Calderdash...

With Alexander Calder showing in two places at the same time on the Upper East Side it was more than worth making a mad-dash (calderdash), first to the Whitney where the show highlights Calder's years in Paris from 1926-1933. The place where Calder became Calder. He came to Paris as a painter and left a Calderer. That's the only thing you can call it. Some would say he is a sculptor, some would even call him a craft maker. But I'll stick with Calderer. Paris must have made him feel like a child in a candy store, because that is exactly why his work has always made me happy. The whimsical childish energy and imagery that he creates. It makes you happy, it makes everyone happy. The show is complete with wire sculptures, mobiles, toy-like gadgets, a wonderful playground of imaginary reverie. And it seems Calder didn't grow old as he grew older, a wonderful video of an elderly Calder setting up the infamous, La Grande Cirque Calder, the arena that has been displayed at the Whitney for years, is enthralling. He's on the floor setting up the circus like a kid in the sandbox, it is a wonderful depiction of a man who knew who is inner child was. I left feeling happy and continued my calderdash to the Metropolitan to see the other Calder show, Calder's jewelry, and as steeped in joy was the Whitney show, the jewelry show was laden with sophistication, elegance, beauty and a touch of the primitive. Necklaces, bracelets, broaches all contagious with metallic idolatry that made me want to steal one so that I might have a bit of the magic this man was full of. A couple of pieces I truly adored were, The Jealous Husband, a necklace that twists and turns and looks like a flight of fancy that a beautiful woman, wanting to make her husband jealous, might fly; the other piece is entitled, Caged Crockery, a necklace that has broken pieces of crockery enveloped in precious metal. It's the bomb. And with a fused energy of joy and elegance, I walked out of the Metropolitan feeling both childish and sophisticated...

Miracles, Miracles, Miracles...

I was walking down Park Avenue enjoying a sunny, cold day, full of energy from all the excitement from the miraculous things that happened the last couple of days. First "the miracle on the Hudson", to land a plane on an icy river safely and have not one casualty, was jaw dropping and inspirational and the quicksilver reaction of all the rescuers was beyond the ken. As I watched it all on CNN I couldn't believe what I was seeing, elderly folk being helped off the wing first, babies being passed from passenger to passenger to safety. It was awe-inspiring and then when it was determined there was not one casualty that's when it became a miracle to me. And to even make it more miraculous the captain who did the flying and saving and became a real life, dyed in the wool hero didn't preen, didn't self-promote, didn't go on Oprah (yet anyway), he was basically no where to be seen or heard. A humble do the right thing guy with no agenda, no fifteen minutes of fame, no show me the money agenda. So, inspirational, such a breath of fresh air, so hopefully what this new world ushered in by the second miracle in a week, Barack Obama becoming president of the United States. Again I sat in front of the tube watching millions of people in freezing weather wanting to be apart of a change. I'm not a big believer in politicians doing anything close to being miraculous but as I watched the most emotional event that wasn't a death or tragedy in my life it was the closest thing to an outer body experience I have ever had. I was in New York when John Lennon was shot and in London when Lady Di was killed, and again in New York for 9/11, all tragic and cataclysmic with a spectral of sadness that was universally felt that connected you with the rest of humanity, but in such a horror felt way. This event, the swearing of the Obama, was full of joy, full of redemption, full of love, full of an optimism that brought tears of happiness on such a large scale a salt lake could have been created if they were all to fall in the same place. We, the world, needed these miracles, in fact, I think deserved them, after all this world has been through lately. I am grateful and inspired by both of these improbable events, I mean 2009 is starting out miraculously, the only thing is I believe everything comes in threes, what will happen next, but perhaps the third miracle will be everything that happens that has been inspired by the first two miracles...

Get A Hobby...

