the travelers return

our friends returned this afternoon from their trip to greece. we enjoyed hearing about their adventures over a delicious lunch of cold cuts from our local butcher and fresh watermelon and incredibly juicy and sweet oranges and grapefruit (the latter two managed to be squeezed past customs from athens). tsameret attended a three week isadora duncan dance workshop at the isadora duncan center in athens (lucia helped with making tunics and documenting the weeks as photographer). they slept in a very nice hostel within walking distance of the center. they said it was incredibly hot during the day, but wonderfully cool at night (california weather). there was no air conditioning, so they moved up to the roof of the hostel for sleeping at night. lucia said she didn't know how workshop participants managed to dance through the heat of the day. even though there were fans blowing in the studio room, and the center building itself was made of cool stones, it felt very warm. they got to the beach several times, attended a greek tragedy in an outdoor theatre, visited many museums (and of course, the acropolis), and even heard yo yo ma play! at the end of the workshop was a showing of the exercises and dances they worked on for the three weeks, which i was able to view on lucia's computer. what a fun and educational time! you can see our visit to the cloisters when they passed through on their way to greece, here.

poem for a sunday morning

mighty eagle! thou that soarest

o'er the misty mountain forest,

              and amid the light of morning

like a cloud of glory highest,

and when night descends defiest

                 the embattled tempests' warning!

by percy bysshe shelley (1792 - 1822)

in the evening . .

 kendall and i like to sit outside at the whitney on their terrace cafe (when it's not 97 degrees out) . . 

 and watch the lights come on over the city . . 

and the moon rise . . greg would like this too . .

rainy day

museum tours

my friend's niece was in town this week, so today we took her to the whitney museum for their biennial exhibit and for the selections from their own collection, 1900 - 1965 (they have many georgia o'keefe and edward hopper paintings that i enjoy seeing over and over). the biennial exhibit consists of many current artists whose work is not always a thing of beauty, but certainly causes one to pause and think. i've seen this exhibit with a few of my friends now, and i find that i'm appreciating the many different opinions about it, which has caused me to appreciate the actual exhibit much more than when i first saw it.

 here radha is taking a pic of a painting by richard anuszkiewicz, completed in 1963. the bright colors (only three are used) and fluctuation in the width of the lines cause one's eyes to squint. it's not an easy painting to look at, but utterly fun to wonder about.

 this one is by alex katz, 1964, oil and acrylic on compostion board. the figure pops out of the blue and i find it very whimsical.

 out in the country, by gertrude abercrombie, 1939. radha and i really liked this one. it felt magical and beautiful, yet stark and existential.

the museum is also exhibiting alexander calder's circus figures, along with a movie he made of a performance he did with them. 

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 after an afternoon at the whitney, i met greg at the rubin for tea and coffee before joining a curator's tour of their new exhibit, titled the power of intention.

 the rubin museum's exhibits usually manage to fill me with hope and help me think about the spirituality behind people's artistic creations and actions. their latest exhibit presents work by current artists that reflect how they see positive change happening through the metaphor of the tibetan prayer wheel.

 greg was the first to try this sound wheel. as you press on the cloth, you can see your figure in the mirror behind, reflecting shape, sound and intention.

 these coils were hooked into computer software that presented words from newsreels. the words shone in red above each column, and the coils lit in response to the amount of present usage online. it was an interesting presentation of the cyber world made tangible. i think i need to observe it again for a full understanding!

a wind powered prayer wheel from prior to 1920 tibet, made of metal, bamboo, string, ink and paper.

meeting korrina on tuesday afternoon

 at 2:30 pm i met korrina standing next to patience (the lion) at the main library branch on fifth avenue.

 we walked around to the back of the library to spend a little time at the outdoor knitting circle that meets on tuesdays in bryant park (hosted by the yarn shop knitty city).

 they like to meet by the gertrude stein statue . . gertrude is looking chic in her knitted orange scarf that she gets to wear for a few hours each week.

spinning . .

 afterwards, we visited the walt whitman exhibit at the library.

the schwarzman research library's main lobby . . 

constructed all of marble . .  . . perhaps from tennessee, which is where the marble for the lions came from.

walt whitman's personal copy of his book leaves of grass which was published in 1855. on the right side is pinned a homemade notebook (one of eight) with notes for future printings.

 a letter to his mother written in 1866. they were very close and corresponded frequently, discussing family matters and current events.

 korrina and i then visited the japanese bookstore, kinokunia, on sixth avenue, just a block away.

a memoir and a cook book . . 

an adorable cloth . . i'll have to ask again what it means. she had looked it up for me.

 we then ended up downtown in the neighborhood for a glass of rosé at a local place called entwine . . which i always think of as ent-wine . . as in tolkien and ents and treebeard (and their special elixir).

in this photo i'm admiring her special summer stitch markers. she's participating in the knit-a-long for the shelley summer top, by nancy ricci.

sunday's trip to ikea

 we visited ikea on a search for a bookcase . . 

 i like ikea's coffee and their lingonberry jam . . other than that, their food isn't really the best . . but i enjoy visiting the ikea in red hook. it has such a beautiful view and you can walk along the waterfront. they actually have a water taxi that brings people over from rockaway and manhattan. it's a great ride.

 we found a bookcase we liked in the showroom upstairs (where we wandered around in circles and greg tried to have me only look at bookcases, while i tried to look at everything) and finally headed down into the marketplace to pick it out . . 

 well, the color we had decided on wasn't in stock . . 

a very disappointed man . . 

 supposedly this bookcase was not in stock in any of the nearby ikeas . . we could only order it from the warehouse for a delivery charge of $60.

 we went home . . we didn't order it . . 

instead we walked to the hardware store again to get a different lock (we had tried this on wednesday), hoping it would fit, but it didn't. it was a bust. with two failed attempts we requested a refund. it was not a successful day in terms of house maintenance and upkeep and organization.

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here's the link for our trip to connecticut on thursday . .

poem for a sunday morning

song of the sylphs

as we fly, as we fly,

on the wings of the light,

with the clouds through the sky,

with the wind in its flight:

all the birds in their winging

will follow our way,

as they greet with their singing

the light and the day.

by eileen hutchins (1902 - 1987)