Once a Month?

Forgot to publish this:

The editing is coming along more smoothly since I stopped editing the photos.  There were some very hard choices, but the cost of having them is prohibitive.  I will edit them when I send the finished book to the pros.
What I've been doing in other areas of my life: "Brothers Rico" at MoMA, Les Mis, the movie, Fiorello, Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf with Tracey Letts and Amy Morton, Luciana Souza and Romero Lubambo at the Jazz Standard.  And the Met to see the Matisse exhibit.  Couldn't take photos of the work in the exhibit but got some from other areas of the Museum.

My hand in it

And to the Salmagundi club to see my neighbor Carole Teller's work and some of the others

 Carole's work.  She won two cash awards at the last exhibit.

 Most of their art is what I would describe as American Realism.
The best was discovering George Bellows' seascapes at the Met exhibit.  A complete surprise and wonderful.

Holy Mackerel

I haven't posted since January 10th.  I'll list everything I've been doing.
MoMA to see "The Scream"
"Airswimming" at The Irish Rep.
"Il Trovatore" at The Met
Trip to Maryland
Birthday Dinner for Dottie with Dottie and Kathy at The Hurricane
"Fiorello" at City Center
"Otello" at the Met
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" on Broadway
Music at the Jazz Standard with Sandra 
Music at 54 Below with Frank
"Silver Linings Playbook" movie
"Donnybrook" at the Irish Rep
Concert performance of "Carousel" at the NY Philharmonic
Movie and dinner with Tom I think the movie was Someone to Love??
Metropolitan Museum of Art a couple of times for "Art, Modernity and Fashion" and George Bellows exhibit
and for a concert
Musical on Broadway "Hands on a Hard Body"
"The Big Knife" on Broadway
MoMA's exhibition The Invention of Abstraction 1910 1925

And the book, which is coming along.  Right now I'm planning an eBook with 50 photos.  Editing is the difficulty.  There is so much to the blog that I like but costs prohibit using everything.  About the list of what I've been doing, there is very little that I did not thoroughly enjoy.  I think now that some stress is easing I will be able to get back to writing here.
Some photos:

The Met is doing the entire Ring Cycle

The dining area and staircase at the Met

My favorite room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Some shots of Central Park

Times Square at Matinee Time

When did that building arrive

Last, evidence that we need more playgrounds or less people

It's been Awhile

I have been doing a lot.  Visited Maryland for Thanksgiving and went to Arizona to family for a pre-christmas visit.  I got very sick there for the whole week. 
Saw Les Miz at the movies and Marilyn Maye at the Metropolitan Room. 
I've read "The Judgement of Paris" and "Millhauser", the daily Times, the New Yorker, and The Three Penny Review. 
But mostly I've been working on turning my blog into a book.  That has been very consuming.  I've gone back and forth with what I saw as the finished product and back and forth on the method of publishing.  I think I am on the right track now.  I am comfortable with what I've edited, 34 of the final 162 posts.  162 posts may not be the final number as I am deleting posts that don't schematically fit and also deleting a lot of photos because they add to the final price of the book.  When I finish editing it will go to Book Buddy for their editing and e-book publication with a PDF [portable disc file] so I can get it to a publisher for book publishing, the hard copy.  I've spent a lot of time learning about PDFs and Microsoft word..  But the hardest task has been the deletions.  I had a connection to the randomness of the blog.  The randomness of walking around New York and discovering so many special things. But not all of my ramblings were special nor fully fleshed out so and they needed to go as did the photos.  I do have the original in hard copy so I feel nothing is lost.  Once I decided on this plan the editing went smoothly.  I could have it ready for Book Buddy in a month or two.   If all goes according to plan.  I'll keep posting.

