RECORDERS, VIOLAS AND CELLOS, OH MY

Well, first of all, I went to a cool recorder workshop today.  I got invited at the last minute 9 am and it started at 9:30! to play in a recorder workshop today given by two members of the Flanders Recorder Quartet, who are in NY for a fundraiser tomorrow night.  The person who was supposed to play contrabass was sick today and couldn't come.  And I didn't have to pay. 

That's the good news.  The bad news is that I had to sight read (everybody else got the music in advance) and play contrabass all day long, and, worse, I didn't bring any music glasses.  In order to reach the mouthpiece I had to sit on five pillows.  In order to read the music, I had to put my head at a right angle.  

And then there's the fact that I couldn't always feel the finger indentations, so I was constantly wondering why the notes I thought I was fingering weren't coming out.  I spent most of the day saying "I'm sorry," over and over and feeling like THAT person who is in every group.  

At the end of the day, because the only reason they played this piece was because a contrabass was available, one of the members of the Flanders quartet played with me, so the part would actually exist.  They thought I would be insulted.  Relieved was more like it.  It was a really good workshop, though, and we played a beautiful Sinfonia by Schnabel. 

That was the whole day, 9:30-5:30. It should have been enough, but no.  There was a really cool concert tonight by a group called Siren, an all woman early music group.  They had a guest cellist named Eleanor Frey, and they played an entire program of Boccherini, which was really enjoyable.  The concert was conveniently located in the same church where we had the workshop, relatively close to Martha's, so I was able to go home and have dinner before the concert.  We could have taken the bus, but it's only about 7 blocks, which are relatively short blocks by the way, so we walked.  If the bus had come by, we would have taken it, since we bought a week-long pass.  

Tomorrow we are going to a fundraiser for Flanders Quartet with Martha, if she feels up to it.  We are also hoping to go to the new Whitney tomorrow.  

A WALK ON THE EAST SIDE

Today we had used up our weeklong ticket so we decided to walk across the park and go to the Cooper-Hewitt museum on the Eastside. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and wonderful day for a walk in the park. And the way we went we saw parts of the park that we have never been in before.  This beautiful little bridge is one of the things we saw.

When we got across we decided to go to the Jewish Museum first because they had a new acquisition of a John Singer Sargent portrait of three women whose names I already can't remember. That was kind of more John's thing about mine.   I had more fun in the gift shop. From there we walked down the block to the Cooper-Hewitt museum which has just opened after being closed for 2 1/2 or three years.  It's another one of those small museums, but it had a very interesting exhibit about textiles that use recycled Indian saris, down to the tiniest of pieces which they used to make amulets out of.

The museum also hands you a kind of a pen when you go in, and when you see something you are interested in you touch the pin to it and after you leave the museum you can scan in your visitor number and it will show you all the things again that you thought you wanted to look at it in more depth of all you were there.

They also have these big tables in the hallways and in several rooms where you can write things with the stylus on the other end of the pen, or create designs or pull them things you've seen and somehow manipulate them, though I couldn't actually figure out how to do it.  It really was quite an interesting museum, even though the NY Times said it was not worth the wait.

After that we stopped at lunch on Madison Ave, at one of the places where all the nannies take their charges when they pick them up from school.  Fortunately, we were kind of at the end of that pick up time so it was OK. We had a really delicious ham and egg sandwich. They claimed outside that it was the best one you've ever had, which they make on a popover.

 It really is delicious.  Of course the fact that we were starving didn't enter into it.  

After that we walked back over to the Westside to go to the Apple Store, because I cannot hear my phone when I put it up to my ear and I always have to put it on speakerphone. Well when I walked in the door and showed the phone to the little twit in the doorway, he looked at it and said that's because you have something covering it up.  I assess the superb value of my three dollar phone screen cover. I have every idea they were in their break room and hour later talking about this stupid old lady who came in with her phone taped over and asked why it didn't work.

