Book Expo America adventures :D

On June 1st I attended the long-anticipated BEA--Book Expo America at Javits Center, New York City with my friend Julia. What can I say, the whole experience was just amazing, worthy of a minute-by-minute breakdown blog post, and today I'm going to try my best to describe the highlights.

I booked a hotel near Javits Center, and Julia came to sleep over the night before. The next morning we got up super early (aka 6:30 am) so we could get to BEA before 8! We thought we were fairly early, but as soon as we walked into the main hall, we were shocked by how! many! people! were! already! there!!! Seriously, the place was crawling with people.

Julia & I, bright and early in the morning from Javits Center

After we got over our oh-my-god-what-is-going-on panic, we got ourselves registered (we bought tickets online, so we didn't have to stand in the walk-in line, which was an interesting length, let me just say). We got our own Power Reader badges with green lanyards and our names printed across, as well as a bag of free books! The bag was so heavy we had to get them checked at baggage check area (where there were people checking whole suitcases of books!).

When we're done with that we went into the main events hall for author breakfast. We had to pay extra for this, but it's always great to hear Chris Matthews talk about stuff. The author speakers of that day were the very Helen Fielding who wrote Bridget Jones, and two others (John Lewis and Diana Gabaldon) that I unfortunately don't know as much about. On a side note, the breakfast was deleeeeeecious! I had a blueberry muffin, a scone, and an everything bagel with yummy cream cheese!

Following breakfast, we went through the main entrance, where free totes were given, to pick up more free books! When we were in line, we heard the Sarah Dessen would be signing at 10:00 that day, and tickets would be given out at the Power Reader lounge. Oh my, I was so excited that I literally sprinted to the lounge as soon as we got into the main exhibition hall. Poor Julia, she's a swimmer, not a runner... 

And and and, thank God that I ran, because we got two of the last few tickets! Phewwww. If only I came a few minutes later, I would've had to go home without meeting Sarah Dessen, who honestly wrote all of my favorite books in 9th and 10th grade.

In the morning, we just walked from booth to booth, collecting cool gadgets and books, meeting with book lovers like us, etc. The venue was divided up into sections mostly according to publishers; big publishers had overhead hanging signs that were easy to spot. At the Scholastics area, they were handing out free copies of the Hunger Games!!! And this children's book booth that we passed by were handing out helium balloon pets that were the cutest things ever! Look, you can actually walk it :)

ignore my random face :p

At 10:00 we got our signatures from Sarah Dessen, on her new book The Moon And More. She was really nice, she had on a cute white dress that I so wanted to ask where she bought :P Here's a (slightly blurry) pic of her signing my book (she personalized it too! it says, "To Vanessa"):

check out my dog too :P

 Then I got an autograph from Elizabeth Norris, the author of Unraveling. She was very friendly, we talked for a little bit. And guess what--we have twin dogs!!

 They have tons of cool stuff--like the books from the Harry Potter movies!! Watch out for the tusky one in the middle..

 I'm wearing the badge in the pic, it has a read pin that says "I read YA" on it.

All day we wandered around like this, picking up awesome stuff and talking to authors and fellow readers. It was a great experience because I've never known that you could be such a cool nerd reader! There are simply so many people who share the love of reading that it surprises as much as delights me.

To end the perfect day and this blog post, here's a selfie of Julia and I in a cute cafe in Korea town. We had an awesome ice bowl with green tea ice cream, red beans, and lots of yummy fruits!

xx

Vanessa :]

Where to go for a feast of Modern Art

Any of you out there art fanatics like me? If so, today I am telling you about two eye-opening art galleries that "house"(you'll see why I quotation mark this soon) many modern art must-sees. I just went to visit both of them yesterday on a school art trip and thought the experience is worth sharing.

So the first art gallery is called Dia: Beacon (one of the two Dia Art Foundation galleries; the other one is in Chelsea, NY). It's located in Beacon, NY. 

(source: Dia: Beacon)

The art gallery is converted from a disused Nabisco saltine factory, so the entire gallery has this retro-cool, bare feeling, with broad ceiling and wide open spaces. The walls are mostly painted white, or left  in red bricks. There are strips of frosted windows mounted to the ceiling, filling the whole gallery with natural sunlight, giving the artworks the most natural lighting. One window on the wall had some parts frosted and some parts not, so the sky peeked in occasionally, forming a very curious pattern to the viewer's eye. (Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside the gallery, so I didn't get to take any).

The gallery houses some pretty famous pieces: Minimalist pioneer Judd's plywood boxes, Robert Smithson (the very one who made the Spiral Jetty!)'s Atlantis, and and and, drumroll please! Richard Serra's Torqued Ellipses!

(Judd's piece; source: Google)

(Smithson: Spiral Jetty, Salt Lake City; source: Google)

(Smithson: Atlantis; source: Google)

(Serra: Torqued Ellipse; source: Google)

My favorite of all, if I had to choose, is Serra's Torqued Ellipse. The whole structure is very impressive, almost intimidating, from the outside. All you see is massive hunks of metal, taking up the entire hall, almost seeming to expand to fill up the whole space. However, each massive "hunk" turns out to have an entrance, from where you can walk in between the metal "walls" and go all the way to the center of the "hunk." As you walk in, you feel almost claustrophobic, the curious curves of the wall constantly changing, making you wonder if the wall will suddenly close in on you. And just when you can't take it anymore, the space opens up all of a sudden, exposing you to the wide, oval center of the structure. In there the ceiling is just this one oval shape, the walls high and cold. My friends and I lied down on the floor and just kind of chilled. It must be amazing to play acoustic guitar or something inside, the echo must sound SO GOOD.

On an irrelevant note: Dia: Beacon has an awesome cafe. Please do check it out. Their panini of the day is delicious.

Now, on to the second must-see: Storm King Art Center.

You ask me, why is this place a must-see? What's so special about it? Lemme show you:

(source: Google)

It's outdoors, and absolutely breathtaking. Although the day I went it was pretty chilly and I was severely underdressed and freezing my rear end off. 

Modernist and Postmodernist sculptures and artworks are weaved into the landscape, forming either a stark contrasts or melodious harmonies with the nature. There is a tram that you could take to travel around the art center on, but walking around can also prove to be a rather adventurous experience.

The photos above are taken on--yes, on--Maya Lin (the artist who designed the Vietnam War Veteran Memorial in DC)'s Wavefield.

(source: Google)

Isn't this just so very extremely impressive? It was absolutely spectacular.

Other well-known pieces include Goldsworthy's piece:

(source: blogger)

and (Pop artist) Litchenstein's Mermaid:

 And at last: some other pictures I took :) Enjoy. And do visit these two places! They will NOT disappoint.

just me :P

xx

Vanessa :]