I spent the morning walking around the Natural History museum, amongst wales, planets and dinosaurs. There’s lots of stuff to see, though it does feel like they drag out some of the things a bit. I’m also not sure about the various scenes (I think they call them ‘dioramas’) that make up lots of the exhibits. They don’t look very realistic, why not just have a photograph? Maybe I was missing something. Anyway, the dinosaurs were impressive, as was the Rose Center, a glass cube. Though I think the actual building is more impressive than its contents. Museums often seem to have a problem that their buildings can outshine the contents.

I had something to eat and a walk around central park. Its amazing just how busy the park is, even during the week. Lots of people walking their dogs or running. Every runner seems to have one of those iPod arm straps. I haven’t noticed those around as much anywhere else.

After walking across the park I caught the underground down to China Town and spent a couple of hours walking around. By now my feet were getting sore, so I went back uptown for something to eat and drink.

• I love those dioramas at the museum! For some reason they give me the chills. Part of it is being able to see up close those animals which I would probably never get a chance to see in real life, part of it is also seeing those creepy blank stares on those ancient peoples’ faces, half expecting that they’ll come to life and scare everyone. The Natural History museum always scares me. Like that giant mosquito in the basement on your way to the subway. Or the darkness of some of the exhibits. Or the shrunken head in the Amazon peoples area. Do you think that’s real? My sister made a shrunken head once in high school, out of a baked apple, for the play “South Pacific”.

  Comment by diorama freak — September 14, 2005 @ 4:08 am