Walk around Manhattan (with visit to AMNH)

I took a long walk yesterday (Saturday, November 3rd), and took some photos. This is a photo-heavy post, so I’m making it so that you need to click the link below to read the rest of it.

This SWPL marathon crap hasn’t been taken down yet.

We see the marathon field hospital all set up, in preparation for those runners who will inevitably require emergency medical assistance at the end of the race (if they make it to the end). Why do people voluntary partake in an activity with such dire health risks? It’s one of life’s mysteries.

You can see two of the gasoline-powered generators leading into the tent. I counted eight such generators being used to power this facility. The New York Post believes that their article about how at least 41 generators were being used by the marathon influenced Bloomberg to cancel the race. However, as of yesterday afternoon, they were still sitting around Central Park unused while people were without power in the outer boroughs

The bedrock of Manhattan is bedrock. It provide a sturdy foundation for tall skyscrapers. In Central Park, you can see quite a bit of exposed bedrock.

The Time Warner building, as seen from the other side of the Lake in Central Park. It’s probably inside that very building where people edited the bogus story about the guy refusing shelter to two little kids who then died in the hurricane. (As reported by me, it didn’t happen that way.)

I emerged from Central Park at 77th St, and I almost walked into the now-running subway, but the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) beckoned to me. Above we see some animal dioramas from the Akeley Hall of African Mammals.

The absolute best thing about this museum are the animal dioramas. It’s a unique art form which I think only exists at the AMNH, the Smithsonian, and the Peabody Museum at Yale [plus a few other major natural history museums]. The animals are real animals that were killed and preserved through expert taxidermy. Many of the African specimens were bagged by Teddy Roosevelt himself on the famous safari he undertook after he finished serving as President. The background paintings are the art of James Perry Wilson .

I doubt that these types of dioramas will ever be created again. If a museum were doing such a thing today, they would probably have fake animals made from plastic, and the backgrounds would probably be photographs.

The Hall of African Mammals seen from the top deck, to give you a better idea of how these dioramas are presented.

Here we are in the Hall of Asian Mammals, which is in a shabby state of disrepair. But I like it. It reminds me of how old this museum is. I feel like the museum, itself, is the museum, and not the exhibits.

The exhibits in the relatively new Hall of Biodiversity (1998) are full of liberal propaganda about how the environment is being destroyed. They highlighted the propaganda part in red to make sure people read it. Very sad. This is the future of natural history museums.

This is an anthropology diorama in the Hall of Asian Peoples. We see a Tibetan nobleman in the 17th century, with the castle of the Dalai Lama in the background.

I tend to think of this as a new exhibit, because I remember visiting the Hall when it was new. But alas, it opened in 1980, it’s now 32 years old. This reminds me that I am getting old. It’s very sad. Unless the singularity happens really soon, I’m going to die in a few decades, if not sooner.

Leaving the museum. Goodbye.

Comments

[Frank]

Nice photos, but there are great animal dioramas at the Field Museum in Chicago, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. I enjoy the continuity of seeing stuffed animals in the same scenes they were when I saw them as a young child.

[Kyo]

Props to the museum for listing the sizes of the cnidarians in only metric! Who says Americans cling excessively to the English system?

(And, on a different note, props to the Mac dictionary for knowing the word "cnidarians" and not flagging it as a potential misspelling!)

[Paul Rise]

Half Sigma the killed-by-humans wild animal diorama is alive and well at Cabela's all throughout Red America. Red America is keeping it real.

[DaveinHackensack]

They didn't give you crap for taking photos at the museum? They did when I tried took photos at the Metropolitan Museum of Art nearby.

[HS: Cameras are allowed in both museums.]

[Carl Spackler]

The Dolly Llama has a castle in NYC?! No shit!

[JP]

Dude, I was hoping for photos of floating corpses and whatnot. You're supporting the MSM narrative of "nothing happening, Bloomie and Barry have it under control".

[HS: In fact, it's like a normal weekend in upper Manhattan. No evidence of a hurricane except a few trees in Central Park didn't make it.]

[Turambar]

I'd like to see an HS post on what happens if Obama loses.

Clearly blacks are over represented in currently politics and Hispanics are underrepresented. Are Hispanics really supposed to fall in lock step behind Cory Booker, Deval Patrick or whatever black state senator decides to run for POTUS when they are a much larger minority? Playing second fiddle when they are now the big dog doesnt make any sense. But will blacks sense of grievance allow them to settle into a number 2 position.

If Obama decides not to run and instead spends his time growing a beard and porking co-eds, will blacks be disillusioned with the political process and their participation rate plunge?

