"Hot Ground"

Hannah's six weeks in the Columbia program have come to an end. Tonight the students' work was shown at the Leroy Neiman Gallery in Dodge Hall on the Columbia campus. There was a reception from 6:00 until 9:00. Quite a few of Hannah's friends came to support her!

The postcard invitation to the gallery show

Dodge Hall on Columbia's campus

Low Library

Gregory Amenoff, Chairman of Visual Arts at Columbia

and professor for summer painting intensive

These are Hannah's paintings from the program (excluding the three at the far left).

This is also Hannah's on the left.

Chris Russell

David Schroeter

Flea Markets

Tony left this morning and I got up and walked in the park, showered and then headed out to check out the flea markets around town. Some are definitely better than others. The Hell's Kitchen market was my favorite and then the Antiques Garage, which is actually a garage on

W. 25th Street full of old stuff: vintage glassware, clothing, collectibles, and a lot of junk.

Hell's Kitchen Flea Market

W. 39th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues

This market had booths with some unique collections. There might be a booth with tons of old watches or one with only old photographs and post cards or a huge selection of cowboy boots. Many of the vendors here had some order to their chaos.

A wonderful collection of old Christmas pins

Antiques Garage

112 W. 25th between 6th and 7th Avenues

This market was interesting too. It had quite a bit of vintage clothing and lots of household items.

I tried one of these arepas from a vendor at a street fair. It was basically a grilled corn pancake with cheese in the middle. It was fine if you like a grilled corn pancake with cheese in the middle.

The flea market at W. 25th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue was just a bunch of junk. And I do mean junk.

I walked over to Eataly for some gelato and then sat in Madison Square Park to eat it. My dogs were so tired. This has to be one of the prettiest parks in the city. It's very green and people are always lolling about on the grass enjoying the day. The sculpture is called Echo and stands 44 feet tall.

The fountain with Shake Shack in the background

Below is a video of the dog run at the park.

The Moon and Stars Were the Gifts You Gave

We woke up this morning to cloudy skies with a little rain. We met Hannah at Columbia for lunch. On another visit I had seen this little restaurant called Community Food and Juice that serves organic food. There had been a long line of people waiting outside. I wanted to eat there so we tried it. It was good but the pictures on their website must have been taken ten years ago because now it looks like lots of college students have sat in their chairs, eaten at their tables and drunk coffee out of their big mugs. There are lots of places in the neighborhood for Hannah to eat. (Columbia does not offer cafeteria service during the summer.) Not long ago she was telling us about a sushi place she had found and how cheap it was. There was a long menu list of what she had gotten for $8. However, she says she will not be going back; she and another guy in the program had bad repercussions. The art department chair said he had been going there for 30 years and had never had a problem but he was rethinking that decision. Another interesting little thing about restaurants in the city: the sanitation department grades them and then posts their grade in the front window. I haven't noticed anything below a B but I have seen several grades pending signs. Hannah was actually going to get a home cooked meal tonight. One of her BU friends is working up here this summer and his parents just moved to Brooklyn and they are cooking for Hannah and several of the BU NYC contingent.

Tonight Tony and I went to hear Roberta Flack at BB King's. Several days ago we had walked over to the box office of a show called 4000 Miles which the day before had gotten a great review in the NY Times. The tickets were only $20 so we thought we should see it. The ENTIRE RUN was sold out! I don't know if that says more about the power of a good review in the Times or of a $20 play ticket! But the box office was near BB King's

where we saw the sign for Roberta Flack.

Roberta walked out on the stage with a little help from one of the backup singers. She had on a long, funky Donna Karan dress (she mentioned it; that's the only reason I know) and black platform shoes. She sat at the piano and dove right into Feel Like Making Love. She is older but still has that deep, smokey voice of the 70's. (Speaking of, everyone in the place was either our age or older. We told Hannah at lunch that day we were all excited about going to hear her, and she looked across the table at us with this blank expression. Me: Roberta Flack? Killing Me Softly? The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face? Really? I even sang a few bars. Nothing.)

She sang for only an hour. She had another show at 10:30. She did all the favorites: Killing Me Softly, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Here Comes the Sun (she's working on a new album of Beatles' songs which she plans to call Let It Be Roberta.)

We snapped this picture of her while we were backstage visiting with her before the show. (Just kidding.) I wanted to find a picture that looked something like she did last night. Her hair is right in this picture but she looks a good bit younger here.

