Bluestocking Outing: Garry Winogrand at the MET

“No one moment is most important. Any moment can be something.” -Garry Winogrand

Each year, at the end of August, I find myself growing restless, and not just because I am anxious for fall weather. What is a Bluestocking girl to do when the world is in a Back-to-School frenzy, and she is now an alumnus? Can anything provide her with as much satisfaction and joy as the annual purchase of new pens, notebooks, and planners? With as much exhilaration as the prospect of another year of gained wisdom and intellectual stimulation?! It was in just such a restless August mood that I went to the Garry Winogrand exhibit at the MET.

Going to the MET is one of my go-to quintessential New York outings. When I want to feel like a real New Yorker, in the classy sense rather than the I’ve-been-waiting-on-the-subway-platform-for-20-minutes-in-90-percent-humidity sense, I know I can’t go wrong there. And after 5 years living in Manhattan, I still feel that I haven’t even scratched the surface of what the MET has to offer me. I had been looking forward to the Winogrand exhibit for a similar reason: He is known for photographing New York City in the 1950’s-1970’s, and I thought I could absorb some yen for more New York City outings from his work.

“Coney Island, New York” (1952) by Garry Winogrand

Winogrand photographed mostly public scenes, and was considered a “street photographer”. Many of his photographs were shot with a wide angle lens, meaning much more content could be squeezed into the frame. He also shot photos constantly, racking up an amazing number of negatives that he left largely unedited and unprinted, but some previously unprinted shots are being displayed in this exhibit alongside some of his more well-known pictures. If you’re interested in photography, history, politics, fashion, or enjoy people-watching, you won’t be disappointed.

“Peace Demonstration. Central Park, New York” (1970) by Garry Winogrand.

One very striking thing about the exhibit is that these photos feel so contemporary. The almost frantic pace at which the world seems to be moving and changing around the one moment of the shutter clicking to capture a single image. Reviews of the exhibit in the New York Times and New York Magazine both point out the similarities between Winogrand’s work 50 years ago, with our own social media culture, in which people compulsively and constantly are photographing the world around them, daily happenings that capture their attention can be captured and shared via facebook, twitter, and instagram. Our own culture of social media has perhaps taught us to appreciate Winogrand’s talent for capturing public, fleeting, and ordinary moments and showing their beauty, their joy, their sadness, their significance, their restlessness. So while my own late-August yearnings and anxieties may not have been entirely put to bed, at least I found respite for a day in the galleries, finding comfort in the companionship of other restless strangers.

“Metropolitan Opera” (1951) by Garry Winogrand

Bluestocking’s Outing Details:

Garry Winogrand at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Showing through September 21st.

More info here.

 

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” -Henry Miller

The skyline of London from the Thames.

Two years ago, to the day, I was on a plane heading to London for a 4-month epic study abroad adventure. This trip was the origin of American Bluestocking and her blog, and it’s been two years in the making to re-inspire myself to go back to it. My time abroad was everything a restless-young-artistic-spirit-in-the-making could have hoped for: I felt inspired. Almost constantly. And motivated to take advantage of the time I had in such a remarkable place, full of art, culture, adventures waiting to be had.

And then I came home. To New York City. Where I have lived for 5 years.

Being in London, I practically had a mandate to take advantage of the city while I could. And I did. I saw all the sites, I learned the history, and soaked in everything I could on a daily basis. Here in NYC, I go about my business, work my day job, go on auditions, worry about how to afford things, and watch a LOT of PBS documentaries on Netflix. While I hate the pace and lack-of-general-awareness with which tourists visiting NYC often exhibit while exploring the city, I often envy their point of view: receptive, curious, adventurous. New York is as magical to them as it is mundane to me.

So American Bluestocking is reinventing herself, as an avid explorer of her very own home town, New York City.

