Sisyphus

The April 9, 2012 New Yorker includes Adam Gopkin's review of books about Camus and other french writer/philosophers after the war: " Facing History, Why we love Camus".
Camus: "One must always imagine Sisyphus happy".
Gopkin: "to act decently while accepting that acts are always essentially absurd" is the only way to act.
Camus was not an evangelical.

My stones are moving and my Sisyphean smile is very weak.
It's been a busy week and writing will take me away from my absurd kidney.

Wednesday I saw a matinee of 'End of the Rainbow', starring Tracie Bennett.  It was written by Peter Quilter who has admitted that when he was writing the show he did no research.  Fans of Judy Garland are opposed to the show for that reason and also that the show is a very dark [negative] portrait of a great artist.  John Fricke, a Garland historian, has quoted Judy's daughter Lorna Luft who said Judy Garland's life had a lot of tragedy but she was not a tragic person.
My complaint with the show is that it is an impersonation, and about drug addiction more than anything else.  The story of great female performers who used drugs and died young is a popular pop culture topic.  Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Whitney Huston and others have battled addiction and died young.  Tragic lives?
For Garland see Jack Paar's interviews.  Not just witty, belly laughs.

Thursday I saw the Paul Taylor Dance Company at Lincoln Center.  Talk about fun.  They always make me feel good.  They did Aureole, Troilus and Cressida, Beloved Renegade, and Promethean Fire.  They are on You Tube.  Not as good as seeing them live but worth a look.

  

      
Friday: dinner at the Natural Gourmet, very good vegan dinner.

Saturday was a matinee at Lincoln Center.
4000 miles, a very entertaining drama about a young troubled man and his grandmother, is written by Amy Herzog and stars the great Mary Louise Wilson as the grandmother and an equally good Gabriel Ebert as the young man.  I found some of the drama was centered on the 'mystery of the young man's problem' which for me was not the most engaging part of the show.  Similar to 'The Lady From Dubuque' the 'problem' is easily imagined or expressed early on.  What is wonderful about both plays are the portraits of the central character and the performances of the actresses.
I never knew my grandmother but after the performance of Mary Louise Wilson and also having seen my mother with her grandchildren, I miss not having had that relationship.  Different than a mother's love. Maturity brings acceptance of others' foibles.  A good thing to have in relationships in or out of family.
  
Sunday: a day of rest.

The Center for Jewish History

Paul Stuart is celebrating 25years on lower 5th Ave.  The print on that jacket is of a woman.

The Center For Jewish History on west 16th Street is doing an exhibition on Moses Mendelssohn 9/6/1729 - 1/4/86.  He was a self-educated philosopher and writer, whose ideas are credited with creating the Jewish Enlightenment.  Although a lifelong Orthodox Jew he is called the father of Reform Judaism.  He is also the grandfather of the great composer Felix Mendelssohn.
After the exhibit I took a walk to the South Street Seaport for conversation and coffee with Angela.
This was Monday and today is Friday.  It's been a  busy week.

From the New Yorker:
Joan Acocella reviews  "When God Talks Back: Understanding the Evangelical Relationship With God" by T. M. Luhrmann, which confirms what I've always believed.  People, outside of all common sense, have created their own belief systems to escape responsibility for their actions.
James Surowieki on The Financial Page believes the economy is improving but slowly.  One of the facts that he states and I found interesting:
Last year the average car on the road was eleven years old, an all time high & people are now buying cars.

The Lady From Dubuque

The Pershing Square Signature Center is a new building designed by Frank Gehry that encompasses an entire city block on west 42nd Street.  It has 3 main stage theaters, a studio theater, rehearsal studio, cafe, bar, bookstore and concierge desk.  Begun in 2005 the center has committed to providing a ticket incentive for the next 20 years; so seats are $25 for the initial run of every production.  They devote an entire season to the work of one playwright, and there may be as many as 9 playwrights in residence at any one time.
This season has showcased Athol Fugard.  The plays of his they are doing are 'Blood Knot', 'My Children My Africa', and 'The Train Driver'.  They are also doing Will Eno's Title and Deed, Kenneth Lonergan's Medieval Play, and Edward Albee's The Lady From Dubuque.

The play was excellent.  I had seen 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' on broadway with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin.  I've also seen Broadway productions of 'Seascape' [2 productions], 'Three Tall Women', 'The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia' and some others off-Broadway.  Virginia Woolf is my favorite because the language is so beautifully poetic, and the characters are remarkably original and neoteric.  'The Lady' would be #2.  It has the bite of Virginia Woolf, the sparing.  It has the humor, the drama.  It's more overtly metaphysical then his plays that I have seen.  But the early revelation that the main character is dying of cancer empties the play of some of it's drama.  Still a wonderful show.  The name performer is Jane Alexander, who is The Lady From Dubuque, not one of the great Albee roles for an actress.  She and her companion [very well done by Peter Francis James] are mysterious visitors, who give comfort and eventual release to Jo.  The great 'Albee Actress Role' goes to Laila Robins as Jo.  Jo is hard, biting, sarcastic, cruel and dying.  I have not seen Ms. Robins before and that is my loss.  She is exceptional: compelling, sympathetic and always real.  I have been having seasonal allergies and Kidney stones so I almost cancelled but I am glad I went.  I had 2 hours without pain.
The title, as one character makes reference, comes from Herbert Ross, the founder of the New Yorker.  When he was asked who he thought his readership was, he said:  "Certainly, not the lady from Dubuque".   

Smoke Jazz Club

Wednesday, to celebrate Dottie's Birthday I took her to Smoke, a very nice, comfortable Jazz Club.

It's just a few blocks north of:

and right before you get to:

We had a very nice dinner.  Dottie had blackened catfish and I had grilled salmon.  We both had something to wash them down with.

We had come to hear:

and her quartet.  In honor of Woman's History Month she sang songs of great female jazz artists, Gloria Lynn's Wild is the Wind, Nancy Wilson's Guess Who I Saw Today and Sarah's The Thrill Is Gone, plus many more.
Great music, food, drinks and a lot cheaper than the Cafe Carlyle.  I'll be back.

Right now one of my kidneys is playing the Rolling Stones, and allergy season is very strong this year.  I hope the stones and allergies will pass real soon.

Larry says

I was reading Frank O'Hara and wanted to copy parts of 'Two Dreams Waking'.  Then I wondered about copy-write, and intellectual property rights.  The Larry in 'Larry says' is Larry Rivers.  So I went searching.
There's a Larry Rivers website devoted to his work.  A number of times as you scroll through the site it mentions copy-write restrictions 'nothing can be used without express permission', etc. 

