007 Brooklyn & Manhattan & Alvin Ailey

Jayte lives in Brooklyn, one of the five boroughs of New York. The part of Brooklyn where he lives is okay. I immediately felt very safe. It’s a very Jewish neighbourhood too. It was strange. I immediately felt at home yesterday night when I arrived. I thought: cool, I’m in New York! The idea alone was very exciting. But today, I’m feeling a bit less excited. One: it’s fucking cold! It’s freezing, some 15 degrees Fahrenheit or so. I’ve never walked around in much colder weather and it annoys me. I wanted to visit Williamsburg, as that is named the new Soho with cool shops and galleries. I am walking around with an old guide book which is very outdated. The Williamsburg culture museum is torn down for instance. I had walked some 15 minutes trying to find that building in the freezing cold. I only ended up taking a picture of the Williamsburg bridge and the view over Manhattan. I talked to one of those Hasidic Jews, who was actually quite friendly, and also to a younger wannabe rock star who does something with computers for a living. He did rave about Williamsburg, but it was just not the moment to visit the area. Especially since it was also early morning.

I then took the subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I didn’t make the same mistake as in Washington so I visited those sections which could show me something I hadn’t seen yet. It’s a huge museum, which shows all kinds of art from all over the world. I especially liked the music instrument museum and the modern art section. Again, a painting by Pollock took me by surprise. Maybe I should see that movie with Ed Harris to get to know the artist a bit more. There were several pieces of art that I liked and I didn’t get bored in the museum at all. A must! One strange thing: the admission price is ‘suggested’, which is stupid. They suggest 20 dollars. I gave 10. I don’t even know why I gave ten, I normally always try to get in for free and now that I could just skip paying, I did. It reminded me of Homer Simpson who visits one of those ‘suggested admission’ museums and dropped in a penny.

I walked across Central Park which looked dead and headed to the Museum of Natural History, a bit inspired by the bit of the movie I had seen ‘A Night At The Museum’. There was a huge line to pay another ‘suggested’ admission and when I looked at the plan, I didn’t really feel like visiting yet another museum. I bough a hot dog outside (not worth its money, but it’s a thing to do in New York) and then I took the train to 42St street. I wanted to walk around a bit near Times Square, but again the cold wind was killing me. I spent some time in the huge Toys R Us with the big internal wheel for kids and the moving tyrannosaurus. Very typical: a huge shop, but little diversity in the toys. It’s all Lego, Star Wars, GI Joe, Barbie… Very little board games. Then I headed to the Virgin Megastore, where I spent more time, until I realised I had to be at Jayte’s office.

Jayte works for Alvin Ailey, a very respected dance company. He used to be a dancer, but is now the head of the designer department who create the costumes for the performers. I really liked being in that building. I wanted to walk around and watch rehearsals and classes (as it’s also a dance school), but I wasn’t allowed. I did have some peeks in the rooms though. Lots of attractive dancers where walking around. I totally loved being there, but was immediately thinking about how I may have missed out on a career as a dancer. I spent some time next to a new costume maker, looking up some info for cheap tickets to the sun. Difficult!!!! But I also looked around and watched ‘behind the stage’ moments. Fun! Jayte and I went to eat at a cool place near his office, called Vinyl. I liked the place. I had the grandfather’s meatloaf, which was okay, but not extraordinary, but I just liked the interior. The menu card is written on old vinyl records from Olivia Newton John for instance; And the coolest thing is that they have four restrooms named after a celebrity singer. I had to go into Nelly’s toilet. Nelly is the rap singer of ‘Hot in Here’. As you are taking a rest, you hear his music and you’re looking at his little statue in a glass box. I also went to check out Dolly (Parton). Definitely worth checking out.

And that was basically my day in New York. It wasn’t really boring, but also not very exciting.