Category: Manhattan

Holiday Time in New York

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HOLIDAY IN NEW YORK

We’re back in the Big Apple and for us Floridians (guess we’ve become that), it’s cold. But so far no snow predicted, only some warm rain over the next few days. We’re eating at old and new restaurants and while the lure of the West Village is strong, we are working to get to know the Carnegie Hill neighborhood where we’re staying.

We haven’t yet been down to see the Rockefeller Center big tree, but are enjoying the Park Avenue mall of lighted Christmas trees, cold winter-white hanging stars and light-wrapped trees on Madison, and holiday-themed store windows.  It’s a magical time to be in this city—made even more so by the presence of two delightful granddaughters.

SCREEN TIME
While some of these movies are playing at home too, we like seeing films in New York.

Call Me by Your Name. This is a beautiful film and a sensitively drawn portrayal of an intense relationship, sexual, between a 17-year old youth and his father’s visiting scholar. It is summer in Italy and life moves at a lethargic pace with time for reading, reflecting, dining al fresco, and swimming in the river. Elio is lost and overwhelmed by his conflicting sexual desires. Oliver is attracted to Elio and makes a subtle overture, but waits for Elio to reveal himself. The film is leisurely in its pacing, and the relationship slowly unfolds as summer reaches its peak. Timothee Chalamet is superb as the youth and Armie Hammer as Oliver also very good.

DINING
 Many Upper East Side restaurants are traditional Italian or the expected Continental farm to table serving kale salad, organic chicken, avocado toast, and steak frites or braised short ribs. Paola’s on Madison has a buzzy vibe with seating at the bar, near the bar, and along the front windows where it might be a tad quieter. The endive salad with walnuts and Gorgonzola was a tasty rendition of this dish and the agnolotti with veal and spinach in a veal stock reduction with black truffles simply superb. Rigatoni with spicy sausage and porcini mushrooms was equally good. Despite the crowded dining room the night we were there, the service was efficient and done with style.

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

Manhattan Adventures

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WAITING OUT IRMA

We led a schizophrenic existence the past few days enjoying lovely sunny fall days in Manhattan while mentally anxious about Hurricane Irma’s path and the fate of our Florida home. We were some of the fortunate ones; by the time Irma reached us, she had lessened in intensity and the wind direction sent any potential storm surge away from our house. We did not suffer any damage, just a few downed trees and branches around our property, while many in our area are without power.  While we waited, we walked, ate, went to museums, and spent time with our granddaughters.

EAST SIDE VIBE

The Upper East Side is a new neighborhood for us as we’ve always stayed in midtown or the West Village in the past. We love the West Village, its irregular streets, its funkiness, its cutting edge restaurants, and its overall small burg feeling. But, there is life for us in the UES too. The streets, while straight and grid-like, are bustling with people and places to shop, and a European aspect to some blocks. The dining is mostly more traditional, Old World German or French bistro-style, with in between a Chinese or Vietnamese eatery. Lots of bakeries too. Where Italian food seems to predominate in the Village, here it’s French. Although we did discover Nicola’s, a family-friendly popular restaurant serving delicious Italian food.

MUSEUMS

Met Breuer

We are a short walking distance from Museum Mile on 5th Avenue and have visited two museums already. We had long ago been in the Met Breuer building when it was the home of the Whitney Museum, but not since then. Flora Bar, their coffee and pastry outpost, offers a wide selection of coffees and teas, but also a tasty slice of greens pie and an awesome sticky bun that has sugar on top, but is not too sweet. It’s a pleasant spot to while away the time.

We were less impressed with the one exhibit on display. A retrospective of furniture, ceramics, jewelry, and textiles by the designer Ettore Sottsass, it was challenging for those who had never heard of him. With label text written in high museumese, it was not nearly as accessible to a general audience as it could have been.

We bought a Met membership since that gives us entry to the big Met on 5th Avenue and The Cloisters as well as here; if, however, we had bought admission tickets for just this museum, we would have been disappointed that there wasn’t more to see.

Neue Galerie

My friend Patricia has been singing the praises of Neue Galerie for several years, both for their collection and for the luscious Viennese pastry at their Café Sabarsky. We went and were very impressed on both counts. Feeling relieved after Irma left us intact, we indulged in a celebratory lunch starting with champagne and ending with a shared slice of apple strudel. The Chief Penguin went the traditional route with bratwurst, German potatoes, and cole slaw while I had what might be called, the “ladies special.” It was a mound of delicate fresh crabmeat salad covered by a silky ripe half an avocado with a few micro greens and cherry tomatoes around it. Just perfect!

