a cafe lunch, a yarn package and a guitar concert

my friend jeanette called me this week to see if we could get together. she had been away all summer in ospedaletti, a beautiful town on the italian riviera where she and her husband have a lovely little condo overlooking the ligurian sea. we both couldn't believe that it was already october and we hadn't met up.

 so she asked me to meet her at vicoletti's, a new italian restaurant that opened just this spring on 17th street by union square.

it's a lovely place and their affogato is even better than eataly's! we had a delicious lunch and it was wonderful to catch up on all the summer and autumn news. her daughter will be going into high school next year and they are in the process of looking for a good school . . not an easy task as it involves meetings and open houses and tests and portfolios and essays. they are very busy.

it was a beautiful sky that greeted me on the way home.

the hibiscus are still in bloom.

 yarn! i couldn't resist joining kate davies' yarn club. i've been reading her blog for almost six years i think, and i love her designs. she recently joined with a local textile company to develop her own yarn line. she had a marvelous time observing the dyeing process (you can read about it here). so, today the yarn arrived! the colors are beautiful and i can't wait to get started!

 oh! what's this! shhhhhhhh . . christmas surprises!

kate's yarn club tote bag!

 so, after the excitement of the yarn packages, i met chanda at her ballet school and we took the subway downtown to the winter garden theatre for a third street guitar concert. during last winter, while morgana was away, an email came saying that there was going to be a special concert featuring 100 guitars! well, it turned into 121 guitars in celebration of third street music school's 121 years of teaching in the east village and two weeks before the actual concert morgana finally signed on to be a part of it. talk about leaving things for the last minute!

 the winter garden theatre looks out over the hudson river. it's a beautiful sight.

 checking out instagram while waiting for the concert to begin.

 here is morgana, ready to go.

 palm trees in the indoor winter garden theatre . . 

 so vast! this picture is taken from the upstairs food court. there's also a food court downstairs. both were recently renovated and they are spectacular.

okay. the piece they did was composed by david lang via a questionnaire he handed out to his musicians. it's abstract and dissonant and you'll get the full drift by one minute into the movie. it's nice . . but it feels a bit long to me. ha!

 it was really wonderful to hear her perform. she had a great time and we all enjoyed our walk home together.

 the french fry freedom tower looking majestic in the humid air . . i've come to really love this building. i love it's classical qualities and how it twinkles at twilight.

the changing leaves on the trees took us back to the november 2008 elections when morgana danced in the limon company's day on earth. i remember walking home that night beneath the golden leaves with the river heaving next to us just as it was this evening, and thinking, what a beautiful night.

tour de force

 morgana had her guitar recital this evening. i asked her if she wanted me to video it and she said no. she felt that there would be too many mistakes. well . . there weren't! at least not that i could tell, or the audience. she received a lot of "bravos" and whistles. her teacher felt it went well also. he thought she reached another level with her playing. it was really nice to hear.

 i think she was pleased . . though she pretended not to be.

 with her teacher, nadav.

on the way home . . it was cold out! too cold for ice cream . . (which chanda tried to talk me into getting . . ).

into brooklyn and a concert at carnegie hall

chanda and i drove into brooklyn this morning to pick up korrina and go shopping at the coop together.

 it was a lot of fun driving through different neighborhoods. brooklyn is so vast! she lives on a lovely street with big beautiful trees and pretty houses and apartment buildings. going from neighborhood to neighborhood as we drove to the coop was incredibly interesting and fun; especially as we neared our old neighborhood and began recognizing the streets we always passed returning from being out of town. they planted trees on vanderbilt avenue down the center of the two lanes. it really looks nice. we did a quick (and large!) shop at the coop and then we dropped korrina off at her job interview. she trailed at a restaurant in cobble hill in the kitchen. we found out this evening that she liked it so much she accepted their job offer and will start work on tuesday. she'll first work for two more weeks at her old place every sunday and monday, and then be full time at . . . (drum roll please) . . van horn.

on the way, along flushing avenue, we passed this church amidst mechanic shops and industrial work buildings. all the residential buildings are along the streets branching off. i researched online and found out that it's all saint's parish of brooklyn built in 1894 for a german immigrant community that had been together since 1868. the windows now depict the site in tepeyac, mexico where many believe st. juan domingo met the virgin of guadalupe, reflecting the new immigrant population that has replaced the old. it's nice that the congregation has continued.

in the evening we attended morgana's guitar orchestra concert in the weill recital hall at carnegie hall. it was a very nice concert, but i'm still confused as to who sponsored it and how her music school, third street, was connected with the sponsoring organization. there were original student compositions played by the faculty, and original compositions by dina koston and harold meltzer (who was there). i think someone was connected with the dina koston young artists program and third street and decided to get the students together. what's funny is that i can't find any information about what the dina koston young artist's program is. hmmmmmm . .  i guess i'd like to know whose idea it was and how he or she got everyone together . . just . . . curious!

