Home for Sale..

              "He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. "
                                                 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Home Sweet Home for Sale

After a truly grueling few days, physically, mentally, and emotionally, I left my beautiful home sparkling and ready for its first Open House.  It has been a wonderful home, physically and spiritually, for me, to raise my Ladies..so many happy memories, and unfortunately some not so happy…but I am ready.  I pray another Family finds the peace and happiness I have there.

So, I arrived in to the Hx3 exhausted, on many levels..time for comfort food, yet again.  Over to Sojourn, where actually a new Bartender took care of me very nicely (so He didn’t know my name).  And, as always, I had a lovely interesting conversation with my bar-mate, Frank.  He grew up and is raising his Family in this neighborhood!  He introduced his Wife to yoga, and she is now a teacher.  He was quite impressed with my individual practice in Central Park.  Apparently, according to Frank, that’s the purpose of yoga..to get to an individual practice..so happy when I’m told how “evolved” I am!

This weeks yoga site

My Sax player

Friday, waking up to a picture perfect summer morning, I did that again, went over to Central Park for some more yoga.  My usual space was occupied by a man sleeping so I found another one close to a Musician playing his saxophone.  Many musicians set up shop in the tunnels under bridges in the Park as the acoustics are amazing.  When my Musician played “My Way” (Frank Sinatra’s mantra) during my shavassana, I cried…Beautiful way to start my day.  On my way home I stopped at the little bread, pastry shop on the corner of 3^rd and 79^th, Coronado for a cappuccino and almond croissant.  I owed it to myself!  Then I borrowed my first book from the NYPL from the Yorkville branch right across the street form the Hx3.

Lil' Frankie's Pizza

Later I headed down to the East Village.  I love that neighborhood.  I treated myself to a great, not so little lunch at Lil’ Frankie’s Pizza on 1^st Avenue.  I had a “pizza burger” with a light salad, washed down with prosecco.  Perfect.  While there I made plans with my NYC Friend to go to a free concert at Lincoln Center later that evening.

Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Golden Eagles

Bright Star Maracatu Nation

Remember my plans for last Sunday, changed due to rain?  Going to Lincoln Center’s  Out of Doors at Damrosch Park Bandstand was one of them.  Well, I finally made it.  What a lovely evening..from the space, Lincoln Center is a true jewel, to the fun, upbeat, entertaining music!  From its website: A Tale of Two Nations brings maracatu, a traditional Afro-Brazilian dance, to the U.S. with a collaboration between Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante (Bright Star Maracatu Nation) and Nation Beat. Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Golden Eagles, a Mardi Gras Indian tribe, continue the cultural festivities with their traditional sounds.

Lincoln Center's Fountain by Day

By Night

A view of the NYPL not normally seen by walkiing

Saturday I took the MTA down to 23^rd Street with the intention of walking home up Park Avenue to check out yet another summer celebration called Summer Streets.  I got a late start, due to rain!, but decided to head out..it was a summer rain, after all.  What I saw was great.  My “plan” is to explore it in full next Saturday, and I have signed up to volunteer the final week.  From its website: Summer Streets is an annual celebration of New York City’s most valuable public space—our streets. On three consecutive Saturdays in the summer, nearly seven miles of NYC’s streets are opened for people to play, walk, bike, and breathe. Summer Streets provides space for healthy recreation and encourages New Yorkers to use more sustainable forms of transportation. In 2012, more than 250,000 people took advantage of the open streets.

Cornelius Vanderbilt at Grand Central

Summer Streets is modeled on other events from around the world including Ciclovía in Bogotá, Colombia and the Paris Plage. The event is part bike tour, part walking tour, part block party--a great time for exercise, people watching, or just enjoying summer mornings.

Running from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, Summer Streets extends from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, along Park Avenue and connecting streets, with easy access from all points in New York City, allowing participants to plan a trip as long or short as they wish. All activities at Summer Streets are free of charge, and designed for people of all ages and ability levels to share the streets respectfully.

A linotype at The Old American Can Factory

Saturday evening I headed over to the Old American Can Factory in Brooklyn again to work with Rooftop Films (www.rooftopfilms.com).  It is really a great way to spend a summer evening; great People, very cool site, and seeing movies I would never find on my own (much the reason why I have loved my bookclubs for over 20 years, reading books I would never find on my own).  This evening’s feature was “Cutie and the Boxer”.  From Rooftops’s website: A reflection on love, sacrifice, and the creative spirit, this candid New York story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of renowned “boxing” painter Ushio Shinohara and his artist wife, Noriko. As a rowdy, confrontational young artist in Tokyo, Ushio seemed destined for fame, but met with little commercial success after he moved to New York City in 1969, seeking international recognition. When 19-year-old Noriko moved to New York to study art, she fell in love with Ushio—abandoning her education to become the wife and assistant to an unruly, husband. Over the course of their marriage, the roles have shifted. Now 80, Ushio struggles to establish his artistic legacy, while Noriko is at last being recognized for her own art—a series of drawings entitled “Cutie,” depicting her challenging past with Ushio. Spanning four decades, the film is a moving portrait of a couple wrestling with the eternal themes of sacrifice, disappointment and aging, against a background of lives dedicated to art.

Director Zachery Heinzerling, who won the US Directorial Debut award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, navigates the turbulent artistic terrain with an energy and voice as distinct as the lives he follows. The uniquely textural score and the lush, deeply personal—almost voyeuristic—cinematography come together to create a powerful portrait of Noriko and Ushio’s marriage, but also of an entire subculture of artists and lovers hidden within edifices throughout the city.

As Noriko states during an interview in the film, “We are like two flowers in one pot. It’s difficult. Sometimes we don’t get enough nutrients for both of us. But when everything goes well we become two beautiful flowers. So it’s either heaven or hell.” The audience is invited to witness this complicated existence in this engaging, unique, masterpiece of new documentary filmmaking.

Q and A with director Zachary Heinzerling and subjects of the film Noriko and Ushio Shinohara will follow the film plus a live boxing painting by Ushio!

It was another wonderful night.  New Yorkers, there’s only two weeks left to this years Festival.  I highly recommend it! .  It’s a full evening: music, movie, and open bar usually following the movie with beverages provided by sponsors and more music!  Always a great crowd!

Cotton Candy Clouds over the East River

Getting home late, I was a New Yorker and slept in.  Then Kristi and I treated ourselves to brunch at, yes, Sojourn!  Then a long nap, heavenly.  Later, I took myself over to the East River, read, enjoyed a wonderful sunset, and stopped at 16 Handles for my treat on the way home.

Twilight on the East River

Heading back to Boston in the am…and hopefully the offers for my little home will come rolling in.  Apparently the Open House was a big success, with many compliments on my lovely little home!