March 10 – March 16

 

A friend wanted to celebrate his birthday at Hangawi, a Korean vegan restaurant on 32nd Street. Leaving our shoes at the entrance, we walked along a narrow corridor filled with rustic charm to our table. The menu’s descriptions are mouth watering. We shared the silky tofu, leek pancakes, spicy baby dumplings, all presented in beautiful containers. A member of the agile staff knelt beside us and explained different dishes. We toasted each other with a cocktail called Mindfulness. It’s freshly squeezed orange juice, citron paste and makgeolli, a Korean milky rice wine.

Hangawi’s Interior

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Frick Concert: Forma Antiqua. transported us back to seventeenth century Spain. The extraordinary musicians Pablo Zapico (baroque guitar), Daniel Zapico (theorbo), and Aaron Zapico (harpsicord ) were joined by Carlos Mesa the countertenor. The music complimented the current Zurbaran exhibit, Jacob and His Twelve Sons.

A Theorbo

 

 

 

 

 

 

A friend and I went to an open rehearsal at The Joyce Theater.  Brian Brooks Dance is currently performing. The choreographer, Brian Brooks, explained the setting and the music created by Jerome Begin. After the rehearsal, Brooks and Begin talked about the post modern NYC vibe of the various pieces. Brooks explained that he finds beauty in the natural and enjoys playing with the ordinary. Is there a bad seat in the house? If there is, I’ve never sat in it.

 

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NYMysteries March 4 – March 10

Have you seen Abacus: Small Enough to Jail? It’s Steve James’s documentary about the only U.S. bank prosecuted in relation to the 2008 financial crisis. Cyril Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, made an example of the small Chinese bank, Abacus Federal Savings Bank run by the Sung family. Vance didn’t go after the big banks. After five years in court and ten million dollars later the Songs were exonerated.. It was nominated for an academy award for the best documentary feature.

On Wednesday I was supposed to go to a Juilliard event, Choose Your Own Adventure. A participant is given a choice of hour long classes such as Ballroom Dance, Alexander Technique, Drama Movement, Drama Voice. It was to be followed by a champagne reception. Wednesday was the day of our second blizzard and Juilliard wisely cancelled.. This is what occurred: watching a great morality play, I mean TV show, for the second time: Breaking Bad.

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.

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.

February 25- March 4

Present day hikers and past hikers meet every year to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The Evergreen at 38th Street has Shanghai influenced dishes that spin around on the gigantic lazy susans. It’s great fun flashing your chopsticks and connecting with people you’ve known for years. The Chinese friend who organizes it has it down to a science. She’s so busy directing traffic, that she herself eats very little.

The Morgan Library and Museum, that gem of books, art and culture has the exhibit, Tennessee Williams: No Refuge But Writing through May 13. It’s a beautiful homage to, in my opinion, our greatest playwright.
Recently, I had the perfect lunch in the Morgan cafe: deviled eggs sitting on tiny cucumber circles and a bowl of black bean soup. Then, I took the glass elevator to the exhibit on the second floor.

Tennessee Williams
1939 Self Portrait

 

The Rose Tattoo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tennessee Williams celebrating The Glass Menagerie’s 10th Anniversary

 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

February 17- February 24

A friend and I celebrated her birthday by going to Butter, Chef Alex Guarnaschelli’s large and bustling restaurant on 45 Street and 6th Avenue. It was my second visit and the food, service and setting are still nonpareil. The raspberry beignets are worth the trip alone.

Jack Kleinsinger’s Highlights in Jazz has been rolling along for 46 years. Thursday night featured Bucky Pizzarelli and his two sons, Martin on bass and John on guitar. They were joined by another guitarist, Russell Malone and accompanied by the fine pianist, Russell Kasoff. It was wonderful. They swung through lots of standards like Tangerine and other golden oldies from the American songbook. The Manhattan Community College’s auditorium was filled with an appreciative audience.

Pizzarelli Night at Highlights in Jazz

 

 

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.

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.

