New York, Spring 2005

NEW! See the photos.

Babycakes booked a B&B called Ivy Terrace on East 58th, just down the street from Bloomingdale's. It was lovely. Thanks Vinessa.

Loved the art, hated the "experience" of the newly-reopened Museum of Modern Art (photos posted soon). For example, we found that the first floor restrooms had no toilet paper after we (and several hundred other people) stood in line for over an hour in the rain to get in. We frequently PULLED doors that we should have PUSHED. It was hard to collect our raincoats and umbrellas because our claim tags had color codes and the collection windows had letter codes. You'd think a museum that houses the best examples of modern design would get its own design right, but you'd be wrong.

The Museum of Sex (which opened in 2002) is much smaller than MOMA but it takes itself quite seriously. We wandered through an exhibit featuring early stag films and another celebrating the art of pin-up photography. You'll be relieved to know that no photos were allowed. This museum had the kind of gift shop you don't get at your (ahem) traditional museums. Babycakes said she was bored because there were "too many straight people."

I didn't see ANY straight people later that night at Henrietta Hudson's in the village but I did see plenty of women who looked too young to order the beer they were drinking. And they looked like real NY lesbians, not like the LA lesbians on Showtime. And have I told you that I love it that New York has NON-SMOKING bars and restaurants?

Today, Sunday, we ate our favorite New York foods: lox and bagels, cheesecake and street pizza. We shopped at Zabar's and took in a matinee of "Hairspray." I'm barely awake enough to finish this post ...