Tonight we went to a concert at the church of the Transfiguration (also known as The Little Church Around the Corner made famous by Norman Vincent Peale) which was an all Haydn concert.  The New York Classical Quartet played three quartets from a two year period in Haydn's life, where he experimented with just about everything.  

They played at 430, just to prove they weren't baroque at 415 or modern at 440.  We sat in the front row, and if I had had my music glasses, I could have read the violist's part.  As it was, I could more or less follow it.   I actually loved sitting so close to the viola, because it has such a lovely, resonant tone.  And of course they were using gut strings.  

This final picture is from the church courtyard as we left.  Obviously, it's very close to the Empire State Bjilding.  

Tomorrow I hope to hit a couple of flea markets.  

FASHION DISTRICT AND MAD

IWe meant to have an easy day today, and because neither of us felt very good, it was an incredibly easy day.  Question:  why is this woman wearing a hospital gown on the subway?  

We started our day by going to the fashion district to look at the fabric stores for interesting trim.  I finally decided  that what I was looking for simply didn't exist.  However, I found two stores that sold essentially nothing but zippers!  These pictures are just a small portion of all the zippers and zipper accessories! that are available in this one store.  (Accessories not pictured, use your imagination.)

I had planned to do this trip by myself because I usually get annoyed when John stands around looking bored, but I this case, he didn't want to leave my side.  One of the interesting things we ran into was some guys selling trim out of cartons on the street.  (After looking at this picture, I wonder what happened to my hair.  There was no breeze.  I think I was having a Woody Woodpecker moment.  

Our plan was to go to the fabric shops, then go to the Museum of Art and Design, MAD, one of my faves.   But we spent more time than expected at fabric shops, and then of course had to have lunch, one of those chores that in my opinion takes up a needless amount of time, and by the time we got to the museum it was about 3 pm.  The museum is across the circle from Trump Tower, so I had John take my picture wearing my "I'm with Her" pin.  

Not that you can't enjoy this museum in a short time, but we got lucky.  The sign on the door said that Thursday night was pay-what-you-want night at 6 p.m., so we decided to bag the concert we were going to go to tonight,went by the Farmers market near Lincoln Center,

then went up to Barnes and Noble and browsed for awhile, and then went back to the museum at 6.  It was an interesting exhibit about coral reefs, (they had crocheted coral) plus another exhibit of modern porcelain. 

But all in all,there were only about 200 objects to view, so I was kind of glad we didn't pay full price.  They had the other two floors of the museum closed.   Pictures:  four years of trash saved by one family.  Coral crocheted out of plastic bags.  Coral more natural colors, crocheted from wool and acrylic yarns.  

Here's the modern porcelain. 

 I'm really sorry we missed the Parthenia viols, but they were in the village which is often a difficult place for us not to get lost for some reason.  On the other hand, I had bought some nice salmon so we had dinner with Martha.  

WHITNEY TO CHELSEA TO FLANDERS

Finally, this morning Julia came in to annoy us. Really, this is one of the pleasures of Martha's, and I don't know if Julia is just getting old or what. She used to come in, meow, get on the bed and in my face, then if I wouldn't get up, she would start chewing on plastic bags -- which is amazingly noisy -- and then start knocking things down off the shelves.

This morning there was a sort of half-hearted knocking of things, but she left without doing anything else. 

So we didn't get up til around 9. We had decided to go to the Whitney today, and it was a good idea. It's a really neat museum, and if you've read the $12 million stuffed shark, it really explains the art. 

We spent a couple of hours there, then walked along the Highline, an abandoned elevated train track that's been turned into a park.

We went there the first year it opened when it was mostly grasses, and now there are trees!  

From there we walked around in Chelsea for awhile, stopped at an interesting doughnut place and had a pumpkin doughnut and a double chocolate one. $14 for 2 doughnuts and coffees. 

As we were walking through the fashion district a woman stopped me and asked if she could take my picture, said she was a fashion photographer.

