My first full day in NYC was devoted to two goals:  See the "Play It Loud" exhibit at The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and find the locations of Tin Pan Alley and the Brill Building.  After riding the subway Uptown, I walked to The Met.  Here are some shots of the exterior and the entrance to the exhibit. (My apologies that some of these pictures did not orient correctly.  The originals were correct, but I can't find a way to rotate them in Blogger).

This exhibit features the actual instruments, outfits and sound equipment used by a wide variety of popular musicians, focusing on those of the rock genre.  I took far too many pictures to post here, though I will be sharing them with my students in future semesters.  Here, however, are a few examples.

Pictured above are the gold painted baby grand piano used by Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley's handmade cigar box guitar, the Stratocaster guitar played by Jimmy Hendrix at Woodstock and one of Lady Gaga's stage pianos.  

Once I finished with the music exhibit (which took quite some time), I wanted to see as much of the rest of the museum as I could.  This is a massive structure with multiple floors, and your ticket is good for 3 days for a reason.  I did work in some of the works of the European painters from the Middle Ages through the contemporary era and some ancient Greek and Roman sculpture.  

I left the museum and found myself at one end of Central Park.  I decided to walk the park which is a good workout.  Midway through I took a lunch break at the pond with remote-controlled sailboats.  

My next goal was a bit more challenging as the buildings that housed the songwriters of the early 20th century and the beginning of the rock and roll era are no longer used for those purposes.  I did eventually find them.  The Brill Building is on Broadway not all that far from the theater district.  This was where songwriters such as Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill wrote songs that filled the Billboard Top 100, though few of them were actual recording artists.  The building is currently being renovated, but below are some pictures I took.

Tin Pan Alley drew its name from the poorly maintained pianos that songpluggers used to demonstrate songs for publishers (The pianists claimed the instruments sounded like playing on tin pans.).  This was in the day before recordings overtook sheet music in sales and vaudeville or early Broadway were the primary means for getting your music heard.  Songwriters such as Irving Berlin, George M. Cohen and the Gershwins worked here.  This district is between 6th and Broadway on 28th and took some searching to find.

Before venturing out to an important NYC nightspot, I tried out an interesting restaurant named Oscar Wilde, after the Irish poet and dramatist, an advocate for the Aesthetic movement's theme, "art for art's sake".  Interesting spot, decorated in the Victorian style of his era and featuring pictures of some of the great thinkers of the modern era.

From there I ventured on to "The Bitter End".  No, I wasn't contemplating ending it all.  This is a Greenwich Village bar and music venue that has been the proving ground for a long list of musical luminaries from Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder to Linda Ronstadt and even Lady Gaga.  The full list is available online and is mind-blowing.  Not only was this a very laid-back easygoing establishment, but I was impressed with the inter-generational vibe.  The first band I heard were very young but welcomed a rock organist of my generation and bass player Will Lee of the Paul Schaffer band (The David Letterman Show).  Cool to hang out where so many cut their teeth in the music business.