What a day. Started off with a very long sleep in… James and Bel awoke at about 11:30am – yes I know!!! Crazy. The night before we had had a few cocktails and dinner at another local Italian joint. Whilst it wasn’t too late a night, with out the little ones, a sleep in was possible. After eggs on toast we headed off on a “Gallery Tour” in Chelsea. To our amazement Chelsea has the highest population of art galleries anywhere in the world (probably cause they are all pretentious wankers…. Just joking…. No really!!!).
The tour stated with meeting a few of James friends. Daryl, Andrew and George. The tour was actually quite interesting. It was run by this short, aged, bald bugger… (something for James to aspire too). He took us to 7 galleries in the local area… Some interesting and some down right stupid! (image to come).
The first gallery was quite interesting. A South Korean gent who was into sculpture. These images below were of his home in Korea and then the house he first lived in when he arrived in America. The theory was how the cultures collided. The first piece was massive. Showing his old house crashing into the new one, where as the second glowing plastic house had the old house encompassed in the new – quite cool…
The only other two i liked were the horse sculptures and the collages. The horses were originally constructed out of drift wood, then each individual piece of wood was cast in Bronze. When they were all made they were then reconstructed and welded together. Very interesting. The other was a gent who tore up magazines and used these pieces to replicate famous art works.
Oh yeh – then there was this crazy one!!!!
After the tour we headed for a 4pm lunch at the Cook Shop with everyone. Good meal and interesting conversation. James, Bel and myself walked to the west village were we wandered thru looking at the buildings and shops. Bel had her photo taken at Carries house from sex and the city, then as a quirk of fate we saw Matthew Broderick come out of his house a block away..
We decided to head down to ground zero to see it all before the anniversary the following day. It was a quiet and sombre mood, as to be expected. Walking around the base of the site you would see devout conspiracy theorists preaching how the towers were brought down by the government and in contrast families wearing fire fighters tshirts in remembrance.
The police presence was AMAZING! At one stage there was a procession of hundreds of police cars with their lights on in practice for tomorrows celebrations.
After seeing the tower lights in the sky we headed to Stone Street for dinner. Think the Rocks in Sydney on a very small yet concentrated scale. After a few beers and Bel chatting up a sailor in the queue (or the line as they say here) for the toilets he came down and was chatting to us about his 15 years in the Navy. Interesting conversation how a down and out African America from a down trodden family in Texas, who married at 18 and went into the Navy. After a great walk thru downtown Federation Hall, Wall Street and Liberty Park we head to the subway.
We then jumped on the train and came home to talk to the girls on Skype. VERY BUSY day. We are home now at 1:30am with sore and tired feet…. Lets see what tomorrow brings.
Posted from New York, New York, United States.
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