I know it’s already Saturday night and you’re probably just rousing yourself from your hipster party coke binge hangover to get ready for round two, but since I had such a lovely day frolicking around the city with hot tattooed girls finding bargains and checking out local events, I thought I’d give you a little roundup of awesome stuff to do when you come out of your Jager blackout tomorrow.

Photo by Atom Moore

– NYC Tattoo Convention: The always awesome, always crowded NYC Tattoo Convention is back again. Be sure to check out the booths of Calypso Tattoo for amazing blackwork, Chris O’Donnell for beautifully detailed Japanese-style work, New York Adorned for my favorite local tattooers, and Pure Body Arts for piercing. It’s open tonight until midnight, so you still have time to head over there and get that tattoo of your girlfriend’s name on your neck in cursive, just like you’ve always wanted. It’s also open tomorrow from 12-8. At Roseland Ballroom, 239 W 52nd Street between Broadway & 8th Ave.

– Decades Two popup: Decades Two is a Los Angeles-based resale shop that is known for having tons of high-end designer stuff at not so high-end pricing. They have a pop-up store above Kiki de Montparnasse just this weekend, and though it was only open to fashion insider types yesterday, it’s open to the public today and tomorrow. We stopped in today and found B. Romanek clutches for a mind-boggling 1/5 retail (and if they’d been carried at all, you couldn’t tell), an entire rack of bargain-priced Chanel (one woman nearly peed herself when she found out the Chanel jacket she tried on was a mere $100), and all the usual designer suspects (Lanvin, Louboutin, Prada, Miu Miu, Marc Jacobs, some insane McQueen pumps) at really great prices. Rumor has it that the pop-up will be back again soon, but for now the designer treasure trove is limited, so head over. 79 Greene Street at Spring. (You have to go inside Kiki to get to the sale, so pick up some lingerie or high-end bondage gear while you’re at it.)

– International Fluevog Day Sale: John Fluevog is having a sale of 15% off everything in the store in celebration of International Fluevog Day (aka the shoe designer’s birthday, which was yesterday). They also had cupcakes for the customers today from Sugar Sweet Sunshine, my favorite cupcake shop in the city. Don’t know if they’ll have any cupcakes left tomorrow (especially after my husband plowed through their cupcake stash today), but wander in and check out the great shoe selection, and if you’re lucky, meet the shop dog. 250 Mulberry at Prince.

– Extreme Mammals Exhibition: The newest exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History opened today and features live sugar gliders, which I am very excited about. I’m a sucker for a nocturnal flying marsupial, what can I say? They also have kid-friendly interactive exhibits, so you can bring your girlfriend’s 3 kids from a previous relationship. And don’t miss the Butterfly Conservatory, which is only open until May 25. You can frolic amongst live butterflies, which terrifies me utterly but does not faze small children in the slightest. Open 10 am – 5:45 pm tomorrow. 79th Street at Central Park West.

Butterfly

This past weekend I took my mother to see the butterflies at the AMNH. This young boy couldn’t get rid of this little orange butterfly. It stayed on his shoulder as he and his father tried to get more to land on them. What a magical place. The Butterfly Conservtory is only open through May 25th! Get there while you can.

Visited the ever monumental American Museum of Natural History this weekend with some out of town guests, like you do. Went into the Butterfly Conservatory. If standing around inside a terrarium with a lot of flying insects is your idea of fun, go see it! It was really quite magical. On our way home we took the A train, which was running on the C track in front of the museum. In the station was a man in a green trench coat, wearing a beard, playing the violin. At one point a small child was very interested in what was happening with that weird looking stick the man was rubbing on that small wooden box, so the man knelt down to let the boy hold the bow. He showed him how to push it across the strings and did the necessary finger work to play a tune. The boy was elated and the whole platform of people immediately gained new found acceptance for the man in the green trench coat with the violin. Little moments like that are another reason to fall in love again with this city of ours. Then on the train a man in a dirty jean jacket sitting next to my friends mother asked if we were going uptown or downtown, classic. The A train is for April.

