New York City - Day 8 - Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and we meet a social antropologist!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 sunny, 50 degrees, not much wind, but out on the water it was.
We had breakfast at the Leo House early, at 7:30am when they opened to get an early start to get our tickets to the Statue of Liberty ferry, etc. Susan knoticed a fellow sitting by himself, so asked if she could sit with him. We had talked to him the day before when he told us he was going to hear some jazz that evening at Birdland. Lee Konitz who was the opening group at Birdland 60 years ago was appearing with Brad Meldaw (sp), Paul Motrian (sp) and Charlie Hayden. (remember Konitz! When he was a teen ager he was recording with Lennie Tristano!) By the time I joined her she had already discovered he was from Denmark, living in Geneva, Switzerland and is a social anthropologist, an area of tremendous interest to Susan! The showers may not be the best at the Leo House, but the guests are superior.
Peter Larsen is a researcher at peter.larsen@graduateinstitute.ch . [ billelarsen@gmail.com ] He had just concluded an international event in Philadelphia and added a few days in NYC. When he learned we were going to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, he decided to tag along.
Yesterday was the first really bad day for Susan. Susan, Peter and I took the subway from 23rd street all the way "downtown," south in my mind, to the tip of Manhattan to Battery Park to catch the ferry out to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We got there fairly early, about 9am, but already there was a large group. You have to go through security exactly like out at the airport. I had to remove any metal, including my watch and belt. Poor Susan with her oxygen converter! I think one person knew what it was but was sure if it really was the real thing. Then they ran a wand all over her. I went to grab a photo of the process, but oh, no! No photos! I guess I would have locked up! Finally we were able to repack up everything and put everything back together on her luggage cart with her machine, huge "purse" bag that was larger than my medium sized over the shoulder/backpack. Oh yes and tie our shoes on our walking shoes.
Then we got into a long line to board the ferry. At this point my cell phone was ringing as I was facing some agent directing us where to enter the line. It was Stephanie, calling from our condo. She is watching our condo and collecting mail. Something was beeping! What was it! Where was it! It turned out to be the low battery warning on one of our cordless phones! I guess I need to add an item to my list of things to do before leaving for a vacation - place all cordless phones in their respective chargers.
Susan stayed below on the ferry, which was wise since it was chilly and windy on the top deck.
Wow! The light was bright reflecting off the waves! And it was windy out there! Finally we landed at Liberty Island. We just walked all around it taking time to allow me to photograph it. I had tickets that would allow me to access the top of the base, but decided there was no advantage to do that. Months ago the tickets to climb up to the crown had been sold out, so I missed that. I remember doing that when I was 16 in 1956.
I had a photo of me standing in front of the statue that my mother had snapped back then in 1956 and hopped to duplicate it as closely as possible. We actually found the exact angle but were unsure of the precise distance from the base to where I had been standing.
Never the less, I got Peter from Denmark to take a few shots of me with my Canon SLR.
That evening we decided to try out Houston BBQ at the NW corner of 23rd and 8th Avenue. NYC is not known for having decent BBQ, but we always were going past it, so decided to give it a try. It was packed and extremely noisy. It was good for people watching. Seemed everyone was talking or texting on their cell phones! We had decent BBQ ribs and chicken with huge servings of Cole slaw and mashed potatoes.

New York City - Day 7 - Ribbons

Monday, December 7, 2009

I had breakfast with another Travelziner who ironically is visiting NYC from Rockford, IL. We had a good time.

We were going to go up in the Empire State bldg 2da, but if clouded up.

We went to the Hyman Hendler ribbon shop at 21 W. 38th street that featured high end ribbons, many imported years ago from France. It was established in 1900. Susan was in heaven. I talked to the owner about the beginnings of the company from a push cart on the LES. Talked about where our grand parents coming from Russia, etc. Talked about Maxwell Street and how it and the LES have become gentrified with coffee shops, theatres, gelato joints, etc. Also that the Chinese are the principle group running sweat shops in NYC and that they not only make clothing but findings as well. He mentioned he sold to Fishman’s on Roosevelt road just north of Maxwell Street in Chicago as well as Vogue Fabrics in Evanston who were cheap. He was a great guy. He is married to the daughter of the original owner.

