Art in a Mix

It was a day of meeting back up with couchsurfers! I think it's pretty cool that I had a chance to host such awesome people in the last month at my apartment. First there was Roberto from Italy, who stayed with us at the beginning of March because he was here to study acting at the New York Film Academy. He and I met up today for bagles at my favorite place because A. he had a few things to return to us and B. because we hung out quite a few times since got here a month ago. He's heading home tomorrow, back to Milan. And I'm invited to stay any time I want, which is really great by me, considering we sat in the cafe talking for about two hours this morning, just catching up, he told me about his classes and his month in the U.S. It's fascinating how traveling can really change your perspective, and it was fun to share in his journey of sorts. I hate to use that word, that word is SO overused now that America is addicted to reality TV. Something is ALWAYS a journey on those shows, but ya know what, this is reality, not reality TV, and some people have real journies. More power to them (us!) We chatted on the way to the subway and then parted ways. Weird to think "I wonder if I'll ever meet up with him again..." Coud be!

I then jaunted off to Queens to meet my new friends Chrissy and Demark from Austria. They stayed with Dan and me last week, but they really were hoping I'd have a chance to meet up with them to view some art (their professor was showing in a big contemporary art fair called The Armory this week.) We made plans to meet at P.S. 1, which to me sounds like Public School 1, which I thought it actually was until the end of my classes at NYU. Someone finally clued me in that it was an old-school-TURNED-art-museum. And a VERY cool one at that. One of my favorite instalations was a giantic room with a large metal box sturcture in the middle, except that the structure was PACKED on all sides with matresses! Totally awesome! Of course Chrissy and I jumped (until the security guard came to tell us to stop). Apparently it wasn't for jumping, it was for resting, but who could resist! I HIGHLY reccomend this VERY contemporary art museum (it's like the step child of the MoMA).

To my suprise, there is actually some VERY engaging art just across the street from P.S. 1 in the form of, get this, graffitti! It's an entire building called 5 points, encased in legal graffiti! And it's awesome! We ended up walking around for a place to sit and eat (even attempting for a breif moment, the roof of the building) but we were so engaged in the promotional Rangers video being shot there, and all the wonderful art around us. Truly awesome.

It was a great day to be out and about! What fun things to discover around the city!