sunday morning poem and brunch with ron and andy

praise the rain

praise the rain; the seagull dive

the curl of plant, the raven talk--

praise the hurt, the house slack

the stand of trees, the dignity--

praise the dark, the moon cradle

the sky fall, the bear sleep--

praise the mist, the warrior name

the earth eclipse, the fired leap--

praise the backwards, upward sky

the baby cry, the spirit food--

praise canoe, the fish rush

the hole for frog, the upside-down--

praise the day, the cloud cup

the mind flat, forget it all--

praise crazy. praise sad.

praise the path on which we're led.

praise the roads on earth and water.

praise the eater and the eaten.

praise beginnings; praise the end.

praise the song and praise the singer.

praise the rain; it brings more rain.

praise the rain; it brings more rain.

by joy harjo, (born 1951 and served as the 23rd united states poet laureate for three terms)

----

we met ron and andy at friedman's on 35th and 10th avenue at noon for brunch. (there's always a short line that moves quickly.) afterwards, we walked back to their apartment to see photos from their london trip in may, stopping at the little pie company for an apple sour cream walnut pie for a late celebration of andy's birthday which was may 25th. (for the actual day they did a short trip from london to paris on the train.) 

the view looking east from their terrace.

getting ready for the "slide" show . . 

birthday wishes!

old photographs . . 

the four of us in 1990 when we helped move them into their current apartment . . 

when in london they spent a few days sight seeing with morgan . . 

tea at the wolseley with harley and morgan . .

tea by the english tea bus!

at the mithraeum museum . . 

the albion waves exhibit at the museum, by oliver beer (you can hear him talk about this particular exhibit on the museum website) . . it's a very intriguing and beautiful piece working with historic british vessels and the sounds that exist within them.

at the globe theatre for a tour . .

and having fun with costumes at a special exhibit in the victoria and albert museum . . 

and one of my favorite photos of morgan and andy just chatting by the st. paul's cathedral bus stop . . 

babysitting and dinner with clyde

i was out early this morning to watch aurélien at the playground while kendall sat in the car as the street cleaner went by, and sairy, her nanny, attended a special caregiver meeting at aurélien's preschool. i took this photo of him climbing over the bars, and he lost his grip immediately after and crashed to the ground. he was rather upset and i thought i had totally messed up the morning by taking pictures and not watching him properly, but thankfully he calmed down.

caregiver gloria was very good at making sure the children took turns pushing and riding, and also made sure they steered properly. as a parent my patience with this hot wheel car would be very short (later when talking with kendall, she concurred with this sentiment - that many of the parents wanted this hot wheel car to disappear).

 

afterwards, i walked to joe coffee on 13th street, just east of fifth avenue for a decaf mocha, and then went to michael's craft store to look at picture frames. clyde gave us one of his drawings years ago and i've always meant to frame it. morgan called while i was there and i sent a pic of this cute bulldog advertisement. morgan just moved with harley to a new apartment in soho and there is currently a lot of drilling in the street below them as the city is installing fiber optic cable. one of their new neighbors relayed the information that the wifi wasn't good in the building, so i think they're both happy that in a few months they will have new service.

i picked this frame for the time being as the drawing is an unusual size and wouldn't fit in anything i saw. i'm considering eventually having a custom frame made. i think clyde calls this drawing space bunnies.

peonies and eucalyptus from korrina and chanda . . they smell wonderful. i love the scent of eucalyptus.
 

the dinner crew, along with clyde's friend paul whom he has been staying with for this visit.

 

we had hamburgers and hot dogs (korrina cooked them so they came out perfect) with the infamous dilly brown rice salad from the cookbook, feeding the whole family, along with a green salad. 

korrina and i sat and talked for a bit after everyone left (chanda has one last paper to finish for school by midnight tomorrow). she has a bag filled with groceries from trader joe's on the bench beside her as she stopped to shop on her way over. they have the best prices these days; everywhere else has become so expensive.

cricket and zuzu wandered back and forth sniffing everything and jumping up to lick the plates in the sink. i've given up trying to keep them from doing so. everything goes into the dishwasher anyway, though it hasn't been working very well (the door has trouble locking in and the dishes sometimes are still gritty after a cycle). i have to go start it now and i hope it doesn't give me any trouble.

artist's talk

a knitting friend/acquaintance who owns a yarn company curated an art exhibition at a gallery she manages. greg and i attended the opening night event, and this evening i attended a talk with the two exhibiting artists. (tricycle magazine has an article on their website that you can read here.)