Then I took out my copy of "What Did I do", Larry Rivers autobiography.  He talks a lot about Frank O'Hara and says they were good friends that just happened to have sex a number of times.  Rivers says he is not homosexual, and quotes Gore Vidal's line: that there aren't homosexuals just homosexual acts.  The quote is credited.  [Does that mean he has permission?]
He divorced his wife and raised his children with the help of his mother-in-law.  He's very open about his life and has a lot to say about other people's lives.  Gore Vidal and Edmund White do the same in their memoirs. Are there restrictions in the telling?  Should there be?


Frank O'Hara knew and worked with a great many poets and painters in 1950's New York.  One person that is mentioned is Edwin Denby.  At first I thought it was someone I used to work with but that was William Demby, who wrote "Beetlecreek".  Edwin Denby was a dance critic, poet, novelist and translator of the 'Tao'.  He and Rudy Burckhardt lived together on West 21 Street next door to William de Kooning who was a friend.  As far as I could see they didn't have threesomes.  Though Larry Rivers talks about foursomes that he had.  Edwin, Rudy and William didn't write their memoirs.  William developed Alzheimer's and Edwin and Rudy committed suicide. 

When he was married Larry Rivers used to live on Crescent Avenue in the Bronx.  Frank O'Hara lived on East 9th Street, then 791 Broadway.  For eleven years he, that is Frank, lived with Joe Le Sueur, [can't confirm that he was the nephew of Joan Crawford ... though others say he was] who wrote a book about it, [living with Frank not being a nephew].  The painters went to The Cedar Tavern and the poets ... I don't remember.
You may find it anomalous but I find where they lived and drank interesting.
Someday I'll write a treatise on "The Tribe".

My hair has moved, but from the top of my head
to my ears.
My eyes are green, but look half shut.

My cheeks round, like my head
but large.

My arms appropriate.
The legs, too.
But the feet are moving, shortening, shrinking.

I'm shrinking
While the roundness gets rounder.  

History's attentive scribe

I have been wondering what to do about the blog.  Should I keep writing as frequently as I have ... or should I take some time off... or should I take a break and review what I've written ... or should I do some other writing ... or just focus on me.
Then Threepenny Review is here.  The first thing I read was a poem by Louise Gluck [don't know how to put the umlaut over her 'u'].
The poem is called 'Faithful and Virtuous Night'.
some bits:
My story begins very simply: I could speak and I was happy.
Or: I could speak, thus I was happy.
Or: I was happy thus speaking.
I was like a bright light passing through a dark room.

If it is so difficult to begin, imagine what it will be like to end-
 ....

Spring and the curtains flutter.
Breezes enter the room, bringing the first insects.
A sound of buzzing like the sound of prayers.

Constituent
memories of a large memory.
Points of clarity in a mist, intermittently visible,
like a lighthouse whose one task
is to emit a signal.
...
I think here I will leave you.  It has come to seem
there is no perfect ending.
Indeed, there are infinite endings.
Or perhaps, once one begins,
there are only endings."

Well, yes.  But then I turned the page and it's 'History's Attentive Scribe'.  A book review by John Rockwell of "Journey to the Abyss: The Diaries of Count Harry Kessler." ... "our finest, most vivid first hand accounts of Germany, and Europe, from the collapse of the Kaiser's empire in 1918 through the rise of Hitler."
The last paragraph struck me.
"What is a good memoir.  Like blogging, it requires the discipline to write steadily and constantly, which Kessler managed to do pretty well for over half a century, as well as a faith in an unknown audience, distant in space or time."
Well then, I am still beginning.

OWS Occupy Wall Street is in Union Square and there was some controversial police action.

But it was quiet when I was there.
Spring came at about 1AM according to the weatherman on channel 7.  [I'm getting so suspicious of the media I'm beginning to question the weatherman.]
At 4 AM in Jamaica, Queens, an off-duty policeman was shot to death by a woman who witnesses say appeared to be friendly just moments before.  At 5 AM after an altercation a man was stabbed to death outside a bodega on 116th and Lexington Ave.  I want some more good news like Spring arriving.
Why am I suspicious of the media? 
Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich, say whatever they want to reporters and no one verifies the information.  It is promulgated unchecked.  The news is supposed to report the facts, the who, the where, the when.  Rick Santorum gave a speech on the campaign trail excerpted on CNN.  In his speech he said the liberal elites in the big cities were keeping jobs away from the average guy.  Within seconds of that remark he accused President Obama of waging class warfare.  Gingrich in a speech on the campaign trail said Obama [he didn't say President Obama] is against domestic oil production and pro Arab oil production.  He called the president un-american.  These two speeches were excerpted within 30 minutes of each other.
The NY Times that day showed a report from the oil industry that US production of oil is up under the President and dependence on foreign oil is down.  That was not reported on CNN.  Frighteningly, more people watch CNN then read.
I want to correct what I said.  I'm suspicious of TV. 
P.S.  I'm only on page 10 of Threepenny Review.

Rape

I pick up the East Villager each week to read about my neighborhood.  It has a section called the Police Blotter in which some of the crimes in the area are listed.  Almost every week there is a report of a rape.

This week a man was seen raping a woman inside a bank's ATM.  He punched her in the face so hard she was knocked unconscious.  This was at Broadway and 9th Street at 8 PM, a very busy area at a very busy time and a very public space.  Passersby called 911 and he was apprehended.
There were 28 rapes in NYC last week.  So far this year there have been 241 rapes.  Last year at this time there were 239.  There were 1421 women raped in NYC last year.  Now I understand why so many people have dogs.  I will never complain about a woman taking her dog where ever she goes.
In the old days, that being the 1960s, people talked of legalizing prostitution.  The belief then was that  it would curtail rapes.  It was theorized that men needed sex and that rape was a symptom of a repressed society.
Currently, a NYC police officer is on trial for rape.  This is a new case.  In the other one the two police officers  were found not guilty because the young woman was too intoxicated to remember the details accurately.  This incident is of a young teacher who went to meet her principal so she could get a ride to work.  While she was waiting outside his building at 6AM the police officer, after a night of drinking and with the use of his gun, forced her into an alley and raped her.  Neighbors witnessed it and called the police.  According to his cell phone records he had called a number of escort services but did not get a response.  People will suppose if he had gotten a response the rape would not have occurred.  That it was because of sexual frustration and alcohol.  I wonder.
A number of countries have legalized prostitution.  Some statistics from the UN.
But first this: professionals say "no other major category of crime - not murder, assault or robbery - has generated a more serious challenge of the credibility of national crime statistics" than rape.  With that in mind, here are the statistics.
Per 100,000 population:
Belgium                 29.5
Chile                     11.9
Denmark                7.3
France                  16.4
Iceland                 28.2
New Zealand       31.3
Sweden               46.6
USA                    29.3


US Cities per 100,000:
Anchorage                   90.9
Cleveland                     80.0
Colorado Springs         80.2
Minneapolis               113.6
St. Paul                        65.1
NYC                         1,036

Is it alcohol drinking, sexual frustration?   
Maybe.  If you think a man can't control himself.  Maybe.  If you think all this talk on the Republican Campaign trail about contraceptives is an aberration.  Maybe.  If you think like Gingrich that "Women need to put an aspirin between their legs" is funny.  Maybe.  If your orthodoxy thinks women should be fully covered.