----

eva just found a website that explains more about dina koston and the young artists program which is dedicated to enriching the rehearsal and performance experience in a young musician's life. dina named the sponsoring fund after her husband, roger shapiro. you can read about it here.

 inside the weill recital hall . . 

 morgana has always wanted to play in an "orchestra" so this was special for her.

the pieces they performed were electric counterpoint by steve reich, and cuban landscape with rain by leo brouwer.

here's a video they sent out to promote the "sheer pluck orchestra:"

in the city

we were on the road early this morning to return m and c to a macbeth rehearsal. their friend's dad found a theatre for them (through personal connections he has!) on 42nd street that they are using for several hours for the performance. there's a lot for them to do and they're at the point where they have to choose which problem is more important to focus on: stage blood, last minute prop selections, scene difficulties, full runthroughs . . they've been working once a week for several months now. no matter how large the obstacles, i think it'll be a great show. (the above photo is of the french fry tower - sorry, just can't bring myself to call it the freedom tower - basking in the glow of tonight's setting sun. i'm actually beginning to like this absurdity).

i was home in time to walk jack and find a parking spot, which was a great relief to me. (it's always unpleasant driving around and around waiting for one to open, and coming home to a dog accident). we'll go back for our usual february/march visit next week, but i'll also probably be doing more frequent visits to help keep bills in order and see what work needs to be done around the house. my parents are quite elderly now and it's a difficult transition for my sister and me since they are quite far away. our daily and weekly routines are disrupted and neither one of us wants to leave our own home. of course this whole situation has been painful for my mom and dad. it's just not an easy adjustment . . . or journey at this point, though i know my sister and i are grateful for the beautiful home they've always kept open for us to visit whenever we wanted. if they had lived up the block from either one of us, we would never have enjoyed the continual beauty of the town they chose to make their final home.

on another note, morgana had a guitar concert this evening. she played bach's prelude (one of my favorite pieces) and a new quartet piece titled chasing dragons.

tuning up . . 

on the way home, hungry and tired.

what we did on korrina's birthday while she worked all day

 the past few days have actually been kind of warm . . but today felt cold and we finally had hot chocolate since chanda received a dagoba hot chocolate mix for her birthday. nice! we also got to have it with leftover pignoli cookies.

 the gingko trees are the last to lose their beautiful golden leaves. the trees on 46th street looked especially spectacular today.

 chanda and i were there to visit the yumiko store.

 she received a gift certificate from greg and i for her birthday, so we went to pick out a leotard.

she picked out a plain black one so she can wear it in class everyday.

actually, we ordered one also!! as a christmas gift . . ! it will have long sleeves with a scoop necklane and beige trim. the one in the store looked very pretty on her but they only had a medium and she needed a small.

 morgana had a guitar concert which she forgot about completely because she had callbacks for the homeschooling musical production just a few hours before. it was a good thing greg remembered.

she played a new bach piece. it's very beautiful but she was worried since she hadn't played in a few days . . she's been so wrapped up in the play auditions . .

 on the way home we walked by charlie mom chinese restaurant and stopped for dinner since there had been no time to cook . . as i was at the concert . .

guitar master class

morgana had a master class this evening at her music school. the teacher was marco capelli who is a specialist in playing leo brouwer. he worked with her on singing the piece to fully listen and absorb the notes, and he had her pick up the tempo. she played it more beautifully than i had ever heard. i think it was also helpful for her to work in front of an audience. she was able to relax and just play, and not worry about everyone watching her.

a rainy day, a dance intensive, and a guitar recital

 chanda began her joffrey dance intensive this morning. it was cool and rainy and we left early enough to take the river walk to tribeca. the intensive is at dance new amsterdam on chambers street, between broadway and centre streets. we hadn't had enough time to make her a sandwich before leaving, but were lucky to find a nice coffee shop on chambers street where she got a turkey and brie sandwich with lettuce and honey mustard dressing.

 all the homeschoolers from her class were there, and they were happy as clams to be together again. she'll have technique, pointe and stretch in the morning, and afternoons will alternate with horton technique, flamenco, hip hop, and theatre dance/jazz.

 back at home it rained while i took a nap, before calling pet crematories to decide where to take xena.

 morgana had a guitar recital this evening. it was the most chaotic recital we have ever been to at third street in all the years the girls have been attending! i didn't record morgana's solo only because a toddler was having a tantrum during it. you could hear the poor dear wailing out in the hallway after her flustered parent took her out.

 

i did get part of the quartet piece:

guitar recital

 chanda picked cherry blossoms to grace our table . . 

and morgana had a guitar recital this evening . .

traipsing about town with christine: museum run and a guitar recital

after visiting brooklyn general, we all went our separate ways. korrina stayed on the F train to 14th street to go to her guys and dolls rehearsal, chanda got off at west fourth for her ballet class, and morgana rode with us to 59th street, where she got off for her class. christine and i continued to 81st street, amnh . . american museum of natural history.

we visited the butterfly conservatory.

 a paper kite found in southeast asia.

a peleides blue morpho,

 found in mexico, central america, south america, paraguay and trinidad.

the queen butterfly chrysalis, found in north and south america. the females lay their eggs on plants in the milkweed family.

he loved having this tiger longwing sitting on his head . . 

after the butterflies we visited the new global kitchen exhibit . . these dishes are examples of a meal a person from ancient rome would eat.

we were amused at the potato samples . .

they had interesting names . . red and white pineapple and siren and cow's tongue, son-in-law's tears, and sleep in your eyes.

when we reached the astor rotunda, it was snowing outside.

grey, wet and white . .

it was beautiful to look at.

we said hello to rexie . . 

and then got on the train downtown to meet chanda and walk to third street for morgana's guitar concert.

it was a fun day, but i think we were all happy to finally get home after being out in the rain and cold (it always rains for a guitar concert . . )