Very New York Days

Posted on August 22, 2013 by ruthek

I met Rose for coffee first thing Monday morning. Not talked out after more than an hour we agreed to meet for dinner on Tuesday, and I walked over to the Met where I always have unfinished business. I’ve never been able to see the entire place.

I went directly to the roof garden frequently the site of interesting or fun exhibits. This one had an interesting concept, certainly not fun, but as often occurs with contemporary conceptual art, the execution fell far short of the idea. When I got tired of sitting there I went down to African Art, always worth seeing. The tiny (about 3 inches) ceramic chair above, stopped me, possibly adding more ideas for that next book. Then the shop called to me. Last week I saw a book I wanted but didn’t want to carry it. I resolved to buy it, then found another book I wanted. I solved my problem by shipping both of them.

Rose called and asked me to come to her apartment about 5 o’clock to meet two interesting neighbors. Sandra is a self-taught specialist on Inuit art, who comes from Chicago. We had lots to talk about and hope to see each other again. Larraine was another interested elder. I think we make Rose, who is comparatively young, feel better about aging.

Tuesday morning I went for a haircut, then went to the West Side to meet Phyllis, with whom I made very exact meeting plans. I arrived early and stopped at the Folk Art Museum, which had a show of the work of Bill Traylor that added another bit to my book problem. Once you begin really thinking about something everything seems to add to it.

Our eventual destination was a movie, but first Phyllis and I went to lunch at Bar Boulud, an expensive, happening restaurant, not my usual kind of place. I managed to find a salad I could eat–beautiful and tasty.

Lobster salad, I can give up meat easily but lobster is another matter.

Then we went to see Blue Jasmine, the new Woody Allen film. I think it was very well done, but I hated Jasmine so much I would have walked out after the first ten minutes if I had been alone.

Dinner was with Rose at the vegan Candle Cafe. It was great, also beautiful and tasty. And we still haven’t finished talking.

Two movies, more visiting

Posted on August 19, 2013 by ruthek

George Washington Bridge from the Cloisters. The buildings are in Fort Lee, where I used to live.

Friday was supposed to be another visit with Mary. We were going to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge or go to see The Butler. Life intervened and I was on my own. I went to the Met, photographed some portraits then went to a movie, “The Artist and the Model”. I’m trying to pick movies I won’t be able to see in Pittsburgh. It was a pretty movie, but needed to go deeper, much deeper.

Saturday was a total screw-up. Phyllis and I were going to Governor’s Island. I thought we should meet at the ferry terminal, but I wasn’t too clear about where. I got there and couldn’t find Phyllis. I sat and waited for more than an hour watching a wonderful parade of costumed people going to the Island. It turned out Phyllis got there even earlier, got on the ferry and went to the island. By the time I stopped waiting the line for the ferry was too long. I just left and went shopping. Maybe I’ll try again next week.

Today I met Ellen on the High Line. We walked the entire finished part and looked at the last part being worked on. It was a perfect day for walking up there, mostly overcast, a few drops of rain, cool and pleasant, making for a great visit. Afterward another movie: Storytelling. Good film, could have had a little more editing. Sometimes we are so in love with our creations we fail to see them clearly.

Wednesday, Thursday

Posted on August 16, 2013 by ruthek

Met Phyllis at a bus stop and we took a very long ride to the Cloisters. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go, I hated the bus ride and I thought I had seen all the renaissance religious art I ever wanted to see, but– amazing–I found inspiration for my next book. Those heads sitting on the altarpiece spoke directly to me. More about this, probably not until October.

We returned from the Cloisters on the subway; a much quicker trip. I walked around to some bead shops, returned to the apartment for a nap then met C for dinner. I am thoroughly enjoying visiting with all my friends.

Excitement about the new book kept me from falling asleep. Usually I get so tired from all the walking I fall asleep immediately. I am almost ready to go home sooner so I could go to work. Today I’ll go looking for more images.

Thursday was another long visit; this time with Laura. I haven’t seen her for several years. We had lots of catching up to do.

Trying to catch up

Posted on August 14, 2013 by ruthek

\ Looking at the rain and at the apartments across the street

Another sunny, pleasant day on Sunday. I went to the 3rd Avenue street fair, which gave me a major disappointment. One reason I loved the street fairs, besides being able to walk in the middle of the street, was food, particularly “Mozzarepa.” This is a made up, probably copywritten name, for an Americanized, non-authentic, Latin American street food–a circle of corn bread (the kind you get in American restaurants), split in half horizontally and filled with yellow mozzarella (not the fresh kind), and grilled on both sides until the read was browned and the cheese melted.