We ate across the street in a coffee shop that all the fabric and findings merchants socialize and eat. They all knew the owner, who we discovered him as he was just leaving.

Went to Macy's which was an absolute total zoo. We had difficulty navigating the aisles and people constantly were knocking over displays. Lots of stuff 50% off today. I personally thought their Christmas windows were losers. They did have some normal window displays featuring perfume bottles and silver disks all hanging on fishing line which were beautiful and quite creative.

Went to B&H photo which also was a zoo. It was much further than I thought, all the way to 9th Avenue. I couldn't stand it and longed for Helix or Calumet.

Gave up and returned to the Leo house and ran two loads of wash! Yuk!

We had dinner at a French restaurant at 25th and 9th Avenue. I had Escargot which was excellent. That was followed by smoked salmon and ratatue crepes. Susan started with incredible rich and a bit sweet French onion soup followed by a chicken and ratitoui crepe. For dessert we split a chocolat bannana crepe.

The bread was great accompanied by Irish butter. The service quit good. The ambiance was good as well.

New York City - Day 6 - a GTG, Pierpont Morgan Museum and Moroccan food.

Sunday, the 6th

We are having a "GTG" brunch with a small group of New Yorkers who belong to a Yahoo group I interact with called "The Travelzine." We call our self's "ziners." It is a great group of international members who post questions and answers about our travels. If a person is going somewhere and needs info for hotels, B&B's, restaurants, trains, or what to see; the others post responses with answers. I have cut and pasted many of these responses to documents I have created for future reference.

Only two of the four other folks showed up. But they were interesting. Both had traveled all over the globe and we felt a bit out of their league. I usually don't blow my own horn, so didn't didn't rattle on about all my travels for my jobs domestically and internationally. For me it was just interesting to hear their stories.

We gathered at Sarabeth's at 75 9th Avenue at 15th street not far from our hotel. It was very cold and windy from the direction we walked and that made it most unpleasant to put it mildly for Susan. [Torture would be more appropriate] Even for that short distance of eight short New York “street” blocks of a bit less than a half a mile, it would have been much wiser to have taken a cab. The restaurant is in the old Nabisco bakery converted to a long block walk past gourmet food emporiums, many bakeries and kitchen equipment establishments. The place was packed by the time we left around 1:15pm. Susan had outstanding French toast covered in raisins and banana slices. I had a omelet of ham, cheese and scallions with a croissant and their home made raspberry preserves. They also made me a very tasty coffee mocha. One of the two women we met was photographer Jack Reznicki’s wife, Reggie. (Studio is at 31 W 27th, #10B, bet Broadway and 6th Avenue, 212-925-0771.) She was very nice, as was the other woman, Sheryl. Both lived in Manhattan.

Afterward we visited the Pierpont Morgan Library & Museum. They had an exhibit dedicated to William Blake's watercolors, prints, and illuminated books of poetry revealing his genius that was incredible. Also an exhibit of Puccini letters and his original hand written musical scores to his operas. Then there was the gem of the Jane Austen collection of letters, A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen's Life and Legacy that reveal her characteristically sharp observations and irrepressible wit. Oh what a great gift shop! Lots of Barbar the elephant and a great selection of other books to purchase.

Ambitiously creative, Blake (1757–1827) was a poet, painter, and printmaker had an abiding interest in theology and philosophy, which, during the age of revolution, inspired thoroughly original and personal investigations into the state of man and his soul. I know him as an engraver, but this exhibition reminded me he was later recognized for innovations in other media.

The show includes more than 100 works and among the many highlights are two major series of watercolors, twenty-one watercolors for Blake's seminal illustrations for the Book of Job—considered one of his greatest works from about 1805–10 and twelve drawings illustrating John Milton's poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, executed about 1816–20.

