Jaunted

NewYorkology / New York City / Museums / Sales / → All Tags

NewYorkology: February Discounts at MoMA

NewYorkology reports come to Jaunted courtesy of Amy Langfield.

Since the Museum of Modern Art opened in its new building more than a year ago, the place feels packed with crowds at almost all hours. One way to get some privacy is to book a private tour either before the museum opens or closes.

True it's more expensive, but the private MoMA tours are discounted during February. As per MoMA's website:

Tours for Two at MoMA
This February, enjoy a romantic after-hours Tour for Two of MoMA's galleries! A special 50% discount is available on Tours for Two taking place in February, Saturday through Thursday, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. These private guided tours include collection highlights such as Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night and Henri Matisse's Dance (I). Call MoMA Group Services at (212) 708-9685 or e-mail groupservices@moma.org for reservations. Some restrictions may apply.

The before-hours tours regularly cost $50 per person, while the evening ones are $60 per person. A number of other institutions run private or backstage tours in New York landmarks, including Carnegie Hall, Yankee Stadium and City Hall.

[Photo: kenthua]

Other recent NewYorkology headlines:
· Rescued Goya joins Guggenheim's El Greco show
· New York City's 12 best snowcams
· Museum for African Art finds permanent home
· Off-Broadway on sale for $20 in March for 20at20

NewYorkology / New York City / Sightseeing / → All Tags

NewYorkology: Mark Your Calendars for Open House 2007

We are happy to announce the return of NewYorkology to Jaunted for the weekly update on things to do in NYC, courtesy of Amy Langfield.

If you're wondering when to plan a trip to New Your City, October should be high on your list to coincide with Open House New York--the 2007 dates were recently announced.

That's the weekend more than a hundred locations will open their doors for free, giving you access to spots such as the kitchens of the Waldorf-Astoria, the abandoned hospital at Ellis Island and one of the private roof gardens of Rockefeller Center. The precise locations for the 2007 peeks probably won't be released until August or September, but it's a safe bet the event is worth building a trip around.

OHNY 2007 is scheduled for October 6 and 7.

[Photo: i love nyc]

More recent headlines from the NewYorkology travel blog:
· Mondo New York-style Valentine's Day romance list
· Yankee Stadium to host 2008 All-Star Game
· 'Beauty' closing on Broadway for 'Little Mermaid'
· Down in Brooklyn's Dry Dock No. 1 with Mary Whalen

NewYorkology / New York City / → All Tags

NewYorkology: On the Blue List Trail

We are happy to announce the return of NewYorkology to Jaunted for the weekly update on things to do in NYC, courtesy of Amy Langfield.

2007 is the year for Brooklyn. At least that's the word from Lonely Planet in its new Blue List travel guide.

"Any New Yorker worth their street cred knows the new downtown lies just across the East River, over the stately 18th Century bridge sharing its name with its home borough, Brooklyn, the USA's biggest city-within-a-city," the book asserts.

But the problem is, Brooklyn's downtown probably isn't where you'd want to be. Its sights are sprawled across the borough and you're likely going to have to do more walking or bus navigating than you would in Manhattan. Cabs are hard to come by. The subway ride to Coney Island, for example, is a good 45 minutes to an hour from Midtown. I'm not saying don't go, just throwing in the caveat that seeing the stuff in Brooklyn requires a completely different strategy than across the river.

more ›

NewYorkology / New York City / Hotels / Restaurants / Deals / → All Tags

NewYorkology: 'Tis the Season For Discounts

We are happy to announce the return of NewYorkology to Jaunted for the weekly update on things to do in NYC, courtesy of Amy Langfield.

The holidays are finally over in New York, though you wouldn't know it by the freakishly warm weather that's supposed to last at least two more weeks. And with the crush of the tourists cleared out, the prices are coming down for hotels and the bargain mat is getting rolled out.

