This is going to be all plant all the time. If you ain’t down with horticulture, best come back later. Once upon a time when I was young and this horrid winter had not yet befallen us I went with my family to the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx to look at the train show.
I figured they would have different models of trains on display betwixt the flowers and trees but no, there was so much more. There was buildings! Lots of buildings made of twigs and seeds and pods and dried leaves, all representing NYC landmarks. I thought the bridges were the best.
The trains wove around them and went chug-chug and ding-ding and let me tell you even with all this technology nowadays it is a delight to be around a giant diorama like they would have in 18-something-something. Many of the buildings I didn’t recognize:
Some of them I totally recognized (Grand Central, hello! I walk through you twice every day!):
And hello there, TWA Building! I hope they repurpose you soon because you’re awesome!
Oooh, that’s meta: The Botanical Garden inside The Botanical Garden.
This one made me sad because it was the old Penn Station before it was torn down and replaced with that architectural toilet stall that is the present Penn Station. Even though I never knew you, Old Penn Station, I miss you. Sigh.
And these two made me sad because… well, frankly, they suck. When you make a gazillion buildings some of them are bound to be crappy. In this case, it is Excessively Morose Statue of Liberty and Barely Distinguishable Guggenheim Museum.
Now last week across the street from where I work at Macy’s there was the annual flower show. Macy’s has been doing repairs for the last two years so they had the flower show in a big tent out front which was lame. However, this year it’s back in the main area where the perfumes and makeup and handbags are. I missed it during the two years it was in the tent because golly gosh, it’s so beautiful.
This year’s theme is modern art. Macy’s took Roy Lichtenstein’s art style (gigantic paintings with comic book women) and it said “Bloom!” (like “Boom!”, get it? Word play.).
I was so proud of myself because I could name all the artists represented. There was Matisse:
And Mondrian:
And Magritte:
And Monet (lotta “M” artists):
And Klimt:
Underneath all the overhead foliage bridges were little pockets of plantery. My favorite was the escalators. Macy’s is presently redoing their basement floor so they cut off the floors right where the “down” escalators start and filled the areas with plants. For some reason I felt like the escalators still worked and if I took them I would descend into a magical forest filled with flowers and Totoros.
Off to one side was a Picasso sculpture:
And on the other side was, honestly I have no idea. A big mossy ampersand.
There was a sweet little impressionist-inspired garden:
And a wisteria setup with some faux Dale Chihuly glass elements shoved all up in there. I was reminded how much I love wisteria. Wisteria is dope.*
And for some reason I can’t figure out there were funky geometric lights off in another garden. I don’t see how that ties into any of the themes but I liked them so I will not be hatin’.
*You know how people get “Thug Life” tattoos on their abdomen? I really want to see someone get “Wisteria is Dope” across their belly in a really scary type. That would give me a great deal of joy.
