New York State of Mind

Someone asked me if Paul and I had managed to keep our pledge to do at least one unique New York event every month.  We have actually been pretty true to our commitment to take advantage of all the city has to offer.  Last night we walked along the Hudson River on the greenway----you can't do that just anywhere.   In the last few months we have attended a couple of Broadway shows, supported the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, I hosted several women for lunch including an artist who goes by the name of "ultra violet/Isabelle Dufresne" (google her sometime, she is fascinating;  and I could only have met her in NYC), visited Grand Central Station for it's 100th anniversary, took three of our grandsons to the American History Museum, shopped at the Brooklyn Flea Market, taken advantage of riding the Carousel in Central Park several times,

and so much more!  We have now been in the city over five years and it never gets old.  I discover new things everyday as I wonder around doing my errands and exploring.  I am sorry if I sound sappy (and alliterative) but I do love this amazing city.

Cabin Fever

I am not sure the photo is clear enough to give you the feeling of what we saw on one of the first nice days of spring.  This is Memorial Day weekend 2013 and after a rather harsh winter and many rainy spring days, we had a beautiful day in the city.   You can tell everyone had spring fever and cabin fever because they were sitting toe to toe in Sheep's Meadow on this first really beautiful day of Spring.

Human Nature

Paul has asked me a couple of times if I have seen the Stonehenge looking exhibit at Rock Center, but I haven't been down in that neck of the woods for a while.  Today I happened to be running some errands and had to cross through Rock Center and sure enough, there were nine, 16-20 foot human shaped stone figures that really did resemble Stonehenge.  It is an exhibit by the Swiss-born artist Ugo Rondinone.   The exhibit is titled "Human Nature" and I have been wondering all day why.  I guess that will give me something to think about over the next little while.  

Two Weeks Notice

Have you seen the movie with Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant?   Her life's work is to save neighborhoods from being destroyed by developers and the movie is a romantic comedy about her efforts to do this.   Well, I channeled Sandra Bullock the other night when I spoke to our Community Board 7 (CB7)  for the upper west side.  The Department of Education has proposed tearing down the school (PS 199) right next door to us and rebuilding it with the school on the bottom and a residential tower (30-50 stories) on the top.  Kudos to the Department of Education for a creative way to have a world class school built and maintained without any cost to the city.  It really is pretty clever.  However, their cleverness would deeply impact our building.  We would lose our views of Central Park, three years of construction mess would be a nightmare on our relatively quiet street, and quite frankly it would have a huge impact on the property values of our building.  There are lots of other reasons it wouldn't be a good thing and I felt  our voices needed to be heard.   The first thing that irritated me about this is that the Department of Education had already solicited plans from developers and because of some crazy statute, they were not obligated to notify the neighborhood association about their plans.  The plans were randomly discovered by some parents and word got filtered down through the school and then eventually to us.  My new friends in the building (about 12 of us) decided to attend the CB7 meeting and express our feelings about the project.  Fortunately the CB7 members were similarly distressed over the proposal so I thought I was off the hook and wouldn't have to get up and plead our case.  My friend had different ideas and kind of shamed me into speaking to the board and about 100 other people who were attending the meeting.  My friend spoke first and very eloquently asking questions about the process and how much influence we could yield as a neighborhood on the Department of Education.  You are only given two minutes so she finished and I stood to speak.  I had written something out and it was a list of my concerns if the proposal moved forward.  Apparently I touched a few hearts because after I finished speaking everyone started clapping.   Can I just say that for a few brief seconds I felt like a star. Had they carried me out on their shoulders, I wouldn't have felt better.  The applause has died down, but I am fired up now and will lie down in front of the first bulldozer that arrives to tear down our precious PS 199.!

Once you see the picture, you have to vote for Paul as the most thoughtful, clever gift giver of all time.  This is what I saw when I entered the living room Christmas morning-- my very own subway sign!  Please plan to make a stop if ever you find yourself on the Janhattan line. 

Swinging, Swinging, All the Day

There is a fortress at 66th & Park Avenue called the Park Avenue Armory.  It originally served as the headquarters and administrative building for the 7th New York Militia Regiment, known as the Silk Stocking Regiment due to the disproportionate number of its members who were part of the city's social elite. The building is known for detailed interior rooms that are furnished with ornamental woodwork, marble and stained glass depictions of moderately disapproved behavior.   The armory has been leased by a non-profit cultural organization as a center for unconventional works in the performing and visual arts, while maintaining and restoring the historic aspects of the building. 
Okay, enough history lesson now for the fun part.  One of the art exhibits in the armory that Paul and I visited over the holidays was the Swings exhibit.  The photo could not possibly capture the amazing experience nor can I adequately describe the sensation of swinging on this huge swing all the while watching this huge white piece of fabric swaying in the middle of the armory as if it were a floating, puffy cloud.  The swings, hooked up by ropes and pulleys were the engine that moved the fabric.  Trust me, this was a fabulous experience.  I think I may have drooled while swinging----and who doesn't?