New York, New York (Day 14)
So I slept in a bit, because I could.
Went to the hotel, ate lunch, then went to the Morgan library.
It was rather amazing.
I am such a closet bibliophile.
I don't even realize myself how much I love books until I am confronted with several hundred lovely old ones. Or even one amazing one.
There was an exhibit of book binding and O-M-Freaking-G.
There is a book called Cirque written by Andre Suares and Illustrated by Georges Rouault. It was bound by Paul Bonet in 1959 and is, without a doubt, one of the most lovely things I have ever seen in my life. It was bound in goatskin with inlaid goatskin of various colors in the most beautiful pattern, all outlined in gold and so lovely I could cry. I want so badly to see if the inside is as lovely as the outside.
Then was the horticultural society, which was interesting if only for the rows of plants lining the windows.
Then I walked to different strawberry stores to try and exchange the shirt I'd bought the other day. It had a hole in it. So I finally found a well-stocked store and exchanged it for an unholy shirt that proclaims NEW YORK CITY in neon comic book style. Like 80's meets Lichtenstein. FABulous.
Then I went back to MAD. I <3 MAD. I bought the book on the permanent collection and found out that there was a special event on. MAD has an artist in residence program where they bring in a few artists every three months. They work in an open studio on the sixth floor. Visitors can go up and watch them work or ask them questions about their process. Well last night was a "meet the artists" thing and it was really interesting. I'm considering applyin for it at some point. Mainly because I love that museum and maybe if I work there they might eventually buy one of my pieces. :D It would be nice to have a piece of mine in a museum that I love.
Then I went back to the hostel for an interesting night.
As I walked up the stairs I saw water leaking into the stairwell on the third floor. I thought it might be coming from our bathroom. But when I got into the room, I found water leaking into our bathroom from the ceiling. So I went and told the desk downstairs. The girl said she'd leave a note for the maintenance man (a NOTE? WTH??). While I was down there, a fire man walking in all suited up with a tank on his back and everything. Apparently someone had pulled the fire alarm on the second floor. So the strobe lights and sirens were going off sporadically as they were trying to figure out the problem. I went up to the fifth floor to see if I could track down the wellspring. So I knocked on the door of the room above us. Turns out their bathroom was about three inches deep in water. So I waded in, removed the top of their toilet and flipped the flappy thing. Then I took a hanger and propped up the rod with the floaty bulb so it turned off for sure.*
I then got some towels and started mopping.
Everything settled down, the flood waters receded, and I slept rather well.
*BTW... a toilet is a phenomenally simple machine. You push the handle and it pulls the chain which is attached to a rubber flap. The flap lets all the water run out into the toilet. When it's done, the flap closes and the tank starts to refill with water. When it gets full, the water pushes the floaty bulb up and when the rod it is attached to gets to the horizontal position, the water shuts off. If the flap doesn't close, the water keeps leaking, and the tank never fills, and the water keeps running. Easy to fix... jiggle the handle a bit and look to make sure the flap is down.
You now have no excuse for having a toilet flood. You're welcome.
Went to the hotel, ate lunch, then went to the Morgan library.
It was rather amazing.
I am such a closet bibliophile.
I don't even realize myself how much I love books until I am confronted with several hundred lovely old ones. Or even one amazing one.
There was an exhibit of book binding and O-M-Freaking-G.
There is a book called Cirque written by Andre Suares and Illustrated by Georges Rouault. It was bound by Paul Bonet in 1959 and is, without a doubt, one of the most lovely things I have ever seen in my life. It was bound in goatskin with inlaid goatskin of various colors in the most beautiful pattern, all outlined in gold and so lovely I could cry. I want so badly to see if the inside is as lovely as the outside.
Then was the horticultural society, which was interesting if only for the rows of plants lining the windows.
Then I walked to different strawberry stores to try and exchange the shirt I'd bought the other day. It had a hole in it. So I finally found a well-stocked store and exchanged it for an unholy shirt that proclaims NEW YORK CITY in neon comic book style. Like 80's meets Lichtenstein. FABulous.
Then I went back to MAD. I <3 MAD. I bought the book on the permanent collection and found out that there was a special event on. MAD has an artist in residence program where they bring in a few artists every three months. They work in an open studio on the sixth floor. Visitors can go up and watch them work or ask them questions about their process. Well last night was a "meet the artists" thing and it was really interesting. I'm considering applyin for it at some point. Mainly because I love that museum and maybe if I work there they might eventually buy one of my pieces. :D It would be nice to have a piece of mine in a museum that I love.
Then I went back to the hostel for an interesting night.
As I walked up the stairs I saw water leaking into the stairwell on the third floor. I thought it might be coming from our bathroom. But when I got into the room, I found water leaking into our bathroom from the ceiling. So I went and told the desk downstairs. The girl said she'd leave a note for the maintenance man (a NOTE? WTH??). While I was down there, a fire man walking in all suited up with a tank on his back and everything. Apparently someone had pulled the fire alarm on the second floor. So the strobe lights and sirens were going off sporadically as they were trying to figure out the problem. I went up to the fifth floor to see if I could track down the wellspring. So I knocked on the door of the room above us. Turns out their bathroom was about three inches deep in water. So I waded in, removed the top of their toilet and flipped the flappy thing. Then I took a hanger and propped up the rod with the floaty bulb so it turned off for sure.*
I then got some towels and started mopping.
Everything settled down, the flood waters receded, and I slept rather well.
*BTW... a toilet is a phenomenally simple machine. You push the handle and it pulls the chain which is attached to a rubber flap. The flap lets all the water run out into the toilet. When it's done, the flap closes and the tank starts to refill with water. When it gets full, the water pushes the floaty bulb up and when the rod it is attached to gets to the horizontal position, the water shuts off. If the flap doesn't close, the water keeps leaking, and the tank never fills, and the water keeps running. Easy to fix... jiggle the handle a bit and look to make sure the flap is down.
You now have no excuse for having a toilet flood. You're welcome.