After getting refreshed from the (sweaty) walk back to Mari's, I walked down to the infamous Conde Nast building at 4 Times Square to have lunch with my friend Eric (he was the ASME intern at Parents the year before me), who now works at Gourmet (yeah, Monday was all about eating, meal after meal!). Now, for all of you who have a life and aren't obsessed with the magazine world like me, I should tell you that Conde Nast is the ultimate mag publisher, home of Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Lucky, Domino, etc, and their cafeteria is infamous for a couple reasons:
1) It was designed by Frank Gehry, notable architect of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, among many other disinctive buildings. His "sculptural approach to architecture" is obvious in the undulating glass and stainless steel of the Conde Nast cafeteria:
Official photo of the seating area.
The crazy free-for-all serving area (just imagine a mass of skinny, long-haired, trendy girls fighting for that last leaf of lettuce).
My two attmepts (thanks camera phone!) at capturing the magic moment.
2) The Conde Nast cafeteria is often thought to be an oxymoron itself because all the women who helm the mastheads at Vogue, Lucky, Glamour, Self and the like are always under pressure to look good at their image-conscious jobs, therefore the generalization is that they don't eat. I stormed into that cafeteria ready to prove that all wrong and show up the wannabe Mary-Kate Olson's that skinny girls can eat too, damnit! I did my best - ordered a turkey sandwich with all the fixings, picked up two cookies and loaded the largest cup with regular, calorie-laden Pepsi. I thought I had bucked the system for sure, but as soon as I sat down and took a sip of my sugary beverage, I realized that the Conde Nast gods had gotten the last laugh - my cup was full of diet soda! That's right, diet soda comes out of the regular fountain at the Conde Nast cafeteria because, obviously, they know what's best to keep all their employees skinny as a rail. It's an anorexic fascist regime, I tell you! And I'm not the only one who thinks so - read Gawker's undercover investigation of Conde Nast cafeteria etiquette to see that my experience was not an anomaly.
Phew....having recovered from this disturbing event, I headed back to Mari's (light-headed because the cafeteria had deprived me of a crucial couple hundred calories), changed into something more comfortable and two two of us headed to the Museum of Modern Art. It was a stunning space - I think was more captivated by the architecture for at least the first half hour - but the art and design on display was equally impressive. I especially enjoyed the design section of the museum, full of everything from innovative car pistons to the Apple iPod to Tupperware to the Smart Car to midcentury modern furntiure (yummy Eames chairs and Saarinen pieces!) and so much more. Another high point was seeing Andy Warhol's famous Campbell's soup series:
Did you know that each can was a different soup, representing all the varieties available at the time? Well, I didn't....I guess I had only seen Tomato on its own or something. Anyway, MOMA arranged the canvases in the order of the soups' introductions into the market. Very cool....I love consumerism and pop culture!
The rest of the visit was filled with lots of contemporary art by artists I'd never heard of but enjoyed, Picasso, Cezanne, Miro, Rothko, Monet, Matisse, Lichtenstein, Van Gogh....I could go on and on. I hate to sound like jaded and unappreciative, but frankly, by the time Mari and I got to the top floors, our eyes were glazed over and we barely paid attention to all the famous pieces. I definitely suggest enjoying museums in multiple, smaller doses if possible. It was exhausting!
Never in a lull for long, though, on the walk home, Mari and I walked right past the Bewitched premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre right behind Mari's apartment building, which is apparently where most of the New York premieres of movies are held. Oooh, celebrities in my vicinity got me all hot and bothered. Unfortunately, I didn't get to actually see Nicole or Will or any of the other stars in person, but just knowing that I got close made me happy. Here's what I could have seen with my own eyes:
I have to say that seeing Will Ferrel or Amy Sedaris (above) would have been way more thrilling than the ghost of Nicole Kidman.
The gods (the celeb ones this time, not Conde Nast deities) must have been shining on me, because as Mari and I waited to meet Emily and Meredith at the Astor Place Starbucks to go to yummy, cheap Indian food on 6th Avenue, we noticed a crowd around the door. Ooooh, could it be another celeb sighting? Could I be that lucky? Hell yes I could! A very conspicuous peek in the window informed me that none other than Alanis Morisette was playing an acoustic set at Starbucks (I later learned that she's launching her new acoustic album only at Starbucks for the first six weeks - ahhh, marketing!). I think I must have conjured her, blond streak and all (see below), by listening to Jagged Little Pill on the subway the day before.
Perfect.
Our Indian meal was fabulous and insanely cheap as only can be found on 6th Avenue in NYC - live sitar music, soup, samosa, chicken tikka masala, rice and unlimited naan for $7.95. We need some of that in Portland!
We stuffed ourselves silly and had to walk it off around the East Village for a bit before heading into Barnes & Noble (needed to pick up some mags, of course). We browsed for a bit and then headed home. Long day! I spent the evening packing and resting and being silly....and slept like a baby.
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