In addition to the superlative watercolor series—twenty-one illustrations to the Book of Job and twelve designs illustrating Milton's L'Allegro and Il Penseroso—other important drawings are on display, included Fire (ca. 1805), which addressed the subject of war.

Also featured was a magnificent larges print, touched with watercolor by the artist, depicts Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims.

Among Blake's crowning achievements as a visual artist and poet are his illuminated books, such as Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (ca. 1794) displaying his exceptional technical skills, reflect medieval manuscript illumination and the interrelationship between word and image. Also on view was the only dated copy of Blake's dramatic The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Sunday was a family activities day featuring Victorian London. Charles Dickens and his famous characters were wandering around the new lobby atrium reaching up four stories. They including a woman playing a guitar of sorts and a fantastic woman in very tall stilts all dressed in white. I got quite a few shots of both.

We listened to actress Marianna Loosemore as she read a charming short tale—written by a 12 year old Jane—about a young woman named Cassandra who sets off on an adventure through London, falling in love with a fancy hat and eating too much ice cream along the way! Each “chapter” was only a page or even less. It was in the main library room - books to the ceiling!

Celebrating Puccini featured forty items related to Puccini's career, including rarely seen original manuscripts and sketches for Madama Butterfly and La Bohème as well as first-edition librettos, personal letters, a period poster and playbills, souvenir postcards, and rare material linked to Puccini's relationship with Enrico Caruso and Arturo Toscanini.

Adolf Hohenstein's vivid poster for the original production of La Bohème and a playbill for the world premiere of Turandot are on view.

They have a tea room there, but we decided to spend all our time exploring the building and the well curated exhibits.

Susan really enjoyed this exhibit. We spent quite a bit of time at the library.
After the Pierpont we had a fabulous experience and meal at Barbe's French Moroccan at 21 E 36th St. just E of Madison named after the famous Paris neighborhood at the foot of the Sacre-Coeur, also known as the 'little piece of North Africa'.

Everything was tasty, the environment great and the service attentive and personable. Susan had something named a Virgin Barbe that consisted of lemon, lime, mint and ices. It was extraordinary refreshing. I had Moroccan tea.

For appetizers we had some of the most tasty onion soup ever and cab cakes a la moroccaine featuring special spices. Susan had Tagine de Poulet (chicken) with preserved lemon and green olives and I had Tagine de D' Agneau: lamb with sesame seeds and prunes along with a side of couscous. Both were delivered to the table in a conical clay cover that it had been baked in. For desert we shared a delicious out of this world Pastilla au Lait maded with large layers of filo dough with a creme sauce that included Moroccan spices in between and some strawberry slices on the top.

Strand Bookstore

Saturday, December 5, 2009

The weather is quite raw.

It snowed in NYC quite a bit yesterday afternoon and night, but nothing accumulated. Temperature vacillated between 32 and 33 degrees.

We caught two buses and spent the morning hanging out at Strand bookstore. Susan made the acquaintance of a medieval expert who guided her in a selection of the best books to begin her investigation of that period of history that has she has begun to develop an interest. I was looking at books on French history with regard to WWII which was directly across the isle.

I then hung out in their collection of photo books of course. There is a new book of Helmut Newton. In the book are two photos of nudes he shot in the middle of the night illuminated by street light he shot outside our Paris apartment at 10 rue Aubriot, he had converted into a studio. They are included in the book. I took photos of the two full page images. I know where he took them because I recognize the out of focus church at the end of the one block long street. Street! ha! It is cobblestone alley!

I also leafed through quite a few other books, including one of color photos of Ansel Adams. He did shoot a lot, but never made prints because the technology of the period was either very expensive for good quality (dye transfer) or mush with C prints. I used to make lots of C prints and they never had the quality of real life. The text in the book was excellent and mentioned that he called on Harry Callahan to choose his best color images for some purpose, of which I do not recall as of this writing.

Susan made it to the Kate's paperie on west 13th and bought a few things. I left her there and went to the Forbes gallery to see the huge collection of toy boats he has amassed. OMG! 2X! Most look like WWI battle ships, but there others, including a number of submarines. I took quite a few photos of the exhibit. They probably won't be too great because of very low light illuminating the boats. I had to shoot at 400 ASA and at that rating you get noisy grainy images.