Good news: Crime rates are down in the US.  Theorists believe it may be due to two factors, abortion.  The unwanted that would become the abused and unloved are less likely to be born.  The other factor: the removal of lead in paint.
But better news would be a shift in power. Civil Rights Laws have helped a number of groups.
And it's not all men on women rape.  Some rape boys.  
Maybe, instead of having bicycles around the city for general use we should have German shepherds available as escorts. 

Moments

I've been thinking about Christine Ebersole at the Cafe Carlyle and trying to come up with a definition of what I called 'a moment'.  What makes a show or performance special.  I did some research looking at Aristotle's poetics and what others have said about Aristotle's term catharsis.  Catharsis strictly translated means purging.  My main source F. L. Lucas makes reference to the fact that the Poetics was written in response to Plato's remark that poetry, including theater, music etc., encourages people to be hysterical and uncontrolled.  For Aristotle it is the opposite, poetry purges the soul of its excessive passions.
The best definition for "the moment" comes from Bob Marley when he said: "One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain."  It can come from many places.
Sunday it was at a matinee of The KEEN Company Production of Tina Howe's, "Painting Churches".

It was momentous.  I could have walked on air, painlessly.  Kathleen Chalfant, star of the original production of "Wit", John Cunningham, who was in the original production of "Company" and Kate Turnbull who is new to me, are the players.  I could not find a recorded production of the play through an internet search, so it is just there, for now, at The Clurman Theater on Theater Row.  If I didn't have so much on my plate I'd go back.

Cafe Carlyle

Went to the Cafe Carlyle to hear Cristine Ebersole on Thursday.  She was a regular on SNL for one season; has been on TV soap operas, in movies, and has won Best Actress Tonys for '42nd Street' and 'Grey Gardens'.  I recently saw her at Birdland and fell in love.  Since Thursday the romance has cooled.  One drink at the bar with the show = $93, but no special moment in the performance.  I expect a moment in a live performance and she's had moments that have grabbed me and lifted me up.
However, the audience enjoyed the show and a woman sitting next to me remarked that I probably didn't like the  book.  There was this theme involving her three children, particularly her adopted teenage daughter.  Maybe that was my issue.  It reminded me of the time Rosemary Clooney,one of my favorites, sang at Westbury Music Fair shortly after 9/11.  She was fine, but before she sang 'Come in From The Rain' she prefaced it by saying that she always sang the song  for her grand-children.  Well I loved that song when I thought she was singing it to me but when your audience is your children and grand-children I'm less there.

Don Giovanni

Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera House had one of the best special effects: the demise of  Don Giovanni in a burst of flame.  We felt the heat in the balcony.  The Met always puts on a great show.

 The libretto is by Lorenzo Da Ponte, 1749 - 1838, based on a play , El Burlador de Sevilla y Convidado de Piedra, The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest, written by Tirso de Molina, author and priest.  My favorite bits: the tenor's "Dalla sua pace" sung by Matthew Polenzani, and Marina Rebeka's " Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata".   Matthew is on you tube in a very annoying modern dress version, but not Marina.  There is of course the great Kiri Te Kanawa doing the aria.  Both are worth a listen.
The big news at the Met this season is Jay Hunter Morris, from Texas, who stepped in at the last minute to play Siegfried in Wagner's Ring Cycle.  He is young, handsome and all the critics say a great Siegfried, which is the toughest role for a tenor.  He is also on You Tube.

Merrily We Roll Along

Went to City Center to see the Encores presentation of Stephen Sondheim's 'Merrily We Roll Along'.  In his book 'Look, I Made a Hat' Sondheim has written "I was in a morass of despair after the joyful public slaughter of 'Merrily we roll along'."  The show ran for about 60 performances and was bashed by the critics as not making any sense.   One of the problems was the fact that the play runs backwoods from 1976 to 1955.  The book has now been cleaned of any confusion, and it is very witty.  One of my favorite 'bits' is a conversation between a young woman and an older woman.
Young Woman: "I work for Look Magazine'.
Older Woman: "Well, that's good."
Young Woman: "I hate it."
Older Woman: "Well, that's why they call it work."
It has some of his finest 'tunes': Not a Day Goes By, Old Friends, Our Time, Opening doors, Good thing Going.
The Encores production was beautifully done.  I expected to see a couple of people sitting in front of microphones reading from a script accompanied by a piano.  After all I paid $26 for my seat.  It was a nine piece orchestra, a cast of 26, 3 excellent leads: Colin Donnell, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Celia Keenan-Bolger, well staged and choreographed with videos to carry the story .  The production was as close to a Broadway production as imaginable.  I loved it.  It closed yesterday after a 2 week run.  Maybe it will show up on Broadway, as did their great production of Patti LuPone's 'Gypsy".
Merrily?, I roll along.  What I'm reading in the news.
The Villager:
Rape suspect arrested.  He dragged his victim down the subway tunnel of the 'J' train where he beat her and raped her.  He has 27 prior arrests.
In the Times:
Dozens of Tubas stolen from LA Schools.  The Tuba is used in a very popular Mexican music style known as "banda".  A band with a Tuba can make up to $3000 a night.
In the Sunday magazine section:
"The way Greeks live now" by Russell Shorto:
A woman tells him: 'I was sitting at an outdoor cafe, and a clean, well-dressed man of about 60 passed by and politely asked if he could have the biscuit that came with my coffee.'
'The standard short answer to how Greece got into this financial mess is that it borrowed too much and spent unwisely.  Beneath this, people like to look for a cultural root.  Most popular, outside Greece, is the north-south explanation, which holds that northern Europeans are efficient and hard-working, and Southerners, while they may have better food and better sex lives, relax too much to run an efficient economy.  But numbers don't bear this out: in 2008 the average German worked 1,426 hours and the average Greek worked 2,116 hours.  The Greek explanation is that Greece is a remnant of the Ottoman Empire,  top-down rule and bribery.  The Greeks believe their bureaucracy is a menace.  'Fakelaki', cash stuffed envelopes, are needed to secure the multiple signatures in order to get anything done in Greece.
There is more pain in Greece than I care to write about and everyone seems to agree it will get worse.
One last fact.  When the government announced a severe reduction in salaries, a woman was asked how she would manage on less money.  She laughed, like many Greeks, she hadn't received a paycheck in  months.
From Lucretius:
            On the nature of things.
'For sundered from its junctures, the supply
of matter would travel aimless through the void;
or better, it never would have joined to make
one thing; so scattered, it could form no junctures.
For surely not by planning did prime bodies
find rank and place, nor by intelligence,
nor did they regulate movement by sworn pact;
no, changing by myriads myriad ways, they sped
through the ALL forever, pounded, pushed, propelled,
till, trying all kinds of movements and arrangements,
they came at last into such patterned shapes
as have created and formed this Sum of Things.'

