Bob Travel

The weather was so wonderful for our short trip to New York City, so we checked into one of the Best Manhattan Hotels, and off we went on a bus tour of lower Manhattan called a bird-lovers tour of the East River and watched the Dominican National Parade on 6th Avenue. We got a great perspective of NYC from about 15 feet above the ground because to took an open-air, double-decker tourist bus. It really offered us a refreshing look at the City. I even recommend it to regular New Yorkers, it’s that fun.

We discovered new sights, colors, objects and even a different perspective. We giggled at all the different shapes of people’s heads from above. We were surprised to see the colors of leaves from inside the trees we passed and the variety of different shaped 2nd story windows. Plus, we didn’t have to view all the trash that’s on the ground. One guy almost got decapitated by a stop light, but he sat down just in time.

The double-decker took us in a giant circle of lower Manhattan. We could have taken the Upper Manhattan tour, but decided to see the Lower instead. We started in Mid-town and circled through the southern tip of the island. Our tour allowed us to get on and off as often as we wanted. It has 16 designated stops for a 24 hour period, so we were glad we started early to avoid all the crowds because the tops of the buses get full.

The Dominican National Parade was colorful and noisy. So lively and fun. There were tens of thousands of jumping screaming kids and cheering adults lined for 2 miles along the parade route on 6th Avenue. The Parade lasted several hours because of the many floats, and partly because some of the cross streets weren’t completely cut off, weird we thought. Are arms were so tired from waving at all the celebrities, politicians and other apparently important people, all of whom we didn’t know, but waved at them all the same. After the parade, we caught the double-decker back to Mid-town and conked out in our nice soft cool hotel beds.

Nam June Paik was born in 1932 in Seoul Korea.  He has studied art history, music and philosophy in Tokyo, at Darmstadt and in Germany, respectively.  He operated the video equipment for Radio Cologne,  a studio that specializes in electronic music.  Throughout the 1960’s and into the 70’s he was the artist in residence for many New York television studios and was associated with the NY group, Fluxus.  This month at the James Cohan Gallery, an exhibit of his most important and innovative works will be presented and should not be missed.  Many of the best restaurants Manhattan offers are in the neighborhood of the gallery, and dinner and show is one of the best ways to spend a New York summer evening.

The exhibition contains his work from the early 1970’s through 1994.  There are sculptures created with video, live feed video installations, and the famous robot sculptures he created.  He is known as the father of the techniques and artistry of the video world.  He has worked with other great video pioneers such as Charlotte Moorman, Joseph Beuys, and John Cage.  He balances technology’s pragmatism with philosophical ideas of Utopia, and is known for the ideas he has inspired over the years in the public masses that cause one to consider objects and reality.

He had long had a scientific interest in electronic and technological communication, which inspired his predictions of the affects technology would one day have on daily life.  Among his concepts, he coined the phrase “electronic super-highway”, before it even existed, foreshadowing and predicting the way that technology connects various cultures and countries throughout the world at high rates of speed.  This was all thought of during the time before the Internet revolution.  Paik passed away in 2006 and will be remembered through his works that he leaves behind and for the ideas he inspired in all of those familiar with the man and his artistry.

A savvy traveler looking for a luxury Manhattan hotel will find so much to choose from.  The cultural hub for much of the world, this island is a leading importer-exporter for arts and entertainment, business, and hospitality.  It’s also one of the most influential cultural capitols of the world, setting trends in fashion, finance, and cuisine.  It also has entertainers who are capable of invading the consciousness of a nation.

Jerry Seinfeld is one such entertainer, whose New York roots show through during every one of the episodes of Seinfeld, the show that would shape a cynical and amused nation.  In the television show, there are occasional references to his family background, with mentions of an old family back in eastern Europe.  This is a very common U.S. story with similar themes and variations, and there are countless citizens who can trace a link between this country and an old world through the ship manifests from immigrant arrivals on Ellis Island.  But Jerry Seinfeld is a very funny guy.  And he’s been honored recently by the Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation with a Family Heritage Award.

His first ancestor to arrive here was his grandfather, a Simon Seinfeld, who arrived on Ellis Island as Schimscher Senfeld, at the age of 15, and worked as a fish-seller on the streets of Brooklyn, until making his way through the Bronx, and then to Manhattan.  Seinfeld and his sister have been speaking with the press about their memories of how the family got to the U.S. from Ukraine or Austria (depending on the records consulted).  Much speculation and musing, then, can be made over the way a family’s journey of migration can be turned into something very culturally significant, wrapped in the disguise of a show about nothing.