Hirshhorn Museum

The Hirshhorn Museum in DC had an exhibition on color. Here are a few photos.

I also liked these two pieces.

NY restaurants

There were a few, really good restaurant discoveries from this trip.

One was Tea and Sympathy at 108 Greenwich Avenue in the West Village. It's an afternoon tea place that is so British that even the owner and weightors/weightresses speak with a British accent (and not fake!).

I ordered the full afternoon tea set, and not only were the scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream fantastic, but also everything else from the little cupcakes to the finger sandwiches... and of course the tea!

Another very nice restaurant was Market Table at 54 Carmine Street. The service, the food, and ambience were all excellent. We ate and spoke for such a long time, that it was 2am before we noticed! Just make sure to book ahead of time.

This last place is where I always go for Japanese soba. It's called Sobakoh and is located at 309E 5 th Street. I have managed to eat her every single time for the last several trips to NYC.

NYMOMA

I believe this was my first encounter with an Ernest Neto installation. It was small but as expected, very nice to touch and there was a definite smell of spices (from the sack)!

There was also a Tim Burton show, which was super crowded! I did not quite understand why this would be a MOMA exhibition though. Although, I did like his less commercial work that finely balances a kid's drawing and a mature drawing in one piece. Like his dinasour may have very jagged mane (?) that looks like a 5-year old's touch while the legs may be skinny and very adult drawn.

This was the most interesting. The artist herself is posing here as in a natural history museum. I came back to the exhibition a couple of times to see if they ever went for a toilette break, but it seemed they didn't need that.

And finally, my very own collection...

Fuerza Bruta

While an off-broadway show, this performance made me feel like I was still at MOMA.

The show takes place in a club like place - no seats, just the audience standing and sometimes being told to move around so that the show can set up their other temporary stage sets.

The highlight was the water performance where we are staring into a giant pool from the bottom, looking up at people swimming in it and doing all sorts of psychotic but artistic moves.

Fantastic idea, fantastic performance, and just fantastically NYC!

Leo Tolstoy

I saw the film Last Station, which is about the final years of Leo Tolstoy.

It portrays the love between Tolstoy and his Countess wife beautifully, despite many stories that represent him as having gone crazy and leaving the family behind in his final years.

In the end, the desciples do succed in pulling Tolstoy away from his wife to give the Russian people his strong and clean message of equality. But in return, the Countess is devastated.

It was very human that while Tolstoy is godified as helping the movement of Russia freeing the serfs, etc., his wife is a Countess, therefore they fought seriously over ideals all the time. It resonated with me because even so, they both cared for and truly loved each other.

I felt that you don't need to pursue your ideals 100% to the point that you abandon someone (like how the desciples persuaded Tolstoy), because there is no such thing as a perfect world for all anyway, and the future will always be a balance with the contrasting ideas at the best.

Overall, the love story was very sentimental, and I may have been crying for a long time while watching. It is a nice Sunday afternoon movie.

Photo credit: Official website