Midas

You know the myth of the king who was granted a wish and chose to have everything he touched turn to gold.  It started out well but when he grabbed an apple and it turned to gold he had a problem.  Eventually he fed on himself.  That is the jist of Chrystia Freeland's article in the New York Times.  The article isn't about Kings but about the rich Venetians of the fourteenth century.  Venice had organized a joint stock company called the Colleganza.  The Colleganza would finance the merchant voyages and everyone would participate in the wealth that acrrued.  In 1315 at the height of Venetian wealth the aristocracy formed Libro d'Oro, book of gold.  It was the registry of who was deemed to be an aristocrat.  New members were not allowed.  The populace called it La Serrata or The Closure.  The closure ended the Colleganza.
We have an American Serrata.  You see it in the schools their kids go to; where they all live and where they all go together to vacation.  In 1950 the tax for the richest was 90%.  Of the richest 400 in the US six  paid nothing, 27 paid less than 10% and not one of them paid the 35% that I paid.  93% of the recovery money of 2008 went to the top 1%.  The top .01% got 35% of the money.  Are you better off than your parents were in 1950?

Sandra's after Sandy

I have been busy trying to get my blog into shape as a book so today photo's of my weekend.

Getting rid of the downed trees

Many still standing

Just to the right of the gazebo was the platform for the steps to the beach.  All gone.

Still beautiful

The post office

Her cat Coco

"stocks and whipping post", Oh My

What I'm reading

The Threepenny Review's "Two perspectives on Thomas Nagel's, 'Mind and Cosmos'".  They have two reviewers of Mr. Nagel's new book of philosophy.  It, the philosophy, relates to teleology.  There can be two answers to the question: why is it raining?  One answer is 'because water vapor condensed in the atmosphere', which is called Aristotle's efficient cause.  Second answer is ' because grass needs water to survive, which is Aristotle's final cause and also the teleological answer.  In teleological thinking the goal is the cause.  If I knew what it was all about I would go into greater depth.  What struck me were these: "Nagel believes that certain deeds would be wrong whether humans thought so or not, and this structure of morality must have existed independently before conscious minds started musing over it"  Nagel is an atheist.   Also, from Louis Jones, one of the reviewers, "sweet reason comes naturally and so does justice."
In the review they mention the Klien Bottle.  When I was in the Army, during advanced infantry training for radio teletype I met a lot of interesting guys.  One of them was an aspiring mathematetian.  He told me about the Klien bottle.  "Imagine a coke bottle; take the neck and turn it around and pass it through the body of the bottle;  have that come out through a hole in the bottom."  That is the Klien Bottle.  What is remarkable about it is that there is no inside or outside.  It is a boundary free object.  He descibed it as the fourth dimension.  From Louis B. Jones: " Like a Klien bottle, the floating, self decreeing universe's head is thrust up it's posterior, an image to mimic the satiric caricature of all of us deep thinkers, us philosophes, who make so much of mind."  
The Salmagundi Club is having it's annual auction and my neighbor Carole Teller has two paintings.  One of which has won an award.

After the Snow

The prize winner: 'The View'

      I also liked.

'Sweet Treats

'Beauty of Morning'

'Magnolias'

Scream

Surge, fire, hurricane and scream were New York City for me last week.  Scream is on display at MOMA and MOMA was where I went everyday to get warm and use a bathroom.  Monday, October 31,  the lights went out.  When I lose power I also lose water and an elevator.  When you live on the 18th floor that's not good.  I had some supplies so I was okay.  However, my flashlight batteries didn't last.  They may have been in the flashlight for a decade or more.  So, I decided on Wednesday to do the stairs.  It wasn't bad.  I can do 5 flights before my head bursts and then I would just sit and catch my breath and do a few more flights.  The power came back on Friday about 5:30 PM.  Things are back to normal, for me.  I lost a couple of pounds because I was climbing 18 flights of stairs and I wasn't noshing in front of the TV.  So there is some good in the worst of times.  I hope the rest of those who have suffered through this storm and are still suffering can find some relief and some good.

'Man With Yellow Pants' , paper, oil, and pencil on polished stainless steel by Michaelangelo Pistoletto.

'At Rest in the Garden', water and two sparrows on stained steel chairs by James Dolan.

