new york

29th March to 2nd April 2004

central park 1st morning

The first evening we were late arriving so we just found a nice local pub for a few bevvies (below). We struck out first morning with a walk to the Guggenheim through Central Park. That's me outside the Guggenheim with a few pics of the inside.


		Photos were only allowed on the ground floor where it was rewarding to see the whole floor taken with Rachael Whiteread's 1995 work. The UK had further representaion from Damian Hurst.
		It was also rewarding to see a computer programmed piece I included in my dissertation; The secret life of numbers by Golan Levin. It confirms my choice of good new media.

Grand Central Station and Chrysler Building

We continued walking from Guggenheim downtown to the Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building after a break in a cafe for lunch.





The top pic is a reflection of the Chrysler Building. Nice to see "The Office" represented.		Ladys gets a shoeshine from a character who's been doing it 17 years

1st Jazz Night

		That evening we had prebooked a jazz tour with Gordon Polatnick. Gordon is a licensed New York tour guide specializing in the city’s hidden jazz haunts and history. He maintains the website www.bigapplejazz.com which offers club listings, discounted tickets to city-wide jazz events, unique personalized jazz tours, photos and useful links to jazz artists and clubs throughout the five boroughs. He is also a contributor to All About Jazz, New York, Greenwich Village Gazette and Haight-Ashbury Free Press.
Here we are arriving at our first club; ORBIT in East Harlem. And you can see that inimitable hat which is Gordon's trade mark.
	The Club was small and intimate. The Trio that night were playing a medley of latin jazz and standards. The Brazilian music of Paul Jobin was featured. The bass player was part Dominician, the guitarist Spanish and the charming vocalist was Portugese. Later the group were augmented by Trumpet and Flute.

Nextstop was West Halem, St Nicks, which has been a Jazz Haunt since 1930. Driving there we were taken on a tour of Sugar Hill, famous for where the elite of Harlem lived, Duke Ellington used to live there.

And the Billy Strayhorn lyrics refer to it also. "Take the A Train to go to Sugar Hill up in Harlem"

Some great funky jazz was played... revolving musos.

The delightful Japanese female vocalist surely sung "My Funny Valentine" to me. I was enchanted.

I got a sit-in as a guest...wonderful, and the harmonica player who plays Thursday nights joined in also. Such dedication and the reason why New York jazz is surviving and producing a world class act.

Me having a blast !

Second day Galleries

The Whitney

Waiting to get in the Whitney Biennial. There was no photography allowed in side except the ground floor.

The Whitney was excellent.

The permanent exhibition was best for me, to see all those Hoppers first hand.

Good to see Cory Archangel's contribution in new media. The new biennial was filled with new names. To me it was more like a large degree show.

The Metropolitan Absolutely huge. We just managed the Chuck Close and Modern American part.


	Natalie prays to paint like this

Last Night

Quite a few of us joined forces last night to dine together at Clementines.

A great meal of seafood, chicken, meatballs and pasta. Huge portions.

Lat Night Jazz




The nights just got better. We went to Cleopatra's Needle and took in Jazz from 11pm thro to 3 am. I got another blow with the locals who were brilliant. Some fine jazz and some sets were so avant-garde and well out of my league of playing.