After something like 2 days with no sleep, I arrived in New York. Security was nowhere near as harsh as I expected, so that was nice. I came across the odd gruff American, but they were mostly polite and friendly.
I arrived earlier than the group and had booked a hotel for the night, so I made my way outside to find dinner. What luck! A bona fide American diner! The staff were super helpful and friendly, being patient with the bumbling, jetlagged aussie.
True to the stereotype, the meal was HUGE. My first tipping experience was helped by the waiter adding it to the bill.
The next morning I returned to the diner for breakfast came back to my room to find a complimentary New York Times. Browsing through I found a dedicated arts section. My first sign of New York as a creative city. It was quite comprehensive, indicating the seriousness art is taken in the city. Not just one or two pages, but a full section on par with every other part of the newspaper. I believe in Brisbane we have an arts section in the Sunday paper, but nothing like this.
On our first day with most of the group together we visited the National Museum of Natural History. Still being jetlagged, a group of us ended up in the cafe talking art. Was it a natural occurrence for some graduating art students? Or something to do with the city's environment? There may have been the sampling of some New York street vendor hot dogs too.
While I had never particularly wanted to visit the USA, one of my favourite movies of all time is the Blues Brothers.
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.
Where would the American film industry be without road trips? Well, I couldn't get an old police car and drive to Chicago, but I could hire a car, book a room, and drive to Washington DC. What I thought would be a 3 hour drive became a good 5 hours, but was well worth it.
DC has a completely different feel and vibe to New York. Slower, cleaner, friendlier, with beautiful old buildings and tree lined streets.
Art and culture is an important part of DC too, with the Smithsonian precinct incredibly huge. My visit to the Hirshhorn was great. Seeing so many artworks from people we had discussed in class; seeing them in person has much more of an impact than on a PowerPoint presentation.
Perhaps the concentration of cultural institutions increases the creativity of a city?
No comments:
Post a Comment