New York 2008 picture spam
Tue, Sep. 23rd, 2008 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterMy gallery title lies, but I was too lazy to make a new gallery for my very few Sausalito pictures, which are from back when ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
oracne visited in August.
Kara's cupcakes! My sister was staying with a friend in SF and was nice enough to bring some when I picked her up. They are soooo good.
The view of SF from Sausalito. You can see the Bay Bridge (right?), Alcatraz, and sort of make out the Transamerica building.
Ahhhh, palm trees.
More trees! The sky was just so unbelievably blue.
And now, we are actually in my New York pictures! Since my HK subway photos seemed to make some people happy, have more of NY subway usability! As you can see, the little lights show how many stations are coming up, and you can easily see which lines you can transfer too. This works very well until they decide to take a J train and put it on the 1 line, at which point, everyone gets confused.
Mely's giant stacks of books to be blogged! The stack(s) against a wall is to be blogged, whereas the (slightly) smaller stack(s) in the foreground are to be read.
A close-up, because everyone knows you only take pictures of books so people can scrutinize the titles and exclaim over the familiar (or unfamiliar). I am particularly happy about the LJ Smiths in the stack. And Yuki Kaori, of course.
Our two Tiny Laptops communing and possibly attempting to take over the world. MMPB and TPB provided for size comparison.
More subway stuff! This one is particularly neat and eliminates the problem of taking a train from one line and putting it on another—you can just program in all the new stops. I think the downside of this one is that it doesn't show what lines you can transfer to, but on the other hand, the next stop is very handily circled (rectangled) in red.
I really walked through Central Park for the first time this year. I've walked around it and briefly through it, but largely as an exercise in getting from point A to B. This time,astolat showed me her favorite bits. I love the lilies here; they're different colors from the ones I usually see.
Boats! People sailing mini motorized boats! I want!
The Alice in Wonderland sculpture.
Oh, it was so beautiful that day! California-blue skies, giant white fluffy clouds, bright sunshine everywhere, yet with enough breeze to be cool.
More pictures of the sky. (Of course, as soon as I decided to walk nearly 20 blocks down as exercise, the sky got grayer and grayer, the clouds got larger and larger, and the rain began... Needless to say, I didn't have an umbrella.)
People enjoying the lily pond.
Astolat said that the Central Park people unearthed this fairly recently; there are frescoes on the side and gorgeous tiles above.
More of the tiles.
More of the frescoes.
And through the other side, you can look back at the lily pond.
Note how the clouds are much more ominous...
And I went to the Union Square market! Wee Tristar strawberries! I wish I had held a quarter up for comparison; most of them would have been a bit smaller.
I may have gotten a little overzealous when it came to the tomatoes. But they had varieties I do not have in California! Sadly, they were a little watery, but still good. (My sister, upon entering: "Uh. Jie? How are we going to finish it all?")
The line for the halal truck on 53rd and 6th. I did not know about halal trucks before! I feel deprived! I could have been eating them during my other NY trips! The chicken and rice is so good! I am very excited about this!
Little did this giant line of people know that right across 6th Ave. was another halal truck by the same people, only with no line.
An exhibit from the Museum of Sex.
The Museum of Sex poster.
It is cliched, but since I was dragging my camera everywhere, I figured I should take a picture of the lion of the NYPL.
A flock of pigeons that was a monstrous horde before they got scared away by me and my camera.
People! HEADS IN JARS!
A horrible picture of an excellent performance. Lincoln Center had a series of free outside events, of which this was one. This is Step Afrika drumming to kick off a South African dance created by miners in the late 1800s/early 1900s that has many similarities to stepping.
It's hard to take night photos of moving people when far away! Anyway, Step Afrika was awesome. I am predisposed to like loud, percussive, energetic dancing, but I think it was enjoyable for a lot of people.
The Dessert Truck! Very tasty!
This was the chocolate bread pudding, which was OMG AMAZING. It's a little too much to eat, even split between two people, because it's so rich, but ohhhh so good. I especially love the top bits, which have just a hint of crust and then turns into melty pudding underneath.
Goat cheese cheesecake. This doesn't taste like any cheesecake I've had before. It's fresh and tangy, and the sauce is a rosemary caramel, which adds a nearly sharp, smoky flavor. It sounds odd, but it's actually incredibly good.
To continue with my attempting to be cultural this trip, I went and saw one of the performances at the Downtown Dance Festival, sponsored by the Indo-American Arts Council. I am a fan of free outdoor dancing! Big fan! I think there should be a lot more of it in the Bay Area. Anyway, this is the Natya Dance Theatre Company performing "Govindan." The man is playing Krishna/Govinda, and I'm pretty sure the women are playing the cowherdesses.
