Museum Hopper

this weekend, we (visitors and the roommate and i) headed to the morgan library to finish our christmas in new york tour. to be honest, i also really wanted to see their manuscript of a christmas carol . they were very good sports. the visitors really like the babar exhibit. we spent the most time in this section. everyone seemed to like it from the little kids to the "grown ups" wandering around. the exhibit is broken up into a room for the father's book and a room for the son's. reviewers have said that they have never seen a series written by two people so seamlessly integrated and transitioned. personally, i never realized it was written by two different people. we did see the only manuscript (not just remaining, the only one ever) of charles dickens' a christmas carol . he wrote it in 6 weeks and couldn't afford lots of paper this manuscript is a mess. we also went saw john milton's a paradise lost . they have the only remaining (in

i visited the whitney right after i finished visiting the met . i wanted to see one of their new special exhibits: alexander calder: the paris years 1926-1933 . i didn't know this artist specifically, but recognized some of his art from the ad in the subway. he designed mobiles and circus scenes. the exhibit was very crowded. i don't think it laid out as effectively as it could have been. two of the rooms were completely empty, but the others were overcrowded. i also don't think was based on the crowd flow, but on the popularity of the art. i was happy though when i went to view the static exhibits that they had brought back out my favorite hopper painting, one of cape cod. times visited: 3 time in museum: 1/2 hr overall: A-

i went to the jewish museum today on a saturday afternoon by myself. it's free on saturdays. they currently have an exhibit titled, chagall and the artists of the russian jewish theater, 1919-1949 . some notes about this museum: they have very mean guards. i saw a guard yell at a 65 year old woman because she had a cell phone in her pocket. then, i took off my coat in the middle of the exhibit since it was very crowded and warm. i was told that i needed to put my coat back on...it was a little extreme. anyways, the exhibit...overall, i liked it. the title of it could have been more accurate: artists of the russian jewish theater and a little bit of chagall. they had some of the original paintings that chagall did from the theater, but that was about 1 room out of 7 in the exhibit. they had information about each (i am assuming it is every one) performance. overall, the exhibit was a bit crowded and there was a lot of going back and forth across the museum. they had m

after i finished the jewish museum, i headed down to the met . i wanted to see the exhibit on art and love in renaissance italy . the exhibit was huge. it almost felt empty. the exhibit was very easy to follow. the rooms in the exhibit were based on courting, marriage, childbirth and the sexual aspects of courtship. i would recommend taking a look at some of the objects in the exhibit. some are pretty unbelievable. i thought this one was particularly creative. it was a nice mixture of painting, sculpture, dishes and even baby cradles from 1450! the artwork was beautiful. lots of the pieces were two sides and were displayed so that you could see both sides. overall, definitely worth a stop. the met never fails to please. times visited: at least 8 time in museum: 45 minutes overall: A

i went up to boston and did the freedom trail with my friend from college. she had just moved up to boston and hadn't done the trail "officially" yet. we started at the beginning, of course, but did not do the whole trail. we ended near the north end. we stopped right before paul revere's house , but we did get to see later. i really enjoyed the trail. they have added a red brick line to follow throughout the city for the trail. it's like following the red brick line! at the start of the trail, they do give you the option (i don't know if it costs money) to follow a guided tour. we didn't go into the buildings, but merely followed the line. it was cool to see franklin and sam adam's grave as well as the state building. at times, it was a little crowded, but overall, i really enjoyed the tour! times visited: 1 time spent on trail: 2 hrs overall: A-

i went to the rubin museum of art on a sunday afternoon by myself. i decided to go after reading this article in the nytimes . i had also started seeing ads on the sides of buses for the new exhibit, the dragon's gift: the sacred art of the bhutan . as i remember my one complaint with the museum last time was that we went in through it in the reverse order. this time, as soon as i entered, the volunteer asked me what i wanted to see. i said the special exhibit and he directed me to start on the top floor and turn to my left as i got off the elevator. he also suggested to remember to check out the basement. the museum is actually undergoing an expansion as well. the dragon's gift was spectacular. the exhibit was laid out very well grouping the art by deity. they also gave you just enough explanation to understand the artwork with very little background knowledge. it was well spaced and they had a really nice variety of old (7th century) and new-er (as in "only

i went to the morgan library today because they have a new exhibit about babar, the elephant king! i went to the morgan alone today. i love the morgan. it had a lot of little kids running around today because of the exhibit. the exhibit was drawing babar: early drafts and watercolors . they have some really cool original drawings and first editions of the books. it was so cool to see the originals. they had great captions that really explained the differences and what some of the original ideas for the books, illustrations and plot were. they also had all three of their gutenberg bibles on display! times visited: 4 time spent: 30 minutes overall: A

