New York Mysteries June 10 – June 17

The Garden and Forest Book Club meets at the Central Park Arsenal. The other members work and write in the gardening, landscaping and forest fields. It’s wonderful for me because it’s a whole new world. During these difficult political times, discussing nature is a balm. Our assigned book was Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The book introduces you to the diverse and sturdy world of mosses. Listening to the other members discuss what they do with moss is a peek into the gardening world i.e. cart it from a deserted mine to cover tree roots. After the meeting we stood on Fifth Avenue and smelled the Lindens. A lovely evening.

MTA Mural at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, near the Arsenal
57th Street and Fifth Avenue Subway Stop, near the Arsenal

Was anyone else as bored with Wonder Woman as I was? It was long (two and half hours) repetitious video game violence, humorless and predictable. Isn’t Wonder Woman a cartoon character? Not in this movie. She’s a combination of saintly, quakerly virtues and a soldier. The Amazon myth has been revamped. It’s set in World War I so the Germans are the enemy and killed with gusto. After W. W. dices up a pack of men, never touching a woman, she is sorrowful. That’s the profound part. At the finale another myth is introduced, mimicking a Harry Potter plot.We drowned our disappointment in a delicious Chinese meal. Long live Peking duck.

Fingers Crossed for a Gay Day parade without rain.

The Portland, Or. Unitarian Church’s Gay Day March fan

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-five-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man in the school kitchen, deals with the only witness to the stabbing – a troubled nine-year-old, develops a crush on a NYPD detective and her dog dies.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears three people fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie.

Graphic Lessons: Something’s eating at NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek: a failed marriage? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case? It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.

New York Mysteries June 10 – June 17

June 12 was the annual Judson Memorial Church’s Kids Day. The service is conducted by the Sunday School Grand Poohbah, Andy Frantz. It’s always loving, crowded and noisy. This year Don wigs were for the wearing.

That afternoon at Judson we were treated to The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight Motets by Neely Bruce. All proceeds went to the New Sanctuary Coalition.

On Monday we went to the last in the Studio 5 series. Damian Woetzel, the retired NYCB Principal Dancer and now the Juilliard School president, started the series. It met in City Center’s Studio 5. The audience sat in two rows of chairs that ringed the periphery while Woetzel and his colleagues discussed and demonstrated various aspects of dance. Monday evening NYCB alumni joined forces to discuss The Répétiteur’s Work. Wendy Whelan led the discussion about the répétiteur’s role, one who stages work choreographed by others. Former NYCB soloists Jason Fowler and Craig Hall discussed their work as répétiteurs for renowned choreographers Christopher Wheeldon and Justin Peck. Whelen said that being a répétiteur, her newest dance adventure, was the hardest thing she’s ever done. Young NYCB dancers demonstrated various techniques. It’s intimate and very NYC.

 

On Friday we made our way to Pier One, Bowling Green to see the American Merchant Marines Memorial. The artist Marisol’s bronze sculpture depicts four merchant seamen with their sinking vessel after it had been attacked. I find most contemporary realistic sculpture a failure or a joke because the subjects’ clothes are dated or don’t work as sculpture. The American Merchant Marines Memorial is perfect. The merchant marines nondescript clothing clings to their water drenched bodies. The three men are aiding their drowning comrade. The scupture’s power depends, in part, on the ebb and flow of the harbor’s tides as the water washes over the body of the dying comrade.

We ended up in Santiago Calatrava’s Oculus, the hub that replaces the Path station destroyed in 9/11. Needless to say it cost zillions of dollars and took its time being completed. It’s a spacious, white area that is a high-class mall and train station.

 

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-five-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man in the school kitchen, deals with the only witness to the stabbing – a troubled nine-year-old, develops a crush on a NYPD detective and her dog dies.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears three people fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie.

Graphic Lessons: Something’s eating at NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek: a failed marriage? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case? It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.

 

 

 

 

New York Mysteries June 3 – June 10

Last Saturday I went to the Left Forum which is held at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Amusing irony, isn’t it? Green party member Jack Baldwin gave a well reasoned talk on Normalization of Evil in the Current Dark Age. The other participants were too busy being victims &/or celebrities to give logical talks.

A friend and I went to Boston. Having listened to the weather report I was armed with an umbrella, one coat, one jacket, two berets and a pair of gloves. The temperature was near ninety degrees. While the rest of the USA watched former FBI Director Corey, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts extensive Botticelli exhibit and were immediately steeped in 15th century Renaissance Florence. There was a charming Matisse exhibit and little duck feet painted on the museum’s floor led to a Robert McCloskey celebration of Make Way for Ducklings.

Botticelli’s Holy Family
Botticelli’s Venus
Have a bite of Espinaces Gallegas, a delcious tapas

We stayed in the Back Bay area. It’s chockablock with tiny outdoor restaurants. We returned again and again to the Tapas place. Espinaces Gallegas is a delicious combination of pine nuts, garlic, golden raisins and spinach. I kid you not. Boston beer was perfect in the surprise heatwave.

Later that day we watched snippets of the congressional investigation involving the business man and the government man. James Zogby quoted Musician Mikel Jollet  who tweeted a photo of both Trump and Comey with the tagline: “One of these two men is lying. I wonder if it’s the guy who served 3 presidents from 2 parties or the one who said Obama is from Kenya?”

 

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-five-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man in the school kitchen, deals with the only witness to the stabbing – a troubled nine-year-old, develops a crush on a NYPD detective and her dog dies.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears three people fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie.

Graphic Lessons: Something’s eating at NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek: a failed marriage? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case? It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.

NewYork Mysteries May 28 – June 3

At the IFC, Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary is playing. What a documentary. Coltrane’s ability as a composer, musician and good husband and father are celebrated by family and friends. He absorbed Christianity and practiced charity. His music reflected this. “Alabama” was his piece written to honor four black girls killed by racists. He travelled to Japan to play for the Japanese. What a guy. He’s been declared a saint by a  San Francisco Church. I find the concept creepy but who cares?

On Memorial Day a friend and I walked around the beautiful, deserted, rainy Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. We were in the Japanese Gardens and Shakespeare’s Garden.

 

 

The Japanese Garden, Brooklyn Botanical Garden
The Japanese Garden,  Brooklyn Botanical Garden

The Met’s exhibit of Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B. C. – A. D. 22) wasn’t crowded but it was dark. The lack of light added to the mysterious, foreign atmosphere. How did the farm animal ceramics survive? Military figures and their chariots abound. Since it’s on the second floor I walked down the stairs to the Great Hall. For the first time I noticed the benefactors plaques that hang on the stairway walls. Each plaque is dated in Roman numerals The first: MDCCCLXX-MCMXX (1870-1920) has a list of the rich and powerful men of that era: Joseph Pulitzer, Benjamin Altman, among others. Other luminaries on other plaques include Junius S. Morgan, J. Pierpont Morgan, John Jacob Astor and Ira Gershwin.

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-five-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man in the school kitchen, deals with the only witness to the stabbing – a troubled nine-year-old, develops a crush on a NYPD detective and her dog dies.

Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears three people fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie.

Something’s eating at NYPD Det. Steve Kulchek: a failed marriage? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case? It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.