Again, apologies for the bad pics. This duet ("Abhisaranam," by Manu Kala Mandir) was particularly interesting when compared to the So You Think You Can Dance Bollywood duet. They're very, very, very different in styles and probably in nearly anything, but I did find it interesting that the man and the woman don't dance very differentiated parts (at least that I could tell?), unlike your standard ballet pas de deaux. I can't tell... is this typical of Indian dance? Of a particular style of Indian dance?
An excerpt from "Spirit of the Mountain," by Manijeh Ali, in which she dances to celebrate and honor Afghanistan. She was really gorgeous (also, seeing older dancers always makes me happy), very slow and stately and measured, each line impeccably thought out and danced.
More of Manijeh Ali.
An excerpt from "Pipaashaa" by the Ananya Dance Theatre Company, which blended modern dance and classical Indian. I particularly like the focus of the dance company on women of color.
At the end of "Pipaashaa," which is about environmental destruction and rebirth, the dancers invited members of the audience up. I was too chicken to go up (plus, I was meetingdeepad for lunch), but I cheer on community participation!
And a picture of the sky in the financial district.
In addition to the Indian dance troupes and Step Afrika, I also got to see Ologundê, some of Bonga & The Vodou Drums of Haiti, and Doug Elkins' Fraulein Maria, courtesy of Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Again, I am a big fan of free programming! Sadly, I have very little impression of Ologunde and Bonga, as they performed on a very sunny Sunday afternoon, right about when food coma and laziness from heat hit. My sister and I ended up leaving halfway through because we couldn't find shade.
Doug Elkins' Fraulein Maria is an interesting take on The Sound of Music, in which he choreographs modern dance pieces to all the songs from the movie. What I liked best was how Maria was actually played by three dancers—a young woman who looked a bit like Julie Andrews, a young Asian woman, and a young man (POC). The three dancers would be onstage simultaneously, and I imagined it as Maria arguing with herself or consulting with herself. Liesl was played by a man who didn't have a dancer's physique, and the rest of the children and nuns and etc. were played by dancers irrespective of gender. I very much liked the notion of the casting, and it makes a point as to how iconic the movie is—as long as the costuming is right, it doesn't really matter who's playing whom. Unfortunately, the audience would snicker whenever two men danced together romantically, which I found annoying. I wish the Liesl/Franz scene weren't played for laughs, given the cross-dressing and gender-bending (also, Franz was played by a black guy). I noticed the lesbian couples on stage didn't get laughed at.
Other favorite bits from the show were the hip-hopping Mother Superior and watching dancers give signature moves to all the notes of the scale for "Do Re Mi."
And I saw Wicked (my birthday present from my sister!), which was cool and which I need to write up eventually before I forget everything.
oracne visited in August.Kara's cupcakes! My sister was staying with a friend in SF and was nice enough to bring some when I picked her up. They are soooo good.
The view of SF from Sausalito. You can see the Bay Bridge (right?), Alcatraz, and sort of make out the Transamerica building.
Ahhhh, palm trees.
More trees! The sky was just so unbelievably blue.
And now, we are actually in my New York pictures! Since my HK subway photos seemed to make some people happy, have more of NY subway usability! As you can see, the little lights show how many stations are coming up, and you can easily see which lines you can transfer too. This works very well until they decide to take a J train and put it on the 1 line, at which point, everyone gets confused.
Mely's giant stacks of books to be blogged! The stack(s) against a wall is to be blogged, whereas the (slightly) smaller stack(s) in the foreground are to be read.
A close-up, because everyone knows you only take pictures of books so people can scrutinize the titles and exclaim over the familiar (or unfamiliar). I am particularly happy about the LJ Smiths in the stack. And Yuki Kaori, of course.
Our two Tiny Laptops communing and possibly attempting to take over the world. MMPB and TPB provided for size comparison.
More subway stuff! This one is particularly neat and eliminates the problem of taking a train from one line and putting it on another—you can just program in all the new stops. I think the downside of this one is that it doesn't show what lines you can transfer to, but on the other hand, the next stop is very handily circled (rectangled) in red.
I really walked through Central Park for the first time this year. I've walked around it and briefly through it, but largely as an exercise in getting from point A to B. This time,
astolat showed me her favorite bits. I love the lilies here; they're different colors from the ones I usually see.Boats! People sailing mini motorized boats! I want!
The Alice in Wonderland sculpture.
Oh, it was so beautiful that day! California-blue skies, giant white fluffy clouds, bright sunshine everywhere, yet with enough breeze to be cool.
More pictures of the sky. (Of course, as soon as I decided to walk nearly 20 blocks down as exercise, the sky got grayer and grayer, the clouds got larger and larger, and the rain began... Needless to say, I didn't have an umbrella.)
People enjoying the lily pond.
Astolat said that the Central Park people unearthed this fairly recently; there are frescoes on the side and gorgeous tiles above.
More of the tiles.
More of the frescoes.
And through the other side, you can look back at the lily pond.
Note how the clouds are much more ominous...
