More Organ Music!

After a long weekend, I was ready to head back to my internship. I thought Tuesday would be a field trip day to a library in the Bronx with a fellow librarian, but unfortunately, she wasn't feeling the best so the trip was postponed until next week.

Coffee in hand, I jumped on the subway (very crowded mind you) I headed downtown to the central library, aka the Mid-Manhattan branch. I headed up to my cubicle and worked on a few miscellaneous projects before Nick, my boss, came back from his own outreach program.  I'll also take this time to direct your reading to an excellent blog post that highlights some of what Nick and Sarah (another librarian I work with) do on a fairly regular basis. This is a type of community outreach I've never experienced before (Mt. Horeb doesn't have a prison) so I'm learning a lot so far and really pushing my thoughts of what it means to be a librarian.

My project for the rest of the day was revamping and adding onto the Veterans History Project Homepage. If you remember, on my first day, I was able to sit in on one of the interviews, which was a fascinating experience. We are still collecting interviews but need a central spot to store them all. I created separate subpages for each veteran, added a short biography and a few photos in, and now, am just waiting for the audio to finish off the page. I think it looks pretty good and I'm excited to add more veteran stories to the page.

I quickly walked home (it was quite chilly outside yesterday), had a warm cup of soup, and then headed to Alice Tully Hall for an organ concert.

Yes, you read that correctly, an organ concert.

The performers were Julliard students, all studying under a very well-known organist Paul Jacobs. It was a good concert; I don't think I've ever listened to that much organ music in one sitting. The students performed organ pieces written from the 16th century up to the present, adding a nice variety to the concert. Often, the organist would perform with another instrument and those soloists were also out of this world. When the concert finished, I just kept telling myself that I have to figure out how one plays the organ. As I said often in the Lake District, "It's research time!"

Long Weekend

Because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, all the library branches were closed today. This gave me a long weekend to continue to explore the city.

After working in the library for a few hours, Whitney and I wandered back to our hotel and walked around looking for a late lunch. After several, several, several blocks, we decided on Big Nick's, located conveniently right next to our hotel.

We spent Saturday night checking out an art gallery reception near Times Square. The artist was a friend of Kathy's. It was neat to see an art opening and know that there will be many more throughout the next couple of months.

Post-show, I met up with my aunt, uncle, and cousin who happened to be in the city Saturday night. We ate dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant called Topaz. It was nice to see them and in general, it's nice to have family close by.

Sunday was an adventure day; Ashley, Whitney, and I visited The Strand, It's a bookstore so it's no surprise we ended up there. They boast it's 18 miles of books.

It's a lot of books.

Of course, I found something. Aka a Strand bag, a notebook, and one book. Whoops!

The Strand is located in Union Square, so we just walked around the area and did lots of window-shopping.

Today, I had breakfast/catch-up with Alison at a bagel place a few blocks away from our hotel. Then I headed downtown to a coffeeshop for some writing, reading, and me time. Mid-afternoon I returned to the Upper West Side and went for a walk before having dinner with Ashley and Whitney.

Back to work tomorrow and also have event tomorrow night!

One Week!

Can you believe that last week I was checking into the hotel? It seems like such a long time ago.

I've gotten very very use to the NYC routine. I love the busyness of the city and the independence. It's also a nice change of pace to have an internship instead of classes and all the amazing cultural events I have the opportunity to go to.

Friday was my first day at The Paley Center. It's a beautiful building right next to the CBS studios and pretty close to Rockefeller Center. I got there a little early so I walked around, grabbed a cup of coffee, and just enjoyed the crisp Friday morning air. Then it was time to start my day. I have the opportunity to work with the Paley Center's creative team on their social media sites. I spent the day writing potential tweets and Facebook posts for the upcoming PaleyFest in March. It looks like an amazing festival and if only I was in LA!

Last night was also the New York City Ballet. We finally met our final professor, Patricia. She is absolutely lovely and we had a nice walk from our hotel to the David H. Koch Theater (near Lincoln Center).

And the ballet was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Incredibly elegant and beautiful. We saw three movements (not sure if that's the correct technical term). The music was Tschaikovsky and it was choreographed by George Balanchine.

The first movement was entitled "Serenade" and was very dreamlike. The ballerinas were wearing gauze like skirts that when lifted into the air, slowly drifted back down. Stunning. The loose story around this was a girl walked in late and then became the star of the show. The final "scene" was three men lifting her straight into the air and carrying her almost off stage. Again, just absolutely beautiful.

