Tag Archives: Ugo Tognazzi

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? 

New York City Blog — Dec. 23- Dec. 31

It’s the last day of 2016. Oysters for breakfast. Now, I’m luxuriating in the sounds of Bach. WKCR (89.9 FM) transports its devoted listeners back to the seventeenth century with its annual Johann Sebastian Bach Festival that runs from 12/23 to the last minute of the old year.
Two military events: One is from 1962. A friend and I went to the MOMA screening of the Italian film, March on Rome with Vittorio Gassman and Ugo Tognazzi as two desperately poor men who join Mussolini’s black shirts. Their adventures reminded me of Don Quixote: lots of fighting, lots of bewildered and futile idealism.
And one from today: The PBS NewsHour, the bastion of correctness with the headmistress of correctness, Judy Woodruff, had, for once, an amusing segment. Did any one see a division of the military singing A Partridge in a Pear Tree? Absolutely hilarious.

Do the Italians still throw things out the window on New Years Eve? Once upon a time, the Romans got their cars and trucks out of the city or into garages because at midnight bath tubs, chests of drawers and anything else you wanted to get rid of flew out the windows and landed on the city streets.

Happy New Year!

 

 

COMING SOON:

Graphic Lessons: Recent 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: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek: something’s eating at him: a failed marriage? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case?

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?