Coming back home from an opening, we stopped on Richmond Terrace to take a few photos. It’s a cool, clear, spring night and the view of the city is dazzling. I should have taken a video so you can see the movement and light changes. Next time. . .
All the major landmarks. Statue of Liberty, Empire State building, the Chrysler Building and #1 WTC with red on some of the work lights.
Today we attended the opening of Meg Whitlock’s photography exhibit at the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art. It was a great day to be out and this is a new part of the island for us. I have been told that this is the highest point on the east coast, being somewhat south of the Verrazano Bridge and with no leaves on the trees, we could see vast expanses of the Atlantic between houses and over roof tops. The houses on the ocean side of the road were surprising in that the entrance level was often the second or third floor of the building. The drop off is so sheer that additional floors were built down from street level with the farther reaches on stilts, many driveways are like bridges from the street to the house.
Here are some views of the museum terraces.
The street is about level with the museum’s roof.
Some of my favorite iris were blooming in the terrace garden.
Lhasa on the Hudson is a fine-art photography project that has been funded by the Council of the Arts and Humanities of Staten Island, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and JP Morgan Chase. The focus of the project is a documentary investigation of the life and work of members of the Tibetan community currently living in New York City, with Staten Island itself having been the home of a major Tibetan cultural institution for over 60 years. Since that time, thousands of Tibetans have emigrated to every borough of New York City, as well as to New Jersey and Long Island. A recent survey by the Government of Tibet estimates that there are 7,000 Tibetans living in the New York metropolitan area-and over 1,000 Tibetan mothers with children. The project was approached initially from the perspective of Tibetan mothers who have emigrated to the United States in search of the abundant educational and human rights opportunities necessary for their children to thrive in a globalized modern society. The goal of this project was the investigation of both the accomplishments and challenges facing the modern Tibetan community in diaspora, while providing the beginnings of a visual record for future generations of Tibetans living in New York-children who will grow up as both American citizens and inheritors of a culture that has survived both the loss of its country and over 50 years of life in exile.
More about the exhibit at this link Lhasa on the Hudson
Meg Whitlock receiving a set of prayer flags at the opening of her show from the Museum Director Meg Ventrudo.
Part of the ever changing exhibit of the Marchais collection of Tibetan Art.
Our friends Stephen and Shannon.
More of some of the Museum Collection.
A small altar.
I’ve been thinking about making something like this but to hold candles.
This is one of a pair of chairs set with stones that look like ink painted landscapes.
Colman talking with Farrell.
Beverly
Stephen and Shannon
The photographer Meg Whitlock and Beverley.
Meg and fiancee Tim.
The lighthouse on Lighthouse Hill, Staten island
We were going into the city to have dinner with Anja and Austin in Queens. Adi and Sabine were in New York then too.
The harbor is always hazy in summer. I keep wanting it to be clear like it is in the Fall when the water and temperatures are closer to each other. It is a little disappointing to have warm weather, nice to be outside after winter or a cold spring, and be in a perpetual fog.
This is the Norwegian Gem leaving on a cruise.
Coming back from our dinner near midnight. The World Trade Center is growing in height.
There’s a summer sculpture in Madison Square. I don’t like it very much.
These are some large architectural elements on the upper East Side.
A view across the harbor from the platform outside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.
My new camera has an over the top zoom. It compresses space as it telescopes in on things. Here’s the golman Sachs building in New Jersey, a lighthouse and the Statue of Liberty all looking like they’re a stone’s throw away from each other.
One of the dredges working constantly in the shipping channels.
Another dredge with a gantry and one of the Ferry gunboat escorts.
Heading back to Staten Island on a sunny day after the 11th. The 9-11 Memorial has opened and the WTC #1 has a huge Flag draped on it above the memorial.
The towers rise at the rate of one floor a week.
The tower has begun to fill the space left empty by the Twin Towers on our skyline.
We had dinner with friends in the city tonight. Have been trying to get a good night time shot of Number One World Trade Center ( the white construction lights, formerly known as the Freedom Tower) as it is going up. It’s hiding the Empire State Building from this angle but you can see the Chrysler Building’s distinctive spire as well as some colorful additions to our old skyline. The weather was with me tonight. I shot this from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal (about 11 miles away) as we walked back to our parked car.
Earlier this year we went to the City Center to see the Youth America Grand Prix ballet competition finals. The following photos are a combined group from the past two trips to the Grand Prix finals. They have been in line for publication on the blog for some time and it is time to clear them from my hard drive.
As we left the parking lot by the ferry in 2010, trees were beginning to bloom.
New residential towers over a remainder of old New York (2010).
