This is mostly for my own documentation purposes, seeing as I’ve already been back for a month. I did three big museum visits after my Road Scholar program finished up. First was the 9/11 memorial museum. They do not allow photographs inside the main area of displays, so I just have a couple from the outer area.
This was a conceptual piece where they asked hundreds of people to paint a watercolor square that was the color of the sky that day. I suppose, showing that everyone remembers things their own way?
This is the final column that was taken down and removed at the end of recovery operation. It had been decorated with pictures of lost firefighters and police and other remembrances.
The inner display was organized as a timeline of the day. There was so much detail! Lots of video and audio. Lots of odd relics, like the plane wheel that was found hundreds of feet away from the crash. I honestly was starting to feel a bit numb. The thing that broke me was a little thing. They had recordings from one of the victims’ home answering machine - messages from family and friends checking in to see if they were OK, getting progressively more and more panicky. Yes, it made me cry.
You know what was striking? Remembering how unified we were as a country after that event. I hope it doesn’t take another tragic crisis for that to happen again some day.
The next day was devoted to visiting the Museum of Modern Art. Modern is not my favorite category of art, but there are a lot of classics in the museum worth visiting. Well, if you are able to see them.
Monet’s water lilies was almost as crowded, so here is a picture from the internet:
I think the exhibit I enjoyed the most was about turning points in modern design, which included mundane objects like a bean bag chair, a plastic garden chair, an early Macintosh computer and a pair of spanx, haha.
That evening I went to see Hamilton. It was not overrated! Even as someone not really familiar with the music, I enjoyed it a lot. Incredibly catchy and a history lesson too! King George was a personal favorite.
On my last full day in town (I thought it was anyway!) I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So overwhelming. I stayed several hours, but it really is difficult to even scratch the surface in one day. Some favorites:
I loved this skylighted atrium full of beautiful statuary.
They had a special exhibit going of the paintings of John Singer Sargent - I really enjoyed it, especially the story behind Madame X (he originally painted her with one of her shoulder straps falling off, and it caused a giant scandal!).
A painting by Grant Wood that I had never seen - The Ride of Paul Revere (see Paul on the road, down on the lower left, with a person hanging out their second floor window and bystanders on the road).
I had no idea that Washington Crossing the Delaware was such a huge painting. This was nice to see after going to Hamilton the night before.
They have a beautiful collection of Art Deco treasures, including these goblets.
Side note - I recently started reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. The book begins with a terrorist bombing in the Met, and that whole section of the book was much more vivid since I had just visited there.
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What a Sophisticated Republic it can be! For its longevity it must filter light through many spectrums. Most importantly being Order over Chaos! 💪
One aspect of memorials like the 9/11 is the fear it creates that is exploited by the military-industrial complex and governments evolving into police states.
I have visited Nazi concentration camps. It is disturbing to think about how many people were complicate in that atrocity.
It is known in Russia as the "Great Patriotic War" and there are a number of imposing monuments across the country to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The Soviet Union suffered an estimated 25 million war deaths, half of whom were civilians.
Putin has to say Ukraine attacked Russia to sell it to his population.
If I were to start touring memorials, I would be inclined to visit the ones memorizing the greatest loss. Hiroshima and Nagasaki come to mind. And the Holodomor Memorial in Ukraine. (Stalin starved millions of Ukrainians to death.)
Wow. The museum was crowded.
I love Hamilton. I saw it at my bubble bath buddy's place when we had a home date 😁
All three museums were pretty crowded, although not as bad as that picture makes it seem (I just had to take it because it made me laugh).
I visited New York just after 9/11. It was very sobering walking near where the Twin Towers once stood.
It felt like quite a hole in the landscape for a long time. Hopefully the memorial helped to provide some healing.
A great time. Thanks for sharing
I would love some museums more if they were not crowded.
The goblets are gorgeous!!
Yes, all three museums were quite busy. Although most of the displays were more accessible than Starry Night!
Here is another Art Deco treasure for you.
