Miles from Fenway: Cars, Artists, and Street Fairs

For my first weekend back in NYC after traveling for what feels like forever, I took advantage of what the city had to offer over the last three days. Friday started off with a trip to the movies to see the new Pixar movie Cars. Yeah that's right, my friend Barnard Boy and I went to see a kids movie on opening night. But you know what? It was so worth it. The movie wasn't just completely adorable, in that way that all kids movies should be, but there were also a lot of jokes that were specifically for adults (as is the norm with most of Pixar’s offerings). For example, there's a line in there that's straight out of wedding crashers. It was a fantastic way to start the weekend.

That night, a group of us went out with Barnard Boy and his mom, who came into the city for the weekend. This is something I would really love to do with my Mom at some point. While the dinner party I threw at my apartment the last time she and my dad came down was great, I'd really love to just gather all my friends at one of my favorite bars and have my mom booze it up with us. Because knowing her she'd love it, AND she'd probably be able to match us beer for beer.

Saturday afternoon was spent at PS1. DTR (the college friend that hooked me up with the new job) and I found out about this event they were holding through our friend Museum Girl who was in charge of publicity. The event was called Iron Artist and it was, for all intents and purposes, the Iron Chef with an art twist. Two artists were given the same materials, a theme (Love and it's discontent), and 45 minutes to create whatever they wanted. It could be a sculpture, a painting, a performance piece, didn't matter. There were two hosts, two roving commentators, two essayists writing on site about each piece (the essays were immediately turned into part of the "catalogue" for the event), and four judges. I can't tell you how much fun this was. Each artist had a number of assistants, and the showmanship was intense. Check out the pictures below:

Ok, never mind that I guess, blogger's having a really tough time today with photos

Both artists chose to use large blocks of Styrofoam to create sculptures, which in the end, ended up on EVERYONE in the crowd:

Again with the missing photos

In the end, one of the artists created a makeshift solar system, and she and her assistants performed a short skit. While the other carved a snowman out of Styrofoam and hung him upside down.

The running commentary throughout the 45 minute "duel" combined with the dancing ninja what was a part of one team and the overall spectacle that was taking place in front of us made for a REALLY enjoyable time. I hope they do this again because it was just a fantastic idea.

There was a second "duel" that afternoon; however, having never really explored the museum itself, DTR and I decided to wander through the exhibits. I never realized that the roof of the building was open to the public, here are some pictures from that:

These are the ones I am really sad I can't show you, I took a picture up there that I absolutely adore. Well, I guess as soon as blogger gets it's act together I'll try posting them again

Once we were done at PS1, DTR and I headed back into the city for some shopping before going our separate ways: she to dinner with Barnard Boy and his mom, me to dinner and drinks with the Brooklyn crew. Meegan, KO, JK, and I went to a little Italian place on 5th Ave in Park Slope that none of us had ever tried before. I wish I had sooner. The pizza that JK and I split was absolutely amazing. Deep dish, three types of meats, caramelized onions, peppers, it was a thing of beauty. And JK was especially excited since his wife KO is a vegetarian and normally he wouldn't be able to order a carnivore's pizza.

Dinner was followed by drinks and a lot of conversation at O’Connor’s. Having just gotten back from FL I hadn't seen KO and JK in a while and I ended up getting a lot of questions about what's going on with The Twin, most of which I couldn't really answer. It's funny, though DTR and the rest of her Emerson group of friends and I had lost touch after school, now that I am working with her I am spending an inordinate amount of time with them. Which is fantastic, I love all of them (ok, that's a lie, most of them) but I almost forgot how much I missed the Brooklyn crew. I need to start doing a better job of balancing night's out.

Sunday was a relatively lazy day. DTR, her roommate, Barnard Boy, and I all hit a street fair on 3rd Ave in the afternoon. In an effort to funk up my jewelry a little I purchased 3 new necklaces, which combined only cost me $16. Street meat was had, as were corn dogs and funnel cakes. I'm not going to lie; I really love street fair food. But my God by the end I felt like I was going to burst. There's no question the food baby was in full effect.

After wandering the street fair, we all retired to Prof. Thom's to watch the second of the two Sox games of the day. Of course we ended up seeing the blow out instead of the rather exciting first game of the double header, but hey at the end of the day it was a great weekend and the Sox are still in first place. Can't ask for much more than that.

Labels: friends, misc., movies, NYC