Category: Art

Manhattan Diversions: Movies, Art, etc.

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RECENT FILMS
Free Solo
This is a breathtaking and stunning National Geographic documentary about free soloing on Yosemite’s El Capitan. That is, climbing its 3,000 foot rock wall without any ropes. The first person to ever do that was Alex Hannold in June 2017, and this is the story and the backstory of that historic climb. What makes this such a fascinating film is that you learn a lot about Alex as a person and what drives him and why, as much as he can articulate it, he feels compelled to undertake such a risky climb.

The film crew, several other professional climbers, and his girlfriend Sanni, are also prominently featured. I found the fears of the film crew on his behalf and Sanni’s candor about their relationship and her concerns about how Alex communicates emotion added a richness and intimacy to the film. Highly recommend it!

A Star is Born
This is the fourth version or re-make of this film, this time starring Bradley Cooper who also directs it, and Lady Gaga. I’ve heard Lady Gaga sing a few times, but it was a new and amazing experience to see her develop in this part. The movie has lots of loud music and is as much a concert at times as it is a drama. Cooper stars as Jackson Maine, a popular singer on his way down, and Lady Gaga as Ally, the ingenue he discovers whose career quickly outstrips his.

I thought the film was a bit long and slow in parts, but appreciated that although Jackson lets her down repeatedly, Ally is never mean or nasty, but basically loving, not a side of celebrities that movies always depict. Go and you may leave humming the tune to “Shallow.”

EXHIBIT NOTES
Dorothea Lange’s America at Reynolda House Museum of American art
In North Carolina, this small gallery photography exhibit consists of a number of Lange’s portraits and scenes depicting poverty and hardship during the 1920’s and 30’s. Also included are photos by Walker Evans and others from the same period. What made the exhibit more meaningful for me were the longer explanations of context and setting on some of the labels. If you to to Winston-Salem, you can also tour the Reynolds home (he, the tobacco baron) and the attractive gardens on the property.

Delacroix at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The 18th century French painter, Eugene Delacroix, was a master draftsman. This small exhibit focuses on a variety of sketches and drawings he did in preparation for larger paintings. Several small watercolors are also included.

Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich:  The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922 at the Jewish Museum

This featured exhibit covers a short period in Russian art after the overthrow of the czar when Chagall and others founded an art school.  The dominant art movement was Suprematism, founded by Malevich, which used basic geometric shapes and a limited color palette in both painting and architecture.  Chagall soon drifted away from strict adherence to it.

FABULOUS PLAY!


Most everyone has seen one version or another of My Fair Lady and probably one of the film versions which has a happy ending, not part of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.  This new production at Lincoln Center is truly a My Fair Lady for our time. Lauren Ambrose is luminescent as Eliza Doolittle, who starts out as a lonely flower seller, but comes into her own as a woman by taking up Professor Higgins’ offer to pass her off as a lady.
The stage sets are amazing with a pointed contrast between Higgins’ elaborately designed house and the often bare stage on which Eliza sings or cavorts. Choreography is exuberant, occasionally to the point of boisterousness, as in Alfred Doolittle’s rousing rendition of “Get Me to the Church on Time,” complete with dancers in drag. Silver and lilac costumes in the Ascot scene are sumptuous and cooly elegant. All the songs and the singing are wonderful—both Eliza’s and the professor’s.

What might surprise you is how this production ends, but I won’t tell, except that it’s the right ending for today. Our performance featured a number of understudies including Tony Roach as Higgins and Joe Hart as Alfred Doolittle, and they were so good, I probably wouldn’t have known they weren’t the usual leads. If you have the chance, see it!

Note:  Header photo is of Delacroix’s A Moroccan Couple on Their Terrace, 1832.  Photos by JWFarrington.

Maine Time: Rockland & Reading

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UP TO ROCKLAND

After several years of good intentions, we finally made the relatively short drive north to Rockland to visit the Farnsworth Art Museum.  Rockland is a charming small town (worth a return visit on a cooler day) and the Farnsworth a gem.  Why did we wait so long to explore it?

Focused mainly on American art, current exhibits included a selection from their permanent collection, a special exhibit of stunning gold animal heads by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei (who attended Penn in 1981), as well as paintings by assorted Wyeths housed in a historic church building.  Paintings there are by father N. C. Wyeth, sons Andrew and Jamie, and their sister plus a brother-in-law.

Sunset II 2008 by Alex Katz
The Painted Room, 1982 by Lois Dodd
Rudy, 1980 by Alex Katz

The gallery spaces are all very attractive and flow nicely and the museum includes an equally inviting library open to the public.  The small museum store, which also opens directly onto Main Street, contains an attractive inventory of items beyond the usual note cards and scarves.

