These are a series of grab-shots taken over the past weeks as I walked from our apartment to this or that destination. As in the past, I have chosen to blur the faces of people whose image I am posting here. It may not be strictly necessary from a legal standpoint, but from a position of courtesy let's face it--would you want YOUR photo posted on someone's blog as you walked down the street, went about your job, or ice skated in Rockefeller Center...? Dan [View Full Entry]

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YES, we continue to eat--specifically, at high-quality restaurants who are participating in New York Restaurant Week. While illness and other activities (see the BALLET blog for 1-31-08) limited us to only two lunches this week, they were special. TABLA (www.tablany.com) is yet another wonderful restaurant owned by the Union Square Hospitality Group, who also have the Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe (seen here last week), Eleven Madison Park, Blue Smoke/Jazz Standard, Shake Shack, The Modern, and Hudson Yards Catering. In my outdated 2006 Zagat survey, Gramercy Tavern and Union S [View Full Entry]

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I have purposefully left the title of this entry ambiguous, because there is so much that can be said and shown about Andrew Carnegie and his impact upon this city (and others--my home city of Vancouver, British Columbia has one of his libraries). I have mentioned in an earlier blog of his philanthropy in regards to New York City libraries. His former mansion, which I will highlight in a future entry, is now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. But this page focuses upon 'the house that music built' (with financing from Andrew)--Carnegie Hall. On opening night, in 1891, carriages lined up [View Full Entry]

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What is it about a physical structure that can reliably create a hushed quiet, even reverence, among those who enter the building? How is this accomplished? Whatever the answer--and there may be different ones depending upon the level being addressed (e.g. architectural, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, etc.)--it has been effected in these four examples of Manhattan churches. I have yet to find a synagogue that was open to the public at the time I happened by, but I hope to explore houses of worship of other faiths during my stay here. Again, I am neither a writer nor a crit [View Full Entry]

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Today is Saturday, when Restaurant Week takes two days off from their menu deals, so the establishments can return to charging their usual fees during the weekend rush and meaning that for the first time in five days I DON'T HAVE ANY APPOINTMENTS TO ORIENT MY DAY AROUND! So, I stayed inside the entire day, writing a few of these Blogs, reading most of today's NY Times, looking through some Flickr photographs, reading my one-week-only library bestseller ('Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert, which I am truly enjoying), and not having to be any particular place at any particular time. I [View Full Entry]

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Let's hear it for RESTAURANT WEEK!! During this past week, and (after a weekend off) continuing through next week, virtually all the best restaurants in NYC have fixed-price three-course menus for lunch ($23.07 per person) and dinner ($35.00 each). As soon as we heard of this (Vancouver has a similar 'Dine Out Vancouver' event that we always look forward to) we jumped on it and Barb made ten reservations--one for each day--at the Open Table site (a really good free online restaurant reservation service at www.opentable.com--see if it covers your city). So this was week #1 of eating our way [View Full Entry]

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These images are intended for our grandchildren (Dylan, Myles, Anthony, Aidan, and Sydney). The first shows the New York City version of what is usually handled by car in your life--it is parents on a playground (notice that it is simply a piece of concrete surrounded by high fencing) waiting for their kids to get out of school so they can walk them home. Sometimes, 'going home' here means taking a ride on a subway or on a regular city bus, and as there are many different routes for each in a city this LARGE, it helps to have Mom or [View Full Entry]

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Lincoln Center is a 16 acre school, library, and performing arts complex shared by 12 resident organizations, including the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, the School of the American Ballet, the Julliard School, the Lincoln Center Theater, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The various buildings stretch between 62nd and 66th Streets on Columbus Ave, right where Broadway intersects it. Ground was broken on the site by President Eisenhower and the first event was [View Full Entry]

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Today, we came home from our wanderings in New York with three books, so maybe the title of this blog should be 'ACQUIRING literature,' because some of the world's best book stores and best libraries are here. Truth be told, however, the first book I read in NY, during the doldrums of my recuperation last weekend, I borrowed from the pile of books on various cases in the basement laundry room! ALWAYS a good place to find great literature, eh? Thank you Minette Waters for time well wasted. About six months ago I was taken by a review, in the New [View Full Entry]

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I don't have a lot of pithy things to say about this holiday (perhaps the only thing for which I am grateful to Ronald Reagan) but I always liked and appreciated the man himself: how he could make us feel in his speeches, his nonviolent stance in the face of provocation, and how he earned leadership the hard way--by leading with his own behavior. Here was a man who walked the walk before he talked the talk, an unusual attribute in today's political world, and enough, in my book, to earn his name on the high school just across 66th Street [View Full Entry]

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