We arrived in time to have dinner on Seventh Avenue at the Delicatessen Cafe. (2011)
I had just gotten my new canon and tested the zoom on this skyscraper.(2011)
City Center is an ornate building in the Moorish Style. A lot of dance performances take place here, we were here to see the finals of the Youth America Grand Prix last year and again this year. (that’s why I’m dating some of the photos. . .)
Some shots of the ceiling in the theater.(2010)
The whole auditorium needed to be repainted. ( and it still did this year)
Part of the proscenium.
Ceiling vents .
In the hallway ante rooms during the intermission. (2010)
Colman took these shots in the auditorium, they show a little more of what the theater is like. (2011)
A view toward the stage, a lot of the performers show up in the audience after they perform in the competition.
As we were leaving I this year I took photos of the painted ceilings outside of the auditorium. It’s a grand example of gilded stencil work.
Some leaded glass in a niche at the top of the stairs.
Colman took shots of me shooting the ceiling.
And I got him on a landing.
On the way home we passed by a florists window. (2010)
On the way home this year the florist wasn’t as interesting, but next door there was what seemed to be a shop for fine crafts. These jelly fish in glass pieces are very nice.
Looking at these photos now, I noticed that the glass pieces have a real layer of dust on them, the store must have been closed for some time for that much to build up on a window display.
This year when we returned to Staten Island and were driving out of the parking lot I was struck by the sharp reflections on the waters of the Kill van Kull. I have never seen the water so still that there were reflections. It’s usually a choppy, wavy surface that shimmers in the lights of Bayonne. I asked Colman to stop the car while I took a few shots of the Stillness on the Kill.
Last night we went into the city to join Adi, Sabine, Anja and Austin and see Caitlin Mathes perform in a new opera, Angel of the Amazon. We had dinner before curtain at the Market Cafe on 9th Avenue. It’s a place worth walking to if you are around 38th street in Chelsea.
When Colman and I arrived it was early evening, the skyline across 9th Avenue was dominated by a pair of glass towers. 
Other residential towers of varied vintage are present in numbers, this chocolate and vanilla cake-like building is close to being ugly as well as distinctive.
Before we got to the restaurant, the pair of towers lit their crowns.
Some lighting in the non-theater areas of the Barishnikov Arts Center.
The theater, named for Jerome Robbins, we were in is intimate, it probably seats 3-400 including a balcony. Outside the theater you can look down into an eating area.
Walking back across town after the opera, the sun had set and a clouds were rolling in for a predicted rain.
I have often seen these new spires from the highway in New Jersey, seeing them from there they look like they keep company with the Empire State Building.
The pair of glass towers after dark.
This is probably 8th Avenue looking uptown toward the bus terminal. Adi and Anja are recognizable under the red pedestrian stop light.
As Colman and I walked across toward our train, I saw this chandelier in a warmly lit lobby.
Further along, when an alley opened up, I noticed these red lights atop another building. The lights moved like a computer screen waiting to display type or an image.
After delivering a large order of binding work on Tuesday, Colman and I took Wednesday off to go into the city and see some things together. We had intended to see the silver in the permanent collection at the Jewish Museum but found that it was closed on Wednesdays. An unexpected turn of events. So we went to the Cooper Hewitt to see the Van Cleef and Arpel jewelry show.
It was a surprise to see our friend Idee there, and we went through part of the show with her.
We left the Cooper-Hewitt and headed to a Pain le Quotidien for lunch on Lexington Avenue as we worked our way down town towards the Met. There were a lot of dogs out in the bright weather. I used to make and collect photos of New Yorkers with their matched pairs of canines. This was the first set I saw .
Later in the day I saw this pair. I’m putting the photos together as another pair.
One of the few remaining parts of old, low skyline NewYork. Buildings with only 4 floors.
A few of these dogs were unusually colored and had pale blue eyes.
This church is being refinished on the outside. It was almost completely shrouded in scaffolding. Only this entrance with its guardian eagle was outside of the net.
A touch of Spring in a sunny corner.
Here are some shots of the architectural decoration of a large old synagog.
The swans are caged window boxes.
At the Met, this is the first thing that caught my eye, a gold and emerald clasp with pierced, chased and wire work that becomes a pendant.
Ceramic masks in miniature. They are about 6 inches tall.
The egyptian collection has been changed since we saw it last, this piece of carved granite is at the entrance, I looks like a boat with the sun in it framed by a comb.
Bes and an instrument.
This pot is inspirational. I want to make something like it in mixed metals with solder, rivets and applied pieces of chased work.
I shot this because I am carving some greenware at the moment. The pieces I was given to work on aren’t thick enough for this kind of relief buy it will still be interesting to see how it fires.
The back of this scribe/king statue is elegant and timeless.
Part of the crowd in the new roman collection. We had come to the museum to see the mosaic floor recently discovered in Israel only to find that that exhibit closed last Sunday. . .
