New York Part 2: World Cup brunch and the Moma

Day 2: Saturday

Nicole and I ate brunch at a restaurant down the street from her apartment. Her neighborhood in Queens is primarily inhabited by people who have come over from eastern Europe. Thus, the Argentina vs. Germany world cup game was a big deal.

As you might be able to tell, we were sitting directly beneath the TV that was playing the game. Look at all the intent faces behind Nicole!

Score for Germany! (some are happy, some are sad).

This particular restaurant had the best brunch ever. For $12.95, you get your meal, a juice, coffee, or tea, dessert, and your choice of alcoholic beverage (I think it's more popular to drink in the morning in New York than it is here in Boston.)

fancy food

A cute older couple with accents I couldn't identify was sitting next to us. They offered to take our picture a couple of times. When our dessert came, the husband wanted to take our picture again and said, "Look at your cookies!," which I thought was so cute because we had cake and also he was posing us. :)

Black Forest Cake! This is what my mom makes for me on my birthday every year.

We got manicures/pedicures, which I've never had done before. My fingers are cotton-candy blue and my toes are sage green. This duck was on the way to the salon.

I found a bookstore, per usual.

My nails matched the Hardy Boys.

After getting our nails done, we headed into Manhattan to go to the Moma. I had actually never been before. I had to pose with Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth. The detail is so incredible in person - every blade of grass in the field is defined.

This was one of the first pieces I saw, but it remained my favorite throughout my entire exploration of the museum. "Phases of the moon" by Paul Delvaux. It reminded me so much of John Currin, one of my favorite current-day artists. I'm certain Delvaux must have had some sort of impact on him.

This was my second-favorite. Or maybe it tied with "Phases". This is "Great Metaphysical Interior" by Giorgio de Chirico, and it embodies everything I love about the feeling of painting. The crisp brush lines and color, how tight it is without giving up the looseness of paint. When I looked at it, I could feel how good it felt to paint it. It made me anxious to go home and work on a painting. I love when things make me feel that way.

Picasso. I just loved the colors of this one.

My favorite Picasso painting, "Boy leading a horse." I had never realized how big it was.

My first true art love: Vincent van Gogh. There is such a large crowd around these paintings that you only get to see them for a few seconds. I was so happy to see them in person, though.

Van Gogh was just so gentle and it comes through so well in his work. Freshman year of college, he was painted on the side of one of my converse sneakers (e.e. cummings was painted on the other shoe). I read his letters to his brother, and I painted a version of Starry Night for my high school boyfriend.

One time, one of my drawing classes went to the Fog museum at Harvard, and we got to choose an original drawing from their archives and create a replica of it. I found a van Gogh, and I could hardly believe it. I think I almost cried. I had such an adrenaline rush. I was scared my professor wouldn't let me work from it because we were more focused on realism at the time, but she let me, and I was so incredibly happy.

One of Nicole's favorites.

Dessert Sculptures!

This was in a cabinet-of-curiosities type piece. I love how the date was written in a heart. And I love the 1940s.

Lastly, Yoko Ono's wish tree. This reminded me of you, Kat. We wrote our wishes and hung them on the tree. It was a wonderful way to end our time at the Moma.

I hope you're all surviving the heat! It was almost 100 degrees here today. Eek.

Love,

Amanda