The Guggenheim on 89th and 5th Avenue is my new favorite building in New York City. After 8 years of living here I finally went there for the first time with my friend Betsy.

(By the way, that's a phrase I'll probably use a lot: " After 8 years of living here, I finally..." I feel like in so many ways I have just moved to New York. More on that later.)

This building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He got a lot of flack for wanting to build it the way he did - it's the only round structure on a block full of square, rectangular, typically shaped buildings. It's extremely anomalous. And, of course, it works. It just looks fantastic sitting there. It makes all the other buildings look boring. It's the jewel of the block. And, for all its seven stories, it's a surprisingly small space.

Betsy informed me that the best way to "do the Guggenheim" is to go in, take the elevator up to the top floor and spiral your way down. We did. I was so enthralled with the building itself I had to make myself look at the art. Now, the current exhibit there is not to my taste. I felt assaulted by all that color. It was like 1986 fashion on those walls. There was one enormous canvas that was postitioned behind the balconies so that you had different views form different levels of the spiral. It broke the piece up into easily swallowed chunks - and being behind that giant white stone wall, I felt safe from it. Sort of like a zoo.

Enough about the art. The building IS ART. I remember leaning slightly over the top balcony saying "I'm not afraid of heights, but looking down, I can see how easily I could die now." (Why did that thrill me so!?) I remember being on a lower level and looking up through the spiraling balconies to the skylight. Just black metal and white frosted glass. Bright sunlight beyond. I trembled. I could have just stood there like that for half an hour.

Someday, if I ever do anything with my music (something else I'll have to write more about later), and become famous enough, I'd want to do a concert in this building. There is a small "stage" on the ground floor. Room for a small ensemble. I'd make it a party. Let people wander around. Let me sit on a stool with the band around me on that little platform, we'll jam, and everyone can listen actively or passively. There is an outdoor balcony on the 4th or 5th level; people can drink cocktails there. What an incredible space to be myself in, to feel myself and my sounds within those round walls, those spirals of stone. I'd feel as though I were being absorbed into the walls. Wow.

Some people fantasize about singing at the Met or at the Garden. The Guggenheim? I'm different.

Other awesome things about this weekend:
1. The Station Agent. Bets and I saw this at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, the 10:30 showing. It's so cool about New York, you can go to the late show and it's packed. This is an awesome movie. I'll probably see it a couple of more times, just because there is so much in the film, it will take a few times to get all the layers. Just my kind of picture. Betsy fell in love with the Italian guy who runs the coffee truck. I fell for the dwarf.

2. Dim Sum in Chinatown. Betsy's going to blog the Dim Sum experience. I can't possibly describe it funnier than she can. I'm laughing right now just remembering.

3. Shopping in Chinatown. After 8 years of living here, I finally shopped Chinatown - REALLY. Not just get off the train, hop quickly into one little storefront, grab something and dash the hell back out of there. I walked the blocks on Canal street with Betsy, we went into several nearly identical cheap-shit-but-gotta-have-it places, then turned down Mott Street to find the Dim Sum place. I didn't get the bubble tea drink that I had wanted, but I had so much fun just shopping down there, I may very well go back next weekend and get the bubble tea, and maybe this ultra-cool knockoff purse I saw for $20. I kind of have to go back down there because I want to get a set of blue china dishes for my friend in Chicago as a Christmas gift. Chinatown always scared the crap out of me because there are just too damn many people there. I mean, you can barely walk! The streets are packed. People brush past you constantly. Personal Space doesn't exist. I get edgy in crowds like that. I just hate them. I had to live and work here in Manhattan all these years before I learned to tolerate it. So, better late then never. I had great fun today. I bought myself a silver watch with a leopard-printed leather strap for $8, 5 star fruits for $2, and 2 bags of incense cones with burners for 6 bucks! Bargain shopper's paradise, if you can take the humanity.

4. Simchat Torah. Whoa. I have a lot of Jewish friends and have dated lots of Jewish guys (was married to one for awhile). I don't know why, but Jews love me. I like them too. They're smart, well educated, and funny, beautiful and articulate. I've been to Passover seders and hung out with friends where I was the only non-Jew there, but I have never experienced anything quite like last Saturday night before. I also learned the term "Jewish Geography" and all that it entails. Wow. I will have to do a whole separate blog entry about this.

5. Walking through the Guggenheim, and along the Museum Mile with Betsy, Amy was there. For the brief time I knew Amy, I knew I was lucky, and I miss her a great deal in my own way. Walking through the city with her best friend, I felt her. I think Betsy probably felt it too, though we didn't really talk about it. What an honor.