Friday Guggenheim

Firstly I forgot to say something about the Brooklyn Bridge. It is not just any old bridge. In the 3 different lists of the top 10 things to do in NY that I have, ‘walk across Brooklyn Bridge’ appears in them all. It was the world’s first steel suspension bridge. When it opened in 1883, the 1596ft span between the 2 support towers was the longest in history.

This morning I went for the 3rd time to the new place , Gastronomie, for my coffee and croissant. The young guy who served me when I sat in te café on my first visit asked how the opera was . I was his only customer on my first visit. This morning he was on duty in the front part where I got my coffee and croissant – I was certainly not his only customer but he kept asking questions and we talked between customers. He had been an extra – a soldier, in a previous Met performance of Aida. I said I had seen Aida in Verona last year. He immediately asked ‘with elephants?’ Apparently the horses were very difficult to control backstage at the Met!

I walked a different way through Central Park to the Upper East Side and walked straight into the Guggenheim. The building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and finished in 1959. It is very modern and stands out amongst the statuesque apartment buildings surrounding it. Solomon Guggenheim , who died in 1949, collected a whole lot of modern paintings and the building was purpose designed to house them. There is a large internal space and a spiral ramp that goes upwards with galleries coming of it. I was a bit disappointed though. Most of the space is taken up with exhibitions and only 1 gallery has items from the permanent collection. I was not taken by the weird photos in 1 exhibition, nor the Kandinsky paintings in another. There were ‘sculptures’ by an American John Chamberlain that were vaguely OK. He started in the late 1950’s making 3D objects out of smashed up old cars.

I know I said I would not talk about food but lunch was noteworthy on several counts. I had been recommended the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station and had been told that Grand Central Station was an interesting building. I sat at a free spot at the bar and was given a huge menu that meant very little to me – about 12 different types of oyster, just with a price per piece, all sorts of fish dishes, dishes with clams, A guy a few empty seats arrived soon after me, but ordered first. I asked how big the Manhattan Clam Chowder was ( lots of places have 2 sizes of soup). She said just a moment and went and got his , brought it to show me, then gave it to him. He heard me talking to the waitress and asked if I was from Australia or New Zealand. Most people haven’t a clue.. He had another dish and I asked what it was – a crab salad not on the menu. He said’I haven’t touched it, would you like to try?’ I ordered some chowder. It was nice, but nothing to write home about. (says me, writing about it) I saw several people getting plates with half a dozen oysters. I told the very helpful waitress that I would like to try some oysters but did not have a clue which ones and was there a minimum. She said how about I get you 3 different ones. Excellent. She brought me 1 Bluepoint, 1 Fire Island, and 1 Peconic Pearl, all from Long Island. I preferred the Bluepoint. I rounded her tip up.

The building itself it lovely. Sort of calming, even though there were large numbers pf people milling around. It has a huge empty space with balconies all around which you can look down on the people from. There is a vaulted ceiling painted blue with constellations across it. One book I have says the artist must have been dyslexic, another says it was deliberately painted from God's perspective - the other side of the stars. The building was finished in 1913.

I have bought a few postcards, but have decided that I will not spend any of my precious time in New York writing them. I will sit on the verandah of the B and B at Martha’s vineyard and write postcards.