At the Northeast Entrance of Central Park I was faced with the Duke Ellington Memorial. The "Duke", his nickname because of his noble manner of orchestrating, was one of the central representatives of Harlem's rise in the 1920's when Jazz started it's triumph march conquering the globus. The popularity of Jazz fed the black people with a new self-confidence and proudness of their culture. Harlem was the center of that movement.
Central Park is an unbelievable green oasis surrounded in the mid of endless skycrapers. Going on small paths the nearly complete silence made me forget for a while that I am in NYC. It was a discovery where I got lost on my way and had to take a extra walk.
After two hours of a somewhat exhausting walk I arrived at the Met. Haha, yes, the next big thing in the every tourists's sights plan. I have never seen so many tourists, concentrated at one place, before since I am in New York. In fact, that is the museum mile. However, in Met I visited the second floor with the big collection of classical paintings. The visit of a museum is usually pretty overwhelming. One get in and see a endless number of paintings or whatever. What stays in mind is usually nothing else than the fact having been in the museum. That is why I tried to focus my attention to the pieces that really catched my eye. I want to mention at least two of them. "The silver turee" of Chardin; a still life that express elements of food AND chase. Secondly, "The calmaddy children" of Sir Thomas Lawrence, which made me getting lost in the eyes of the girl; the most vivid glance ever expressed painterly.
But enough about higher culture. On my way back to Brooklyn I made some errands despite facing the emerging bad thunderstorm. When I wanted to leave the book store it suddenly began to rain badly. The lashing rain turned the streets and sidewalks into ripping rivers. Brave as I am, I decided to plunge into the rain...30 seconds later I was completely soaked. What a odd day. First I got sunburnt and later soaked.
Last night I went out for the first time. I visited the grass roots bar in the lower east side meeting some friends of Alex there. It was an interesting experience to take part in american pub conversation. It is loud yelling with cross over talking. After three beers things ran better. The higlight of this bar is the dukebox, which allows guests to choose the music. For one buck you pick four songs. Really cool idea! And it looks like a hell machine, doesn't it? Actually the highlight of the evening occured when this girl said I would look like Jude Law. That's kind of cool as I need not to introduce myself anymore as the german slut aeh stud.
Later on I moved on alone to Fat Cat Jazzclub. Some people had recommened that place. Well, the club was pretty empty, people mostly busy with playing pool, dart or tabletennis. But the music was great, especially in the morning when some guys jam sessioned spontaneously. The music was awesome, smoothy and laid-back.
Besides I played chess against a semi-professional dude. Having a ELO-ranking about 2000 he defeated me badly with glock. Without glock I reached a draw. Bars in New York stop selling alcohol at 4 in the morning. Being in very good party spirits I was disappointed of course. But actually it avoided me to screw things up. For now... :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xomhEvsuwg
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