cloisters, wim wenders, aimee bender

this past weekend was disgustingly humid (a/k/a NYC in august) so we opted out of more rigorous adventures in favor of a trip all the way uptown to Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters. Met at Ghandi at noon & the neighborhood was already packed with screaming children, obese sweaty tourists and those annoying people who feel they're getting a slice of culture by coming down from the Upper West (or Upper East) to shop at the Union Square Farmer's Market. Just go home people...Off to the always unsexy L train & onto a highly under-airconditioned uptown A...too many sweaty stops later, we got off at 190th Street, followed all the other white people to the elevator, discussing on the way the time we'd opted for the stairs (never again...) and made our way into the hazy, sweaty, humid afternoon. Fort Tryon Park is beautiful & we saw lots of gorgeous flowers & other growing things (a nice change from most of Manhattan where the only thing that grows is that questionable looking black sludge in the subway tunnels)...and of course, the haze lying across the hills of NJ, the GW Bridge, and the Hudson. We lasted about 15 minutes (?) on our walking adventure, stopped at the Leaf Cafe (or whatever it's called) had a nice cold beer though why is it that NYC restaurants think it's a good idea to leave doors/windows open to "enjoy the weather" when I think we can all agree that 98% humidity is not enjoyable for anyone...After sitting and sweating, we walked up to the Lynden Terrace (Linden?) and had a nice long conversation about the similarities between patterns in programming language/coding html and writing poetry. (oh shutup...)...there was also some discussion of baby names (& no, no one in the near vicinity was even remotely expecting or planning to be expecting)...some agreement was made that Ruby is a good name for a girl and Dylan is a questionable name for any child at this point in history...we then moved on to a discussion of English people, their weird names, their odd sense of humor and so on...Onward to the Cloisters where we were subjected to yet more lack of a.c. (what is WRONG with these people?!) and of course, enjoyed the beautiful artwork. My usual penchant for devouring hills, cliffs, walkways on weekends was completely lacking...my big goal seemed to be to find various different locations where I could sit, hopefully not be smoked at/on and attempt to find a breeze. The Unicorn Tapestry is still as beautiful as ever though I think we all know how I feel about the subject matter & this brought an odd parallel to my day with the section of Denis Johnson's "Resucitation of a Hanged Man" I'd just re-read that very morning with the detailed description of the animal testing lab and the tortured dachsund our sensitive protagonist is forced to operate on...just shoot 'em all (the hunters & torturers that is...not the animals)...okay, a bit extreme but I think you get my point. The Cloisters is also home to one of the only depictions of Christ that has ever achieved anything resembling an emotional response in me (other than say, El Greco or some of the exquisite altars I saw in Spain - though that could've just been the extreme hot weather). It's a life size wood carving from Bavaria (?) circa 1500's and the carving is done so well, the suffering so realistically that for once, I can get past my ingrained (forgive the pun) block against most things Christian & can truly see the human element of Christ's suffering. Though it's beyond comprehension how anyone in their right mind could see such suffering and then take up arms and go make others suffer in the name of the original suffering...okay, that was really unclear...After that brief semi-religious experience, we stared at more art & then sat out in the gardens staring at the Hudson...we walked some more, relatively lethargically & then back to the A Train and the long ride down to civilization again...dinner at Cedar Tavern where the food's not that great but the atmosphere is exactly what was needed - dark booths, nice waitresses, and ice cold a.c. though perhaps in keeping with the odd unintentional parallels of the day (think: Dylan)...On the way downtown, I subjected my companion to some of Aimee Bender's stories - these from her first collection, "the Girl in the Flammable Skirt"...nothing like reading a large dose of magical realism outloud on a crowded A Train...Saw some movies over the weekend too including finally sitting all the way through (well almost...) Wim Wenders' "MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL" - odd and annoying (why oh why did he cast Mel Gibson?) but ultimately, worth the time...Spent some time at a very different CLOISTERS on Sunday - this being the cafe on 9th Street, and again, no air conditioning but at least it was a bit more bearable...St. Mark's Books had some passable choices on their sale table (because once again, I just can't afford to pay $25 for a book) and I picked up Ursula Hegi's "Hotel of the Saints" and a copy of Vernon God Little which I'd read a chapter or 2 of last year but never finished.