Memorable Trips by Subway

The week after New Year's I took the A train up to The Met Cloisters. I always wanted to see it after it snowed, thinking it would be rather picturesque. And it didn't disappoint. And, since most of the tourists had gone home, I felt like I was literally the king of the castle. I had it mostly to myself!

I love these types of trips, which you can easily take via subway from Forest Hills. They're so easy to do, and yet when you arrive you feel like you've gone on a real journey.

For this one, all you do is take the E train from Forest Hills to 42nd St., then easily cross over to the A train. Then, just sit back and relax and in like 20 minutes get out at the 190th St. Station. Then, just walk about 10 minutes through Fort Tryon Pack and you're there!

When you emerge at 190th St. you feel like you have really left the city. In addition to visiting this unique museum, which is in the form of a Medieval Castle, you get a spectacular view of the Hudson River, and the park itself is beautiful.

Another trip you can take from 71st/Continental in Forest Hills is to Coney Island, via the F train. It takes about an hour and a half. It's really a thrill to pop up out of the subway at that world-famous beachfront community.

Ok, so you don't want to go to the beach during the winter? I don't blame you. Then, how about an indoor shopping mall that will blow your mind? That's the recently-opened Oculus, otherwise known as Westfield World Trade Center. For this one, after you enter 71st/Continental, take the E train all the way to its last stop in Manhattan, and then walk into the Oculus through the doors left from the original World Trade Center. You don't ever have to be outdoors again until you return to Forest Hills!

Request for Austin St. Halloween Pics

A reader commented that they'd love to see some of the Halloween festivities that went on on Austin Street yesterday. So if anyone has any, please email them in to edgeofthecity@gmail.com

I myself was visiting with family in Manhattan yesterday and we went to the Museum of Natural History, where they turn the whole place into a spooky experience for the kids. Here's a few pics:

New Poll: September 11th Museum

Queens Museum's New Website

The newly-renovated Queens Museum just launched its new website. Click the image below:

Queens Museum Reopening: Inauguration Ceremonies from Around the Borough and the Globe

Saturday, November 9, 11:00 am – 9:00 pm, 2013

In this first of three consecutive days celebrating the reopening of the Queens Museum,Target Wide Open Weekend (November 9-11) kicks off with the opportunity for diverse communities to tell us how they would open a building and bless our new space. How do you inaugurate a space in India, Bulgaria, Mexico, or Taiwan? In addition join us for the Opening Reception and numerous performances related to Queens International 2013, and the other inaugural season exhibitions featuring solo exhibits of artists Pedro Reyes, Peter Schumann, and Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao as well as a group show of Cuban contemporary works. You’ll also have access to the first open studios of our new Artist Studio Program, and new installations of our permanent exhibitions. See Detailed Schedule of the day below:

Rendering of the new Queens Museum facade

11 – 2 pm
QI artist Lynley Bernstein‘s “Fishing for the Elusive Snakehead” a 2.5-hour guided fishing trip in search of the infamous Snakehead fish identified by the city authority to inhabit waterways in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Once caught, it must be submitted to the city. Gear and Bait provided, meets offsite, and ends at the Museum. For more information and to RSVP, please email: exhibitions@queensmuseum.org.

12:30-4:30pm

Video screenings of works by QI Taiwanese artists: CHANG Chien-Chi, CHEN Chieh-jen, HSU Chia-Wei, Jun YANG and YU Cheng-Ta

2 – 4 pm
Poets in the Galleries: Tan Lin
The Poets in the Galleries series utilizes the Museum’s exhibition space as an invigorating site for exploration, interactive readings and discussions. For four Saturdays in November and December 2013, a different poet will conduct a lively presentation in response to the Museum’s current biennial of Queens-based artists, Queens International 2013.

Today features poet Tan Lin. Tan Lin is the author of Lotion Bullwhip Giraffe, BlipSoak01, Ambience is a Novel with a Logo, Heath (Plagiarism/Outsource), 7 Controlled Vocabularies and Obituary 2004 and The Joy of Cooking (2010). His work has appeared in numerous journals including Conjunctions, Artforum, Cabinet, New York Times Book Review, Art in America, and Purple. His video, theatrical and LCD work have been shown at the Marianne Boesky Gallery, Yale Art Museum, Sophienholm Museum (Copenhagen), Ontological Hysterical Theatre, and as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Soundcheck Series. Lin is the recipient of a Getty Distinguished Scholar Grant for 2004-2005 and a Warhol Foundation/Creative Capital Arts Writing Grant to complete a book-length study of the writings of Andy Warhol. He has taught at the University of Virginia and Cal Arts, and currently teaches creative writing at New Jersey City University.