I asked if it was because I was a horrible example. She swore it wasn't. I have my doubts. 

Made it back to apartment by 5 to go to the Flanders Quartet fundraiser at 6.  It was a challenge, but lots of fun. It was put on by one of Martha's friends who lives in a lovely apartment in Central Park West overlooking the park.

I got to chat with the two members of the quartet who taught the workshop yesterday, and met one other woman who was also at the workshop.

Martha managed to make the whole outing and although she's exhausted, she had a good time. The quartet played, of course, and did a delightful small concert. 

STREET FAIR

One of my favorite things to do in New York is to go to street fairs.  They are a constant all over the city, where a major street is closed for several blocks, reroute get buses, ambulances, delivery trucks and everything else, so New Yorkers can come out and buy state fair food (fried pickles, anyone?),

socks and t-shirts for $5, ice cold lemonade (even though it's only about 65 degrees out) genuine machine made oriental rugs, yoga pants in wild colors, watches, smallish hand tools, Indian tablecloths and bedspreads, beauty supplies, and a few hand crafted items.  In other words, it's a big mishmash of things you want or need and mostly at low prices.  

Using the excuse that we are on California time, we didn't wake up until 11:30 this morning.  We had several things planned for the day, but due to our late start, we only went to the street fair.  We bought cell phone screen guards, steampunk jewelry, a tablecloth, hats,

sink drain cover for Martha's sink, Nutella banana crepes, skin lotion, eyebrow pencil, Hillary pin,

and forgot to get the yoga pants.  Luckily, there's one somewhere in Manhattan practically every day.  

And of course, there's always one very cool looking stylish woman anyplace you go in New York.  Here's my choice for today.  

Later we went to Trader Joe's.  Note to self:  Never on Sunday.  The line was all the way around the inside of the store.  So when we walked in, John got a hand basket and stood in the line, and I did all the shopping.  The line was about down to one third, only about a 10 minute wait, by the time I had filled up the basket.  Apparently, TJ's is the biggest attraction on the upper west side.    In this store, the single line for the 22 cash registers is usually about 20 feet long, and all along the line are the various candy and other impulse items in boxes.  On such a busy day, the boxes are all empty except for groceries other customers abandoned, probably because they didn't have enough money to buy the potatoes and the candy, so they opted for the potatoes.  The lure of TJ in NY, I think, is that most stores in Manhattan have narrow, cramped aisles, and food is quite expensive.  TJ's basically has California prices, wider aisles, and the quirky selection they are famous for.  And apparently, the only time anyone has to shops is Sunday afternoon.  

LINCOLN CENTER CRAFT FAIR

We, by which I mean I, had the best time today at the Lincoln Center Art Fair. This used to be an ACC event and I don't know why it no longer is, but it's still a great show. They have the occasional booth with glass or ceramics, but it's essentially wearable art and jewelry. 

Several of the folks here are at the ACC show in San Francisco in August. Anyway what's interesting here is that they have such cool clothing items, which are ordinarily jackets. This one lady made these wonderful jackets out of neckties which had this perfect shape to them and didn't look anything like the boxy vest I made myself out of neckties.  But then again these jackets were $500. And for someone who never likes to wear a jacket that isn't made of fleece it seemed kind of ridiculous.

I was thinking of getting another pair of shoes from that woman I bought my wonderful boots from, but I found something else interesting before I got to her booth so I bought these instead

I also had a lot of fun looking at some sweaters that were made out of recycled cashmere, which I think she still bought by the bolt. It wasn't like it was made out of old cashmere sweaters, because she had way too many things that were exactly alike

And there were some cute earrings along the way, too.

Probably the best thing of all was that the weather cooperated, and although it was chilly, it did not rain today. They do this event again next weekend-- some vendors stay, some leave, some new ones show up. So it's the end of the day and I am relaxing in my new stuff.

WE ARE IN NEW YORK!

Been looking forward to this for a long time.  

