Snapshot NYC for me was a great experience, being able to go to a neighborhood I really liked, take some photos, which I don't normally do, and finally manipulating them to get the right effect. (I won't be saying what I did to leave it a surprise until I present my photos.) This exercise/assignment made me look very closely at the city we live in, and I noticed things I woudn't normally notice such as the kinds of stores, restaurants, and small bits of street art and stickers on street lights that are spread throughout the neighborhood.

Today, I went to a lecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called "Bamboo and Silk," which was about the history of music in China over the last 8000 years from crane bone flutes from 6000 BCE to the beginning of Western influence in Chinese music starting in 1912 when the Quin Dynasty ended. The lecture, in my opinion, was really dull, but there was a silver lining on that gray cloud when an ensemble of Chinese musicians played some music from various parts of China (but mainly Cantonese) and from various periods of time from ancient to new-ish.

I thought that the visit to the Mishkin Gallery was interesting, since I learned how to analyze the various pictures in the gallery. I have found that guided tours really help me understand the pictures in a gallery, even if I feel that there is not much to be said about a picture. For instance, there was a very empty picture of three trees, and I thought there was not much to be said about it.

Fall for Dance was different from the ballets I am used to seeing, as it showcases multiple dance troupes rather than just one, so it was interesting to see how these different dance troups compare.

I went to see an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of art on Vermeer, and one of his most famous paintings, The Milkmaid, which has not been in New York City since the World Fair of 1939. This time, the painting was brought to New York City to commemerate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage to what is now New York City. The painting, I also learned, is beloved by Americans and Dutch alike, which would explain the large crowds.