Life in Moo Town
Friday, July 08, 2005
Highlights: 4th of July & Jewish Museum
For the 4th of July I went to the American Museum of Natural History (yes, again, I can't get enough of that place!). I saw the space stuff this time, watched a short light and video show on the creation of the universe (it was beautiful), saw an IMAX film on the oceans of the world with an emphasis on preservation of biodiversity, and ended with a quick romp through the dinosaur exibit. I went with some old friends and made some new friends too. We had pizza at Famous Original Ray's when the museum closed and it was pretty good. Very rich, buttery crust. From there we made another dent in the bottle of red wine I have open at my place (a decent shiraz from Israel) and then headed down to the 30s on the East River for the largest fireworks display in the country. There were 4 boats in the river for the Macy's show (as well as fireboats shooting water in the sky) and between them they set off 35,000 rounds. Yeah. That's a lot of fireworks. We had a front row view on the upperdeck of the FDR highway and the view of brooklyn, queens, two lit up bridges, and the fireworks display was incredibly beautiful. The skyscrapers were lit up and reflected the bursts of color from the explosions and the echoes of the blasts reverberated through downtown. It was great. The only downside was that there was no music accompanying the show. That was unusual to me. Great display though. Went to a Chinese restaurant to cure the munchies and went home.
Tuesday I switched gears from Family Law (which was becoming tedious) and helped another attorney in the office with some research for HIV/AIDS cases. Mostly housing and welfare stuff.
Wednesday I had a seminar on the recent Nicholson decision in the morning at the Manhattan Family Court, then went to a kosher deli in Brooklyn for lunch (terrible pastrami unfortunately, but great soup and good kugel), then had a seminar on the history of legal services back in LSNY next to the Manhattan courts. The seminar was followed by a cocktail party and on the way home I stopped at AISH for a sushi/cocktail event for even more free drinks. The speaker at AISH was the CEO of Janus (or something like that). Didn't really get much work done with all the meetings.
Thursday there was a staff meeting that took up my afternoon and after work I went to the Jewish Museum. They have an exibit currently on Maurice Sendak who wrote "Where the Wild Things Are", my favorite book as a child. I spent 3 hours on the Sendak floor and failed to see any of the rest of the museum. Ran into a couple friends there too unexpectedly. As a kid I loved Sendak's art and stories, but didn't realize he makes tons of references to NYC. I just thought it was a fantasy world. Now I can recognize references to the Empire State Building, neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and the Manhattan skyline in his art. The holocaust references and Jewish twists in his work also escaped me as a child (as children we tend to think everyone is just like us so I didn't realize how Jewish a lot of his stuff was). It was wonderful to rediscover all my childhood favorites with a new perspective. Of course I couldn't leave without buying a copy of "Where the Wild Things Are" :-)
For the 4th of July I went to the American Museum of Natural History (yes, again, I can't get enough of that place!). I saw the space stuff this time, watched a short light and video show on the creation of the universe (it was beautiful), saw an IMAX film on the oceans of the world with an emphasis on preservation of biodiversity, and ended with a quick romp through the dinosaur exibit. I went with some old friends and made some new friends too. We had pizza at Famous Original Ray's when the museum closed and it was pretty good. Very rich, buttery crust. From there we made another dent in the bottle of red wine I have open at my place (a decent shiraz from Israel) and then headed down to the 30s on the East River for the largest fireworks display in the country. There were 4 boats in the river for the Macy's show (as well as fireboats shooting water in the sky) and between them they set off 35,000 rounds. Yeah. That's a lot of fireworks. We had a front row view on the upperdeck of the FDR highway and the view of brooklyn, queens, two lit up bridges, and the fireworks display was incredibly beautiful. The skyscrapers were lit up and reflected the bursts of color from the explosions and the echoes of the blasts reverberated through downtown. It was great. The only downside was that there was no music accompanying the show. That was unusual to me. Great display though. Went to a Chinese restaurant to cure the munchies and went home.
Tuesday I switched gears from Family Law (which was becoming tedious) and helped another attorney in the office with some research for HIV/AIDS cases. Mostly housing and welfare stuff.
Wednesday I had a seminar on the recent Nicholson decision in the morning at the Manhattan Family Court, then went to a kosher deli in Brooklyn for lunch (terrible pastrami unfortunately, but great soup and good kugel), then had a seminar on the history of legal services back in LSNY next to the Manhattan courts. The seminar was followed by a cocktail party and on the way home I stopped at AISH for a sushi/cocktail event for even more free drinks. The speaker at AISH was the CEO of Janus (or something like that). Didn't really get much work done with all the meetings.
Thursday there was a staff meeting that took up my afternoon and after work I went to the Jewish Museum. They have an exibit currently on Maurice Sendak who wrote "Where the Wild Things Are", my favorite book as a child. I spent 3 hours on the Sendak floor and failed to see any of the rest of the museum. Ran into a couple friends there too unexpectedly. As a kid I loved Sendak's art and stories, but didn't realize he makes tons of references to NYC. I just thought it was a fantasy world. Now I can recognize references to the Empire State Building, neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and the Manhattan skyline in his art. The holocaust references and Jewish twists in his work also escaped me as a child (as children we tend to think everyone is just like us so I didn't realize how Jewish a lot of his stuff was). It was wonderful to rediscover all my childhood favorites with a new perspective. Of course I couldn't leave without buying a copy of "Where the Wild Things Are" :-)
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