There was a short intermission and our room snapped a quick photo. Patricia talked to us for a bit, seeing what our initial reactions were. Then it was back to our seats for the second movement called "Mozartiana."

That was also beautiful  A little "darker" than the first, emphasized by the music and darker colored costumes. My favorite part of this piece was the clarinet. Such a rich and gorgeous sound came from the pit. I can only dream of playing that well. It was crisp and full, filling the entire auditorium as the ballerinas danced to it on stage.

The second intermission was spent with me babbling on about how great the clarinet sounded. My friends, bless them, were understanding and just smiled as I talked about the tone and the richness.

The final movement was Tschaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 2. This was probably my favorite piece of the night. This one was loosely structured around a girl and boy who kept trying to find each other among a large group of other ballerinas. There were so many people on stage but they were all in sync. Their outfits were also beautiful with long, flowing skirts in a pale pink for the majority of them. Two girls had a pale purple skirt and the principle ballerina had a pale blue/teal/gray skirt.

Needless to say, the group was pretty speechless by the end. We walked back to our hotel, chatting about the ballet and our first impressions.

So that was Friday. Busy, right? We don't have anything scheduled for today so currently, Whitney and I are at the Morningside Heights New York Public Library branch taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi and getting caught up on our journals and general writing. There is an art gallery opening tonight recommended to us by Kathy so I believe Ashely, Whitney, and I are going to check that out.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Adventure Day Thursday

So part of our Coe adventures include not working at our internships on Thursdays so we are able to explore the city, especially the art. And let me tell you, it's everywhere in the city.

Kathy is our instructor on Thursdays, opening our eyes to the beautiful art in museums across the city. Today was the Frick Collection aka Henry Clay Frick's private, personal art collection. Frick made his fortune mining coal in Pittsburgh (he also worked closely with Andrew Carnegie). After a labor dispute, Frick moved to NYC with his wife and children. The house was built and finished by 1914 and Frick was able to enjoy it for five years until his death.

Regardless, the collection is fantastic. It's a combination of every type of art such as paintings and  sculptures and they span almost every century imaginable. Visitors are only allowed on the first floor but you could probably spend all day in there.

The house very much reminded me of Versaille in France or the National Gallery in London. It was beautiful to walk through and a nice way to spend my Thursday morning/afternoon.

To get back to our hotel, Ashley, Whitney, Amy, and I decided to stroll through Central Park.

Good choice. 

We got back to our hotel, ate lunch, and then decided to get some writing done about all the neat things we've been doing. We took the subway up to Columbia, camped out in a coffee shop to write, and then joined up with two Coe (and NYC Term) alums, Brian and Joe for some coffeeshop conversation and then dinner.

One of Columbia's many libraries

Now, back to writing. Hard to believe it's Friday tomorrow. I'll be headed to the Paley Center to start my second internship. A bit nervous but excited as well.

Just making that routine

My second and third days have passed and sometimes it feels that I've been in the city for a lot longer than just a week. I've got a routine going and it feels great. I wake up early, head downstairs to workout (it also helps to wake me up), then breakfast and shower before grabbing a to-go cup of Earl Gray tea as I walk seven blocks to a subway station. This line gets me the closest to the library so it's worth the walk. I've got the NYC look down pat on the subway, no eye contact needed. After three stops, I get off at the Bryant Park stop and walk two more blocks to the Mid-Manhattan branch. Then it's up to the sixth floor for a day of work.

Working at the library is much different from my past experience at my small hometown library. I think I'll learn a lot and it will help me as I continue on in my library science career.

I'm also really enjoying the cultural events we've been attending. On Tuesday night, we were off to the Lincoln Center to see a movie called The Last Quartet. It was a fantastic movie about a string quartet who had some struggles as they tried to get ready for another concert season. The movie was incredibly moving and entertaining; it definitely put me on the edge of my seat sometimes. Post-movie, the group sat out in the lobby and discussed our opinons. We still have to write about it, but it was nice to hear what others thought of the film.

Tomorrow is our first museum day. We're off to the Frick Collection to see an exhibit there. Then it will be Friday and I'll be off to the Paley Center for my second internship (I get to use my social media skills!)