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"

The Times Square area was still crazy at 10:00pm but the lights made it look like noon. It wasn't raining but very foggy and no moon or stars in sight.

All That Jazz

Wednesday night we took Hannah and her friend Lindsey to Bar Americain, Bobby Flay's restaurant in midtown. Lindsey is a huge Bobby Flay fan. She said she never cooked, but after watching his show, she became very interested in food and cooking and has since learned to love it. When the girls walked into the restaurant, Bobby Flay was near the front. They were so excited that he was actually there! (Tony and I were too.) After we were seated, the girls walked back to the open kitchen where he had gone and were brave enough to ask for pictures with him. Hopefully I can get those and post them. Dinner was delicious. Lindsey had the cioppino which she has seen him prepare several times on his show.

Iron Chef Bobby Flay

Thursday morning was very overcast and a little rainy. We walked in the park anyway with a slight drizzle.

We spent the early part of the afternoon at MoMA and had lunch there at Terrace 5 overlooking the sculpture garden. It was lovely.

Bonnard

Monet

Kahlo

Christo

Pollack

I can't remember who this was but it was odd items attached to other odd items and painted white. The artist said "white paint was his marble." I didn't really like it or get it but it was sure in a beautiful gallery.

Thursday night we had tickets for Chris Botti at the Beacon Theater. It was incredible! The man can play a trumpet.

Chris Botti at the Beacon Theater Play List

"Ave Maria"

"When I Fall in Love"

"Emmanuel" featuring Caroline Campbell on violin

"Flamenco Sketches"

"Hallelujah"

"The Look of Love" featuring Lisa Fischer

"The Very Thought of You" featuring Lisa Fischer

"Italia" featuring Lisa Fischer (normally Andrea Bocelli)

"Cinema Paradiso" (featuring Caroline Campbell)

Encores:

"Nessun Dorma" featuring Lisa Fischer and Caroline Campbell (and Caroline Rhea on drums just for fun)

To top off the evening (as if it could get better) was "Broken Vow" featuring JOSH GROBAN! When he walked out on the stage, everyone went crazy.

Tony and I heard Chris Botti at Carnegie Hall in 2008 right after Italia was released but this concert was very different, more like a jazz club with lots of improvisation. (It was part of the Blue Note's Jazz Festival celebrating its 30 years.) His band has been together for seven years. They are as good as Chris Botti.

Billy Childs, piano

Billy Kilson, drums

Mark Whitfield, guitar

Carlitos Del Puerto, bass

Josh Groban brought the house down.

(click here to hear him sing with Botti in Boston)

Catching Up

Here are a few pictures of what we've been doing. They are in no particular order. We met Hannah Sunday evening after Redeemer services at Rosa Mexicana over on the West Side. While waiting for her, we walked around Lincoln Center a bit.

Monday we walked in the park and then, since it was really late, we stopped by a food cart for lunch. Tony had a sausage on a bun and I had falafel. It was really good! There is one food cart that serves this same Halal food but the guy doesn't set up until 7:30 at night. He always has a huge line. He serves until 4 AM!

Hannah will be taking classes at the New York Academy of Art after she finishes with her Columbia program. We walked around Tribeca just to get an idea of what the area was like. Here's a picture of the school and street.

We walked around Little Italy one day.

This is just a little street we passed.

We rode the Staten Island Ferry one day. We immediately got back on the ferry for the return to Manhattan. It's free and gives you a great view of the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan.

Then we walked up to Ground Zero...

... and into St. Paul's Chapel.

Psalm 19

Wednesday morning we had breakfast at Peel's. It filled us up until dinner that night.

Someone's crochet project in SoHo!

We have laughed ourselves sick over this sign in a restaurant window. Don't think this place made New York Magazine's Best Of issue.

Wednesday night we met Hannah and her friend Lindsey at Bobby Flay's restaurant Bar Americain. Lindsey is a Food Network junkie so we chose this restaurant for her especially. When Tony and I arrived, we noticed Bobby Flay was in the kitchen (it's an exposed kitchen). Hannah and Lindsey were very excited when they arrived to see him. They bravely went over to the kitchen area and had pictures made with him. I will try to get those for another blog post!

Celeb sighting: On 6th Avenue the other morning Tony says, "Look. There's Eric Trump." He was waiting to cross the street opposite us. As a big fan of Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice," I got a kick out of this. Tony has the eye for spotting all kinds of things...celebs and interesting menus!