The Museum of Unnatural History or Why I Love Living in Manhattan

It being summer, my son and I have lots of time to kick around and do fun things. Today we went to the Museum of Natural History here in New York City. We started out by going to the Space Show in the planetarium. The film they showed was called Journey to the Stars which was about the formation of stars and supernovas. If you haven't been, it's pretty spectacular. The entire, rounded ceiling becomes a three hundred and sixty degree screen so it really seems like you are floating through the cosmos. This particular film, sadly was diminished a bit by the narration which was done by Whoopi Goldberg. Never has a black woman sounded so much like a cranky, old Jewish man. In any case, if I had to pick a Star Trek character to guide me on a soothing sojourn through the universe, there's an extremely good chance it wouldn't be Guinan! Hell, I'd have happily taken Wesley Crusher instead or Riker, or Data or, okay, anybody else!

Nonetheless, the film was still pretty amazing. When it was over we filed out and decided to see some of the other exhibits in the main body of the museum. We were walking down a long hallway, we nearly had gotten to the end of it, when who comes swinging around the corner but Bjork!  She was with her child and also enjoying a day at the museum. She's absolutely beautiful in person, but I'm sure you can guess that. She wore a very pleasant and disarming smile. I want to believe that I smiled back pleasantly, and cooly continued down the hallway, but inside I was squealing like a fan girl!  I have to say, I never cease to be amazed by how disarming it is to come face to face with one of your favorite artists. 

My son and I continued to the new Extreme Mammals exhibit. It was pretty interesting. We walked under a reproduction of a prehistoric beast four times the height of an elephant and marveled at the tiniest mammal discovered, a half inch tall rodent whose teeth are so small one needs a microscope to see them.  

That exhibit let out in the gift shop (of course) but we eventually found ourselves walking around some of the other tried and true exhibits. I've always loved the North American animals display (which a friend of mine calls, "The Dead Zoo") and the Hall of Diversity.  

At some point, I stumbled into a display that featured the album cover art from one of my CDs!  It was extremely surprising at first, but understandable under the circumstances. I won't tell you which CD it was from nor where I saw it. but the first person to tell me what album it was from and the exact location of the display will receive a box of goodies from me.

We eventually made our way back to the East Village. We had dinner at Typhoon, one of our favorite Japanese restaurants where I had an amazing Japanese curry and a couple of glasses of a really nice seasonal or "nama" sake called, Ohyama.

What a day it's been. This is why I live in New York city, folks!