i went to governor's island last weekend because the island was advertising free bike rental. so, i headed over to check it out, since the weather was pretty close to perfect. the island (during september at least) is open friday through sunday. the ferry , which is free, runs more often on the weekend. on my weekend, the ferry ran every 1/2 hour. i got over to the island and went over to rent a bike. the line was over 300 people long...so, that was the end bike riding possibility. i would have even paid for the bike rental. i was a little frustrated that they advertised it and they did not have enough to follow through on it. so, since i was there, i decided i should walk a lap around the island. as i walked, it reminded me a lot of mackinaw island. it was trying hard to do it, but wasn't quite there yet. they had a lot of construction going on and most of the historic buildings had yellow construction tape across the front. another point to note is that the

after visiting the liberty bell and then before going to independence hall, we went to the national constitution center thinking we'd see the actual constitution. i guess the museum is brand new, but it was a little weird to maneuver. we couldn't find the constitution (or a copy of it) if it was there. my friend did get to pretend like he was signing it (or maybe the declaration of independence). we also got to see life sized replicas of all the signers as well. they had a cool interactive section. unfortunately, we did not have a section to play in it for lots of time. they also had a presentation called "we, the people," a combination of a narration and some film. it was decent. a little obnoxious that told us to get there at 3 pm sharp, but it didn't start until 3:20 and we weren't even allowed in the theater until 3:10. overall, not sure if i'd go again, but if you have the time, it was okay. times visited: 1 time spent in the museum:

the main goal of the philadelphia trip was to see the liberty bell . we decided to go to it first since it had a line wrapping around the building when we got there. the line ended up moving really quickly though. it turned out just to be a line because it took a while to go through a security check into the building. this building was also free and air conditioned! they had a nice exhibit leading up to the actual bell. i think my favorite part was this section where you could touch a duplicate of the inscription on the bell. "if you feel the need to touch liberty, reach out and feel this actual casting of the bell's famous inscription." it was crowded, but expected for a sunday during the summer. times visited: 1 time spent at the bell: 45 minutes overall: A-

i went to philadelphia for the day with one of my guy friends. we had decided to visit upenn and then do the "historical philly." once we got to philadephia, we realized that we could see independence hall for free (although they do run out). we went to the visitor center and got tickets for a particular time (4 pm). we were told to get there 15 minutes before the tour, which we did. the bulding was air conditioned, which a nice break for the day. we got to see where the declaration of independence was written and where the constitution was drafted. the tour guide did yell at us a lot. they were a little intense. it was definitely worth the stop since it was free. times visited: 1 time spent in hall: 1 hr overall: B+

so, i went to the museum of modern art alone a random sunday . i wanted to go since they had a couple of new exhibits i wanted to see: one about dali and some new picasso sculptures . i also hadn't been in a while, so i had forgotten about how much i dislike the way moma is setup. i went to the picasso sculptures first. they had about 10 of them. it was neat to see them in person. i think he had used a lot them (or similar objects) in his paintings. it was pretty crowded near the sculptures, but i could deal with it. it was a sunday after all. so, i headed upstairs to the dali exhibit. first of all, i had forgotten that dali only painted small paintings. i think the largest one in this exhibit was about 1 foot by 2 feet. this means that you have to get pretty close to the paintings to even see them. moma finally got the persistence of time back. second of all, the moma decided to use less than half a floor for this exhibit. they had quite a few of his p

so, i went to the metropolitan museum of art (the met) right after i went to the moma . again i visited the met because i was excited to see some of the special exhibits they had. again, i was reminded of how much better the met does with what they have. yes, the met is not easy to navigate, but what they do have control of is excellent. i visited the superhero costume exhibit (superheros: fashion and fantasy) , the j.m. turner exhibit and walked quickly through the " art of the royal court: treasures in pietre dure from the palaces of the europe ." the superhero exhibit was really well done. they had a really cool mix of actual costumes, couture and "costumes in real life." they had 2 of tobey maguire spiderman costumes, christopher reeve's superman costume, christian bale's dark knight batman costume, michelle pfeiffer's catwoman costume, rebecca romijn's mystique (x-men 3)'s "costume decals" and probably a few m

i went on a speed trip to the met with a friend from college. in 30 minutes, we saw most of the new turner exhibit, degas, monet, picasso, renoir, van gogh and ancient egyptian art work. again, i don't think there is a museum that you can see that much in 30 minutes and have probably only seen about 5% of the museum if that. times visited: at least 6 time spent in museum: 30 minutes (speed trip) overall: A