Sounds like The Chaos Theory of 52 B.C.E.

Valentine's Day

The lines were long at all the flower markets.
Which reminded me of the Myrtle Ave. subway station on the 'L' train in Brooklyn.  They had a brand name candy store, box of chocolates kind of company, like a Whitman Sampler.  I can't remember the name of the company; maybe it was Whitman.  I seem to remember it started with a 'B'.  Bachman's ?  Anyway, it was always open and never had a lot of people buying chocolates, until Valentine's Day when the lines were very long.
I wonder who it was that created the saint of romance.  Not anybody in today's church.  We're having another non-issue dominate politics.  The new health plan includes family planning; so the right wing and the Catholic Church oppose it.  They say it forces them to act against their beliefs.  Yet it has been the law in California for years, and they've complied.  Just more nonsense.
I went to the theater on Valentine's Day with Sandra and Nancy to see a piece by a member of Frank's theater group.  We left after the first act.

Then stopped off for an after theater drink at Joe Allen's on restaurant row.  That's where Nancy gave me a  beautiful Valentine's Day card.  It's a photo she took of a market in Morocco.  She's a great photographer,which is why her work is in the Smithsonian.  This photograph doesn't do the card justice and NO, she gave cards to everyone. 

  

Time

I always expected, when I retired, that I would have the time to do all the things I wanted to do.  I always wanted to write.  A number of things had piqued my interest.  The first was the outdoor art in NYC.

 Of course, that is where I would have to start, and then move uptown.

To Sylvette, and then end at Union Square Park.

With commentary about the statues, the artist, who paid for them and why.
Another book was going to be, and maybe will still be, 'The Hand Book', a book all about hands.  I studied and worked in hand therapy for a number of years.
There is the saying that the eyes are the window to the soul.  I believe the hands are a window to the life.

My Mother's hands at age 95.
 
But where is the time: 
Two weeks ago I went to my family doctor for my yearly checkup.  I now have M.D. appointments through April, to examine my heart, eyes, skin and other, to remain unnamed, places.
I get The New Yorker delivered and try to read some of it each week.  This week's issue has an article by Jonathan Franzen on Edith Wharton, in celebration of what would have been her 150th Birthday.
I get Film Forum, the quarterly from Lincoln Center.
I dropped The Economist, too conservative, although wonderful comprehensive reporting.  
I get the weekend NY Times delivered.
Sunday had a great article on Quanitta Underwood, a U.S. Olympic Boxing hopeful.
This summer's Olympics will for the first time feature women's boxing and Miss Underwood is the U.S.'s best hope for a medal.  The article, by Barry Bearak, begins: "Two sisters shared a bed, and each night, with their hearts hammering, they would listen for the turn of the knob and the push of the door.  Quanitta was 10 her sister Hazzauna, 12.  The walls of their house were thin and the girls could hear every move their father made.  Hear him sit up, hear him get out of bed, hear him walk their way."  You can read the whole article at nytimes.com.  It's titled 'The Living Nightmare' and it is about her battle with incest, and her survival.
I also have my books to read.  I'm working my way, slowly, through 'The Renaissance Portrait'.  Yeah, I know it has pictures but it's still 420 pages and a typically large 'Art Book'.  I'm also, slowly working my way through 'On The Nature Of Things' by Lucretius.  OK, I know it's only 175 pages but c'mon it's poetry and philosophy.  I blame the NY Times Book Review.  Someone wrote a review of a new translation and in the essay they mentioned all the many artists and scientists who list it as an important part of their education.  I had a great teacher in the classics but we never did Lucretius.  Although, we did read Catullus.  The school probably thought we had already read Henry Miller and Lady Chatterley's Lover so what harm could Catullus do, but lets not give them a poem whose first book is a condemnation of Religion.
Then there is one of my favorite things: Music.

The Metropolitan Room on West 22

I went there Sunday Night.  The room is small, similar in some ways to the Blue Note.  The show was Fred Barton's 'Presents', a once a month show.  He is an arranger, songwriter and performer and once a month he brings his 9 piece orchestra and some great talent to perform.  The best were Kevin Early whose Broadway credits are 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' and 'Les Miserables', Karen Murphy, broadway credits: 'A little night music', '9 to 5',  and NYC Opera's 'Most Happy Fella' and Anita Gillette, Broadway credits: 'Gypsy', 'Guys and Dolls', 'Cabaret', and 'Brighton Beach Memoirs', but she is probably best known as a frequent quest on TV game shows like 'What's My Line'.  I'm going back next month.  $20 and 2 drink minimum, and that's right there's no maximum.

 

Dogs

Sign in front of a building on 14th Street.  Why? because there are too many dogs in NYC.  This is probably a very controversial subject.  People feel that their pet is a part of the family.  Many families in NYC are comprise of one person and a dog becomes their partner in all things.  They take them to the bookstore, supermarket, deli, and luncheonette.  Many businesses in my neighborhood leave bowls of water and 'treats' inside the store for their customers' pets.  Dogs are outlawed in any establishment that serves food, but many people ignore that.

 Many areas in the city that were once for the sole use of vegetation, benches, and playgrounds now give some of that space to 'doggie parks'.  In my neighborhood there are 3 parks, Stuyvesant Park, Tompkins Square Park, and Washington Square Park.  Each one now has a doggie park.  For the record, one of the best relationships I had growing up was with my dog Duke.  I know why people love their dogs.
However, there are 7 billion people in the world.  In the U.S. we spend over $50 billion on our pets.  There are 1.4 million dogs in NYC.  We have a pooper scooper law in NYC but it is not strictly enforced.  Let's say 99% of dog owners pick up after their dogs.  That means 14,000 dog poops are left on our streets at least once a day.  All of the dogs, 1.4 million, are peeing on our trees and plants and streets.  Urine kills the trees and the plants.  Yes, the dog urine and poop is eventually washed away when it rains but it goes untreated into our waterways.
What can be done?  I think people here in NYC are woefully uneducated about their pet.  A dog needs a yard, some space.  Our city needs its plants and trees and waterways to be pristine. Maybe we need sandy doggie walks on the street where a pet can do his business and it can be removed.

