Despite the late night we managed to leave the hotel in good time to get to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) soon after it opened. Albert was meeting his brother there so soon after we got instead we split up (his brother arrived soon after we got in and so they went off together).

Glen and I went to one of the top floors and checked out Picassos and Monets and Roussets and all these other modernist artists. The water lilies paintings by Monet were quite large and took up a whole wall each. It was nice to just sit and absorb it. I also liked the Futurism art. Then from the fifth floor to the sixth to see the Magritte exhibition which I really liked. The Surrealism stuff really messes with your head. Loved the “ceci c’est pas en pipe” and “the clairvoyant” (a man painting a picture of a bird while looking at an egg) and various others. Loved it.

After that, we went and had some lunch in the cafe then we zoomed a bit quickly through the rest of the floors. Museum fatigue had set in. In contract, Albert and his brother stayed there for seven hours and got kicked out at closing time.

On the street outside MoMA

Sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture.

Collective Suicide by David Alfaro Siqueiros. One of my favourites in the museum.

Picasso

Dynamism of a Soccer Player by Umberto Boccioni.

This look is because I said I wouldn’t eat his bruschetta.

I call it “Manhattan.”

Glen with a Jasper Johns.

Big clock in MoMA

LOVE, just on the street somewhere nearby.

Glen and I then looked in the shop before going up Fifth Avenue to the Abercrombie & Fitch store. Beautiful people in there, felt incredibly unworthy in contrast. We left without buying anything.

Got back to the hotel about 2:30…and had a nap. I don’t nap this much back home. Must be something about being on holiday. We roused ourselves at about 5:30 and organised to have dinner with Aaron in Chelsea at an Italian restaurant called Pepe Giallo.

We met at Aaron’s house in West Village and checked out his apartment before walking to the Chelsea Highline. The Highline used to be an overland railway built above the road. Disused for many years, it was ‘rescued’ and turned into a walkway that goes through Chelsea. Not only is it great for foot traffic, it’s been landscaped and designed so there are vistas down the streets and avenues, real gardens and vegetation, and places to sit and relax. Going through at night, it was the perfect way to get to our restaurant and there were other people out enjoying the warm evening too.

We arrived at the restaurant about 7:30pm and ordered our food. Good sized portions (meaning not excessive) and the food was delicious. Glen and I shared a chicken fettuccine and then he had veal scaloppini while I had balsamic chicken. We also had dessert. The wine was good too. Great place to go if you’re in the area and keen on Italian.

A cab uptown to Flaming Saddles in Hell’s Kitchen, a cowboy-themed gay bar. Albert arrived soon after we got there and then some friends of Aaron’s, so we were a good sized group. Being a Monday night we probably accounted for about a quarter or fifth of the clientele. The staff boot-scooted on the bar at semi-regular intervals so that was fun to watch. They were also playing old Western movies on the TVs but, being a gay bar, they were the camp kind of Westerns. One I can’t remember the name of but the other was Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds. Good choice.

We stayed out until about 11 or 11:30 and then all left together before going our separate ways.