Shades of Sandy

Here are a couple videos, taken when the worst of the wind was winding down late-afternoon, & a couple photos taken this AM showing the tree branches (fortunately no humungous ones) that came down. Our across-the-street neighbor kindly offered to let us store the car in her driveway - last wind storm we'd left it on the street in front of her house & it was towed - who knew it was street cleaning on that side of the street day that Wednesday?

Fortunately the Melrose rehearsal was rescheduled from last night to Thurs. - though that means driving up there three days in a row later this week for 2 dresses & the Sat. performance.

We were lucky - except for a few blips our power stayed on & none of the trees toppled onto the house. In the photos, all those things that look like bushes are actually branches. Time to get out the hand saw.

      From the guest room window

From the living room window      

19.Jan.2012 finale

In case a branch comes down on our cable to the internet @ the back of the house & we're without internet for days/weeks on end (typical of Verizon), the last pictures from my tour of the Met Museum & some shots from the Museum of the City of New York, including some from their Cecil Beaton show, and some amazing glass pieces by Thaddeus Wolfe (unfortunately way out of my price range) & The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan (A bit of New Yorker navel gazing, ask me, but some of the last section where they asked artists to come up with their predictions of the future of the grid were interesting, as was the layout of the exhibition hall, which mirrored (pun intended) the grid of avenues & streets.).

The Greatest (?) Grid (mirror included)

Bridge People

Pix today from 19.Jan.2012. The last from the small paintings gallery, a self-portrait of the Italian Futurist, Umberto Boccioni and the antiquities galleries as I headed toward the coat room.

I'm also including a link to today's On Being episode "Political Bridge People"- the final one of the Civil Conversations series, this one with Republican Pete Domenici & Democrat Alice Rivkin. They talk about their efforts to bridge the gap between Democrats & Republicans in this hyper-partisan age. Important reading/listening. I hope you'll take the time to give it a go.

See how low the ceiling was for these small paintings?

4000 BC? This could have been a Picasso

19.January.2012 Encore

More pix today from the Met Museum 20th century galleries, including a Spectrum by Ellsworth Kelly, of which the MFA has a similar one, and several Klees from a wonderful gallery of small paintings (with a nod, perhaps to the small French paintings @ the National Gallery?).

Off soon to a Polarity treatment, then back to tootle - and probably toddle since with Sandy making her way up the East coast, we may not have clement weather for the next few days.

19.Jan.2012 immer noch

Pix today still from that wunderschön day @ the Met Museum. Mostly from the fabulous room of Clyfford Still's work where I spent over an hour. Unfortunately you really can't get a sense of the canvases in these small reproductions, since the originals are so large. Sometimes beautiful views are right outside the window.

Off soon to the Snow Goose, a local yarn store, to take advantage of a sale - and I hope to pick up some yarn to make a hat for the across-the-street neighbor who requested one (though did he offer to pay for either the yarn or the work involved? Nope. But I feel sorry for him since he's had such bad luck with illness & injury to his back.) Then probably some tootling & maybe toddling & stitching for sure.

19.January.2012 noch mehr

More pix from that frabjous day @ the MFA. Including a wonderful piece by Ghanaian artist El Anatsui, who has a similar, smaller, piece at the MFA.

Had a wonderful day trip yesterday out to the Tower Hill Gardens & the Russian Icon Museum. Look for photos of those places coming soon.

Off in a bit to and Alexander lesson & lunch with a friend, Andrea Cawelti, whom I've known since we met many moons ago (like in the 1980s) @ the Aspen Music Festival.