New York Mysteries Dec. 31- Jan. 6

Where is global warming when you need it? I know. I know. My bad.

I have been reading several books. Usually, I download to my Kindle but there’s nothing like holding a book and leafing through its pages. Since I’ve been more house bound than usual, it’s been a perfect time to read John Hooper’s The Italians. He’s a very witty English journalist who’s lived in Italy for years. He approaches the mad, bad, enchanting, mysterious Italian culture with knowledge and gusto. Each chapter begins with a delicious saying or quote. Hooper begins the chapter on Face Value, with the following Antonio Amurrin quote in Italian and English: The only infallible way to know another person is to judge him by his appearance.
Says it all, doesn’t it?

Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn trots around Brooklyn in the shoes and out of the eyes of a young Irish émigré adventures in post World War II. It’s charming and packed with sharp characterization.

I have also indulged in streaming The Crown. What’s our American obsession with the British royal family? The first episodes were interesting: young Elizabeth, naughty ex- Edward VIII, noble George VI. The second episodes were almost boring. When the script and non-action doesn’t work, you can always examine the costumes, table settings and watch John Lithgow overact as Winston Churchill.

Also, I revisited one of my favorites, Breaking Bad. It’s still chilling, fascinating, funny.

Here’s a shout out for Andrew Berman’s: GVSHP (Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation).

 

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 Dec. 24- Dec. 30

Judson Memorial Church rang with the Christmas  carols at the Christmas eve Dec. 24 service. The Sunday School children created the 57 page Christmas Eve 2017 Picture Songbook. It’s filled with pictograms illustrating the songs’ lyrics. We sang our way through ten carols. During the singing of the last carol, Silent Night, the congregation held lit candles.

 

O Little Town of Bethlehem
Oh Come, All, Ye Faithful!

 

Adeste fideles

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Haneke’s Happy End was at Film Forum. It stars Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant. What an odd story. A young girl kills her mom, tries to kill herself and in the last scene assists grandpa into a river to drown himself.

I’m always amazed when Governor Cuomo does anything humane. Ravi Ragbir, Executive Director of New Sanctuary, said, “Immigrants are the scapegoats getting blamed for many perceived or real ills of this country. They are not perfect and make mistakes, but it does not mean that they should be punished for the rest of their lives. I am glad that Governor Andrew Cuomo understands the promise of immigrants who want to better their lives, their families and their communities.”

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 Dec. 16 – Dec. 23

A friend and I met at Rosemary’s on Greenwich Avenue. Since I arrived first, I ordered Negronis, his favorite aperitif. Forget that. Rosemary’s serves only beer and wine. But what wine. One of the owners suggested we try Terlaner since we were having some prosciutto and focaccia followed by the linguini with preserved lemon (what’s that?) and for dessert, yummy affogato. A lovely early supper.

 

 

A delicious white wine

Grazie is a cozy, well run restaurant steps away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Getting a dinner reservation near the Met at this time of year is almost impossible. We settled on 5 p.m. so we could have plenty of time to get to The Met’s New York Baroque Incorporated. It was a mostly French evening. It began with the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully, an Italian born composer who worked at Louis XIV’s court. It was followed by Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes and George Frideric Handel’s Suite from Terpsichore. The music was wonderful, the period dancing so-so and the incorrect Met directions frustrating.

Judson Memorial Church is on a roll. It’s thrilling to be in a packed church. One of the main reason is the music. Judson has always had a strong musical tradition and the not so new music director, Henco Espag lives up to the tradition.

Judson Memorial Church

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-four-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 Dec. 9 – Dec. 15

What do Jack Ruby, Black Rabbit, The Smuggler, have in common? They’re Minetta Tavern house cocktails of course.  A friend and I made our annual Christmas pilgrimage to the jam-packed steak house on MacDougal.  Shrouded in darkness on a south-west corner, you open an anonymous door, walk through a tiny, bleak 1930’s antechamber, pushes aside some very black curtains and you’re in. You better have a reservation unless you’re willing to wait 45 minutes for a place at the bar.  And this was a Tuesday evening. I found out later that The Black Rabbit was the restaurant’s original name and that the owner Eve Adams had another MacDougal restaurant down the block, now called La Laterna di Vittorio.  We sat across from the bar and had a view of the caricatures, some by Franz Kleine, and the Millennials clustered around the bar. I had to have a Tom Collins and the marrow bones, then on to other cholesterol challenging treats. Such fun.