I’ve been eating this high calorie, high cholesterol for years, at least once every summer. I went to the street fair looking for my Mozzarepa fix, and found a new and different arepa with mozzarella, claiming to be made with real corn. I bought one; it was certainly as advertised and probably more authentic, but not what I wanted. I guess I have to forget Mozzarepa.

Met Jean for dinner and had a lovely visit. This is why I come back to NYC year after year.

Another lovely day Monday: brunch and an all afternoon visit with Mary, dinner with Phyllis. Lots of rain on Tuesday morning. I stayed here until the sun came out, then went to see the other two parts of the exhibit about Al Mutanabi. First stop was Poet’s House in Battery Park City at the bottom of Manhattan, then took the subway up to 114th St. to the library at Columbia University. These exhibits have given me lots to think about, in particular integrating content and structure, and I really enjoyed seeing all the books. After a quick sandwich I went further north to Riverdale to Evy’s apartment where my Teaneck friends gathered for a stitch and bitch.

Busy days 2

Posted on August 13, 2013 by ruthek

Saturday morning was sunny and warm with much less humidity; so taking advantage of this fine day for walking.I took the subway to 33rd St to walk on NYC Summer Streets. Three Saturdays in August the city closes Park Avenue from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park–no cars, only walkers, runners and cyclists. It was pretty crowded but lovely to be able to walk in the middle of the street. I walked from 33rd to 45th then over to Sixth Ave to Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore, then back to Grand Central where I boarded a train for Bronxville.

Electric Wire Sheep

Sybille picked me up at the station and we went to a wonderful art installation by Federico Uribe–Fantasy River–a re-creation of his childhood in Colombia made of shoelaces, tennis shoes, pingpong balls, old books, electrical wire and other unlikely items.

Shoelace Gorilla

I loved the show.

Zipper tree on a fabric-leaf wall

Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Sybille and Howard, mostly looking at and talking about photographs.

Busy days

Posted on August 12, 2013 by ruthek

Friday was hot and humid again, draining my energy and clouding my mind. I got on the bus thinking I’d probably go to the Natural History Museum to stay out of the rain that seemed sure to come. I walked down Central Park West and noticed, for the first time, a huge rock outcrop running from about 85th St. to about 82nd St. I know that Olmsted and Vaux moved lots of rock when they created the Park but I can’t imagine they moved that one. Tried to find more info but failed. Instead of the museum I got on the subway and went down to 14th St. then walked to the Chelsea Market where I bought some Amy’s bread twists and went up on the High Line to eat “lunch.” There was sunshine, a little rain, more sunshine, more heat and humidity.

I walked to the Rubin Museum, my refuge from nasty weather. It’s cool, calm, quiet, very Buddhist, and filled with great things to view. They had a special exhibit about Naga warriors. From pictures of their sculpture I thought this would be about an African people, unusual for the Rubin, which is dedicated to Himalayan art. It seems the Naga people come from an area of India between Burma and China. They were known as headhunters and were largely isolated from surrounding peoples keeping their culture separate. I found it interesting because of the strong resemblance to African and Papuan art. I wish someone would do a study of how this happens.

After looking at two exhibits and having a lovely ice tea I walked to the Center for Book Arts, another favorite place, this time with books and broadsides about the bombing of the street of booksellers in Baghdad. Usually when I go to an exhibit like this I am as interested in the structure of the books as in the content. In this case the content was so strong I found books with unusual structures to be distracting and actually preferred reading the broadsides, which were very well done.

Julia joined me at this exhibit and we went back to her apartment to visit and have dinner. A very full day.

Picture above is from Saturday’s adventures, which I’ll write about tomorrow.

Today is August

Posted on August 9, 2013 by ruthek

and I am in New York. I’ve been coming here every August to see my contact lens doc, and so it was this year also–until I got a call last week that she lost her office and won’t be in her new office until some time in September. I think this is a message from on high to get a doctor in Pittsburgh. I’ll work on it as soon as I return. Of course, all of my arrangements were made and my friends were contacted. Renee has gone to Russia and I have the apartment to myself for two weeks. I wasn’t going to pass it up.

I’ll try to blog every day. I like having a travel record. More things tend to happen and I have different views of the world, unlike Pittsburgh where things remain pretty much the same.

I came here on the Megabus, which developed a bad tire, whatever that means, about 2 hours in, and we waited almost two hours for another bus. This is my second bad experience, out of possibly ten trips. I think I need an alternative.

