9/2/13 - Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park

I woke as early as a kid on Christmas Day today. I couldn’t wait to see how deep the snow was and I wasn’t disappointed. NYC got eight inches last night and one has to be pleased with that. We ventured out in our multiple layers for a walk around the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park. And it was magnificent. I think the photos clearly reflect the brilliant light and the crisp snow. But I wonder why they would name a reservior after her when everyone knows that she hated all things that retain water!  Perhaps NYers never got over her marrying Onassis.

My thanks to Leon Felton for his water proof shoes recommendation – North Face Gortex rule! I stomped my way thorough ankle deep snow, and by the afternoon, malleolus deep icy slush and my shoes never once missed a beat. Peter’s boots were soaked through and his feet were wet and cold by the time we got home. But not me!! I was dry and toasty.     

For those of you trying to leave a comment – friends who have joined Google are able to comment so perhaps try that for an opportunity to leave your mark!

And now for my ‘US culture’ tip for the day - watch out for Honey Boo Boo! This would have to be the worst show on TV and as it’s gathering momentum here in the US … so it will probably come to Australia soon. ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ was bad enough but this offshoot is a whole new level of terrible and borders on child exploitation. It is set in redneck rural Georgia and it requires subtitles even though they’re (supposedly) speaking English – well American!

This is the most execrable TV show ever to go to air. Beware … do not under any circumstances search for it on YouTube or Wikipedia … in particular don’t search for for Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson or her mum "Mama", or any of her three half-sisters "Pumpkin", "Chickadee" and "Chubbs"  … all of whom constantly torture their step father "Sugar Bear". Horrible, horrible and “Honey Boo Boo’” allegedly gets paid $50,000 per episode. There is something fundamentally wrong going on here!  

8/2/13 - A Big Snow Storm Closes the City

Recently we have received reminders that this blog is not being posted in a timely and regular fashion … so I have promised myself that I’d write this week’s reports today and try hard to stay on top of them for the rest of our stay. In my defence, we have been trapped in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the last week and a half and I couldn’t get to a computer!

Well today was something new for us – a blizzard was forecast. In preparation for the predicted severe conditions, I sent Peter out for supplies while I gazed out the window at the gently falling snow. Then those delicate snowflakes started to fall faster and the wind blew harder. The snow turned into rain drops, then sleet. Sleet continued to fall and the wind started to swirl. The men who guard their piece of pavement outside each of the apartment blocks opposite us started to put down salt. Then they started to brush the salt, ice, snow and slush to the curb before bringing out the snow shovels to pile huge mounds of dirty snow and slush into the gutters. The snow was coming from the left, and then from the right at almost 90 degrees as the wind swirled. Where was Peter… he wasn’t back yet with the milk ..… and my coffee was getting cold!  

Seriously this was a big blizzard. Schools were closed and most public transport cancelled. Only the rubbish barges and taxis were still operating. Oh and the delivery guys on their bicycles. Those delivery guys better be getting HUGE tips. We watched them delivering food, groceries and dry cleaning. Dry cleaning? I ask you, who gets their dry cleaning delivered on a day like today … with two more days of blizzards forecast? We were supposed to be going to New Haven today but Boston is expecting 33ins of snow, so our trip was called off. As I look outside my bedroom window now the snow is so heavy it is travelling down to earth on one side of the street and straight up again on our side – amazing stuff!

As we have had to stay in all day today as a result of the weather, Peter requests a visit from some of the guys in the rugby club so he has someone to play with, or at least could someone please send him a shed he can retreat to.

7/2/13 – Day 6 Metropolitan Museum of Art Infusion Week

After the gym today we had lunch in the Met restaurant next to the sculpture gallery. It was a joy to gaze at Peter and then let my eyes roam across to one of Rodin’s reclining male nudes … and then back to Peter. 

It reminded me of a game I used to play when I was at kindergarten called ‘which one of these isn’t like the other one?’ That Degas and the ballerina sure stood out from the others in the gallery!! Shame on you… what did you think I meant?

Today I chose to visit the Old Masters. How wonderful it must have been to have been alive in their time and to have seen these paintings in their original state; the fresh paint and bright colours of the canvas that were not ravaged by time, soot and attempts at cleaning them that only resulted in removing the brilliant detail.

To add a bonus to my day, art students were allowed into the gallery today to copy the masters of their choice. So as I roamed these hallowed halls there they were, young painters with passion in their hearts not to mention considerable talent scratching away at their canvasses as thousands have done before them - copying Caravaggio, Vermeer, Rembrandt and El Greco.    

I started with an altar piece from a nunnery in Perugia, Italy by Raphael before moving on to other

Venetian religious tributes by Tintoretto (Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes 1581 was impressive), Giovanni Bellini, Tiepolo and Crivelli. 

I loved Veronese’s ‘Mars and Venus united by Love’, but was not that impressed by Titian’s ‘Venus and the Lute Player’. I loved Reubens and Velasquez’ ‘Juan de Pareja’, but my favourite was Caravaggio’s ‘The Musicians’. The colour and light dancing on their skin was amazing and no photo can do it justice.

Filled in the final hour with a walk around the Lehman Collection and was pleasantly surprised by its quality and diversity. The father (who collected some 3,000 works) and son (who organised the collection and was on the Met Board for some time) donated this collection in 1969 to fill the latest wing of the Met.

