Tourist Guide

The New York Aquarium is a place to go if you want to learn more about marine life and conservation. The aquarium is a great place to take the kids, they will have a lot of fun. All the exhibits are geared toward educating the younger population and raise awareness. Specifically the touch pool is something that most children can take away as a very memorable and educational experience. They get to touch sea stars, sea urchins and horseshoe crabs and at the same time learn about these creatures. It’s an interactive experience between both the animals and the kids but also the docent volunteers who are there to assist the children and tell them interesting facts about these species.

Must see: Walruses and Feeding

They are one of the most popular attractions in the aquarium mostly because of their enormous size. It shocks many people to visit to see these mammals in real life. They can weigh over a ton and the ones in this aquarium (specifically the older male) weigh close to 2 tons. There are 3 in the tank in total: the mom, the son, and an elderly (and almost blind) female walrus.

The trainers and the three walruses have a close relationship that they have developed over so many years. They perform various tricks with all the cute mushy stuff in between. These shows are great since walruses have to eat a lot throughout the day anyway and they love to show off even when there are no trainers around.

Must see: Sea Otters

These two otters are the cutest and biggest otters I have ever seen. They are in different pools because they are males and also have very different personalities. One is quite old and grooms himself for hours each day. The other is very active and friendly; he even responds to his name – Sparky when he isn’t too distracted by the numerous “food toys/puzzles” he is playing with. They can be seen from the outside and the indoor-lower level of the aquarium (walruses too) in the Sea Cliff Exhibit.

Must see: Sea Lion Show

This show takes about 30 minutes and involves only one sea lion, but they switch between two sea lions throughout the day so that they don’t get too worn out. The show is great, especially for kids: they play Spongebob and Dora at the beginning of the show to get everyone pumped and all throughout the performance and all the tricks, the trainer does a terrific job at getting the audience excited and engaged. At the end for an extra fee they allow families to have some time with the sea lions, take pictures and of course get those infamous wet kisses.

There are many other exciting exhibits in the NYA including:

ALIEN STINGERS

EXPLORE THE SHORE

GLOVER’S REEF AND CONSERVATION HALL

SHARKS

PLANET EARTH: 4D EXPERIENCE (MOVIE)

The New York Aquarium is located in the heart of Coney Island. You can take a walk on the boardwalk to Luna Park or Brighton Beach. In the summer month’s you can enjoy fireworks on Fridays’s at 9:45pm and concerts held atleast once a week. And for those daredevils you can ride the Cyclone – at your own risk.

The aquarium has a food court where you can purchase soft drinks, pretzels, nachos, chicken fingers, fries, popcorn and ice cream. If you wish to eat outside of the aquarium there are lots of options right on the boardwalk, such as the world’s famous Nathan’s and other fast food joints. There is McDonald’s on Mermaid and Cropsey Ave. There is also a Popeyes and several Deli’s and Pizzeria’s on Surf Ave, moments away from the beach.

Getting here is easy! But might take a while.
To get to the NYA you can take the Q train or the F train to West 8th Street, which directly takes you to the aquarium and the boardwalk. You can also take the D train and the N train to Stillwell Ave and either walk to the NYA or take a train one stop to West 8th St. Some buses that go there (B36, B68)

HOURS OF OPERATION

“I Love to Beat You” by  Dorothy Ionnone 1969-1970
Exhibition: Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists 1958-1968

This was a very explicit painting and the artist herself is famous for her psychedelic and erotically-charged work. In this painting the woman is in power and in control of the man sexually which is often not how men are portrayed to be. The title pretty much suggests that this is also about domestic violence. The woman has the genetalia of a man, which suggests that the artist wanted to switch the roles of the sexes, where women are the superiors. This is meant to make people uncomfortable which is always exciting, but also create room for discussion on the sensitive topics that this piece might bring up.

“Triptych II (Beach Girl)” by Marjorie Strider 1964
Exhibition: Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists 1958-1968

This piece captures three almost identical poses of a pin-up style bikini model with 3D breasts. It almost humors the typical one-dimensional sexuality that is portrayed in the Pop culture; clearly the breasts always grab the viewers attention, but now its exaggerated and looks in a way pornographic. Both of these works of the exhibit try to bring attention to the experiences and expectations of women in the 60’s and 70’s.

