Dead Sea Scrolls for Zero Dollars

On Saturdays the Jewish Museum is free so the I decided to check out the museum's exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls. After passing through a metal detector that would make Homeland Security proud, undergoing a mandatory bag check, and being told by a beefy security guard that the only way I could wear my jacket in the museum was by tying it around my waist, I finally made my way to the exhibition-I understand the need for security in these troubled times, but it's a bit jarring to visit a museum and to feel like you'll hear, "Please keep your chairs in an upright position" in a manner of minutes.

The scrolls (which to my surprise were not whole, but actually in fragments) were displayed under glass cases in a clean, crisp space with various facts and quotations displayed on the dark blue walls. I learned that the earliest scrolls were written in 270 BCE (before the common or Christian era) and were discovered in 1947 in 11 cases along a five mile stretch of cliffs in the Judean desert. Almost as interesting as seeing the actual scrolls (at least I thought) were the artifacts found with the documents. These included objects relating to the scrolls such as the scroll wrapper, a beige cloth the scrolls were wrapped in, the stone vessels that held the scrolls, and more everyday items including coins, an inkwell, cups and plates, a comb, and even a pair of sandals. According to the movie being played, the Bedouin who found the scrolls sold them to an antiques dealer in Bethlehem.

The Dead Sea Scrolls while interesting, was not as extensive as I had thought, so I decided to check out the rest of the museum. In a small corner tucked away between some artwork there were Holocaust relics from Thereisenstadt and the Lodz ghetto, as well as a spoon used at Auschwitz, money used in the ghettos, and various yellow stars worn by Jewish people during that time period.

One of the other exhibits that caught my eye was a cafe setting where you could sit and listen to conversations from cafes around the world. The museum also houses exhibits about anti-Semitism, Israeli immigration, the history of Judaism, and materials relating to the Jewish sabbath and holidays such as Passover.

Source: The Jewish Museum
Cheap Chick Info: Free on Saturdays! Otherwise $12 for adults, $10 seniors, and $7.50 for students.
Location Info: 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York, NY
Subway: 4, 5, 6 to 86th Street, 6 to 92nd Street

(Cheap) Culture for the Couch Potato

If you find it hard to leave the comfort of your couch, but want to be able to tell your friends and co-workers that you actually did something over the weekend, then throw off the blanket, take off the sweats, and put that half-eaten bag of potato chips into the trash and head to the Paley Center for Media.

Despite numerous name-changes (such as the Museum of Broadcasting and the Museum of Television and Radio) the Paley Center is a great place to spend an afternoon catching up on your favorite and forgotten TV shows. For just $10 (less than a movie ticket!) you can spend an entire day at the museum (it opens at 12 p.m. and closes at 6 p.m. except for Thursdays when it's open until 8 p.m.) viewing classic and current TV shows in one of the museum's viewing areas, which range from small rooms to large-scale auditoriums that seat hundreds of people.

Here you can see Lucille Ball stomping grapes in a classic I Love Lucy episode, the pre-Elaine Seinfeld pilot, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, and the Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Other options may include specials and documentaries on topics such as women in TV and stand-up comedians.

If you're feeling nostalgic for your own childhood favorites (and I'm looking at you Bananna Splits fans...), you can head to the third floor where you can select the TV show of your choice from the museum's computer database and then view it on a private console with headphones. My personal poisons have included the "Getting Davy Jones" episode of The Brady Bunch and the Ally McBeal pilot. Once you find yourself humming the Cheers theme song one too many times (as I did) you might want to check out some of the museum's art and photography exhibits (some are in displayed in the hallways while others are in the museum's main gallery on the first floor), which have previously included art inspired by the TV show Family Guy.

The Paley Center also hosts events and public programs though many are out of the Cheap Chick's budget range, with prices starting at $20 and up, but there are some great programs if you want to splurge!

Here is a link to some upcoming events:
http://www.paleycenter.org/new-york-series

Cheap Chick Tip: Get to the museum around 4:45/5:00 p.m. and admission is free for the last hour the museum is open. Shh. Don't tell them I told you this!

Cheap Chick Info: $10, Free last hour of the day.
Location Info: 25 West 52 Street, New York, Closed on Mondays.
Subway Info: E or V to Fifth Avenue and 53 Street; N, R, or W to 49 Street and Seventh Avenue; 1 to 50 Street and Broadway; B, D, F, or V to 47-50 Street/Rockefeller Center.

Cheap Chick Bargain Bulletin-Cheap Chick Halloween Pick!

If you're still looking for something to do on Halloween that doesn't have a scary price tag, then check out this "bewitching" event…if you dare. Tonight Trinity Church is hosting a FREE Halloween celebration that includes a happy hour (6-8 p.m.) where you can imbibe a "Haunted Hamilton" in the church's centuries-old graveyard. Maybe you'll meet your "soul"mate here, but I would check for pointy teeth before the sun sets! At 8 p.m. the church is screening the 1920 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring John Barrymore, complete with the original organ music. The Cheap Chick will definitely be at this great New York City-centric event (see if you can spot her among the costumed revelers) that won't come back to haunt your wallet!

