Tag Archives: my new york

Five Things (28)

Posted in Bookish, Crafty, My New York, Thoughts by

What happened to September??

— Thing One —

One thing that I did for the first time ever – seeing a WNBA game in person at Barclay Center (my first time at that venue). I had an absolute blast at the game. While not a sports fan in general, watching a game in person is always thrilling and I always leave with an understanding of why sports fans are the way they are. Liberty won their match that night, and as of writing this, they are playing in the finals!

— Thing Two —

I finished two craft projects, the first is the blanket below – which came out so beautifully, and which I gifted to a neighbour. The next was the scarf I’ve been knitting, I finished the pattern but I may want to repeat it a few more times to make it longer, I’m still deciding.


— Thing Three —

I saw three movies recently, Barbie (at the end of August), A Haunting in Venice (which was so different than the source material!) and You’re So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. I would recommend each of them to different audiences, but all were great.

— Thing Four —

I went out to four dinners with friends in September. We went to Lil’ Frankies – get their Spaghetti Limone, Jongor BBQ – sweet cocktails and amazing BBQ, Tea and Sympathy – always a fan, and always a fan of their sweet shop next door, and Tacombi – the location we visited had these cute little coatracks at each table for your coats and bags!

— Thing Five —

Five books mysteries that I’d recommend (including some read in September) are, The Enigma of Room 622 by Joël Dicker, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto, Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective by Katie Siegel, The Mountains Wild: A Mystery Maggie D’arcy by Sarah Stewart Taylor, and The Manners and Monsters series1 by Tilly Wallace.

~*~

1. Not a single book, but I read the entire series in August and September and it was quirky and I loved it.

… I’m free and I love to be free, to live my life the way I want… to say and do whatever I please.

Lesley Gore; You Don’t Own Me

Five Things (27)

Posted in Ballet, Crafty, My New York, The Telly, Thoughts by

August was unexpectedly busy?

— Thing One —

My car’s AC died during the first heatwave of the summer. I knew there was a small leak so I expected it, but it came earlier this year than last year. When the mechanic looked over the car they told me that there was a large leak and they would have to dismantle part of the car to fix it. So, I decided to buy a new car.

I have been thinking about buying a new car for quite some time now1 but this AC situation was the tipping point. I crowdsourced people’s experience with buying a car2 and decided to go with a car broker. We spoke about what I wanted and decided to go with a Rav4. This ended up being a stress-free process for me and I would highly recommend using a car broker if you can! The new car was delivered to my driveway five weeks after my AC died, and I didn’t step foot into a dealership. Now I’m ready to drive long distances, and also trying to learn the new tech.

— Thing Two —

Earlier in August I went to see Alvin Ailey in Bryant park. They had a pre-show dance class which I sat out because it was on the other side of the park from our blankets. The show was great, but being there reminded me of all the times my friends and I watched movies in the park during the summer. We’d spread out our blankets and bring our dinners, then we’d hang out together until the sun went down and the movie started, it was an amazing bonding time and I’m sad I let that go3. I think I’ll try to do it once or twice next year, for the experience and for the fellowship.

— Thing Three —

I finished two crocheting projects which means I only have the scarf I’m knitting and the blanket I’m making for my neighbour left to complete.

Last month I finished a headband which took me about four hours to make, and then a blanket which started out as a project to finish some yarn I already had, only to end with me purchasing three more skeins of yarn and taking me 35hrs to finish!

— Thing Four —

Later in August I went to see a documentary following Alex Honnold as he climbed Ingmikortilaq in Greenland. This time, instead of being solo he had some scientists for part of the journey and his rock climbing friends for the rest. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how they shot the documentary, were there drones? Who did the sound? I have so many questions about the production!

Overall it was a great experience, we were on an incline in Central Park and the screen was at the bottom of the incline which created a natural stadium seating so seeing the screen was not a problem! I don’t know why I don’t hang out at Central Park more, it’s really beautiful there4.

— Thing Five —

The rest of August was pretty busy, I think I had more events closer to my home for the first time since I moved. I felt as though I was finally building a community close to home. I hope September carries on with more of the same. Here’s to the fall, the PSLs, the cozy decor and friendships5!

~*~

1. Five years ago my car stalled over a wintry President’s Day weekend and left me stranded for the night (thankfully with friends nearby).
2. Facebook has its uses.
3. It’s really surprising to me at times how much I have to intentionally step out of wanting to be alone.
4. Except for the rats that came out at night while we were walking back to the train.
5. And no more crazy encounters that leave me slightly traumatized.

August slipped away into a moment in time, cause it was never mine…
Wanting was enough… to live for the hope of it all cancel plans just in case you’d call.

Taylor Swift; August

Museum Mile 2023

Posted in Cultured, Gallery by

I can’t believe that the last time I did the Museum Mile Festival was in 2011, but here we are, twelve years later and I’ve finally made it out once more to the festival.

For a bit of background, there is a stretch of museums that runs along 5th Avenue between 82nd and 110th Street, this stretch was given the name “Museum Mile” and once a year 5th Avenue shuts down as museums along that strip open for free from 6pm – 9pm. I found out about the event in 2010 from a friend and wanted to make a tradition of it, but here we are 12 years later finally visiting the museums again!