 

MINETTA TAVERN

 

 

I saw Bombshell: The Hedy LaMarr Story at IFC. It’s a terrific documentary. Hedwig Eva Kiesler (1914-2000) was born in Vienna. She appeared in the nude in an early Austrian film, Ecstasy, which caught the attention of Louis B. Mayer who was in Vienna. After a failed audition, the soon to be Hedy LaMarr travelled to NYC on the same ocean liner as Mayer. He agreed to sign her to a contract and looking at the ocean, changed her name to Hedy LaMarr. She was a very beautiful woman who invented an instrument used but not paid for by the U. S. navy. At MGM she starred in adventurous epics that seem ludicrous today. The documentary is narrated by her son, Anthony Loder. He’s articulate and personable. Loder explains how his mother fell prey to pills. Like so many other actors, she worked like a race horse. She kept up by devouring pills to sleep and pills to wake up. She also fell prey to the miracle of plastic surgery. By the time she died, she was disfigured. I wonder if she was ever interviewed by Hedda Hopper, a gossip columnist of the 1940’s. If so, it could have taken place at Minetta Tavern.

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 Dec. 3 – Dec. 7

The Butcher’s Daughter is a cute restaurant on Hudson. It’s cosy and friendly with great service and beautiful food presentation. I met a friend for breakfast. I had soft boiled eggs and soldiers – Get the cute angle? My friend doesn’t eat meat but he likes to eat meat substitutes with meaty names. He had the beet bacon.

 

Mystery Non Meat

 

Last Sunday the Frick Music Room resounded with the glorious music of the London Handel Players. We had an early evening concert devoted to Handel and Telemann. In addition to mailing the concert tickets, the Frick includes a description of a piece in the Collection that has a connection to the music of the evening. William Hogarth’s Miss Mary Edwards is an eighteenth century oil. Currently, it hangs in the Frick’s east gallery. Miss Mary Edwards could have heard the same music we heard as she sat in a box in a concert hall. One of the wealthiest women in eighteenth century England, Miss Edwards destroyed her marriage documents and had her son declared illegitimate after discovering that her husband was gambling away her fortune at the gaming tables. In Hogarth’s portrait, she pats her dog. Behind her is a bust of Queen Elizabeth as well as a copy of the Queen’s speech to the the troops setting off to the Armada. And we think we live in exciting times.
Juilliard is a source of superb events at very reasonable prices. Recently, my friend and I heard the Juilliard String Quartet. We also attended a wonderful evening of dance presented by the classes of 2018 through 2021.

William Hogarth’s Miss Mary Edwards

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 Nov. 19 – Nov. 25

 

Bloody but unbowed! My beloved blog was down for a few days but with the help of a great computer guy, GoDaddy and $, it’s up and running.

The Frick Collection’s Great Bustard 

 

The Van Kuijk Quartet was founded in 2012. In its N. Y. debut, the quartet delighted the Frick Music Room audience with three 20th century works and one eighteenth century work. We were treated to Mozart’s Quartet no. 19 in C Major, Janacek’s Kreutzer Sonata and Ravel’s Strong Quartet in F Major. For an encore, the quartet performed a Poulenc waltz. The Frick mails the concert tickets for each concert and includes a little art appreciation comparing Frick art with the featured music. The Great Bustard, a porcelain animal molded at the Meissen factory in 1732, was featured for this concert. It was to have been part of a menagerie of life-size animals for Augustus II.

A friend and I circled around the BAM area in search of Prospect Restaurant at 773 Fulton. Unlike in Manhattan, where the even numbers correspond with the odd numbers across the street, the numbers on one side of Fulton do not correspond with the numbers across the way. Put it down to Brooklyn whimsy. Prospect was delightful and efficient. A staff member had called me earlier to confirm the reservation and had asked if we were going to the theater. She promised and delivered that they would have us done and dusted by 7:15 so we could make the David Sedaris show.
David Sedaris and two advance men gave a full two hours of often amusing anecdotes to a packed house. Theft By Finding, his new book, was piled high in the Peter Jay Sharp lobby all ready to be sold and signed. Scatology: the biologically oriented study of excrement. I have included this definition because, unfortunately, it was one of Sedaris’s main topics.

