New York City Boom Boom!

Leaving New York is always quite dramatic. London’s Frieze with its excitements and jammed packed days, seems far away. There is something utterly magnetic and absorbing about the New York City and, when there, the rest of the world seems to be this far away and petty little speck on the map and of no interest really. It seems that everything you need to know can be learnt here and everything worthwhile experiencing can be experienced here. In New York anything is possible and at the tip of your finger. If you feel like indulging in a Crème Brûlée at three o’clock in the morning whilst watching Sleeping Beauty you could make it happen. It’s merely a phone call away, two at the most. Accustomed to our negative and sluggish European attitude, the anything-is-possible-attitude is so refreshing.

I love how much I can get done in just one day when in New York. I visited four fabulous flea markets where I stocked up on a couple of beautiful vintage coats from the 50’s, as well as some great bits of Victorian and Art Deco jewellery. My trip to New York has catapulted me ahead of my game in terms of buying Christmas presents. This must be the first time that has ever happened. I even got a present for my sister’s 30th Birthday in November 2010. Talk about planning ahead! The astonishing thing about New York shopping is how cheap everything has become in the last few years. It really does feel like the country is struggling through a recession and desperate to make a quick buck or two. Good for us foreigners! Now is the time to shop in New York I tell you. My mother, who has recently gotten into flea-market hunting, is somewhat of a professional by now. She knows them all inside out. Chelsea, Hells Kitchen, Brooklyn, we scavenged through each one in search for the perfect trophy. She even booked her friendly driver in his black limo for smooth manoeuvring. It’s quite comical seeing her in action. She is incredibly passionate but tries playing it cool when haggling prices. When buying Christmas present jewellery, my mother was literally pumping. But in the back of the car she kept gasping that we had made the deal of a lifetime. “Really, we are practically stealing. We ought to go to confession.” While in Brooklyn we swung by a couple of artist studios. One of the city’s legendary players and my mum’s old friend Francesco Clemente’s fabulous space and then young, up and coming painter Jules de Balincourt loft, where I recorded my mum in action.

With all that bargain hunting going on we managed to arrive at the Met 20 minutes before closing and were just about able to run through an exhibition of Vermeer paintings. I was keen to see an exhibition of ancient Chinese instruments but time was not on our side so instead we jumped back into the limo and swarmed all the way to PS1 in Long Island City for an opening titled 1969. There were all sorts of works from that year, politically motivated and not, but my favourite work at PS1 is still the James Turrell installation. As part of the permanent collection it’s always on view but really even if they tried it could never be exhibited anywhere else. The work constitutes one of the gallery’s top floor ceilings being taken out. Visitors are able to sit lined-up along a bench in the freezing cold staring into the blue sky. I’m always startled by the simplicity and beauty of this work. Looking at all the people gawking into the sky with their heads on their backs, I’m clearly not the only one. What do they do when it rain, I wonder?

And what would New York City be without its nightlife? The nightclub/bar of the moment, by the way, is the Boom Boom Room. Hallelujah, this might mean that people don’t have to spend every breathing moment at Bungalow anymore! New Yorkers are obsessive compulsive by nature – meaning that if they like something they will keep coming back for more. The Boom Boom is owned by hotel magnet André Balazs, who seems to turn every thing he touches into gold. Every single of his ventures is a hit. His hotels are the playground of the cool and the famous alike. Just take a look at the Mercer or the Raleigh in Miami. Describing the Boom Boom over dinner an American friend said “imagine the most incredible room you have ever seen on ecstasy.” I couldn’t wait! Truth be told it is pretty fabulous. To me already the name seems to insinuate a pretty whacky and cartoonie experience. Situated on the top floor of the Standard Hotel, it feels just like you are in a massive skyscraper looking down onto tiny toy cars and miniature humans. Actually for New York standards you are not that high up but in the Meatpacking District it seems vertiginous. The warm woody and beige colours all around draw you into the club’s core, the bar of course. Situated in the centre this bar is a hugely bizarre pyramid shaped thing that serves as a sort of nest for the humming bees in search of their revitalising honey.The waitresses’ day job is clearly modelling – their slinky attire revealing little more than legs and bones.

The one thing that makes New York nightlife so exciting and unique is its glitterati guest list. I saw Damien Hirst, John Currin, Calvin Klein within the hour. It’s only been open a couple of months and everybody from Madonna to Gwyneth Paltrow have already sipped a drink or two. Snuggling up by a huge fire place it is not hard to see why. The club’s tables are placed around the edge of the room with its big glass windows. Even for someone like me who suffers from no vertigo whatsoever looking straight down does feel daunting. The Clockwork Orange décor and freakieness is epitomised while standing on the tiny little terrace made entirely out of plexiglass. As you inhale your toxic little stick of nicotine next to a couple of other dinosaurs, you are seemingly standing in mid air. Not for the faint–hearted, I tell you.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Princess Diaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.