Death of a Salesman

We walked again this morning in the park.  It had cooled off some from the rain last night.  The Conservatory Water was calm and reflected big white clouds, and the little children were out again for their soccer lessons.  We have seen them every summer:  little kids, like 2-5 year-olds, come and "practice" soccer skills while their moms or more often nannies sit on the park benches and watch.  

 After our walk, we picked up our tickets for Death of a Salesman and then had a quick lunch at DB Bistro Moderne.  The matinee began at 2:00 so the time really worked out well.  

Death of a Salesman ends its run on Saturday.  It was the best play/production I have ever seen!  Afterwards, Tony and I walked over to the Algonquin (#dorothyparker), had coffee and talked about the play WHILE SITTING AT A LITTLE ROUND TABLE! Ha!

We had dinner at I Sodi and then called it a night.

Time's Square

Lang Lang Unplugged

This morning Tony took a walk in the park without me.  I needed a break since I knew we would be walking a lot today.  He came back completely drenched!  It was so hot...and it was only a preview of how hot it was going to get during the day.

We took the subway down to Chelsea to visit galleries today.  Thankfully we were able to walk along tree-lined streets.  Many of the old brownstones have flowers in front and in their window boxes.  

This photo is for my aunt in Panama City who shares my love of Wise potato chips!  I did consider commandeering the van, taking it to some abandoned lot overlooking Jersey and raiding the snack stash.  "Leave the gun; take the chips."

We started our gallery tour with the Alice Neel exhibit at David Zwirner.  By far it was the best of the day.   I was introduced to Alice Neel by Hannah who has studied her portraits.  

Some of the gallery spaces were incredible.  This one, Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert,  was especially cool.  

The entire space was concrete.  This photo is of the lower level which, even there, had natural light.

This is Church of the Guardian Angel on 10th Avenue.

Some of the other galleries we visited were Zieher Smith (Chuck Webster paintings), Skoto Gallery (Wosene Worke Kosrof paintings...very cool), Metro Pictures (Cindy Sherman photos...capitalizing on her MoMA exhibit, I'm sure), Matthew Marks Gallery (Thomas Demand...a film , Pacific Sun, based on a video of a cruise ship caught in a storm.  It was filmed over 15 months, made on a full scale set and completely constructed of paper.  The film comprises 2400 frames filmed one at a time.  It was very cool!)  We also visited the Anish Kapoor exhibit at Gladstone Gallery (photo below) and the Richard Avedon at Gagosian.

Lunch was at Spice Market.

 There are all kinds of shops in Chelsea, some a little odd and some that you really don't "get" even if you go in and look around.  This "bookstore" was one of them.  We decided it was dedicated to the publications of underground artists.  Lots of little art pamphlets were strewn on the tops of tables.

We DID, however, "get" the front door stickers!  Here! Here!  Free Bates!

The reincarnation of Madeline Lee...and she was certainly the most obstinate of the four.

Back near the apartment on 6th Avenue.

We had tickets for Lang Lang at Carnegie Hall.  I was very excited about this concert but it serendipitously turned out to be even better than I expected because my friends Lynn and Jane E listened to the live feed of the concert from Carnegie Hall.  At intermission I discovered from my Twitter feed that they were listening so I called Lynn.  She told me all about the commentary and the interactive Twitter conversation going on.  I also saw on my Twitter feed that Ivanka Trump was there but we never saw her!  

Lang Lang was incredible.  The place was packed out.  He walked out onto the stage around 8:06, sat down and started playing Bach's Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major.  Then he took a brief break, walked back out and played Schubert's Sonata in B-flat major which was beautiful, but everyone (according to the live Twitter feed) was anxiously awaiting the Chopin Etudes.  After intermission, he came out and played the Etudes.  He was just incredible!  You found yourself laughing or smiling and even crying a little during the Etudes.  He is a huge personality.  I'm so glad we got tickets!

The above picture is before the concert began.  Below is after the Bach piece.

Tony had the idea for me to walk down a little for a picture of me and the stage in the background. 

The photo below is after the Chopin.  

 He played two encores by Liszt, Romance S. 169 and La Campanella.  It will be a night to remember!

And what better way to end a great evening than with pommes frites?!

Memorial Day 2012

Again this morning, Memorial Day, we took a walk in the park.  When I saw all the folks getting ready for picnics, I thought of Memorial Day 26 years ago when my mom, a family friend, Tony and I and Barry had a picnic in the park.  I always miss Barry when I'm in NY and think about him often.

We stopped on our walk and took some pictures of Cleopatra's Needle.  Built in Egypt in 1500 BC, this obelisk was a gift from Egypt and was erected in the park in 1881.

Lots of sunbathers were out in the park today.

A special effect with a picture of The Great Lawn

After walking in the park, we had lunch and then headed to the Met to see the Stein Collection and the new American Wing.

What a piano!  To get to the American Wing we had to go through the Musical Instruments galleries.  I had never seen these before.  Maybe this should be a "Pop Up Piano" in Central Park with the instructions "Please cover with tarp in case of rain.  Very old and valuable."  

The newly refurbished Washington Crossing the Deleware is magnificent.  The frame is almost as impressive as the painting.

A Washington portrait by Stuart Little...I mean Gilbert Little...I mean Gilbert Stuart.

I still have photos to work on for my Dear Photograph project.  This is much harder than it looks!  I think you need to know something about photography to line this up just right and I know nothing!  My little Canon set to automatic isn't cutting it with this project, but it's still fun.  The old photo was taken in the winter of 1986 and there was 8 inches of snow on the ground in Central Park, which for me at that time was the most snow I had ever seen in my entire life (that I could remember).

Here are just a few of the paintings we saw in the Stein Collection exhibit at the Met.

LOVE sculpture on 6th Avenue at 55th Street.  Another photo app!

Tonight we had reservations at The Lion for dinner.  I was struck with nestalgia by the old signage for the C.O. Bigelow Drugstore on 6th Avenue at 9th Street, right around the corner from the restaurant.

 The Lion is a restaurant I have been reading about for several months.  It's in a beautiful brownstone and the interior dining room walls are covered with photographs.  I love crowded, loud restaurants so I expected this one to be exactly that; however, since it was a Monday night AND it was Memorial Day, there weren't many diners.  As a result we had really great service but it was rather on the quiet side.

My tuna was very good and Tony had a burger with pork belly on top.  Other than it being a challenge to eat, it was great he said...a 9 out of 10.  Thank goodness the little glass of pickles was separate from the burger.  When Tony orders a sandwich, he ALWAYS says, "And no pickle within the zip code please."

After dinner we strolled south along 5th Avenue to Washington Square Park and took some pictures.  George Washington seems to be a recurring theme this Memorial Day!

Before heading to the apartment, we stopped in for the view atop the Peninsular Hotel.