Schedule and participating artists:
November 9: Tan Lin
November 16: Stephen Motika
December 7: Charles Bernstein with Susan Bee
December 14: Patricia Spears Jones

3-5 pm

Multicultural Welcoming & Blessing Ceremonies including: Aztec Blessing by Calpulli Cetilitzi; Andean Ceremony by Estudiantina NY; Taiwanese artist Chin Chih Yang will perform as a master calligrapher, Using a brush specifically designed for the occasion to create innovative calligraphy to render logotypes and lucky words for guests. QI artist Vlada Tomova’s New York Bulgarian Women’s Choir presentig a new pieceA!Capella!Blessing!

3 – 6 pm
Opening in the Museum’s Community Partnership Gallery: An Inclusive World, a group exhibition organized by COPE NYC, a program that examines how art transforms the lives of those with a wide array of needs and abilities.

3 – 6 pm
Queens Museum Studio Program – Open Studios

4 – 5 pm
QI artist Joseph Heathcott offers Brooklyn-Queens Borderlands, a virtual guided walking tour along the Queens-Brooklyn border in the Panorama of the City of New York. While there you are welcome to enjoy the large scale photos of our buildings in various stages of construction, New York City Building Time Lapse, 2009 – 2013: Photographs by Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao

5:30-6 pm

Performance Llego FeFa by Magdalena Maria Campos-Pons and Neil Leonardcelebrating the reopening of the Museum and the opening of Citizens of the World: Cubans in Queens in the new The Shelley and Donald Rubin Gallery.

6- 630 pm

Fuijui Wang

QI artist Fujui Wang presents Hyper Transmission, a site-specific sound performance in the Atrium capturing locally sampled electromagnetic waves rendered in a specially devised directional speaker

630 – 8 pm
QI artist Matthew Volz’s Meanwhile Back in Queens, a live concert in collaboration with the Juan Wauters with Carmelle Safdie

8- 9pm

Joro-Boro

QI artist Joro-Boro presents Smuggled Party, a participatory DJ performance mashing up collected tunes from museum visitors’ MP3 players while also in collaboration with fellowBulgarian Collective performer Vlada Tomova‘s New York Bulgarian Women’s A Capella Choir.

_______________________________________________________________

Wide Open Weekend at the Queens Museum is generously supported by Target.

Queens International 2013 is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York, Contemporary Art Foundation, La Guardia Corporation, and Target.

Additional funding provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Reception sponsor Khajuraho Lite Beer.

The Queens Museum Reopens

.... and there are a ton of changes. The article in today's Times details them. It sounds really great.

A Local Place for a Global Neighborhood

On Saturday, the much-changed Queens Museum reopens, focusing on the wide world of art found in the cosmopolitan breadth of its borough’s population.

And here's the write-up from Time Out NY:

The Queens Museum reopens after major renovations 
Gone is the old World’s Fair ice-skating rink, replaced with skylit galleries, an airy atrium, event spaces, a café and artists’ studios. The new additions have doubled the institution’s size to 105,000 square feet—about two and a half times the size of Grand Central Terminal’s Main Concourse.

You can get to the museum via the 7 train and then by walking through the Park.
Flushing Meadows–Corona Park near 111th St and 49th Ave entrance, Queens (718-592-9700, queensmuseum.org). Wed–Sun noon–6pm; suggested donation $8, seniors and students $4, members and children under 5 free.

Beautiful....

From The Times:

ARTS
At the Metropolitan Museum, a New Wing, a New Vista
Published: October 27, 2011

On Nov. 1, after eight years of renovations, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will open its new Islamic wing.

Well, Beam Me Up

NYC is getting its very own space shuttle!

N.Y. / REGION
City Room: Space Shuttle to Land in Manhattan
Published: April 12, 2011
The Enterprise is a consolation prize for the Interpid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which had wanted one of the three shuttles that have carried astronauts into orbit.