The First Day of Spring

Sunday, march 21st was the first day of spring. We headed to the west side and had brunch at HK in Hell's Kitchen. The place was busy as expected and the noise level was quite high. We were glad when they opened the glass side doors to dissipate the noise and attract some fresh air. Nelson and my friend were quite happy with their meals; poached eggs with smoked salmon and smoked salmon omelette with tobiko caviar respectively. I was a little disappointed with my poached eggs in a red wine sauce over wild mushroom asparagus hash. The vegetables in the watery sauce was more like a soup and was served without any type of bread. I wished that I had stuck to a more traditional choice. In addition to its good reviews, I picked HK due to its close proximity to the Port authority bus terminal. So after brunch, it was a 5 min walk to drop off our friend who was on her way to enjoy her spring break.

MOMA was the next stop on our agenda. We were able to take advantage of the IBM corporate discount and enter for free. However, we were not able to get any passes to the Tim Burton's show which was already sold out for the day. But there were a few other exhibitions that were open to all. I really enjoyed the collection of Monet's water lilies. That really made this visit worthwhile for me. It was our first trip to MOMA, so we walked around starting at the sixth floor. We both enjoyed the more classic pieces compared to the modern work. A collective performance of Marina Abramović's work was also ongoing. The artist herself engaged in a performance that included viewer participation. This was my first experience with this type of live performance and the images of naked people were too raw and disturbing. I enjoyed the sculpture garden and certain pieces of contemporary art such as Projects 92 by Yin Xiuzhen, a leading Chinese artist. Her large-scale sculpture, Collective Subconscious, which is composed of a bisected minivan connected by a long tube covered in a quilt made of found garments was very interesting and introspective. We spent more time on the studio art sections and rushed past the architecture and the drawings floor. Feeling exhausted with all the walking we had chai and dessert at Dean & Deluca at the Rockerfeller center before heading back home.