i went to the south street seaport museum during the week one day with one of my guy friends while he was visiting new york city. he likes big wood boats. we went into the museum first on fulton street. then, we had to move to the boats at the south street seaport to go on the actual boats. one of the boats was closed although there was no mention of this anywhere at the main building. we then moved to the 2nd building. i think this campus approach was slightly confusing. the first building had an interesting exhibit on whaling . we didn't spend too much time in the museums. the boat was really nice. you sort of felt like you were actually on the water since the boat was docked at shore. they did a great job telling you the history of the boat. i think the museum would have more impact if the two indoor portions were combined. times visited: 1 time spent in museum: 1 1/2 hrs overall: B

i went to the natural history museum with my roommate and a guy friend who was in from out of town. we went the fourth of july weekend and i have never seen a museum more crowded. there literally was a line out the door to get in and a line to get into the cafeteria. that being said, obviously, the museum was really loud (although it's definitely not a quiet museum to begin with) and quite crowded. again i was reminded of how much i dislike that this museum charges a pretty high premium to get into its special exhibits. as an adult, it cost $15 to get in. To get into the special exhibits, tack another $11 onto that entrance cost. that's pretty steep! to give you an idea, the met charges $20 to get in, but doesn't charge to enter the special exhibits (that i've seen at least). we visited the dinosaurs, biodiversity hall, and the section about the earth (like fault lines, the formation of the earth, etc). times visited: 3 time spent in the museum: 2 hrs overall:

i went on to the ellis island museum as the last stop on the statue of liberty ellis island tour. i'd have to say this was probably the best part of the trip. the museum is surprisingly expansive. i think we almost missed the majority of the museum by not going upstairs. i didn't think it was clearly marked that there was more to the museum than the big exhibit (although not really enough to make a whole museum) on the first floor. the guts of the museum are in this offshoots on the main "welcoming hall" where the immigrants would go through, answer questions and were examined for health. you really have to walk far (past basically unmarked doors) to get to them. the guts of the museum is pretty cool. a quick summary of the different sections that i remember: a demographics section: who came from where and to where, when, why, how. who in terms of age, gender, race, ethnicity. i found my great grandfather (who got our last name changed at ellis island because he had

i went on the statue of liberty and ellis island tour with sam chan the last weekend he was in town. we were also joined by his wife, my roommate and two other male friends. so, a crew of 6 of us. we bought tickets about 2 weeks in advance. i would highly recommend this (especially on weekends) since we saved an estimated 1 (or more) hour in line. we purchased tickets from the internet . when figuring out logistics for our reservation, the website was very unhelpful. it is not very descriptive about where to go to get on the boat, when to get there, etc. if you want to go up into the statue of liberty, i'd recommend buying the tickets at least a month in advance. it doesn't cost extra, but only a limited number are available. we left from nyc and got off at the 4-5 bowling green stop. there were people dressed in statue of liberty costumes leading the way. our reservations were at noon, but i am not sure that the specific time really mattered. i think we could have shown

today i went to the forbes magazine gallery with a friend from college. i have wanted to go for a while since it's close to where i live and it's free! the museum though is not open on sundays, which has hampered me a little bit lately. so museum is very accessible. when we walked in, the security guard was arguing with a delivery guy. this was slightly awkward. i just wanted to ask where the bathroom was! we ended up going through the museum backwards although this did not matter much for this museum. they have some very unusual stuff. they have a collection of monopoly boards. some of these were custom made for the forbes family; others are just unusual. they have a huge collection of model boats including some of the sinking titanic. they had some sample battle scenes. now this is all fine and dandy and sort of cohesive. the other temporary exhibits in the museum were completely random. this was a bit confusing at first. they had a jewelry exhibit, kimono

i went to the fashion institute museum last week with my sister who was visiting. the museum is free, which is great. the museum was easy to get to and was really easy to navigate. it is very obvious where the front is and the exhibits flow very nicely. when we visited, it had two exhibits (we think). when we left the first exhibit though, it was not immediately apparent if we were another exhibit or the end of the museum. the first exhibit that we saw was called " arbiters of style: women at the forefront of fashion. " it focused on how women had affected the current fashion focusing primarily on female designers. the exhibit was chronological starting in the eighteenth century to the present. they had a variety of types of clothing ranging from wedding dresses to suits to day outfits to ball gowns. the outfits were very well selected and beautiful. even as someone with very little knowledge of fashion designers, i recognized the majority of the designers. thi

i went to the cloisters with my sister who was is currently in town. we took the subway. it was actually running as an express train, so it only took about 30 minutes to get up there. it was beautiful since all the flowers and the trees were out. it was relatively cool inside the museum, which was ideal since it was 98 degrees outside. another good visit. times visited: 2 average time in the museum: 2 hrs overall: A

