music is my boyfriend

darklamb:

The Year in New York Pictures.

i’ll always love you though, new york.

today, blurintofocus and i got up early and went to the metropolitan museum of art to see the costume institute’s special exhibition - alexander mcqueen: savage beauty.

the photos here are four of my favorite pieces from the exhibit.  i’ll be the first to admit, i’m not a fashionista by any means, but alexander mcqueen was always a designer i was more aware of than others.  a lot of it had to do with his sense of drama and of the avant garde - many of his shows were less like shows and more like performance art.  the exhibit is stunning from top to bottom.  every piece - the clothes, the shoes, the accessories, and of course the hats and headpieces by philip treacy - is a stunning work of art. 

if you have the opportunity to go, do it.

5. the statue of liberty and ellis island

in all the years i’ve lived here, i’ve never actually taken the boat trip to the statue of liberty and ellis island.  since that was the one specific thing my mom wanted to do, we headed down to battery park bright and early at 9am on saturday morning and took a little trip through the harbor.

liberty island is actually quite lovely.  there’s a path that runs around the edge that has a spectacular view of the city.  being at the base of the statue was a bit surreal, actually.

i was more surprised at ellis island.  when i think about ellis island, i think about this huge place where hundreds of thousands of immigrants came through to start their lives - “oh, what a brave new world, that has such people in it!”  but the reality is much different. 

the building itself is…much smaller than it looks in the movies.  and while there is a deep sense of history there, the whole place seemed to hold an air of sadness.  there are several small exhibits, including one on the port in galveston, texas, which was considered the ellis island of the west and another on the immigrant experience from journey to building a new life in america.  my dad was particularly interested in coming here because his grandfather traveled from italy and came through ellis island with his oldest daughter, who was my great aunt and great grandmother who was pregnant at the time with my grandmother.  she was the first on my father’s side of the family who was born in the us.

4. the metropolitan museum of art

this past weekend, my parents came to the city for my graduation and we did a lot of tourist things, including a visit to the met.  these photos are from two of my favorite places in the met - the palace of versailles room, painted by john vanderlyn (1818) and an aerial view of the arms and armor court.

the met is one of my favorite places in new york.  even though it’s always packed with tourists, there are lots of little quiet places to reflect and just sit.  i’ve always loved going there because i constantly find inspiration when surrounded by other works of art.