Category: Memoirs

Manhattan: Food, Art, & Drama

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SPLURGE-WORTHY DINING

The Modern

In a delayed celebration of our anniversary, we dined at The Modern, the restaurant next to the Museum of Modern Art.  With a table by the window, we looked out at MoMA’s sculpture garden and December’s bare trees. Lunch was a three-course prix fixe. Everything was beautifully plated and delicious.  I opted for the cold lobster salad with citrus and burrata followed by sea bass with some agnolotti and then a cheese course. 

Lobster salad
Roast chicken & sweet potato cake

The Chief Penguin had hamachi over basil to start and then roast chicken on a sweet potato cake followed an elegant lime parfait.  Service was impeccable, and we enjoyed chatting with our young waitress.  This is a wonderful venue for special occasions!

MATISSE AND MORE

Hanging Out at MoMA

The other morning, we walked down to W. 53rd Street and spent a most pleasant hour exploring several exhibits.  We headed first to the 3rd floor for a look at Matisse’s Cut-Outs: A Celebration, works from late in his career.  These paper cutouts are amazing.  His paper “stained glass” window, Christmas Eve (Nuit de Noel) has vibrant colors, but the glass version he had crafted is most impressive and so luminous. 

Christmas Eve, Matisse, in glass

Also of note are the figures he did for his swimming pool.  Rather than add a swimming pool to his home, he created blue leggy figures and adhered them to a band of paper around the perimeter of his dining room.  The overall effect was feeling like being in the water.

The Swimming Pool, Matisse, 1962
Rothko, No. 16, 1958 (Black, Red, Brown)

Leaving Matisse behind, we looked at some works from the permanent collection from around the world.  I was struck by the muted intensity of Mark Rothko’s No. 16 (Red, Brown, and Black) and by the mysterious figures underlying Blue Composition, c.1966-68, by Ethiopian artist Alexander “Skunder” Boghossian.  There appears to be both a horse and the snout of an alligator or crocodile. 

Detail, Blue Composition
Detail, No Shade but His Shade

And No Shade but His Shade by Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi is a compelling work all in browns including a man’s head with a bird perched on his scalp.

LIVE DRAMA

Left on Tenth (James Earl Jones Theatre)

I read Delia Ephron’s memoir, Left on Tenth, when it came out and was pleased when I saw that she was writing a script and working with Good Wife TV star Julianna Margulies.  The Chief Penguin and I went to the play and enjoyed it immensely.  The cast is small, just four people; Margulies and Peter Gallagher as the leads, two others who play cameo parts, and two dogs.  It is a story of newfound love, but it’s also about serious illness, specifically leukemia.  (A variety of that same disease took the life of Delia’s sister Nora.)

While one might expect this to be a depressing drama, it is not.  Yes, there are sad and tense moments, but there is joy and lightness.  The staging consists of a simple set, minor costume changes, and creative lighting and projection to change the mood or the season.  Margulies carries the work, projecting a full range of emotions, while Peter Francis James in brief roles as a friend, a gruff doctor, and a waiter adds a bit of humor and dance. 

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Header photo of trees for sale along 3rd Avenue.

Carolina Moments: Reading, Wandering & Eating

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It seemed appropriate with the upcoming election to be reading this week about Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

On our latest Raleigh Ramble, we stopped by the Raleigh Capitol and admired some historic architecture. Add in a good meal and the result is a most satisfying combination of food for mind and body.

RECENT READING

Ketanji Brown Jackson (wikipedia.com)

MEMORABLE BIOGRAPHY: Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson

In Lovely One, the newest Supreme Court Justice and the first Black woman justice provides an intimate account of her upbringing and her career.  It is both poignant and heartwarming.  Ketanji Brown Jackson’s parents bore the scars of pre-civil rights days. But they were smart and determined individuals who became schoolteachers.  They instilled strong values in their daughter, gave her an important appreciation of her African heritage, and spurred her to do her best and excel.  

Jackson shares her experiences of frequently being the only Black person in her classroom or workplace.  While popular in high school, and both a class leader and a star on the debate team, she was always conscious of her difference.  Although she had studied in largely white environments, her first year at Harvard without any family nearby was hard and isolating.  Nonetheless, she excelled, later returning to Harvard for her law degree and serving as an editor on the Harvard Law Review.

Meeting Patrick Jackson, husband to be, was transformative for her.  Together they faced the challenges of an interracial marriage between two individuals from very different social classes and navigated the complexities of demanding, high-powered careers.  Jackson is candid about the stresses of motherhood while working in a big law firm with a husband putting in his own long hours in surgery. 

I found this memoir more personal than others I’ve read about public figures.  I particularly enjoyed learning about Jackson’s various mentors from her high school debate coach to the judges she worked for, to her stint as a clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer.  She is generous in her accounts even while occasionally noting someone’s shortsightedness.  