As I was tripping down Lexington Avenue freezing my nads off trying to stay tight to the store fronts to feel what little warmth I could pirate from the shops along the way a huge model boat in the window caught my eye and forced me to stop and take a picture. A beautiful hand built wooden model complete with mermaids hanging off the side. It takes up most of the window of
Jan's Hobby Shop. I took the picture and took a sneak peak inside, I started to sweat at the floor to ceiling display of hobby oriented minutia. I was tempted to go in but I knew this would
be a disastrous event leading me to take up another hobby and fill my spare time with yet another recreational pursuit. Over the years I have entertained a plethora of hobbies that sometimes led to near obsession. It started with coin collecting, stamp collecting, rock collecting, baseball, football card collecting, cooking, gardening, chess, backgammon, poker, model making, golf, bols, badminton, whittling, girl watching and on an on. It's all kept my time filled sometimes to the point of not doing more important things. I blame it all on my mother, who on one of those bored little boy days when I was moaning and groaning because there was nothing to do, she yelled "Get a hobby." I didn't know what a hobby was but an image of a small man with big feet flashed in my mind. She took me down to the hobby shop and bought me a penny collecting book with a magazine that gave the value of all the pennies. She brought me back home and sat me at the table with my father's jar of discarded pennies. I started to go through them and when I found a penny that was actually worth five dollars I was hooked and the rest is history. My mother sort of regretted turning me on to such pursuits after I got a rock polisher and started polishing every rock I laid my eyes on, filling coffee can after coffee can with shiny, soft, lucky stones. I almost filled the garage and I'm pretty sure she sabotaged my polisher just to stop the insanity. I've tried to shed myself of most of my hobbies and I don't need anymore so I decided not to go into the shop, avoiding the curse, besides I still had my favorite hobby to finish: walking Around The Block on the Upper East Side...

Moon Over Madoff...

I was taking my walk, heading down Madison Avenue when I looked up and saw the
moon and then out of no where came a camera crew sprinting down the Avenue. I perked up and followed wondering what news story they were chasing. They took a left and
marauded toward Park Avenue then I was passed by a camera carrying chaser so I asked
him as he trotted by, "What's up?" He answered, "Madoff". I slowed my pace and turned around
not wanting to be a part of the media circus that is the madness of the Madoff malarkey. I'm kind of surprised the guy hasn't been killed and I'm kind of depressed that this megalomaniac lives on the Upper East Side. I mean it's so depressing in this time of financial fiasco that this guy has created a worldwide disaster through an on-going Ponzi scheme he has been duping people with for years, some smart, some dumb, some naive and most just trusting people they didn't know because they were getting constant shekels that were too good to be true and passively took what they could without asking any questions. It's mind boggling that this one man has lost over 50 billion dollars and nobody had a clue, of course, it's even more mind boggling that the whole worlds economic system has been shaken to the core in less than a year, it's even more mind boggling that not one financial shrill talking head in all the business television shows that stain the television air waves never guessed that this was coming. Complicity is king as is cash that nobody has anymore. I walked slowly away from the frenzy looking up at the moon in the middle of the day and felt lucky just to be able to see our orbiting sister and realizing not all is money, not all is corrupt, not all is what it seems to be...

Happy New Year...

Over the holidays I had the pleasure of driving up to the Adirondacks with my daughter and her friend to visit Scott Renderer and his family, he is the friend that I magically ran into on the Upper East Side just before Christmas. Beyond being entertained by two teenagers in the backseat rapping and engaged in a non-stop dialogue about everything from Lil Wayne to Obama and being driven crazy by the unrelenting repeating of Britney's newest song, You're a Womanizer, womanizer, womanizer. When we did arrive we went to the National Ski Jump Competition at Lake Placid. I had never witnessed such a dazzling event and it was far more amazing than I could have ever imagined and after all the high flying excitement there was a ferocious fireworks display. After all the excitement we returned to Manhattan for New Years Eve which was subdued but pleasurable. On New Years Day I do a handful of things religiously, they include: have a good greasy breakfast which I did at a local greasy spoon; then I rent or go to the funniest movie I can find, I rented Tropical Thunder and laughed until I cried; then I smoke a decent cigar as I take my daily walk blowing big puffs of smoke into the New Year ether making like I'm Mark Twain or something; then I start reading my first book of the year exactly one chapter, Jesus by Deepak Chopra; I do a drawing, this year I drew a picture of my dog, Bertha, and it turned out pretty bad; then I have a small snack of smoke salmon on Ritz crackers; then I go out and have some beers with some friends watch the Rose Bowl game and recollect the past year and think about the year ahead; finally, I light a sparkler, say a prayer and go to sleep and dream about the upcoming year...