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| St. Marys Times Square |
A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe,
and fifty times: It is a beautiful catastrophe. ~ Le Corbusier
An amazingly beautiful day ... the humidity has not yet kicked in yet (but it is coming). We walked to the TKTS Discount Booths (Father Duffy Square on Broadway and 47th St.) to try and get tickets for "The Nance" with Nathan Lane. Success - front row mezzanine - and rather quickly too, much to our surprise. In the lineup we meet another couple from Toronto. Very nice (if conspicuously affluent) but who offered the bizarre speculation that they have not seen any homeless people in NYC. Granted, things do not appear to be as bad as it was in the 1980s when we first started coming to NYC, but what a strange remark. Perhaps they go straight from their hotel into a cab and wherever they are going? Never bothering to look into the street?
We pass by a beautiful Roman Catholic church that I have never seen before, St. Mary's Times Square (145 W 46th St.), and light four candles for both of our fathers, R's mom and R's cousin K who died last year. I love Catholic churches although I am an unrepentant heathen, a lapsed Catholic as they say. Uh, but we found some homeless people for you nice folks, they were quietly sleeping in the coolness of the church on the pews.
An amazingly beautiful day ... the humidity has not yet kicked in yet (but it is coming). We walked to the TKTS Discount Booths (Father Duffy Square on Broadway and 47th St.) to try and get tickets for "The Nance" with Nathan Lane. Success - front row mezzanine - and rather quickly too, much to our surprise. In the lineup we meet another couple from Toronto. Very nice (if conspicuously affluent) but who offered the bizarre speculation that they have not seen any homeless people in NYC. Granted, things do not appear to be as bad as it was in the 1980s when we first started coming to NYC, but what a strange remark. Perhaps they go straight from their hotel into a cab and wherever they are going? Never bothering to look into the street?
We pass by a beautiful Roman Catholic church that I have never seen before, St. Mary's Times Square (145 W 46th St.), and light four candles for both of our fathers, R's mom and R's cousin K who died last year. I love Catholic churches although I am an unrepentant heathen, a lapsed Catholic as they say. Uh, but we found some homeless people for you nice folks, they were quietly sleeping in the coolness of the church on the pews.
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| New York Public Library |
Coffee and bagels in the gorgeous Bryant Park beside the New
York Public Library (Fifth Ave. at 42nd St.) - it has large green lawn in the centre, an open air "reading room" where you may borrow and read a book for free, chess tables, lovely patio tables and chairs - an absolutely lovely oasis in the middle of the city.
We slip in to see an exhibit called Daring Methods: The Prints of Mary Cassatt at the NYPL. I realized that we had never been inside the Library which is quite beautiful - utterly pristine, very well maintained, all marble and oodles of philanthropic monies flowing from the best known family names of the city. The contrasts in NYC are so vivid - from complete squalor in some spaces to amazingly lovely images and scenarios within minutes. We splurged and had brunch at the Bryant Park Grill beside the Library - not inexpensive, my friends, but very nice.
At 2.00p, we saw "The Nance" at the Lyceum Theatre - beautiful if decrepit, like a grand lady who has applied a little too much rouge and is wearing the fashions of bygone days. Please don't ask me about the plot, you may read a review/synopsis here. All I can tell you is that R and I wept copiously after the first act and Lane was wonderful.
We returned to our hotel to find that the bathroom ceiling was leaking so we had to change rooms and then we head off by train on the Long Island Railroad (an hour and a quarter ride on the LIRR) to a BBQ on Long Island where the offspring was staying with her girlfriend - a lovely meal wherein we suffered extreme backyard envy at the beautiful backyard in which it was hosted by friends J&J. When we returned to Manhattan it was almost midnight and we took a stroll (with ice cream) along 42nd St. passing Grand Central Terminal and the Chrysler Building where R took this beautiful photo below. Yes, he really took it ...
We slip in to see an exhibit called Daring Methods: The Prints of Mary Cassatt at the NYPL. I realized that we had never been inside the Library which is quite beautiful - utterly pristine, very well maintained, all marble and oodles of philanthropic monies flowing from the best known family names of the city. The contrasts in NYC are so vivid - from complete squalor in some spaces to amazingly lovely images and scenarios within minutes. We splurged and had brunch at the Bryant Park Grill beside the Library - not inexpensive, my friends, but very nice.
At 2.00p, we saw "The Nance" at the Lyceum Theatre - beautiful if decrepit, like a grand lady who has applied a little too much rouge and is wearing the fashions of bygone days. Please don't ask me about the plot, you may read a review/synopsis here. All I can tell you is that R and I wept copiously after the first act and Lane was wonderful.
We returned to our hotel to find that the bathroom ceiling was leaking so we had to change rooms and then we head off by train on the Long Island Railroad (an hour and a quarter ride on the LIRR) to a BBQ on Long Island where the offspring was staying with her girlfriend - a lovely meal wherein we suffered extreme backyard envy at the beautiful backyard in which it was hosted by friends J&J. When we returned to Manhattan it was almost midnight and we took a stroll (with ice cream) along 42nd St. passing Grand Central Terminal and the Chrysler Building where R took this beautiful photo below. Yes, he really took it ...
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| 42nd St. at midnight ... |
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