Of Cabbages and Kings

Of Cabbages and Kings
October 2015

I have to admit that I like this title which I dreamed up in a theatre waiting for the aptly titled King Charles 3rd to start, but more of that later.

We had unfinished business with MoMA so we picked up breakfast from a street vendor and were there at 10.30. Helen is more the one for modern art, so rather than interfere in her musings we separated and I wandered around alone. Some of the art is interesting but some of the stuff is barking mad and the artists must have been on wacky backy to come up with their odd ball canvases. 

Whilst I still think Mark Rothco had a weird fixation with sash windows, it was interesting to see a couple of his works in the flesh and I was interested to see examples of Picasso, Monet and Dali's works in reality.

I was more interested in the pop art of Hockney et al, but seeing about 50 images of Campbell's soup all together made me wonder if he had been at the weed as well!

With several attractions still on our pass we went up the Empire State, an Art Deco masterpiece which offered a really good sight of the Chrysler Building and, more excitingly, a first glimpse of the Cunard berth in Brooklyn Terminal.

We wandered back to the apartment via Broadway and discovered that it had been given over to a huge street market selling loads of street food, cheap tee shirts and trinkets - a perfect souvenir hunting ground. Oddly, all the planters in the area are full of vegetables, particularly cabbages. There are carefully tended and completely left alone by the public - and I attracted some odd stares when I started to sample the types on offer! Clearly the concept of Gorilla Gardening hasn't caught on here yet!

But the day kept its best for last. We had tickets for the 1st premier of King Charles 3rd and made sure we were there in good time to bag our seats in a sell out house. The show has recently transferred from London and it was both engaging and funny, looking at what could happen if Charles came to the throne and then decided to use his position to interfere in Government. The scenario unfolds within a script  with realisticly portrayals of the royals, led on by Tim Piggott Smith as Charles. Let's just say that the audience left the theatre buzzing so it bodes well for a good run on Broadway.

But that's not all. Miles Richardson invited us along to the first night drinks reception, so we hob nobbed with the luvvies, Helen being a complete theatrical tart and getting introduced to Tim  P S. The cast were a really interesting bunch and the event really rounded off a fascinating five days in New York. 

In reality we barely scratched the city, never seeing Greenwich village, SoHo or TriBeCa, but it's good to leave something for another day. Tomorrow we board the Queen Mary 2 and start a long and elegant trip home across the Atlantic. It's boating Jim, but not as we know it!