There are the weird things - like the Wellington Hotel's $117.13 "Borat Slept Here - Not" package, which was funny at least when it was announced. And then there's the competitive - like securing $1 tickets for Carnegie Hall or one of the discounted Winter Restaurant Week slots at Del Posto or Le Cirque.

See NewYorkology's list of other winter cheap New York stuff.

More New York headlines from the past week:
New York's 50 best webcams
JFK gets 50 free laptop, cell phone charging stations
Magnolia Bakery sold, new owner vows no changes
Times Square New Year's panorama, with Christina

[Photo: luzer]

NewYorkology / New York City / Restaurants / → All Tags

NewYorkology: The Guide Book Restaurant Curse

We are happy to announce the return of NewYorkology to Jaunted for the weekly update on things to do in NYC, courtesy of Amy Langfield.

Sure, New York City has say, a couple hundred really good restaurants, yet the same handful always seem to make it into the guidebooks - sometimes keeping open a place that should have shuttered a decade ago, other times merely flooding the place with tourists making it impossible to get a table.

The Spotted Pig is probably destined to remain in that second category for years to come. On a side street in the far West Village, it's got a patron pedigree including names like Mario Batali, Michael Stipe of REM, maybe Bono of U2, as well as some impressive folks actually working in the kitchen.

more ›

NewYorkology / New York City / Sightseeing / Public Transportation / → All Tags

NewYorkology: Who Ya Gonna Call?

We are happy to announce the return of NewYorkology to Jaunted for the weekly update on things to do in NYC, courtesy of Amy Langfield.

Coincidentally, NewYorkology this week had two Ghostbusters references - both about how to get access to normally off-limits spaces, both of which were featured in Ghostbusters. And even more coincidentally, neither of the spaces was actually used in the filming of the movies.

Starting with haunting of the New York Public Library in "Ghostbusters," recall if you will the main branch and the cards flipping out of the now old-fashioned card catalogs. You get to see the exterior of the library building, but by the time they indelicately march downstairs to find their prey, the filming was actually done in the Los Angeles Public Library.

But those downstairs stacks in the NYPL are actually off limits to the public. If you want a book from the main library, you have to fill out a request slip, which travels by pneumatic tube downstairs. There, a librarian finds it amid several stories directly under the library, or in the stacks that stretch out under the whole of Bryant Park next door. (Currently, there's an ice skating pond on top.)

more ›

NewYorkology / New York City / Transportation / Boats / → All Tags

NewYorkology: Ferry Entertaining

We are happy to announce the return of NewYorkology to Jaunted for the weekly update on things to do in NYC, courtesy of Amy Langfield.

Although New York can be an absurdly expensive place to visit (with the average nightly hotel rate exceeding $300 this season), you can still take some of it in on the Staten Island ferry for free. (At least for now.)

I was out on the ferry this week, not to get to the city's most isolated borough, but to get a better look at the decommissioned aircraft carrier, the USS Intrepid, as it cruised around the Statue of Liberty after finally getting pulled out of the Hudson River mud.

more ›

NewYorkology / Children / Kids / Shopping / New York City / → All Tags

NewYorkology: Toy Heaven

We are happy to announce the return of NewYorkology to Jaunted for the weekly update on things to do in NYC, courtesy of Amy Langfield.

Despite the fact that New York is already manic with holiday shoppers, last weekend I dove into the belly of the beast, taking a pair of 10-year-olds shopping in Midtown's mega-toy emporiums. The goal was to milk the preteen brain trust for advice for parents needing to know what to avoid and what's worth waiting in line for.

And although we spent an inordinate amount of time looking at massive Lego displays, like an unedited Bugs Bunny cartoon, there are adult-targeted nuggets hidden among the child-friendly entertainment.

more ›

NewYorkology / New York City / Shopping / Travel Tech / Technology / → All Tags

NewYorkology: Techie Heaven

After a brief sabbatical, we are happy to announce the return of NewYorkology to Jaunted for the weekly update on things to do in NYC, courtesy of Amy Langfield.

