Daily life in Grand Central Terminal
November 11th, 2016
Category: november 2016
Initiation ~
~ to the wonderful world of Broadway.
A quiet start, none of the big musical productions of which I am not a big fan anyway, but with The Humans; a play that has now completed two very successful rounds off- and on Broadway, so much so that a national tour has been announced for November 2017.
It is about a family from Pennsylvania, visiting their younger daughter and her boyfriend on Thanksgiving Day. The kids live in an old semi-basement apartment in Lower Manhattan, complete with loud neighbours, weird noises, electricity and plumping systems that had seen better days – long time ago.
Most of us have been involved in similar situations (minus the Lower Manhattan apartment) some time in our lives, with a family drama unfolding within a few hours around a dinner table. Perhaps that’s what makes this play so successful, besides the beautiful playwriting (by Stephen Karam), excellent staging (by Joe Mantello) and fine performances by the entire cast: the fact that we can all relate to any number of people, funny or awkward situations, acidic conversations, emotional reconciliations, fragile human relations, at any given point during the play.
Schoenfeld Theatre
236 West 45th Street
New York
November 9th, 2016
Delmonico’s
~ An institution ~
We skipped the eggs benedict in favour of their signature steaks served by courteous, mostly Croatian staff. That was surprising at first but not a coincidence, considering Delmonico’s current owner is Mr. Dennis Turcinovic, a Croatian himself.
November 7th, 2016
Canstruction
Part of an annual exhibition of structures made by unopened food cans which are later donated to local hunger relief organisations. This was at the Winter Garden, public space of the massive Brookfield Place in Battery Park, but later I learned that exhibitions, events and even design competitions are also held in other U.S. cities and internationally. And visitors can also take part by bringing their own cans for donation.
My favourite was the Guggenheim in front of a wall made out of Greek olive oil tins, but I don’t think it won the competition.
November 7th, 2016
MΑD||EXTRAV||AGANT|| ||CITY
Lower Manhattan
November 7th, 2016
The Golden Globes
In Downtown Manhattan
Travelling art installation ”Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cool Planet” came to New York last year, between September-November 2016. Designed to raise awareness about the effects of global warming, twelve globes went on display in Battery Park, each one proposing a solution.
As the sun was beginning to set the globes where bathed in a warm golden light.
November 7th, 2016
Four little worriers
According to legend, Guatemalan children tell their worries to the Worry dolls, placing them under their pillow when they go to bed at night. By morning the dolls have taken their worries away.
May I introduce you to my lovely little worriers? I found them in the Gallery Store of the National Museum of the American Indian, a quaint little store with colourful handcrafted jewellery, pottery, books and whatnot. Even if they can’t take all my worries away, I know I’m in good company.
November 7th, 2016
Infinity of Nations
Going back to the roots and learning a bit more about Native Americans; peoples, traditions and art that were thriving here before America’s discovery by the Old World.
A sad necessity perhaps but such dedicated museums are the most effective means in rendering these cultures and their history more widely accessible to visitors.
In New York, the museum is housed in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, one of the most splendid Beaux Arts buildings in the City with a magnificent rotunda dome.
”Shortly after the outbreak of the 1877 war with the United States, Chief Looking Glass declared that he wanted peace and moved his camp to Clear Creek on the 1863 reservation. Peo Peo T’olikt, who was in his twenties, was instructed by the chief to parley with militiamen and soldiers who came to the camp on July 1. The Indian camp raised a white flag, but was attacked and destroyed.
Peo Peo T’olikt was wounded in the leg, but escaped and was involved in all the subsequent battles of 1877. He lost a wife and young son in the war, but his exploits were many. Capturing the cannon at Big Hole, stealing General Howard’s mules and horses at Camas Meadows, and protecting the camp at Bear Paw are just a few.”
Allen Pinkham, Sr. (Ni Mii Puu)
Tribal historian and former National Museum of the American Indian trustee
”Susette La Flesche descended from Omaha tribal leaders on both sides of her family. As a child she lived in an earth lodge, though she also attended a mission school. La Flesche witnessed the expulsion of the Ponca tribe from their homeland to Indian Territory in 1877, and the subsequent imprisonment of Standing Bear and other Poncas who had attempted to return to Nebraska. These events launched La Flesche’s career as a nationally known activist who argued against the involuntary removal of indigenous people from their homelands and for Indian citizenship rights.
La Flesche found a soulmate in Thomas Tibbles, a newspaper reporter for the Omaha Herald who followed the Ponca case. Schooled in Western and Omaha culture and bilingual, La Flesche chose an elegant cream-colored wool skirt and jacket when she married Tibbles in 1881.”
Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe)
Historian, University of Minnesota
Mebêngôkre men and women wear feather headdresses or capes during children’s naming ceremonies and boy’s initiation ceremonies.
National Museum of the American Indian
November 7th, 2016
Guardian of the moving image
A bird of wisdom.
Looking straight at the Charging Bull, unmoved by its popularity.
Evidently not amused.
Faithful guardian of the creative minds at the New York Film Academy.
November 7th, 2016
A bit of a bull
People queue in order to get photographed touching the bull’s balls, can you believe it. Like this fellow who ran the New York City Marathon the previous day; here, holding his medal with one hand and the bull’s balls with the other. This little ”good luck” ritual is repeated by all kinds of people all day long. Well what can I say – some people are born lucky, for others it takes balls!
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No, I didn’t… (in case you were wondering)
November 7th, 2017
The Humble Fabulist 