Having made a cuirass for Adi last Christmas, I’m aware of them in a different way now, I took this for Adi along with some of the other shots of ancient armor.
Colman in the Greek hall.
Some Greek Silver
A breast plate, one of three Greek pieces in this display case.
A helment with eyebrows.
A silver strainer, in the following photo, a side view with a ladle.
A week ago Saturday we met our friend Tibor in Brooklyn. He wanted to show us the Greenwood Cemetery. It was an incredibly windy, overcast day and the idea of being outside in a cemetery was the last thing I could have imagined doing. Colman and I took the ferry to Manhattan and trains to Brooklyn where we met Tibor, he had a car and drove us the few blocks to Greenwood Cemetery. I was not prepared for the sight of it. It’s a 200 year old cemetery that was at one time a more popular tourist destination than Niagra Falls attracting 500,000 visitors annually (like this blog. . .). Our first stop was this chapel
The landscape is hilly and the cemetery is vast. This is a view from the front of the chapel, a village of mausoleums. This is the cemetery that inspired all those interesting, romantic graveyards we see in films.
The decorative detail on the chapel is in especially high relief.
One of the the large stained glass windows.
The chandelier in the sanctuary. 
A row of Celtic Cross monuments, the cemetery is a fantasy land of monuments and mausoleums, all kinds of sculpture and miniature architecture cover the landscape for acres and acres.
The entrance gate house as seen from the inside as we were leaving. 
Our next stop was International (Food) Fairway in Red Hook. We walked along a paved ‘Boardwalk’ to enter the back door where we were to have lunch. This shot across the New York Harbor has a piece of Staten Island on the left of the horizon, a piece of the arc of the Bayonne Bridge left of center and the rest is the container port in Elizabeth, New Jersey where cranes reach for the sky. 
This is the back of the International Fairway building that faces the harbor. It was nice to see a preserved (but not restored) trolley with a piece of its catenary system overhead.
Turning around, with the trolley at my back, the view centered on the Statue of Liberty across the agitated harbor.
Turning again toward the South, the Verrazano Bridge is visible on the horizon.
On the front side of the International Fairway building, just outside of the parking lot, stands this unusual house.
There is a large Nursery near by, it was closed but in the back of it near the harbor they had planted open garden of vegetables and gourds, I think Tibor said it was planned for children. 
On the way to another warehouse we passed this single boat ramp, the high winds made the water behave like a shore with high surf.
Here I’m standing in Red Hook looking West, The red buildings are on Governor’s Island and the Goldman Sachs tower is in New Jersey.
Tibor dropped us off on Atlantic Avenue where we were to attend the opening of a show at the Gooseneck Barnacle later in the evening. We did some spice shopping at Sahadi’s and I bought turkish delight and sesame rings at a lebanese bakery. This bronze railing is outside of a former bank that has become Trader Joe’s.
The relief here is very flat. Recently I have been interested in the circular motifs, I have a set of copper bowls that I want to chase but haven’t had time to draw any animals in circles yet. This border had animals that I might never have considered.
It was getting dark as we headed back to the Goose Barnacle for the opening. This one store was already in Halloween garb. 
It was difficult taking photos at the opening, there were a lot of people and I couldn’t get the clear shots I would have liked to take. My friend David Alperin from last spring’s class at FIT is opening the store/gallery on Atlantic Avenue. It’s called the Goose Barnacle. He’s carrying a line of menswear by Christophe Hascoat and the first art show is of paintings by Aldo Pizzi. Here are some shots of the opening.
Here’s David Alperin, the store’s owner.
Here’s Colman talking with Christophe Hascoat.
The painter Aldo Pizzi is the bearded guy on the left. 
January 4th I was in the city to deliver a box to Ellen, it was a brilliant, very cold, bright day. I passed by Madison Square on the way back downtown. The new glass tower has been finished, joining the Met life and New York Life towers in the skyline around the square. I have photographed it as it was going up in previous entries. Eventually I will know its name.
I am continually amazed by what my simple Canon camera can do. It’s just a 12x zoom, if you could see the detail captured in the original shots instead of these cut-down-for-the-web versions you might be surprised. These were taken from the street level on the farthest side of Broadway at 24th street (where it crosses Fifth Avenue). The leafless winter trees have made a dark veil through which we can see more of the buildings than we see in summer.
On Monday ( January 11) I went into the city to see some antique silver that was being auctioned that afternoon. Walking up Broadway to the Radisson from 23rd street I passed by this store selling costume jewelry. I wonder why I never see anyone wearing stuff like this.
The displays are decked out with more than a person would wear at one time or maybe they would wear the whole set. I can’t imagine that there are factories producing these things in multiples and that it all goes somewhere.
