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I recently got turned on to the idea of scavenger hunts in and around some of our fair city’s most fascinating locations. One that stood out, and incidentally has captivated my imagination for quite some time, is entitled Murder at the Met. As the name suggests, the event is based around a (fictional) murder in the Metropolitan Museum, which the guests have to solve by finding clues related to pieces of art in the museum.

The Mystery
Now if you’ve ever been to the Met or at least read my previous post about it, you’ll know that a scavenger hunt involving clues strewn across the museum’s many wings of fabulous art and sculpture is no small task, but that’s not all! Using the sheet of notes provided to get you started, combined with an answer sheet to write down your clues, and a numeric cypher, you have to guess not only the murderer’s identity, but also their motive. All within the time limit of 2 hours.

To get us started, each team was given a clue to start with, along with a guide for getting to the next clue. We were thankfully given the first clue to start with, so our journey was more or less by the numbers. Over the course of our search, we traversed the museum many times over, occasionally having to “be resourceful” about finding clues or rewriting directions when a particular wing of the museum was closed off. I’m proud to say that my team did exceptionally well despite getting totally lost looking for some 18th Century American portraits.

Eventually, we arrived at the Temple of Dendur, a massive hall with the remains of an ancient Egyptian temple, much of it still kept whole despite the long intervening centuries between its construction and subsequent excavation. We still had a few minutes which we used to run through the clues and make our guess about who among the multiple motivated murder suspects was the actual killer. Unfortunately, despite getting nearly every clue correct, we couldn’t figure out the cypher, and finally just guessed at the culprit, though we did manage to parse out the precise motive from the notes and the clues we’d gathered.

The Museum
The Met itself was no less impressive the second time around, and the added aspect of finding clues in the art gives you an excellent means by which to explore and scrutinize many of the museum’s permanent collections. On the downside, you get caught up in the competition and will probably find that you don’t have time during your hunt for clues to linger too long in any one place, so your opportunities for leisurely examination of any particular piece will be limited. If you still have the energy after the hunt ends, however, the price of admission to the museum is included in the cost of the ticket, so you can stay as long as you like to look at other exhibits.

The Bottom Line
Do it! But plan well in advance. The Murder at the Met series occurs several times a month but at times, you may have to book up to a month in advance. Perhaps by luck, when I finally did resolve to go, I was able to book tickets for the event only two weeks ahead of time. The tickets are a bit pricey at around $40 for an adult, $32 for students, but since they include price of admission to the museum, you can get a lot of bang for you buck, plus the event itself is totally worth it. A great way to spend a few hours on Saturday night!

Yes, my parents were in town last weekend, and we actually managed to see and do quite a bit for just the couple of days they were here. Here’s a copy of the itinerary I put together for them:

Friday
The Focacceria (Italian)
The Comedy Cellar

Saturday
The Met
Carne-Vale (Brazilian)

Sunday
Brunch
Happy hour on the river

A pretty solid schedule with some wiggle room for doing other fun things like getting stuck in a cab in traffic. That’s New York for you though. Anyway, I’ll hit each point quickly so as not to completely overwhelm you

The Focacceria
Probably my favorite Italian restaraunt in the city, I highly recommend this place, and virtually anything on the menu. The Penne Vodka and Cannolis are particularly good. I love this place because the food is good, the place is never too crowded, and the service is always friendly and accomodating.

The Comedy Cellar
I saw Collin Quinn here! That makes him my first celeb sighting in the city actually, even if it was on stage. Unfortunately I have nothing flattering to say about him. He jokingly mentioned that his career must be downhill cause no one was laughing. Well, I think everyone realized that it wasn’t as much of a joke as he’d like us to believe, cause really, no one was laughing. Happily, the other comics were fantastic and my parents had a great time. It may also be worth noting that we followed this up with a random jazz place and got a little schnookered before turning in for the night. I’ll figure out the name of the place later.

The Met
After a night of strong drink, the Met was perhaps not as fun as it really should have been. This place is massively, enormously, stupendously humungous. Man is it big. Even if you were sober as a judge you wouldn’t be able to see this whole museum in a day and would be completely absurd to try, so we picked a few things that wouldn’t tax our addled brains too much: Roman sculpture, Dali, Modernism, and a healthy dose of fresh air on the roof, overlooking central park. A good time that could have been much, much better, but I suppose you just can’t have it all.

Carne-Vale
Carne-Vale is a Brazilian Churrascaria, which are typically very expensive restaraunts that serve obscene quantities of top quality meats. I’ve managed to find one that’s not quite so expensive, but still keeps the obscene quantities of good food. Maybe not the place you want to go on a first date, but it was perfect for a family of carnivores like mine. The one downside to this place is that the service can be a little hit-or-miss, but if you’re not too picky, it doesn’t exactly matter. Once you sit down, service is pretty much limited to red light, green light. Flip the card to green, and they bring more meat. Red, they don’t. Simple, effective, delicious, just the way meat should be.