Concentrating on Austrian and German art from about 1880 to 1940, the museum’s permanent collection includes lots of Klimts and Schieles as well as works by other artists of the period. An especially beautiful work is Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer,” which Gallerie founder Ronald Lauder purchased in 2006. This study in gold was the subject of the excellent feature film, Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren.

“Woman in Gold” from Neue Galerie

We also appreciated seeing the first ever museum exhibit of works by Richard Gerstl, an Austrian painter known for his revealing portraits, both of himself and his musician friends. His early suicide, after an affair with Arnold Schonberg’s wife, resulted in his work being sent to a warehouse for many years.

Note:  All other photos by JWFarrington.

Art at the Whitney

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WHITNEY BIENNIAL.

The Whitney Biennial brings together works of art by a wide variety of artists (60+ this year, I believe), many of them young.  Most of the art is recent or new works and includes paintings, sculpture, and video.  Overall the art is strange, provocative, disturbing, and sometimes even realistic.  We did just one floor of this extensive exhibit and will have to return to see the rest.  Here are some samples of what we saw.

One section of a cube by Pope. L, you could walk into whose interior and exterior walls were all covered with these slices of bologna each one with the face of one individual Jew in New York.  Almost 2,800 of these slices representing a fraction of a percent of the Jews in the city.    Odd and slightly disturbing.

  Work by Jon Kessler

La Talaverita, Sunday Morning NY Times, 2016 by Aliza Nisenbaum

One of John Divola’s series of Abandoned Paintings.

Section of stained glass wall by Raul de Nieves.  In front of it were several life sized figures made of yard, fabric, beads and the like.

  Glimmer Glass, 2016 by Carrie Moyer

Rug, 2015 by Ulrike Muller

 

The Whitney’s outdoor terraces are a wonderful venue for large scale sculpture.  I was particularly taken with the series of red cubes within cubes graduated in the degree of transparency.  The sculptor is Larry Bell.  The header photo is another view of this captivating work.

Note:  All photos by JWFarrington.

Jaunting in Manhattan

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JAUNTING ALONG THE HUDSON

We have taken advantage of being only a block from the water to explore nearby Pier 45.  One evening at dusk, a group of young people were dancing to Brazilian tunes there while other folks sat on the lawn braving the cold breeze.   The other morning we walked the promenade from Pier 45 up to Pier 88 (where the big cruise ships dock), about 40 blocks each way. This promenade and its extension going south comprise part of Hudson River Park. Nicely landscaped with many grassy areas, lots of benches, café tables and chairs, and periodic restrooms along the way, it’s well designed for pedestrians, runners and bicyclists. A small stretch of our route was still in the process of being built out, but even so, there were clearly marked lanes for walkers and bikers.

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Soccer practice, anyone?
Soccer practice, anyone?
Sign reads: Monarch Way Station
Sign reads: Monarch Way Station

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BOOK UPDATE

Priestly Politics

On the recommendation of a good friend, I decided to try one of C. J. Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake mysteries. The first one, Dissolution, is set in 1537 in London and Sussex. At the direction of Thomas Cromwell, lawyer Shardlake travels to the Scarnsea monastery to investigate the murder of a royal commissioner who was there on an inspection tour. In the spirit of Protestant reform and as the head of the new Church of England, King Henry is actively working to close and dissolve all the Catholic monasteries.

Hunchback Shardlake is an intriguing character—smart and thoughtful, though not without his own biases; his protégé, Mark Poer, is young, naïve, and attractive; and more suspicious deaths occur. I found the book slow at first, but then got engaged and enjoyed the suspense and learning about this piece of English church history. There are four other books in the series thus far.

Advice for Boomers

Old Age: A Beginner’s Guide by Michael Kinsley.  I always liked watching Kinsley spar about politics and issues of the day as co-host of TV’s Crossfire. He was quick, witty, and cutting.  As most people know, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in his early 40’s, more than 20 years ago, and that eventually changed how he approached his professional work.   He is now 65 and his new book contains a lot of information about the disease (much of which I knew, but not all) and is intended as advice for the Baby Boomer generation. I found it less than satisfying, somewhat repetitive and not very helpful—perhaps that’s because I’ve already crossed the Medicare divide.

 

Header photo:  Plantings at Chelsea Piers

All photos by JWFarrington, some rights reserved