Movie Time

The awards are happening.  The academy awards are at the end of the month and I haven't seen many of the nominees.  I've usually seen most of them by January.  Two of the movies up for awards I saw through Netflix.  The first one I want to mention is 'Drive'.  The academy award nominee for best supporting actor is Albert Brooks.  The star of the movie is Ryan Gosling.  I believe he was the latest recipient of the title 'world's sexiest man' from People Magazine.  I've seen 2 of his movies, Drive and 'Lars and the real Girl'.  In both his total dialogue would fit on one page.  Lars was OK.  Some wit, a quirky character and a loving view of small town American life.  In 'Drive' the main character, Gosling, shoots one guy with a shotgun, stabs another with a curtain rod, another with a knife, and after kissing his neighbor's wife he stomps a man to death while they are all riding in an elevator.  The movie ends with him sitting in a car alone with the soundtrack playing a song whose lyrics are, and I'm paraphrasing, 'he's a hero, a real human being'.
The only thing I liked in the movie is the fact that Albert Brooks, one of the bad guys, is a Hollywood producer and a cutthroat.  Literally, he cuts peoples throats. 
Moving on.
Last night I saw 'The Iron Lady' with Meryl Streep.  Meryl is up for best actress and she's good as usual.  The movie less so.  They do a lot of flashbacks to Margaret Thatcher's life while in the present she is undergoing dementia, hallucinating her dead husband, who is played by the great Jim Broadbent.  There is too much of the dementia and too little of the Thatcher years.  But they did show some of the effects of her policies.  For me Thatcher is from the same school as Newt Gingrich.  They're preachers and the sermon is that the other side is evil and bad for the country.  Even though the other side are the duly elected representatives of the people.  But then of course Thatcher and Gingrich know what's best for us all: 'Be quiet and do as you're told'.  The film actually has her saying: 'I won't compromise.  I won't be conciliatory.'  Not a great policy in a democracy.
But then, thanks to netflix, I got to see 'A better Life' and it's wonderful.  The leading man Demian Bichir is up for an Oscar, and well-deserved.  The director is Chris Weitz who did 'About a Boy' which I loved and produced 'A single Man',  and he's from NYC.  The movie tells the story of an illegal immigrant from Mexico trying as a single parent to keep his teenage son out of trouble and away from the gangs in LA.  Best scene: when he confronts the man who stole his dream when he stole his truck.  I presume it would be considered an American film.  But it's not nominated for best picture.

N.Y. Giants are The Champs

They won the super bowl on Sunday and today, after a ticker-tape parade, NY is giving them the keys to the city.  I got downtown at 8:30AM; the ceremony is at 1PM and it was already crowded.  So I left.  Do not like crowds and the press is reporting an estimated 1 million people.
But it was very tempting to stay, because the Giants have played some incredible football.  Manning [MVP] has been connecting with his receivers in some spectacular plays.  Sunday's catch by Mario Manningham in the fourth quarter was one of the most spectacular catches ever.

Americans love their team sports: football, basketball, hockey and baseball.  Some folks pay thousands of dollars to attend the games.  Last Sunday, an hotel room at the Budget Inn, $898.99;  next weekend it's back to $55 a night.  Monday before the game 3,000 seats were available from $2,100 to $516,484, the $16,484 is probably shipping and handling fees.  Parking $499, next weekend, $60. Airfare from NY to Indianapolis between $1,379 to $1,837.  Next weekend $400.

The home of rugged individualism, paradoxically loves its team sports.  Track and field will never attract that kind of money.  Golf, tennis, auto racing have a lot of fans, but your average American is much more likely to know who won the Super Bowl then who won the U.S. Open.
Then there is the violence.  Students in Amherst, Massachusetts rioted after the game and 19 were arrested.  Violence in Egypt continues after riots at a soccer game that killed at least 73 people.  It is a universal response when your team wins or loses: riot.  There is that much emotion in spectator sports.

Meanwhile in NYC we have this going on in Union Square:

 Riding with George Washington

He's protesting the lack of freedom in China, and he looks like one of the college kids from NYU, or Cooper Union.   He's going to sit there all week, if necessary, until something is done.
As Jack Paar would say 'I kid you not', he's giving us one week!!
I guess he figures that now the football season is over we can devote more time to world freedom.

The Japanese Internment

Koho Yamamoto is a Japanese-American artist and above is one of her works on display at The Interchurch Center's gallery which is curated by my friend Frank.  The exhibit is called From Topaz to Soho: The Spirited Art of Koho Yamamoto.  The art begins in 1944 when she was 22 and living in a detention center in Topaz, Utah.  Many are done in the Sumi-e style which is what she taught for 37 years at her school  in Soho. 

Koho Yamamoto's work is part of the show: "The Japanese American Internment Project ... if they came for me today".  The show will be on tour for two years.

On February 19, 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt interned in camps 120,000 Japanese-Americans of whom 80,000 were native born.  The government also coerced Latin American countries to deport their Japanese citizens.  2,300 were sent to America and imprisoned here.  Homes and businesses were lost. 
In 1980 President Jimmy Carter's commission on the internment found that the relocation was not done out of military necessity but out of racism, war hysteria, and the failure of political leadership.
In August 1988 President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act which paid the survivors $20,000 each.

Chinese New Year

Lots of Dragons

 The year of the dragon is 4709-4710 on our calendar.  Those born this year may have the characteristics of the dragon: innovative, brave, and passionate.  I say may because the Chinese zodiac includes the characteristics by year: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig, plus the five elements: metal, water, wood, fire and earth, plus yin [odd years] and yang [even years].  The system of 12 years was based by early Chinese astronomers on the orbit of Jupiter. 

1.26.44

Went out to a movie at one of my favorite movie houses: The Paris.  It is across the street from the Plaza Hotel and a block from the entrance to central Park.  The Paris was the first post-war movie house constructed in Manhattan.  It opened on 9/13/48 with Marlene Dietrich and the French Ambassador cutting the ribbon.  Ah! to be there then, with a camera.  The Paris usually hosts French films and has had many premieres.

 Elegantly designed in the Art Moderne style, a late type of Art Deco, my favorite style.

