Greetings from New York!

[osprey_archer]

Greetings from New York! This is actually my last morning in the city (soon I will be on my way to visit skygiants and genarti!), but I'm making a leisurely morning of it to spend a little bit more time with my hostess's cat Bagels, so I thought I might also post about my NYC adventures.

It has been a glorious trip! Some highlights:

DINNER AT DELMONICO'S. This is the umpteenth reopening of the oldest restaurant in America, and my God was it delicious. They make their own butter, in house, lightly sprinkled with black salt, we were forced to request a second basket of bread to ensure that no butter was left behind. Then I had the short rib tortellini, the short rib filling so perfectly tender, and a brown butter foam for a sauce - so rich and yet so light! - and everything sprinkled with hazelnuts, which drew all the disparate delicious flavors into one grand symphony. And for dessert, baked Alaska made with walnut cake and banana gelato and sweet meringue, and a tart apricot jam on the side to cut all the sweetness... to be honest I would have switched out for a different gelato, a classic vanilla or perhaps (this was Elena's idea) a hazelnut, but it was still very good.

And then we walked back to Elena's place over the Brooklyn Bridge, which is all lit up in the night and oddly peaceful up above the cars.

The Cloisters. This is the Met's medieval art outpost, a small castle of a building set at the top of a park in Upper Manhattan. One of the most peaceful museums I've ever visited, built around four cloisters, each with its cloister garden (although one of the cloisters is enclosed to protect the limestone pillars, so that garden is some pots of ferns, haha) and its fountain and its fruit trees. I took a garden tour (I've gotten very into tours this trip; the docents are so fun), which included not only the gardens but a discussion of plants in medieval art, particular the Unicorn Tapestries with their flower-strewn backgrounds, so meticulously woven that art historians have managed to identity more than 80 species of flowers... and also a little tiny frog in the lower right quadrant of The Unicorn Rests in a Garden. Love all the animal details, too.

A talk by Jane Goodall! Elena nabbed the tickets for this, and it was fantastic, the audience so pumped that we surged to our feet in a standing ovation when Goodall walked on the stage. The talk had an interview format, and the questions were mostly about her life. How did she get into studying animals? "When I was ten, I was in love with Tarzan." How did scientists react to her work early on? "They said National Geographic wanted to photograph me for my legs. Nowadays this would result in a lawsuit, but at the time I thought, if National Geographic wants to fund my research for my legs, *smacks legs* go legs!"

And a trip to the Tenement Museum. In keeping with the general literary theme of this trip, I took the All-of-a-Kind Family tour. Okay, there is no All-of-a-Kind Family tour, it's just the tour of a Russian Jewish immigrant family's apartment in 1911, but still, thematically appropriate. This family had six children and three rooms - not three bedrooms, three rooms total. The parents slept in the bedroom, the girls in the kitchen, and the boys in the front room, where they also sometimes put up a boarder, although unless he hung from the ceiling like a bat I'm not sure how he'd fit! But the oldest girl married one of the boarders so presumably he slept in the normal way, as it would seem to be a bit of a red flag if your suitor sleeps hanging from the ceiling.

(I can see real advantages to marrying the boarder, tbh. You'd already know all about his domestic habits. Does he snore? Will he pick up a dish cloth once in a while to help out?)

All in all an excellent visit. And now onwards! Boston awaits!

Comments

[sovay]

DINNER AT DELMONICO'S.

I am incapable of hearing "Delmonico's" without setting off a chorus of "Put on Your Sunday Clothes."

The Jane Goodall talk sounds fabulous.

[asakiyume]

I went to the Cloisters as a child with my mom and siblings, and I thought it was magical.

