running errands on a hot summer day

i met sacha at peace food today. reina was supposed to join us but she is still dealing with a frustrating rash on her face. we're hoping it goes completely away soon!

peace food has the best tumeric ginger latte . . made with oat milk. they're supposed to be closing by the end of july. since we're leaving soon for the wedding, i wanted to get in another visit. if they do close this downtown location, i'll have to visit the uptown one.

i did a lot of errands today and walking around (returning library books, stopping at the health food store in the east village, printing out two knitting patterns i'm supposed to be working on, purchasing packing tape for packaging up a pair of loafers i'm returning to the quince company . . etc. i was supposed to print out a letter that i always tape to the kitchen cabinet for our cat sitter, but somehow i missed sending it from my computer at home. i'll have to return tomorrow! so much for errand consolidation.) anyway . . i was too hot and tired to make dinner so we went to chelsea market for tacos. chanda and i were hoping for chicken tacos, but the line is always too long! we had fish tacos instead (which are just as good).

greg loves taking this "secret" passage to the fish taco place.

shiny happy people

 

milly . . after eating one of the treats i keep in my pocket .. . it's so wonderful walking around the city now. everyone is so happy (due to the knicks winning the championship - i shared when they won on june 14th's post: at the beach). i've read accounts where reporters feel that the city hasn't been this lighthearted since before 9/11. i won't dispute that. there really is a special joy in the air.

greg and i had dinner at las mariscos (greg's favorite place) . . 

i continued my reading of the scarlet pimpernel while waiting for our food . . 

now that the basketball championship is over, the focus is on the world cup. i think argentina and brazil were playing here?

walking home . . it was a beautiful evening. i love summer's long days.

museum visit

 

greg and i visited the whitney today for their biennial show. i was looking specifically for two artists janet thought i would like, but i couldn't find them. i'll go back when it isn't as crowded. 

janet had mentioned this artist to me, jasmine sian. she works with paper deli bags, creating lacey motifs with an x-acto knife and painting living beings at the center with a very fine brush (often with only one bristle). it's difficult to see the center as the work is so fine and detailed. (a close up view can be found at this gallery's link which happens to have good photos of her pieces.)

another interesting art work? freely, haphazardly, naturally created? and flapping happily in the breeze.

i loved these large photographs taken from civic workers' buildings' windows by emilio martinez poppe . . 

the artist's words about his photographs . . 

now on our way to chelsea market . . it was cold and grey today!

everyone was bundled up.

shrimp and fish tacos with pineapple celery juice.

the clouds on the way home were like frosted glass . . 

last friday at the rubin

greg and i visited the rubin museum this evening as they were having a special "good-bye" party. there was a good sized crowd for it.

uber rat, 2023, by shushank shrestha, ceramic and in-glaze lustre.

we walked up to the top floor as i wanted to see the piece chanda and i had participated in one last time.

field of wishes by sonam dolma brauen, with copper stupa in the center . . 

"i truly hope my art can create change. i know my art might only have a small impact, but i feel a strong responsibility for the mark i leave behind. with the limited time i have in this world, i promise to give my best effort."

video from the workshops showing how the artist painted and shaped the tsatsa . . 

and how participants wrote out wishes, inserted them into the clay, and shaped and tapped the clay out from the copper mold. (workshops chanda and i participated in can be seen here and here; and this post has the opening night of the exhibit with the tsatsa ceremony.)

this is a short video from the opening of the exhibit in which chanda and i can be seen pounding the clay into our tsatsa molds (you see only our backs).

i stopped at a table to write down a memory of picking oranges with my uncle (they had journals in which people shared stories of encountering important aromas in their lives) and then observed a group of women creating a story together . . 

calling the earth to witness, 2023, imagine/sneha shrestha, acrylic on masonite, steel.

everyone has fun banging on the gongs, each one designed by a different artist.

and on our way out we passed one of my favorite pieces in the museum, wrathful activity/fierce energy, 2018, shesad dawood, neon on black painted board.

(on the sidewalk outside of the museum was a group of demonstrators requesting that the shrine room artifacts be returned to tibetan and himalayan communities. i think the museum has returned a few items it held, but the shrine room pieces are being transferred to the brooklyn museum for six years. maybe within the coming years they will be able to have them returned.)

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we walked along 17th street . . 

to los mariscos in chelsea market . . 

for tacos (and brought two home for chanda who was in the lab working with her tardigrades).