Tag Archives: Steve Kulchek

New York City Blog January 18 – January 25

Be the glitter you wish to see in the world was the message on the Judson Memorial Church’s program about Micah Bucey’s ordination on January 24. The service was filled with physical and spiritual glitter. At least 300 ladies and gents, adults and children sparkled with glittery outfits or witty remarks. Judson burst with affection, love and respect for Rev. Bucey.

Micah Bucey's Ordination
Micah Bucey’s Ordination

On Friday, Jan. 23, Kathy Kelly began her three month sentence at the Lexington, Kentucky prison. She is being imprisoned for protesting drone killings at Whitman Air Force Base.

Bit by bit, detail by detail… My techie friend went with me to the annual Boat Show.Why? To build Steve Kulchek’s interests, to round out his character, his upbringing on Long Island. Did he sell a beloved boat because of his divorce? Did he sell it to finance his daughter’s fancy Rhode Island School of Design education? Did his wonderful Aunt Bess die in a boating accident? I think I killed her off in a hit and run in The Lemrow Mystery. Another boating connection is Con Haggerty, Steve’s uncle, Bess’s husband. Now retired, Con was the detective who introduced Steve to the NYPD world. He lives in Florida and does lots of fishing. As we walked past the Midtown South Precinct on west 35th Street my friend told me to take a photo. The officer on duty outside the building suggested we go inside. This is the kind of spontaneous NYC experience that is golden for a writer. There was a photo of a policeman over a sign, Cop of the Week, in the vestibule. Jimbo Jimenez, my wounded cop, would look good there.

New York City Blog Dec. 1 – Dec. 7

Jazz Tuesdays in the Gillespie Auditorium at the New York Baha’i Center has become a tradition for a friend and me. Dinner in a restaurant with a fake Italian name and then an hour and a half of jazz. The address is 53 East 11 St. (between University Pl. & Broadway). Dorothy Longo is the organizer extraordinaire.

Dizzy Gillespie's Baha'i Center
Dizzy Gillespie’s Baha’i Center

Want to impress people? Want them to think you come from old money? New money? Take them for dinner to the National Arts Club, I joined it during the tenure of the rat pack twins. The Club has had its tumultuous moments, but now has settled into being a well run capitalist enclave decked out in American Edwardian furniture, lots of cultural events, great bar and an excellent restaurant.

Christmas Wonderland in the Samuel Tilden mansion
Christmas Wonderland
in the Samuel Tilden mansion

Do you like greasy spoons? So does Detective Steve Kulchek. Places where there’s a lopsided sign in the window saying breakfast served all day? Places where buzz words like gourmet, vegan, gluten free, organic are a foreign language? Where the only hint of modern times is the other sign scrawled in paint on the front window: wine & beer. Do I have the restaurant for you. It’s La Bonbonniere. It’s tucked into a tiny space north of Jane Street. Steve and I sat outside on a blustery Saturday. I had breakfast – cheese omelet. He had lunch – BLT. The word brunch doesn’t belong here.

A West Village favorite
A West Village favorite

 

New York City Blog June 1 – June 7

My balletomania friend and I went to American Ballet Theatre to see MANON. The music is by Massenet. I find the story very moving, especially the final scene with the lovers dying in a Louisiana swamp. The dancers were glorious: Diana Vishneva who attracts a large Russian presence, Marcello Gomes and Herman Cornejo, two of the best male dancers performing today.

A friend who helps maintain the west 40th Street Hell’s Kitchen Rooftop Garden invited me to an open house on the Metro Baptist Church’s rooftop. It’s quite a climb – at least six flights and the last one has narrow metal steps meant for tiny feet. The friend told me the ingenious ways the four year old vegetable and flower garden came into existence. The volunteers formed a bucket brigade to get the supplies to the roof. The first season they learned from bitter experience that pigeons are not fooled by balloons and owl statues. That’s why the plots, children’s wading pools, are covered by netting. An added plus is it’s in a wonderful neighborhood for foodies.
Hell's Kitchen Rooftop Kitchen at Metro Baptist Church
Hell’s Kitchen Rooftop Kitchen at Metro Baptist Church
Get thee to the Guggenheim! There’s an extensive exhibit of Italian Futurism. It’s such fun to walk up the ramp and duck into the nooks and crannies. What you miss on the way up you can catch on the way down. In spite of the crowds, the Guggenheim does not seem packed.
Italian Futurist Exhibit at the Guggenheim
Italian Futurist Exhibit at the Guggenheim
On Saturday I went on a Municipal Art Society two hour architectural walk on the Lower East Side. Saturday was one of those NYC days that goes from spring to summer temperatures in a few hours. In spite of the heat, Sylvia Laudien-Meo’s low keyed enthusiasm and knowledge kept up my interest. It’s not Steve Kulchek’s Bowery which he patrolled as a young police officer. Has it changed. Sober, expensively dressed people stream into stark, discreet art galleries. The Bowery still has a raffish quality which, please God, it doesn’t lose in spite of Keith McNally’s new restaurant.
Guillermo Kuitca's oil painting at Sperone Westwater
Guillermo Kuitca’s oil painting at Sperone Westwater

New York City Blog May 11 – May 18

Off to Carnegie Hall for the last Met Orchestra concert, conducted by Maestro James Levine. He was greeted, as usual, with thunderous applause as he maneuvered his motorized wheelchair to the center of the stage, waved, put his hand over his heart, turned his back on the audience and was lifted, wheelchair and all, a few feet so he would be visible above a structure resembling two doors placed on their long sides that surrounds the podium. We were off to the races. Conductor Levine led the orchestra in Antonin Dvorak’s Carnival Overture. The cellist, Lynn Harrell, played the Cello Concerto in B Minor. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon, two and a half hours of acoustic bliss.

I have always admired nurses but can’t think of any kindly, intelligent nurses in films. Can you? When I saw some friends at the showing of Carolyn Jones’s THE AMERICAN NURSE I leaned over one of them and said that Nurse Ratched was reporting for duty. I shut my mouth realizing it wasn’t the brightest remark in a group who were celebrating nurses. Across the aisle, a woman laughed. She turned out to be a nurse and, of course, couldn’t have cared less about my wise crack. She and her retired policeman husband (Quote: Nurses and cops go well together.) Invited me to sit with them and share their popcorn. THE AMERICAN NURSE follows the daily schedules of five nurses. Their disciplines are varied. They range from a nurse in Appalachia who works with the poor, a nun who wondered how long small community centered nursing homes could survive without being gobbled up by large companies, a nurse who works with veterans, one who works within the penal community, and a labor and delivery nurse. All five, three women and two men, were examples of kind, intelligent professionals.

View the documentary’s trailer at www.americannursemovie.com.

Jessie Kulchek, Detective Steve’s daughter, breezed into town from Rhode Island School of Design. Her father took her to Basta Pasta. She had the dessert she always has, Tiramisu.

Jessie Kulchek's favorite dessert, Tiramisu
Jessie Kulchek’s favorite dessert, Tiramisu