NYMysteries June 24 -June 30

Pride Sunday. In the late seventies, when it was called the Gay Day Parade, my boyfriend and I would arrive at a gay friend’s apartment on Hudson, drink champagne at ten a.m. and smoke perfectly rolled cigarettes. I was titillated by the largely homosexual crowd expressing surprise that I was gay. Then we strolled up Fifth Avenue, slightly stoned. It was a leisurely walk, hardly a march.

 

 

For this Pride Sunday, The Judson Memorial Church’s staff created  evocative and heart breaking posters of the past LGBT community.

 

 

 

Saint James Baldwin
Saint Christine Jorgensen
Saint Alan Turing
St. Harry Hay

A friend and I go to the movies in hopes we’ll break the spell of choosing long, boring movies. The three most recent stinkers: The King, Phantom Thread, Gone Girl. 

The King, at IFC, ropes you in because it’s supposedly about Elvis Presley. Actually it’s a self serving vehicle about the director, Eugene Jarecki, who informs us that he’s anti-Trump and supports Black Lives Matter. What does this have to do with E. P.? Jarecki criticizes Presley for not participating in civil rights marches. Presley was a musical genius. That’s it. He might have been a dope but who cares? Speaking of vehicles, Jarecki has the usual tired celebrities such as Alec Baldwin ride around in Presley’s Rolls Royce.  Avoid. 

Paul Taylor Anderson’s Phantom Thread is so boring. Daniel Day-Lewis walks on water for some. In this long affected movie he treads on cloth. If you suffer from insomnia, this is the flick for you.

We saw David Fincher’s Gone Girl in a glorious Amsterdam art nouveau movie theater, Pathé Tuschinski. I’m a fan of Gillian Flynn’s flinty, non-flinching descriptions of everyday life and of her sense of humor. None of which is present in the film adaptation. And to put the nail in the coffin Ben Affleck wanders through the plot in his usual sleepwalker’s stance. 

I had to meet a friend for drinks at Bemelmans Bar after seeing Always at the Carlyle. Sitting in the twilight of Bemelman’s wall paintings, listening to someone slinging Cole Porter and sipping champagne is certainly the way to spend the cocktail hour. 

 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned a murder case at the  prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed while Kulchek was buying cigarettes? Escaping an attempted car bombing?  His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

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 a person 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. 

Mary Jo Robertiello

http://www.nymysteries.com

June 18 – June 23

By the time you read this, it will be too late. There’s a Tapas Bar on Clinton Street where we had delicious tiny dishes for an early supper before NYC ’s Secrets and Lies at Caveat. The Iranian owner has sold Tapas. Let us hope the new owner has was much culinary skill and style. We then went down, down down to Caveat. What a great nightclub. This evening event consisted of  five women conning us with incredible or credible stories about NYC. Four were truthful. One was a lie. The place was packed. Is Manhattan thirsty for nerdy fun? I think so.

Three day s later, after dinner at Gigino’s we went to Highlights in Jazz. We were saying good bye to Jack Kleinsinger’s longest running jazz series in NYC, as Kleinsinger is so fond of reminding us. We had decided that the series was old and dusty. This evening proved the series still has lots of life. It was a tribute to the guitarist, Russell Malone. He was joined by the drummer, Lewis Nash, Gene Bertoncini, the guitarist, and other stellar musicians. A lovely evening. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned a murder case at the  prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed while Kulchek was buying cigarettes? Escaping an attempted car bombing?  His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

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 a person 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. 

Mary Jo Robertiello

http://www.nymysteries.com

New York Mysteries June 10- June 16

Global Entry: Trusted Traveler Program

Have you arrived at Kennedy tired and tipsy from your flight and then wended your way with ten million others  through customs? Wait no more! Maybe.

Online I filled in a long Global Entry: Trusted Traveler Program form and paid $100. A few weeks later, I was instructed to report to the U. S. Custom House at Bowling Green at 3 p.m. sharp. If you’re late, you are advised you’ll have to go through the whole process again. The government’s office is housed in the Museum of the American Indian, a mammoth building perched at the southern tip of Manhattan. You check into the building as if you were in an airport. Well, it is a government program. You go to the third floor and read a sign that says, Sit Here. You sit on a cushioned bench outside a door with a U. S. government agency printed on the door. It has nothing to do with you. Within 15 minutes, an official appears and asks you your name and takes your passport and drivers license. You are taken to the fourth floor where you sit some more. After a few minutes you are called to an open bank where an official asks you your birthdate and email. That’s the interview. You’re told you’ll receive Your Global Entry membership card within 10-15 business days. You’re also given written instructions about how to access your membership. It’s loaded with admonitions about what not to do. See you in line.

