Tag Archives: The Frick Collection

NY Mysteries Oct. 18, 2019

Judson’s blessing of the animals (many dogs, one stuffed snake called Eagle, several other stuffed animals) was a hoot. They broke bread in the form of  animal biscuits distributed by Minister Micah Busey who was loving every minute of it.  I asked a friend if she’d brought an animal and she named her husband. Well, he has a cute tail.

 

 

Musical dog in a musical family
Another musical dog
Musical dogs hanging out

A friend and I went to the Frick concert: Les Bostonades. It’s stepping back into the 18th century with the music of Clerambault,  Rameau and Telemann. If only the violinist didn’t sway and swoop as she played. If only the superb voiced tenor didn’t display his winsome smile so much. If only the Music Room wall paper were mended but I think this sweet, not old room will be destroyed in the new building plans. After, we went to a Peruvian restaurant on Second Avenue. The food was fine. I’ve probably forgotten the restaurant’s name because at the end of the meal when we were settling our bill, the waiter approached and gave my friend her card. He leaned over me and said mine was rejected. A little piece of paper floated from his hands confirming this. As you all know, tables are on top of each other in dear Manhattan which is great for eavesdropping as long as you’re eavesdropping. The look from the inches away table suggested a slight pity and certain curiosity in the older woman who’s card had been rejected. 

 

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 ? Remorse over screwing up an important case? His corrupt boss being a trustee of the Windsor School?  His girlfriend marrying his boss? 

NYMysteries – Nov. 17

NYMysteries  Nov. 17

Remember I Love Lucy ? I lived it the night of the Friday blizzard. I guess Mayor DeBlasio and Governor Cuomo were so busy giving Long Island City to Jeff Bezos that they didn’t have time to prepare NYC or NY state for the blizzard.  

 At around 4 pm in Friday I caught a crosstown bus to 2nd Avenue and 57th Street. There, I waited for 100 hours with about 100 people in the rising storm at the bus stop. Finally, one came. We clambered on. I got a seat! The bus moved slowly. Who cared? It was going south. You couldn’t see out the windows because of the mixture of snow, sleet and rain. At 47th Street the bus came to a stop and the driver announced that the bus was not safe to drive in these conditions. We had to get out. The bus driver stood in the middle of 2nd Avenue, arms outstretched to make sure we got from his bus, across the avenue to the ice ladened sidewalk.The cars were playing ring-around-the-rosie. They didn’t obey the traffic lights. No wonder the bus driver made his tough call BUT now what? I figured I had to walk from 47th Street to 14th Street.  I got moving slowly. There were mothers wheeling children. I saw a father holding on to three young children. People were crowded into bus stops. I didn’t join them because I figured the busses weren’t running. Who knew what was going on? When I got to 30th Street I saw a man getting out of a taxi. I speeded up and begged the driver to take me home. “Sorry. My meter’s not working,” he said. I assured him I didn’t care and told him I’d pay him $40. He took me home. When I got into my apartment, the toilet was overflowing. Water outside. Water inside. After cleaning up and after a g&t or two, I went to bed.  The blizzard roared outside. The wind’s force swept through my bedroom window and slammed shut my bedroom door. It was 2:15 am. I got up and pulled on the bedroom door’s knob. The door wouldn’t open. A plastic exercise band which lives on the knob had caught in the door, sealing it shut. I looked around my bedroom, now a cage, now a cell. All right. I’m exaggerating but it had been a tough day. At least I wasn’t locked in the closet. I emailed a wonderful neighbor who has my keys explaining my predicament and asking her to rescue me in the morning. Of course, she couldn’t, I realized. I had put on the front door’s chain. There’s nothing like fear and a need to go to the bathroom to motivate you. I tore at that exercise band. The door opened, finally.

A busy week. I was at the Frick Collection last Sunday for The Quartetto di Cremona. The musicians played their violins, viola and cello on the “Paganini Quartet” set of instruments by Stradivarious. On Wednesday a friend and I went to Curator Xavier F. Salomon’s talk about Luigi Valadier: Splendor in Eighteenth-Century Rome. Valadier, the son of French parents who emigrated to Rome, lived and died in that city, committing suicide because of debts. I suggest you go to the Frick website and watch on Youtube, Luigi Valadier: Splendor in Eighteenth Century Rome. It’s breathtaking. After that, you have to go to the Frick to savor this extraordinary exhibit.

