Highlights from New York

We have had a wonderful six days in New York.  The Main Event was the wedding of Eyal (Allan's nephew) and Katie on the 9th floor of Carnegie Hall.  However, I wanted to post a few pics of other highlights from the trip. We stayed at our friend Vince's studio apartment on across from the Chelsea Hotel.

First about the weather---- hot and sometimes humid for most of the six days.  Highs between 22-28C.  It was like a summer visit.

On Tuesday October 2, we got settled in and had a late afternoon bite to eat at Miznon at Chelsea Market with Vince, who was heading off to Italy that evening.  We then went to see The Band's Visit at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.  Based on the 2007 Israeli film, it is about a touring Egyptian band scheduled to play in Israel that ends up in the wrong town by mistake.  The play focuses on the interaction of the band members with the residents of the back-water town.  It was an excellent production.  After the play, we had a lovely dinner at Pierre Lapin, a new French restaurant in the West Village.

Alain with a lovely veal stew

Salmon in a beet sauce

The pic of Pierre Lapin (from an antique store in Paris)

On Wednesday October 3, we went to the Met Breuer, where we saw three exhibits.  The first was called Everything is Connected: Art and Conspiracy.  Very disturbing and timely.  Pictures and videos ranging from topics such as the Kennedy assassination, to real estate connections of various politicians.

Peach Oswald (2001) by Wayne Gonzales (b 1957)

 There was a large section dealing with Kissinger--the artist Alfredo Jaar (Chilean b 1956) had circled his head in a large number of photos with international figures.  The last picture was a handshake with Pinochet.  This was part of Jaar's series entitled Searching for K (1984).

The handshake between Kissinger and Allende

Series of Time magazine covers with Kissinger and Allende ending with Allende's death

The next exhibit was entitled Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture 1963-2017.  It featured many of Whitten's sculptures, a number done on the island of Crete where he spent many summers.  Whitten (1939-2017), was born in Alabama in 1939 and moved to New York in 1960.   Interspersed with the sculptures were a number of paintings from his Black Monolith series.  This series of 11 pictures, done between 1988-2017, featured a number of important African-Americans, including Ralph Ellison, Malcolm X, Jacob Lawrence, Mohammed Ali, Maya Angelou and Ornette Coleman.  They were spectacular.

Black Monolith IX (Open Circle for Ornette Coleman) 2015

Black Monolith IV for Jacob Lawrence (2001)

Black Monolith II (for Ralph Ellison) (1994)

Lucy 2013

The third exhibit was Obsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele, and Picasso from the Scofield Thayer Collection.  

After the museum, we made our way back to the apartment

View of some new and old buildings in Manhattan

Trump toy at Pet Central on W 23rd

That evening we went to see Fireflies at the Atlantic Theatre nearby.  The play takes place in the fall of 1963, just after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing by the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham, where four young girls were killed.  It is part of a trilogy of plays by Donja R. Love (an Afro-Queer playwright, poet and filmmaker from Philadelphia).  It takes place in the Jim Crow South and is about the relationship of a black activist preacher and his wife.  Very powerful production.

We went for a late dinner at Balaboosta, which moved from its old Nolita location to Hudson St.

Alain with his brick chicken on pomegranate sauce

Our shared vegan dessert- yum

On Thursday October 4, we walked to the High Line. There is an entrance on 23rd Street.   It was packed with people and we walked to 14th street, where we exited and went for a coffee.

Statute of Liberty drawings on the High Line

Wonderful sidewalk furniture and lots of plants

After a coffee at Kobrick, we walked down Bleecker Street into the West Village and stopped at Bluestone Lane Cafe for an avocado toast and another coffee.  There was a GROM gelato store at the corner (one of favs in Italy).  I had chocolate sorbetto and Alain had pistachio.

Definitely gelato weather

We then took the Metro to the Seaport area, where we hadn't been before.  We had heard that 10 Corso Como, a fashion/art store in Milan had just opened in New York.   Very pricey over the top clothes, but an interesting Helmut Newton photography exhibit.  The Seaport area is being rebuilt after Hurricane Sandy.

10 Corso Como

Across the way from 10 Corso Como, was a new Sarah Jessica Parker shoe store.  According to the staff at Corso Como,  Parker has been in the store, helping clients with their shoes.  

Wall of Shoes at SJP shoe store- mostly high heels

We then took the Metro to the Brooklyn Museum arriving at about 6:00 p.m.  The Museum is open on Thursday nights until 10:00 p.m.

