Tag Archives: Judson Memorial Church

NY Mysteries Nov. 30, 2019

 

I saw A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. The sets were a combination of realistic, suburban mid-fifties neighborhoods and the Mr. Rogers’ set. They are the best part of the movie. The plot follows the old publishing adage, write what’s been done with something new. In this case the old stuff was the father and son conflict. The new was Mr. Rogers. A young man and his father harbor  feelings of rage and shame over the death of theson’s mother. Mr. Rogers steps in. Surprise! Every problem is solved, including a death scene with the great charactor actor Cris Cooper. I admit Tom Hanks is a good actor but he gives me the creeps.

On Sunday, Judson Memorial  Church was packed with activity. A beautifully planned and delicious Thanksgiving dinner followed the service. I was pitching in by eating a great deal and doing a few minor chores. In the late afternoon a book launch for a beloved and respected long time congregant was scheduled. I had two hours before it began so I went to Dismantling Whiteness. I stepped into an alternate universe. It was a black and white youngish group. The moderator introduced themself with specific pronouns. I was confused so I followed them’s example.

The book launch was for Keen Berger’s Grandmothering. Keen is the grandmother of three children and a long time presense in the New York Democratic party. Name dropping alert!  Her full name is Kathleen Stassen Berger. Keen’s father was Harold Stassen, the governor of Minnesota who also ran for president. 

On Thanksgiving I went to a great party given by a dear friend in Brooklyn who fed and entertained ten guests and still kept her sense of humor.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

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  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college. 

NY Mysteries Sept. 20, 2019

 

 The Judson Week End in Deep River, Ct. is a Judson Memorial Church version of a retreat. However, we never stopped talking , drinking, dancing, meditating, skinny dipping, hiking, participating in Pilates, trying facial masks, eating, celebrating present absent members and absent dead members as well as a baptism in the lake. That’s all in two days.

 

Hiking around the Lake
Henco at the keys

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Service

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Florida friend visits NYC for six weeks at this time of year. We never stop! This week alone we saw Slave Play, too long and over rated. We went to Caviat on Clinton Street. It  was packed, as usual. Georgia Brown, a dynamo Australian writer and entrepreneur invented Generation Women. It’s a performance by women of generations between twenty and seventy. Georgia presents a theme. This current one was  women’s bodies. The audience hooted and howled over the various adventures presented by each woman, enlightening and embarrassing. Next night we went to a wonderful performance at the Joyce: Rubberband. 

 Don’t forget the Brooklyn Book Fair where some of us will be hawking books. 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

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: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NY Mysteries Sept. 13, 2019

 

I’m going to the Judson Memorial Weekend. It’s been held for years near Ivoryton, Ct. Many years before I knew about Judson, I was an apprentice at the Ivoryton Playhouse. When we sweep past it on our way to the Weekend at Incarnation Center, I’m flooded with memories. Milton Stiefel, his brother Irving and his wife owned and ran the theater. Milton Stiefel had begin his career with David Belasco. 

During the summer at the Playhouse I had motley chores: clean pots for the set designer, smear soap on mirrors so they wouldn’t reflect on stage, clean the restrooms. On rare occasions I’d appear in crowd scenes. I  reported to a Syracuse senior, Jim Hutton, who had a Hollywood career (Where the Boys Are) and was Timothy Hutton’s (Academy Award) father. Of course, this fifteen year old had a crush on Jim. But Jim was more interested in the sexy girls in the Guys and Dolls chorus line. Rudy Vallée sang his last songs in a tiny nightclub across the street from the theater. In those days film and stage stars trekked around to regional theaters. After filming Julius Caesar, Marlon Brando appeared in Shaw’s Arms and the Man. Wally Cox (Mr. Peepers, anyone?) was his co-star.  Katherine Hepburn’s father was a Hartford doctor and the family had a summer house in nearby Saybrook. I think Ms. Hepburn began her career at Ivoryton. Seeing her in the audience, at intermission I crept near her to gawk. She was petite and dressed in a well cut white linen suit. Petite? you say. Honestly, she was about 5’3”. I know she looks taller in films. Maria Riva starred on  the Ivoryton stage but the real star was her mother, Marlene Dietrich. Every afternoon the crew hung around the box office phone. Like clock work it would ring at 5 p.m. Irving’s wife answering in her version of a classy accent, would hold the phone’s receiver so we could all hear Dietrich’s famous teutonic growl. 