hampton court palace was a last minute add on to the trip. it is a ways out of the city, tube --> express train although i ended up having to do tube --> express train --> bus. i went with one of my coworkers who works in london. he'd never been either, but it's decently close to where he lives. it is quite the estate. manicured lawns, wild fields, beautiful buildings. a friend had recommended the maze warning that it was quite tricky. yes, my friend has a PhD. we definitely took a solid half hour in the maze, but getting to the end is great! we did a couple of the laid out tours. you tour through king henry viii bedroom and suites. you also can see queen mary ii and her husband's, william iii. they have a collection of about 10 tapestries, a mirror and maybe a painting that are second in value to the crown jewels. the one thing, we didn't get any type of audio guide, which might be helpful if they have it. most items weren't really marke

i went to kew gardens with a coworker and his girlfriend. ordinarily, kew gardens should be pretty easy to reach from the city. it is accessible from the tube line. the day i went though, part of the tube was broken, so...let's just say it took me a while to get there. it is a great relaxing open space at the edge of london. they have a huge hot house (while really two). they also have other indoor gardens as well like one that is "dedicated" to princess diana. they are also famous for the pagoda, which is built in a japanese style. i am not really sure what the purpose is, but it is a beautiful structure. overall worth a visit if you're in london for an extended period! times visited: 1 time at the gardens: 3 hrs overall: A-

the tower of london is a must-see. it was one of the three places that i repeated on my recent trip to london. getting there is pretty easy. there is a "tube" stop and the bus goes right there too. the tower is not a place to go if you have problems with unequal flooring like most of the places in europe. when you get there, you have the option of taking a guided tour with one of the famous beefeaters . do it even if you have to wait a little bit for the tour to start. they make it a lot more informative and are great public speakers. crown jewels are also worth a stop, obviously. the first time i went, i was suprised as how much i really like it. perfect especially once kids have learned european history. it's great to reinforce that. times visited: 2 time in the tower: 1 1/2 hrs to 3 hrs overall: A

i went to the neue gallery with my roommate when she decided she needed "culture." they had a new jewelry exhibit, which klimt used to gift to his patrons with and is seen in many of his paintings, which was a really interesting to see side by side. they also have received a gift of two sculptures that were originally shown with a klimt painting. they were separated during world war II. they have now been reunited in the original formation. very nice as usual. times visited: 2 time in the museum: 1 hr overall: B+

so, the first time, i went to the museum of sex (mosex) with my roommate's sister's husband (aka as my roommate's brother-in-law), sam chan. he really wanted to go and i had always sort of wanted to go if i could find someone to go with me. the next time i went with my roommate, a friend and a friend in from out of town. the friend and the friend from out of town really wanted to go. so they had 2 special exhibits while i was there with sam chan. the first one was titled "kink" and was all about (obviously) kinky things. it was surprisingly well put together. all of research and exhibits were well thought out with reasoning, personal interviews, props, etc. it discussed why and how certain kinks exhibit and the different types. it also showed how they can be linked together. the other exhibit was about sex and the moving picture. this one was a little interesting. it didn't flow as nicely as the other exhibit did. also, it was hard to tell if you were

i went to the brooklyn museum of art by myself two weeks ago. they were setting up for a "first saturday" event. i wasn't too impressed. i asked for directions for the correct line to get tickets. i was told the incorrect line twice. the museum layout seemed okay. it was a little too spread out for my liking. also, a lot of the main passageways were blocked off. i am not sure if this is from the setup for the event that night or if it was just under construction. the artifacts were nice. nothing too special, it seemed. it seemed like a smaller version of the artifacts at the MET or the british museum. i did go see a special exhibit on utagawa: masters of the japanese print, 1770-1900 . it was pretty good. it didn't flow particuarly well. it didn't flow chronologically at all. it split into parts and if you went to the left, you eventually hit the other part of the exhibit going in the reverse...if that makes sense. times visited: 1 time in

i visited the cloisters with sam chan and his wife. the cloisters is part of the met and houses the met's medieval art collection. it is beautiful. it is up in the very northwest corner manhattan. the land across the hudson from it is/was owned by rockafellers, so it's undeveloped. it is a little bit of a walk up to the cloisters, but we didn't think it was bad at all. you forget that you're in manhattan while you're up there. the only downside is that the subway took about an hour to get up there since the express was not running. the museum itself is designed to look like an old church or convent. the garden is beautifully incorporated with the statues. the artwork is beautiful. i think sam put it the best when he said, "could you imagine people in 1000 years looking in wonder at our modern art?" there are statues, paintings, tapestries, etc. the art work looks amazing in the museum. well worth the trip, obviously. times visited: 1

