pretty NY

Last Thursday, my sister-in-law Irène had an opening of her father's vintage photos from The Jump Book at a gallery in NY and I went with a couple of her friends. (Even the reprint is out of print)

Philippe  believed that when he asked people to jump they were so busy concentrating on the action that their masks dropped and their true personalities came out.  A fascinating theory that was borne out again and again in the pix. Nixon was stiff as a board when he jumped. Behind us to the right, a photo of Marilyn jumping. If you enlarge the photo and look, you'll see what a free spirit she really was.

On the way to the exhibit I shot some of the city's prettier sights instead of my usual grit.  The gallery was on 57th near 5th Ave, which made it easy.  Below, the Plaza hotel, Bulgari, and other lovelies.

I was fine with walking to find a place to eat but the other two women had uncomfortable shoes and we were starving, so we went into the bar at Trump Tower.

  8:45 pm and they were washing the walls in the lobby. This poor guy was the only other employee we saw.  In the bar, we ordered drinks and $12 burgers which took so long we thought they were up doing the last roundup.

As we left Trump, we wandered through this corporate art gallery in the hallway on the way out.

 This little girl was having fun ineracting with the art.

We took the subway to the bus terminal and we were on our way.  It had taken us 2 hours of sitting in traffic coming into the City and here we were again, traffic in the tunnel.

The bus driver yelled at me for taking this picture, but he was sitting still, anyway so I don't know why he cared. It was a late but interesting evening.

only in New York

I am not in NY that often - it just seems that way to some people. Today, I went to Brooklyn to pack up books and kitchen stuff because my kids are renovating, starting next week, and Jessica can't do anything. Tommy works till all hours, so I gave him a head start on emptying the shelves and cabinets.

I took the PATH from Newark to 14th St in Manhattan and then walked to the subway at Union Square. En route, I spotted this bargain for somebody. Two new seat pillows and that's it! Never fear - it won't be here by tomorrow.

Happily, I got to Union Square while the world famous Union Square Greenmarket was setting up and since I wasn't on a real schedule, I spent lots of time wandering before I caught the Q train. Grass for pets?? Cows?

After buying some spinach and green tomatoes (don't be alarmed, I am not planning to make them together) and parsley and tomatoes for Jess, I headed for the subway. Took out my trusty iPhone and snapped a few pictures. This is Manhattan as we are leaving it. There are 3 bridges from Manhattan to Brooklyn. This is the Brooklyn Bridge from the window of the Q train, which travels on the Manhattan Bridge to get to Brooklyn. This passes through Park Slope and stops on Jessica's corner. The third is the Williamsburgh Bridge which goes, natch, through the Williamsburg Section of Brooklyn. This man was sitting across from me as I shot pictures through the window.

Once across the bridge, we were underground and here is the same man, same window - but with a reflection of the person sitting across, on my side of the car. I love what happens in the dark. A graffiti treasure trove right outside Jessica's building! Two-sided art. I took the Q back to Manhattan a little after 4:00. The train was practically empty, but three guys got on and played Mexican music, starting at the other end of the train. By the time they worked their way down to my end, they were done. Here is one of them.

This woman slept through the whole thing.

Another day in the city - too short, but always a treat.

early bird special

The parking rate behind Penn Station in Newark was the bargain of the day. I left the house at 7:30 and at 7:55 pulled into the $20/day parking lot to discover that if you're in by 8:am out by 8:pm it's $6.69 (which translates to $8). It was so beautiful in NY today that I walked from 34th st to 42nd & Lex before I took the subway. Here is the view from the platform. I would probably have walked further but thought I needed to get where I was going sooner rather than later.When I got to the corner of 42nd & Lex, this building stopped me in my tracks!

It's a Jane Sassaman building!!! I have just sent her this picture.

I spent the day with my daughter Jessica - both of us, this afternoon, feet up on her couch in Brooklyn. She insisted that since I had never seen either Top Chef or ( ok - I admit it ) Project Runway -- I had to at least watch them this once (she had taped them). I have to admit, although I am not a tv watcher, that I can see how engaging they can be and I especially enjoyed Project Runway. This does not mean I will ever see it again but it was fun while it lasted.

When I left, I took the subway to Union Square so I could walk to the PATH train. Instead of the greenmarket there was a fair in the park and I was sorely tempted to wander around instead of going home right away. Nonetheless, I needed to get my car out of the lot before 8, didn't I? So I took just a few pictures.Isn't this a beautiful display??? These guys were knitting their wares. I didn't see a hat quite like the one he was wearing, however.