On Wednesday, my birthday present to a friend was going to the Cloisters and lunch at New Leaf. The weather behaved, brisk and sunny. We wandered from quiet gallery to quiet gallery, garden to garden. A lovely experience and only a subway ride from Manhattan chaos.

 

 

 

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 

An Angel
The Cloisters
The Unicorn Tapestry,
The Cloisters
A Cloister
The Cloister

dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old, the only witness to the stabbing 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? 

NY Mysteries

April 28—  May 5

Paul Ryan repents! 

Jesuit Fr. Pat Conroy, 60th House Chaplain had been forced to resign by Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House. Ryan acknowledged his mistake and Father Conroy is back in the pulpit. Was it because of this prayer or because Fr. Conroy had invited a Muslim  cleric to say an opening prayer? 

“May all Members be mindful that the institutions and structures of our great Nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle. May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by

Before the Curtain rises: HERE’s presentation of Basil Twists (and Hector Berlioz’s) Symphonie Fantastique

all Americans.”  

By the way, why do we have anyone leading prayers in the House given the country’s grounding in the separation of church and state?

Generation Women shared secrets on April 25. It was  story telling by women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. Each participant had seven minutes  to tell her secret and the fun began at 7 pm. It was at the Caveat Theatre, a  New York speakeasy, on 21 A Clinton Street. The April 25 event was sold out but please come to the May 29 event. 

Boo-hoo. The Frick concert series is over. What a lovely way to spend two late afternoon hours on a Sunday. The Music Room has a gentle atmosphere. The architect, John Russell Pope, altered the original building, a private home, in the 1930s  to become a museum. Originally named the auditorium, the Music Room was intended to be used as a lecture hall and art gallery. 

On Wednesday there was a burst of summer. Friends and I had dinner at Aquagrill and then went across Sixth Avenue, walked past the gorgeous motorcycles in Dugati and arrived at HERE. We were there to see Symphonie Fantastique, a twenty years old puppetry event by Basil Twist. It takes place in an aquarium with live music by pianist Christopher O’Riley. Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie  thundered across the small dark theater. 

 

 

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 stabbed partner? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case?  It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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 Aug. 6 — Aug. 12

Staff Day at the Frick. Would you like to make your own medal? Learn how to decorate leather books? Listen to a talk about Du Paquier Porcelain? Plant a container? Visit the I am not who you think I am staff exhibit? These were among the choices available to staff and volunteers at the annual Frick Staff Day. Walking around the empty galleries and sharing the delicious lunch is a wonderful way to appreciate this wonderful Collection.

Container Gardening
Frick Staff Day

 

Troy Arnold’s Ghosts of the Frick

Friends and I went to a Wave Hill Wednesday. It’s a glorious location, overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades. We had a picnic and accompaniment by a very jazzy Latino band. The variety of botanical specimens is impressive. You can stroll through a variety of tropical and annual plants, diminutive rock gardens and water gardens. Choose a sunny path or tree-lined walk to enjoy views of the Hudson at sunset.

A Wave Hill Sunset
Wave Hill

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

NYMysteries April 29 – May 6

It was a busy Saturday. The Stuyvesant Town Flea Market, put on hold since 9/11, was held on a glorious spring day. The Oval, which is the center of the Stuyvesant complex, was packed with stalls, anything and everything Stuy Town residents wanted to get rid of, families and dogs. In the late afternoon I went to Judson Memorial Church for the wedding of the century. Two men, beloved by the congregation, were being united. One of the grooms’ fathers made a profound remark: Marriage does not give you license to change your partner. In marriage, you support your partner.

 

Fresh flowers for sale at the Stuyvesant Town Flea Market

 

M & M at their wedding ceremony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Frick concert season ended with a wonderful display of piano brilliance by the Spanish pianist, Javier Perianes. He treated us to Schubert and Debussy. The two last pieces by Albania and de Falla were spectacular.

 

Delice & Sarrason on Christopher Street is a hot vegan restaurant. I thought I’d stepped into Alice in Wonderland. Remember the mad hatter’s tea party? Everyone at the table was on the same wave length except Alice. That’s how I felt at Delice and Sarrason. People were licking their young, beautiful lips over coq au vin, beef bourguignon, coquilles St. Jacques BUT the coq, beef and coquilles were made with vegetable fibers, tapioca and potato. If vegans don’t eat meat why do they name their non-meat dishes steak frites (three types of mushrooms)? In the 1940’s Ruth McKenny and her sister Eileen, Ohio girls, came to NYC and lived in the same area as Delice & Sarrason. The musical Wonderful Town was based on McKenny’s New Yorker stories and many of the scenes take place in their dump of an apartment on Christopher.

