This Week: The New Museum, FRIENDS 25 Pop-up, and more.
Alright, let’s jump right into the second week of this column. I really liked how last week’s turned out. Honestly, this is an easier way to cover some of the events TV and City gets invited to. Plus it’s good to keep the creative writing juices flowing.
This week was going quieter than the last, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t busy. On Sunday a friend invited me to the New Museum, so I tagged along. My honest take on the place overall? It was terrible, full of the kind of bizarro contemporary art pretentious people pretend to understand. The top two floors were awfully boring exhibits that I had no interest in, but luckily there were some saving graces. One floor’s art pieces were so out of this world that I couldn’t help but smile. I’d describe them as “charmingly weird.”
The only thing in the New Museum that will stick with me was this recreation of an interactive walkthrough exhibit from 1960s Latin American. Incredibly, it was just like an “Instagram pop-up” you’d find on the streets of the city today, except it wasn’t designed with snapping pics in mind! There were wacky creations on the walls, trap doors, light shows, and more. If the rest of the museum didn’t put me to sleep, this part alone might have been worth the $12 admission.
In the area, we also spotted Glenlivet giving away some free drinks and swag, but alas, we are under 21.
Let’s PIVOT to the next adventure of my week… the Friends 25th Anniversary Pop-up! Thanks to the team there for hooking us up with tickets to this sold-out experience. While I, somewhat embarrassingly, haven’t seen all of Friends, I understood almost all the references. You begin at the iconic fountain and can recreate the theme song, then explore rooms centered around each of the six main characters. Of course there’s also a Central Perk coffee shop within the space, tons of photo-ops, props and costumes, and a gift shop with overpriced merch. The pop-up is very well designed and one of the best I’ve been to. Check out more pictures from the exhibit on my Instagram: @elazarta.
Before I close off, I just wanted to quickly mention New York Fashion Week. I didn’t go to any NYFW events, but on an evening walk through SoHo, saw a crowd gathered around with their cameras out, ready to pounce on something. I asked, turns out they were waiting for Kendall Jenner to exit the building.
What I watched this week:
- Friends season 3 – Yup, I’m gonna plow through this one. Super overrated, but I still find it funny.
- Undone season 1 – Really enjoyed this quick binge on Amazon Prime. It’s from the creator of BoJack Horseman but completely unlike that show. You never quite know where Undone is heading and I highly recommend trying it out.
- Yesterday – This movie didn’t go far enough in fleshing out its main concept: What if the Beatles never existed? I also wanted full performances of the songs! My favorite part was a surprise appearance from John Lennon – he’s still alive in this world. Overall I was disappointed.
TV and City 