Freedom of the City

Saw Brian Friel's play: 'The Freedom of the City'.  It is a fictional telling of the shooting by British soldiers of 3 unarmed marchers for civil rights in Northern Ireland.  There are a number of pieces to the play.  First, there is a judge conducting a fact finding investigation into the shootings.  He exonerates the military.  Second, a media reporter who announces, falsely, that 40 armed men have taken control of the mayor's office.  Third, a priest at a memorial service who blames the deaths on subversives in the march. Fourth, a balladeer who claims the three dead as folk heroes.  Fifth, a lecturer who discourses on the culture of poverty.  They each intertwine with the main portion of the play: Who are the three dead?
The play opens with their bodies prone on the stage.  They were marching for civil rights when tear gas blinded them.  As they look for shelter they wander into the Mayor's private chamber.  They find some wine and whiskey and tell their stories to each other.  Michael [James Russell] is a young man who has lost his job but plans to go to school for computer training.  He is sure that their innocence will protect them.  Skinner [Joseph Sikora] describes himself as a freeman of the city.  He was orphaned at ten and shuttled from different relatives and institutions.  He's homeless, without work, and a fierce believer in everyone's right to live in dignity.  Lily is married.  Her husband lost his job and she works to support the family.  They live in two rooms without running water.  They have 11 children.  One of whom has down syndrome.  The military arrives in force and ask the three to come out with their hands up.  They do and are shot.  The play ends as it began: three bodies on the stage.
The play mirrors the events of 1/30/'72, which is known as 'Bloody Sunday'.  During a civil rights march in Londonderry 26 protesters and bystanders were shot, five in the back.  2 people were run down and killed by military vehicles.  The Irish Catholics were protesting because discrimination from the Protestant majority was increasing.  Voting rights and public services like housing were being denied.  The first investigation, known as the Widgery Tribunal cleared the military of any responsibility.  The second investigation, the Saville Inquiry, which began in 1990 ended in 2010,  faulted the military.  David Cameron, British Prime Minister, apologized.  After 1/30/ '72 the rolls and finances of the IRA were enormously increased, which burgeoned the "troubles" until they officially ended with the Belfast Agreement of 1998.
Did I mention I liked the play?  The NY Times called it a trenchant revival.
NY Times: "Those three lead performances - Ms. Seymour's the most quietly wrenching- put a haunting human face on the Troubles of Northern Ireland.    

Frankenstorm

This is around First Ave and Fifth Street.  The block has a nice group of old trees and I think there might be, unfortunately, some loss.  I took these at 8AM.  It is now 9:45 and they say winds are 53MPH.
In 1960 Hurricane Donna was similar in size but it's power was a category 3.  This storm, Sandy, is a category 1.  Donna's storm surge was 11 feet in New York which put Ave. B under a foot of water.  364 deaths were caused by Donna and the damage was $900 million.  The name Donna has been removed from the list of possible storm names.    

Happy Birthday Barbara Cook

Born October 25,1927 Barbara Cook celebrated her birthday last Saturday and I was there.  I was so busy cheering I forgot to take my camera out until she was walking off the stage.  She walked off with Carnegie Hall that night.  85 years old and she sounds as silvery sweet as always.  My favorites were an a Capella version of 'House of the Rising Sun', 'If I love Again' by Jack Murray and Ben Oakland and her first Hoagy Carmichael song 'The nearness of you' with her wonderful accompanist Ted Rosenthal.  She talked about not having sung certain composers because she didn't think their music matched what she does.  The one surprise was Cole Porter.  She then added country music as not a rich source;  although she was intrigued by some of their titles: 'I'm so miserable now it's as though you were here', 'If only my nose ran money, but it's not'.  Her encore was an unamplified 'Imagine'.  One of her guests was the mezzo-soprano Susan Graham who did an a Cappella version of 'Til There Was You'.  I was so impressed I bought 2 of her CDs.  The orchestra seats were expensive and worth every penny.