Uncle Nate gave me a metal mechanical submarine when I was a kid and I played with it a lot. I also had a sail boat he and I used to sail in Auld Park above the Ohio River.

After the boats was his collection of tiny metal soldiers. OMG! Fabulously exhibited. What a difference from today with computer games that obliterate your opponent.

Then came his collection of obscenely expensive watches.

In the next few rooms were his fine collection of photography. Had every single famous best Harry Callahan of Eleanore along with all the famous best Irving Penn images one can remember over his career. This, along with very old historic photographs.
All this in a fairly small intimate environment. It was a gem!

Then I returned to pick up Susan and we escaped the horrid rain by cabbing it the short distance to The City Bakery at 3 West 18th Street just off 5th Ave. that Dave Anderson sent me an email about. They also have some gourmet food, which we purchased and ate there. They are well known for their thick hot chocolate with home made marshmallows, so I gorged myself on that. We split a pulled pork sandwich, and considering it was made by some dorks in NYC, wasn't horrible. Susan had a tomato lintel soup that wasn't too bad, but I thought was a bit lacking in a definitive taste. Reza's blows it out of the water. We lingered there for at least an hour recouping our energy and watching the passing parade of customers.
By the time we left it was snowing wet blobs. We walked a quarter of a block to 5th Ave to see if we could get a cab. LOL

As we got to the intersection a cab pulled up to unload! What luck! The driver was very friendly, indeed everyone here in NYC has been gracious.

New York City - Day 4 - back 2 MoMA & dinner with friends

Friday, December 4, 2009

Had the full breakfast at the Leo House. All of it was quite good. Equaled what was available at most of the restaurants nearby. It is quite diverse in what is offered. Quiche, scrabbled eggs, pancakes, corned beef hash, bacon, sausage, bagels, croissants, various pastries, toast, juices, fresh fruit cup, creme cheese, coffee, espresso, tea, and probably a few items I have forgotten. Cost is only $9.

We took the bus in front of the hotel on 23rd street to 6th Avenue and a bus uptown to 53rd street. We then walked half a block east to the Museum of Modern Art. We spent full day from 11am till 4:30pm there. I went through the Bauhaus exhibit a second time. We both were impressed with the tasteful objects and craftmanship Marianne Brandt coffee and tea sets as well as her ink pot with a pen holder.

Then we went through the two floors of the modern collection starting with Cezanne forward. My goodness they seem to have almost every single important modern painting of the twentieth century! I've seen them in many of the books I've consulted. LOL! It was good to re-acquaint myself with many of my favorite and influential paintings (and the few sculptures) that I felt are like old friends! Susan and I had some vigorous conversations!

The museum had a special exhibit of the water Lillie's series by Monet in their collection. One is three huge canvases that creates a long panoramic image that stretched across an entire wall. It is similar to the ones in the Orangerie in Paris. I shot a poignant image of a older woman in furs in a wheel chair viewing the painting from approximately the center. Offset, standing to her left, and silhouetted, is a young woman nearer the painting tilted a bit with her legs crossed. A profound contrast.

The museum had lots of folks visiting. There were a number of guided tours with loud docents that unfortunately seemed to follow our every move!

I shot a few nice shots of the surrounding architecture out some of the large windows of the new wing looking uptown. One is of a narrow townhouse directly across the street that looks like it was inserted from the Baron Haussmann's reconstruction of Paris! It was only three or four stories high and had that tilted greenish roof with three attic garret bay windows. We wonder who lives there! In front of that apartment was a trailer with four gorgeous black motor cycles.

A few blocks further uptown, directly behind the townhouse was a glass facade building that reflected approaching back lit storm clouds. The windows appeared like ceramic tiles which changed their patina as the clouds moved and the light varied.