February 11 – February 17

“Turn on your television right now, you’re going to see scenes of children running for their lives.” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) castigated his Senate colleagues for having failed to legislate stricter gun laws as reports emerged of a mass school shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. Murphy, who dealt with the Newtown massacre firsthand, said, “What looks to be the 19th school shooting in this country and we have not even hit March. Let me just note once again for my colleagues: this happens nowhere else other than the United States of America. This epidemic of mass slaughter. This scourge of school shooting after school shooting. It only happens here, not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else.”

The Frick Sunday concert featured Julius Berger, cello and Christoph Hammer, piano. They played four chorale preludes by Johann Sebastian Bach, fine examples of German protestant liturgy. We were also teated to Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 5 in D Major. A very heady evening.

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.

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.

February 4 – February 10

The perfect restaurant: Gene’s on 11th Street. Imagine a place that has the serenity of soft lighting, no music and perfect, unobtrusive service by trained waiters. Gene’s has been around a long time. I wouldn’t be surprised to find Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemon at one of the side tables.

I didn’t make it to Third Street Music School to meet Carlina Rivera. My bad! Carlina Rivera is the councilwoman for the second district of the New York City Council. GVSHP, The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, sponsored a recent meet and greet with Rivera. She supports protecting historic districts. Go, Rivera!

Instead, I scooted down the street to Second Avenue and Second Street To Anthology Film Archives to attend OBSERVING THE AVANT-GARDE: PETER MOORE & THE 1960s: A SLIDE LECTURE BY BARBARA MOORE. Judson Dance  was featured.  Lots of performances on stage and off were photographed by Peter Moore. Anthology Film Archives is devoted to left wing causes across the globe. It was the perfect place to see turbulent scenes from the 1960s. Afterwards, the Judson gang went to Huertas on First Avenue for great tapas.

A friend and I slept through Phantom Plot. I mean Phantom Thread.

Juilliard Jazz Orchestra gave a short (50 minutes) but vibrant performance honoring Mary Lou Williams.

Friday evening we sat in the nineteenth century parlor of the Merchant’s House, interested and a little anxious to be cast under the spell of mentalist Kent Axell. He explained that the Tredwells, the original owners of the house, might have explored psychic events. Spiritualism, the belief that the living can talk to the dead, was a popular form of parlor entertainment. Axell was energetic, involved the audience and performed some eerily accurate stunts such as answering sealed questions and reading minds. He has a big personality and advertises himself on his website as “Liar for Hire”. The evening was lots of fun.

 

Juilliard Jazz Orchestra honoring Mary Lou Williams

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

January 29 – February 4

January 30:  State of the Union address. President Trump preened and applauded himself. It reminded me of a recording I heard of Stalin speaking to the masses. When Stalin finished speaking there was tumultuous applause. It went on and on.  People were afraid to stop clapping because the secret police kept an eye on the crowd.
Ravi Ragbir, the director of the New Sanctuary Coalition, and his wife Amy Gottlieb, an immigrant rights activist and attorney, were at the State of the Union address. They were the guests of N. Y. Democratic members of Congress. When Trump did his number with his chosen immigrant guests, he did not acknowledge other immigrants present. Surprise?
A Jericho Walk is a prayer walk. The New Sanctuary holds a Jericho Walk at Federal Plaza every Thursday at 11 a.m.
My weekly blog encourages me to be up and about. If not, what will I write about? This past week I was felled by the flu so I’ve been going through bits and pieces I’ve saved to use when I haven’t been able to go to events.
This list was borrowed from The Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation. It lists various cultural firsts in the Village.
Greenwich Village is the site of: The first woman candidate for President, Julia Ward Howe, who lived on Bond Street
The first Rocky Horror Picture Show Midnight Showing, at the Waverly Theater
Jane Jacobs:  her first book, the Death of Life of Great American Cities, and her leading the first defeat of Robert Moses and of an “urban renewal” plan, all while living in the Village, and the first (and only) development she had a hand in designing, West Village Houses
The first public meeting of the NAACP, at Cooper Union
The first African-American Studies and the first Women’s Studies classes ever taught, at The New School
The Founder of the first Birth Control Clinic, Margaret Sanger, who lived in Greenwich Village
The “Father of the American Revolution,” Thomas Paine, who lived and died in Greenwich Village

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.

