New York Mysteries Oct. 22- Oct. 28

Sunday afternoon The Frick Music Room exploded with the music of Boris Andrianov and Dimitri Illarionov. The cellist, Mr. Andrianov, was making his second appearance at the Frick. The guitarist, Mr. Illarionov, was new to the Frick and left most of the talking to his comrade. They enchanted the packed room with various transcriptions from Manuel de Falla and Igor Stravinsky. We heard the world premiere of Nikita Koshkin’s Waltz for Cello and Guitar. It was a wonderful two hours.

 

Some Virtual Russian Champagne for Messieurs Andrianov and Illarionov

I stopped by the Guggenheim to see the new exhibit, Art and China After 1989 Theater of the World. It features experimental works by Chinese artists. Chinese history, modernism, and global political events are among the explored themes. I think the Guggenheim space is perfect for big, flashy pieces. Wandering up the ramp and looking across or up or down is a unique Guggenheim experience.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a new Guggenheim installation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A friend and I attended the Fine Art Print Fair at the Javits Center. Aside from the misery of getting there, it was a delightful evening. We wandered from booth to booth, looking at works as diverse as Francis Bacon and Louise Nevelson.

Matt Shlian’s prints at the Fine Art Paper Fair

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 Oct. 15 – Oct. 21

 

Ai Weiwei‘s public-art project about immigration and cultural exchange has been installed in the Washington Square Arch. Weiwei’s film, Human Flow, is at the Anglelica and an asteroid is named after him.

 

 

Installation Notice of Ai Weiwei’s Structure
Ai Weiwei’s Washington Square Arch Structure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had lunch at Serendipity, that 50s institution devoted to making you five pounds fatter. In the long awaited Graphic Lessons there’s a similar restaurant so, of course, I had to check it out. Lines of the young and their mothers gathered outside the restaurant. We were allowed to enter at 11 a.m. It’s filled with touristy items: mugs, t-shirts, fake Tiffany lamps. The menu is gigantic, even by NYC standards. I expected the service to be sluggish and the food to be tired. I was wrong. The service was excellent. The avocado and shrimp salad although a little heavy on the mayonnaise dressing was delicious. Like the menu, it was enormous and could have fed three other people. Serendipity has come up with a solution to bullying: the blue sundae.

 

Serendipity’s Bullying Cure

 

 

Serendipity

On October 15, I joined Judson Memorial Church. My induction ceremony was very Judson: warm-hearted and sincere. I spoke these thoughts during the ceremony:
Judson gives me a spiritual home and gives me hope. What I’ve received from the various religions I’ve been a part of: Catholicism: a sense of universality, an admiration for Italian and French church architecture, from the Episcopalians: prayers based on King James Bible, from the Society of Friends: examples of civic responsibility such as their early condemnation of slavery, the school they founded in Ramallah for Palestinian children and they do not say the Pledge of Allegiance. From the UCC/Judson: wonderful music and bearing witness plus Judson friends who have read the Oz Series, the Anne of Green Gables series and the works of Anthony Trollope.
I write police procedurals and volunteer at one of the NYC museums. I was born in NYC, lived in Rome for eight years and spend part of the summer in Portland, Oregon playing with the Judson west crowd.

Some reasons for loving Judson:

Guess Who
Celebrating a Birthday
Dr. Willie Parker spoke about a moral argument for CHOICE

 

New York Mysteries Oct. 8- Oct. 14

The first Frick concert was held this past Sunday, Oct. 8. Paavali Jumppanen, the Finnish pianist, treated us to two hours of Debussy (1862-1918) Duckworth (1943-2012) and Beethoven (1770 -1827). Mr. Jumppanen did something tricky for Duckworth’s The Time Curve Preludes, credited with being one of the first post minimalist musical works. He altered the Steinway to give the piece an authentic sound. Like so many modern pieces, it reminds me of eating a vegetable you don’t like, such as brussel sprouts, to find out if your tastes have changed. Mine haven’t. The piece was more interesting than I had expected but that’s that. The Debussy and Beethoven thundered throughout the Frick Music Room.

A few days later a friend and I met at the Scandinavian House restaurant for an early and delicious Swedish supper. We then trotted around the corner to The Morgan Library & Museum to hear Drawn to Song, a collaboration between the Morgan and The Glimmerglass Festival. The Glimmerglass singers sang early and modern music, from John Dowland (1563-1626) to Jake Heggie (b. 1961). It was absolutely delightful. After the concert we took the glass elevator to Morgan’s extraordinary library. We wandered around the beautiful bound books and studied the ones on display.

 

 

The Morgan Library
A Noel Coward playbill and his flask shaped like a book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next evening I visited an old haunt, the Oyster Bar Saloon. It hasn’t changed. The red checkered tablecloths are the same ones I partied on many years ago. An oyster loving friend and I had east coast oysters, large and succulent, followed by Howard Johnson fried oysters, fries and creamed spinach. Lots of lovely booze and giddy conversation.

 

 

 

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 Oct. 2 – Oct. 7

We went to a new restaurant in midtown, Oscar Wilde. I wonder what Wilde would have thought about this vast, dark series of bars and small rooms packed with Victorian props. We were escorted to a small room where dinner was served. It’s typical bar food: fried calamari, lamb sliders. Salty enough to keep you drinking. The service -surprise, surprise- was excellent.

Oscar Wilde, Midtown
Oscar Wilde, Midtown

 

 

A friend and I got to Guggenheim’s Mystical Symbolism the day before it closed. The museum was installing a huge Chinese exhibit. Much of it was off limits including the ramps. After a two minute sulk about not being able to wander up to the top floor and then wander down, we used the oddly (but artistic!) elevators. Mystical Symbolism is deep, dark, religious. Rosicrucian symbols abounded.

 

Ferdinand Hodler: The Disappointed Souls

 

Juilliard gave a splendid concert, The Genius of Monteverdi. William Christie conducted the young, talented cast in a mostly Monteverdi evening. The packed audience in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater seemed mesmerized by the event’s gravitas. In these troubled times it’s restorative to spend an evening savoring a superb musical event.

Peter Jay Sharp Theater setting up for The Genius of Monteverdi

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.