That evening Debbie Hecht and Sean O’Neil met us at out hotel. We then walked two blocks to an Bombay Talkie at 189 Ninth Ave just south of 23rd St. Attractive interior, fine wait staff and tasty food. We shared a selection of appetizers I don't recall. Susan had Okra baked with tomato and onions. I had chicken tandori, but it tasted different that what I have had in the past. Then we strode across 9th Avenue to a cup cake emporium. It was packed to the gills! I took shots of the lady icing the cup cakes through the window. She was part of the attraction. We brought our goodies back to the Leo House because there were only two tiny tables in the tiny joint which were unavailable.

Great conversation.

New York Day 3 - LES, Tenement Museum & dinner at Katz' deli

Thursday, December 3, 2009

We had breakfast at the Leo House.

We decided to try out the bus system so we could observe the city as opposed to being underground. It took two buses, but we made it to the Lower East Side. We just stumbled around, not seeing all that I had planned but stopping in quite a few shops including a bra store, a deli, and a number of clothing joints including Nick and Sons, one good vintage, and an art gallery or two. At Nick’s I purchased a reversible belt that the salesman was able to cut down to my size and punched in two extra holes.

We came across David Owens Vintage Clothing at 154 Orchard Street just north of Rivington. He had some very nice stuff and I spoke to him about Susan’s 70’s designer clothing and he was interested. I am to email him some photos. davesvintage@aol.com Also he might be interested in my mother’s custom jewelry.
We discovered Il Laboratorio del Gelato at 95 Orchard which was excellent, but not out of this world.

We took the Tenement Museum's "Piece Work" tour on the second floor of a tenement building led by an "educator." He was quite young but good. At the beginning he asked how many people in some way might be related to the garment trade and it was suprizing how many in our small group of about 10 or 12 were, including myself. (My uncle Harry Levine was a cutter at Crown Overall.) The tour featured 3 different time periods of family living. It was well worth taking.

We had dinner at Katz's deli on Houston. I had matzo ball soup which I thought was pretty good, a good pastrami sandwich and an excellent creamy cheesecake. Susan had a brisket sandwich. unfortunately it seemed mostly populated by tourists.

New York City Day Two - Fab Bauhaus show!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 Overcast all day, at 5pm a drizzle began that developed in to an all night rain.
We had breakfast at the compact Breadstix Café a quite decent café at the SE corner of 23rd St. and 8th Ave, a half a block from the Leo House, a hospice/hotel operated by the Catholic diocese; it is fairly clean, comfortable and safe. We had, what became our standard, ham and cheese croissant and coffee.
Just as we exited the café door to descend into the subway right next to the restaurant, and endless line of three or four groups of 3rd or 4th graders beat us to it and began going down the stairs. They were on a “field trip” to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Little did we realize that was happening all day every day we were in NYC! [I might add there are very few subways with elevators or escalators in NYC.] We waited, and waited. One we finally got to the bottom, Stef had to figure out how to purchase a tourist subway pass good for 20 rides or so. This was our first encounter with a friendly New Yorker who guided me in the use of the ATM like touch screen. It went very smoothly as I charged it on a credit card. Then we had the bad luck to be on a car loaded with those little darlings all talking at the same time. The noise was deafening.
Went to the MoMA and spent the entire time at the excellent and in depth Bauhaus show. They have a lot of photographs and paintings by Moholy Nagy. The show featured many items I had not seen in books.
At 3pm we had a reservation for tea at Bergdorf Goodman. This was to be a very special romantic and quite respite, but proved to be the nosiest tea room I have every experienced! The meal itself was okay, nothing outstanding. Susan enjoyed it, and that is what was important. I shot a few shots out the window of the beginning of Central Park, the Apple store cube in the plaza of a building at 59th and 5th Avenue as well as the entrance to the Plaza hotel.
At Bergdorf, we visited their “tea shop” room. Gorgeous antique and vintage tea sets, accoutrements and toast racks. Sigh! What a joy for Susan!
At the end of the day, after a time consuming cab ride down 5th Ave. we finally returned to the hotel. Susan was worn out.
What we had forgotten is that tonight was the Rockefeller tree lighting which is on 5th Avenue! An estimated million people were supposed to have amassed for the sight which featured two to three hours of first class entertainment preceding the lighting and broadcast live nationwide on NBC which is located in the Center.

