On Sunday the 25th, my friend Bin and I decided to get our art on and visit the Museum of Modern Art. It was fun, and I took a ton of photos, which you no doubt can see below.
There was an amazing typography exhibit which is going to be taken down this week (which is why we went on the day we did). So many of those posters I’ve cited as inspiration throughout my time at RISD, so it was amazing to see them in real life. I didn’t want to leave, but there was more art to see.
I love the room showcasing useful objects as art. So many of them are incredibly beautiful.
You could just see some of the typography posters through a window. And it’s the MoMA, so of course the architecture is amazing.
This artist named George Maciunas kept the boxes of all his household objects for an entire year. The display was beautiful and a bit disturbing at the same time as we see just how much stuff each of us consumes.
I didn’t really understand the video piece happening here, but the camera was absolutely beautiful.
You guys know me – I can never resist huge typography.
The bale of hay in the middle of this room smelled so good. I loved watching all these different types of people walk by it, then do a double take and lean in closer to smell it.
I didn’t get the artist’s name, but the way these ads were manipulated is hilarious and beautiful.
Portrait by Picasso. I’m not always the biggest fan of his work, but I thought this was gorgeous.
I have no idea what this thing is, but it’s boat-shaped and purple and squishy and I want one.
Cloth book by Louise Bourgeois. I would love to try to make one something like this one day.
In the sculpture garden, they had a wish tree, in which you would write down a wish and tie it on. My wish proves that I am a nerdfighter through and through, and Bin’s wish proves that I am not the only person in the world obsessed with typography.
Sorry this post was so long! Leave a comment below if you wish to.
Thank you so much to everyone who commented on my YouTube flowchart! A post about VidCon and then a very special post I’ve been waiting to post for a long time will be coming soon, but for now I’m putting up one I wrote about a week ago but never actually put up. Let me know if you guys like these kind of photo posts or if you find them boring. Ok, enjoy!
:: LEGO Store ::
On Friday my friends and I trekked up to Rockefeller Center to see the new LEGO store that had just opened a few days beforehand. It was pretty awesome – the selection of merchandise wasn’t great and everything was exectedly overpriced, but they had displays set up of scenes of the city and various giant LEGO sculptures and it was just a really great atmosphere.
:: Awesome Hotel ::
After the LEGO store, we didn’t really have anything to do so we walked about 40 blocks back to our apartment. On the way, we passed this beautiful hotel. I don’t remember the name of it, so if any of you guys know, tell me in the comments.
:: Central Park ::
On the 4th of July, we had a picnic in Central Park, which consisted a lot of us lying on the ground looking up at the trees and just being generally silly. I didn’t get any photos of the actual picnic, but it was delicious.
:: Fireworks ::
Then we walked down to 12th Avenue for the New York City fireworks. They were absolutely beautiful, and not nearly as loud as I was expecting. It was the first time I had seen fireworks in about 15 years but that’s probably enough for me. Honestly, it’s just kind of the same thing over and over. But I did get some good photos, so yay.
On Sunday, my friends I went to Coney Island to hang out at the beach for a day. Of course we had to build a sand castle, especially since one of my friends is majoring in sculpture. We didn’t have any tools, so we had to just use our hands, and it turned into more of a sand village than a castle. Then we decided it was a utopian society, with a school and a university, but it also had a laboratory where dinosaurs were created, and a colosseum where they would fight to the death, and a racetrack where the winners would race. See also if you can spot the luge track, the pit the criminals and dinosaurs are kept in, the volcano, and the giant piece of pie. My god, we’re such art students.
It’s time again for another round-up of the photos I’ve taken over the last week or two. I’ve been up to a lot of exciting things, so let’s get to it.
:: Library ::
Yes, I consider the library exciting, especially when it looks like this in the stairwell.
:: Washington Square Park ::
I love sitting in Washington Square Park, because you never know if you’re going to see a man fold himself into a tiny box or do crazy handstand tricks, like we did Thursday night.
:: New York Pier ::
On Friday night, my friends and I walked down to the pier overlooking Hoboken. I didn’t bring a tripod so I could only get blurry, light stock-ish photos. But trust me that it was really beautiful in real life.
A really cool infographic showing the location of historic bells throughout the city.
:: Bubble Battle ::
On Saturday, Robyn, Erica, and I went to Times Square for the BUBBLE BATTLE, which consisted of several hundred people blowing bubbles at each other. You can see video from the ordeal here but I didn’t take many photos since my hands were covered in sticky bubble solution.
:: Coney Island ::
On Sunday my two friends and I went to Coney Island for the day. I haven’t been to a beach in about two or three years so it was so nice to just relax and play around in the ocean, even though I did end up with a very annoying sunburn in random places where I didn’t manage to get sunscreen. I also ate my very first corn dog in honor of Hank Green. It was delicious but not something I’d want to eat more than maybe once a month, since I could just taste the fat and grease and general unhealthiness.
:: Random New York ::
I’m not really an architecture enthusiast, but some of the buildings in New York are really beautiful.
Multitasking.
Nighttime in the city.
It’s a little baby street. So cute.
And finally, I love little picturesque houses like this, where everything is beautifully color coordinated. May I please live there?
Hello again everyone. As you have probably noticed, unless you’re scarily unobservant, I’ve done some work on this blog layout, mostly to be able to accommodate larger photos. I’ll probably be working on it more over the next week or two, so if you visit and everything’s looking a bit wacky, just come back in a while and hopefully it will be back to normal.
Anyway, this is the first of a new series of posts in which I document my time spent in New York this summer through photography. It is inspired by Nubby Twiglet’s The Week in Pictures posts, though I’ll probably be tweaking the format of mine in the coming weeks so it’s not quite as blatantly copying hers. I apologize for the quality of some of these photos – many were taken with the camera in my Blackberry since I only just got my new point and shoot which I’ll be carrying around in the future.
:: The View (not the talk show) ::
The view from my room is really beautiful on a nice day. I’m glad I escaped the New York City stereotype of having a window that looks at a brick wall!
:: Brooklyn Bridge ::
Last Friday, two of my friends and I trekked down to the bottom of Manhattan to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. These photos really don’t do it justice, so make sure to walk it yourself if you’re ever in the area!
:: Festival of India Parade ::
One of the things I’m loving most about New York is that you never know what you’re going to get. Case in point, last Saturday I walk out the front door to see a parade going by for the Festival of India. It was total craziness but a fun surprise nevertheless.
:: ADVENTURE TIME ::
Similarly, just wandering around the Columbus Mall two days ago, I come across this beautiful poster for my favorite cartoon ever, Adventure Time!
:: Nerdfighter Note ::
It always makes my day when I find a nerdfighter note (though I look like a crazy person flipping through all of John Green’s books to find them!) This one was found in the Barnes & Noble by Columbus Circle. Did you leave it? Let me know in the comments!
:: The Mermaid Parade ::
I’m so glad I got to go to the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island this year. I’ve been meaning to go for the past two years but never made it, but this year it was a beautiful day and everything worked out well. It was hot and sweaty and crowded, but the costumes and floats were beautiful and everyone seemed to have a great time.
:: New York at Sunset ::
And to finish off this (absurdly long) post, a photo I took while walking back to my apartment at sunset last night. New York City can be really beautiful sometimes.