the discussion was held in a sunny, skylit room with about 30 people. it was a quiet and peaceful atmosphere and the artists shared how they have been influenced by their dreams. michela martello who created the ceramic vases, described dreaming of the dalai lama when she was a child which placed her on the path to learning about buddhism, and years later meeting tibetan artist rabkar wangchuk in tibet. rabkar shared how the paintings for the current exhibit were influenced by the recent death of his mother and by the covid crisis, and by his younger years living as a child with buddhist monks. the words he chose to describe his inspiration are love, trust, compassion, peace and fate. he believes in a morning purifying ritual of meditation and talked about how the ordinariness of life influences his work: riding the subway, getting coffee from  his local coffee shop, hearing the stories of his uber customers as he drives them to their destinations. an audience member asked him how he chose to leave the monastery and he said he felt he needed the freedom of the outside to grow as an artist. he needed the wider world. his teacher said to him, you are not a monk, rabkar, but you will practice buddhism, it will go wherever you go and it will give you peace. he strives to reach people and enjoys humor amongst the intricacies of life. the cartoon characters interspersed within the many details of his paintings reflect that care he has to share peace amidst sadness. it's his way of reaching out to people and creating connection within the loneliness of painting. michela mentioned this also, the intimacy of working with her clay, but also the aloneness of it.

it's warming up

today was a beautiful spring day. the daffodils were all in bloom by the laundry room (where i put in a load of towels). i walked up to the whole foods in chelsea to see if the store had a spiral ham to take to my sister's for easter. i used to shop often at this whole foods but stopped when it was taken over by amazon as they made changes to the atmosphere of the store which rendered it a little cold and dreary. it wasn't any different today. many of the items were the same, but it didn't feel friendly inside and there weren't many people shopping (it used to always be incredibly busy). i bought the ham and then walked over to trader joe's on sixth avenue for a sunnier and more fun shopping time. of course it was quite crowded, but the check out line moved quickly and the workers were their usual cheery selves, so it didn't matter.

there was a cool breeze but the sun was warm so it felt great to be out walking. 

when i got back home i finished listening to this cd this which my parents had bought for the girls years ago. i've been listening while knitting on the wave of change blanket. it's about 16 inches square now.

here are several beautiful design work photos morgan sent me:

 

at the ballet

i had a ticket to see the two pm performance at new york city ballet this afternoon. i was able to get a seat in the first ring for $35. the low price was because it was partial view. i was on the far side of house right, so stage left was a little cut off.

the company had artist lauren redniss draw portraits of the people who work backstage for the ballet. she interviewed and drew over one hundred people, including ushers, engineers, dress makers, ballet masters, call center operators, etc. she writes in the program: "some have been part of nycb for over half a century. others are the third generation in their family to work at the ballet. still others joined the ballet only this past fall." she goes on to tell about a few of the people she drew and how they feel about working at the ballet. it's an inspiring exhibition and i look forward to seeing more of the drawings when i return in a week to see swan lake! there is a vimeo video about the project, which you can see here, and the playbill article is here.

 out on the balcony at intermission . . 

 looking over the plaza . . it was a beautiful sky today.

 getting ready for justin peck's bright, set to composer mark dancigers' the bright motion: II (very beautiful and lyrical).

 lauren lovette and taylor stanley taking their bows after dancing jerome robbins' opus 19/the dreamer, music by prokoviev. 

the first piece on the program was christopher wheeldon's polyphonia, which chanda says we saw the royal ballet do several years ago. the dance was set to ten piano pieces by composer györgy legeti. the last piece on the program was a new work by alexei ratmansky, featuring spoken voices with a dissonant musical overlay (austrian composer peter ablinger's voices and piano - he has about eighty voices whose recordings he has composed to; ratmansky uses six). i kept trying to understand what was being said, but along with the piano it wasn't possible. one had to let go and just enjoy the chaos of words, music and movement.

 i met greg afterwards at moustache, a middle eastern restaurant that has the best hummus and babaghanouj, and then we checked on minerva as my friend kendall is away.

i brought home baklava for dessert!

december photo project: december 22nd

 on the way back from having a hot chocolate with my friend janet, we passed the hudson park library branch . . 

 i think a group of buildings grew up around the library as it extends from varick street/seventh avenue through to leroy street.

the seventh avenue side has a paper art work display. i don't know anything about the artist behind its creation . .

 but it's a lovely little exhibit . . 

 of paper animals large and small . . 

walking beside a city scene . .