 

Tomatoes, fresh from the garden

 

 

 

 

Flowers and tomatoes from a country garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

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: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NY Mysteries July 5, 2019

What a busy week. As you know, on Sunday there were two Pride marches. I joined the one that originated at Judson Memorial Church. It was smaller, less commercial and more like the gay day march of years ago. 

Judson’s Meeting Room. Judson’s Saints
Judson on the march. Beloved and Proud
Greeting one and all to Pride Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I joined dear friends in Brooklyn for the perfect July 4th celebration: A small group in a luscious  garden, feasting on grilled meat, potato salad, garden lettuce and tomatoes and homemade strawberry shortcake plus lots of lovely wine.

Stairs leading to the garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, I have forgiven The Morgan that ridiculous Renzo Piano J. C. Penny entrance. Director Colin B. Bailey has vitalized the Morgan. He’s tapped into the city’s LGBTQ community, offering parties and previews open to all. Director Bailey has not neglected the Morgan’s classical background. Friends and I went to the enchanting Maurice Sendak’s Drawing the Curtain, a Walt Whitman exhibit and Hogarth’s Cruelty and Humor. Hogarth gave an unflinching view of eighteenth century London’s Gin Lane and Beer Lane. Weary from so much culture, we had a charming lunch. 

Maurice Sendak’s Design for show curtain

 

 

 

Ad for Walt Whitman’s
Books

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

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: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries – April 27

 

 

A Judson Easter: music, food, fellowship: It was a zinger this year. Judson Memorial Church has wonderful music, a wonderful choir and a wonderful Music Director, Henco Espag. We had a feast of music. There was an original Easter Cantata by Rev. Micah Bucey and Henco Espag and sung by the choir, The Gardener’s Dance choreographed and performed by  Brandon Kazen-Maddox, traditional hymns including The Old Rugged Cross, The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Done. Afterwards, we had our shared, pot luck feast and lots of reminiscing and greeting old friends.  

 

 

 

Music Director Henco Espag
Brandon Kazen-Maddox performing The Gardener’s Dance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soloist Michelle Thompson and Henco Espag

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite shows is Project Runway. One of my favorite places is F. I. T. Fashion Institute of Technology has great fashion exhibits. So with this in mind, let me present a chic NYC dog who’s sporting sunglasses. 

 

 

 

Fashionable NYC Dog
Fashionable NYC dog doing runway walk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

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: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries – April 6

A busy week…

EXPERIENCE THE PRESENCE OF GOD THROUGH THE SOUNDS OF JAZZ. In caps, the Emmanuel Baptist Church on Brooklyn’s Lafayette Avenue announced its twin loves: God and music. 

Nedelka Prescod gave a spirited and spiritual performance at the Sunday afternoon jazz vespers. She was accompanied by family, friends and a lively congregation. 

Jazz Vespers – Emmanuel Baptist Church
Nedelka Prescod

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday evening, the calm before the storm: A delicious dinner at Scandinavian House around the corner from the Morgan.

 

Scandinavian House’s Restaurant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Followed by an evening at the Morgan party celebrating the exhibit, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth.

A Fair Maiden
Fair maiden’s arsenal
I fear the front
Tolken’s Shire at Thirty-Six Street and Madison

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forest Footwear

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Followed by a talk about Judson Memorial Church’s architecture by Francis Marrone. 

The Architecture of Judson Memorial Church, a lecture by Francis Morrone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

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: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries Feb. 15

On the Judson Memorial Church list serve there were comments about education. One person wrote, We could do so much more to equalize opportunities by supporting early childhood education and focusing on process over product!! She went on to say there were underpaid care providers who work with low income families and are committed to making a difference for children. 

I worked in the private school world. There was emphasis on status. Not all, but a considerable number of parents, thought private schools guaranteed their child would gain entrance to a fancy college. It was competitive and commercial.  It came home to me once again with the college admissions fraud. 