Will Dems failing to take the House result in Pelosi resigning. Probably yes. So does Clyburn take over and Dem leadership become completely ineffective? Or do the Dem's ice out Clyburn and piss off the Congressional blacks.

A loss by Obama leaves the Democratic party in a very tough position.

[sabril]

You might consider signing up to get yourself cryogenically suspended when you die.

[Drole Prole]

Did you notice heavy chemtrails in the sky?

[Gilbert]

What about the "long, long Indian war canoe, about as long as three goddam Cadillacs in a row, with about twenty Indians in it, some of them paddling, some of them just standing around looking tough, and they all had war paint all over their faces"?

[Just Speculating]

HS said: In fact, it's like a normal weekend in upper Manhattan. No evidence of a hurricane except a few trees in Central Park didn't make it.

It was a tale of 2 cities after the storm.

Parts of Mid and most of Upper Manhattan weren't really effected and they had power back in a day. Lower Manhattan is still in recovery process.

For many SWPLs, the storm aftermath was all about having fun. Eating out and drinking in certain restaurants/bars with their power generators turned on, was a very cool thing to experience. One eating establishment even had 800 candles lit up that attracted swarms of SWPLs who felt there was a romantic aura to it.

NAMs on the other hand, left their housing projects to stay in the public shelters where they received gov't aid and rationed food.

[ice hole]

I liked the "brevity of life" aside, as triggered by a museum exhibit from your youth. Very timely in the wake of a killer, autumnal storm.

You should read some Emily Dickenson.

[chucho]

Good move going to the museum on a Sunday right after a hurricane--it looks like no one was there. I went in June on a weekday and the place was a madhouse.

It's really a terrific place to visit, though. I enjoyed the exhibits about the local wildlife and ecology/geography the most.

[Discard]

I don't think those are generators in the second photo. They seem to be some kind of ventilation for the temporary structure. Heaters I'd guess, for those runners chilled by the storm.

[Black Death]

About two years ago, during one of my infrequent visits to your city, I took almost the same path and ended up in the AMNH. I agree that it's wonderful. The animal dioramas are especially nice. I don't remember the Hall of Biodiversity - I no doubt sensed the strong odor of leftist propaganda and skipped it. But the Museum overall was very pleasant - better than the weather two years ago, which was cold and rainy.

I stayed in the Trump Tower, not very far away. And i remember shopping in the Whole Foods store in the basement of the Time-Warner Center. Prices of everything were approximately twice what I paid at home for the same items. But that's New York for you.

[Just Speculating]

"I stayed in the Trump Tower, not very far away. And i remember shopping in the Whole Foods store in the basement of the Time-Warner Center. Prices of everything were approximately twice what I paid at home for the same items. But that's New York for you".

You're talking about Manhattan, the de facto place where everyone calls it "New York".
Things are a lot cheaper in the other boroughs. Blame it on Bloomberg and his legions of well to do SWPLs making a home here.

[Just Speculating]

oh, btw, HS: The American Museum of Natural History is low class prolish. You need to go crosstown and visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art where there is fine art for the sophisticated SWPL types.

[SteveO]

I really like the AMNH. Those dioramas are showing their age though. The animal furs look like dusty old carpets, faded and fragile. These exhibits seem more like time capsules now than anything educational about nature, i.e. "Look what Science was like during Teddy Roosevelt's time!"

[Ian]

Just Speculating said: "oh, btw, HS: The American Museum of Natural History is low class prolish. You need to go crosstown and visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art where there is fine art for the sophisticated SWPL types."

I usually agree with most of your comments about class issues in New York, but this one is completely off. While NY's two big museums do attract different crowds of people (more SWPLs at the Met, lot more kids at the AMNH, etc.), calling the AMNH "low class prolish" is just silly.

Pro-tip for you guys in your 20s and 30s: the AMNH Junior Council and Met Apollo Circle events are good places to meet the right kind of white people (i.e. intelligent, socially savvy, sometimes attractive girls).

[Just Speculating]

Ian,

Adults w/o kids visiting the AMNH tend to be your prolish variety. I've met people who've volunteered in the museum and they all spoke in a nauseating accent coming from a Flintstone cartoon. A staff member at the MET who speaks in this fashion would be a insult for a world class museum and an utter disrespect to all the SWPL connoisseurs. Besides this, the interior of the AMNH is outdated like many of the prole institutions of NYC. Go to any public library, school or city agency, and the design of AMNH isn't all that different from any of them. This of course is reminiscence of the days when ethnic Jews and Italians ruled the streets of Manhattan like dinosaurs of the prehistoric past.

Your chances of finding attractive girls is much greater at the MET than the AMNH, unless pedophilia is your thing, which of course I'm not condoning.