I Heart NYC; Revisited.

My better half is in Chicago visiting friends this week, so I took the opportunity to take in some NYC experiences on my own.

Since I'm not sure how long we'll be here (see post re: 5 Stages of NYC Living), I'm making a list of NYC things I want to do and doing my best to cross them off the list. (Am I also checking it twice? Who am I? Santa Claus?) Also, since we're on a budget these days, I'm looking to do some fun things on the cheap.

Fortunately, the company that I work for enables me to visit any museum for free. All I need to do is show some identification. After conferring with my wife on which museums she wouldn't mind that I went to without her, I settled on The Guggenheim.

The weather was perfect today and I hopped on the Q train to Union Square and transferred to a 6 train to head to the Upper East Side and join the horde of international tourists. The Guggenheim isn't as expansive as the Met but I did enjoy some of the artwork, like Kandinsky's Blue Mountain pictured below:

I also enjoyed Kandinsky's Composition No. 8:

And another favorite was Picasso's Mandolin and Guitar.

Afterwards, I checked out the gift shop where I really liked this print of an old New Yorker cover from the '70's.

Having concluded my early morning visit to the Guggenheim, I headed south and took in the sites of the Upper East Side, like the UES'ers boarding a bus to go to The Hamptons.

Eventually, I took a train downtown and made my way to The West Village. I stopped by the W. 4th Street Courts (aka "The Cage") to watch some hoops. Lucky for me, turns out that Kenny Graham's W. 4th Street Tournament games were taking place. I watched about half of the women's game and all of the men's game, pressed against the fence alongside a mix of tourists and locals. It was pretty fun and a real NYC experience.

Hungry from walking around and standing during the entire length of the b-ball games, I grabbed a slice from Bleecker Street Pizza and returned to BK.

Later that night, I met up with a friend whose cousin owns a boutique in Park Slope. He was watching the store for her and when he closed up, we went across the street to Bar 4 (7th Ave/15th St) where I was happy to hear a My Bloody Valentine song played by the deejay. And we found out they have Guitar Hero nights every Wednesday. Bonus.