The Artist is up for a number of awards and deserves recognition for its boldness, black and white and silent.  I haven't seen a lot of the nominees, so The Artist may be the best of the group.  It has a number of things that I liked,  movie references, e.g. the breakfast scene from Citizen Kane and a dance from Rodgers and Astaire, the performances by the two stars and their dog.  I loved the dog.  However, I found the movie a bit long and it took awhile for me to settle into it.  There is nothing particularly noteworthy in the story or the technique.  As for best movies made in 2011 that I've seen I prefer A Separation.
And the best movie I've seen, recently, is "Millions", a Danny Boyle film from 2004.  Danny Boyle has also made Shallow Grave[terrific] Slumdog Millionaire[lots of awards] 127 Hours[next on my list] and Trainspotting[funny and tragic ... one drug addict says about another "we call him Mother Superior because of the length of his habit], and two of the Inspector Morse shows.  'Millions' stars Lewis McGibbon, James Nesbith, Daisy Donovan and the incredible Alex Etel.  The very young Alex Etel plays one of the most interesting and endearing characters I've ever seen.  It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce.  Netflix, thank you.

Tosca at The Met

Patricia Racette is in Giacomo Puccini's 'Tosca' which I saw Tuesday night at the Metropolitan Opera House.  She will be performing it 6 times with a quartet of leading men on alternating nights.  The NY Times praises her " richly expressive voice and raw emotion".  She is a fine actress but as the Times says "her voice is not opulent or unique".  This is also the farewell performance of Paul Plishka who plays the sacristan.  Since 1967 he has performed at the Met 1600 times.
The opera is based on a play by Victorien Sardou who wrote 70 plays, all successful and now forgotten.  Tosca was a great hit for Sarah Bernhardt, with 3000 performances in France alone.  The story concerns 4 main characters: Angelotti, an escaped political prisoner who is pursued by Scarpia, the head of the secret police who lusts after Tosca, who is loved by and loves Cavaradossi a painter.  When Cavaradossi helps hide Angelotti, Scarpia arrests him and tortures him until Tosca agrees to sleep with him and tell him where Angelotti is hiding.  She tells; then stabs Scarpia.  Angelotti kills himself rather then be arrested.  Cavaradossi is executed and Tosca jumps off a tower, spectacularly staged, rather then be captured.  The end.

The score is beguiling and the opera is one of the most popular.
Favorite parts:  The Te Deum with a triple chorus, an orchestra with bells, an organ and 2 canons.  The tenor's aria "E lucevan le stelle", "And the stars were shining" in act 3, and the soprano's aria in act 2 "Vissi d'arte" living her life for love and art.
Another favorite of mine: the company, 100 orchestra members and 80 members of the chorus.   
Today's notable birthdays:
Wayne Gretsky, Samuel Adams, Anita Baker, Nicolae Ceausescu, Henry Jaglom, Angela Davis, Jules Feiffer, Ellen De Generes, Douglas McArthur, Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony, James McCord, Watergate burglar, Roger Vadim, Anne Jeffreys, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Me.

The News

It's all bad today.
I went to the opera last night and got home late and into bed at about 2:30.  Then the cats started in at five AM.  So it's food, water, clean litter box and back to sleep.  But noooo!  They won 't let up; not until I'm up and out of bed.  I swear I almost threw Paris out the window.  I had closed the bedroom door but he was banging on it with his head and meowing, constantly.  I was P O'ed but not just for waking me up but also fighting with his brother.  He was so bad; Troy was cowering under the chair and hissing at him.  The first time that's happened.
I need a cat whisperer or cat shrink.  They're both sleeping, now, and in my bed of course.
That's my bad news.  I'm exhausted and tomorrow's my birthday.  I want to be fresh and chipper for my birthday.   Well as much as I can be at 68.
And in the rest of the world it's not much better.  Those republican party debates.  I mean, really disgusting candidates.  Characters from a Walt Disney movie, happy=Rick Perry, dopey=Cain, grouchy=Gingrich, and there's no Snow White.  Gingrich, as they say, is 'surging in the polls' because he berates the media for asking about his marriages.  Simply stated he cheated on his first two wives.  While the first wife had cancer and the second wife had MS.  The third wife had a 6 year affair with him while he was married.  All the time she was playing the role of the good catholic.  So good that now Newt is a catholic and has found God.  Son of a gun, who knew all this time, god was in Calista's sheets!  Don't people remember what Newt did to Clinton for his peccadilloes?  Why would anyone listen to them?

The real craziness is not the hypocrisy.
Mitt Romney wants us to believe that during his life he has had fears of losing his livelihood.  Last year he earned  from investments, he doesn't actually have a job, almost $60,000 a day!
And there's even more craziness in the audience.  They cheered when Cain said the unemployed needed to take a bath and get a job.  They cheered when Newt said  school children should do janitorial jobs in school to learn job skills.  They cheered when Ron Paul said if a person can't afford to buy medications that's their own fault.  Who are these people?  White, affluent, mostly male, christian, presumably.  That also describes me and my friends but we are at the opposite end of those political views.  These people may look angry, but they're really scared.  They hate Obama because he is the face of the new America.  White America is 72% of the total population.  Ten years ago they were 75%.  These people feel threatened.
I can't believe any of these guys will win, because that audience is already the minority.  One last thing about the candidates.  Has anyone else noticed that they all have strange ways of walking.

First snow

Not a whole lot but wet and cold.  I love it when there are big soft flakes, but that's not it today.

It's the beginning of the Chinese New Year and I was planning a trip to Chinatown to watch the festivities, but not in this weather.  The festivities will be going on all week and I think next Saturday is the Dragon parade.  So I'll go then.
It is the year of the dragon which means those born this year will be powerful and lucky with lots of charisma.  I was born in the year of the monkey: a party animal, charming, craving fun and stimulation, sparkling wit, rapier-sharp mind, knowledgeable on a wide range of topics, accident prone, poor morals, unfaithful in relationships, self indulgence leading to problems with food, alcohol and other pleasures.  For balance they should learn to think more about others.  
I'm also an aquarian: sometimes shy and quiet and sometimes boisterous, eccentric and energetic, deep thinker, love helping others, very smart, independent, good at solving problems, imaginative and a strong need to be alone, runs from emotional expression, aloof, temperamental.
In Aztec astrology I'm the flint, Tecpatl: rigorous, brave, morally upright, disdaining whimsy,does not tolerate lying,  warm and generous, spontaneous, filled with adventure and diversity.