The Boys in the Band

A friend and I had dinner at Joe Allen’s. Over some good grub and wine, we traded accounts of NYC in the seventies. We then went to the Booth Theater to see Boys in the Band. More memory lane. I went to the Booth years ago. Beatrice Lillie, anyone? The old darling, the Booth, shows its age. It was built in 1913 and reeks of memories. So does the 1968  production. Imagine. Pre-Aids. Boys in the Band was written by a Catholic, southern gay man, Mart Crowley. His dialogue is terrific: witty, biting and harkens back to the time when gays were tormented about being gay and being found out.  Is there any recording of the audiences response back then? Now, we all know, it’s cool to appreciate all things gay so the audience laughed knowingly and was silently respectful during the tear jerking moments.  Loved the production and the wit.

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned a murder case at the  prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed while Kulchek was buying cigarettes? Escaping an attempted car bombing?  His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook?

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 a person 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.

NYMYSTERIES MAY 2 – JUNE 8

 

Off to Yonkers. We decided to go to Untermyer Park and Garden and ignore rain threats. It paid off. We had a delightful sun filled stroll around the forty plus acres. To the west is the Hudson and the Palisades. The fragrant gardens are being restored. We visited the mysteriously named Persian Garden which is filled with copies of Greek statues and columns. Around us, restoration work was being done on the 1899 structure. So quiet, so green: a perfect antidote for the NYC bustle. 

Untermyer Park and Garden
Untermyer Park and Garden

I confess. I saw Always at the Carlyle. I can claim I’m a native New Yorker and the Carlyle is part of my DNA. The real reason I went to the restored Quad was to see all the celebrities in the documentary who can afford $10,000- $20,000 a night.

 

 

 

 

 

Studio 5 Celebrating Bernstein and Robbins

Boo-hoo. We attended our final Studio 5 presentation. It was dedicated to Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein, as everyone knows, would have been one hundred this year. We were treated to music and dance created by Bernstein and Jerome Robbins. 

 

 

 

A friend and I planned our visit to the Cloisters’ Heavenly Bodies so that we’d arrive early and escape before the crowds arrived. After going through several cloisters, halls, and rooms to look at and drool over the fabulous and enormous exhibit which is part of the Fashion and the Catholic Imagination at the Metropolitan and the Cloisters, we felt peckish and went to New Leaf, a charming restaurant in the park.

It’s been a week filled with gardens and views of the Hudson.  

 

Now: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination at the Cloisters

 

 

Then: Tomb of a Lady and probably a saint. The Cloisters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned a murder case at the  prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His

partner being stabbed while Kulchek was buying cigarettes? Escaping an attempted car bombing?  His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

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 a person 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. 

NYMysteries.com May 27 – June 2

May 27 —  June 2

What a week! Part of my birthday package was going to Coney Island. All New Yorkers know that weekend travel on the subway is an adventure unto itself. Eventually, I met my pal at Stillwell Avenue, the last stop on the D. She had wanted to knock off some barbecue but I used birthday rights and so we stood in line for about three days to get Nathan hotdogs, fries. We then strolled them off (ha!) on the boardwalk, stopping for a restful merry-go-round ride. Lots of crowds, lots of families, lots of lovely sea air and sunshine.

On Tuesday, I went to Caveat, the nightclub/ speakeasy on Clinton, to watch and marvel at one of my friends talking about her alter ego. Her performance was part of a Generation Women program in which women between the ages of twenty and eighty plus tell their stories. Caveat is a gem. The atmosphere is one of happy expectation coupled with wine, Get It Girl White Blend, that supports Planned Parenthood. 

I went to Invisible Julliard. We all know that every organization wants money, right? Some, like Juilliard, do it with class.  Lovely champagne followed by an hour sample of  classes: Drama Voice, Drama Movement, Ballroom Dance, Juilliard Dance, Basics of Singing -the selections seemed endless. I chose Drama Voice. It was held in an enormous black box and the instructor, Susan Finch, put about fourteen of us thorough our paces. Lots of movement and walking in circles while we trilled and buzzed our vocal cords. Afterwards, there was a buffet supper. A friend (Drama Movement) and I shared a table with some new friends from Drama Voice and Drama Movement including a Juilliard graduate who had majored in dance and who explained how daunting, thrilling, scary and life affirming it was to attend Juilliard.  A delightful evening.

 

Generation Women at Caviat

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned a murder case at the  prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed while Kulchek was buying cigarettes? Escaping an attempted car bombing?  His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

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 a person 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.