Thursday NYC Gargoyle Photo Safari

Thursday I woke up at LGL's.  The previous night, after he'd returned from work and the gym, I'd taken LGL out for Chinese food and general hanging out.   I was conscous enough to have a short conversation with him before he went off to work (he starts work very early), and then I caught about another hour of sleep.

Since I didn't have to catch an airport bus until noon, I spent a few hours on another gargoyle photo safari.  This time around I stayed on the west side of Central Park, and slowly wound my way to the American Museum of Natural History.  The outside has cool bas relief and sculptures... and, wow, is it White Euro-Centric Male.

That didn't stop me from photographing it; I think if I'd had the time I would have hung around until the sun could swing around 30 degrees further along the ecliptic, because then its rays would have made the bas relief bears and bison and moose really pop.  As it was, the mountain lions were the only frieze properly lit.  I suppose if I were hardcore, I would have had an assistant with a mylar reflector bring out details.  But it was just me, and already the morning temperature pushed toward 90F.   More Museum of Natural History photos are here.

After the museum, I wound my way back to LGL's apartment.  I probably could have stayed out another hour, but the anxieties of getting to Newark Airport from downtown NYC prompted otherwise.  

As I was walking west along 81st Street, I saw some folate heads and intricately carved balusters.  I'm not sure if I'd call it Gothic Revival -- but when I looked up at the brownstone, there were dragons!  OMG!  It was like someone had taken an old bestiary and turned it into a sculpture.

The dragons flanked a roundel.  At first I thought this was Adam and Eve.  Later, when I was looking at the photo from home, I noticed these figures look like women.  And there's no Tree of Life or Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil behind them.  And they're sharing an open book between them.  I can only conclude this is some sort of Lesbian Library Heaven that I haven't heard about and it's Guarded by Dragons.

The whole building was covered with faces and lions and twining vines.  More Photos Here.  I felt like finding the building was a reward and the final hurrah before I'd have to pack the camera in its special pack and pack the pack into my soft cary-on luggage and get into the travel stream.  I'd leave the magical Upper West Side, Upper East Side, and the other gilded boroughs with their djinni of granite and steel.  I'd say goodby to the totem animals and spirit helpers of sandstone and brass.  I'd get on a bus to the airport, wind through TSI security, eat airport food, file onto a plane, and fly for five hours back home, where the cats were waiting.