 

 

We broke up our museum tour with lunch across the street at the cozy Brass Compass Café and tucked into the best lobster rolls and French fries we’ve had yet this season.  It was really hot, above 90, and not a day to eat outside!

 

PAIRED HISTORICAL NOVELS

These two recent novels are set mostly in 1883-1885, one in Manhattan and the other in Philadelphia. In each, an unwed mother must deal with the consequences of giving birth without benefit of a spouse at a time when this stigma was life changing and possibly life threatening.

#14  The Address by Fiona Davis

This is the second of Ms. Davis’s three books, a writer whose distinctive shtick is using an historic building as a jumping off point for novels that combine mystery with a heroine in the past and one in the present day.  Her first novel, The Dollhouse, was about some of the young women who lived in the Barbizon Hotel. This one focuses on The Dakota, a huge apartment complex on the edge of civilization when it was completed in 1884, and which is still a residence today.  It’s a juicy read, perfect for a day at the beach.

In 1985, fresh out of rehab, interior designer Bailey Camden is trying to put her life back in order and has turned to her cousin Melinda Camden for support.  Bailey’s grandfather was Theodore Camden, an architect who worked on the Dakota.  Bailey is curious about her origins and seeks to learn more about the details surrounding Theodore’s death and the housekeeper, Sara Smythe, who murdered him. In interleaved chapters, we get Sara’s arrival from London to work at The Dakota, her attraction to the married Theodore, and her subsequent downfall, along with Bailey’s rough road to recovery and a renewed career.

The historical details on the building are fascinating, the characters mostly believable, and the mystery one you will probably solve before it’s revealed.  The book is fun–a bonbon for a summer’s day! (~JWFarrington)

 

#15  Lilli de Jong by Janet Benton

This first novel by journalist and teacher Benton is intense and both vivid and compelling.  In 1883, observant Quaker and schoolteacher Lilli de Jong surrenders her virginity to Johan, her fiancé, the night before he leaves Philadelphia for a new career in Pittsburgh.  When her father marries his cousin soon after the death of her mother and is barred from Quaker Meeting and when Lilli finds herself pregnant with no way to contact Johan, her life unwinds.  In disgrace, she leaves home and finds herself a place at a residence for unwed women, the first stop in her journey to survival.  Allowed to stay there only until a few weeks after the birth, she must decide how to live her life with or without her baby going forward. Structured as a journal in ten books, the novel is Lilli’s account of her struggles and her descent into poverty and squalor.  It is also one of the most poignant and penetrating accounts of motherhood and the love that binds mother and child.

In the author’s notes at the end, Benton describes how this book was conceived when she was pregnant with her own child and how it is also a tribute to Philadelphia, a city she loves.  She details the historical underpinnings of the buildings, streets, and institutions that appear in her 19thcentury city.  I found the book a moving account of one spirited and determined woman. (~JWFarrington)

All photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Upstate NY: Finger Lakes & Capital District

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  1. SNATCHES OF UPSTATE NY.

We spent this past week getting together with old friends, family and former colleagues as well as visiting old haunts and new venues. Lots of great hospitality along the way.   From Bethlehem, PA, we traveled to Skaneateles and Auburn and then on to Albany and Saratoga Springs.  It was a whirlwind of activity and dining.  Here are some of the highlights, but not all in the order we did them!

We had lunch at this popular cafe not far from the Albany Capitol Building.  Very tasty!

From there we visited the Albany Institute of History and Art, a museum the Chief Penguin had never visited in all his childhood visits to the city.  We toured the extensive exhibit of Hudson River School paintings.

Twilight by Frederic Church
Mount Aetna by Sarah Cole

 

 

 

Two views in downtown Albany with a very prominent sculpture of General Sheridan of Civil War fame.  Not sure what his connection with Albany was.

 

Harriet Tubman’s modest home in Auburn.  Several families lived here with her, primarily after the Civil War.  No indoor plumbing.

In Skaneateles, there is a lovely gazebo at the foot of the lake where you can stroll.

  

For dinner, we dined at Skaneateles’ most elegant spot, Mirbeau Inn. The setting is simply exquisite, the food not quite the equal.

 

 

 

 

One day we drove through Stillwater, where the C.P. spent the early years of his childhood, checked out one of the many canal locks in that area, and then ended up in Saratoga Springs for lunch at the lovely renovated Adelphi Hotel.   Saratoga has become quite the happening place—a lot different from the somewhat sleepy town it was in the 80’s! 

 

All photos ©JWFarrington.  Header photo is Skaneateles Lake.

 

 

 

 

 

Manhattan Notes: Dining et al

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UNEXPECTED EXHIBIT

The exhibit was titled, “Los Alamos” and mentioned to us by a good friend.  She has visited Los Alamos a number of times and was interested, but couldn’t get to the museum before the exhibit closed.  We were also interested and so went to the Metropolitan Museum  to see it.  It’s an exhibit of photos by American photographer William Eggleston.  

