Peebo.net

Ah… the weekend.

Last weekend was fantastic. Read on and be jealous.

Friday Night
Katy and saw “Riding Giants,” a documentary about big wave surfers. (It was directed by Stacey Peralta who also did “Dog Town and Z Boys,” a documentary about skateboarding.) Very cool film. It didn’t make me want to be a surfer, but it did make me want to do something.

After the movie we went to our favorite Korean Place, Temple, which is only two blocks from our apartment. We hadn’t been there in a while and the owner came over and told us she’d “missed” us and gave us an order of dumplings on the house.

Saturday
We woke and had a leisurely morning—reading and listening to This American Life on the radio. Katy and I played squash in the afternoon. (We’re not exactly pros… but we have a lot of fun.)

That evening we trekked out to Queens and had dinner at Leah & Brian’s apartment. They have a great apartment, BTW. Huge. Three bedrooms. A balcony covered with plants. The inside of the apartment is funky. It’s decorated with photos and art works and artifacts from Leah & Brian’s life. Great place.

After dinner we had drinks and played hearts. Eventually we even inflicted our home video from Brazil on them (poor things). It was a fun evening. So fun we stayed the whole night. (Guestrooms are cool.)

Sunday
Sunday was the highlight of the weekend. Leah & Brian let us sleep in until about eleven. (We were going to get up early to go to the beach but the weather did not cooperate.) After we finally got up they took us for a yummy brunch at what can only be described as a Hip Queens Diner. I had an egg white and tabouli scramble on a bed of spinach with potatoes and a scoop of yogurt dressing on the side. (Yes, that kind of place.) The food was excellent.

B&L then took us on a driving tour of Queens. (A car! A car!) The first stop was the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City. I think they must be between installations because there wasn’t much work there. But the park overlooks the East River and offers a great view of upper Manhattan and Roosevelt Island.

Next we went to artists’ space called the Flux Factory (also in Queens) to see an exhibit called “Cartünnel.” Imagine a large loft space. Now put a maze constructed of wood and cardboard in that room–a maze with multiple levels, stairs, and even a fireman’s pole. Now imagine you had 10 artists, illustrators and, cartoonists decorate the walls of this maze with their work. And imagine the work, in all in different styles, in all different mediums, was built around a single story concept so as you walk through the maze you’re seeing the progression of this story. However, being a maze, you sometimes have to make a choice—left, right—and your choice affects the outcome, and even the visual style, of the story told in the maze. That’s Cartünnel. It was very cool.

Next, after a wrong turn that caused us to end up in midtown Manhattan, we decided to drive up to The Cloisters. Located on the northern end of Manhattan in Fort Tryon Park, The Cloisters is one of the most beautiful museums in New York City. It’s a museum of Medieval Art but it’s also much more than that. The building plan is based (roughly) on that of a typical medieval monastery. But the amazing thing is that elements of the museum’s structure are actual artifacts from medieval monasteries. A doorway may be from the 12th century. The roof supports from the 15th century. The building itself is a part of the exhibition. There are also a number of outdoor courtyards, also with elements from real medieval monasteries, and the whole thing is located in the middle of a gorgeous park that overlooks the Hudson River. It’s quite an amazing place.

After The Cloisters we drove down the west side of Manhattan to the 79th Street Boat Basin Cafe. This outdoor café, situated under vaulted stone ceilings, overlooks the Hudson River and a marina filled with houseboats and sailboats. I shared a pitcher of beer and had a burger to finish off the day.

That was my weekend. Jealous yet?

posted by peebo on Saturday, August 7th, 2004 at 4:50 pm
View realted posts in category: life
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.