SUNRISE

This is a picture of the sunrise this morning from our apartment.

Not a bad way to start the day!

THEATER

Signature Theater
Icarus

New York Musical Theater Festival Report: ‘Icarus’

By SCOTT HELLER

The ragtag troupe that weaves a tale out of everyday materials is an old theatrical reliable for a reason. As “Peter and the Starcatcher,” to name just one current hit, makes clear, there’s still innocent pleasure to be found in role-switching, hat-doffing, puppet-waving performers who construct their show in plain sight.

Yet the Boston-based ensemble Liars & Believers strikes intriguingly ominous notes in its showbiz fable, “Icarus,” which sets the familiar story of a child who dreams big in a Depression-era traveling sideshow.

Conceived and directed by Jason Slavick, “Icarus” benefits from Nathan Leigh’s generally clever lyrics and tangy score — a little Weill, a little Mumford — delivered for 90 nonstop minutes by a guitar-fiddle-accordion trio.

The world-weary Minnie (Aimee Rose Ranger) runs the show, separating customers from their nickels to peek at Turbo Frog Boy or to step into the Monster’s Maze (George Courage did the flavorful midway posters).

Fiercely protective of her dreamy daughter Penny (Lauren Eicher), she comes unglued when the girl falls for Icarus (Austin Auh), the son of the tinkerer Daedalus (Jonathan Horvath).

This “king of broken things” makes automatons out of spare parts, allowing Mr. Slavick, and his puppet and prop designers Faye Dupras and Marc Ewart, to go steampunk on a budget. Kitchen utensils and a wandering umbrella find their places; so, alas, do paper butterflies and one lyric too many about heading “beyond the horizon.” (Guess who sings that?)

The show’s most inspired invention is the sideshow attraction No Bones Magee, whose big number starts funny and ends twisted in more ways than one. (Veronica Barron has the cast’s best voice in this and several other roles.) It’s here, when the comedy curdles and the aesthetic choices gel, that you can see Mr. Slavick’s sardonic aims and envision “Icarus” really taking off.

“Icarus” continues through July 28 at the Studio Theater at the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street, Clinton; (212) 352-3101, nymf.org.8

WALL STREET - FINANCIAL CENTER OF THE WORLD

This video speaks for itself.



ART EXHIBIT & THE HIGH LINE

This evening we went to an art show in an art gallery in Chelsea.  It was all it should have been.  Two neighbors in our building are artists and one of them was in this show.

The gallery was adjacent to the High Line Park.  I strongly encourage you to follow the sites below and learn about The High Line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Line_(New_York_City)

http://www.thehighline.org

  

THEATER

Barrow Street Theater
TJ & Dave

TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi come from Chicago's Second Street Theater.  They create one hour, long-form, improvisation plays.

"The comics TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi miraculously improvise a one-hour play at every performance. This is an impressive feat of mental athletics, but the results are also observant, complex and frequently enormously funny."

- NEW YORK TIMES

"BRILLIANT, HEARTBREAKING, MIND-BLOWING, INSPIRING! The best 50 minutes of improv comedy that we’ve ever seen. But we wouldn’t want to insult their effusive skills by speaking so simplistically. Also, it’s funny. Drink their Kool-Aid."

- TIME OUT NEW YORK

"TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi, two of the world’s finest practitioners of the art of long-form improv, create an hour long one-act play. They’re both great actors and have amazing improv chops, but it’s always hard to notice these kinds of thinks when you’re peeing your pants laughing."

- TIME OUT CHICAGO

"the cumulative effect of their spontaneous storytelling is breathtaking"
"without-a-net derring-do brand of theatre"

- NYTHEATRE.COM

2007 Nightlife Awards winners for Comedy Unique/Group

2006 Nightlife Awards winners for Outstanding Comedy Performance

CIF (Chicago Improv Festival) 2006 Improviser of the Year (Both TJ and Dave)

Chicago Short Comedy Film Festival - Best of the Festival 2006

Del Close Award - Best Improvised Show 2004 (Chicago)

Del Close Award - Best Improvised Show 2003 (Chicago)

CENTRAL PARK - THE GREAT LAWN

New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert

Dvořák

Cello Concerto

Tchaikovsky

Symphony No. 5

Under Construction.