And I went to the Union Square market! Wee Tristar strawberries! I wish I had held a quarter up for comparison; most of them would have been a bit smaller.
I may have gotten a little overzealous when it came to the tomatoes. But they had varieties I do not have in California! Sadly, they were a little watery, but still good. (My sister, upon entering: "Uh. Jie? How are we going to finish it all?")
The line for the halal truck on 53rd and 6th. I did not know about halal trucks before! I feel deprived! I could have been eating them during my other NY trips! The chicken and rice is so good! I am very excited about this!
Little did this giant line of people know that right across 6th Ave. was another halal truck by the same people, only with no line.
An exhibit from the Museum of Sex.
The Museum of Sex poster.
It is cliched, but since I was dragging my camera everywhere, I figured I should take a picture of the lion of the NYPL.
A flock of pigeons that was a monstrous horde before they got scared away by me and my camera.
People! HEADS IN JARS!
A horrible picture of an excellent performance. Lincoln Center had a series of free outside events, of which this was one. This is Step Afrika drumming to kick off a South African dance created by miners in the late 1800s/early 1900s that has many similarities to stepping.
It's hard to take night photos of moving people when far away! Anyway, Step Afrika was awesome. I am predisposed to like loud, percussive, energetic dancing, but I think it was enjoyable for a lot of people.
The Dessert Truck! Very tasty!
This was the chocolate bread pudding, which was OMG AMAZING. It's a little too much to eat, even split between two people, because it's so rich, but ohhhh so good. I especially love the top bits, which have just a hint of crust and then turns into melty pudding underneath.
Goat cheese cheesecake. This doesn't taste like any cheesecake I've had before. It's fresh and tangy, and the sauce is a rosemary caramel, which adds a nearly sharp, smoky flavor. It sounds odd, but it's actually incredibly good.
To continue with my attempting to be cultural this trip, I went and saw one of the performances at the Downtown Dance Festival, sponsored by the Indo-American Arts Council. I am a fan of free outdoor dancing! Big fan! I think there should be a lot more of it in the Bay Area. Anyway, this is the Natya Dance Theatre Company performing "Govindan." The man is playing Krishna/Govinda, and I'm pretty sure the women are playing the cowherdesses.
Again, apologies for the bad pics. This duet ("Abhisaranam," by Manu Kala Mandir) was particularly interesting when compared to the So You Think You Can Dance Bollywood duet. They're very, very, very different in styles and probably in nearly anything, but I did find it interesting that the man and the woman don't dance very differentiated parts (at least that I could tell?), unlike your standard ballet pas de deaux. I can't tell... is this typical of Indian dance? Of a particular style of Indian dance?
An excerpt from "Spirit of the Mountain," by Manijeh Ali, in which she dances to celebrate and honor Afghanistan. She was really gorgeous (also, seeing older dancers always makes me happy), very slow and stately and measured, each line impeccably thought out and danced.
More of Manijeh Ali.
An excerpt from "Pipaashaa" by the Ananya Dance Theatre Company, which blended modern dance and classical Indian. I particularly like the focus of the dance company on women of color.
At the end of "Pipaashaa," which is about environmental destruction and rebirth, the dancers invited members of the audience up. I was too chicken to go up (plus, I was meeting
deepad for lunch), but I cheer on community participation! And a picture of the sky in the financial district.
In addition to the Indian dance troupes and Step Afrika, I also got to see Ologundê, some of Bonga & The Vodou Drums of Haiti, and Doug Elkins' Fraulein Maria, courtesy of Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Again, I am a big fan of free programming! Sadly, I have very little impression of Ologunde and Bonga, as they performed on a very sunny Sunday afternoon, right about when food coma and laziness from heat hit. My sister and I ended up leaving halfway through because we couldn't find shade.
Doug Elkins' Fraulein Maria is an interesting take on The Sound of Music, in which he choreographs modern dance pieces to all the songs from the movie. What I liked best was how Maria was actually played by three dancers—a young woman who looked a bit like Julie Andrews, a young Asian woman, and a young man (POC). The three dancers would be onstage simultaneously, and I imagined it as Maria arguing with herself or consulting with herself. Liesl was played by a man who didn't have a dancer's physique, and the rest of the children and nuns and etc. were played by dancers irrespective of gender. I very much liked the notion of the casting, and it makes a point as to how iconic the movie is—as long as the costuming is right, it doesn't really matter who's playing whom. Unfortunately, the audience would snicker whenever two men danced together romantically, which I found annoying. I wish the Liesl/Franz scene weren't played for laughs, given the cross-dressing and gender-bending (also, Franz was played by a black guy). I noticed the lesbian couples on stage didn't get laughed at.
Other favorite bits from the show were the hip-hopping Mother Superior and watching dancers give signature moves to all the notes of the scale for "Do Re Mi."
And I saw Wicked (my birthday present from my sister!), which was cool and which I need to write up eventually before I forget everything.