Lending a hand

It has stopped raining for the most part, but is still windy and cloudy. A good Museum day... So we headed off to the Guggenheim Museum at 89th St and Central Park East. The main feature of the Gugg is the Gugg itself (by the way, no one but me calls it the Gugg), designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the "only building in NYC designed by the famous Mr. Wright". That is why they allow photography on the first floor only, so you can show your friends how Dr. Seuss would design an art museum.




It really is quite cleverly designed such that one can walk from top to bottom (or bottom to top, as we stupidly did) over the 6 levels without having to backtrack as in a normal square museum, except for when in the annexes. You miss nothing this way. They also give you free audio headphones for your $18 per, so you don't have to bother reading as you tour.

The theme of the current showing is "Haunted" and there was some cool stuff. But the old favorites such as the Monet's -- seen from a distance so they look good, and besides, there are too many people crowding in front of you to get a close look -- and the Picasso's, and other avant-garde type art was great, but not our favorites.

Had I known that on this very day the Tim Burton exhibit at MOMA was closing, we probably would have saved the Gugg trip for another day. Groan! I missed Sarah Jessica Parker's severed head (from "Mars Attacks")!!! Well, it is not her best feature. And who brings a bag of oats to an art museum?

But I digress. We had a perfectly good time at the Gugg, and a nice slice for lunch for some lucky boy at the pizza place next to the 86th and Lex subway station too!

Back to the hotel for our daily nap, and later a snack since we decided...OK, I decided...to have supper post-theater, since we were seeing a 1-act, 90 minute play that started at 7pm, and because I wanted to catch game 7 of the Phx-Det hockey series. Game 7's are just special.

Anyway, after dressing for the night we took the R train to Times Square, and saw "A Behanding in Spokane" starring Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell, along with Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) and Zoe Kazan (Revolutionary Road). Unfortunately, Sam didn't show, and was replaced by Dashell Eaves. He did an OK job. But the only irreplaceable actor was Chris Walken, who was amazing. How the rest of the cast didn't laugh every time he opened his mouth, or just looked at them, I will never know.

At any rate, the plot concerned a man (Walken) who had his hand cut off 40 years prior by "hillbillies" who held his arm to a train track as a train came by. They waved goodbye to him using his severed hand. So Carmichael (Walken) wants it back. And he spends the next 40 years looking for it. He knows he can't use it or reattach it, but he just wants it. A pair of con artists (Mackie and Kazan) try to sell him a hand they steal from a museum. Meanwhile, the death-wishing clerk at the dump of a hotel Carmichael is staying at, intervenes at critical moments, and in general a good time is had by all in the audience. I loved it. But my humor runs on the dark side. And again, CW was brilliant.

Supper followed at Dempsey's Bar near Madison Square Garden and our hotel on 33rd St. I had a cheeseburger and fries, and a very decent one at that. Margie had the same but a turkey burger with chipolte mayo. The hockey game was good too.