We arrived jet lagged and more or less sleep deprived.  One of the things we always do before we arrive at Martha's is to stop at Euro-Pan for a bagel.  Not today.  They have closed their doors.  No more panini sandwiches, fresh bread, $1.25 giant pizza slices, or tiramisu in a cup.  Not that you can't get these things other places in NYC, but this one was right around the corner and very convenient. 

It actually seems to me that a few more businesses on the Upper West Side have closed their doors, though at only an annual visit, it's hard for me to remember exactly hat was where.  But it feels more corporate and less small business.  

Martha is doing quite well, and it's a pleasure to see her and her naughty cats, who I have been promised will wake us up at 6 a.m. for breakfast.  

We went to a very enjoyable concert tonight at Trinity Lutheran Church on 65th across the street from the park.  The group was House of Time, an ensemble consisting of violin, flute, oboe, cello, viola da gamba and harpsichord -- almost the same orchestration as City Water.  

They played some re-orchestrated Vivaldi which was wonderful.  Five players playing music written for baroque orchestra, including a well thought out transcription of the Four Seasons.  They also played a piece from 2000 written for a group two of the players had previously performed in.  It was in three sections, and like the Four Seasons, it was definitely a "program" piece.  I'm including a photo of the program notes.  

All in all it was very enjoyable.  

This is a group that is sort of under the Gotham Early Music Society umbrella.  The man sitting behind me was telling his friend that they didn't think the group (GEMS, I think) did a good enough job of finding out where people heard about the concerts.  I think he is one of the founders of GEMS, I've met him before.  So I turned around and said that I subscribe to the newsletter, and I live in California, and I picked out all the concerts we're going to on this trip from that newsletter.  

It rained here most of the day, and the same is expected tomorrow and Sunday.  We are planning on going to the Gracie Art Show and the Craft Fair at Lincoln Center (both outdoor events) anyway.  They both say rain or shine.  Not like drought-ridden California where you can pretty much count on not a drop of rain.  

DELPHI

Moving to the end of our tour.  I'm going to be so sad to leave here.  I feel I have learned so much, and have had a wonderful time.  

Today we went to Delphi, the site of the oracle.  

The oracle was always a woman of a certain age, apparently because they didn't live all that long because the oracle would chew laurel leaves all day, which are mildly hallucinogenic, and also inhaled incense.  The oracle stayed below the ground, and mumbled a lot.  The male priests would then interpret what she said.  So basically, she was just a poor mumbling prisoner.  

Whoever was giving the advice was pretty conservative and tended towards advice that suggested not being greedy or attacking.  The advice was usually pretty vague leaving two opposite interpretations available depending on how things turned out.  

When you arrived you were expected to bring a gift.  This picture is one of the places you could buy a gift if you didn't bring one.  This brickwork, however, is Roman, because the Romans used bricks and mortar.

The Greeks used interlocking stones with no mortar.  

Gifts that were brought to the oracle were stored in these buildings called treasuries, along with contributions sent by the various city states to stay in Apollo's good graces.  

Oh, yes, and by the way, this is the center of the world, and as such, has a belly button, called the ompholos.  Mine is called belly button.  Apparently the world has an outie.  

All of our group, even Zoe, managed to get to the temple site.  

Some of us went up higher, to the arena, and fewer went on to the stadium.  I went past the arena, but not to the stadium.  It was pretty hot.  

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.  I'm not much of a photographer, and taking pictures with an iPhone on a bright sunny day wearing polarized glasses is almost impossible.  

After the morning visit, we went to the onsite museum.  In the afternoon we went to the lower part of the site.  

After that we went back to the hotel.  I wanted to go for a swim, but the pool is closed every day for maintenance from 1:00-6:00!  After I hung around the front desk looking depressed for awhile, the desk clerk called "maintenance" who said I could use the pool at 4:15. It was an indoor pool but "refreshing" as a mountain stream.  By that I mean cold!  

Interesting rules.  

We went into the nearby town for gyros tonight.  Here's my favorite picture.