Category — Blurbs

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I was watching the movie Hitch a few days ago and noticed that at one point Eva Mendes eats with a friend at Rice to Riches. It is an eatery located on Spring Street. I have been there twice so far, and the experience only got better the second time. The restaurant sells rice pudding, but not the rice pudding you commonly see, I am talking about THE Rice pudding. The masters of all rice puddings. The eatery has a very modern look, and I when I first walked in, I had a similar feeling to that of when I walk  into an Apple Store.  Rice to Riches has a good amount of flavors to choose from as well. Popular names include Stubborn Banana, The Edge of Rum Raisin, Don’ Cappuccino, Coconut Coma, Chocolate Chip Flirt and many more. Notice that each flavor has it’s own creative twist. And the options do not end there. I was able to also pick from a wide range of toppings. They included coconut, vanilla sauce, and whip cream. Most importantly, this work of art can bring together an audience for a night made of rice pudding. The rest of the audience certainly loved the mix of coconut and stubborn banana. Rice to riches is a great place to eat, and the company was just another additive.

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The Museum of Modern Art, right in the heart of 5^th Avenue, is a place that fuels creativity, ignites minds, and brings the artistic side out of all of is. In this museum lie somewhat permanent exhibits as well as special exhibitions. For the past as well as upcoming weeks, the museum features Claude Monet, displaying some of his most well-known and prominent pieces, The Water Lilies. Monet, one day looked upon his elaborate water lily pond and gardens and using that as his motivation, he began his more than now 40 large-scale panels between the years of 1915 and 1926. The first painting I saw was the The Japanese Footbridge which fueled Monet’s series of paintings of his pond at Giverny. Compared to his more naturalistic works in the past, this painting features a fiery palette of maroons, rusts, and oranges only unique to Monet. As I move around the museum, I could not help but see a large 3-panel piece of art. The most famous painting, a triptych has water lilies at the center, shimmering with reflections from the clouds overhead. The water surface fills the composition so that clues to the artist’s and the viewer’s vantage point are eliminated. In response to Monet’s request himself, these panels were installed at a slight angle in order to properly portray the piece. [Read more →]

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The Skyscraper Museum is located on 33 Battery Place. Their current exhibit is called China Prophecy: Shanghai. The museum basically focuses on the skyscrapers in Shanghai and compares it with the skyscrapers in the United States. In addition, the exhibit compares the views and vision of skyscrapers that Americans had during the 20th century, and how it was different compared to reality. The museum informs its visitors about the history of skyscrapers in both New York and Shanghai, and why they were created. It examined the structures, and shows all the skyscrapers located in shanghai in a timeline. The museum has films and photographs of both the present and the past of both cities and renderings of the complex structure of the skyscrapers. The exhibit explains that the speed of building skyscrapers in Shanghai is faster than NYC during the 20th century.” As the world’s largest city in 1930, New York boasted a population of nearly 7 million and some 200 skyscrapers –more than all other cities combined at that time. Today, as high-rises proliferate everywhere, Hong Kong holds the title with 7,200. Still   ascending, though, Shanghai is surely China’s prophecy of the urban future.”

Blurb 4: Maroon 5 concert at St. John’s.

IceSkating

Thursday the third of December, I went ice-skating at Bryant Park. Winter was upon us, and for the first day in a month or so, the weather was actually warm. The sights were beautiful, and the tree was ready for lighting. The tall towering buildings surrounded our little pond of utopia. My friends and I skated among the chunks of people in a perfectly formed oval. I am not quite sure why we went counter-clockwise, but that was the magical direction everyone skated in. Every few minutes, someone would tumble, only to be lifted by the nearest staff member. People were civil – they helped one other up; they smiled. For the first time in a long time, New Yorkers looked happy. The holiday season with its tree lightings, holiday medleys, and ice-skating rinks makes for a friendlier Manhattan.

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The first episode of Glee was broadcasted in May 2009 on Fox and continued its season this September. This comedic yet touching show features both old and contemporary hits ranging from ballads to musical numbers. Each episode never ceases to amaze its audience always putting on a performance that gets harder and harder to top. With the combination of each character’s unique and strong voices, the songs are performed with harmony and dynamics that can move the soul. Moreover, each number has its own story behind it and with it, comes emotions that can bring joy or tears. The characters possess great charisma along with passion for what they do. Undoubtedly, they are all very great actors. [Read more →]

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This blurb gave me an excuse to go the MoMA, which I have always wanted to visit, but was just too lazy. I enjoyed everything from the modern art to the modern architecture of the building, but there was one particular artist’s work that I just loved. His works have simple colors, simple shapes; there’s nothing complex about them. I’m sure everyone has seen this painting before (pause). This composition was done by Piet Mondrian. I had seen this painting once in the 5^th grade, I did not know the name of the artist or the title of it at the time, but I never forgot the painting because I found it so unique. At the MoMA, I was surprised and thrilled to discover Mondrian painted other paintings with the same style and that the painting I had seen in elementary school had siblings. I learned that his style of painting is a form of abstraction called Neo-plasticism. I don’t know why I’m so fascinated by these particular works by Mondrian. Perhaps it’s the simplicity of it. It is composed of colored rectangles, and Mondrian tends to use the same colors: red, blue, white, yellow, sometimes grey, and black for the lines. Or maybe it’s because I like rectangles. I like things with perfect angles. It bothers me when things have rounded corners. In these paintings everything is so straight, right-angled, and perfect.

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The Broadway show “Next to Normal” was truly a great play that’s incomparable to anything else. Next to Normal is a show that is played in the Booth Theatre on Broadway. It is about a mother has a bipolar disorder and it shows the effect of her illness on her family. The musical addresses issues such as grieving a loss, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry, and suburban life.

The opening scene of the show was very eye-catching. The mother was making sandwiches on the kitchen floor. To the audience, we saw four members in the family, Diana (the mom), Dan (the dad), Natalie (the daughter) and Gabe (the son). After a few minutes into Act I, Diana emerged with a cake singing “Happy Birthday” to her son, Dan and Natalie were devastated. Just when we, the audience, were questioning Dan and Natalie’s reactions, we found out that Gabe was actually dead. The Gabe we saw on the stage was actually the ghost that Diana saw as her son. Since Diana is always grieving over her dead son, she never pays any attention to her daughter Natalie, who is actually alive. This type of neglect by her mother resulted in a depressed Natalie.

Throughout the play, the family goes through many things to cope with the death of Gabe. From the play we saw how one person can have such a traumatizing effect on a whole family.

Another factor that made the play so great was the lightning. Throughout the play, different colored lights would switch on and off to show emotions and help create the environment and mood for the situation.

It is a Broadway show that everyone should watch!

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*Unfortunately most of the pictures are from the internet because i didnt go there thinking I was going to do my blurb on it.
**Background music is the ESPN Sportscenter theme song