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 Jan. 21-Jan. 27

The Camerata RCO was founded by members of Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw. On Sunday, Camerata RCO played Hummel and Schubert. For the Frick concerts, it was a large ensemble: eight musicians playing violins, a viola, a clarinet, a bassoon, a horn and a bassoon. Franz Schubert’s Octet in F Major, D. 803 (1824) is euphoric. In addition to the mailed tickets, the Frick includes an art appreciation paragraph connecting the concert’s musical selections with the Collection’s art. This week Thomas Gainsborough’s Mall at St. James’s Park (1783) is described as jubilant. The fashionable figures glide through St. James’s Park. The park resembles an enchanted forest. Under the majestic trees, ladies and their dogs glide along broad paths. Frick bought Mall at St. James’s Park in 1916 for about $300,000.

As you approach the Metropolitan’s Michaelangelo , Divine Draftsman and Designer exhibit you see one word writ large: MICHAELANGELO. How apt. Commemorating the 500th anniversary of his birth, it’s an enormous display of the variety of Michaelangelo’s work. There’s even a mock up of the Sistine Chapel.

Monday night supper in a computer generated Japanese restaurant on First Ave. was followed by a rush to the Jefferson Market Library on Sixth to hear Francis Morrone, the architectural historian, talk to a packed house about NYC’s early book publishers. Names like Brentano, Noble, Scribner’s brought back the vibrant book trade as the companies moved uptown, merged, went bankrupt. Many in the room sighed at the thought of Scribner’s Beaux Arts Building on Fifth Avenue. Now it’s an athletic apparel store.

 

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.

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 Jan. 14 – Jan. 20

 

On Tuesday we celebrated Ruth Katz’s 100th birthday at the McBurney Y.  Ruth was born on December 31, 2017. Woodrow Wilson was president. All ages, shapes and sizes gathered to honor this example to us all. Ruth takes the stairs, does weight exercises, aqua classes and her mind is functioning at full tilt. The party overflowed with affection and laughter.

Ruth Katz

 

Boo-hoo, the Sunshine Theatre on Houston is closing. Recently, at the Sunshine, a friend and I saw In Between, a movie about three Palestinian women. Directed by Maysaloun Hamoud, it follows the adventures of well educated, professional women who share an apartment. Sana Jammelieh is a lesbian, Shaden Kanboura is a devout Moslem and Mouna Haha is a gorgeous, firebrand lawyer. The director handles the Israeli occupation very well. It’s a cloud over their lives. There are incidences of prejudice but the movie is about these people, especially their love lives. It reminds me of Don Cheadle’s Miles Ahead, a biography of Miles Davis. The Blacks deal with prejudice and intolerance but the movie is about the development of the black characters. It’s refreshing and humbling to see suppressed people getting on with their lives in spite of occupation.

Kindness is alive and well in Brooklyn: A friend of mine dropped his iPhone in the street, searched for it without success, called the number from his landline. A man had found the phone and lived nearby. When my friend collected his iPhone he not only thanked the man profusely but also offered him some money for his kindness. The lovely man wouldn’t accept a dime. That’s class.

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.

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.

The Cake Masters
Flower Masters
Where were you in 1917?

New York Mysteries Jan. 7 – Jan. 13

During the past week, not one but two beloved friends, Jean Montrevil and Ravi Ragbir, have been detained, imprisoned, and may possibly be deported by ICE, the Immigration and Custom Enforcement. These are loving fathers, husbands, workers and community members. These members of the Judson Memorial Church Sanctuary Movement may be deported to Haiti and Trinidad. Heartbreaking. This is an inhumane way to treat people and not what our democracy should be about. #resist this insanity.

“Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the one who hated, and this was an immutable law. I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” James Baldwin (1924 – 1987)

Remember the First Amendment? It guarantees freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition.  It forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others and also restricting an individual’s religious practices.  It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely.  It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government.

Marcelo Gomes: Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer is a vivid account of the life and times of the Brazilian dancer who joined the American Ballet Theatre in 2002.I was exhausted from watching the charismatic Gomes zoom around stages and the world.

 

 

 

Marcelo Gomes:
Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer

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.

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.

Mary Jo Robertiello's mysteries and life