Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
Stephen Looks Great
Yesterday Bart & I went up to Pound Ridge to visit our friends Kevin & Stephen - it was wonderful to see Stephen making a speedy recovery from a major operation 3-4 weeks ago - he's driving, cooking, and reading again. Here he is enjoying the scrumptious lunch he prepared for us:
The view from the dining room window. Deer are running rampant in the area and clearing the undergrowth, not great for the trees.
Kevin, Stephen, and Bart chat over lunch:
Bailey, Kevin and Stephen's dog, has the loveliest coat of white & brown fur...
Saturday evening, setting the stage for a Halloween Party... More pictures ot this tomorrow...
Life In 7 Digits
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Sunday, October 29, 2006
Spring Ahead, Fall Back..
After my Halloween revelry, and extra hour of sleep hit the spot. Still have a slight cold, but I'm nonetheless headed up to Westchester today to visit some friends, Stephen and Kevin, in the woods of Pound Ridge. Stephen is making a speedy recovery from a head operation after a fall. My friend Doug, over in London, is also recovering nicely from a bad car accident a few weeks back.. The body's ability to heal is something wondrous...this entry's permalink
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Rhetorical Question Store
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Friday, October 27, 2006
Blazes
What an awesome photo, of the California fire. And what an intense week it's been, 5-6 projects, putting out fires, and an avalanche of company earnings releases. Tomorrow night is my Halloween party. Woo hoo!
Nailing The Numbers
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Thursday, October 26, 2006
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Most Likely to Succeed Bush?
Hilary's high school yearbook photo is nothing to shake a stick at....
Isn't That Your Job?
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Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Happy B i rthday, Fernando!!!!
Fer he's a jolly good feller
Fer he's a jolly good feller
Fer he's a jolly good fehhhhhhlllleeeeerrrrrrrr
Thatnobodycandeny (4x)
Fernando is one of the most interesting people I know. Hard to believe I've only known him two years - I met him and his partner Sunil through Denis, a close friend of mine from Paris who was visiting that summer.
Since I don't have a picture of Fernando at work, here's someone very cool born on the same day, only 16 years earlier. In operatic garb, to boot. Kevin Kline actually does look quite a bit younger, though his long and versatile career stretches back several decades. Perhaps my favorite moment is his turn as Otto is 'A Fish Called Wanda' - he was fond of remarking that his name 'means eight in Italian' : - )
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Monday, October 23, 2006
The John Bond Trevor Children Do Not Play
OK, maybe they do. Or did. In any case, they lived well, in a mansion by the Hudson River, now part of the Hudson River Museum...
I Love Fruit...
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Sunday, October 22, 2006
Koyaanisqatsi
That's Hopi talk for 'Life Out Of Balance'. Finally saw Koyaanisqatsi the acclaimed, non-narrative ecological documentary/video trip from 1983 that uses sped-up images and an insistent Philip Glass musical score to juxtapose the grandeur of unspoiled nature and mankind's frenetic lifestyle and often-destructive nature...
Can Peter Squeeze Me In?
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Saturday, October 21, 2006
Half The Planet
is Asian. Last night I drank mango and passion fruit martini's at Asia Society's LGBT night, third Friday of every month up on 70th and Park. This morning Bart came by from an impromptu brunch and, among other things, we visited the Rubin Museum on 17th & 7th, which I didn't even know existed, and which has a spectacular Himalayan Art collection. And last Sunday Fernando, Sunil, and took in the Met's own vast Asian collection...
Back to his first wife
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Friday, October 20, 2006
Ballooning of our Happiness
At Bart's Museum-on-the-River. Did you know that the Hudson had tributaries? It actually drains over 3,500 square miles. Which is more than I can say for some people.
Bart all a-glow
Glenview: the mansion in the museum, the jewel in its eco-astro-artsy-historic crown...
Text by Bart, Part 1: The Guy Gillette Exhibit 
Text by Bart, Part 2: Images of Arcadia Exhibit
Ne-gate the Gated
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Thursday, October 19, 2006
Quote of the Day:"Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing ... after they have exhausted all other possibilities."
