A "Target Free Friday Night" Visit to the MOMA (Museum of Modert Art)

*An article entitled A visitor's experience at New York City's MOMA that I wrote based on the blog I have here is found somewhere online, together with my other articles on Helium.com. Feel free to peruse or share them as you wish.

Click here for today's schedule at the MOMA.

Gothic in Fashion - A Fascinating Exhibit at the FIT

Update:
For current exhibits at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, please check this site.

I found myself Saturday afternoon killing time after a friend failed to show up on time for a late lunch out. We had to move the meet-up later at 4:30, and I took the opportunity to go to a nearby church and pray. Minutes after, I still had far more time to spare, and I ventured out to walk further south from 34th St on 7th Avenue, close to where I used to work doing sales, plants and floral arrangements in the Flower Market District. It was way more than chilly, and soon I was struggling to convince myself "I wasn't really freezing" but it was turning hopeless. I saw the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), and recalled seeing the museum in it every time I walked past by the campus on my way to buy some lunch somewhere in the vicinity. I thought it's not a bad idea at all to get myself warm; I hastily got myself inside, and heard the staff inside directing me downstairs to view the current exhibit. And what an exhibit! Take a view on it online as well!

I saw the "no photo taking allowed" notice at the entrance. I saw a number of visitors, with one very knowledgeable lady doing a guided tour. I didn't join the group at once, preferring to view the fashion creations just by myself, as other visitors mill around the small space for a museum. Think "Vampire, Decay, Fabulous, Eternal Youth, Death, NYC, Funeral, Black, Bad Dreams, Intriguing, Secrets, Dungeons, Mysterious, Captivating, Blood, Outrageous, Vanities" and you'd have a better mind approach to one of the best curated shows I've seen todate, unpretentious yet enthralling, given the limited space and resources, with FIT being part of the State University of New York, so I'm amazed at the level of creativity and resourcefulness displayed in the exhibit. I remember one of my massage woman clients, a South Korean, who highly recommended the FIT to me to do advance studies in the creative fields while we're having a conversation during a session; she herself came from Parsons, but thought FIT is better (I didn't ask more about the details why).

Took some pictures using the limited lenses of my SonyEricsson celfone surreptitiously. I knew I'd be caught anytime soon, as the security were on the lookout; I think they must have seen me through the CCTV system in the area. Here are the blurry photos I managed to shoot (they are numbered in order of appearance, from top to bottom):

[Picture #1 = Alexander McQueen's "Corset and pants"]

[Picture #2 = Comme de Garcon's Rei Kawakubo - "Dress""]

[Picture #3 = Hussein Chalayan's "Blog Top and Skirt"]

[Picture #4 = Kei Kagami's "Anatomy 2 Ensemble"]

[Picture #5 = "Assembled mannequins wearing various unidentified designs"]

[Picture #6 =Alexander McQueen's "Prosthetic Corset"]

[Picture #7 = Kei Kagami's "Anatomy 1 Ensemble"]

A Friend Joins Me On A Visit to the Cloisters

"The Cloisters" is less than 10 blocks away from my current residence. Last week, a friend from Washington DC joined me to explore this branch of the Metropolitan Museum, up in Inwood, that some call as "upstate manhattan." I pointed to her the trees that cover the hilly part where "The Cloisters" is located. I knew from her reaction that she had second thoughts about the vertical hike from my apartment building to that hill. But the foliage can actually be deceiving. When we got inside, we went gaga over taking photos of what we saw inside. Unlike the bigger and main Metropolitan Museum, this branch can be visited in half a day, at the most, or even less than 2 hours. I have another friend who'd find it crazy to go up all the way to visit this part of Manhattan, which he considers really THAT far already. Actually, by subway, Inwood is just 30 minutes worth of travel time to Times Square. I have another friend who have planned with me to visit the Cloisters over a month ago, but up to now, we have yet to finalize the schedule. And I've grown aware that a lot of New Yorkers (plus visitors) have yet to visit this very interesting museum, primarily, perhaps, because of its distance from the main tourist attractions of NYC.

What do you see there? A lot of interesting medieval architecture fragments, overall platform and styles, that are European in origin. A lot of historically interesting installations. Plus a great, well tended garden in a courtyard. There are also the marvelous tapestries, including that one of a unicorn which I love very much, even in the little light allowed on it inside the walls of this museum. You'd see a lot of religious objects, installations, and articles as well. You actually don't need to get inside the museum if you're offended by religious objects, or even for some reason. You may just appreciate from a good distance the building which is called "The Cloisters." The park that surrounds "The Cloisters" is also sitting very close to the Fort Tryon Park, a few feet away, actually. Both parks actually afford the visitor to enjoy a grand view of the Hudson River, and New Jersey. Some friends have told me, you'd actually think you're not in Manhattan, when you get to see this part of the city. I can see that these parks are worth visiting, even during other seasons, just to see how the foliage have changed and gone. I once visited these parks with another friend, on a spur-of-the-moment decision on where to go here in Inwood, and we chanced upon finding ourselves after a quarter of an hour of walking under the arch of the wide spans of the very tall granite-made concrete bridge that connects the highway that runs on the West Side of Manhattan. I didn't have my camera then, but I remember it's one of those photo opportunities that I've missed. An angle that will certainly be kept in good memory. But I'll be back very soon, next chance I've got.