Overall, this is a very good read and gives one a fuller appreciation of what is required to be an effective judge.  Recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

RALEIGH RAMBLE #3

AROUND THE CAPITOL

This week our short ramble, Abroad at Home, included historic architecture, a fun shop, and food.  We started outside the North Carolina Capitol building and noted its soaring World War II memorial.  

Across from the Capitol is the history museum (on the list for a future visit) flanked by various banners including this relevant one about voting.  

Walking on, I was impressed by two churches in different architectural styles.  First Baptist Church, organized in 1812, opened in 1859 in a Gothic Revival style building designed by English architect, William Percival. This cream stuccoed building is scored to give it the appearance of stone.  Its lovely spire is 160 feet tall. 

First Baptist Church
First Presbyterian Church

Just down the block, also on Salisbury St,. is the red brick First Presbyterian Church. Established in 1816, this church building, although renovated several times, dates to 1900.  It has a very present bell tower and is in the Romanesque Revival style.

Interior of Lucettegrace

In our stroll, we also encountered Deco, a slightly funky colorful shop with everything from greeting cards to occasional dishes and the like, and Lucettegrace, a welcoming patisserie with punches of yellow.  I bought several cards in Deco, and the Chief Penguin succumbed to some treats for breakfast at the bakery.   

TAPAS FOR LUNCH

On our way to our lunch destination, we took a slight detour and purchased toffee at Videri Chocolate Factory.  

Lunch at an outside table at Barcelona Wine Bar in the Dillon was all we had hoped it would be.  A warm welcome and efficient waitstaff— even to the point of arranging umbrellas to ward off the noontime sun!  Plus, a fun menu of choices.  We are not particularly fond of brunch, so were pleased to find tapas that didn’t include eggs.  

The patatas bravas, a must order for the Chief Penguin, was a generous plateful.  We loved the piquillo peppers stuffed with goat cheese, the spiced beef empanadas, and the ham and manchego croquetas.  We also sampled the salt cod bunuelos (round fritters on a chive aioli).   Add in a glass of red or white Spanish wine and you have a very tasty meal!

We miss our favorite tapas restaurant in Manhattan (closed after Covid) and are delighted to have this gem close by!

TRICK OR TREAT!

Ready for Halloween in the park!

Note: All unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Carolina Comments: Park, Drama, & Book

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OUT AND ABOUT:  POCKET PARK IN CARY

Kay Struffolino Park

The Meeting Place

Initially, this parklet on the edge of downtown was named “Meeting Place Park” for the sculpture in its center. Later it was renamed in honor of Kay Struffolino, a long-time Cary resident and active volunteer with the town’s parks and recreation and the cultural arts. 

The Meeting Place is a ceramic sculpture house by Danish artist Nina Hole (1941-2016) commissioned by the town.  Building and firing it involved 36 volunteers and 175 hours over three weeks from mid-October to early November 2012.  

From the town website: Her method of using slabs as modular building blocks enable her to make very larger sculptures which she raku fires in situ wrapping the structure in a blanket of high temperature refractory fabric that acts as the kiln during the firing. She uses a number of assistants and considers the process, including the stimulating communal experience of working with a group of people, as important as the final product. Fired through the night, the spectacular effect of the glowing form as it is unwrapped is the peak moment of the event. 

Kay Struffolino Park

VIEWING: A BROTHEL IN WARTIME

Madame K (Prime Video & PBS)

Mr. Metsla and Mrs. Kukk (rmpbs.org)

In this dramatic series, a group of young women with diverse backgrounds work in an elite brothel run by Mrs. Kukk aka Madame K.  The setting is an elegant villa in Tallinn, Estonia, beginning in October 1939.  Foreign Ministry Counselor, Mr. Metsla, friend and suitor to Mrs. K., is instrumental in moving the brothel to this house.  Their clients include Baltic Germans and then high-ranking Russians.  New girls are added, the war intensifies, dark secrets are revealed, and events at hand take on a deeper, somber tone.  

The 10-part series is in Estonian with subtitles and presents yet another facet and face of WWII. Recommended!

READING:  CARRYING ON AFTER A SUDDEN DEATH

Us, After:  A Memoir of Love and Suicide by Rachel Zimmerman

When Rachel Zimmerman’s 50-year-old husband, without any warning, jumped off a bridge, she was both devastated and worried for her two daughters, ages 8 and 11.  Seth was a noted and driven robotics professor; Zimmerman a seasoned reporter who worked for the Wall St. Journal at one time. 

