The World Examining Works

Details

 

A vending machine on Penn Station offers

little tiny plastic weapons --pistols, grenades, hand-cuffs --all really useful stuff.

Henry thinks it's funny to hide behind his book.

I find a book submerged in a puddle on the corner of 9th Avenue. When I upload the photo, I discover it to be Mansfield Park. I leave the book in the puddle.

The last flower of the Lentan Rose bought on December 3rd --the actual plant now taken out to Long Island to be planted outside where it will be a great deal happier.

Have taken on a most interesting project: working with a Japanese-American woman on her memoirs of internment as a schoolgirl and the family's subsequent return to Japan in 1945. Such stories we all have to tell.

 

New Museum

 

 

Finally make it to the NEW MUSEUM on the Bowery.

The lobby is large and light and has a vast arrangement of pussy willow. ( The Metropolitan Museum and the Neue Galerie always have impressive flowers too).

The enviable polished concrete floors reflect so well. 

The elevator's chartreuse

The Bowery ( seen through the library window grille) is astoundingly clean and unlike its former not-very-regretted self.

The prisine library brims with info and clean-clean Apple techie stuff.

The stairs are long narrow eye candy

with little exhibits in nooks along the way.

These boards are maybe art work or pieces of frames awaiting fabrication -- the whole point of the exercise, I think. The distinction of art and not-art. Thank heavens I don't have to discuss that sort of thing.......that way lies madness for sure.

So, the exhibits themselves --the vast chalk board brims with ideas.  The water containers distill something....

A great deal to ponder

and ponder and maybe shed light on.

 

 

Sweet Things

 

Happy Valentine's Day

 

 

Tuesday

 

I go to the press breakfast for Chocolate Week which is bliss....

How could it not be?

and find myself in unexpected territory

the subway is filled with Giants fans

and policemen

and the usual crowd rushing around

descending and ascending

then go to the Apple store to get my computer sorted

 

and am glad to get home to do nothing.

 

Green Market/ Saturday Morning

 

An almost mild day so we walk up to Union Square in search of beets.

The spring flowers are there in their masses --the smell of narcissus

the gaudy beauty of amaryillis

the delicate blush of hyacinth

and the purity of white ones......

 

 

Thursday

 

Early morning, the sun not up yet.

The street lights still glow.

At Penn Station the wage-slaves are off to the salt mines. 

How they rush and rush !

One man rushed quite out of his shoe (lower right)

Then some serious art work before Henry gets dressed

then back to bare branches

waiting for spring

 

A Different View

 

I so rarely get over to the East Side where I get to look at buildings from a different angle.

A water tower. Workmen doing important things on the roof.

 

A building with a great deal of glass

and the trees of Union Square glimpsed through the jungle of buildings.

I go to tea with my friend the artist Margaret Gosden and we chat about books and art and techie apps like Camerabag, OldphotoPRO, Hipstamatic and Colorsplash and all the fun things that purists despise (and I enjoy).

Margaret's fern rendered antique!

One of her prints with a lot of the colors taken out

and quite a lot put back in.....

What fun we have!

On the way home I go to the post office at Union Station

and find that the side door is a sort of metaphor for the state of the poor old PO...

 

 

 

Snow Day with Dogs

 

The first snow this year (unless you count the freak mini-storm in October).

At seven in the morning it's still pretty dark.

The trees look mysterious

with the two men returning from walking their dog.

Our dog ( suitably booted against the ice-melt they throw down)

the dog's friend Enzo

a horribly chilly looking bench

and heading home with miserably icy hands.

 

 

 

 

Florida Vacations

 

Amongst a jumble of stuff in my desk: postcards documenting my husband's grandparents' annual winter escape to Florida.

In the 40's, 50's and 60's Frank and Josie Schmid drove from Long Island to West Palm Beach where they had a house. The Colonial Motor Court in Portsmouth, Virginia cost $6 a night including tile baths and free radios.

