Whoever claimed that variety is the spice of life was definitely on board with Project Dumbo 2010. Today we charged forward in the spirit of the journey, and experienced a wide range of activities and emotions while seeing some "must see sites" and some top-notch artwork.

Our day started a bit later than usual, as our heads were still spinning from our whirlwind day yesterday. We had a fabulously warm and sunny day which we got a flavor for while walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was bustling and busy with tourists taking pictures and bicyclers whooshing by on their bikes. We strolled into Manhattan using such buildings as Woolworth's and City Hall as historic architectural markers to guide us to St. Paul's Church, which served as a refuge for the relief workers at Ground Zero. Nine years later, St. Paul's continues to be a very pleasant place of comfort and solace filled with memorials including stuffed animals, patches of aid workers, and cards from young children--all of these items were very powerful and emotionally charged--a tribute to the fact that the victims of 9/11/01 are not forgotten--will always be revered and in our thoughts.

We meandered down Wall Street to the Museum of the American Indian where we viewed a few interesting exhibitions about hides (in pertinence to their social commentary and significance) and another entitles, "A Song of the Horse Nation". Various American Indian tribes, such as the Dine and Lakota made exquisite artifacts especially pertaining to leather and beadwork.

This exhibition was inspiring and uplifting on many different levels, in particular, how amazing the American Indian culture and art remains. Getting in touch with history is extremely important, as we experienced earlier in our outing at St. James Church. History has remained a critical aspect of most of the art that we saw at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the fact remains that, as artists do not only make art, but serve as a portal to other ways of life, and in a sense, are like anthropologists in their own right--as we depict a culture, we in turn create a new portraying the times and conditions in which we live.

Speaking of contemporary art, we hopped the train to a familiar Chelsea area that is absolutely teeming with galleries. We caught a few openings, most notably, the show at LyonsWeir Gallery. James Rieck's textured paintings portraying the legend of St. George slaying the dragon, Judith, and other figures in literature, provide the viewer with an interesting field of vision and a narrative by which to understand the work.

David Lyle is an artist who paints comical subject matter, especially evident in his work, "If You Love Something, Set It Free". Take a look.

Lyle's paintings were the incarnation of our ongoing discussion regarding humor in art. If you have an opportunity to see this show, it will be abundantly clear that there is a convergence of humor, dark imagery, and a sharp degree of technical abilities--the trifecta and winning combination.

That's all for now.

I hope that those hikers can get out of Iran sometime soon.