Building the Big Apple

Roar! Today was the grand opening of a brand new Lego store at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. This is the first Lego store in New York City so they're making a point to celebrate the opening with all sorts of Lego-related fanfare. Or should I say brick-fare? One of the things they're doing is building a giant Lego apple to celebrate New York. Any Lego fans could come by and help put it together so I went on over to Rockefeller Center to have fun playing with some Legos. 

Here is one of the big bins of red bricks they had to help build the big apple! Roar!

Everyone took the little bricks and made big bricks which were then used to put the apple together.

Here I am with the brick I built. 

Here is a pile of completed bricks waiting to be added to the apple.

Finally here is the under-construction apple! Woah it's so big! I'd love to take a big bite out it when it's done! I bet it tastes super plasticy! Roar!

They also had this cool sculpture garden people could contribute to. I decided to try my claws at building something.

Here is the sculpture of me that I built. I think it's a pretty good likeness! Roar!

Here I am in front of the sculpture I built. It sure looks good!

Inside the Lego store they also had some great sulptures built specifcally for the store. Here is an awesome sculpture of Atlas! Look at him hold up that brick globe! 

Here is a great looking Lego Prometheus! That means there are now two Prometheuses in Rockefeller Center! They sure love this guy here!

There is also this great mosaic. It reads, "Creativity and Imagination shall be the Stability of the Times." Those are words to live by if I've ever heard them! Next time you're in this part of the city be sure to stop by the Lego store and play with some bricks! Roar!

Museum Madness!

Roar! After a nice restful week I decided it was finally time to get back out there and visit some more of the Key to the City locations. So I moved on up to the east side to check out a couple of museums! The first place I went to was the Whitney, which I visited back during their Biennial. They were still installing new exhibits so I went right over to the coat check counter to see the mysterious box that my key would open.

I just love opening all these boxes! I wonder what's going to be inside this one!

 

Woah! It an architectural model of the new whitney museum being built downtown! I get to have a sneak peak of what it's going to look like!

Wow! The new museum looks like it's going to be a really cool building. I can't wait to see it in person! This sure was a great location to visit. I left a sticker on the lock and decided to head over to Fifth Avenue to visit another location in the Upper East Side.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art also had a Key to the City secret to discover! I wonder what it's going to be?

Hmm? My key grants me access to this music box. I wonder what will be inside this box?

Roar?! Turns out my key got me "free" admission to a museum that is already suggested donation. Lame! They also only put a limited number of buttons in the music box and don't bother to fill it back up when it runs out. Double lame! Plus this was the last day the Met's key site was open. They couldn't even offer "free" admission for the whole duration of the project. Triple lame! The Met is a wonderful museum but this is really just laziness on their part. They could have done something so much cooler.

Here I am wearing my "free" Met pin. I'm so glad today was a green pin day! It matches my skin so well! Roar!

Here I am in the nice little Chinese garden in the Asian Wing. It sure is a nice place to relax.

Here I am enjoying some more Chinese art. What's that guy in the red shirt staring at?!

Wow! The Greeks sure made these sculptures anatomically correct! Rawr!

This sure is one sweet future chair! I even like the color! It even matches my pin! Roar!

 

This is a really nice painting by Mondrian. Look at the balance between the lines and color. ROAR!

Roar! Mao Zedong sure has a dirty nose! Roar! 

Here is a great piece by Jackson Pollock. He used to get so drunk when he painted that he'd step on his empty liquor bottles and cut his feet up. Then as he walked over his canvas while he painted he would track blood all over his painting. I guess that's how he gets those distinct reds. 

 Roar! You know which side of the color spectrum I'm leaning to! 

This is such a great painting by Monet! I hope no royal-headwear-surnamed adulterers try to steal it in a movie! Roar!

Here I am in the Assyrian section. They have all these great wall carvings! It's just like being in an old temple! Roar!

 

They currently have this great exhibit on the roof of the Met where they built a giant bamboo walkway that you can climb around on! It's so neat! I definitely recommend checking it out! 