  

Along the way they stopped at all sorts of motels often becoming friends with the people who ran them. This is Danker's Motel Court in Miami. The managers, Fred and Henry Danker originally came from Asbury Park, New Jersey.

The Camden Motor Lodge was also $6 a night -- the post card annotated "Very Good". Arrow points to their room.

This little restaurant has bags of charm. They ate here on January 1st 1948

Mr and Mrs. Henry Rueger were the owner/managers of Rueger's Cottages in Gulfport. "Hi Son, Hope everything is going along smoothly. Will syay here til Sunday morning. Seen Mr. Eichelberger and the Reugers so far. All our love, Mom and Dad."

I want those lawn chairs.

The A&A Tourist Court, one mile north of Claxton, Georgia sprang for fancier postcards even if the restaurant resembled a shoebox.

Not quite sure what the attraction was with the rather grim looking Bancroft Motel in Virginia

or why the Skyway Motel in Fort Pierce, Florida was a steal at $4.50 a night on January 7th 1952

These are the Twin Attractions of the Highlands of Central Florida. (I had not realized there were any highlands. Robert says if you stand up straight you can see across the whole state.)

Be that as it may, in 1948 you could visit Cypress Gardens * "a paradise of beauty and a Mecca for nearly a quarter million visitors a year.....Photographic models pose for your pictures in hoop skirts among the flowers...." The Singing Tower was a "gift to the people of America from Edward Bok, a man who loved nature and all beauty."

 

* Now Legoland

 

 

Others

 

Went to tea at a friend's house.

I like the blue in her fruit bowl. I like looking round other people's houses to see how they live, how they interpret the world. L. still had her Christmas tree up because she said it kept her cheery through dull January.

I tried to explain about Twelth Night and bad fairies and all the rest of it. If she enjoys the tree, all power to her. Her chessmen look Japanese and martial.

Her tray is bamboo and the (delicious) shortbread gluten-free.

What quirks we all have! What very small rituals make us happy.

I've just finished reading Tim Bonyhady's Good Living Street about his absurdly wealthy Viennese forebears who made fortunes from gas mantles and patronized Klimt  and the Wiener Werkstätte and ended up in Australia. Similar in some ways to Edmund deWaal's wonderful The Hare With Amber Eyes but in others very different. What a sucker I am for history and family histories in particular. 

Other than that, the day has turned chilly.

Excellent reading weather.

 

 

 

Abstracty

 

Top layer: Robert works on a glass palette and the water and/or thinner makes natural inlets and mountains and waves.

Middle: Paper used for cleaning brush. Random.

Lower: Plastic spread on floor now floor has been sanded.....

Dog.

Building that somehow got inside a car on 22nd Street.

Flower that has lasted over a week.

 

 

Night

 

 

I often take the dog for a walk at twilight which is a much more interesting time of day than noon.

I rarely go uptown at night so it all appears magically full of potential.

The globe at Columbus Circle shimmers with possibility. This is about all the excitement I get. For people whose lives are much more exotic see Ruthie's tribute to Rauf one of the best photographers and most exciting bloggers ever, and Janelle's wonderful writing about Zanzibar and other adventures.

 

 

Henry

 

 

 

 

 

Bliss

 

 

Yesterday at the dog park (where I'm known for watering the concrete) I was given a late Christmas present. I hadn't seen anything like it since 1956.

So I rushed home where where my family were forced to take a break in watching the Twilight Zone marathon and coopted into setting it up. Very exciting indeed.

Well......

It looked like some sort of surreal crown. A miniature paper world of mountain, trees and garden.

By this morning a new world was born.....

 

Happy New Year

 

 

Season's Greetings

 

 

Wishing everyone a most peaceful and lovely Christmas.

 

 

 

 

A Party

 

 

What fun to have a birthday just before Christmas

with presents to unwrap

and cousins to help you unwrap them.