The first year I went to the Guggenheim, and the following year I visited the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and the Museum of the City of New York. This year my friends wanted to go to the Guggenheim and El Museo del Barrio.

I got to 5th Avenue first so I joined the line for the Guggenheim which wrapped around the block1! At 6pm they started letting people in and it took us 20 minutes to get to the front of the line. Given the layout, it didn’t feel very claustrophobic, but I have visited the museum during regular hours and it was definitely more packed. Along the spiral, they had work from Gego – a Venezuelan visual artist. The photo doesn’t do it justice, but her work was very geometrical and it appealed to my instinctual need for order. There was something genuinely relaxing about observing her work.

We also dipped into the gallery with the Picassos2 and visited the A Year With Children 2023 gallery which had art from public school kids. What an experience that must have been for these kids to see their art in a museum, it was a fun and colourful display.

Later we took a stroll to El Museo del Barrio, passing several DJs and bands along the way. At the museum we took our time walking through the galleries, the block print works were among my favourites, but then I saw this stunning work by Eloy Blanco3, it had tiny stick figures on the red background; I loved it.


The night ended at the Shake Shack, with good laughs and conversations. Let’s see if I do this again next year!

~*~

1. The end of the line for me was Madison and 89th Street!
2. Every time I posted a Picasso from that day online I added “Ok, I like it, Picasso“, and then found it highly hilarious when the Guggenheim liked one of my tweets. What is the internet?
3. Another Venezualean artist!

Cherry Blossoms in Brooklyn

Posted in My New York by


It’s been on my bucket list for over a decade, and finally, I visited the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for the first time this spring to see the cherry blossoms. I’m not really sure why I waited so long – other than my dislike for crowds – but I’m so glad I finally decided to go1. There weren’t a lot of people there, and getting to the gardens itself was so easy on mass transit.

It was peak blossom season so all the cherry blossom trees were blooming brilliantly. I know there’s beauty in the chaos of free-flowing gardens, but I love when gardens have symmetry, and the BBG did not disappoint with its lined walkways and symmetrical tree lines. My little perfectionist’s heart felt such a sense of awe and calm2. Outside of the cherry blossoms, we meandered around the gardens checking out most of the sections including the bonsai trees3, and tulips (my personal faves).

Despite the fact that my allergy meds were not working due to the amount of pollen in the air I had a fantastic time and would absolutely recommend a trip. I only wish I visited sooner!

~*~

1. Thanks to my friend who threw out the invite! I really don’t think I’d have motivated myself to go otherwise.
2. I almost asked my friend and her friends to do a version of the Wes Anderson trend that’s been going around on TikTok, but I held back.
3. I used to have two bonsai trees, but unfortunately, my lack of skills (and clearly non-green thumb) meant an early departure for both.

~*~

Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

Posted in Cultured, My New York, Opera by

A few weeks after seeing Don Giovani (my first opera experience) I was fortunate enough to see Die Zauberflöte – The Magic Flute. This opera was also written by Mozart, and it’s interesting to hear the differences in the tone of the music. While Don Giovani felt mostly tumultuous, The Magic Flute felt light with hints of shadow. As a person not familiar with operatic music, neither having studied it nor spent much time listening to it, I know that there are tons of things I might have missed or that went over my head, so take whatever I say with a grain of salt, I’m speaking through a limited view.

Like Don Giovanni, the costumes were very modern, but in this case, it felt out of place. I expected fantastical but was given pedestrian. Perhaps it’s the way I imagine fantasy when I read it, or the way it’s depicted on screen, but I wanted flashier costumes. I read somewhere1 that the Met Opera is struggling to bring in younger crowds and had to dip into its endowment to cover its operations cost this year, I don’t have a solution for that, but I don’t think modernizing the costumes is that solution. However, that was the end of my disappointment. The rest of it was magnificent.

The pit was raised to include the musicians in the show – for the bells and flute – there was a foley artist2 providing sound effects and a visual artist who projected his chalk art on the screen in real-time. I read in a review that there was too much going on, but I think there was just enough going on, especially against the stark stage and costuming. The visual artist made it feel a little bit like a silent movie while the foley artist made it feel a little like an early 1900s cartoon; so maybe I can see what that reviewer was hinting at, but I was strangely ok with this mix.

The singers and orchestra were amazing- I adored Stephen Milling’s voice as Sarastro. Overall the experience was enthralling, and again I’m so in awe of the fact that no one is miked! The songs were in German, and I knew the synopsis so the story was easy to follow along3. Of course, The Queen of the Night’s Aria (Der Hölle Rache) was the most recognizable piece of the entire show4 but my favourite was Ach, ich fühl5!

It was a fantastically fun night that I was on a music and good company high for a few days afterwards.

~*~

1. Or maybe I saw it on TikTok?
2. Did I go home and casually look up foley artists after this? Perhaps! It’s quite fascinating.
3. Note that there are subtitles – every chair has a screen that shows subtitles – but mine was broken, so for the first 20 minutes I basically listened to the show instead of reading.
4. I made a joke that it’s funny that this is the only song people will remember when they leave, and on the subway platform, waiting for the train someone was singing that part.
5. Of course I have to like the most dramatic love song.

~*~

If you don’t feel love’s yearning, I shall find peace in death!

Die Zauberflöte (K620), Ach, ich fühl