As I walked west on 14th St: art. I have no idea what it is, but I had to take it.

As I read these signs I wondered whether each shoe was $5 or whether they were $ 5 a pair. What do you think?

Finally, back in Newark, I took a picture of this bridge that stands across the street from the train station. I keep taking pictures of it - but I think this one is from a different angle than the usual shot.Turning in really early tonight in the hopes I will get enough sleep to be intelligable tomorrow.

Paris it's not.

This is the first time I've been on Broadway at Times Square since they closed it to traffic between 42nd and 46th or 47th - I forget. Well, they have replaced the lawn chairs with cute little tables and chairs but, ya know, it just doesn't look right. If this is supposed to be a charming spot for people to sit down with their Starbucks take-out coffees, it misses -- by a mile. Does this look charming to you? Where are the cafés? Where is the landscaping? Where are the flowers and trees that would make this look like an oasis? Looks more like a desert with traffic cones and a couple of half-hearted planters. I can imagine it would take some time to decide what they will do to enhance this space - but in the meantime, they might want to take inspiration from Bryant Park, which I walked through on my way to meet Leni Wiener at the Neue Galerie on 86th and 5th. It was threatening rain when I left home but the sun came out and the day was balmy and perfect for walking. I snapped a few photos en route. These made me smile.

I love the irony hereand the pure joy of color and rhythm here.

The Oskar Kokoschka exhibit at the Neue was a visual feast. He and the other German & Austrian expressionists between the wars produced some of the most powerful art of the last century, at least as far as I am concerned. The Neue has portraits by George Grosz, Max Beckmann, and the remarkable Otto Dix - among others. There is work by Gustav Klimt, including the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer that the Nazis had stolen and was finally returned to her family several years ago. Ronald Lauder purchased it for the Neue Galerie and the family later donated two retrieved sculptures so they could be reunited with the portrait. Unfortunately, IMO, this work has become almost a cliché from overexposure and Klimt painted some beautiful landscapes that you would never attribute to him because they are so different from this. Anyway, Leni and I had a lovely lunch and were able to chat and spend a lot of time together because after the museum, we walked down from 86th to 42nd St, where we parted ways: she to Grand Central for the train and I to the Port Authority to catch the bus. Since 20 city blocks in NY = a mile, we might have walked off a bite or two of the Viennese cake and coffee mit schlag. It was a wonderful day!

I am a camera

We met our friends Caroline and Robert for an elegant lunch at Fiorello's, across from Lincoln Center and had a great time catching up. I met Caroline on the Garden Web Kitchen site last year and when she and Robert come to NY every few months to soak up the culture, we see them if we can. No pictures of the wonderful food, but my camera was clicking everywhere else. The climb out of the subway at Columbus Circle was so steep that we sat down to rest at the first public space we came to, on a plaza in front of a glass building. Don't you love those round benches?I kept taking pictures of the reflections in the building's facade and finally decided I might as well be in one of them. Across the street, on the second floor of a beautiful building, several windows full of merchandise. But my favorite images are a different kind of beauty entirely -- the grit that never fails to move and captivate me. I'm not sure why, but maybe it doesn't matter. We took the PATH to 33rd St. and then the subway up. On the way down, we took the E train to the WTC and we took the PATH from there - a substantially shorter and easier trip because we didn't have to change trains. It isn't easy to take pictures on the subway because it's usually too crowded - but the E train was fairly empty on the way downtown because it was mid-afternoon. Notice how this guy paid attention to the signs.

When we got off the E train at the World Trade Center stop,we had to walk about a block to the WTC and the PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson, which in my day was called the Hudson Tubes. Back then, we always took the ferry to and from NY. You drove your car onto the ferry, got out and walked around to where the windows or deck were, and drove off when the boat docked. They discontinued the ferry in the 1950's).

Anyway - construction on the tower or towers and museum or whatever they are doing, continues to slog along, nearly 8 years later. We took the escalator down and I noticed that the view through this wonderful grid is visible today, which is wasn't a year or two ago when I took this picture.

The escalator down to the PATH trains. I love the Welcome to the World Trade Center sign.

I never have a chance to shoot the beautiful landscape on the PATH route, but today I did. What can I say? I love these views. I was so tired when we got home that I took a 3 hour nap on the couch: unheard of for me. And now, off to bed. Tomorrow, I take my Apple to the genuises to see if they can fix my screwed-up Apple mail.