I am leaving this unfulfilled post on the blog to illustrate a point.  We did not go to the outdoor concert this evening by the New York Philharmonic on the Great Lawn in Central Park because it is so hot.  It is currently, 6:30 PM, 91 degrees and it will be 91 degrees this evening at 8:00 PM.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART

John Singer Sargent - Watercolors
El Anatsui - Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works

John Singer Sargent is one of the finest painters known.  He did not easily fit into a mode of painting but painted in his own personal style.  Most of us know him as a painter of portraits.  While his major paintings were oils on canvas, this exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art was of his watercolors.  On his travels he carried materials to produce watercolors of landscapes and paintings of people and things around him.  My guess is that watercolors would dry much faster than oils and were, therefore, much more portable in a timely fashion.

I'm not an artist and I do not paint, but I've seen a few paintings along the way.  The exceptional component of this watercolor exhibit was that Sargent used techniques of transparent and opaque watercolors.  I don't recall seeing many opaque watercolor paintings.  These were not gauzy, airy, "washed", paintings.  They were vivid, strong and filled with color and intensity.  It was a great exhibition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Singer_Sargent

The large sculptures and wall hangings we saw created by El Anatsui were made from materials such as bottle caps, pull-top rings, segments of tin cans, ends of tin cans, etc.  The pieces required a tremendous amount of repetitive work in assembling the structures of the pieces of art.  With that said, the works were large, creative, colorful, and beautiful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Anatsui

The Egyptian sections of the Brooklyn Museum are spectacular.  We are committed to returning to visit the other parts of what is a really fine museum.

BRYANT PARK

Accordion Evening

• Accordions Around the World in Bryant Park

• 5:00pm – 7:00pm | Throughout Bryant Park

Today's featured styles: Cumbia, Bluegrass, Jazz, Pop, French, Klezmer, and Waltz

13 evenings featuring over a hundred different accordionists throughout the summer, playing music from all over the world.

Featured today:
Javier Samayoa - Latin American Soup of Music
Ismail Butera - Asian/African/South American Crossover
Jacob Garchik - Late 20th Century Brooklyn Exotica
Art Now - Blues, Reggae, Standards, Pop
Patrick Farrell - Klezmer, Classical & Improvisations
Albert Behar - French Gypsy Jazz & Waltz Musette

Accordionists will be stationed throughout the park to surprise and delight passers-by.

The park was alive with activity.

Then we began our search for The Accordionists!  They're a relatively quiet breed that can be difficult to find.



JULY 4TH, CATSKILLS, HUDSON VALLEY

Summer is hot in New York.

Even though our apartment has the best view in the city for the Empire State Building and the Fourth of July Fireworks, we opted for cooler weather and headed up the Hudson Valley to the Village of Hudson.

The Village of Hudson is 100 miles up the Hudson River from New York City and the North Atlantic. Amazingly, it and several other Hudson Valley towns were major whaling ports.  Hudson benefited from migration of whalers from Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

http://www.hvmag.com/Hudson-Valley-Magazine/April-2012/Hudson-Valley-Whaling-Industry-A-History-of-Claverack-Landing-Hudson-NY/

http://www.thecroffhouse.com

Our plan was to leave the Hudson Valley and the Village of Hudson and go to the Godici Farm House in Claryville, NY.  This would have us traverse the span of the Catskill Mountains from East to West.

Along the way we visited the Village of Rhinebeck on the Hudson River.  Rhinebeck is the site of Chelsea Clinton's wedding.  The Beekman Arms Inn presents itself as the oldest Inn in America.

http://www.beekmandelamaterinn.com

A view of the Hudson River.

We then visited Olana, the mountain top home of the luminist, Hudson Valley School artist, Frederic Church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Edwin_Church

Claryville gave us five days with the Godici Family.

Upon leaving Claryville we headed back to the Hudson River and the Hudson River Valley.  Our destination was Hyde Park and Poughkeepsie.

One of the homes we wanted to visit was the Frederick Vanderbilt home in Hyde Park.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanderbilt_Mansion_National_Historic_Site

http://www.nps.gov/vama/index.htm

Besides the Culinary Institute of America, the other famous site in Hyde Park is the home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

http://www.nps.gov/hofr/index.htm

We finished our Hudson Valley trip with a visit to Dia:Beacon.  The facility to show the modern art exhibit is a former box manufacturing site for Nabisco.  It is a very large, wonderful space.  I'm not showing the Andy Warhol exhibit but it filled a very large room and all four walls.

http://www.diaart.org/sites/main/beacon

Yes, that's nothing more than an unfinished plywood wall.  The other Donald Judd's were a collection of large plywood cubic structures.

Piles of dirt, sawdust, and broken glass.

Scraps.

Our 4th of July trip was wonderful.  Hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of it.