 

Loved the Bonnard ‘Before Dinner’, Renior’s ‘The Daughters of Catulle Mendès Huguette (1871–1964), Claudine (1876–1937), and Helyonne (1879–1955)’ and Daddi’s ‘Assumption of the Virgin’.

 

Peter has a new hat.



6/2/13 – Day 5 Metropolitan Museum of Art Infusion Week

I did a stretch class at the gym today. Damn these rubbery old people who make it look so easy. I put my mat next to this nice old lady who I thought would make me look good but she thrashed me at touch your toes and back bends – should have learnt my lesson when I played ‘G’ level competitive squash in 1978 and was thrashed 11-0, 11-0, 11-0 one night by some old lady with bad legs in a short shirt.

The day improved significantly when we got to the Met and I decided that if I was struggling to stretch physically then I would stretch myself intellectually, so I did the contemporary art collection. Found myself enjoying Lichtenstein’s ‘Stepping Out’, Jackson Pollock’s ‘Autumn Rhythm’ de Kooning’s ‘Attic’ and was mesmerised by Kapoor’s ‘Untitled’ – little stainless steel shapes that reflected everyone and everything in the room, including me!  

I then looped around the multiple galleries of C19th European painting and sculpture (including the Impressionists) and gorged myself on Renoir, Cezanne, Monet, Seurat, Gaugin, Van Gogh, Rousseau, Manet and Matisse.

I thoroughly enjoyed the alcoves littered with ballet dancer bronzes by Degas and my sincere thanks are extended to the artist Mary Cassatt for convincing Mrs Havermeyer to collect over 60 of Degas’ paintings and bronzes and donate them to the Met upon her death in 1929.

I also took in the George Bellows Exhibition and loved it. I didn’t know anything about him but soon found out that although he was from Ohio he went to the NY School of Art and followed the guidance of Henri and the so called ‘Ashcan School’.

At the turn of the 20^th century NYC was in a rush to be a big city and Bellows managed to capture many of the everyday (and often unpleasant) urban scenes that characterised the unchecked progress of pure capitalism that is so much a feature of the life of this city. His background as a reporter gave him an eye for the ‘hyperactive experience’ that lies at the heart of New York life – the factories, the railways, pugilism and street urchins, many of whom were ‘raised in dirt and darkness … and grew into vice and crime’.   

His work broadened to include subjects like the sea and in the end there were few techniques, titles or genres he didn’t experiment with, including significant success with lithography and cartooning. Unfortunately, like the boxer Jack Dempsey who he so powerfully portrayed in his last painting ‘Dempsey and Firpo’, he was stopped dead in his tracks by an unexpected punch. Bellows died of a burst appendix in 1925 aged 42.  

But although George himself is gone his art lives on. In December 1999, ‘Polo Crowd’, his 1910 painting, sold for a then U.S. record price of $27.5 million to Bill Gates. I couldn’t afford one of his paintings, so instead I purchased a watch and matching scarf at the Met Shop and went home a very happy girl indeed.

5/2/13 – Massage Day

There is something magical for a girl from Perth about walking down 3^rd Avenue with music in her ears and big snowflakes brushing against her cheeks. People at home are deep into summer and here I am looking snappy in my woolly socks and boots and coat and gloves and scarf and beanie and ear muffs listening to Amy Winehouse. Truth is you can’t really see me but I’m here nonetheless and loving it. Oooh did someone say 3^rd Avenue – this is where the thrift shops are.

Shame no new stuff for me today. I wish the lovely rich ladies who died and donated their clothing were a little bigger. I supposed as the dowagers of NYC they lived under the mantra of ‘one can never be too rich or too thin’. Damn that Mrs Simpson! Eh – so I went on to the gym instead. As it was week two of our diet and exercise program I treated us to a little reward – a massage with Kadiesha and it was good.

4/2/13 – Chores Day

Did Gym. Bought a bike helmet. Did Shopping. Did washing. Went to bed.

3/2/13 – Super Bowl Sunday

Well today was Super Bowl Sunday and were we excited! After two weeks of hard training and careful eating we got to stay in all day, eat chips and drink beer and sit on the couch watching the game! There were just two teams left – the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers - two brothers coaching them and a venue - New Orleans – which had delayed Mardi Gras for a week to allow for Super Bowl Week and was now all set to party!

The game was great, albeit long (4 hours plus)….but I suppose they only have 16 games in their regular season so we might as well get value for money each time they play.

Congratulations to the deserved (narrow) winners John Harbough and the Baltimore Ravens. I love it when both teams go for it and don’t hold back – should be more of it in top level sport. Too long have we been seeing champions who don’t make mistakes winning instead of players backing themselves and going for glory. Both quarterbacks backed themselves and their players ability to complete the play.

We saw the longest ever touchdown from a kick return run out of in goal – amazing play, the buzz and drama of the blackout, the high energy half time show by some chic and her friends but two questions remain….I grasp the major concepts of the game but still can’t fathom the player dancing in goal for 8 secs instead of kicking it at the end of the game?

And what about that half time show …….did Beyonce really suck all of the juice from the New Orleans power grid with her show or did the system just pop a ‘fufil’ valve like the rest of the audience once she pulled off that little leather skirt!

Can’t wait for next Sunday and the Grammys!