Glad you shared this last post. I like reading about your adventures. And I've only seen Hamilton on Disney +, but the King is by far a favorite in our house as well. I'm going to stream the Tony awards from this week. I understand that the original cast from the play was doing a performance. It has to be good, right?
As I was reading through the part of the 9/11 memorial, I was wondering if it was like visiting the Arizona Memorial in HI. It was a very solemn experience.
Oh, do you know where that would be streaming? I'd be interested in seeing the original cast, too.
Yes, it was solemn. I was glad that all the visitors were displaying the proper respect.
@smartasswoman I for some reason thought it was on Thursday, which is odd because those award shows are generally on Sunday, which this one is. It's tomorrow and streams on Paramount+.
@MyNameIsKay dang, not a service that I subscribe to. Oh well - maybe a clip will show up somewhere on social media.
@smartasswoman Too many things we like here not to have it. Survivor, Amazing Race, Star Trek(s). It's not that expensive, so we do have that one. I'd like to dump Netflix but can't manage to get myself to do it. One of my daughters watches it a lot.
I would think you can find the performance on Y*tube after it airs.
@MyNameIsKay I subscribe to Netflix all the time, and alternate back and forth between HBO/Max and Hulu. I dropped Prime last year because there was rarely anything I wanted to watch and I wanted to reduce impulse Amazon orders. Oh and I also get PBS Passport, which is very reasonable.
The Oklahoma City bombing site is quite moving too. Perhaps even more so than the 9/11 site since the bombing was accomplished by an american (lower case "a" on purpose). Perhaps the single most distressing display is a glass box filled with personal items recovered from the site - eyeglasses, keys, baby shoes, etc. 😢
How did you make out with the lyrics at Hamilton?
They had similar ephemera at the 9/11 museum, and yes, it was distressing.
I didn't have trouble with the lyrics. They were fast paced and I probably missed a few things, but it's not like I didn't know most of the story.
And after all, I'd already been to three opera performances in foreign languages! 😂
The first time I visited the OKC memorial I believe that I was either pregnant with my first or he was very little. The small chairs representing the children that were killed broke me. It was gut wrenching. At the time, the adjacent museum wasn't there yet. When we went this past winter, we decided to just visit the outdoor part as we were limited on time. My daughter had never been there and I don't think could fully appreciate it in the same way as someone that watched it all unfold on TV. For me, it was also different because it was much closer to home...not half a country or half a world away from other similar acts.
@CL_Love it was a scary event for me because I worked in a government building at the time - one that happened to be constructed on two adjacent city blocks and actually had a street that went under the building. It was a creative design - done before the days when we had to take things like possible car bombings into consideration.
@CL_Love The chair display is certainly poignant.
It took me years to be able to go to the 9/11 site. It was hard even then. I remember the blue skies from that first photo. It was a beautiful morning, but I am sure my memory of the exact color is off. I want to get to MOMA this summer as well as others.
I was unsure if I really wanted to go, but it was worthwhile. Even though it was quite a draining afternoon.
I can imagine how overwhelming the 9/11 Memorial is. I went to the Flight 93 Memorial and it brought me to tears.
Too bad Sargent succumbed to the scandal and put Madame X's shoulder strap back up.
There wasn't a huge amount of new information for me, but some of the artifacts, like a fire engine that was destroyed when the building fell on it, really brought it home.
What a fun time you had! The John Singer Sargeant exhibit I saw in Boston was fantastic, I wonder if it's the same one. There were a lot of the dresses and costumes from the portraits he painted and it was fantastic to see the actual objects next to the paintings. He's one of my favorite artists!
This exhibit did not have clothing, that would have been a wonderful addition! Here's another Sargent for you, since he's one of your favorites.
I’m glad you shared your experiences with us.
I too remember how united we were that day, and hope it doesn’t take another tragedy of that magnitude to bring us together again.
I don't want to be too depressing, but I wonder if it would even play out that way again. With the rise of Fox News and various forms of social media, it seems like every event gets filtered through different lenses.
@smartasswoman yeah, I wonder too.