the tate modern ... ...more to come times visited: 1 time in museum: 2 hrs overall: A-

the tate britain is a moderate sized museum. i visited this museum by myself on my art museum hopping day in london. i was probably least impressed by this museum. it is a very nice museum and is laid out nicely. the art in this museum is british artists. i saw some beautiful landscapes and some more kings and queens. overall, if you aren't in london for a long time, i think you can skip this one. times visited: 1 time in museum: 1 1/2 hrs overall: C+

the national gallery is right up there with the british museum. the national gallery + british museum = the new york city metropolitan museum of art. it is laid out really well with a nice map. it literally numbers each room, so that you can follow in order! it's got great masterpieces. you can't go wrong. personally, i like the botticelli and van gogh's sunflowers and the raphael and the titian. basically, a must visit. times visited: 2 time in museum: 3 hrs overall: A

the national gallery portrait is pretty good. i walked into it by accident thinking i was walking into the national gallery. the museum is literally feels like it is a tiny subset of the bigger one. it is very well laid out: chronological order. they have a great collection of tudor paintings and other kings and queens. they have the paintings that you feel like you have seen in history books. times visited: 1 time spent in museum: 1/2 hr overall: B

the british museum is amazing. i love it. straight up. so, it looks huge on the map, but it is so nicely laid out. it is very do-able. plan on spending about an afternoon in the museum. it's great. they have roman and greek stuff. the egyptian artifacts are amazing. they have cleopatra! not much to say other than that this is a must stop on anyone's trip to london. times visited: 2 time in museum: 2 hrs overall: A

i have visited the frick twice both times by myself. the frick displays henry frick's, the steel mogul, personal collection in his personal house. the museum is his house. so, it's a very manageable size. it is beautiful. it has a really beautiful courtyard in the middle and a garden on the side, which is very pretty. the art is very much personal art. it was his personal collection and is very "liveable." in this collection are some really great pieces of art. my favorites are renoir's Mother and Children , and hans holbe i n the younger's sir thomas more. the collection has a lot m ore , but these are my two personal favorites. i visited the second time to see a painting (yes, one painting), antea , they have on loan from naples. it's the first time it's been in the usa in over 20 years. it was painted by parmigianino. it is a classic beautiful portrait from the renaissance. little is known about the subject...kind of like the m

i visited the jewish museum on a very rainy saturday all by myself. it is free on saturdays (fyi). while i was there, they had an exhibit on william steig called, from the new yorker to shrek: the art of william steig . yes, as noted by the title, he did the new yorker and shrek ! this exhibit was really well done with lots of drawings and nice captions. it was very child friendly although a little on the loud side. i was very impressed with this special exhibit. the rest of the museum...not so much...it might have been the fact that there were about 20 squealing teenagers. yes, i sound like an old person. it was a little too spread out for me. can't really put my finger on it, but i am not really sure what i didn't like about it. times visited: 1 time in museum: 1 1/2 hrs overall: B

the body museum is a pretty darn good museum although on the pricey side for a museum ($27.50 for entry on the weekend). i went with the same guy who really wanted to go see the intrepid museum. the museum is very well laid out, easy to navigate. it was pretty crowded on the weekend though although that was 1 1/2 years ago in its first summer in new york (i believe). the museum is very well done. everyone should go to one of these once in their life. it definitely confirmed my belief that i should not be a doctor! that's for sure! i think most of the bodies were male chinese prisoners if i remember. they cover all parts of the body and also have some fetal bodies. they do warn before entering that area. it also really encourages you to live a healthy lifestyle. overall, really good, but don't need to go again! times visited: 1 time in the museum: 2 hrs overall: B+

i visited the asia society museum once by myself. overall, it was very well done. the museum itself is on the upper east side. its gallery space is quite small though. that is the major drawback to this museum: lack of space. it had two exhibits when i was there. one on kashmir and one on a modern chinese artist. i really liked the kashmir one. it had a lot of religious artifacts that were used in that area. kashmir has had a variety of religious influences: hindu, buddhism, and some local religious beliefs. the chinese was pretty interesting as well. the artist focuses on juxtaposing modern life with the traditional. times visited: 1 time in museum: 1 1/2 hr overall: B+

the american museum of natural history is one of the best museums not dealing with art in the city. i have visited twice. once by myself and once with a fellow engineer. it is a huge museum as well and covers all ranges. it is on the upper west side. a subway stops right under the museum, which is quite convenient. the museum has lifesize replicas of animals (think blue whale). it also has dinosaurs. the A- is for the fact that i don't find the museum very well laid out. the first time i went i didn't even know they had dinosaurs! times visited: 2 average time in museum: 2 hr - 4 hrs overall: A-