Cheap Chick Info: Free!
Location Info: Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street
Subway Info: 4, 5 to Wall Street, 1, R, W to Rector Street, J, M, Z to Broad Street

Simple Pleasures, or a Central Park Picnic

According to the song "the best things in life are free" and I'm inclined to agree especially after a Sunday picnic in Central Park. Despite the chill in the air our group found a nice patch of sunshine in Sheep's Meadow where we could relax. I think one of the great things about the park is that it allows us to regress from our grown-up lives for awhile, even if just for a minute. Our poison was hula hoops, with some intrepid souls balancing more than one on arms and legs…and some places you don't want to think about. I saw others in the park playing touch football and throwing Frisbees. Our picnic was 21st century adult, with hummus, crackers, and cheese, but our music was pure 20th century childhood, including a sing-a-long to a ukulele rendition of the Muppet classic, "Rainbow Connection" (some people stared, but you know they wanted to sing along with us.) Despite my assertion above, this wasn't a totally free event (it was cheap tho!) since we all contributed to a potluck lunch, but as we relaxed on blankets and watched children running relay races, games of catch, and couples reading the New York Times as the sun set behind the Time Warner Center, it was definitely worth the cost of a bag of carrots.

I encourage my Cheap Chick followers to take advantage of all the diversions Central Park has to offer while the weather is still sunny (I know, not for long!). Take some snacks, a blanket, and a good book and lose yourself in a story among the trees, browse at the Strand Annex Store near the Fifth Avenue entrance, picnic with friends, take a boat ride, hike or bike the trails, and visit some of the iconic landmarks such as the carousel, the zoo, the Delacorte Clock, Belvedere Castle, and Strawberry Fields-and if you haven't heard of these sites, then get thee to Wikipedia!

Here are links to some interesting upcoming (free!) events in and around the park:

Pumpkin Festival
Saturday October 26th, 2008 (tomorrow)
http://www.centralpark.com/ev_details.php?showev=182.

The Chanel Mobile Art Exhibit (all-day, free, ticketed event)
October 20, 2008 - November 09, 2008
Rumsey Playfield
Check out art inspired by Chanel's iconic quilted bag.
http://chanel-mobileart.com/

The New York City Marathon
November 2nd, 2008
11:00 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Watch runners from around the world compete in this NYC tradition.
http://www.nycmarathon.org/home/index.php

Editor's Note

Hey Cheap Chick followers, sorry I havn't posted the blog lately! I have tons of ideas for future posts, so keep checking back for upcoming entries!

FIT for Free!

Chanel and coffins seem an unlikely combination, but on a recent rainy Saturday my friend and I saw both (for free!) at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (or FIT- http://www.fitnyc.edu/aspx/Content.aspx?menu=FutureGlobal:Museum.) There were two exhibits, "Arbiters of Style Women at the Forefront of Fashion" (until November 8, 2008) and the recently opened "Gothic Dark Glamour" (until February 21, 2009) borrowing from the museum's collection of 50,000 garments and 4,000 pairs of shoes.

The worlds of Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Diane von Furstenberg, and others were displayed in the Arbiters of Style exhibit, but the fashions of other lesser-known creators such as Ann and May Shogren, eighteenth-century designers who traveled from Portland, Oregon, to Paris and New York for designs and fabrics, were also presented. I particularly liked a red silk dress from 1715, designed by Ann a Maria Garthwaite, the only woman known to have worked in Spitalfield's, the London-based silk weaving center. I also enjoyed an 1840's evening dress covered in cherries, a gray net lace French evening dress from 1949 by Lucille Man, and a fabulous red and gold Rive Gauche dress by Yves St. Laurent. One of the more modern looks I coveted was a copper-colored Diane von Furstenberg dress from her fall 2008 collection.

After leaving the muted elegance of the women's fashion exhibit behind, we headed downstairs to enter the fashion underworld of the Gothic fashion exhibit. Out of the darkness skeletons leered at us from fabrics, while above us a moon glowed in between shadowy clouds. Coffins were used as accessories and one of the walls faded magically away to reveal mannequins. Mannequins were also placed between castle ruins or were trapped behind mesh cages, so the whole effect was rather that of a surreal dance club where no one moved. Most of it wasn't really my style, leather and studs isn't my thing, but it was interesting to look at. My favorite outfit was a dress shredded through with shades of purples, blues, and lavenders done by Gattinoni for the fall 1997 collection. I think my friend summed the Gothic exhibit up best when she said, "Some of it's beautiful, some of it's scary."

Source: Museum at FIT

Cheap Chick Info: Free!
Location Info: Seventh Avenue at 27th Street.
Subway Info: 1, 9, N, R to 28th Street or the C, E, F, V to 23rd Street.

Cheap Chick Bargain Bulletin-Open House New York (October 4-5, 2008)!

Open House New York is like the Holy Grail of cheapness, at least in the New York City area. It's a once-a-year happening (info here: http://www.ohny.org/) held in the fall, where the doors of interesting and unusual architectural and historic spaces are literally open to the public for FREE all weekend. Spaces include houses of worship, office buildings, restaurants, bakeries, gardens, stores, theaters, hotels, galleries, museums and historic sites, and even cemetaries. Previously I've visited the Chrysler Building, Temple Emanu-El, Roosevelt Island, Gracie Mansion, the Rockefeller Center Gardens, and the Teddy Roosevelt birthplace (yup, in case you didn't know he was born right here in New York City.) Talks and tours aren't the only highlight of the weekend; there are trolley rides, glass blowing demonstrations, and even theatrical and dance-related performances. This is a chance for city-dwellers to discover hidden New York and save a buck or two while doing it-many of the venues regularly charge admission and tour fees.
Location info: All over NYC!