Cafe des Artistes
Mother’s day brunch isn’t the time to be stingy, but we really pulled out all the stops on this one. My mother lived here in the city, once upon a time, on the upper west side, and used to dine at this restaraunt when it was presumably a little less high-brow than it is today. Thus, we decided to treat her to a prix fix brunch with champagne and a side of nostalgia. It was extravagant, delectable, but a little short in the fun department because we managed to get served by the one snooty jerk SOB on the staff. I should say that this seemed like an abberation, because his fellow waiters and hosts pretty much got us what we asked for when he consistently ignored us. Normally I wouldn’t outright complain about service, but for a restaraunt like this, with the prices being what they were, service really ought to be impeccable.

Sunset on the River
Last stop, the ferry. I decided to end the escapade with a nice riverboat tour of the city, so we hopped over to the South Street Seaport (which is an attraction in itself) and climbed aboard a New York Water Taxi. It didn’t have much in the way of frills, but we got to sit on the upper deck and look at the skyline from both the Hudson and the East River as the sun went down. They also served beer and wine for those inclined, but it wasn’t quite what i’d consider an uproarious expedition, so we kept it low key and enjoyed the view.

And that concludes 2007 parents’ weekend in NYC!

Overview

Admittedly, after my experience at First Friday at the Guggenheim, I was a little skeptical about this whole concept of museum parties, but I have to say that First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum has totally made up for that! From the moment I walked in the door till the moment I left, there was plenty of free music, free tours and of course free art to keep any reasonable person busy.

The Party

As I’ve explained previously, the Brooklyn Museum throws down on the first Saturday of every month to celebrate a particular theme. This month’s theme happened to be global feminism, in honor of the new global feminism exhibit on display. Now, all preconceived notions of feminism aside, the overall atmosphere of the event was very relaxed, and I had a good time doing stuff that everyone can enjoy, like drinking, listening to music, and just wandering around the museum. One of the great thing about First Saturday is that you don’t have to be involved in anything you don’t want to be involved in. In fact you could just treat it as a free night at the museum if you preferred.

I decided to be a little more adventurous than that, so I took one of the feminism themed tours, which was somewhat interesting, but probably not worth waiting in line for. I had much greater appreciation for the music and later the dance party, which were a lot of fun, especially coupled with the novelty of being surrounded by famous artwork. Add a drink or two to the mix ($5.50 beers and wines) and everything seemed just grand. Even the somewhat jarring feminist exhibit was tolerable after a couple of cold ones.

The Art

Of course, at least half the fun of this event has nothing to do with feminism or First Saturday at all. It’s a pleasure to wander around by yourself checking out the vast collection of art housed in the museum. I hadn’t realized what world-class institution the Brooklyn Museum actually was, but once I’d gotten a chance to look around, I found five floors packed with a mix of art, historical and cultural exhibits on display. You can learn about African, Native American and Egyptian art, or you could look at some more contemporary works from the impressionists. They’ve also got a whole wing of landscapes and another devoted to american art, including the famous portrait of George Washington that’s been reproduced in virtually every american history textbook known to man. I’d easily be enticed back to the museum’s many galleries, even without the promise of free event and booze.

The Bottom Line

This event is completely free, and for most, will be quite easy to get to, as it’s literally steps away from the 2 and 3 trains. You do have to pay for food and drinks, but they aren’t any more expensive than what you might find at a moderately priced bar in the city, and I learned by pure coincidence that you can save 75 cents off your beer purchases if you go down to the cafe on the first floor and buy them from the food line! Strange little loophole, but it worked.

In addition to the attractive price tag, the evening is chocked full of interesting events in addition to the collection, which would be well worth the visit in and of itself, and perhaps the best part is that for the most part, you don’t have to wait in line! If I had to recommend one event out of the things taht i’ve done so far in this city, I think this one might be it.

Coming Up

Next weekend i’ll be attending the Thirteenth Street Repertory Company for Five-Story Walkup, a show about life in New York City. After all, what better way to learn about New York culture than to watch New Yorkers pretending to be New Yorkers?

Some new information on the upcoming First Saturday is now available on the Brooklyn Museum’s website, and it appears that the theme of the evening is going to be…drumroll please……Feminism!!!