i visited the cooper-hewitt national design museum late one afternoon. i was pretty exhausted. the building is beautiful. it is an old house that was probably built in the late turn of the 1800s or early 1900s. And by house, i, of course, mean a house that is half a block. the first exhibit was about an architect who also did some interior design work. it was really interesting. he was around during the mid 1700s. he loved the classics, greek and roman. they had another exhibit about the engineering and design. it was pretty fascinating for an engineer. it had a lot of every day items (think folding chairs). the final exhibit was a man who does innovated lighting. he was one of the first artists in over 30 years to still be alive while the cooper-hewitt does an exhibit. it really revolutionized how i look at light. times visited: 1 time in the museum: 30 min (could have spent longer) overall: B+

i went to el museo del barrio by myself one saturday afternoon. it was an interesting museum. it looks like an old school that you would expect to find in a rougher neighborhood, which was pretty neat. the exhibit was of all the work that the museum gets "left on it's doorstep." some of it was pretty good. others were pretty horrible. also note, the security guard was ridiculous strict. i took out my cell phone to LOOK at a text message and was scolded. times visited: 1 time in the museum: 45 minutes overall: B-

i visited the bronx zoo with about 5 other co-workers on one of the best days in september. the zoo does take a while to get to via subway, but once you are off the subway, just follow the signs. okay, admission. that is the question. this is one of the things that i hate about certain museums. they make you either choose: a) the basic pass and then tack on things incrementally or b) buy a jumbo pass with everything included. i recommend buying the huge drink that you can refill the whole time you are there. there were six of us, so we pretty much shared a lot of germs. the place is pretty cool. worth the trip! times visited: 1 time in the zoo: 5 hrs overall: B

i went to the fraunces tavern museum by myself. it is in the original building and you can eat a really nice dinner on the first floor. it is still operating. the museum has some really great stuff, but it could use a good face lift. it has amazing articles, but no real descriptions. cool stuff, horrible lay out and descriptions times visited: 1 time in the museum: 30 min overall: C+

i have been to the guggenheim twice. it makes a great first stop on the way to the met. that's about all i have to say. it is a beautiful building. walk inside, look up, and then walk out. the exhibits do change over quite frequently, but i haven't seen one that makes me interested to go to the museum. note: the building is under construction so you can't even see it from the outside. times visited: 2 average time in the museum: 1 hr overall: C+

i visited the intrepid sea and air museum with my friend who is a marine engineer. he was visiting and really wanted to go. i was a little hesitant, not sure what we'd see. it ended up being really interesting. to give you a little background, the intrepid was an actual war sea vessel used during WWII. they also have a submarine to see. the top of the vessel has multiple airplanes on the top. some pretty cool old planes and some newer fighter jets. the museum inside is pretty neat, too. it's got information about the battles that the vessel participated in and lots of hands on stuff for kids to play with. also note, it has a great view of midtown from the vessel. note: won't reopen (aka return to it's doc) until fall 2008. times visited: 1 time in the museum: 3 hrs overall: B+

i visited the japan society in the early fall by myself. it is definitely a smaller museum with really only one main floor for exhibits. they had an exhibit contrasting japanese culture in new york city. i thought it was surprisingly good. i think this museum hosts many talks, film screenings, etc. overall, i was pleasantly surprised. times visited: 1 time in the museum: 45 minutes overall: B

so, i tried to go to the children's museum of manhattan today, but the line was too long. the children all looked no older than 6 in line. just a note, bring a stroller that folds if you're going. they won't let you in otherwise.

i have visited the metropolitan museum of art at least 5 times. i mean it's huge. to give you an idea, the perimeter of the museum is almost .6 miles. just to walk around the edge! if you're coming to nyc, you have to go to the met. beautiful museum. it has a recommended donation, which is worth it, since once you're in, you don't have to pay (as far as i have seen) for any of the extra special exhibits. it's biggest drawback is that it is huge and old. therefore it is difficult to find the exhibit you want sometimes. there often are major sections under renovation, which makes it difficult to navigate. while walking to the exhibit though, you do get to see some amazing stuff. so, the exhibits i have seen: the age of rembrandt: dutch paintings in the met , gifts for the gods: images from egyptian temples , pioret: king of fashion , american art (washington crossing the delaware), european sculpture, armour, swords, van goghs, picassos, the temple of den

i went to the museum of american financial history by myself one day. i will preface this with i think the museum just moved locations, so perhaps that would help. the (old) museum was less than impressive. it was probably a little bigger than my nyc apartment bedroom. they had one exhibit going which was about the story of the Dow Jones Industrial, which was pretty interesting, but the exhibit itself was so small. they had another exhibit about making money. hopefully the new location will allow this museum to grow and become as cool and interesting as it should be. i was pretty disappointed on my visit. times visited: 1 time in the museum: 45 minutes overall: C