I'm interested that they're now calling that tapestry "The Unicorn Rests in a Garden." In my day, they called it "The Unicorn in Captivity." The notes at the link assiduously assuring us that the chain is not firmly affixed, that the enclosure is small so the unicorn could get over it if desired, and that the red dots on his flank aren't blood but berry juice really strike me as protesting too much. Those red dots look *exactly* like blood as portrayed in other medieval things. And of course the fence is depicted low--in order to let us see the unicorn! Has the commentator never seen pictures of people in boats in medieval art, where the people take up all the boat? Same principle. ... I mean, whoever the commentator is, they're an art historian, and no doubt they have research on their side, but I'm not buying it! ... But I bet it's like which book cover you see first for a book, though, or whether you watch the movie first or read the book first--in other words, if I had heard this theory first, I likely would have accepted it.

Either way, it's a beautiful, beautiful tapestry.


... Wow, that was quite the digression!

Your tenement museum tour sounds wonderful--I love museums that give you a window into daily life.

[kore]

Jane Goodall!

Aww, Delmonico's. My parents used to go there in the sixties. They would still rave about Delmonico steak (with Delmonico potatoes) decades later.

[genarti]

Dinner at Delmonico's! The dream, the legend! It didn't occur to me that it was still open (open again for the umpteenth time, whatever) but I'm genuinely delighted to hear that it's both delicious and fancy, rather than Storied But Fine.

The Jane Goodall talk sounds absolutely incredible, and you've absolutely kindled a desire in me to go to the Tenement Museum. Fair point about marrying your boarder! You know about his domestic habits, and he knows he can get along well with his in-laws...

[littlerhymes]

I'm glad you made it to the Cloisters AND the Tenement Museum!

Does he snore? Will he pick up a dish cloth once in a while to help out?
This is such vital and practical knowledge, it really does make sense.

[skygiants]

I had a small Unicorn in Captivity replica pillow as a child [well, I still have it, to be honest] and I used to worry that perhaps I was being remiss in not taking a seam-ripper to the tapestry fence and letting the unicorn out.

[asakiyume]

Well now you can breathe a sigh of relief because the Met has decided that the unicorn is there voluntarily! But I applaud your kind heart. I feel like the Unicorn Fenced In (how about that as a title?) is an invitation to storytelling. You enter the tapestry, courageous and bold, undo the collar and chain, wipe off the, uhhhh, pomegranate stains, and the unicorn invites you to put your hands in its mane as it lifts its legs to step delicately over the fence. The two of you go off to have many adventures, you and the beloved--untamed.

[osprey_archer]

It lived up to its reputation! Which is amazing, as its reputation is sky-high.

[osprey_archer]

I am not big on steaks, and often I congratulate myself for this as it's SO much cheaper not to be into steak... but there are times when I feel a bit wistful, and looking at the Delmonico's steak menu was one of them. They do look so perfect. But my entree was perfect too so really there are no regrets!

Isn't it amazing how good restaurant potatoes can be? I had a brunch earlier this trip where the potatoes stole the show.

[osprey_archer]

It was TRAGICALLY CLOSED the first time I visited New York, forever as it seemed at the time... but it's risen once again like a phoenix from the ashes! The Delmonico's name is just too good to let go. And they still do their own twists on the old classic recipes - or so I assume; I wouldn't think the first 1867 baked Alaska would be made with banana gelato, but you never know...

The Jane Goodall talk was delightful, and she said she has no intention of slowing down, so with any luck she'll be in Boston sometime and you can see her. And the Tenement Museum was so much fun (if I lived in the city I'd get a membership so I could do ALL the tours), and I definitely see the benefits of the whole marrying-the-boarder situation. Either for the daughter of the family, or the widow running the boarding house. You know his habits, he knows your habits, and if you're the widow running the boarding house, now you get ALL his money instead of just the pittance he pays for room and board...

[osprey_archer]

YES, I did Cloisters practically first thing because that was at the top of my list, but Elena and I had planned to do the Tenement Museum together and it kept getting pushed back and pushed back... and finally we did the very last tour on my very last full day in town, and the tour guide told us that was the last time they were doing the All-of-a-Kind Family tour ever. Phew.