I love the MoMa for its’ photography but I appreciate photography in general, which is why I chose these two photographs. This first one is called “Nan One Month After Being Battered” by Nan Goldin taken in 1984. At the age of 31 this woman still had a bloody eye a month later after being brutally beaten. She is facing the camera head on and her expression is composed or perhaps hardened; the contrast too, brings out the red and drags our attention to her lips and eyes.  This sends a powerful message about domestic violence. It’s brave of her to put this picture on display, since most women are embarrassed and don’t speak out against this ongoing issue.

This photograph is called “Nice”. It was taken by Lisette Model in 1938. This photo I found to be a bit humorous because of her unusual clothing style and body type. I haven’t seen many photos like these, but it seems that Model was trying to capture the reality or perhaps another side to the story. As this picture was taken during the Great Depression, the photo itself does not reflect the conditions of the time period. Instead this woman is overweight which suggests that she is not starving nor without a shelter. She seems pretty comfortable, except the sun in her eyes which ironically captures her with a bitter expression. Behind her are cars and buildings which don’t really say much about the Depression. Her expression alone might be the truth behind this picture after all.

The “Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer” sculpture was unlike any I have seen thus far in the European Collection or even in the whole museum. It stood out amongst the typical naked statues of men, women and children that I have seen in this collection. The bronze statue of this very elegant ballet dancer represents beauty and a type of form, specifically in dance. The careful position of her feet and arms show us the proper etiquette of a dancer. The original sculpture by Edgar Degas in 1881 was in wax form of a ballet student in Ballet Opera named Marie van Goethem. The wax form was a more realistic version of this dancer (with a flesh colored tint, horsehair wig, silk ribbon, ballet slippers and a tutu), which depicted the young dancer as more of a copy rather than a representation that it is now.

As soon as I walked into the exhibit of Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, my eyes drifted to these Asmat bis poles. There were about ten immensely tall woodcarvings lined up next to each other. It is impossible not to notice these 18 foot bis poles. Each pole is unique to each represented individual in the Asmat region (Papua Province, Indonesia). Primarily these poles were carved to commemorate the lives of important individuals (usually warriors), and served as a promise that their deaths will be avenged. In their culture, death of an individual was never accidental whether in war or by some magical powers. This created an imbalance, which was corrected by the living killing the enemy. This would usually occur during a bis feast where male elders would go on a hunting raid. Currently, the bis feast occurs to alleviate a specific crisis or for male initiation. These poles strangely enough were intended to be around for a short period of time. After the feast, The Asmat people let these poles rot on the groves of sago palms to strengthen the palms with their supernatural powers. Astonishingly, they were carved from a single piece of wood, typically the mangrove tree, as well as a lot of time and effort to be created. The roots were of the tree carved into the winglike projections at the top of the pole. They represented fertility and signified a continuation of the family/male lineage.

Magnetic Fields sounded like a trance or an electronic type of band. I had no idea that it was a popular indie pop group or that I would be mildly interested in them even after seeing the movie. I never watched a movie in this kind of theater before, and was a little apprehensive as to what I was about to watch. But from my classmates’ positive reactions to the film earlier in the week I knew I had to go see it!

Stephin Merritt turned out to be very admirable especially in the music industry. It’s refreshing to see that not all musicians just want the fame and recognition. He was humble and perhaps a bit negative, but I don’t see how he can be any another way. His personality made the film quite interesting. It was about his music and his band. It showed how seriously he takes writing lyrics and producing quality music, but more so for himself and his own satisfaction.

Claudia Gonson was an interesting character as well. She brought more dynamic to Merritt. I became more and more sympathetic to his character. She was his manager but more importantly his childhood friend, who has been with him through obviously many hardships and is probably the only person that truly understands him. I found their relationship to be something sacred and intimate and without fully exposing this aspect of Merritt’s life, the film would not have been so intriguing.

The band, like probably many other indie bands are rarely talked about because they don’t have that spotlight like the mainstream music does. It’s disheartening that so much good music gets swept under the rug. Their lyrics are in my opinion more meaningful and they don’t concern much with becoming a hit on the radio station. After watching “Strange Powers” I am more open minded to hear indie rock/pop music and I’m likely to look up musicians like Stephin Merritt in hopes to discover something bigger than just a catchy beat and a high quality music video.

I expected to enjoy Fall for Dance. I appreciated the art of dance since I started dancing at the age of 4. However, I’ve never had the opportunity to watch something like Red Angels or the flamenco dance. I liked that this wasn’t the typical ballet that I would usually go to. These 4 dances were relatively short and the different styles of dance kept me awake.

