This week our class tried to conquer the West side of Manhattan. My day started out earlier than usual due to the lightening strike to the railroad tracks the night before. Scared that my train would be delayed and I would be forced to search for the class on my own, I made sure I took an earlier train to compensate for any potential time lost. Luckily the earlier train wasn’t delayed at all and I had a good forty minutes to go with my classmate to try out some bagels from Hot and Crusty right in Penn. Station. They were amazing! Best bagel I’ve ever had! After this I knew today would be a good day.
After leaving Penn Station, we actually got to walk right out onto the street instead of standing underground in the steam fortress for the next 20 minutes waiting for the subway. We were able to walk only a few blocks to reach the famous Times Square. Interestingly in the early nineteen hundreds, as this area was just beginning to be built up with hotels, businesses and subway systems. The New York Times wanted a piece of this area, and was able to convince the city to rename it from Longacre Square to Times Square (BG, 217). They were in great competition with another popular newspaper at the time, New York Herald, which gave its name to another booming pedestrian area known as Herald Square (BG, 217).
The main thing people think of when they think of Times Square are the millions of lights. The electronic billboards began to make this area one of a kind, and through the years they have became more updated using neon lights and now LED’s. These big screens allowed for large scale advertisement that people enjoyed walking by and soaking in the bright lights. Theatre was a big addition to Times Square. People realized the investment potential for building theatres and within only a few decades Broadway was flourishing with over 80 theatres! Sadly this wasn’t forever. The Great Depression caused this theatre district to slowly but surely close their doors. Movies began to become the go-to for entertainment causing theatres along with their employees to lose work. Eventually by the 1970’s even the movie theatres went downhill showing only pornography films, going along with the drugs and crime that now took over the area. In the 1990’s government took over helping restore a few theatres recreating 42nd street to what it once was. There were many other government programs aided in the restoration of Times Square. These programs helped in the rebuilding processes along with servicing and protecting the area from crime.
Our next stop was to Rockefeller Center. My connection with this building is that my boyfriend works at the building, though I’m sure he doesn’t realize the history that goes along with every detail of the building. The building was constructed in an art deco style, and the main lobby of the G.E. building is surrounded by huge murals. Originally these murals were supposed to be painted by Diego Rivera, but after he lied about what he would paint and Rockefeller disapproved of the mural he designed, his murals were destroyed and instead the murals were painted by Jose Maria Sert. The main mural wall is entitled American Progress where Abraham Lincoln and Ralph Waldo Emerson reside representing the “Man of Action” and the “Man of thought” respectively (BG, 249). Other murals surrounding the main lobby represent time, disease, slavery, and labor (BG, 249). These murals more recently were restored, taking away the varnish that has been covering these murals for decades.
MoMA was the next stop on our itinerary for the day. Being that we have visited numerous museums on our ventures thus far, I wasn’t very excited to go here, especially due to the extreme modern art exhibited there which I don’t really understand. To my surprise there were more artists’ names, and actual artwork, that I recognized here then at the MET. I guess I was assuming that most of the art we would see here would be more minimalistic, I completely forgot about Picasso and that he was one of the early modern artists. Picasso used a style of art called analytical cubism where everything is broken down into geometrical shapes rather than more fluid lines. Picasso’s most famous painting is titled “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” done in 1907. This picture depicted four prostitutes in a brothel and they had an African element to their faces, two women even wearing a mask (BG, 264). Other artist’s showcased in MoMA were Monet, and Van Gough. Both artists are extremely well known even to the artistically impaired bystanders, such as myself. Starry Night by Van Gough was always a favorite picture of mine. I never thought of it as modern art before, just a beautiful picture with beautiful yellow spirals of stars in a dark midnight background. I’m sure this painting has just been over publicized over the years, adding to the tourist appeal of everyone wanting to feel cultured in art, patting themselves on the back for knowing this artwork before stepping foot into the museum, sadly I fall into this group. Another artist I never realized was categorized into modern art was Monet. I have a few Monet pictures in my house (prints of course) of water lilies. When I heard the next room would have Monet’s water lily painting I was excited to the real version of the print I walk by every day. To my surprise it looked nothing like it! I never realized that water lilies were a main inspiration for Monet, and that the last thirty six years of his life was devoted to capturing the essence of a pond of his in his backyard (BG, 265). 
Now starving, the class made their way over to 9th ave where we would stop for a Thai lunch at Yum Yum Bangkok. I found it hilarious that we were eating here, since numerous times my boyfriend and I have drove down this street laughing at how many of them there were! There are three different Yum Yums and they are all right next to each other! I was shocked at how much I really enjoyed this meal. A little weary at first, but the food tasted very similar to Chinese food and I couldn’t eat it fast enough. I’m happy to say I now like Thai food. Next we took the subway up to Harlem at 125th street. I was definitely a little nervous to go to Harlem from everything you always hear that it’s not a safe area. Once we were there it took me a minute to actually realize how nice and quiet it was in contrast to the busier areas of Manhattan we were earlier. Granted Harlem is not a typical tourist area, it is beginning to be built up. Years ago in the 18th and 19th centuries Harlem was a wanted area due to the fertile ground. This attracted wealthy people to start building and in 1837 the railroads were built to reach Harlem, bringing with them a boom of development. Harlem became increasingly settled by German and Jewish communities of the middle class. Due to this, there were many houses and apartments built in anticipation for more middle class immigrants to arrive. Their thought of increased immigration was wrong and therefore much of the land built for new comers was left empty. Philip A. Payton, a realtor convinced landlords if they rented to black tenants that they would be able to still get high rents. In the 1920’s the Harlem black population more than doubled (BG, 438). Since the class was running late we never made it for the tour through the studio museum in Harlem but this museum featured African American artwork, as well as photographs capturing the visual history of Harlem taken by James VanDerZee (BG, 440).
Overall this day was informative, slightly different being that we were being a tourist in some more non-tourist areas. There was a lot of walking, but worth it! Only three more days left I can’t believe it’s going so fast! See what next week brings.
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