Highlights in Jazz ended its season with The Joe Bushkin Centennial. His son-in-law, Bob Merrill, was master of ceremonies. We were treated to performances by Nicki Parrott and Spike Winner.

 

 

BMCC: Performing Arts Center
Joe Bushkin’s Centenniel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-five-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man, 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?

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 City Blog — Nov. 13- Nov. 19

Hasn’t it been a rocky week? How many conversations have begin with I don’t want to talk about the election and then you talk about it ad nauseam.

A Facebook friend posted this:
Kakistocracy
PRONUNCIATION:
(kak-i-STOK-ruh-see, kah-ki-)
MEANING:
noun: Government by the least qualified or worst persons.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek kakistos (worst), superlative of kakos (bad) + -cracy (rule). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kakka-/kaka- (to defecate), which also gave us poppycock, cacophony, cacology, and cacography. Earliest documented use: 1829.
From my limited Italian I recall that caca is Italian for poop.

Friends and I attended the second session of Studio 5. It  focused on The Creative Forces Behind the Nederlands Dans Theater.

 

NDT Dancers
NDT Dancers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To the Guggenheim. It’s one of my favorite museums. Most people take the elevator to the top floor and then walk down. I prefer to walk both ways. There isn’t a bad view in the place. The Moholy-Nagy exhibit was a beautifully mounted exhibit. The artist experimented with the innovative materials of the early twentieth century such as plastic. Alice Martin is the current show. At first I thought my lousy eyesight was kicking in. We walked closer to the blank canvases and I finally got it. It’s painting composed of grids and stripes. For me it was like a textile show. That’s one of the joys of the Guggenheim. There’s always the unexpected.

 

From the Met's Jerusalem exhibit: The Archangel Israfil
From the Met’s Jerusalem exhibit: The Archangel Israfil

From there we trotted ten blocks south to the Met. The Met has nerve. The exhibit, Valentin de Boulogne, was presented as Beyond Caravaggio. A more apt name would have been Way Behind Caravaggio. The Jerusalem exhibit was very moving. Wandering among the mounted artifacts of the many cultures that have passed through and being surrounded by the evocative photography of this ancient crossroads is moving and frightening.

 

 

To my shame, I almost skipped the Pierre Gouthière: Virtuoso Gilder at the French Court at the Frick Collection. I didn’t. It’s wonderful. If you want a full rush of what the eighteenth century French privileged classes were buying, often without paying, from superb craftsmen and artists run do not walk to the exhibition. Keep in mind that Gouthière who handled gold all his working life died in poverty.

New York City Blog – Oct. 16 – 23

Sunday evening was spent for a few hours in The Frick Collection’s Music Room. The Carducci Quartet, two violins, one viola and one cello, played a lively selection of Mendelssohn, Shostakovich and Beethoven.The Anglo-Irish quartet plays across a gamut of classical and modern. The concert began at five p.m., ended around seven and then it was on to dinner at Le Charlot, a very snazzy, local French bistro.

Part of the City Center sprawl is the Studio 5 series that is presented in a 56th Street studio. It began with Damian Woetzel and Wendy Whalen, sitting on high chairs like life guards, talking to the 200 member audience sitting around the perimeter of the large, bare space. Whalen and Woetzel met in 1986 when both were fledgling dancers at New York City Ballet. Woetzel is now the Artistic Director of the Vail Dance Festival. The evening’s program focused on Remixing A Festival From Vail to New York. The workshop is the first of four about dance. The dancing began with Robert Fairchild preforming a solo dance that Woetzel critiqued. This was followed by Unity Phelan and Cameron Dieck, young NYCB dancers, demonstrating how to interpret various dance movements. Heather Watts joined in the discussion and led Phelan through a few suggestive steps. Cameron Grant was the pianist who tripped merrily along with the dancers.

Robert Fairchild coming round the bend
Robert Fairchild coming round the bend
Unity Phalen, Heather Watts, Wendy Whalen, Damian Woetzel
Unity Phalen, Heather Watts, Wendy Whalen, Damian Woetzel
Wendy Whalen, Damian Woetzel and Cameron Grant
Wendy Whalen, Damian Woetzel and Cameron Grant

It’s an immediate, behind-the-scenes experience. I can’t wait for the next three sessions.