Went to the movies with Dottie and saw "A Separation" which I loved.  Dottie didn't care for it and thought it was too long.  An Iranian movie about a Husband and Wife at cross purposes.  During the movie I found myself analyzing what I thought to be the symbolism.
I am more conscious of artists use of symbols: objects and people used to represent something or someone else.  It was very common in paintings for an artist to tell a story or give a message in this way.  For example fruit was used to suggest many things, pomegranate= eternal life, fig=loss of innocence, pear=faithfulness, orange=free will, and the apple=sin & the Garden of Eden.  I've always resisted this type of analyses since the time a college professor  turned Faulkner's wonderful short story 'The Bear' into an anti-communist tract.  Modern use of symbols are not to my knowledge clearly and universally known as they were in Renaissance Europe.  So it might appear subjective.  But it can be increase the appreciation of a film.
In "a Separation" we are looking at life in Iran; a highly censored, closed and sectarian society.  Film makers have been imprisoned.  So the use of symbols in their films is quite likely. 
What fascinated me was trying to understand the symbolic presence of the grandfather; who is the reason for the husband's and wife's estrangement.  They are an affluent family and the wife wants to leave the country for her daughter's sake.  The husband feels obligated to take care of his father who has Alzheimer's.  At first I thought he was a symbol of the Iranian government; no memory of its history, not making sense but compelling adherence.  The grandfather doesn't know who any one is and has stopped talking.  Then I thought he is the symbol of Islam.  There is a lot to consider beyond the mise en scene.  Men fight, women negotiate in this patriarchy.   People go to jail if they don't pay their debts.  A woman telephones a hotline to ask if she can undress a man who has soiled himself.  The answer is 'no' it's a sin.  A young girl, maybe 12, is frightened of asking for her change because all the men are staring at her. 
It's worth seeing in a movie house.  There are a lot of subtitles which would be hard to follow on a TV screen.

Schjeldahl

I was reading Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker.  He was critiquing Damien Hirst's  'Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011'.  They're being exhibited all over the world.  Hirst is part of "a cohort [of] Young British Artists.  When not milking death, Y.B.A. art savored sex and squalor, ideally in combination."  They were behind the show at The Brooklyn Museum in 1999 that Mayor Giuliani "made headlines by denouncing Chris Ofile's painting of the Virgin Mary festooned with lumps of elephant dung."  Yeah, Peter doesn't like them.  He says: "The result is art in the way some exotic financial dealings are legal: by a whisker."
So I went to Chelsea to see for myself.  Found one but couldn't shoot it.  It looked like this:

There a dozen of them around the world.

I prefer these by Will Kurtz, at the Mike Weiss Gallery.  It's called 'Extra Fucking Ordinary", unfortunate title, for fine work.  They are life size figural sculptures constructed of collaged torn sheets of newspaper, wood, wire, screws, tape and everyday objects.
He takes photos with his I-Phone then recreates them.

Ramblings

The internet today is "down" due to a protest about some government legislation to control copyright and 'intellectual ownership'.  The senate passed the bill but some of those who signed it now oppose it.  That alone indicates how crazy government has gotten.  Most of our elected officials are lawyers and they're signing bills, and making laws without first reading them.  I forget how big the Obamacare legislation actually was but it was enormous. 
Back to the internet or rather why I was looking for info.  There was a show on public TV about one of the Hollywood studios.  Some of it was how wonderful this head of studio was and how creative that other head of studio was, etc.  Which put me in mind of what my friend Frank said:  "Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather, was on Charlie Rose and said the bit about the horse's head in the producer's bed was a true story."  Puzo went on further to say:  "I've known a lot of Mafia guys and they could be ruthless but the worst SOB's were in Hollywood."  Not the only person to have said that.

One section of the doc. was called 'The Genius' and was about Stanley Kubrick.  He is probably most famous for "2001', 'How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb', 'Spartacus', 'Barry Lyndon'.  My personal favorite is 'Paths of Glory'.  Ever since I read 'The Guns of August' I have been fascinated by the First World War.  Also, when I was traveling around Mt. Athos in Greece I hooked up with some Brits, one of whom was senior at the British Museum.  When I voiced the impression that made on me, he pooh-poohed the thought..  He said someone like him would never be where he was if his country had not lost an entire generation in the First World War.

But I wasn't searching the internet for info about the War or Paths of Glory.  Two things struck me: Stanley Kubrick and Adolphe Menjou in 1957 making a movie together.  Kubrick is from New York City and politically very liberal.  I wondered if he had gone to England because of blacklisting by McCarthyism.  That's the info I was looking for.  Adolphe is most famous for testifying at the McCarthy hearings and naming names.  Menjou's famous line was: "I'd send all those commies to Texas.  They know how to deal with them."  It appears Kubrick did not leave America because of politics.  he left because he found film financing easier.        

The Renaissance Portrait

Went to the Metropolitan Museum to see their new exhibit.  You are not allowed to take photos of the works on display.  Probably some legal issues with loaned works of art.  It was the same at the Brooklyn Museum.  But I took a photo before they told me I couldn't and another that you're allowed to take.

I almost bought the book for $65, just for one portrait.  It is 'Portrait of a Young Man' by Antonello da Messina.  It had been known for a long time as 'Portrait of an Unknown Sailor' and now as the famous Cefalu' Portrait of a Young Man.  It is supposed to be in the National Gallery in London, but it's not listed at their site.
I may be turning into J. Alfred Prufrock.
"In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse."

But there's more
To do
To hear
To see
To put on
To take off.
More then I will ever own.

Subway/meet-up

That is the access shaft for the new 2nd Ave Subway.  The subway will run from 125th Street to the financial district.  Phase One, which will take 45 months, there are 4 phases, involves the "Q" line which will run from 93rd Street to 63rd Street and 2nd Ave.  It will then connect on Lexington Ave. with the "F" line where passengers can continue south through Manhattan and into Brooklyn.  The workmen told me that the shaft is 9 stories deep and there will be 16 ADA accessible stations.
On my way to a birthday party I happened to come upon what was in the 70's called a happening or a Be-in.  I found out later that it is now called a meet-up.  Some one twitters everyone to meet at a particular place at a particular time dressed in a particular way or for a particular reason.  If you happen to be walking around the city and see a bunch of people dressed as Santa or carrying pillows for a pillow fight, it's a meet-up.

 This meet-up was to come to Union Square in your underwear.

House of Worship

 Archbishop Dolan has been elevated to Cardinal Dolan.  So I thought I would visit St. Patrick's Cathedral.  The Cathedral opened in 1879, and was designed by American architect James Renwick Jr., who was considered the most successful architect of his time.  His first commission was Grace Church in NYC which he took on at the age of 25.

 'The Lady Chapel', at the rear of the Cathedral, is the most sacred part of the Church.  This is where the Eucharist is kept.  It was built between 1901 and 1908 and designed by Charles T. Mathews.

The Cathedral has a 'Pieta' sculpted by William Ordway Partridge.  Instead it says that St. Patrick's 'Pieta' is 3 times larger than Michelangelo's.  