I moved here almost exactly 5 years ago, and I am ready to re-fall in love with the city (or at least to go on a few dates and see what happens, no pressure or anything, jeez). Because while there may be rats, roaches, and enough construction noise outside our collective bedroom windows at 7am to drive a New Yorker mad, we also have the MET, Lincoln Center, and the NY Public Library to remind us that we live in one of the best places on earth. If we’re willing to take the time to remind ourselves.

 

-American Bluestocking

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” -J.R.R. Tolkien

Or, alternatively, “Why Being a Bad Tipper Makes You a Worse Human Being”.

Being a newly graduated actress in New York City, I quickly entered into the reality that I needed to pay my bills, and that unless I was immediately cast in a successful television series instantly upon graduating, I would enter into a partnership with a Flexible Part-Time Job. This can mean one of two things for an aspiring artist: retail or restaurants. I went for the later. So I am now a hostess at a hip New York eatery! And this experience has proved to me what was previously only hypothesized. If you are a bad tipper, you are probably a bad person. But don’t fear! It’s not too late to reclaim your status as a GOOD AND REASONABLE PERSON!

A Breakdown of Bad Tipping Habits. Receive 1 Bad Person Point for each Habit that applies to you!

1. You believe that tipping in the U.S. should be a reward for only truly exceptional service. CONGRATULATIONS! You are idealistic to the point of unforgivable ignorance! In the U.S., waiters and waitresses make significantly less than minimum wage under the assumption that tips will make up the difference. In the U.S, servers in most states are only required to make $2.13/hour plus whatever they make in tips. Servers also have to pay taxes on the tips they do make, so even if the hourly wage is more than the “tipped minimum wage”, most of that money goes toward paying the taxes on tips. So 100% of the money that servers can actually take home and spend on rent, bills, groceries, and, hey, maybe dinner out once in a while, is the money that you leave as a tip. Now that your mind has been blown by these facts of life, factor in a 15% tip as a requirement for eating out.

2. You’re not from around here and either 1. things here are more expensive than in your home town, or 2. tipping expectations are different across the pond. WELCOME! You have arrived in [insert name of your destination here]! In this modern metropolitan center, we not only have higher prices to reflect the higher cost of living, but we have these resources called the internet and travel guide books. You’re invited to utilize them to research all the fun ways in which this place is different from your hometown, which are also presumably some of the reasons why you’re visiting here in the first place! One of the ways in which things here are different is that things cost more, and tipping is expected when you go out to eat (see Bad Tipping Habit #1). We will return the favor by researching your home town and local etiquette should we ever take a trip to [insert your home town here]!

3. You just don’t have enough money to leave a big tip on top of the money you spent on the food! I GET YOU, DUDE! I work a part time job and have to pay my rent and my bills, and every once in a while I need to have a fun night/meal out on the town to remind myself why I pay the crazy expensive aforementioned rent in the first place! So let me ask you a question: When you go to the movies, do you usually say to yourself, “Well, that’ll be $13 for the ticket and $5 for the popcorn. So I guess I’m going to spend $18 to go to the movie. Well, maybe more like $20 once I talk myself into buying those Sour Patch Kids at the concession stand.” If you answered “yes”, then you understand how to plan your night out! When going to a restaurant or bar, you need to say to yourself, “Well, I’m gonna spend $20 on [insert name of your favorite menu item or choose 3 pints from your favorite pub]. So I guess once I factor in tip, I’ll be spending between $25 and $30.” Now I know a few of you might be thinking, but I don’t have the money to spend $30 on a night out! The solution to your problem…don’t go out. Or choose a less expensive place where you can pay less AND still tip. And some of you are still thinking, but why spend $30 when I could spend $20 instead? The answer to your question…because then you will be a good person!

My dad has always joked to me that he wants as his epitaph, engraved on his tombstone as an eternal reminder of his life’s significance, the phrase “He tipped well.” Well, the reason for that is that he wants to be remembered as a good person, which he is. And how do I know he is a good person? Among other things…he tips very well.

Happy dining,

-K.