When it comes to a haircut I don't ask for much. A no.4, no poncing around; even the hot face towel as favoured in Queensland pushes the boundary. Consequentially, a haircut in a new city, let alone a foreign country, is set to be an interesting experience. A personal recommendation leads me to the local barber shop (good start, no unisex salon) on East 87th Street. With a shaky arm a geriatric hairdresser directs me to a chair. And I was going to let this guy loose on me with sharp implements? I was somewhat comforted when the gentleman put on a pair of glasses. If only I'd kept my glasses on, I'd have spotted that "no.4" USA is closer "2.5" Australian. I emerge shorn but otherwise uncut - a close shave.
New York, like Vancouver the week before last, is a favourite much visited city last seen in 2010. Following-on from the French-Canadian calm sophistication of Quebec New York still comes as a bit of a shock. It's hot and humid, hustle and bustle, museums, shows and shops. We take a tactical decision to visit a couple of favourites at leisure: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Tenement Museum.
During last year's travels to Cambridge (England) we happened upon a lecture by Michael Arad who designed the 9/11 Memorial. Arad corrected my impression of a monument more squabbled over than revered, and so this becomes our first destination. The two deep, dark waterfalls, cascading into the rectangular depths are a powerful evocation of both the loss of life and loss of place. In years to come as the adjacent construction sites quieten down and the oppressive security eases this will in all probability become a place of remembrance and reflection on a par with the cemeteries in Europe that are a legacy of two previous world wars.
Europe's many wars drove hundreds of thousands of people to America. The Tenement Museum is an extraordinary living record of New York's migrant history. By a strok of good fortune this small block was discovered with a set of original tenement apartments spanning the mid-1880's to the 1930's. Museum staff have meticulously researched the migrant families that made this place their home. Their stories are brought to life through themed tours. Kathleen, our guide, tells of hardship and endeavour, of real people who have passed through these small, dank, apartments - it's quite sobering.
Tenement Museum manages to present a dozen histories in its claustrophobic apartments. Conversely The Met is just so big that it cannot possibly be tackled in a single visit. One has to envy New Yorkers who can return to both these museums time and time again.
Even amongst its general galleries The Met adds context to its exhibits so they become so much more than just a place to muse on a vast collection of antiquities. Take for example "The Boxer", an Ancient Greek statute of a boxer that through notes and illustrations is carefully dissected to draw attention to every bruise and cut carefully portrayed by the sculpture, details that would otherwise be missed by the visitor. If only such careful consideration had been given to the feature exhibition "Punk: from chaos to couture". After a promising start comparing British anti-establishment punk and US anti-established music punk, the exhibition loses itself. For British punk rebellion was key, hence it seems misguided to use size 0 mannequins as clothes-horses for early Westwood and McLaren originals when they were the antithesis of the perfect fashion-model figure. To then assert that punk fashion overtook couture is just nonsense when the obvious truth is that the couture houses have taken from punk to create clothing as elite as anything the original punks were rebelling against. Nonetheless the couture "punk" fashions of today, on figure perfect mannequins, are fascinating to look at - just don't read too much into the accompanying history.
And so to a couple of shows. "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" did well at the Tony's and it's easy to see why (see my separate review elsewhere in PaulMatters). Summer nights at the Lincoln Centre are swing nights on the plaza - a band, tuition and fun, this week it's Salsa. We give it a vaguely successful go and have lots of fun.
On the way to the airport I chat to our taxi driver. He's from Bangladesh and waxes lyrically about Ponting, Warner, Hayden and other great Australian cricket stars. He looks somewhat crestfallen when I tell him they've all retired - that's what eight years cut-off in New York does for you.
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