The Squid and the Whale...

The American Museum of Natural History, South entrance

Visiting The American Museum of Natural History causes sensory overload and nerdgasms aplenty. It will quench your geeky tendencies and childlike wonder all for a mere dollar. What a deal! Unsuspecting tourists get roped into paying $19 for admission, while we New Yorkers (That's right- I'm a New Yorker now!) know that suggested admission means that you pay what you wish. I generally pay $1, much to the dismay of my friend Guillermo who zealously insists that anything beyond a quarter is too much. With that being said, this general admission ticket does not include entrance into special exhibitions, which is rather unfortunate. I would have very much enjoyed seeing the Beyond Planet Earth special exhibition amongst others, but having to pay $33 when you've just gotten away with paying 25 cents to see 45 amazing Museum halls and the Rose Center for Earth and Space is such a buzzkill. Somewhere down the line, when I actually have a job and I don't have to be so concerned about frugality, perhaps I'll give into the exorbitance, but I'll keep my eye out for a groupon.

I particularly enjoy The Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, which suddenly transports you to an exotic and enigmatic life under the sea:

94 foot fiberglass replica of female blue whale captured in 1925 off South Georgia Island, east of Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago at the southern tip of South America

Crustaceans, Insects, and Myriapods

Tree of Life: Vertebrates

Dolphin and Tuna diorama

Giant squid in the Hall of Biodiversity is the oldest model that's been on continuous display at the AMoNH since it opened

In Noah Baumbach's 2005 film, The Squid and the Whale, two brothers come to grips with their parents' divorce in 1980's Brooklyn. It's hilarious and somber in equal measure.  Great performances by Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels + Baumbach's witty writing and distinctive directing style = a Kafkaesque experience (see the film to get this joke). In this final scene, the elder son- played by Jesse Eisenberg- reminisces about being taken by his mother to the American Museum of Natural History to see the giant squid and sperm whale diorama (watch the clip to see it:)

 

Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale, 2005

One of my favorite bands of the last five years are the indie-folk Brits Noah and the Whale, whose name is an amalgamation of the film The Squid and the Whale (see above) and its director, Noah Baumbach. While most people were rolling in the deep with Adele, the soundtrack to my break-up was NATW's second album The First Days of Spring. It's as depressing as it's possible to get. The album is the creative aftermath of lead singer Charlie Fink's break-up with Laura Marling, who appeared on the band's first album Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, and who subsequently left the band and has since continued on with an impressive solo career. It blows me away how young these kids are- They are massive talents. If you are new to the band, I recommend starting out with the first album, which has lots of beautifully depressing lyrics disguised by upbeat music. It won't make you want to slit your wrists, unlike the second album which makes no attempts to conceal the pain.

Noah and the Whale, Our Window (2009)

"Well Americans don't care for much of anything/ Land and water the least/ And animal life is low on the totem pole/ With human life not worth more than infected yeast" --Lou Reed, Last Great American Whale