Okay so maybe it wouldn’t have been my first choice for artistic themes, but that changes nothing! Highlighting this evening will be a whole bunch of edifying talks and activities focusing on female artists and their contributions to the art world. In addition, I’ll be making the rounds to the museums permanent collection, and since I’ve as yet never been to the Brooklyn Museum, it’ll all be new to me! Cap it off with a dance party compliments of DJ JD Samson and it should be a pretty fun time all around.

I gave First Friday at the Guggenheim a shot and wasn’t especially thrilled at the outcome (art good, party bad, if you recall), but I’m told that the Brooklyn version is much better, and much cheaper. With that in mind, I’m gonna take a chance and visit the Brooklyn Museum for their First Saturday event on the 7th. First Saturdays go from 5-11 but I’m given to understand that a ticket line forms about 30 minutes before things get started, so I may try to arrive somewhat early to make sure I can get in, or maybe try to obtain tickets beforehand if possible. The bright side is, the tickets are free and there will be a cash bar (no messing around with drink tickets like First Friday). Now it’s possible that for various reasons I may abandon this effort, if, for example, I screw up and fail to get a ticket, so in the event that I can’t make the action on Saturday night, I’ll simply plan to attend the regular museum hours on Sunday instead.

THE EVENT

For my second cultural experience, I wanted to go with something slightly more traditional, like a museum, but my night at the museum turned out to be anything but traditional. While I was checking out possible exhibits and hours online, hoping to maybe even find one with some kind of break on pricing, I stumbled upon something unexpected: a party. As it turns out, the Guggenheim hosts a major party on the First Friday of every month that features an abundance of music and booze to go along with their fine collections of art.

Don’t get too excited though, there is a catch. Rather than paying the regular $18 admission fee, they hit you up for $25 at the door, plus the cost of “drink tickets.” Three bucks gets you a ticket, two tickets will get you a plastic cup full of beer or wine. All in all, this got pretty expensive over the course of the evening.

In addition to the steep pricing, the space got crowded quickly, and there was a long line to get in. Despite arriving twenty minutes early, it took me about an hour to get in the door, check my coat and buy my first drink.

THE SCENE

Inside, the scene was a lot like a very well lit dance club, minus the dancing. Since no one was allowed up to the exhibits with drinks in hand, most people simply stayed downstairs on the entry level, which consequently became uncomfortably crowded. Music was provided by two supposedly big name DJ’s, but no one was really paying attention, and it didn’t seem to add much to the experience. Honestly, I can’t say much to recommend this party over any other bar or club that you could get into cheaper and with less hassle, so if it’s the party scene you’re interested in, you might as well skip First Friday and go elsewhere.

If, on the other hand, you’re interested in getting a little exposure to the arts with your revelry, you can simply slug back your drink and head upstairs to the galleries. Once you get up the ramp and onto the spiraling landing where the exhibits are on display, the crowd thins out considerably, and you can take your time viewing the various pieces at leisure.

THE ART

The exhibitions currently being shown contain a variety of paintings by Spanish artists from “El Greco to Picasso,” as the gallery proudly proclaims on its walls. These pieces were separated out not by artist but by their subject matter, including still life, portraits, landscapes, and many others. In this way, I was able to see highly accurate representations of, say, a person sitting at a table, side by side with the jumbled images of a Picasso piece on the same subject. My personal favorite among these was “Peasants at a Table” by Velazquez, which I starred at for quite a while, spinning up stories in my head about the people in the painting. Dali’s “Madonna of Port Lligat,” along with much of his other work were also favorites of mine.

Religion, nobility, and death were all fairly prominent themes from these Spanish artists, whose pieces were displayed in the spiraling main gallery, but branching out to the side I found another smaller space with an exhibit called “Family Pictures.” These were picture and portraits, mostly of children, showing families or family members. Many of them were rife with implied violence and gender distortion, however, giving the entire experience an unsettling feel. One piece in this gallery wasn’t a picture at all, but a series of video clips depicting what I can only describe as some kind of overly exaggerated caricature of kissing. While strange and perhaps even a little disturbing, this bizarre gallery held my attention for quite a while before I decided to wrap up my visit and head home.

FINAL THOUGHTS

While I had originally set out to find a deal on museum admissions, I ended up dropping quite a bit of cash instead. The art was enjoyable, and the experience may have even been slightly enhanced by the few drinks I’d had before heading up, but on the whole, the party wasn’t that great. If I had to do it again, I would probably skip the party altogether and go during regular viewing hours. Wandering through the entire museum (or at least everything that was accessible at the time) took me a little under two hours, but that would have certainly been elongated had I been able to take advantage of the complimentary audio tours which they have during the day. All told, it was a fairly full, if somewhat pricey evening, but the scene was simply not what I was hoping for.

Keep an eye on my upcoming events