We saw an excellent exhibit called Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power.  It featured the work of more than 60 African-American artists, spanning the period from 1963-1983, covering a wide range of expression and innovation.  It was an incredibly exciting period for emerging African- American artists.

Emma Amos (b. 1937) Untitled n.d.  She was the sole female member of the Spiral Group (a group of black artists)

Herb Robinson- Mahalia Jackson 1960s

Roy DeCarava (1919-2009), Ornette Coleman, 1960

Dave Driskell (b. 1931)- Soul X, 1968

Benny Andrews 1930-2006- Did the Bear Sit Under a Tree? 1969

Gerald Williams (b. 1941) Say It Loud, 1969

Wadsworth Jarrell (b.1929)- Revolutionary 1972 (based on photo of Angela Davis)

Alice  Neel (1900-1984) Faith Ringgold, 1977

We then visited Judy Chicago's monumental work The Dinner Party (1974-79), which now is permanently exhibited in a large room at the Brooklyn Museum.  I had seen the work before-- but it has been many years. It is still a moving, incredible piece honouring woman in history through ceramic plates, embroidered cloths and a heritage floor.  There are 39 place settings and 999 names written on the floor, of mythical and historically famous women.

The Dinner Party

Georgia O'Keefe

Virginia Woolf

After our visit to the Brooklyn Museum, we went to Kish Kash, a new couscous eatery on Hudson Street (same chef as Balaboosta).   It's a small place with a limited menu, but excellent, very reasonable dishes.

Hummus appetizer

Short-rib couscous and vegetable couscous to share

On Friday October 5, we had our morning coffee at Birch (on 27th near Broadway)

View of the Flatiron building 

Alain at Birch Coffee

We then headed up to the Met Museum.  We saw two exhibits.  The first was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.  The exhibit featured the work of designers who for the most part were raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. While their relationships to Catholicism vary, most acknowledge its enduring influence on their imaginations.  There were two parts to the exhibit at the Met Fifth Avenue.  The first were a number of dresses and jewels placed in the Byzantine and medieval art galleries.  It was a great juxtaposition between the religious art and the modern incorporation of religious elements in modern fashion.  The second part of the exhibit was in the Costume Gallery and featured papal robes from the Vatican collection (no photos allowed in that part).

Dolce and Gabbana dresses in the first hall

Inspired by mosaics from Monreale church in Sicily which we have visited

Yves Saint Laurent-1984 ensemble created for a statue

Moshino- 2014

Christian Lacroix- 2009

"Il Pretino" (Little Priest) dress popularized by Ava Gardner--
from Sorelle Fontana 1956-57, based on a cardinal's formal soutane 

The second exhibit was the blockbuster Delacroix, which featured paintings from four decades of his work.  Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) was one of the greatest creative figures of the 19th century.  The exhibit is the first comprehensive retrospective ever held in North America and is a project with the Musée du Louvre.

Thakes Fielding 1924-25 (English painter- friend of Delacroix)

Léon Riesener (1835)- first cousin of Delacroix 

Self-Portrait in a Green Vest, ca 1837 (he bequeathed the painting to his devoted housekeeper with the intention for it to eventually enter the Louvre collection where it is today)

Women of Algiers in Their Apartment 1834

Cleopatra and the Peasant 1838 ( one of my favourites-
shows her contemplating her own death by the poisonous snake, which the peasant holds)

After our visit to the Met, we went downtown and had lunch at Atla on Lafyette Street.  Innovative Mexican food.  So nice to sit outside.

Late lunch at Atla on Lafyette St.

 Friday night was the pre-wedding party for Eyal and Katie.  It was at an event space at a work-share locale on 31st near Park Ave.  It was our first meeting with Katie and her family, who are from Michigan City, Indiana.  Great opportunity to chat to family and guests, many from out of town.

Saturday October 6 was cloudy and a bit drizzly.  After breakfast at the apartment (our usual routine), we went for a coffee at 7 Grams on 7th Avenue and 25th.   We decided to stay in the neighbourhood and went to see two exhibits at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology.

The first was Fashion Unraveled, which explored the role of memory and imperfection in fashion.  It featured pieces that had been deconstructed, altered, left unfinished, repurposed or distressed.

