Friday 24th: Museum of Modern Art, Times Square

In the morning I was fairly tired. So I sat around for a while. I found that I had a virus on my computer which was not very good. It was used the windows virus scanner, to pretend to tell me that there is a virus, and then ask me to upgrade the thing. It was stopping me from opening up most programs, deleted all system restore points, and generally being very annoying. I tried to get rid of it but couldn't really.

Then after a while I decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art since it's free on Fridays from 4-8.

After getting a sandwich I caught the train there.

Then caught some kind of train uptown and got off at the Rockefeller Centre.

I saw a bakery where they are actually cooking the stuff inside. It smelled very good.

I got to the Museum of Modern Art and started taking pictures of various stuff that I thought looked good.

These people have just had a profound experience looking at this thing painted in black.

This guy was in Georgia or Vietnam or somewhere and sent letters regularly saying that he was still alive. I think his writing looks very neat.

This is a coded message. The decryption table is in the next photo.

Decryption table.

Some Hungarian revolution artwork.

Pollock painting.

This is just red, I guess.

A bunch of postcards by a Japanese man, where he says which time he woke up on each day.

Some Picaso paintings.

van Gogh.

On the top floor they had some exhibits. This is a video about a man pushing a big block of ice through a city...

There were other exhibits on the top floor but I wasn't able to take pictures. One of them was of a man in a volkswagen beetle. He was trying to drive up a hill. He had to listen to a tape of a mexican brass band playing. Each time they played he had to try to drive up the hill. When they stopped he had to stop, and then reverse, or something like that. It was supposed to be some kind of symbolism that Mexico likes to rehearse things but never quite gets there, which was described as being equivalent to their not being that developed still. This was according to the description given.

There was another one where a guy went and bought a gun in Mexico city. He asked someone to film it, so they did. He took the gun and then went walking through the city with the gun held in his hand. He was walking around fairly casually, looking like some kind of hitman. People were looking at him a bit strangely. After 11 minutes he was arrested.

It is really inspiring seeing these great artists.

It was almost 20:00 so I decided to use the toilet before they closed. An official told me that I'd have to use the toilets on the ground floor so I made my way down there. I got a bit confused, and then asked the people at the information place where it was. They said it's back there, but that I'd better hurry because it's closing in 1 minute. So I rushed back through the crowd, against the flow of people trying to leave. A security guy got really annoyed at me, saying "hey hey, where are you going?!?! What do you think you're doing?" And I said "I'm just trying to get to the toilet" and he said "You can't just walk in here!" and I said "oh I was in here just before, I have a ticket. I just couldn't find the toilet." and he said "well BE QUICK!" New York people really have a way of speaking to people sometimes. As I returned through, I noticed that he was being very rude to a lady in a similar circumstance, and being even more harsh.

I got out of there and then decided to see what the Rockefeller Centre is all about. On the way there I got a chocolate brownie from that bakery place I saw earlier.

There is a lego store right by here.

I saw Times Square at a bit of a distance.

Then I walked down to Times Square. On the way there I stepped into a chemist so that I could shave off my huge beard, but the things were very expensive, so I'll just have to look like a hobo for a while longer. While in there, I saw a guy down one of the aisles looking a bit edgy. Later I walked past that aisle again and I saw him with his legs apart, dropping things down his pants to steal. I didn't really want to get involved in a conflict, and maybe this guy is just redistributing wealth. So I walked away.

Times Square.

It's very bright.

The Naked Cowboy. Here he is pointing out a guy and claiming that this guy is not a real man. I'm fairly sure the guy he is pointing at had just claimed that this guy is not a real cowboy.  It was a bold counter-attack.

In the subway again, on the way home. I had to buy a ticket. There were three machines. I needed a single ticket which costs $2.5. I had two $1 notes, and two 1/4 $1 coins. The first machine said that no notes were accepted. The second machine said that no single trips could be sold. The third machine said that only notes could be accepted and that exact change was required. This was a huge dilemma. I ended up needing to pay for a $10 ticket which means that I'll just use this for a few times instead of paying for single trips.

There are lots of weird people in New York. People on bikes ring their bell at you and then give you the 'peace' sign. Another guy was standing on the train platform doing some pseudo erotic dance moves to the people in the trains as they got on. There are lots of weird people here.

I got back to the hostel at about 22:00. Then I watched Shaun of the Dead with a guy here who is from London. He says lots of words like 'innit'. He bought some beer and offered me one. It's 'Brooklyn Lager'. It tastes really bad. Shaun of the Dead was really good.