Sunday, June 09, 2002
 

Hidy ho, all! I'm back from NYC, happier and probably about five pounds heavier (have not had courage to use scale). I had a great time: good food, lots of fun, the works. Food highlights included eating outside in Little Italy and some delicious hijiki tofu. I saw The Producers (the musical comedy about the producers of the fictional show "Springtime for Hitler") and the new Albee play (!!!), The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? The Producers was light, of course, and the Albee was simply brilliant (no surprise). I cruised Canal Street and bought knockoff objects; the cops were having sweeps for the brand-name stuff, though, so things were opening and closing erratically. I bought a bag (for someone else) at one place from a guy who was pointing out what each one was (Kate Spade, Prada, Burberry), ,and he explained that the new mayor was a "lunatic" who didn't understand that they weren't doing anything wrong, his rationale being that they weren't forcing anyone to buy anything. Anyway, he took the label-less bag I had picked out and affixed the appropriate label, plucked from his pocket, when I bought it. Also, thanks to my Aunt's graduation gift, I now have a Burberry bag to go with my preexisting Armani watch. Call me a class act.

Other highlights included the Met, which is, of course, one of my favorite places on earth. I hit medieval art, a perennial favorite (for whatever reason), Islamic art, the parts of modern art that were open (the gallery with Color Fields was closed for remodeling, waaah), the Costume Institute, a vintage NYC photo exhibit, and more. I did not make it to the MOMA, as it's in Queens at the moment. I did get to see the Tenement Museum, which is really cool. This place was sealed off in the 1940s, as it was, and then they re-opened it and made it into a walk-through museum. The conditions people lived in are unthinkable; I had seen Riis' photographs, but this just brought it all to life. They had one empty apartment (three tiny rooms, all of them), one from the early 1900s, and one from just before it was sealed up.

Finally, the highlight of highlights: the used book shopping. I went to the place on the same block as my relatives' apartment; it's small but very nice and always has a fantastic philosophy selection. THEN, the Strand: eight miles of used books. Let's just say my purchases, gleaned from being in there for, oh, quite a few hours (don't ever go used book shopping with me), had to be shipped rather than packed . . .

So, there you have it. This should explain my e-mail silence (since when do I have a life?), though I think I've caught back up with most, if not all, of you tonight.

Elvisette philosophized at 9:01 PM