Dumpling Dynasty

I have a Dumpling Dynasty wallet from my trip to Tokyo last year and I love it. Today I found more goodies from the same collection at a quirky little gift store in Alphabet City called – you guessed: Alphabets. The Dumpling Dynasty online store is at www.wuandwu.com .

Kippenberger at the MoMA

I think the exhibitions at the MoMA at the moment must have been especially curated for us. There's currently a show on photography and the history of print, one about paper, a Beuys show and then this amazing collection of Kippenberger works. From the MoMA site: "The scores of posters he designed for his exhibitions begin to suggest the creative energy channeled into his thousands of works, including paintings, sculptures, installations, drawings, prints, multiples, books, and recordings". Kippenberger died in 1997 at 44.

I need a hero

This store is loads of fun: it sells everything a superhero needs, from cans of muscle, to capes and other costume essentials, to X-ray vision glasses. The best part is the turning bookcase, which leads to a secret office out the back. This is where a really fantastic volunteer-run operation takes place, and kids ages 6 to 18 from Brooklyn come along for short courses on film and writing. The proceeds from the stuff sold in the store goes toward this really worthwhile cause...  

Seventy-three, seventy-four... nearly there

 Here are 10 pictures of the 84 stairs I climb each time I come home. Ouch.

Don't care if it even tastes good

Went to the wine shop at Chelsea Market the other day. These wines perhaps a heavy souvenir but almost worth it for their sweet packaging...

Katz's Deli

From my understanding, Katz's Deli was pretty famous for quite some time before Meg Ryan caused a scene in When Harry Met Sally. I'm not sure what they do to that meat before they serve it up on their sandwiches but quite frankly I don't care; they're bloody good.

Them bones

The American Musuem of Natural History is fairly mind-blowing. I think perhaps that as a child I was loaded up with facts like "We can figure out what a dinosaur looked like by piecing together 400 million year old bones" at the same time I was learning that toothpaste gel wasn't the same as hair gel and they couldn't both go in my hair. Back then, It was all information of about the same value which I processed and in which I grew. But it was an extraordinary moment indeed, when given the chance to ask a real paleontologist "What is a fossil?", I was given answers which made me start to realise for the first time as free-thinking adult, that these creatures actually existed as living, breathing reptiles, and that these are their spectacular remains.

On top of (this part of) the world

Here we are! On the edge of the East Village, atop our apartment building. We're actually not allowed up there, but we knew the alarm had sounded and the door was open so we crept up for a quick peek. Pretty spectacular, which I guess you can't really tell since our fat faces are taking up most of the frame... Who needs to pay US$20 to be on top of The Rock when you can be on a cruddy rooftop, 6 floors up: for free!

www.fishseddy.com

Fishs Eddy sell mostly ceramics and dinnerware, and have about 10 ranges, most of them with illustrations and / or typography referencing New York. Some really simple, quirky ideas and lots of things I just want!

www.katespaperie.com

Now will you just look at these beautiful wrapping papers I found at Kate's Paperie in Soho. They are lovely enough to frame. 

Not-so-quiet Little Abode

So this is our pad. It's our haven, our own space away from the hustle and bustle on the streets below. They're jack-hammering across the street most hours of the day, so that combined with honking, yelling and the odd siren makes for I suppose a fairly typical New York symphony.

Week 1

This city is so big. This apartment is so small. We went to the library as well as Grand Central Station the other day and felt quickly dwarfed. Then last night we ate at a typical East Village cafe: tiny and cosy. This city has an inbuilt system of scale which throws you from one extreme to the other.

It also feels to me like every person here is in the arts in some capacity. Each person is either a novelist, a poet, a designer, an artist, a curator, a musician, a dancer or an actor. And then there was the hobbling black man yesterday who, hearing music  blaring from the store on a corner of Times Square, sang along, exclaiming loudly and proudly "Give it to me New York City! Yeah!!".

On Tuesday, it was St Patricks day. On that day, for one day, every person was Irish.

New York

New York City. Centre of the universe. 

Flying into New York was just breathtaking. We were on the side of the plane with the magical views, and we flew oh so close to the dazzling lights of the city which apparently truly never sleeps. It was so fantastic I actually forgot to blink.

So we're here... finally. Our flight was 2 hours delayed which got us to our apartment at 1am. We have a sweet little studio-type space with a loft bed, a tiny kitchen and bathroom. It's 5th floor walk-up, which was a challenge with 6 bags! It's tidy and self-contained and in the middle of all the action, right by East Village and Union Square. Today we took a wander and walked through Central Park and slowly started to absorb being here. The metro pass is great for US$81/month: we're planning on hopping across to Brooklyn tomorrow. Couldn't be more polar opposite than Kansas I'm sure! It was nice when we thanked the cabbie last night, he turned to Aaron to say: "and welcome home".

Kansas

There's no place like (this home away from home). This is a typical Kansas field next door to Aaron's parents' property. They live on a dirt road in the middle of, well, America. When asked where the road led to, Aaron's reply was, "There are a lot of roads around here, most of them don't go anywhere in particular". Hmm. Riverton is a typical mid-west small-town, where everything happens at half speed and comes with ranch salad and fries. The bloke sitting next to me on the flight on the way over here even gave me a quiet heads-up (after observing the prompt manner with which I put away my laptop and keenly ordered my ginger beer with no ice) that if I was a city girl I should understand that things might not happen around here at the pace I'm used to. He was right.

Pool Sharks

Aaron and I have been playing a bit of pool. So far I think the score so far is about 5-4. This is a classic pool hall we went to in Joplin. It was dark and smoky inside and the only other people in there were just a couple of toothless bums (who happened to also be very talented pool players).

Ruth's Lunch Ideas

Day 2 of being in Kansas, Aaron's mum left a note before she want to work with a list of lunch options. She's just too sweet.

Getty Museum

Me and Bec at the Getty. It had rained the day before so the sky was blue and we could see or miles.