These pieces me feel that even my large brooches are quite modest.
I was taken by the decorative elements of the old hotel remaining in the Radisson Martineque at Broadway and 32nd Street. After seeing the silver show on the second floor I took the stairs down to the lobby. The mosaic floors gave me a feeling of what it was like in ‘Old New York’, perhaps a gentler time when architects worked more closely with craftsmen to make something that felt richly finished, polished and solid; something that made you feel secure and cared for. The garland of leaves passes through the corners of the border in three different ways. 
The entrance has been renovated, the architects tried to preserve most of the mosaic decoration of this passage. Here are a shot of the large border.
The vestibule has a large medallion with dolphins its center. Part of the medallion has been lost to a renovation sometime in the recent past.
The large border is partly covered by newer wood work, I like seeing the large scallop shell in acanthus leaves at the end of the scroll. Probably what pleases me most is the simple graphic nature of the design and too, if you know me, these are my colors.
I’ll leave you tonight with a composite shot of the staircase I took coming down from the auction showroom. This construction speaks of an elegant past, lit now, with tiny halogen bulbs.
Sunday was a beautiful day and we had made arrangements to have a brunch with Ellen at the Morgan and then see the Jane Austen Show. On the way in we met Robert Bunkin and rode across the harbor in conversation with him. He had already seen the shows at the Morgan and talked about some of the drawings he liked in the Rococo and Revolution: Eighteenth-Century French Drawings exhibition. Colman and I said goodbye as we headed for the east side trains to get uptown. We got out at 33rd and Park to begin our walk to the Morgan at Madison and 37th street. We crossed on 33rd street where I noticed that the other side of the street was all mirrored glass and took a couple of quick photos. Colman says that extra gravity was in effect when I took the photo.
On Madison we passed the Savafeh Carpet store. One beautiful carpet after another was on display in the large windows. We liked this one, but it’s bigger than any of our rooms on Tysen Street.
After we crossed 34th street This unusual large blank space caught my attention, it’s not often thatyou see such a large un-’decorated’ surface in the city.
This gives you an idea of its location. That’s a new glass tower too, It seems that all the new buildings are covered with mirrors these days. It must have to do with the thermodynamics of the building, it’s also nice to have these large presences reflect light and be a part of the sky instead of obscuring it.
Here’s some Deco Era New York Iron work, if you want to see it in person, it’s at 181 Madison Avenue, the Domus Store is on the street level of the building.
These trilobite fossils were in the windows of the Astro galleries across the street from Domus. The quality and availability of these fossils is something I couldn’t have imagined as a child.
We both like this piece of coral, it was almost hidden in the window behind the store’s name.
A little further up Madison, some more iron work on a church.
We got to the Morgan and had a great brunch in the Ampersand cafe. Ellen ate a gorgonzola frittata, Colman had the lobster salad on focaccia, and I had french toast with moscarpone and blueberry compote. It was beautifully served and really good. I wasn’t allowed to photograph in the Morgan so I can only tell you a little about the shows. The most interesting thing (for me) in the Austen exhibition was seeing the hand written manuscripts. There was a book in Byron’s hand as well as the Austen manuscript pages. I spent a lot of time with the William Blake show and with the eighteenth century drawings. Seeing the original Blake engravings drawings and watercolors let me know how unfaithful the reproductions we see everywhere are. One highlight is the complete set of 21 illustrations from the Book of Job. It’s well worth the trip to see the engravings. I never realized that the works were printed in editions of only nine to twenty copies, some works even less.
We said goodbye to Ellen and headed downtown to Canal Street to buy some tea in Chinatown. It was incredibly crowded on Canal street and we took to some of the side streets getting back to the trains when we were through shopping.
You’d think that all of the city was finished with building skyscrapers, but as we crossed center street and looked down toward City Hall this new, mirror clad tower was rising into the sky. I don’t know whether I like it being taller than City Hall or not. It will certainly be bright.
The sun was setting as we crossed the harbor back to Staten Island. Manhattan is magical in this rosy sunset light. People are always taking photos on the aft deck, I do it a lot too.
A lot of seagulls were following this boat. As we got closer to Staten Island the sun was even lower.
Home again and fixing dinner, I wanted to try a new recipe from the December issue of Cucina Italiana magazine. Pollo alla diavola con olive; the recipe called for two chickens for 4-6 servings. Italian chickens must be smaller, our roaster was about 6 pounds before I cut the back out of it, we’ve had two dinners out of it already and we have yet to touch the breast. From the photo in the magazine, I think they must have used Cornish Hens. It cooks at a high temperature with herbs, adding wine and olives after the first twenty minutes. It wasn’t that pretty coming out of the oven but it tastes very good. Maybe even a little better tonight for the second dinner.
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