it was such a busy day today. after the early morning tea with janet and carol and breakfast with morgana, chanda and i drove uptown so she could take a ballet class with nancy bielski at the steps dance studio (on broadway and 74th street, right above the fairway market). afterwards, we went to ernesto's jewelry store so she could get her ears pierced. finally! she's been talking about doing this for the past several months.
her friend ella had her ears pierced at this store and said everyone had been nice and it had gone well.
ernesto used one of the earring piercer guns and chanda said it hurt a little bit.
she didn't flinch at all, though. i remember flinching when my ears were pierced with a piercer gun many years ago . . !
it's nice to finally have it done so she doesn't have to keep pestering me.
we then drove home and along the way morgana and camille texted us wondering where we were. they had gone to a blood clinic at port authority to donate blood. they didn't want to take the train home or walk home so they were hoping i was passing by . . and i was! they were on eighth avenue and 41st street and we were at ninth avenue and 40th street . . so they hopped in the car and we went home and had tea and talked about blood donations and pierced ears until it was time to head uptown again . . . . this time to the east side to meet clyde and louis at the new met breuer museum (pronounced "broyer," where the met is now housing their modern art). we didn't drive this time, we took the train.
(their bandaged arms . . taken in the car ride home.)
we took the train from union square at 6 pm, rush hour time. the platform was mobbed so we hopped on the first train that came in which was an express and put us ten blocks past our destination.
oh well. we just walked . .
and finally made it.
admiring turner's late works which i had never seen before and which are incredibly dreamy and abstract and were not admired during his lifetime.
titian, portrait of a lady and her daughter, which had been painted over in titian's lifetime to reflect the archangel raphael and tobias. only in the 20th century was it restored which now gives it a more tender and honest feel.
leonardo da vinci's head and shoulders of a woman, 1500-1505. the exhibit was titled "unfinished" and all the pieces shown portrayed this in some way. in some paintings this was more clear than others. the above is obviously unfinished . .
i guess this piece is unfinished in that the candy always has to be replenished. clyde actually knows the friend who's friend created this piece: felix gonzalez torres created this artwork in 1991 to share the deterioration of his partner, ross laycock, to aids. the candy starts out at the same weight as laycock's ideal weight of 175 pounds. as the candy disappears, the pile becomes smaller and smaller, echoing laycock's gradual debilitation.
i thought it created a hopeful reflection of sickness and death and was a peaceful memorial to someone the artist cared about.
the next room had korrina's painting that she used for her modern dance piece when she used to take ellen's class: jackson pollock's number 28, 1950.
they're looking at a work by roman opalka in which he visualizes the continuum of time by counting to infinity.
he dipped his brush in the paint only when it needed replenishing so there is an irregularity to the writing.
they're waiting for me to finally join them in going downstairs to see a few diane arbus photos before the museum closed in five minutes. it was my request. they would have stayed to the last second with the unfinished works. it's an extensive exhibit.
happy to have pierced ears.
the beautiful sky when we came out.
a renovated church that houses the decapo opera where morgana and chanda performed a ballet with dances patrelle several years ago. we had never seen it all lit up and restored and with the scaffolding down.
we took the train down to the east village to have dinner at veselka with greg.
everyone was hungry.
perogies and beet salad.
morgana and louis had omelettes.
clyde had a chicken salad and greg had a mixed plate of perogies and something else.
even though greg nixed the dessert it was a fun night . .
