{"id":2652,"date":"2012-02-18T21:02:01","date_gmt":"2012-02-19T02:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/?p=2652"},"modified":"2022-08-01T07:43:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T11:43:19","slug":"thoughts-at-large-new-york-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/2012\/02\/thoughts-at-large-new-york-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts at Large: New York Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thinking large while on an art safari in the Asphalt Jungle:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 What a difference in energy level, mountains vs city.\u00a0 It is invigorating watching all the mostly young and smartly dressed men and women stride purposefully along New York&#8217;s numbered streets to whatever apparently-important destination awaits them.\u00a0 As a whole, they do not look like joyless urbanites.\u00a0 They seem to wear many shades of black.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 I had to recalibrate my lunchtime menu orders while we were in the city.\u00a0 I kept getting twice the food I expected, no doubt a reflection of the modestly-sized sandwiches they serve in restaurants back home.\u00a0 In New York City, they want to put meat on your bones.\u00a0 In the mountain south, the emphasis is on carbs in your belly, one burrito at a time.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 This was my first visit to the Museum of Modern Art.\u00a0 I have contemporary tastes, so I thought I would eat this place up like creme caramel.\u00a0 Instead, I was surprised how quickly I tired of the high-concept installations and canvas after canvas with idiosyncratic splashes of color.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t get me wrong, I like abstract art and would like to make more of it myself.\u00a0 But my brother-in-law Robert was right: conceptual art makes your brain labor in a way that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paul-cezanne.org\/\">Cezanne<\/a> does not.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Speaking of Cezanne, he paints fruit as ruddy red radioactive <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/wm\/paint\/auth\/cezanne\/sl\/cezanne.sl-apples.jpg\">treasures<\/a>, stolen from the Garden of Eden and set aside to ripen in his Bowl of Knowledge.\u00a0 It is too bad that Cezanne did not serve as God&#8217;s Creative Director, as it would have made for a more vibrant and interesting world all around.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Funny how after your fourth or fifth cab ride in Manhattan, you begin to get used to the sudden stops, swerves and three lanes of traffic that merge into one at a moment&#8217;s notice.\u00a0 The accident-free flow of cars seems to follow the same law of nature that governs how water cascades over the rocks in a river, carrying along fallen leaves and water skimmers without damaging them.\u00a0 The cab drivers sense the flow and go with it.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Nice that you no longer have to fumble for cash in New York cabs, as they now accept debit and credit cards.\u00a0 The new problem is figuring out the right way to swipe the card through the reader as the driver waits and waits for you to wade through the technology standing between him, his payment and his next fare.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Regretfully, I didn&#8217;t take one artsy photograph in New York.\u00a0 Next time, maybe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thinking large while on an art safari in the Asphalt Jungle: \u2022 What a difference in energy level, mountains vs city.\u00a0 It is invigorating watching all the mostly young and smartly dressed men and women stride purposefully along New York&#8217;s &hellip; 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