Leggy Prawns, Sandpaper Clocks, and an Unintentional Shower

Today was Whitney day! I headed to the Whitney Museum of American Art over on the west side of the island, which features work by 20th- and 21st-century American artists. This is another museum I get in to for free with my NYU ID, so score!

Wow --- no one told me this museum came with views. There are outdoor observation decks you can walk out on to score city views on pretty much every level, which was a wonderful surprise (until it started dumping rain right before I needed to leave for work).

I browsed both the permanent collection (hello, O’Keeffe, Hopper, Calder, and Kline) and the Biennial exhibit of work by living artists. Warhol also made an appearance (twice, actually). A Lichtenstein piece was also involved.

This isn’t the world’s largest museum (then again, after the Met, what is?), but it contains lots of intriguing, thought-provoking pieces. Of course, because it is a modern art museum, I definitely needed the placards to provide context on pieces when the artist’s intent wasn’t obvious.

Possibly my favorite piece I saw was part of the Biennial showcase: Christine Sun Kim's “Degrees of Deaf Rage Concerning Interpreters (Terps).”

I love the way Kim conceptualized her grievances as angles, and it made me think about the challenges Deaf people face in a way I hadn’t previously (on that note, leaving luggage on the runway because no one claimed it after a spoken command is pretty terrible).

I also spent a few minutes staring at Agustina Woodgate's “National Times.” It’s a closed-circuit network of clocks synchronized by the power grid. A single digital master clock sends power signals to a series of analog slave clocks. It’s called a “master/slave” configuration, and is designed to keep consistent time.

In this piece, the artist has outfitted the hands of the slave clocks with sandpaper. As “National Times” progresses, the minute hands of the slave clocks scrape away the numerals on their faces until they’re completely erased, “collectively reclaiming autonomy in the process of disintegration.” I found this concept fascinating.

It started pouring rain about an hour before I needed to leave for work, and didn’t stop by the time I HAD to leave for my train. I was forgetful and didn’t check the forecast this morning, so I didn’t have an umbrella with me and definitely wasn’t going to drop $50 on a Whitney one. So, I threw my cardigan over my head and ran to the station a half-mile away. Fortunately, I keep a spare pair of shoes at work — definitely needed those today. After wringing out my cardigan, it was time for some debate-night editing, round three (round four is tomorrow night).

Finally, a delayed announcement: I’m seeing one of my favorite Broadway stars, Sierra Boggess, at Feinstein’s/54 Below (the famous Broadway supper club) on Thursday night! (I only bought that ticket FOREVER ago. :) )

Along with “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” this was my other show splurge this summer. You may know Boggess as Christine in Broadway and the West End’s “Phantom of the Opera” and “Love Never Dies,” the original Ariel in Broadway’s “Little Mermaid”, Cosette in the U.S. tour of “Les Mis,” Principal Rosalie Mullins in Broadway’s “School of Rock,” Lily Craven from “The Secret Garden” concert at Lincoln Center …

And today's culinary adventure: The seafood pepper bomb from Noona Noodles in K-town.

I needed about 10 napkins to eat this, as it was super messy and made my nose run like a faucet.

There was far too much sauce, so much so that the noodles were floating in a pool of it (and when I went to throw the platter away, there was still a sauce pool). So, a sauce/noodles “Come to Jesus” needed to happen. But the seafood portion was fun — there were mussels, as well as prawns with legs still attached. I felt like I was back in Georgia!