Sunday, December 21, 2008

Performances



Today we went to two performances. In the afternoon the Paul Winter Consort performing the 29th Winter Solstice Concert and St. John the Divine. The church was newly reopened following damage from a 2001 fire. Since we were only vaguely aware of who Paul Winter was we were surprised to find a huge sellout crowd. Someone sold us tickets at half price. It was an extravaganza--a new age celebration in a reproduction of an ancient Christian church. [Judy noticed that the church had several styles, from various centuries.] In the evening we went to see Pina Bausch' dance company at BAM. I found the ways that the men and women danced together beautifully expressive of the complex feelings 21st century people have towards the relationships between men and women. Later we went to Franny's, a "fresh food" restaurant with Gabriel, Anna, Peter and Gloria. We got home after 1am for the first time in decades.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Snow



It snowed yesterday and so we didn't go out walking. We enjoyed being in our cozy place watching kids sledding in the park across street and being in the presence of Judy's resurrected orchid.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Seventh Avenue



After getting my power cord replaced at 23rd and 7th we decided to walk to Varick and Franklin.
This is the route of the 1 train, which we always travel. Along our walk we saw many of the spots we had visited at various times--connecting the dots. It seems that 7th avenue cuts through old neighborhoods (Chelsea, Greenwich Village, SoHo and Tribeca) so that as we walked we kept glimpsing little nineteenth century side streets. Along the way we stopped at a wonderful little coffee shop called doma and had lunch.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Manhattan School of Music

It was windy and cold, but we trekked up to 121th St. to hear the one of the concerts at the Winter Chamber Music Festival at the Manhattan School of Music. Sitting in a small room on the sixth floor looking out over the city listening to young musicians playing flute, clarinet, bassoon, guitar, violin, piano and saxophone, was an extraordinary experience. I didn't know any of the pieces they were playing and had no way to know if they were playing well or not, but hearing them play gave me hope--hope that someone was growing up to carry on a rich trradition.. No pictures.

walking to the met


we set out across Central Park heading for the Met. It was chilly and most of the leaves had fallen off the trees. There were still small swarms of people on bicycles, skate boards, roller blades etc. racing along. On the East Side we went looking for a West Side type place to eat [ie cheap] and found a hole in a wall place that sold pizza from one counter and chicken fajita from the other. While we ate we listened to fathers and sons talking about their morning athletic exploits. At the Neue Gallery we saw a beautiful Zeisel baby feeding cup with spoon, which we would have bought if there were any in stock. At the met we saw a wonderful photo show by Burckhardt of pictures taken around New York of stand pipes, doorways and people walking here and there.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Union Square


Judy, Susanna and I set out for Union Square on the Saturday after Black Friday. Judy wanted to see a show by an Indian artist, Nasreen Mohamedi, at a gallery near the square. It was one of the most hauntingly beautiful collections of work that I have seen. We were crowded out of the Christmas gift booth area so we went for lunch. The farmers' market was more resplendent than usual. Susanna bought yarn from the farmer who had raised the sheep. and we saw fruits like the one in the picture.