The other nice thing about the roof of the Met is it has a great view of Central Park and the Midtown skyline. What a perfect end to my day of Museum Madness!

My Summer Solstice Adventure: Evening

Roar! After leaving the concert I rode all the way down the rest of the West Side bike path to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Then I took the ferry across the harbor so I could continue on my way to my final destination on Staten Island.

I was feeling pretty dehydrated after all the riding I did all day. Luckily, I was passing by the old watering spot where early pioneers would stop to rest on their way across the island. What a perfect place for to hydrate! Roar!

After a cool, refreshing drink, I decided to take the Staten Island Railroad to very tip of the island to visit another Key to the City location.

Here I am in front of the Bayside Pavilion at Conference House Park. Situated at the very tip of Staten Island, it is both the southern and westernmost point in New York City.

It turned out my key opened this gate beneath the pavilion. I wonder what could be under there?

Underneath the pavilion there was a bunch of weird junk all over the place. There was also this box that I'm guessing was for people to leave messages in. It was empty except for some fishing line. I put a sticker up in it so people would know I had come by. Roar!

I also threw a sticker up on this column of the pavilion. Now I have the southern and westernmost graffiti in the city! Combined with my previous trips to Hillside Ave and 268th Street in Queens and College of Mount St. Vincent in the Bronx, I now have graffiti at all of the corners of New York City! I may have been all over this city before this but now I've officially gone ALL CITY! Roar!

It had been a long day and I was pretty tired but sitting on a bench and watching the sun set from the bayside pavilion couldn't have been a better end to my summer solstice adventure. Roar!

My Summer Solstice Adventure: Afternoon

Roar! After I rode over in to Manhattan, I found myself up in Inwood at 207th street. Turns out there was some great graffiti up there!

Check out this sweet Pink Panther tag! Looks like inspector Clouseau is on the case! Roar!

I decided to ride down the West Side bike path to the George Washington bridge and do the Key to the City location there. The GW is such a BRUTAL looking bridge. In fact, the famous French architect Le Corbusier called it the only beautiful thing the U.S. ever created. Roar! That is just so French!

The map of the West Side bike path was poorly marked and I found myself on a trail that quickly turned into a dirt path that then ran into train tracks. I guess I was on the wrong trail, roar?

I could still see the GW in the distance so I pennied the tracks for good luck then climbed through the woods towards the bridge.

After passing through the woods I finally made it back to the West Side bike path. I then rode up and around to the entrance to the south path to check out the Key to the City location.

Roar?! Where did the lock my key opens go?! There I was at the 3rd gate and the lock was missing. I guess someone must have taken it.

Ahh... There was such a lovely view of the Hudson river from atop the George Washington Bridge. I could see all the way out the harbor. I'll be heading down there later.

Look down there! That's the little red lighthouse under the great gray bridge. The subject of a famous children's book. Let's go take a closer look.

Roar! It's the groovy green dinosaur in front of the little red lighthouse under the great gray bridge! I hope we can all be friends!

Next I continued my way down the West Side bike path until I hit 72nd Street, then decided to cut on over to the park for a Make Music New York performance. But first I needed to make a quick stop at the 72nd Street subway stop.

Ring! Ring! Wait, where did the phone go?! I was expecting a call from Simon! Roar!

I continued my ride over to Central Park to see a performance of Iannis Xenakis's Persephassa on the lake. Here I am playing in the fountain by the lake while I wait for the concert to start. Woah! What is that kid behind me up too?

The performance was really cool! All of the percussionist were set up on boats on the lake and the floated around while they performed Persephassa. The audience also got to float around the lake on rowboats to enjoy the concert. It was so neat!

The concert was a little late getting started so unfortunately I didn't have time to stay for the whole thing. Instead of riding the boats I hung out on the small bridge over the lake and enjoyed a nice view of the Upper West Side.

The concert was a really nice end to my afternoon but I still had a long way to go before my day was over. Roar!