As the holidays approach, New York finds itself plenty deep in new techie
offerings. The newest is Wired's pop-up store in SoHo, which I got to tour on Thursday afternoon ahead of today's opening.

more ›

NewYorkology / Museums / New York City / → All Tags

NewYorkology: More Museums Please

After a brief sabbatical, we are happy to announce the return of NewYorkology to Jaunted for the weekly update on things to do in NYC, courtesy of Amy Langfield.

If you're going to be in New York this fall, there are several new museum exhibits worth your time, including two I've just seen in the past week or so. First off, the Museum of Modern Art has put together a small but impressive report on Manet and the Execution of Maximilian, which is up through January 29. (Pictured above.)

Not only do you get his three large paintings and a lithograph of the same subject, but also first-hand accounts, photographs and sketches from others, all materials which likely influenced the artist. And of course there's an obvious modern-day political parallel to this show, considering Maximilian's Mexican execution came after Napoleon III abandoned him there after installing him as emperor only to collect on European debts. Despite where you fall on the political spectrum, you'll probably find something here to fuel your point of view.

Further uptown, the staid Frick Collection has a loan through January 28 of Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art. The offering of Old Masters, including a naughty "Cupid and Psyche" from Jacques Louis David, are displayed in the garden and oval room of the museum's Beaux-Arts mansion.

Also keep your eye on the Neue Galerie, the little Upper East Side museum for German and Austrian art. Earlier this year, museum founder and Estee Lauder heir Ronald Lauder turned heads when he paid a reported $135 million for Gustav Klimt's "Adele Bloch-Bauer I," making it the most expensive price ever paid for a painting. And earlier this week, the Neue, along with an unnamed helper, paid $38 million at auction for Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's "Street Scene, Berlin." No word yet on when both will go on permanent display at the Neue.

More from NewYorkology this past week:
Stuck-in-traffic taxi rates rise Nov. 30; and $45 to JFK
Wired to open another pop-up store in SoHo
Intrepid stuck in mud, Dec. 8 next possible attempt
Palm shop to open at Rockefeller Center

New York City / Newyorkology / → All Tags

Newyorkology: Everybody in the Pool!

Here's this week's Newyorkology update from Amy Langfield:

It's the season of hot and muggy weather in New York City, yet hotel pools are extremely hard to come by. For NewYorkology this week, I pulled together a list of nearly 20, but some of those are far out in the outer boroughs, and even still, most are indoors.

The Meatpacking District already has two rooftop pools - at the Gansevoort and SoHo House -- and a third one on the way at Andre Balazs' Standard New York. And while SoHo has the snob appeal of being a members-only club, (with a few hotel rooms for non-members) Gansevoort has a package deal that will get you reserved deck chairs at the pool.  Nice, huh?

But if all that's too pricey for your budget, $2 will still get you the straight out to the beach at Coney Island via subway.

Here are a few New York travel-type headlines from this week:
 
'Legally Blonde,' 'High Fidelity' set Broadway dates
Tribute Center to open week of September 5
Half-price Amtrak companion fares into September
US Helicopter hopes to serve LaGuardia by October


[Image via Esthr/Flickr]

New York City / Newyorkology / Museums / → All Tags

Newyorkology: Met Your Match?

Here's this week's Newyorkology update from Amy Langfield:

It's not widely known, but many of New York's museums are completely free, all you have to do is ask. The cheap vs. guilt debate is in play this week because the Metropolitan Museum of Art two days ago quietly announced that as of August 1, it would be bumping its "suggested admission" to $20 from the already steep $15.

When the New York Times called up for comment, the grand museum declined to say how many of its 4.2 annual visitors actually choose to pay less. Maybe a little cheeky, considering the City of New York shells out 11 percent of the museum's budget - that was $24.6 million last year, according to the New York Sun.

And that's even before you consider that just two years ago it made the most pricey acquisition in the museum's history -- $45 million for Duccio di Buoninsegna's "Madonna and Child" -- which one art historian claims is a fake.

more ›