Post Guggenheim Wednesday

It's Thursday and tiny snowflakes are being blown about.  It's very light and from my perspective in the hotel coffee bar it is quite lovely.  I think we will go to MOMA today, so a short walk there will not be bad.  We are predicted to have snow/rain off an on till Friday, then sun.  Carol and I are happy to museum hop and save the outdoor adventures for the sunny times.

We had dinner last night at Dakhar, a nice Indian restaurant around Lex and 55th.  We started with the spinach fritters smothered in spicy mung bean sprouts.  Good start.  Our mains, which we shared, were beet balls swimming in a thick pink sauce with an occasional almond.  They were surprisingly delicious.  I would have them again in a nanosecond.  The beet roots were ground and probably mixed with spices and perhaps nuts. They had a fairly solid and not juicy consistency.  The other entree was an eggplant dish all mushy and brown but with excellent flavor.  These were served with rice and we ordered a puri that turned out to be the size of a Hasidim wedding hat.  I have a photo on my blackberry so it won't go on the blog till I get home.  Alas, if I only had an iPhone.

Ditto the few photos I took at the Guggenheim.  For those of you who got them emailed, and the rest of you that will eventually see them on the blog, they are taken in the lobby.  Once on the ramp no photos allowed.  I would have loved to have had my real camera but I seem to be reluctant to tote it all around for both the toting itself and for the possibility of getting it stolen.  There were tons of people with their lovely cameras on the High Line and at the Guggenheim though.  When the sun comes back out I will probably tote mine too.

So in the playful spirit of Gutai the artist interacts with materials-the Gutai or matter, or concrete-but the materials maintain their essence.  The tubes with color strung from spiral galleries of the Guggenheim were soft plastic with colored water.  They are quite dramatic in the Guggenheim.  There were photos of them strung elsewhere including out of doors, and they were not as spectacular.

Atsuko Tanaka was my favorite.  She does wonderful things with circles and made the most amazing electric light dress.    I particularly enjoyed a film of her drawing circles and connecting lines in the sand.  It was, of course, a time limited piece immortalized in film.  I was reminded that eastern world view honors the process as well as the finished product.  All along the way of the galleries there were little films or photos of the artist producing the piece.  The foot painting one was pretty spectacular as well.  Coming at a time of low morale for Japan, this groups emphasis on playfulness was clearly much needed.  They loved Jackson Pollock.

I am craving a bagel and schmeer.  I tried to get one from a street vendor, but he was out.  I might have to join Carol at the deli across the street for one.   So many things that say NYC to me.  Cheesecake, pastrami and rye, ethnic food of all sorts.  I'm still groovin on the Sapporo miso soup ramen.