Culture

One of the best parts about New York, in my opinion, is its culture. There are just so many different things you can do here. Whatever it is that you're into, you can find it here. Lately, I have done/seen some pretty cool stuff and thought I would share.

Avenue Q and Spring Awakening:
My friends Krithi and Vineet decided to make a trip to NYC during some time off. We ended up seeing two different shows on Broadway with them. We saw Avenue Q and Spring Awakening, and Arch describes them as the two shows we would not be able to see with our parents. Avenue Q was very funny. Think Sesame Street for adults, and I am serious about the "for adults" part (there was puppet sex involved). Spring Awakening was every single after school special you could think of, rolled into one. Set in 18th century Germany, it featured bad grades, teenage pregnancy, gays, teenage suicide, and more. I liked the music and choreography but thought they tried to cram way to much into one show.



The Village Pet Store:
I am not exactly sure where or when I had first heard about graffiti artist Banksy, but he had made some news relatively recently with some of his work in New Orleans on the anniversary of Katrina. I'm also not sure how or when, but I heard he had an exhibit opening in the city. I slept on it for awhile, but after my boss mentioned it to me and that it was closing soon, I decided to check it out. The exhibit is called the Village Pet Store, located in small shop in the west village. The place has no mention of Banksy at all, and actually if it weren't for some people gathered around the place, a person could easily walk by thinking it was an actual pet store. Upon closer inspection, it's FAR from a regular pet store. Arch and I walked up and saw a display with a chicken in a hen house and chicks feeding ... except when we got closer, we realized the chicks were not chicks at all but rather chicken nuggets. To go along with those, there was a family of security cam birds, a leopard coat leopard, a monkey watching monkey porn, fish stick fish, and hot dog hamsters (I think). If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's because the exhibit is hard to describe. Just check out the pictures. Really bizarre stuff but very interesting too.

The Roots with Gym Class Heroes and Estelle:
I already told you about the Roots concert, but like I said before, it was AMAZING.



First Friday at the Guggenheim:
Every first Friday the Guggenheim opens its doors at nights, hosts a DJ, and serves alcohol. Luckily, we got there early enough to avoid the long lines. It was good times, despite the current exhibit not being that great. The exhibit featured some photography but the main section basically had random sayings in random places throughout the museum. At times, I felt like I was on an Easter egg hunt, searching for the next saying, stuff like "I've been watching you", "It's not you, it's me", and "The right hand does not know what the left hand is doing." A lot of the walls were left completely bare. It was a fun experience, but I don't think I'd do it again.



NYC Chocolate Show:
Saturday night, we caught wind of the NYC Chocolate Show being around this weekend. We went Sunday, and for those of you who've been, it's basically the chocolate version of Beerfest. The show featured chocolatiers from all over the world, and exhibiting, and, more importantly, sampling their products. There were some booths showing how chocolate is made, some cooking shows, and some art exhibits with the art made almost completely of chocolate, but for the most part, we spent our time walking around, trying different types of chocolate. Halfway through the show, both Arch and I were basically sick of chocolate, but we powered through it. One of our favorite booths ended up being the SerendipiTEA booth because the tea was a nice change of pace from the chocolate and helped clear our palettes. Unfortunately, they ran out of chocolate-covered bacon before I could try any. In any case, I'm not eating any more chocolate for awhile.

Click any of the headings for links to albums on flickr.