something about nothing

Time was, I blogged every night whether I had anything interesting to say or not.  Then life got in the way and I not only had nothing interesting to talk about, half the time I didn't even have anything boring to say.

I'm trying to get over it and post more frequently, no matter what.  So YOU are going to have to suffer through the blabla inutile of the less fascinating posts, or use your delete button.

I love buildings that reflect other buildings. The picture above was taken in the historic district of San Jose.   I should say the alleged historic district because visual history seemed scarce except for a couple of signs and this building, which is looking for an occupant. Reminds me of something I might have seen in Boulder, CO when I lived there in 1970.

After the meetings were over, I had two treats in store for me -- and they overlapped.  My friend Mary from high school now lives in San Francisco and is a doctor who specializes in AIDS.  We have not seen each other in 53 years and it was remarkable that the years fell away and we had a wonderful reunion.

In this picture, an exuberant Mary has her arms draped around Frances and me. The lovely Frances is lucky enough to be married to the charming and talented man on my left.  He is my dear friend Ted who had just stepped off a plane and stopped to see me on his way home.  What a delicious visit all the way around -- although never enough time to  talk about STUFF when your friends live 3000 miles away.

I have been working at home all day and actually got something done! Tomorrow, studio to clean up for my workshop next week and get materials ready for the class. And maybe if I am really efficient, I can do something with the pieces in my bag that need to get finished.

We have open studios coming up on November 7 and I need to get busy!

A-R-T

Working backwards - first, the edible art from our post-meeting, late-night snack fest.  Half of a beet salad - a true work of art! Nice color and interesting composition.  Remind me to use it as inspiration. Susan and I had this last night and it was so good, we ordered it to share again.

Laura Beehler ordered the beef carpaccio.  Pretty!

Susan and I spent most of the day walking around San Jose.  We went to the Museum of Art and stopped at the Museum of Quilts and Textiles, where we will go for a tour tomorrow with the group.

We stopped into the glass gallery, where there were some very cool things.

And the downtown is full of spunky murals - what fun! This is part of one that was in a parking lot. 

Actually, these were in another parking lot. The sun was very bright so the pictures are not as good as I would have liked.There were more but these were my favorites.  One next to the other on this huge side of a building, all by different muralists.

  This is a work of art in its own way: reminded me of Paris in the 1960's.  They are all over downtown - isn't that wonderful?  I did not check out the interior, but this guy apparently did, after having read the instructions on how to open the door.

 This old theatre has been turned into the opera house. It is so beautiful and so architecturally delicious.

 I wouldn't call this a work of art - but some might.  It is rather strange, and there were a bunch of them in front of the courthouse.
Imagine having the job of giving them a trim each week!

Busy day tomorrow: meeting starts at 9:am and my body is still on east coast time. G'night!

NY through a tourist's eyes

I admit it - I am one big ACHE. We walked MILES!  I met my friend Cécile at 10:00 this morning at her hotel.  En route to meet her, a glimpse of NY's Finest on horseback.  I forget how many there are, but they are always a pleasure to see.  He/she (who can tell?) doesn't look too happy about this jaywalker but I have never seen anybody get a ticket in NY for crossing in the middle of the street.  (Or for honking - for which there is ostensibly a $300 fine.) And here -- the symmetry of a NY parking garage.

 We took the subway down to Greenwich Village, where we started at the intersection of W.4th St. and 8th St. (only in NY) and walked through Washington Square Park. Lots of men playing chess and a few desultory guitar players.

From the arch at leafy Washington Square, we could look up 5th Ave. and see the Empire State Building, about 1-1/2 miles away.

Everywhere we went they were doing construction, but at least it looked reasonably attractive. Do you think this was on purpose?

 We think the green stuff on this building was covering up some structural problems.  OTOH - maybe it was decoration.

  From the Village to Soho, where we found a little shop selling fabulous one-of-a-kind resin jewelry

furniture, and accessories(not that you would try to sit on any of it!)

On our way down Lafayette Street to Soho, Cécile managed to liberate some - uh - already broken construction fence. Made her day!  She expected to be arrested, but no worries there.

 Continuing down the street...
we came across this woman, who was cheerfully doing a public service.

In Chinatown these were so pretty I had to take a picture but now I forget what they were called.

 Little Italy, NoLita, Union Square and finally, we went gallery hopping in Chelsea. We saw an exhibit we loved by an artist called Amy Sillman and after that, everything looked like junk.  Here are a couple of pieces we especially liked.

Then, in another gallery -- now, really.  Because of the reflection I couldn't get a good picture of the white-framed fragment of carpet. So sorry you are missing it.

For me, the best art of all was on one of the walls we came across as we walked outside.

Afterwards, we walked up to Hell's Kitchen and had a lovely dinner in an Italian restaurant -  Cécile walked me to the Port Authority and we each went our separate ways.

That's the short story -- I am leaving out a lot.  It was a day of photo-taking, and getting the flavor of the neighborhoods, which Cécile noted changed drastically and often from block to block. Washington Square was serene - and a block away, traffic and people were noisy and busy.  She called my attention to the jackhammer in Soho("dig we must for a better New York") to which I had hardly paid attention; and then to the fact that Mulberry St. in NoLita was so quiet because there was no traffic.  Things I never thought about but will observe with new eyes next time.

I am putting my feet to bed: it was a glorious day!