so, i went to the museum of sex (mosex) with my roommate's sister's husband (aka as my roommate's brother-in-law). he really wanted to go and i had always sort of wanted to go if i could find someone to go with me. so they had 2 special exhibits while we were there. the first one was titled "kink" and was all about (obviously) kinky things. it was surprisingly well put together. all of research and exhibits were well thought out with reasoning, personal interviews, props, etc. it discussed why and how certain kinks exhibit and the different types. it also showed how they can be linked together. the other exhibit was about sex and the moving picture. this one was a little interesting. it didn't flow as nicely as the other exhibit did. also, it was hard to tell if you were catching everything since the videos were showing multiple clips. they started with early film and sort of traced it through (although not completely chronologically). the fin

the lower east side tenament museum is an interesting museum. it isn't so much of a museum as a guided tour through restored rooms in old tenaments. i have been twice for two different tours. once by myself and once when my family was in town. the tours are really well run. the guides are very knowledgeable and if they don't the answer, they'll find it for you. that being said, some things to remember when going on these tours. - they are very limited in space, so if you have a popular time (say 1 pm on a saturday) with a large group, consider reserving in advance. - they are limited in space because the rooms are so tiny. - keep in mind, very limited air conditioning (if any) on the tours...and these rooms get hot. overall, definitely worth a visit. just be cognizant of when you're going. i am looking forward to going back and trying some of the other tours. times visited: 2 time in the museum: 1 hr (each tour lasts for about an hour) overall: A-

so, i tried to visit the china institute . it had listed normal working hours on the webpage, but no where mentioned that the museum was closed. it was a random saturday in august around 11 am. so, that's my impression of the china institute.

i visited the national museum of the american indian as the first of a series of museums downtown. the museum was pretty. it's a beautiful on the outside with beautiful large statues surrounding the museum. it is under on construction inside if i remember correctly. the exhibits are very thorough, but the main exhibit was a little rambling. it was about the tribes of the northwest . they spoke with current members of the tribes and displayed regalia. the museum was nice. just nice. times visited: 1 time in the museum: 1 hr overall: B-

i went to the neue gallery with my college sister. i had wanted to go for a while. the first time i wanted to go, there was a line out the door and i ended up going to the whitney instead. i found out later it was one of the first weekends for a new exhibit. well, this time we went, unbeknownst to us, but a new exhibit on klimt was opening the weekend we were there as well. we were able to get in no problems, but as we were leaving we noticed that a line (again) out the door had developed. the museum itself is quite small, which i think causes this out the door problem. we really enjoyed the museum. it was just about the right size and pretty easy to navigate. they limit the number of people in it because it just would get to hard to move. the klimt exhibit itself was quite nice. my sister knew a lot more about klimt than i did. i recognized some of the paintings, but my sister knew much more about his background. the museum did a nice job putting the exhibit together

i went to the new museum of contemporary art one mild afternoon when i needed a walk. this museum is at a place were it is shorter for me to walk there than take any form of public transportation so off i went. the mu seum is in a brand new building. it just opened in early december, i believe. it looks like a bunch of boxes balancing on top of each other. it's very industrial feeling in the museum, but...i thought the way the museum looked was the coolest thing about the museum (sort of my feelings on the guggenheim as well). the art...well some of it was interesting to look at like the mattress completely covered in buttons. my favorite piece were a stack of chairs in an arch about 10 feet high. that was pretty much only interesting to me because i (as an engineer) wanted to figure out how they got them in the arch without them falling down. so, my advice, look at the museum from the outside, come inside, look around on the first floor and do not pay to go upstairs... ti

i went to the new york historical society by myself to view their exhibit on new york and the slave trade . it seemed like a stretch to me at the time and i was interested to see what they would say about it. the exhibit covered the time period of early settlers through the civil war. it linked wall street to investing in plantations, etc. it was quite through. they also had some lovely paintings of the state of new york and of famous new yorkers. they have one huge long painting of some new york shoreline. on the top floor, they have collections of stuff. they have busts of eagles, china, buggies, more paintings, etc. my biggest complaint is that finding the entrance of the main exhibit was not well marked. therefore, i went through a very chronological exhibit backwards. i ended in the early 1600s as opposed to starting there. times visited: 1 time in museum: 1 1/2 hrs overall: B

