Day out in Brooklyn

My friend was kind enough to take me around her neighborhood of Brooklyn on my last day in NY. I hope I have that kind of energy a few decades from now. We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge so I could see things from that perspective, then went to the Brooklyn Public Library and Brooklyn Museum. I rushed back to Times Square to see the Moulin Rouge musical – it was amazing and had additional recent pop music mixed in since the film to make it even more fun. It was a sweet final taste of NY!

 

Brooklyn Bridge

Skyline from the Bridge

Interesting acronym here - DUMBO stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass

Boats out

Checked out the brownstone buildings

Dogwalkers are for real

Great architecture and bustling city life

Gorgeous Brooklyn Public Library – so culturally enriched even just at the entrance

Library is trying to go for a more bookstore vibe to attract readers

Library space looked inviting

Brooklyn Museum had mummies and an interesting explanation of how recent feminist scholarship has shown that some women were honored with male names temporarily to trick the gods, something like that, that it wasn’t a typo like previous scholars thought

The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago – a feminist art display from the 1970s – a reimagining of a dinner party with famous women across history (eg Artemisia Gentileschi). Each place setting is customized to a particular woman, and they get more elaborate the closer they get to modern times.

Artemisia Gentileschi place setting

Mary Wollstonecraft place setting

Emily Dickinson place setting

Another beautiful Tiffany stained glass

Classic George

Love that Romanticism

Classic Abe

Kehinde Wiley’s modern take on Napoleon (explanation follows)

Brooklyn Museum

More brownstone buildings

Moulin Rouge musical – amazing and had additional recent pop music mixed in since the film

Downtown was happenin’ at night

 

Day Out in Manhattan

My friends took me around the neighborhoods in Manhattan to a Ukrainian restaurant for brunch, little shops and the big bookstore called The Strand, gelato, then the Staten Island Ferry to see the iconic Statue of Liberty. As night fell, I went to a Free Music Monday concert at a local church, where the Scandinavian band Dreamers' Circus was fabulous, and then snow was falling as I left. 

 

Veselka Ukrainian restaurant

Veselka Ukrainian restaurant

Veselka Ukrainian restaurant

Little hole-in-the-wall shops around the neighborhoods

Library

Fancy architecture

Homes around the block

Homes around the block

National Arts Club fancy interior

National Arts Club exterior

Labor protests re Petco

Statue of Liberty

Staten Island Ferry

Skyline as night fell

Free live music with Dreamers’ Circus band from Scandinavia - a blend of traditional Nordic music with new sounds

Snowing!

 

Arts and Fireworks

School & Work

Admittedly, I haven't done much for my research since the trip to Queenstown. I've been working on several editing projects and planning upcoming trips to the North Island and Australia (finally booked our flight to its east coast -- very much looking forward to it!). The English PhD student in the cubicle next-door who is rarely there and never speaks finally talked to me and actually offered me a grading job for the semester! Also found out that her research is something to do with Star Trek television shows. She needs a group of people to grade papers for the one writing class that engineering students have to take (because employers complained that recent grads couldn't communicate). Add that to my other three part-time jobs and I will have quite a schedule when the school semester for undergraduates starts on February 23rd. Of course, I don't have a schedule yet because everything is done so last-minute.

There were two research presentations on-campus by the two candidates for a part-time English faculty position, so it was interesting to see this part of the job interview. The first just received her PhD last year and is looking at representations of women in horror films; the second is an American who moved to NZ over a year ago whose research is on contemporary women's representations in literature and film through the lens of literary theory. They were very different, so I have no idea whom will be chosen. The first was a graduate of the department, so there could be some bias there, although the decision-makers might also be looking for a fresh perspective.

D and I have been having several discussions about arts education, and a particularly intense one after I read aloud parts of this long but informative article on liberal-arts education (link below), how it has changed, what people think it means, and whether or not it is still valued/valuable in various societies. I haven't yet formulated an essay on the topic, but I feel like one is in the works in my mind.
The Chronicle of Higher Education's "The Day The Purpose of College Changed"

In a similar vein, one of the reasons I nominated myself to be on the committee of the university's feminist society/club was to help ensure there are opportunities for education on women's issues and civil rights on-campus. Along with the recent cutbacks in many of the school's Arts programs (including American Studies) was the removal of the Gender Studies programs, which means that currently there is only one class on gender, in the Sociology department, which is only offered occasionally. This seems odd for a well-regarded university of over 14,000 students. So I was successfully voted in and will be doing my part this year to incorporate educational events for interested students into the club's schedule.

Outdoors

We went on a hike in the Port Hills which was particularly hard because it was a hot day and all uphill. The hills were brown but we still enjoyed good views of the ocean and harbor on either side at the top.

Another day we went on one of the trails at Halswell Quarry Park. The blue-gray Halswell Stone from there was used to build many of the city's buildings. The city has done a nice job of preserving the history with several boards around the 30-minute trail. 

For some reason, Christchurch likes its fireworks shows. The third show since November was on January 31, called "Sparks". The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra played movie themes for two hours beforehand. The weather was bad -- it drizzled the whole time and was windy -- but that didn't deter them from lighting off the fireworks.

Home

D had a packet of San Francisco sourdough yeast mailed to him and, after days of prep, successfully made a loaf of bread with some of that sourdough tang he so enjoys. Later, he made another batch and will keep the starter going in the fridge to help it become even more sour-tasting. This kind of bread-making is definitely an intensive process. I made pumpkin pie (with a homemade crust) for the first time for a friend's going-away board game party. It turned out pretty good! Thank you, Libby's canned pumpkin. I advertised my financial guide ebook on social media (a little side project I finished last year) and enrolled for a short cooking class at the local community center which starts tomorrow. My sunflower bloomed and our car passed its Warrant of Fitness test (required every 6 months for older cars). Yay! And today we went to the park to hear the Scottish Society Pipe Band play bagpipes and drums.