Other than yesterday, when I just walked around, bought some groceries and hung out in the heat, humidity and occasional rain, my calendar is full. Let the good times roll!

Photomerge (Adobe Photoshop)

Posted on August 3, 2013 by ruthek

The blog has slowly been changing into a book. I got to March 27 and found five small images and the following: “The first sight of the park is jaw dropping. When I get back to my other computer I’ll try to put together the photos above to show the entire first view.” In the past I’ve done these merges manually. This time I decided to let Photoshop do it for me. To say I am excited by the result is an understatement. I can’t wait to find the next set of images I shot with a merge in mind.

Suizenji at Kumamoto

Information about making a merge can be found in the tutorial section of Photoshop help under “Reshaping and Transforming”.

No communication

Posted on July 27, 2013 by ruthek

View of Chicago River from my hotel room

It has been a busy month; I just haven’t felt like writing. I’m waiting for that connection between my brain and the computer that Eli says will come, so my hands won’t be involved and the transfer will be instantaneous. Raja and daughters, on their way east to visit battlefields, stopped here last week; probably the best days all month. Two excellent Osher classes occupied my Wednesdays: “Memoir writing,” which I will probably never do but gave a lot of thought, and “The Written Word: The Vanishing Journalist” a kind of oral memoir of a retired journalist. Also took a movement class, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, four sessions at CMU. I can’t explain it, but it was fun.

My sister-in-law died of lung cancer. She looked awful when I saw her last month in Chicago, so I wasn’t surprised. Worse, has been watching my friend of some 50 years. who fell and is having a difficult recovery. Talking to her long distance is more troubling than visiting her. I will see her again in September when I return on my way to Door County.

I finally went to the doctor about my arthritic knees. They took x-rays then gave me a cortisone shot in each knee. I am happy to report I am now walking without pain and have started exercising again. That’s great. I am going to New York early next month and it would have been terrible if I couldn’t walk there.

Funny thing about blog writing. I really sat down to write about books and almost forgot after turning out the previous paragraphs. I’ve read several books this month, some I wanted to read, another forced on me from my funky book club. The best was The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng, about the only survivor of a Japanese work camp in Malaysia who feels compelled to make a Japanese garden in memory of her sister. Along with the great story and great characters are wonderfully clear and erudite explanations about Japanese gardens and a clear exposition of both the good and the terrifying in the Japanese character. Having fallen in love with some aspects of Japanese culture I often have trouble looking at their extremes of cruelty, xenophobia and kitsch. I have to keep remembering most of us are guilty of the terrible stuff, but few of us achieve the sublime.

A week in Chicago

Posted on June 25, 2013 by ruthek

Our family, including Renee from New York, went to Chicago last Friday (6/14) for Charna’s graduation: two days of special festivities. Friday’s presentation, a baccalaureate service full of school-spirit and college talent, was held in the huge, packed Rockefeller Chapel. Unfortunately we were seated near the back and had trouble seeing and hearing. In my tenure at the University almost no school spirit was ever exhibited, so I found this presentation somewhat strange.

Twenty thousand people were seated in the main quadrangle on Saturday prepared to be rained on. The University has no venue large enough to hold the families, friends and graduates gathered together in one place.

It wasn’t anything like I experienced when I graduated. My college class had 400 students, one of the smallest in the university’s history. This class had 1300 from the college and large numbers from the graduate and professional schools. The other difference, which I loved, was the great diversity of the participants. My college class had 3 African Americans and 397 white people, mostly Christian or Jewish. I don’t think there were even many Catholics. Today’s convocation had people from all over the world and Charna graduated from college (with honors), not like her old grandma who barely made it.

After all the festivities the week became bittersweet, not with my usual nostalgia, but this time reality could not be ignored. My first visit was to Carol, who is now in hospice with lung cancer (and still smoking). Seeing her was a heartbreaking experience, only relieved by the presence my nephew and family, including my 10-month old great, great niece. She’s adorable, but the great, great part makes me feel very old.

The remainder of the week was much the same. One of my friends fell about a month ago and is having a terrible time recovering. I spent as much time with her as possible, broken up with visits to healthy relatives in beautiful places and additional visits with Eli, Charna and Hannah, Eli’s committed partner. I like her a lot; hope she remains with him.

On Friday I went to the Art Institute with Sandy. We saw a great photography show and all together had a fine day.

100 Books Before I Die

Ruthe Karlin

Author Archives: ruthek