Eggleston was an early pioneer in the use of dye transfer photography with saturated intense colors, and this collection of his work is a recent gift to the museum.  But, although he named the collection, “Los Alamos,” it has nothing to do with that site.  Rather it is photos taken in the south and southwest, Memphis, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Georgia, in 1965-68 and from 1971-74.  They are a mix of stark urban landscapes and portraits of careworn individuals.  These galleries evoke a different era, but not Los Alamos.  While in the museum, we took a gander at some other art, hard not to, such as this Klimt of a 9-year old girl!

 

 

 

 

 

 

DINING DELIGHTS

Bistro Vendome

We like this comfortable French restaurant so much, we’ve dined there three times.  Our most recent meal began with oven-roasted bone marrow, not a dish we’d normally order.  But the maître d’ was so persuasive (his French accent and charm didn’t hurt) about how delicious and delectable it was that the Chief Penguin surrendered.  Said marrow was presented on a bed of wilted greens with a piece of toast on the side and for tools, a tiny fork and spoon. The idea was to scrape a bit of the marrow onto a bit of toast.  It was actually quite good!  

Following that starter, I sampled the grilled large shrimp served with a spinach flan on a puddle of lobster sauce.  The shrimp were excellent and the sauce rich while the flan would have benefited from a tad more nutmeg.  The C.P. indulged in hanger steak with fries and a tangle of arugula. The steak was tender and tasty, the fried the perfect thickness and crispness.  A lovely meal!

El Porron

This Spanish tapas restaurant has become another favorite.  It’s an attractive space and the staff are always most welcoming.  You can order full size entrees, but we’ve stuck to the tapas and been sated and satisfied.  The Serrano ham is lovely, the white asparagus a treat, the sea scallop treatment something different, and the patatas bravas (spicy potatoes) a must for the Chief Penguin.

Imli Urban Indian Food

If you have vegetarian tendencies or vegetarian friends, this contemporary space, which never seems to be crowded, is a great find.  We went on our own and then again with visiting family.  The samosas are some of the best I’ve ever had (the right ratio of flaky dough to filling), the saag paneer (spinach and that Indian cheese) silky and tasty, the potato stuffed peppers spicy, and the chicken curry, comfort food at its most soothing.   Lots of choices on this menu from small plate tapas to entrees.

EJ’s Luncheonette

This is a 1940’s style diner on the Upper East Side.  Formica tables, booths, and classic posters on the wall.  Service is friendly and there are daily blackboard specials like the meatloaf sandwich that the C.P. dug into!  

It came with truffle fries, very au courant, while my open face tuna melt included tomato slices; smothered with melted cheddar, it brought back memories of tuna melts of yore.  I think this restaurant rivals the Lenox Hill Grill and I’d be happy to return!

Bar Room at The Modern

For elegant dining and special occasions, The Modern offers exquisite cuisine.  You can dine in the restaurant proper, but we have usually opted for the Bar Room.  Both are pricy, but the restaurant is pricier.  The Bar Room is so popular, it is always full, and I have to admit, very loud at night.  There is an actual marble bar, and then bar seating adjacent to it which generates some of the buzz, but the floor is bare, the surfaces hard, and there is no fabric to dampen voices.

However, the food is marvelous!  We came this time for a belated birthday celebration and re-appreciated the quality. The lobster en croute with spinach and the chicken with foie gras tortellini were both delectable as was a starter of fennel and smoked salmon whimsically topped with chips.

ON THE SMALL SCREEN

Striking Out (Acorn)

We binge watched this Irish legal series.  Tara Rafferty leaves the Dunbar law firm after she finds Eric Dunbar, her fiancé, in a compromising situation, and strikes out on her own.  Her first office is the back area of a coffee shop.  When that becomes untenable, she shares office space with George, a brusque, opinionated female lawyer.  Although not her specialty, Tara takes up family law and finds herself in court, often opposing one of her former colleagues.

Figuring in the series are her mother, a former legal secretary; her father a judge; Ray, a petty criminal turned office manager for Tara; Richard Dunbar, Eric’s father and head of the firm, and Meg, a private investigator who doesn’t hesitate to work one side against the other.  Set in Dublin, it’s an absorbing look at the law on the other side of the Atlantic, complete with romantic entanglements.  Amy Huberman, who plays Tara, is likable and tougher than one might first think.  There are only two seasons thus far and Season 2 ends with a cliffhanger during Tara’s good friend Vincent’s big corruption case.  We want more!

 Note:  All photos by JWFarrington.  Header photo is Medallion quilt (1960) by Loretta Pettway in the Metropolitan Museum.