The Frick Concert series featured the Ensemble Caprice, a German group now based in Montreal. The five musicians played the recorder, flute,  baroque cello, baroque guitar, and various percussion instruments. The 17th and 18th century music was superb and lively. Unfortunately, the ensemble drifted into coy territory with some rigamarole about the joys of chocolate. 

Several friends and I ventured to former Amazon territory, Long Island City, to have a delightful lunch in the Indian Restaurant, Adda, Indian Canteen . We feasted on Dilliwala Butter Chicken and Mumbai Lamb Curry, Garlic Naan, Vegetable Samosa. All delicious and washed down with Thums Up, an Indian cola drink.    https://www.addanyc.com/menu/ 

Indian Lunch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thums Up
Have a slurp!

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

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: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

New York Mysteries December 22

A contingent from the Judson Memorial Church went to MOMA to see Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done. In addition to the exhibit, videos of various artists who had performed at Judson were shown on the enormous multiscreen. On Dec. 15 there was a live performance by the Stephen Petronio Company. We sat in the front row feeling pretty chuffed since one of the dancers, Mac Twining, is a Judsonite.

 

Steve Paxton
MOMA: Judson Dance Theater: The Work is Never Done

 

 

The MOMA Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done video presentation

 

 

 

Afterwards I had a delicious bowl of soup and a strong cocktail, both suggested by some very friendly people at the MOMA bar. A mere $41! I then went to see the great Ugo Tognazzi in a dated, dopey, endearing Italian movie, The Climax. 

Dec. 18: We went on a tour of the Frick Art Reference Library. Although I volunteer there and have been in the library a zillion times I never tire of hearing about its founder, the indomitable Ms. Frick, the Frick daughter who founded the Library.  Stephen Bury, the Chief Librarian, conducted the tour. He told us in learned and witty language about the joys and vicissitudes associated with FARL. 

A friend and I went to an open rehearsal of Les Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo at the Joyce Theater. It was two hours of great fun. Founded in 1974, the Trocks attracted attention and audiences because of their ability to dance en pointe, be comic and be serious about dance. In the present company there are 14 members from all parts of the world.

Ever since I spent a few enchanting hours in Banksy’s The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem I’ve followed the mischievous fellow’s various stunts. Lately, he has decorated  a Welsh town with a mural that references the town’s air pollution.

Artwork by street artist Banksy, Thursday Dec. 20, 2018, which appeared on a garage wall in Taibach, Port Talbot, south Wales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

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: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the 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? 

nymysteries May 14 —  May 18

 

I met Ginny and Lenny Fox at Judson Memorial Church. Ginny died the day after Mother’s Day. She hadn’t eaten in years. She drank some stuff that sustained her physically. Intellectually and emotionally, she sustained the rest of us. She and Lenny, her late husband, traveled. He carried her supply of  canned nourishment and they had a ball. At different times, they and I had stayed at the Pensione Accademia in Venice. She and I enjoyed talking about the pensione and Venice (duh). Ginny and I were supposed to have gone to the Remnick-Comy New Yorker interview at Town Hall but she had returned from Greece the day of the event, not well. Her impeccable manners reigned. She emailed me, suggesting I ask someone else. Her daughter posted heartfelt news about her mother who had hospice care at home. This poems will be read at Ginny’s memorial. I looked up Laistrygonians on Wikipedia. They were man-eating giants who ate most of Odysseus’s crew. 

Entrance to Pensione Accademia
A quiet niche at Pensione Accademia
The one and only Ginny Fox

Ithaka

BY C. P. CAVAFY

TRANSLATED BY EDMUND KEELEY

As you set out for Ithaka

hope your road is a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:

you’ll never find things like that on your way

as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them

unless you bring them along inside your soul,

unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.

May there be many summer mornings when,

with what pleasure, what joy,

you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;

may you stop at Phoenician trading stations

to buy fine things,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfume of every kind—

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

and may you visit many Egyptian cities

to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you’re destined for.

But don’t hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

so you’re old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you wouldn’t have set out.

She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

 

 

 

 

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: 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? 

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.