WHY I LOVE NEW YORK...

Lots of people come to the Big Apple to visit museums, see Broadway shows, eat at fancy restaurants and shop.  We are not dissimilar.  We like those things too.  BUT there is one overwhelming reason we have learned to love New York City.

It's because only in NYC can one get a good education on what is "art".  You may think this education is easy, with all the art museums and galleries in The Big Apple.  But, after a few trips here, we have had to broaden our insight into "what is art".  For instance, this morning, on the front page of the Arts section  of the New York Times was an article, accompanied by a picture, of a naked man sweeping wall street.  Yup. Naked. With a broom. What was the occasion, you ask?  Well, it was an art installation called "Ocularpation:Wall Street" by an artist named Zefrey no, I did not misspell his name, I promise) Throwell. There were 3 arrests: two men and a woman "dressed" as a stock broker, a janitor, and a dog-walker, until they dropped their drawers, so to speak, and became quickly "au natural".  And while some  viewers just yawned, others were snapping pictures for their friends. Guess they were students of "art" also.

The artist himself dressed/undressed as a hot dog vendor!  And pronounced the art project a roaring success before he went to the precinct to bail out his friends.  Of course there were others -- 45 of them -- who maybe overslept and got there a little late in time to undress and re-dress in time to escape the paddy wagon!  See why I love New York??

Now, you say, but that is only one art installation.  You can't make generalizations from just one "art piece".  In our many trips to NYC we have "grown" in our appreciation of art.  At the Whitney we have seem glass piled in a corner.  That's art.  We saw a woman crawling, with a 40 foot poop coming out of her bottom.  That is also art.  It was there we saw the "penis chair", sewn or stuffed by an artist who ended up in an insane asylum.  I can understand.  We saw two chartreuse Hoover vacuums ( just like the one I had when we were first married) inside a plexiglass box. I should have saved mine, as now it is "art".  And there was the pornographic Roman orgy movie that was playing continuously, where my kids could not believe I sat down and watched.  I REALLY was too tired to go on!  Really!!   What about a big wheel that goes around and around and randomly fires paint at a huge wall?!  That's at the Guggenheim.  Until I saw it here, I never realized that lollipops in a row was art -- or lemon meringue pies, for that matter!

So now I have a whole different perspective on what is art!  I guess you could say "ART" -- that capital letter A-R-T -- is really anything.  Just ask the police at the precinct next to Wall Street this Monday.