Okay, I feel like I'm going pretty slow on the winter break story, but bear with me, guys.
The next day, we woke up pretty late and had a quick brunch in Applebees at 50th and Broadway. We had no idea how expensive that restaurant could be, and it was just for brunch. Anyway, it was a good brunch though. We were all filled up and ready to start our day.
The first destination we were heading to was NBC at 30 Rock. If you're familiar with the show 30 Rock, the name is actually derived from the address of NBC studio itself, which is 30 Rockefeller Center. The walk to 30 Rock didn't take that long as we just had to go down the 50th and made a right turn, where the so-called famous huge Christmas tree was towering right above us. A lot of tourists flooded the area and tried to find the best spot as possible to take picture of the probably the world's most famous Christmas tree.
After taking some time for pictures, we found the entrance to the NBC studio to book the studio tour. As a fan of SNL, I surely couldn't miss the visit to the studio of my favorite TV show. Unfortunately, the next tour would be at 5.30 pm, while when we got there, it was just 1 pm. We had around 5 1/2 hour to go.
In the mean time, we decided we'd go to MoMA, another destination on our list. Is it just me or most of the places of interests are accessible in walking distance? MoMA is apparently located only a few blocks away from 30 Rock which can be reached from Fifth Avenue. Yes, that famous Fifth Avenue. One of probably the busiest shopping spots in New York and where all the Gossip Girl-ish activities are concentrated.
We did drop by at some stores, because not only that we wanted to window-shop, but as well as to warm ourselves up from the windy weather outside. However, one of the stores managed to impress me much, and that's Build a Bear. I know what you think. The store's everywhere. You can even find many of them here in California. But this store reminds me how long it has been since I spazzed over cute and furry plush toys.
Five more minutes walk and we arrived in MoMA. At first, we got into the wrong entrance, which is super quiet and it looks more like an entrance to a corporate office. Apparently it was an entrance to MoMA Department of Films. The entrance is located a few feet away, and my thoughts were right. It was PACKED. The line extended outside, but it was a quick line though. We went in with a student price just within minutes.
The first exhibition Elda and I saw was this film installation that sets its narrative in different screen panels called Ten Thousand Waves by Isaac Julien. Each scene appears in each panel according to rhythm. We spent sometime seeing that film and trying to absorb the vibe this installation tries to deliver (after all, that's what museums are for, right?) It didn't make sense to me at first because it features many different footages that don't assemble as a narration, but eventually I read the description panel and began to understand.
The first two floors featured contemporary arts, but the top 3 floors were literally like Disneyland for art people. The top floors housed works of Piccaso, Van Gogh, and Frida Kahlo. Of course, I found people packed in one side of the room only to discover that they were frantically taking pictures of the 29x36 1/4" Starry Night painting by Van Gogh. It's got the feeling as if Monalisa was in the house, but it sure wasn't her. I wonder if Starry Night is probably the only painting in any American museum to ever get that treatment.
The second from the top featured more recent artists such as Andy Warhol, Piet Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, and Jackson Pollock. The other floor featured early graphic design works of Dada and Bauhaus style, as well as photomontage works by Russian artists Stepanova and Alexander Rodchenko. Those works are literally what started Graphic Design in the first place, and I was staring at them before my eyes. It felt surreal, especially I just learned about those artists last term. It felt as if the works jumped right out of the lecture sheets on to the physical space.
After sipping a cup of hot chocolate in the museum cafe, we started heading down and off to the streets where we should be going back to the NBC studios. The tour would start in a bit but glad we made it on time.
The tour started with a movie screened inside a giant globe-like theatre, about the history of NBC. The movie lasted in 10 minutes and we were guided out of the theatre, out of the studio (more into the main building of Rockefeller Center), and into the elevator that would bring us straight to the floor where SNL is shot. Too bad we couldn't take pictures, but it's totally fine to me, as I still remember every single detail of the tour and hopefully these words would do the justice.
Right out of the elevator, we were all greeted with an office-like environment. We then had to walk down the hallway of photographs featuring memorable hosts and episodes of SNL. Psy's Gangnam Style performance, Jennifer Lawrence, and Daniel Radcliffe are a few of familiar faces visible on the picture frames.
At the end of the hallway, there was a small door that led us to a studio. I became ecstatic when I recognized the podium where SNL band plays, the stage where the host presents their opening monologue, the door where they appear, passing the band podium right on to the stage, and the famous clock modeled after the one in Grand Central Terminal. Some of the studio props are still wrapped in dull-colored fabrics, of course, there are no surprises here. However, to my surprise, I didn't know that SNL shared its studio with a news show. The SNL setting was only divided with props and right next to the props is a completely different environment. Right next to the SNL setting, a table is neatly set for the news anchors to present the daily updates.
From the studio, we were led out to another part of NBC studios which is the control room. Now, we didn't really go into the control room. Instead, we were allowed to observe all the going-ons in the control room through a window. Then, we went into a small, dark room with busts displayed in glass case and a TV. The footage on TV introduced us with how the make-ups are created in SNL. Apparently, it wasn't a simple job to do. The cast members had to perform many skits in a day and each skit has different themes that required different make-up treatment. So we got to see Bill Hader running within skits to the dressing room to get his make-up taken off and replaced with a new one, and we're talking about minutes. So the make-up artists really worked their butt off to beat the time.
The next part of the tour was okay. It didn't excite me much but it was interesting. We came into a demo room specially designed for the tour and the visitors. the room resembled that of a news studio, like the one we saw earlier. However, visitors were asked to volunteer to act as a news anchor and a weatherman/woman.
We didn't spend so much time after the tour ended. Elda and I realized that we were still after the Ippudo Ramen in the East Village that was said to have Miso Ramen. So we took off and believe or not, we walked for over 2 miles in the cold to the southern part of Manhattan from Central Manhattan, where 30 Rock was located. It was a pretty tough walk, as not all parts of New York are so bright and friendly. We passed some areas where we got spooked by how quiet and dark.
Things got better after we passed the Union Square, where we took picture of Flatiron building.
When we arrived, we still had to wait for an hour to get our seats. But since East Village was nothing like Times Square, we decided to stick around and wait until my name got called out. As soon as we took our seats, I was bumped again with the menu: the Miso Ramen wasn't vegetarian at all. The Miso broth had pork broth in it. However, we walked for an hour, and waited for another hour to get to this point and I wasn't going to let myself down again. So I ordered that and spared the tasty, tempting miso/pork-broth ramen for goodness sake. Really. I believe I'm not the only who got bumped when I found out even the Miso Ramen isn't a vegetarian menu at all. All vegetarians who figured this out should find themselves disappointed as well.
Anyway, it was a good dinner. We didn't have enough energy to walk back to Manhattan, so we took a subway ride from New York University to 50th street. We walked straight back to our hotel and crashed on the bed.
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