New York New York: Day 7

Giggleheim yesterday, Museum of Modern Art today! I had been round it on a previous visit but have not seen it since the upgrade. The building looks excellent, large galleries, wide connecting concourses with views down onto the floors below.

As with the Guggenheim's RUSSIA! exhibition, most of the lower galleries were more than easy to pass through, unmoved by the claims of installation pieces or photographic exhibits which were jaw-droppingly average. 

However the higher up you go... truly the closer to art heaven you get.  It was quite an experience seeing so many great works under one roof... definitely one to visit again.





We walked round the sculpture courtyard afterwards which was bathed in sunlight and we found Picasso's delightful statue of a goat. Spent bigly in the shop too.

After that it was time to head downtown and see my friend Sam who runs the film poster gallery Posteritati. He wasn't in the gallery but he and his wee 'un Benny caught up with us at Il Palazzo in Little Italy where O and I were fit to burst from the food! After walking Sam back to the gallery we had a nice meander up through SoHo which was as busy as anywhere on a late Saturday afternoon. 

Stopping off for a wee at the Angelika Film Center we headed to Bleeker Street to visit the Biography Store, a small bookshop I always visit and usually find something to buy but not this trip dammit. HOWEVER walking up Christopher Street (my favourite street) we went into Alternate Cards and.... I now own my own RuPaul doll! She stands an Amazonian 13" tall and I may never leave the house again!

And - as if it could not get any more Out There - we saw the Christmas show at the Radio City Music Hall.  O is a bit of an Xmas junkie so he was in Bliss City just looking at the marquee! 

The cavernous, opulent lobby was worth the price of admission alone - to say nothing of the Gents! - but the show was beyond anything. Starting with a 3D film of Santa flying in and out of the NY skyscrapers we then were treated to the first of several appearances by the famous Rockettes.
Legs, huge sets, snow falling inside the auditorium, skaters on stage, dancers on stage, this was surely what the Follies must have been like! And if my senses hadn't reeled enough we had a re-enactment of the Nativity which outdid itself in jaw-dropping earnestness - with the help of real donkeys, sheep and 3 camels! 

We staggered back to the hotel to meet Dezur and Paul for much-needed JD and Cokes!

Then sadly... up to the room to pack in silence... sigh, the saddest part of any holiday.