—widely attributed to Winston Churchill
Story of Day:
Mayor Bloomberg's car stolen.
From Central Casting....
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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
What Diane Gave Up
At Bart's Museum Saturday afternoon I took in a retrospective of photgrapher Guy Gillette, which included many great mid-century moments of both celebrities and hoi polloi. One surprise was Guy's daughter-in-law-manquée Diane Keaton, who sang lead in the late-60s rock band of Guy's hunky son (to Diane's left in this picture), but later left the hunk for romance and film fame with the Woodster...
Not While They're Worshipping...
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Tuesday, October 17, 2006
And Baby Makes 300 Million...
About 40 minutes ago the US population hit the 300 million mark. We are the 3rd most populous nation - if the Soviet Union still existed, we would have knocked them down to #4 sometime in the past decade. Only India and China surpass us, though they surpass us by several multiples. India and China together have EIGHT TIMES our population, and over one third of the world's people. Note as well: Without the heavy immigration we've had since the 1980s, we'd be well under 250 million...Conspicuous aging: fitness guru Jack LaLanne turned 92 this week, and former Israeli premier Yitzkhan Shamir turned 91.
Use It Tonight...
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Monday, October 16, 2006
New York Sunday
What could be more New York than kosher Sunday Brunch with Fernando and Sunil at Barney Greengrass... Action station at the counter...
and on the inside looking out...
I photograph the photographer photographing the photographers. Sunil in ghostly lightning...
Winding up with some quality time at the Met's Asian Art wing... Me and Fernando down by the artyard....
Difficult To Sever
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Sunday, October 15, 2006
Over the Meadow and Through the Woods
... to Bart's museum we go... Yesterday, on a sunny and brisk autumn afternoon, I took the Metro North up to Glenwood, two towns north of NYC on the east bank of the Hudson, to hang out with Bart at the Hudson River Museum, where's he's Director of Exhibitions... It's really several museums in one, and we'll tell and show you all about it this week..
Bart's workshop, where he cooks up magical exhibitions...
That makes two of us....
Then Who Will?
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Saturday, October 14, 2006
The Secret
of enjoying Mexican food: skip the tortilla chips and salsa. Just trust me. Just say no. Keep them away. You won't feel bloated afterwards. You'll actually eat the main course with relish. Christi (pictured below) and I discovered this last night on 9th Avenue....
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Friday, October 13, 2006
Happy Birthday, Jon !!!!
Fer he's a jolly good feller
Fer he's a jolly good feller
Fer he's a jolly good fehhhhhhlllleeeeerrrrrrrr
Thatnobodycandeny (4x)
Since I don't have a picture of Jon, here's someone very cool born on the same day, only 37 years earlier. In the six years (!) I've known him, Jon's been great company and a terrific influence. It's amazing how much you can learn from someone working for you, and nearly two decades younger, to boot. Also, he reminds me of my inner Jew :-)And I hope everyone reading this is acquainted with Paul Simon and his music, with and without Garfunkel, an indelible part of growing up in the 60s and 70s. Two of his televised high points were on SNL - in 1976, singing his sad, #1 hit ballad, 'Still Crazy After All These Years,' completely seriously, dressed in a giant chicken suit. And, later, in 1988, the 'confusion' between him and the late Senator Paul Simon of Illinois as to which one had actually been invited to host that evening's show....
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Thursday, October 12, 2006
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Stereo Typewriter
I'm starting - just starting - to get caught upwith my sleep. While interviewing (interrogating?) a Mexican company I'm studying, a colleague interrupted the call with the chilling news of an airplane crashing into a building, this time a high-elevation traffic accident rather than something truly scary... I'm chilling out tonight watching a few old movies, including the black & white classic 'Cabin In The Sky' (see colorized photo, left)' Chock-full of brilliant African-American performers and plenty of stale stereotypes, it's nonetheless a piece of history, as the studio disclaimer informs us upon pressing 'play.' Based on a Broadway musical of the same name, it features Lena Horne, Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Eddie "Rochester" Andersen. "Rochester" was a Jack Benny side-kick in the late radio and early TV era, quite a bit before my day....Columbus sailed the deep blue sea, in fourtee hundred and ninety three...
