| Hole in the sky |
[Sep. 11th, 2010|10:19 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Beethoven String Quartet in F major, Op 135 | ] |
Nine years ago this morning I sat on a train and thought that it was one of the most perfect weather days, if not THE most perfect, of that year. Cloudless sky, dry not humid air, lovely mid seventies or so temperatures. During my walk from the Atlantic Street Station to our downtown Brooklyn offices I certainly regretted not calling in sick and spending the day bicycling or hiking or whatever. But soon enough I settled in to my desk on the 16th floor, which overlooked the sweep of New York Harbor from the Verrazano Bridge to the Statute of Liberty. My view faced south such that I did not see Manhattan from my window. While I was listening to WQXR, drinking my coffee and getting ready for hearings to begin a report was made on the radio of a twin engine plane having hit the World Trade Center. Within moments I noticed what looked like glitter floating above the harbor. It was only a short while later that I realized that the "glitter" was thousands of pieces of paper which were catching the light just so as they began to fill the skies above the harbor. Soon they were followed by gray and black smoke. When news of the second plane striking the towers came in ten or so minutes later, while a group of us were standing in a colleagues office, we knew that the morning was now a terrorist event.
Today the skies are cloudless. The temperatures are perfect. There's no humidity, our relentless summer's heat having finally broken on Thursday. And it's Saturday, not Tuesday. A perfect day to bicycle, or kayak, or roller blade, or play some tennis... or read a book on the front porch.
Next year at this time we will be tooling around Glasgow discovering the world of Charles Rennie Macintosh.
Much as I appreciate the fine weather today, I think September 11 in New York should always bring with it a few clouds to set it apart from what should have been a perfect day. |
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| Ick |
[Aug. 25th, 2010|11:54 pm] |
The New York City Council approved the construction of a high rise tower on 7th Avenue across from Penn Station. It will rise on the site of the Hotel Pennsylvania, a building from 1919 which was designed by McKim Mead and White (architects of the former Penn station).
The owners of the Empire State Building had fought against council approval, most notably proposing a 3/4 mile radius around 34th Street to guarantee the historic nature of the area. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/new-skyscraper-to-rival-empire-state-building/?ref=nyregion
Much as I love the look of the low height of the buildings around the Empire State Building, I have to admit that creating a 3/4 mile no height zone would be ridiculous in a city like New York. But, really, ick. The proposed tower "will win no beauty contest". |
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| Summer, 2010, so far |
[Aug. 14th, 2010|12:32 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Haydn's 6th Symphony | ] |
I've been enjoying summer this year. More so than most summers. Taking the time to just soak it in and let it lay.
The season began early this year, in May actually. In Paris. And it's outskirts
( Read more... ) |
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| Newport Folk Festival |
[Aug. 4th, 2010|10:34 pm] |
We had a wonderful time at the Newport Folk Festival this past weekend. The weather was stunningly beautiful, perfect for an outdoor concert. The acts, particularly Andrew Bird, Jim James and Calexico, were brilliant, the venue a glorious setting on a penninsula between Narragansett Bay and Newport Harbor. The Low Anthem were an unexpected delight.
We only caught one day of the festival, Saturday, and spent half of Sunday touring The Breakers, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Breakers , a monstrous gilded age pile which I had toured as a kid, and the Whitehorne House http://www.newportrestoration.org/visit/whitehorne/ , a federal style/era mansion which Doris Duke filled with Newport furniture from the 18th Century (particularly Goddard and Townsend pieces). I came away from the Breakers with a better appreciation of the Vanderbilts. I came away from the Whitehorne House with a puzzled feeling about Doris Duke's curatorial skills.
Andrew Bird and Calexico
Jim James and friends
i-photo you photo me
Tubas on the water |
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| _orst _ay _ovie evah! |
[Jul. 15th, 2010|09:30 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Handel Oboe concerti | ] |
We went to see Bearcity last night. A couple people we know are in the background in some of the scenes.
My expectations were not particularly high. If I have to give it a star for being filmed in a bar that I'm familiar with, the Dugout, than I guess it rates a star. And another half star for that funny "threesome gone bad" scene. But, otherwise, the acting was, well, rather hairy, the plot was pedantic and "p[l]awed", and the cinematography was something bearish that one steps into while hiking in the woods.
Overall, we'd have been better off seeing I am Love http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226236/ a second time. |
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| An expensive rain |
[Jul. 14th, 2010|08:00 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | At or with me (Jack Johnson, To the Sea) | ] |
The northeast has been suffering a dry spell for the last several weeks. Until yesterday, when it apparently rained heavily on Long Island. Today rain fell on Provincetown, which by the look of trees and shrubs really needed it.
So Glen and I headed to the Hilda Neily gallery http://www.hildaneilygallery.com/Resources.cfm to look at still lifes with the idea of finding something appropriate to hang in our kitchen (to replace an oil from Crate and Barrel that Glen doesn't like). We've visited this gallery many times over the years. I am a big fan. But my wallet has never been big enough to match my desire. This year, however, I was intent on finding a small, affordable, oil painting for that relatively small space in the kitchen.
After having picked out a rather abstract looking oil on board which depicts a small vase, small blue medicine bottle, and brick, Hilda, the artist, came in and was impressed that Glen and I were interested in what she referred to as her "odd" paintings. Hilda usually sells landscapes and seascapes. Her training was in the studio of Henry Hensche http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hensche, who studied under Charles Hawthorne and who continued the Cape Cod school of art. She was a delight to talk to, and was very patient with Glen's indecisiveness.
We ended up choosing two paintings, the vertical still life, above, "Green Glass Jug", which may or may not work in the space that I was aiming to fill, and another still life with a reddish background which will most likely work better in the kitchen (against the green Japanese stucco walls) but which is a horizontal painting that may or may not fit the space. Hilda had recently brought this and the first painting that I admired [vase, bottle and brick] from her studio where they had been sitting around. Those two were not even varnished. Such that I cannot post a photo of the second, it had not been uploaded on line.
Before the Neily gallery we were in the gallery of Simi Maryles, http://www.simiemaryles.com/index.html , an artist who we have also admired for many years. It turns out that Simi grew up on Long Island. We love her paintings which depict Provincetown in snow. But the usual oil on canvas of such scenes begins with a $5,000.00 price tag and goes up from there. But today she had a small oil study, part of a series of studies that she had made for a commissioned piece. After learning the history of this study, and talking at length, we headed out to the Neily gallery. On the way back from Hilda's the rain fell harder and we stopped in again at Maryles. And, after more extended conversation, left with painting in hand. This one:
is titled "Reverie". It's only 8" x 10". And features a cat. Hence the title. |
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| Garden Tour |
[Jul. 12th, 2010|11:47 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Mozart, piano concerto #19 | ] |
Provincetown's garden tour was on the east end this year. The houses, and for the most part the gardens, were less high brow this year. We had the good fortune to be able to tour the garden of this house which we have admired for years:
More photos after the cut: ( Read more... ) |
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| Paris and thereabouts |
[May. 20th, 2010|10:17 am] |
We toured the Villa Savoye and parts of western Paris yesterday.
Living Room
Apparently Corbusier, like FLWright, didn't much care if his houses leaked.
We also visited Malmaison, home of Josephine and Napolean at the beginning of the empire, then her residence after the divorce in 1809.
( Read more... ) |
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poodler's journal
