how the museum grows as it has only been open a few months.
As we left the kid said that was fun, that wasn't like school at all...
Ann Hamilton's The Event of a Thread at Park Avenue Armory at closing
Happy New Year!
2013 is already off to a better start than last year, isn't it? Ok, I know, it's been three days, but I'm optimistic.
We saw an amazing amount of good shows last year. Many of which I didn't blog about. A friend asked if I had become lazy; which annoyed me quite a bit, but there just wasn't enough time to see and post. So here are a few worth mentioning.
One of our favorites was Tomas Saraceno's Cloud City on the roof of the Met this past summer. I was heartbroken when I found out it was already owned by Christian K. Keesee, because I wanted it for my own imaginary back yard. It will, however be at the Green Box Arts Festival in Green Mountain Falls, Colo. summer 2013 in a lush forest. I read in an interview that one of the inspirations for the modular shapes were liquid bubbles.
I kind of see a resemblance
Two other shows we highly recommend that are still open, but I don't have images of because there is no photography allowed:
Christian Marclay's The Clock at Moma through Jan 21, 2013
But let's get back to Ann Hamilton's show at The Park Armory which closes Sunday the 6th...so get over there this weekend!
Still of the cloth being pulled by the swings
The kid watching the singer at closing
the best vantage point of the cloth moving
Poetry and pigeons
They release these pigeons at the end of the night
20 minutes before closing this singer comes out of the balcony and sings before they release the pigeons
pulleys and ropes from the swings in the rafters
Radios are in these paper bags that you can listen to and carry around, Kid was not impressed though
Swingers
Poet
Above a short clip of the cloth in motion. It was quite dreamy to lie under and watch all the shapes about to touch our noses.
"I can remember the feeling of swinging—how hard we would work for those split seconds, flung at furthest extension, just before the inevitable downward and backward pull, when we felt momentarily free of gravity, a little hiccup of suspension when our hands loosened on the chain and our torsos raised off the seat. We were sailing, so inside the motion—time stopped—and then suddenly rushed again toward us. We would line up on the playground and try to touch the sky, alone together." Ann Hamilton
