The Jewish Museum

I spent alot more time at this museum than I expected, there really was a lot to see. I normally hate audio tours, but I used it this time, because I am seriously ignorant when it comes to ancient Jewish history, and this filled me in on the basics.

I have to admit, one of the most enjoyable parts of the museum was overhearding a conversation between a father and his sons about the museum. The son thought that the museum’s claim that Jewish thought is heavily focussed on constant questioning and interpretation was contradictory, while his father’s response was, stop asking questions and appreciate the very old things. Clearly, questioning and interpretation was not of importance to the father who had dragged the sons to the exhibition :P

In case you didn’t already know, the museum is always free on Saturday!

Today I went to the Masters of American Comics. I would definately recommend going if you are interested in the medium. Some highlights for me were a lot of interesting notebook pages for R. Crumb, and seeing the large scale work of Chris Ware was intriguing.

I didn’t know about “Light x Eight: The Hanukkah Project” in advance, but was really taken in by several of the pieces. One in particular was by Kirsten Hassenfeld on the first floor. I would tell more, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

The funny thing is that I went again today realized I had been there before. The first time was during the Museum Mile festival when many of the museums had free admission. I was excited to go see the Maurice Sendak exhibition. Out in front there was a klezmer band playing, and the strange elderly gentleman who I’ve seen dancing everywhere there is klezmer to be found was there too (I saw him storm the stage of Avery Fisher Hall to do cartwheels). The exhibition was full of wonderful work, and had a little reading area with pillows of Sendak’s work to recline on. It was lovely all around.