Our 2 week visit to NYC 2C the Bauhaus show and more

I kept a journal during our trip to New York City to see the Bauhaus show at MoMA, Robert Frank’s "The Americans" show at the Met, the Man Ray show at the Jewish Museum and the recently opened Neue Galerie dedicated to artwork and some furniture created in Austria and Germany from the turn of century, just after WWI, and before WWII. I have been editing it and am close to being done, so thought I would post it day by day in separate entries into my blog. I will keep the actual dates of each day's activity, as indicated below.

Ready? Here we go!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The plane was packed to the gills! They had difficulty getting all the carry on luggage and coats in the overhead bins!

We walked all the way down 8th Avenue to have dinner at Tea and Sympathy in the Village. We split a salad of field greens with vingerette. I had Banger (sausage) and Mash. Susan had pork loin with sage dressing mashed potatoes with baby peas and carrots. Finished the meal with excellent sticky toffee pudding. Then went next door to their shop offering many British food items as well as Christmas “crackers.” We noticed a large grocery bag near the cash register with the name Tina Brown on it in large marker pen.

Photograms and my vision of so called "photography."

I am a graduate of the Institute of Design in Chicago which Moholy established upon his coming to the USA after the closing of the Bauhaus in Germany. Unfortunately he had passed on by the time I arrived. I studied with photographers Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind as well as very fine graphic designers and graphic artists along with numerous visiting greats.

My apartment was around the corner from where Moholy originally lived in a charming Victorian three flat on Lakeview Avenue and Deming Place, in Lincoln Park. But, by that time, that too was gone, raised for a hi-rise. Only a plaque remains.

Moholy was a great inspiration to my thought process and vision.

I made photograms every year I studied there, finally realizing that photography does not need an object involved in its creation since, in it pure execution, photography only requires a source of radiating energy effecting a surface sensitized to that type of energy.

With that realization I began exploring sources of light and used them to expose colored 8x10 inch paper and later 8x10 Ektachome in 1961, 62 and 63.

In the end, I finally discovered sources of pure exploding light that I did on the above sizes of paper and film. I named these "dynagrams" (C).

I also coated my face with paper developer and pressed my face against fogged 4x5 and 8x10 sheet film for a minute or two and then ran the film through hypo - fixer. I named these "epigrams." (C)

I also explored other alternative energies such as heat (thermofax), x-ray and others.

Count Basie at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1959!

Test to see if I can embed a link to music on wolfgangsvalt.com. This should be Count Basie at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1959!

Bicycle Beats Helicopter

Bicycle Beats Helicopter

Shared via AddThis

Today was World Carless Day. Read this story about a race by various modes of transport in rush hour São Paulo including the bicycle. Be sure to watch the video.

I'm tweeting

I am doing more frequent short postings, some with with photos on my twitter account at:

http://twitter.com/finephoto

Yikes, haven't posted! I tweet a bit though!

Hello to those few who even are aware of my blog.

Sorry, haven't posted a thing in many months! I have gotten addicted a bit to this Twitter thing, and follow Lance Armstrong as well as a few others. Much quicker and immediate than blogging. I do some posting there as well, along with links to photos at twitpic. If you are interested in checking out my micro-ramblings on twitter, I can be found at https://twitter.com/finephoto

If I have posted a picture on twitter, it does not actually appear on twitter, but rather as an imbedded url that takes you to the photo at twitpic.
That url is http://twitpic.com/photos/finephoto

Well, I may well be off to a sunny bike ride along the lake shortly.

S.

Countries I have visited around the Globe

Not too impressive, but here goes!


visited 7 states (3.11%)
Create your own visited map of The World or determine the next president

Here is a map of where I have traveled in the United States of America.

visited 38 states (76%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president

Nothing here!

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nada!

Nothing here!

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Believe me, it was not worth it any way! Just a fun thingy.

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