Photo from pps.org

Yesterday marked a favorite yearly event – the Museum Mile Festival. Every year, 5th Ave shuts down to cars in the evening and the museums open their doors for free. It’s always a nice opportunity to get to the museums (which I, like many New Yorkers, don’t often do). Plus, it’s just fun to walk down the middle of a street usually filled with traffic.

Last night, the weather was perfect for the occasion. I met up with some friends at the Museum of the City of New York – my first visit there. With a grand entrance and historic appearance, the building is beautiful. We checked out the Maritime exhibit (which showed a historic look at downtown ports), New York Interiors (lavish displays of historic interiors), and a theater exhibit (with costumes from major musicals, including Rent). Definitely worth a visit.

As usual, there wasn’t much time for more than one museum. We headed down to the Cooper-Hewitt Museum courtyard, always a nice spot, and watched a cool glass-blowing demonstration. After that, there was only a little more time to walk along 5th and admire the chalk artwork covering the street.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming free events in the city – movies and concerts in the park. There will be free live music this weekend at the annual Madison Square Park barbecue event.

The machine was designed by 2 M.I.T guys told me the host of the space. Go to Houston and Orchard to experience this music-making machine. What happens is that you input a few keystrokes via a laptop into the machine’s glands. And for the next few minutes, it churns out a song using ping pong projectile balls hitting xylophonic keys, wine glasses being spinned and a few different percussion instruments along the bottom half.

The space is unique and very fun to try out. And after all is completed, you get e-mailed your videos.

(NOTE: I am in no way promoting drinking or Absolut. I am a proud supporter of people that have enough money to sponsor cool interactive art installations like this one. I mean monarchy was no good but it sure gave the world a ton of art, right?)

I am in NYC for most of the week and hope to post on some shows I saw including my show which just closed at D’Amelio Terras Gallery.

James Kalm has a you tube video which highlights the increasingly thankless and frustrating task of trying to document shows in spite of the proliferation of no-photography policies at many galleries and museums. It’s a very strange, situation since most artists I know want people to see their work and also since the vast majority of online art press is very positive.

Photo from financialhistory.org

After the Sports Museum of America scored its former location on Broadway, the Museum of American Finance has reopened on 48 Wall Street. They’ve taken the word “history” out of their title (I’m guessing to make it sound a little more interesting) and moved to a larger space that includes exhibits, galleries, and a theater.

The Museum is now open Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 4 pm. Admission is $8 for adults; $5 for students/seniors; kids 6 and under free.

This Sunday afternoon my fiance and I went to the Natural History Museum. This is one of my favorite things about New York City. This museum is so large and full of things to do. Children everywhere have little idea bulbs permanently flashing above their little heads. This time we visited the Butterfly exhibit which they have every year during the cold seasons. Next we visited the new Water exhibit. Definitely worth checking out. The knowledge flowing from the Natural History Museum is brain titillating.

More pictures after the jump.
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One thing I hope to do on this trip into New York is see the exhibit about Jane Jacobs at the Municipal Art Society and even better go on a related walking tour.

Since Jane was an advocate and keen observer of the actual spontaneous order of city life, who didn’t leave us any 12 lane expressways or public monuments, she may be a hard subject for an exhibit.

The galleries are located in the Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue at East 51st Street.Suggested donation: $10

Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Wednesdays – 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Sundays – 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The National Park Service is reopening the Ferry Building on Ellis Island today. This is slightly ahead of the 100th anniversary of the peak processing day for the island; on April 17, 1907, 11,747 immigrants passed through and the Island was en route to a huge year, seeing 1.1 million immigrants enter.
Much of the island’s buildings are still in disrepair but plans are underway to renovate, among other things, the hospital buildings, creating an educational institute and conference center.

[photo from the New York Times article]