Christian Frances Roth- suit 1994

The second exhibit was Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color.  Dr. Valerie Steele, Director of The Museum at FIT, noted that pink provokes strong feelings of both "attraction and repulsion."  The exhibit explores the history of pink in Euro-American fashion from the 1850s to the 1990s.  The stereotype of pink for girls is surprising recent.  As late as 1927, American department stores were still arguing about which colour went with which gender.

From the 18th century- men in pink

Jean Patour (1923), evening gown1925-28, black dress 1925-28;
Chanel, evening dress circa 1925, evening dress circa 1927

Yves Saint Laurent

We then headed to Daily Provisions, a bakery/cafe on 19th Street for a sandwich and a coffee.  It is run by Danny Meyer, who runs the famous Union Square Café, which is next door.   We then headed down to the Strand bookstore on Broadway and 12th St. to browse some of their 18 miles of books.

Union Square market

We passed some anti-Kavanaugh demonstrators at Union Square.

Window display at Fishs Eddy, a homeware store 

It was then time for The Main Event of the visit--- The Wedding.  It took place on the 9th and 10th floors of Carnegie Hall.

Side entrance to the elevator

Small ante room with place cards

Room where ceremony took place-- ensemble under posters of Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington

Guests lining up for drinks- view outside

Woman rabbi did the ceremony--bride had converted and the rabbi was very eloquent

The groom's brother Oran and his wife Sam

Katie and her parents walking down the aisle

The ring exchange

Married!

Alain under pic of Tony Bennett

Under the Beatles photo

After the ceremony, there were cocktails on the large outdoor rooftop on the 9th floor.  Just awesome.

Alain, his sister Sandra, et moi

Another view

We then went upstairs for the dinner and dancing.  We were greeted by a 10 piece band with four or five vocalists who got everyone up dancing for most of the evening- they did long sets between each course.  Started with Motown and moved to Hip Hop by the end of evening.  Fabulous.

The Band

Alain dancing

Katie and Eyal

Eyal, Katie and her twin sister watching the speech by her father

Katie and her father

Eyal's parents speeches (Alain's sister)

Eyal's brother's speech (Oran)

Twin sister and older sister of the Bride

Eyal speaking

The Band in new clothes for the last sets

There was a container of flip flops that guests could wear- great idea

Historic poster in the area where coffee was served

What a wedding!!!

We didn't get back to the apartment until 1:00 a.m.  It was a fabulous wedding and we wish all the best to Eyal and Katie.

On Sunday October 7, we took it easy.  We headed uptown to the New York Historical Society, stopping for a quick bite at Irving Farm coffee shop on 79th and Broadway.

Passed the Sunday market on West 77th near Columbus St.

Lincoln statue outside New York Historical Society

We went to two exhibits at the New York Historical Society.  The first was the very powerful Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow.  Though slavery ended in 1865, the struggle for full citizenship for black Americans took over 50 years following the Civil War.  By 1868, all persons born in the United States were citizens and equal under the law.  However a backlash ensued, ushering in the "separate but equal"(and worse) age of Jim Crow.  The exhibit was mounted on the 150th anniversary of the Fourteenth Amendment.   It was depressing to see how progress was made and taken away in this period and that many of the issues continue to this day.

Section on Voter Suppression was very relevant.

As an antidote, we saw Walk This Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes.  My favourite was this signed pair of spectator pumps by the Yankees in 1941.

At the Museum shop we saw replica copies of The Green Book from the early 1960s, which listed places where black Americans could stay in the American South.  I had just seen the film Green Book, the winner of the People's Choice award at TIFF.  It is about an elegant gifted Jamaican-born pianist's tour of the south in 1962, accompanied by his Italian driver.  The film was inspired by the actual tour taken in that year by Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali) and his driver, Tony "Lip" Vallelonga.

We then headed over to my cousin Toni's for hors d'oeuvres before going to dinner with her and some friends at a Greek restaurant Molyvos on 7th near 56 Street.  Great to get caught up.

We then headed to Jazz Standard on 27th near Park Avenue to meet Alain's sister and brother-in-law and hear the Kenny Werner Quartet with Dave Liebman (sax), James Genus (bass) and Terri Lyne Carrington (drums).  We were sitting right in front of the stage.  Great band- innovative versions of standards and some original pieces by Werner and Liebman.

Hard to take pics here--

We walked back to the apartment at about 11:30 p.m.-- still over 20C and warm.

Monday October 8 was our last day in New York.  We packed in the morning and wandered around the 'hood.  We are heading off to catch our 6:00 p.m. flight to Paris.