Up Here In My Tree: museum

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Artistic Weekend-Part 2

Today I got to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was nearly free. Admission is by donation, FYI. There are fees that are "recommended", but really, you pay what you can afford.

I went with my girls, Abby and Jess (we each paid one dollar. yep). I love it when the three of us hang out. It's familiar and easy.

I guess it makes me feel a little closer to home. =) (image above taken Christmas 2006, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, UT)

And here are some art pieces we saw:

Johannes Vermeer's masterpiece, The Milkmaid, 1657-58

Pablo Picasso's Dying Bull, 1934

The Angel of Death and the Sculptor from the Milmore Memorial, 1889–93; this carving, 1926
Daniel Chester French (American, 1850–1931)
Marble

And so, so much more. This museum is HUGE. We barely scratched the surface.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

A Note from the Underground

I didn't do much over this weekend. I stepped out for a visit to the Subway or Transit Museum. It's here in Brooklyn. I've been fascinated from the day I descended my first step into a subway entrance (back in early 2001) to today, when riding the train is a part of my every day life. The layers and intricacy of this public transportation system for the masses is mind boggling. One of my questions was, how do the trains get back to the beginning of their run? And simply enough, my question was answered yesterday by the nice tour guide (who happened to be from London), "they just turn around". Apparently there is extra track at the end of each subway line, where these stainless steel beasts can make a U-turn. Or they switch tracks and run service in the other direction. Anyway, still confusing/amazing to me.

Subway cars used to be a lot nicer looking.

An old photo during construction, obviously.

Lots of men died while building these underground tunnels. And some where sucked through riverbeds and shot into the air while working on the tunnels that go through water, due to air pressure! Yes, there are some trains that go underground through water tunnels (you don't see the water...you just know you are passing through water at one point, coming from certain parts of Brooklyn and Queens, due to Manhattan being an island. I rode through one yesterday).

My biggest question was how did they build tunnels through water, when the water was already there!! Looking at this photo, and upon explanation by the tour guide, I still don't get it.

I also learned that the NYC transit took the most recent discarded old subway cars down the coast and submerged them under water to serve as artificial reefs, where fish and sharks can dwell!! The tour guide said it's been very successful. Crazy.