 

 

People

 

I like taking pictures of people  --  then there's the problem about whether they would want their photos in the blog or not.

This is Conan Carpenter and Robert Valin from the dog park with Benny. Flash was busy running round with other dogs. These are people I actually know.

I haven't the least idea what this man's name is, but he was quite happy to have his photo taken. (You would be too if you'd spent the time cultivating such a remarkable mustache).

The young man in the cap in Eataly was busy explaining to the assembled oldies the finer points of baking bread-- how the yeast is imported from somewhere east of Turin etc etc. What was good about his chat (which I overheard while waiting for my foccacia to cool) is how passionate he was about his theme. 

The people on the right are eating free samples. These are people I saw for an instant.

I saw Claude Rolls every day. Unofficial custodian of 22nd Street, ex-military man, a great dog lover (notice the treats on the ledge),and beloved by all. He spent much of his time in his slightly dilapidated black van keeping an eye on the world (or anyway his little corner of it). Yesterday morning he was cheerful --  he'd just got a spanking new red van; in the afternoon he died sitting in it. He was 78. RIP, dear Claude.

 

 

Seasonal: AKA Too Much

 

 

A treat, I think, to be alone for an instant and without any colors this in-your-face season.

However, this neo-hippie Cinnamonsnail cookie truck was just round the corner

as was this vehicle (what on earth do you call it?)

Santa's helper was putting up cool items like 'Marzipan Star' outside Donut Planet. I do not know if this is a donut or a drink.

So we decided to give a party and got out the old angels and the  petit chameau.

I discovered a Lenten Rose at Trader Joe's.

After the party there were many bottles waiting to be recycled

and birds to be observed.

Yesterday I ventured out of my neighborhood and went to the East 60's where women wear lots of makeup and there are glittering shops

a formidable lion

tourists transfixed by Bloomingdale's windows

and very cool decorations for an elf to observe.

 

Heavenly

 

 

 

An excerpt from A Christmas Carol 1843

"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time.  Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."

"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.

"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

"And the Union workhouses?"  demanded Scrooge.  "Are they still in operation?"

"They are.  Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not."

"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?"  said Scrooge.

"Both very busy, sir."

"Oh!  I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge.  "I'm very glad to hear it."

"Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, "a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink and means of warmth.  We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices.  What shall I put you down for?"

"Nothing!" Scrooge replied.

"You wish to be anonymous?"

"I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge.  "Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer.  I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry.  I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there."

"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."  

Now I know who Newt Ginrich's idol is! 

 

So

the sky above Macy's

and the little garden next to our building.

Lenten rose at Union Square green market.

My friend Susanna Gordon, the brilliant photographer and all around nice person, has a much kinder take on the season HERE

A must see post!

 

 

 

Work in Progress

 

"I love work: I could stand and look at it for hours." A very ancient joke.

 

But how thrilling the great big, gigantic hole in the ground at the corner of 8th Avenue and 26th Street! With bulldozers and diggers.

Peter Lappin does quite different work entirely. He sews clothes from 1940's Butterick patterns and transforms himself into Cathy. How rarely one comes upon a snood nowadays.

Deniz scores films.

Henry is just beginning to create all sorts of things like pictures and block towers.

With us, it's same old, same old, but how much fun it is to do work you like to do, and what torture it would be to be made to work eight hours at something you hated just to get the money -- which is the fate of so many people.

A glass palatte

A hat under construction.

Re-reading Mrs Dalloway after a forty year gap. How differently it reads, and how rich it is! It is truffle and fruitcake, to be taken in very small nibbles. It is also dreadfully sad.

 

 

To worship idleness in days like these

must be accounted sin. To contemplate

in silent awe and longingly these trees

this path leaf-strewn and wet, roses late

blooming after frost --panoply of things

I may not stop for, may not understand.

Count wasted time this lingering which brings

content not cash. It isn’t what I planned.