Saturday Matinee/Next to Normal/Joe Allen's

This won the Pulitzer for 2010 and a lot of Tony's. My cousin was ambivalent about it and after I saw it I understood why. I'm sure no one will be surprised to learn that I have mental illness in my family's past. As a result, this is about shock treatment and pills, etc., etc. It can hit close to home. So anyway, we went, and it was quite outstanding. It was almost an opera, a lot of resitive. All the cast had great voices, there was a lot of close harmony. Once again, Ed hit the lottery so we had great seats for just $25 each. We went to Joe Allen's for lunch (a place I had learned is often frequented by show people). A very nice restaurant on a very nice street (46th). It's amazing how from street to street the personality of the city changes.

Friday Night at the Hudson Warehouse Theater

We went to see their production of Cyrano. We got there a little late and were not as close as we had been when we saw The Trojan Women. Also, it was Friday night and the traffic was noisy. Also, airplanes flew over. They stop when airplanes go by. I wasn't crazy about it but it was well meaning.

The Park Slope Section of Brooklyn

Part of our mission on this trip is to see who lives where and how much it costs to live here, etc. To that end, after we left the museum and the botanical garden we walked to a restaurant that we found in Zagat's that had a 26 rating which is darn good for Zagat's. Along the way we saw a lot of retired people who seemed to be living the good life in Park Slope. It was clean, and they even have an Arc de Triomphe. I don't know if they call if that, but it looks just like the one in Paris. The restaurant was nice.

Mets Baseball vs. St. Louis Cardinals....

Today we went to the ball game. This is a very beautiful environment. The experience was totally enjoyable: good organist, good fans, good seats, it was immaculately clean, the food was good, the beer was accessible, the subway was accessible. Everything was good. The Mets threw their knuckleballer who stymied the Cardinals; they only got 2 hits. The Mets won 5-0. It was good. They have an entire section devoted to Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier with the Dodgers. Why this is in this stadium no one explained. But it is quite magnificent.

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Right next door to BAM is the Botanical Garden. (You can get a combo ticket which saves $$ but they won't tell you that at the museum.) This garden is very beautiful. All of the boroughs are in competition with each other and I must say this one is not as big as the one in the Bronx but it is still very beautiful and has a lot of glass houses, etc. Here are some shots.

A Trip to the Brooklyn Art Museum

The second shot is of Rodin's Burghers of Calais. We had seen another copy at the Rodin Museum in Paris. This museum has a lot of Rodin stuff. I was motivated to get to BAM before Aug. 1st because the show entitled American High Style ends then. Today was the day. They have a huge collection of vintage clothes as well as all kinds of drawings that they began to ask designers for back around 1900. The museum also had an Andy Warhol collection entitled The Last Ten Years. In those years he paired up with Bisquiat and they did these things that to me are horrible. I don't know who died first Warhol or Bisquiat. I don't expect any of you to know anything about any of this. Here are a few shots inside the museum.

Coney Island

This was my first and last trip to Coney Island. Perhaps you have been curious about Coney Island. Well, let me give you the scoop. You don't want to go there. It looks good in these pictures; but trust me, it's not. Do not ever go here. It's depressing how dirty and ugly it is up close. Sorry.

A Trip to Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, CT

Anyone who has ever delved into modern architecture has hoped to be able to visit this house. It was built in 1949 but Johnson lived and entertained there and the public was not going to be allowed to visit until after his death. He finally died 3 years ago (he was 98 1/2) and the place has been open to the public for 3 years. We were surprised when we got there to find out it was situated on 46 acres and that it is more a work of landscape architecture than just architecture. I was not supposed to take pictures but I sneaked them. That's why there's no good picture of the interior of the house. But strategically placed around the 46 acres is the main glass house which you can see in the background, an underground art gallery that is enclosed by a berm (there is no picture of this), a statuary bldg. that basically looks like a greenhouse (note the play of the shadows of the roof structure on the floor and the statuary), a separate library (the little brown bldg.), a pond and a tower, and also the round swimming pool (which is 6 1/2 feet deep). Everyone on the tour had quite a knowledge of the subject matter; they were either architects or educators in the field and then me and Ed. We all had a very good time. New Canaan is only 23 miles from the Bronx. There were 3 Julian Schnabel works on the property. He was very current with what he collected. The only painting in the main house was a Poussin.

Sunday Afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum

This museum is so huge and has so much stuff it would takes days or weeks to see it all. We decided to take an overview tour to begin. We had this very lovely guide who took us to 12 different parts of the museum, showing us and explaining various works.

The Picasso Exhibition within the Metropolitan

The Metropolitan organized an exhibition with their existing stock of Picassos. They have the second largest collection in the U.S. MOMA has the largest collection. When we were at MOMA to view the Matisse exhibition, we zoomed thru the two Picasso floors. They really do have loads of them. I believe this head is the only Picasso sculpture they have at the Metropolitan. If you are interested, you can go to Charlie Rose's website and watch his hour long interview with the curator of this exhibition. You will learn a lot.