I was listening to a BBC essay about the Bronte Sisters love of music and this illustration popped up. Feel free to frame it.

The 11 Stages of Womanhood. Feel free to frame this.

 

 

 

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 Nov. 12 – Nov. 18

Volez, Voguez, Voyagez ( Fly, Sail, Travel), The Louis Vuitton exhibition at 86 Trinity Place, is a knockout. To think it was assembled in a month is incredible. You walk from room to room, floor to floor, surrounded by French luxe ranging from 1854 when Vuitton opened his first store in Paris to the present day. He came from a humble background, leaving his village in the Jura Mountains on foot at the age of fourteen and arriving in Paris two years later. The exhibition is divided into four main themes: travel by rail, travel by car, travel by sailing and travel by flying. The entrance has a charming mock up of a Paris metro. You proceed to Trunks for Stars i.e. Greta Garbo, Julianne Moore, Exquisite Bottles, Sophisticated Dandies i. e. Douglas Fairbanks. On the main level a plane, circa 1930, is mounted from the ceiling. On its wings are various Vuitton luggage. In the Rise of Yachting there are examples of different kinds of luggage such as The Steamer Bag. The exhibition closes January 7, 2018. Lots of fun and highly recommended.

Poster at the Current Vuitton exhibit
Metro mockup, Vuitton Exhibit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luggage for 30 pairs of shoes, Vuitton Exhibit
Bushwick Street Art

Bushwick, anyone? You bet! What a delightful, artsy neighborhood. A friend and I went to Heather Christian’s Animal Wisdom at the Bushwick Starr. Lots of soul searching, jumping around, loud music, musings on death and ghosts done with a Southern accent. The Bushwick Starr is a cosy space with rudimentary plumbing and flickering light bulbs. I lucked out. My seat backed on some machine where I rested my head during a long blackout.

The best line of the evening was my friend’s Irish quote:

“You wouldn’t worry so much about what other people think about you if you knew how seldom they did!”

 

 

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 Nov. 4 – Nov.10

Murillo’s portrait of Juan Arias de Saavedra

With the celebration of the Reformation – 500 hundred years ago – I was interested in what Catholic countries did to stem the inevitable tide. The Spanish had the Inquisition. A form of persuasion and persecution since the 12th Century, it took on added importance during the Reformation. A portrait of one of its enforcers is on view at the Frick Collection in the current exhibit, Murillo: The Self-Portraits. The portrait of Juan Arias de Saavedra was done in 1650. In addition to being a senior member of the Holy Inquisition, he was a connoisseur of painting. It’s a gorgeous portrait given a frisson of terror from knowing the sitter’s background. In Italy, to control the schism, the popes commissioned churches, statues, fountains, paintings that glorified holy rite. One of the most beautiful is Bernini’s statue, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.

From the sublime to the ridiculous: the MTA. How many times this week have I stared out the subway windows as we flew past my stop. Construction is rife both underground and above ground. These murals are in the Prince Street station. Don’t these people look weary?

Prince Street Station Mural
Print Street Station Mural

 

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. 29- Nov. 4

I came to Ai Weiwei very late.I didn’t know he had been detained for eighty-one days because he was critical of the current Chinese Communist party. Nor did I know he helped design the “Bird’s Nest” stadium for the 2008 Olympics. In other words, I knew nothing. His public art exhibition, Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, made me curious about him. I kept passing the cage-like metallic structure that’s been installed in the middle of the Washington Square monument. A friend suggested, actually dragged me to Human Flow the last day of its showing at the Angelica. It’s a long, heart breaking documentary by Ai Weiwei about refugees. Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian diplomat, explained that being a refugee deprives an individual of respect. He or she is suspect, not trusted.

Weiwei filmed in 28 countries. The photography, much of it from drones, is wonderful. Ai Weiwei comes across as a gentle, simpatico person. He reminds me of another gentle, simpatico person, Dr. Willie Parker, who toils in the field of legal abortion in several southern states. Weiwei lives in Berlin. He longs to go back to China to see his mom. He is a refugee albeit a celebrated artist. In one scene he and a refugee in a camp playfully exchange passports. Weiwei gets the refugee’s tent and the refugee gets Weiwei’s Berlin apartment. In your dreams.

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

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. 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.

 

 

Mary Jo Robertiello's mysteries and life