Siddity In The City

To the five boroughs...Brooklyn

There's more to New York than Manhattan, right? Like Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island. And Brooklyn. It's time to do more. First stop, Brooklyn. Which really meant forcing myself to look beyond the Atlantic Ave. stop and see something besides Target. Sigh. Because Brooklyn is more than a discount shopping haven. It gots culchah, too. Like the Brooklyn Museum of Art. I made my second visit to the BMA last Saturday (see, I have left the island for something other than cheap shoes and housewares), in hopes of seeing the John Singer Sargent exhibit I was told (on my first visit) would be opening "in the fall." Unfortunately, they meant October. So instead I puttered around and had a grand time admiring the Rodin, decorative arts and American identities exhibits. And at $6 suggested donation (free on the first Saturday of each month), it was inexpensive enough that I didn't even feel the need to whip out my expired student ID to scam half-price admission**. (I will of course return now that October has begun, to see the Sargent and Kehinde Wiley exhibits, opening this coming weekend.) Anyhoo, the only real drawback to the BMA leg of the trip was the fellow in the elevator who whispered admonitions to himself throughout the five floor ride. It could have been worse. He kept his pants on. That's saying something with NYC crazies. Don't worry, I haven't lost my flair for vapid consumerism. Of course, I went shopping, too. I went to much-hyped natural beauty product shop Carol's Daughter (1 S Elliot St; A or C to Lafayette, Harlem shop allegedly coming soon). You know the sister in the flowing cotton robes and patchouli cloud, with a head of beautifully kept locks? The one with the shea- and mango-butter lip-balm and earthy, serene smile? She got her beauty supplies from Carol's Daughter. Alas, I'm the sister standing next to her in Chanel perfume and Nars gloss with a blowout, wondering if the earth-mother serenity, one-love schtick is all an act, so Carol's Daughter was maybe not so much for me. Everything smelled either too "earthy" or too tropical-fruity for my liking, and I quickly realized why L'Occitane's shea butter cream rings in at $35 to CD's $17 pure tub-o-shea (I don't know what it takes to get shea butter from the gritty-fat consistency of the product sold in it's pure form at Carol's Daughter to the creamy heaven you get in L'Occitane's body cream, but I suspect it involves soul-mortgaging and heavy machinery. It's worth it, methinks. But L'Occitane also sells a pure shea tub--a little more than half the size for twice the money at CD, so if you are into that sort of thing, get it at CD). If you're like me--a big fan of sophisticated, multinote fragrances and beauty products with multi-hyphenate ingredients, go to Sephora. Carol's Daughter is absolutely worth the trip for hippies and natural product lovers, though, and there is a really inspiring story to the product line. I bought a bottle of their mandarin melange body cleansing gel and hit the road. I finished the trip off with a stop at my favorite mall, where I made off with a bunch of Target home goods (filing trays, folders, a matching set of office goodies--waste bin, pen and doodad cups, etc.) for about $20. I'll have to make another trip or ten for the grub/club scene. Once I've explored all of Brooklyn's nooks, I'll start on Queens. I haven't decided on the whole Bronx/SI issue, yet (unless someone's got Yanks tickets they'd like to offer?). So, that was the weekend before the one that just passed. This past weekend is a whole 'nother blog. **Which I have done, I am ashamed to admit, at the Met. I live within walking distance* of the Met, MOMA and the Guggenheim, and yet I've been to the Met once and have yet to visit MOMA or the Guggenheim. The BMA and I are officially friends. *Anything under 45 minutes is walking distance.

posted by Sid @ 10/04/2004 02:35:00 PM