My favorite of the night was the flamenco dance. All the music was live and I was able to see a musical performance as well as the beautiful dance. It was particularly memorable because it’s not very often that I get to feel so energized watching a dance. It was refreshing to see something nontraditional to the culture, which explains why people enjoy watching flamenco and why it was in this event at all. I wasn’t sure though if they were tap dancing, or if that was purely flamenco dance. Nevertheless, the dance was exciting and passionate. I would like to see more of this type of dance in the future.

The Red Angels was also worth mentioning. The dance was more traditional but not quite. I would categorize as modern dance, but it still shows the athleticism of a ballet dancer. The dancers showed off their muscles and curves in their red unitards, which I suppose was one of the aspects of the performance. Their moves were a bit rigid for my taste and I’m still unsure of the stylistic choice of the choreographer. But the dance speaks of equality to me, both of the sexes and of their movement. I’m sure there are many more themes that I wasn’t able to pick up right away; I consider that a success.

Sadly, I have nothing interesting to say about the other 2 dances of the night. I couldn’t relate to these dances and found them strange and boring, especially the last one. It was painful to keep my eyes open by the end and almost ruined the whole experience. Luckily the last dance was finally over, but I was still able to take away a new experience and a new interest in flamenco dance.

I had not expected to genuinely like Rigoletto. My past experience of seeing an opera had not been fulfilling mostly due to the lack of background knowledge of what opera is all about. Also the popular belief that opera is for the elderly elite, made me dread the day of Rigoletto. But as soon as the curtains opened, I was hooked. The scenery was massive and very believable. The amounts of people on stage also left me in awe, since I only expected a couple of characters to be on stage for the entire performance. I enjoyed the singing, especially of the men. Something about the power and tone of the voice is soothing and enjoyable to listen to. On the other hand the singing of the only 2 women in the opera, were high pitched, which would often get on my nerves. Nonetheless, their singing was beautiful. I admire opera’s for that quality. It’s unique to the American culture to listen to the tone of the voice to decipher the meaning or emotion. We tend to do that subconsciously, but still hang on to the words for meaning.

The plot of the opera was cliché enough to understand fully. Although it was simple enough, it held many themes and questions for the individual to figure out and think about. For example, I found an interesting conflict between the sexes. Despite there only being 2 women in the entire plot, those 2 women were the complete opposites of one another. Gilda was the pure, innocent and untouched woman shut off by her father or perhaps society and its’ pressures and flaws. Then there is Maddalena, who is seducing men for her brother to assassinate, and in result make a business. She represents the soiled version of a woman that uses her body for money. Although they are different, both are depicted as foolish and irrationally emotional beings. Despite their struggles, society looks down upon them.

Attending this opera allowed me to form a more educated view of the arts in general. Although some of the previous prejudices still seem to be true, I was able to appreciate a form of art I would have never thought twice about.

CLICK HERE to listen to “la donna e mobile” by Rigoletto

I was astonished at the size of the Lucile Theater. I wasn’t expecting a performance for a hundred or so people; it made a more intimate setting in a way. I appreciated the proximity to the actors and that I was able to hear and see everything so clearly. I usually don’t go to small plays like these ones, but I am now more interested and open-minded about these “off-broadway” events.

The beginning was very strange I must say. The monologue, which I thought was never going to end, finally ended with a huge “boom” and a blinding light, and continued to do so at the end of every scene. It was quite annoying and hurt my eyes, but it did keep me wide-awake. Later I realized that this related to the storyline: it was almost as if the audience was experiencing the same thing that John Smith had experienced when God saved him. I also noticed that there wasn’t any music in the background, or for the most part. It allowed me to relate to the play and have a more intimate connection – not like watching a musical or even a TV show.

Overall I liked the play. I didn’t particularly like his performance, especially his monologues or when he had to be very emotional. It just seemed forced and unnatural most of the time, which didn’t allow me to fully enjoy the play. I thought that other supporting actors outshined him that night, and maybe it was only that night. Who knows?

If I had to ask one question to the scriptwriter, I would definitely ask him why he even thought about writing about such a topic. It seemed very bizarre to me that so many people would first of all be against John Smith and say that he was bluffing, but also why would so many people care that he thought God saved him? It just didn’t make sense to me. Doesn’t this happen all the time in real life? I would just never bother to harass a person for their near death experience, even if I don’t think they were really saved by mystical creature.