Trained to be observant, Zimmerman becomes hyper focused on looking for answers to why he did it: contacting experts, raising many questions, and, along the way, excavating the layers of their courtship and their marriage.  Simultaneously, she embraces parenthood and seeks to be both mother and father to her girls.  

In part, the book is an exploration of one’s public persona versus one’s private self, Seth’s especially, but also her own.  A no-holds-barred discussion of their lives, it describes how she and her resilient girls re-surface and re-engage with the world.  It is raw reading at points, but ultimately uplifting as this threesome moves forward. (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo is a close-up of the sculpture in Kay Struffolino Park. All unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Carolina Capers: Vicars, Trains & More

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VIEWING: VICARS AND CRIME

Grantchester Season 9 (PBS)

On set, Robson Green (Geordie) & Rishi Nair (Vicar Alphy Kottaram) (pbs.org)

Life in the village of Grantchester rolls on, and Vicar Will Davenport, with some hesitation, accepts a new job offer.  He and Bonnie and their kids will move to Newcastle.  

The Chief Penguin and I watched the entire season of eight episodes, and we think it’s an excellent one. Episodes 1 and 2 do provide murders to solve, but they more significantly focus on Will’s decision to leave and how that is unveiled to Geordie and others in the community.  These episodes present a wonderful depiction of male friendship, both the complex yet deep relationship between Will and Geordie and Will’s strong bond with former curate Leonard.  

From this poignant and moving departure, the series continues with the arrival of new vicar, Alphy Kotteram, whose initial welcome is cool to tepid.  Women’s roles, or more specifically, women’s place in society, come to the fore as evidenced by cantankerous yet devoted Mrs. C. demonstrating her loyalty, Cathy struggling with midlife issues, and Miss Scott in the police department assisting in the murder investigations.  

Grantchester has been renewed for yet another season.  Recommended!

TRAIN RIDE THROUGH THE WOODS

New Hope Valley Railway

This past week, we went on an outing to nearby Bonsal about 20 miles south of Cary.  From Bonsal, you can ride a train on historic track for 4 miles to nearby New Hill.  A locomotive pulls airy passenger cars through leafy woods of pines and deciduous trees.  There is not a lot to see, but the trip is a pleasant meander.  

The most action is at New Hill when the locomotive engine uncouples from the front of the train, runs on a parallel track, and then couples up with what was the back of the train for the return to Bonsal.  The whole trip takes just under an hour.

Engine on the parallel track

An all-volunteer enterprise, the railway goes all out for holidays with flying witches at Halloween and Frosty the Snowman and Santa around or on board in December.  Gina, the brake woman in our car, overflowed with details about the these preparations.

Also on site is a gift shop, of course, a range of antique train cars, and an elaborate G Scale model train layout that is mesmerizing for all ages.  We enjoyed sampling this North Carolina attraction and know that it would appeal to many folks’ grandchildren!

READING—NOT ON MY SUMMER LIST

A Poet’s Memoir

You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith

(nytimes.com)

I like memoirs and read a good review of this book, so put it on my birthday wish list. Prior to reading it, I had not heard of poet Maggie Smith nor was I aware of her 2016 poem, Good Bones, that went viral after the horrible shooting at the gay nightclub in Orlando.

Other memoirs have dealt with marriage break-ups and the challenges of parenting as one and not two.  What Smith does in You Could Make This Place Beautiful is unique; her memoir is made up of snippets of life, questions one could pose, and a play within the memoir.  

The reader gets raw, painful episodes of hurt and anger along with accounts of the joys she shares with her young daughter and son.  She discovered her husband’s infidelity on a postcard; she dubs herself the Finder in her drama scenes and he The Addressee.  Throughout her musings are some sections that recur like “A Note on Plot”, or “A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question” where one time the text reads: “Then what is mine? how to forgive or “how to remain myself.”

Smith reiterates that this is not a tell-all book, but rather a “tell-mine.”  She omits certain scenes and specifics yet delves into her early life, their courtship, and their marriage.  Ultimately, she believes her view of her professional life and his view of it, her work vs. his work, colored their relationship, and ignited its fracturing.  

None of this is written in a linear way as she reflects, revisits issues, revises her thinking, consults and quotes other writers, and shares her experiences with her therapists. At one point, she states that she had hoped to have more levity on the page to offset the sadness and hurt.  She studies and revises her view of herself again and again as she works to become, I would phrase it, a more fully integrated person.  

There is an immediacy here; some issues, such as finalizing the divorce drag on in litigation as she writes.  Her children also take turns on take center stage as she ponders their futures, mourning the fact that their father moved out of state, limiting their access to him. The depth of her love for these two resilient kids is clear.  

There is pain on the page and yet, there is a magnetic quality about the writing (her poet’s eye for precision, e.g.) that kept me glued to the text.  Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)