i have been to the museum of modern art at least 5 times. i have gone by myself, with friends, with family, just to look in the gift shop. all combinations. so, this museum was "recently" remodeled (i think in the last 5 years) so it is the best laid out museum of all of them. it is easy to navigate. items are well spaced, arranged well. the order of the art in the permanent exhibits makes sense. you can find the exhibit you are looking for quite easily. no getting lost in the moma. the permanent exhibits (floors 4 and 5) are well done although some of the items in it, i am not sure why they are there exactly...don't get me wrong, the picassos, van goghs, dalis, matisses, monets (even though, i don't really know why they are in moma) are beautiful. i don't really understand how 4 boxes of different colors belongs in the room next to monet's water lillies . they have a ton of picassos...a couple of rooms seem to be devoted exclusively to them. it

the rubin museum was quite a pleasant surprise. it is a museum that focuses primarily on himalayan artwork. i went with a coworker who is indian, so she knew a lot more than i did. this museum is the real deal. a speciality museum that has the funding and enough space to convey its message. the second floor of the museum is devoted to "what is himalayan art?" it really educates you as to what you are looking at. they had artwork, statues and weavings from as early as 1200s when we were there we saw an exhibit focusing on bon , which is the indigenous religion in tibet. the detail in the art is unbelievable. the rubin museum has its own artist in residence as well to show how it is done in person. they also had an exhibit displaying some of the large items from the rubin collection. my one complaint/suggestion: no one directed us to start at the bottom and move up, so we got to the "what is himalayan art?" last. i was pretty lucky since my friend had

i went to the skyscraper museum one afternoon along with 2 other museums that are downtown (the native american museum and the fraunces tavern). it was worth the free trip. the current exhibit was a futuristic view of what a skyscraper city would like. most of the renditions were done 1950s-1960s of what nyc would like in about 2050. good material. they also had (what i am assuming) is always there a few drawings and things on the skyscrapers of nyc like what makes a skyscraper, how do you classify them, etc. they also had a spotlight on the world trade center twin towers. my one complaint with this museum was the layout. it was very cramped and hard to traverse through without feeling like you were missing important details. it was also hard to tell what order the exhibit was supposed to go in. times visited: 1 time in museum: 1/2 hr overall: B

i have been to the whitney twice. the first time they were celebrating hopper's art and the whitney's 75th "birthday ." the second time was to see the exhibit " The Summer of Love ." so, both spectacular exhibits. the summer of love exhibit was so popular that they ran out of brochures for it and there was a line out the door around the building to buy tickets to get in. i think the value of this museum varies greatly on if you like the exhibit that is being shown at the time. from the website it looks like they have about two stellar exhibits a year, which makes up about 6 months. to give you an idea, in the past 1 1/2 years, they had the hopper and birthday exhibit, a picasso exhibit, and this "summer of love" exhibit. so, check to see what's there before you head out. the layout of the museum is nice. large spaces, easy to navigate even when crowded. the guards don't seem to be super uptight either, which is nice. most of

i will preface this by saying that the morgan library is my favorite "small" museum in new york. i have been to this museum three times. once by myself, once with my parents, my high school sister and my roommate and once with my sister in college. most recently, it had a great exhibit on van gogh . it looks like they have one coming up on art from the uffizi in florence. the stuff they have all the time: printed: 3 out of the 11 remaining gutenberg bibles, original shakespeare, jane austen, emily and charlotte bronte, mark twain, babar (the elephant), thoreau, dickens, einstein, jefferson, milton, newton and hemingway. music: mahler, brahams, mozart, chopin, debussy, beethoven bibles: they fill one 5x7 feet wall (just a note: the stuff rotates so they don't have all on display at once) the museum was just reopened about a year ago converting most of the house into a more usable museum, but some of it still orginal (the Morgan library and study). it is

i went to the museum of art and design today with a my roommate's sister (a 26 year old accountant). they had an exhibit on embroidary and goblets! the museum itself is in a great location, big spaces and easy to get to (it's right across the street from MoMA). it is moving at the end of 2008 to columbus circle. some of the embroidery was beautiful. the stuff that didn't take itself too seriously. there was beautiful netting with little daisy flowers on it. some of it was pretty funny: there was a series of needlepoints of "my mother said..." some of it was bad: a spill on a tablecloth with an embroidered outline. yes, that is considered art. they also had an exhibit on goblets . we appreciated the goblet exhibit a lot more than the embroidery since we didn't have a clue as how you go about making something like that. some personal favorites were sequined red bull goblets, frog goblets, and just some very elaborate glass goblets. the museum gifts shops a

so, i am going to try this blogger thing. most people seem to do the deep talking or political rampages, all very well written of course. since i am the engineer, i will write about what i seem to be doing a lot of these days... museum hopping! i will be doing some posthumous museum posting... and yes, i have no formal training on pretty much any of the museums i have been to, but my current nyc museum visit count (including repeats) is about 38.