Onassis Cultural center of NY

Did not know there was such a place until it advertised in the NY Times.  The exhibit is entitled Transition to Christianity: Art of Late Antiquity, 3rd-7th Century AD.  I love classic works of art: tile, painting, and statuary, especially the Paul Newman lookalikes.  I was looking forward to the show but The Met has more interesting objects and when you've been to Greece, Athens, Delos, Mycenae, Crete, Istanbul, Ephesus, and the British Museum it's pretty hard to be impressed.  The lobby entrance had copies of the Elgin Marbles: four images hanging about 15 feet on a wall.  They did not allow photos so all I have is the brochure cover to show.
I did learn something new.  I have read that a lot of statuary from the classic age was decapitated by the Muslims.  They were cleaning the land of Idolatry.  Today, I found out that the early christians disfigured a great deal of statues by carving crosses on them and defacing the eyes and mouth, in the belief that the image of pagan gods were sources of evil.  
The Center is at 51st Street and 5th Ave.
I walked.  It's cold.  They said it was 11degrees.  I don't know what the wind chill factor was but it was a brisk walk.  I have this down coat with hood that covers almost my entire body.  I got it out of storage and will be wearing it.  I don't even care if it makes me look like the green Pillsbury Dough Boy.

Library

The main branch of the New York Public Library is celebrating it's 100th birthday this year.  Actually it is 42nd street building that is 100 years old.  The library itself was established in 1895 when the Astor and Lenox Libraries with the Tilden Trust were consolidated.

 Often referred to as the Main branch, it is the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.  Mr. Schwarzman, 2/14/1947, is the Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Investment Group.  Worth $5.9 billion, he has compared President Obama's plan to raise carried interest taxes, share of profits paid to an investment manager, as equal to Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939.  He gave the Library $100 million, hence the name change.
Designed and constructed  by Carrere and Hastings, the Beaux-Arts building is the largest marble structure ever attempted in the U.S.  It stands on what used to be the Croton Reservoir.  500 workers spent 2 years dismantling the reservoir and preparing the site.

 More than 15 million items are in the library and they include the Gutenberg Bible and Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Declaration of Independence.  While it is called the public library and is open to the public it is funded by private contributions.

Happy Birthday!

Maurizio Cattelan: All

 That's the artist, in bed with himself, talking to himself.  Witty man.

 The show is at the Guggenheim through January.
 He's retiring and has decided to hang it all up at the Museum.

 There are life size horses, mules, the pope, etc.  He does taxidermy, no not to the pope, the animals.  His first show at a gallery consisted of locking the front door and hanging the sign: "Be back soon".
 

My favorite piece is called La Nona Ora [The Ninth Hour] and it depicts Pope John Paul ll being felled by a meteor.
Cattelan was born in Padova, Italy on 9/21/60 and is now based in New York.  Jonathan P. Binstock curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran Gallery says Cattelan is "one of the great post-Duchampian artists and a smart ass, too."
Duchamp is fascinating.  Would like to see more of his work and read a good biography.  He renounced making art in the 1920's when he was about 40.  Cattelan says he is 'retiring' from making art at around 50.  Is this exhibit an homage to Duchamp?

Cymbeline

Went to the Barrow Street Theater to see the Fiasco Company's production of Shakespeare's "Cymbeline".
The critics are right.  This is a complicated and strange play but the Company does a great job making it fun and interesting.  I agree with everything the critics say about it.  The actors include their own music, sometimes a cappella, and sometimes accompanying themselves on their instruments.  Very talented actors and remarkable work by the two actors who also directed.
 Barrow Street Theater is a small, intimate space that has shown some great work.  A couple of years ago I saw "Orson's Shadow" and "Our Town", both excellent.

Afterwards we went to a local Greenwich Village bar.  Nancy had wine; Sandra had bourbon. Frank had a Martini.  I had a Manhattan.

 

The Village Vanguard

Went to the Village Vanguard with Sandra to hear Bill Frisell, one of Sandra's favorite guitarists.  Performing with him was Jenny Scheinman on electric violin, and Brian Blade on drums.  Mr. Frisell, unfortunately took a back seat to Ms. Scheinman who gave a mixed performance.  Two early pieces, one of which was written by Mr. Frisell called 'Rag', were very good.  She played it in what I would call a Celtic style.  Building to a very quick raised finish with all three players.  The last piece, 'Embraceable You' was so slow people were nodding off.  $25 admission, $16 for one drink [tip included] so so value.
The Village Vanguard was opened on 7th Ave. South 2/22/35 by Max Gordon.  At first it included folk music and beat poetry.  It became an all jazz venue in 1957.  Over 100 live jazz albums have been recorded there.  The first one in 1957 was Sonny Rollins.  Some other artists who have performed there: Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Wynton Marsalis, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Art Pepper, Chris Connor, Gerry Mulligan and Barbra Streisand.

Hide/Seek

Yesterday, Sunday, I went to the Brooklyn Museum.  The Museum has an exhibit from the portraiture galleries of the Smithsonian.  David C. Ward and Jonathan Katz are the original curators and Tricia Laughlin Bloom coordinated the project for the museum.  It is called 'Hide/Seek Difference and Desire in American Portraiture'.  The exhibit has had some controversy.  A piece depicting a crucifix with ants walking over it stirred up some "christians" [no spell check, I meant a small 'c'].  There are some wonderful sites, The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian, and You Tube that will give you a very good view of the exhibit.  The theme is gay and lesbian artists as subjects of gay and lesbian artists.
Then  refurbished subway station at the Museum.

 and then the Museum

 Minor White's 'Tom Murphy' and the exhibit's image.
When you first walk into the room you hear Ma Rainey singing: "Prove it on Me Blues".  When she was arrested in 1925 for hosting a lesbian orgy she released that song.  She also made more than 100 other recordings between 1925 and 1928.   She is the premier blues singer in music history.
The exhibit is divided into 7 periods:
1.  Before Difference ...  Thomas Eakins' "Salutat"  "the male body as object of admiration by a male audience."
2.  Modernism ... "Portrait of Marcel Duchamp" by Florine Stettheimer,  and Berenice Abbott's photo of Janet Flanner in which she has two masks on her top hat.
3.  1930's ...Photo of Lincoln Kirstein by Walker Evans.  Kirstein was about 18 and in college.
4.  Consensus and conflict ... Rauschenberg's and Jasper Johns' pieces as a response to the breakup of their relationship, Alice Neal's portrait of Frank O'Hara.  O'Hara's poem 'In memory of my feelings' is the title of Jasper Johns painting.  Rauschenberg's is titled 'Canto xiv' from Dante's poem.  It's the canto of the placing of the 'Sodomites'.
5.  Stonewall and after ... Warhol's 'Camouflage Self-Portrait' 
6.  Aids ... A.A. Bronson's  'Felix June 5 1994'
7.  New Beginnings ... Annie Leibovitz's photo of Ellen Degeneres.
Many great artists were gay; celebrated being gay; formed relationships with other gay artists, sexual and otherwise.  It was through their work and open lives that has helped move society's attitudes and brought us to where we are today.