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By this time, all the walking had started to take a toll on our feet.

We each had a couple pairs of shoes to switch things up, but it only helped so much.

We had a little bit of a plan today: Museum of Modern Art in the morning (it opened at 10:30) and the Broadway performance of Avenue Q in the evening. We got our tickets online in advance, but for anyone looking to get same-day discount Broadway tickets, check out TKTS.

We grabbed some breakfast at Brooklyn Bagel on 5th. It was raining pretty steadily so we ate inside. After, we walked north to MOMA. The walk was maybe a little over a mile, but seemed farther in the rain.

When we got to the MOMA about 15 minutes before it opened, we saw a long line stretching outside. "Uh oh," we thought, dreading the thought of waiting outside.

When we reached the end of the line, a MOMA employee told us Citypass holders could skip the line and pickup their tickets at the specified desk. Score.

We turned in our passes for tickets and we were one of the first ones to get in when they opened.

We grabbed a free audio pass and made our way up -- MOMA is six floors, we figured we'd start at the top and work our way down.

We checked out Starry Night on the fifth floor on the way up because we knew it would be crowded later.

It was great getting a head start and seeing some of the works early, because after an hour or so the museum was quite crowded.

It was fun seeing art from Picasso, Van Gogh, Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol, Monet, Kandinsky, Salvador Dali, Matisse, etc.

Some pieces were clearly works of genius but some make you say "uh... I could do that." For example, when we were there, they had a special exhibit by sculptor Richard Serra. One of his "pieces" was basically two long metal slabs: One on the floor and one on the ceiling, perpendicular to each other. According to the audio tour, he said he got the inspiration while laying on his back and looking at the wood cross bars on the ceiling above him. Wow. Brilliant. I wish I had thought of that.

Same thing with the paintings that are just a canvas painted a single color. Dogs playing poker has more artistic talent to me. Maybe because I could paint a canvas with nothing but one color, but painting a dog is far beyond my skill.

Anyway, there were a lot of pieces that were very impressive, even they were beyond the skill, of, say, me, or a two-year-old, or an elephant.

I did like this sculpture, which is inscribed in French, "To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close To, for Almost an Hour." You probably think I'm kidding. That's because you don't know anything about art.

There were some school kids doing some drawings and I snapped this picture. It's no blue canvas, but I think it turned out pretty well.

By the way if you want a virtual tour of the MOMA, they have a great searchable/brows-sable site.

After MOMA we stopped briefly at the 5th Ave. Apple Store again and then FAO Schwartz to check our their multi-thousand dollar near 1:1 scale stuffed animals and life-sized LEGO characters.

For dinner before our show we went to "Indowok," described as Chinese food prepared Indian style. The food was okay. We didn't get a chance to sample any actual Indian food; I would have liked to compare it to Des Moines' India Star, which is awesome.

Unfortunately we didn't have time for a Scientometric™ testing. Nine a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, if anyone is interested.

We set off for the Theater District for our 8 p.m. show of Avenue Q. We had some time to kill (but not enough for the Scientologists) so we watched some prep work for a Criss Angel stunt. We didn't stick around for it but I'm sure it was full of magical goodness. And him yelling "Mindfreak!"

Avenue Q was fun. We were laughing during it, but the white-bearded, slightly heavy-set guy smelling of cigarette smoke sitting next to Aimee was non-responsive the whole show. At one point puppets enter the audience asking for donations (jokingly) and one got right into his face. He didn't laugh, snicker, smile, anything.

Also, before the show there was a girl (I'm guessing maybe 17 years old) sitting right behind us having a very entertaining cell phone conversation. Entertaining to us, anyway. She went on and on about all her personal problems, including having a bum cough/spit on her open wound ("I had a bug bite, but I kept picking at it."). Then she called the person she was talking to self-centered, then put them on hold for five minutes while she took a call from her mom. Good times!

Posted by alangage at July 9, 2007 03:46 PM

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Posted by: OOF at July 13, 2007 09:07 AM

Posted by: Andy at July 13, 2007 06:16 PM

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