Yeah, I've read about "marrying the boarder" situations before (sometimes the daughter of the house, sometimes the widow keeping the boarding house) and it really makes sense when you think about it. Given the givens of the social milieu, this is the only possibly way to live with a man before marriage and get the skinny on his habits. He might seem like a catch, but does he leave his cigars on the edge of the dining room table to scorch the wood?

[osprey_archer]

The Cloisters would be SUCH a good museum to visit as a child (well, depending on the child). It truly is magical.

To be honest, my tour group had some Doubts about this new interpretation too - and so perhaps did the guide, as she was sure to inform us that it was only one interpretation, currently popular with art historians, but these things shift over time...

Yes the fence is short, but could the unicorn get enough of a start to jump it? The chain looks pretty firmly fixed to me. And although the red dots could be pomegranate juice I GUESS, isn't it more likely that they're blood, as red dots generally are in medieval martyrdoms. The unicorn has been captured! The unicorn has been pierced, like Christ on the cross!

Or like a chivalric lover, pierced by both emotional pangs and also probably literal weapons on his quest for his beloved. To the modern mind, the violent hunt imagery is unpleasant in conjunction with a reading of the painting as an allegory of romance, but to the medieval mind I think it would all fit: Christ's love as suffering, romantic love as suffering, romantic love as mirror of or allegory for Christ's love, those weirdos in the future may struggle to see it, but it's sooooo obvious to the banqueters admiring the tapestries as they nibble their delectable marzipan treats.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, this is so much part of the charm of the tapestries! The guide commented that they don't quite tell a complete story, and I think that's purposeful, it gives you the broad outline of a story that you can fill in with your castle guests on a winter's night when the firelight flickering over the tapestries seems to kindle the figures almost to life.

[asakiyume]

Yes! It's modern sensibilities that separate these things!

Contemporary analysis's desire to take away suffering is such a mistake.

I'm wondering if there are any other cases in art history of representations of pomegranate juice droplets on an animal or person's skin like that that would make that interpretation at all plausible.

[silverusagi]

I did the Brooklyn Bridge walk at night, it was fun!

I also went to the Cloisters, and enjoyed it very much when I got there, though I got horribly lost trying to find it from the subway station.

[troisoiseaux]

JANE GOODALL!

How did scientists react to her work early on? "They said National Geographic wanted to photograph me for my legs. Nowadays this would result in a lawsuit, but at the time I thought, if National Geographic wants to fund my research for my legs, *smacks legs* go legs!"

I'm so charmed by her sense of humor; I only recently learned about her (delighted!) reaction to that one The Far Side comic about her.

[littlerhymes]

Wait, last EVER? I'm so very glad you went!

[osprey_archer]

The Brooklyn Bridge walk was such a delight! It was one of those things I'd wanted vaguely to do without having made definite plans, so it was wonderful that it fell in my lap like that.

I think part of the magic of the Cloisters lies in the difficulty of finding the Cloisters. You're so relieved to be there that it amplifies the feeling of calm and peace.

[osprey_archer]

Jane Goodall is a ding-dang delight. I wrote you a letter with some more anecdotes from the talk; one that I forgot to put in is that early on (just after her standing ovation, in fact) the interviewer asked, "Have you considered running for president?" and instantly Jane Goodall parried, "I'm not old enough yet."

[osprey_archer]

I strongly suspect that someone was like "Isn't this whole "hunting of the unicorn" thing problematic and vaguely rapey as an allegory of romantic love?" and unfortunately followed this to the not-at-all logical but certainly seductive conclusion that the tapestries therefore could not possibly mean that. They're about romantic love, but not in a chained and bleeding in an enclosure kind of way!

[osprey_archer]

LAST EVER. Or so the tour guide told as at the end of the tour. They're apparently tweaking the tour so it's now about the Rosenthals and their neighbors and close friends the Baldizzis, which also sounds cool, but not nearly as All-of-a-Kind Family.