Tick Tick Tick Pavarotti turns 70 today, and Joan Rivers, 71....
You Go Hi Then Ho
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Wednesday, October 11, 2006
To hike the slope of a vineyard in Alsace...
To stop for a snack...
Prone to Reverie
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Tuesday, October 10, 2006
There's A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon)
Old B-52s song. Yes, I really did spend the entire weekend working, this beautiful Columbus Day weekend, with only the briefest of interludes. Such as my Saturday night dinner in Park Slope, following which I cast my gaze upward:
But the moon called the moon was not alone...
In My Own Country
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Monday, October 09, 2006
Don't Know About Inability
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Sunday, October 08, 2006
Mee Kon Ghee
Last night joined my friends Karen & Donna in Park Slope for a succulent Vietnamese meal at Mekong, a delightful venue with distinct Brazilian overtones including samba music, a large Brazilian flag, a refrigerator from Brazilian beer champion Brahma, and a São Paulo native bartender. Brazilians cannot end a word in a consonant, and how they'd pronounce this restaurant is today's headline. Later on, we wandered through the neighborhood in the moonlight, and I took many atmospheric and artsy photographs with which I shall regale you all week. Donna and Karen found - and adopted - a doll house (pictured left) out on the curb..
Time marches on: Sigourney Weaver turns 57 today, Matt Damon turns 36. Tick Tick Tick.
The food:
Melt in your mouth Vietnamese barbecued pork chops with sweet sauce....
An edible bird's nest basket (tastes very potato stix) stuffed with seafood and vegetables. I personally picked away a lot of the seafood...
Delightful Vietnamese chicken dish:
Fall Foleyage
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Saturday, October 07, 2006
Why Yes, I Am Working Columbus Day Weekend
In 1493, Columbus sailed the deep blue sea. That rhymes, you know. Two crucial work projects - one a continuation, the other a surprise - are cutting deep, deep, deep into this weekend. It's basically a working weekend with time off for dinner and good behavior. I wish I could find sometime for some bad behavior.
I went all the way to Mexico and all I brought home was this lousy picture. This photo opp was pointed out to me in the airport by my intrepid junior colleague Bevan. As you can see, corruption is everywhere : - )
My conso-ma-lation prize: the GOP in free-fall. Election Day can't come soon enuff...
Thomas watch: Fried Yumminess. Banana Slug.
Are you my Mommy?
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Friday, October 06, 2006
Aaron Oh! K! Go!
maybe it's the rest of the world that is out of focus...
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Thursday, October 05, 2006
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Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Optimism
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Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Our Real Plan
Do not ask for whom the bell Toles... It Toles for thee..
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Monday, October 02, 2006
Question: Pope Benedict has apologized for offending Muslims in a speech he gave in Germany last week. What do YOU think?”
Answer 1: " Geez, I wonder what the Pope is like when he's not apologizing. "
Answer 2: " Am I the only one who's surprised the Pope had to go back seven whole centuries to find a Catholic anti-Muslim quote?"
Answer 3: " The sad part is his apology came verbatim from the medieval text, 'How To Pacify The Savage Arab. "this entry's permalink
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Foreign Trip #100
If I make the 2:30pm plane, that is. I'm travelling to Mexico for a four-day credit conference that I've planned and am hosting. As always, the statistics... This will be my 23rd trip to Mexico, my most visited country, all of these trips in the last 11 years. It will be my 55th trip to Latin America, my 68th foreign business trip, and my 100th foreign trip overall. I'll be back Thrusday night, here for Columbus Day Weekend, and then I have another two day trip to Mexico from October 11-13 on a different project. But let's not count our statistics until we're packed...Arrested Development is the most hilarious TV show in years, maybe ever. Check it out if you haven't.
I've now seen 305 movies this year, of which 282 at home. I'll well on track to reach my goal of seeing 365 movies in one year, and my more important goal of seeing most of the great classics, because you never know how much time on this earth you've got....
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