I wasn’t in the city too much, but I did catch this shot of the George Washington Bridge on the way out.
I stayed with friends at Greenwood Lake outside the city. You don’t have to drive that far to be in a country setting. This shot is from Demarest Hill Winery in Warwick New York.
The wine wasn’t to my liking, but they do appear to have good grappa and brandy, which I didn’t try. The scenery was stunning.
However, in the department of recommendations, I suggest The Creamery. Here you will get great views and fantastic ice cream!
To burn off some of the ice cream, we went water skiing, or at least, my friends did. I used the opportunity to play with the Panasonic DMC-ZS40’s auto-focusing motor drive. It’s pretty easy to rack up about 300 photos in an hour that way! I liked that I could zoom in on the skier and then shoot continuously. For action shots you really have to shoot that way to get just the right shot. Here is my favorite of a friend of my friends.
Ochs Orchard in Warwick is a beautiful place to pick up some produce.
Overall, I had a great time with my friends. The meeting I had with Brenda Novak, her agent and one of her editors, Margaret Marbury, was very helpful to me. We had a good time and the conversation helped me sort some things out for myself about genre, direction, blogs, and commercial fiction.
Love is what it’s all about–
but food is a close second.
Nia Simone, November 28, 2013
I was asking an Australian friend if they have any holidays that are basically about food. Not really. Okay, so I have several Australian friends, many of whom I’ve met through blogging, so pipe up if you disagree! Of course, as you know, the food in Australia is amazing, so perhaps we don’t need a specific holiday centered on feasting there.
Australia is my other home, and this is becoming clear as one fellow blogger thought I was Australian. I love Australia and my Australian friends. Today is an American holiday, though, and I’m going to celebrate it by starting this celebration of food off with home-grown and home cooked foods before moving on to some of my international culinary samples.
Home grown and home-cooked:
Vegan Thai
Lentil saladYummy ingredientsDinner time! (Very yummy)Vegan Thai with other veggies
Greenwich Village Manhattan:
Turophilia (excessive love of cheese) Greenwich Village, sign outside the cheese shopA bit of cheeseOctopus, beer and a dolmata at Boukies, Greenwich Village
Australia:
Barramundi at LorneStuffed squid at a tapas bar in Melbourne, DeGraves StreetJoe’s? I think, Sydney, by the riverSmoked salmon at Joe’s in Sydney
San Francisco:
Dessert at PiperadeAppetizer at PiperadePiperade Restaurant
Paris:
Christian Constant Restaurant startersI guess you could say wine was a big feature in Paris! This was dinner on the deck of our apartment.Veal — Opera HouseDeep fried Celeriac — Opera HouseCrepe de Frites Maison Robert on Champs ElyseesOpera HouseRolls, fresh, Opera HouseButter, Opera HouseTomato jam mozzarella bonito and basil sorbet, Opera HouseGreen pea soup cold with cream and goat cheese on toast, Opera HouseOpera House, Grey Goose is the house vodka
Rue Cler Produce outsideRue Cler Capuccino and Cafe Americain
Amsterdam:
Thai food
RijsstaaflAppetizers ready to go out to the deck of the houseboat
Texas:
The Brush FireTorchy’s Tacos, The Independent
More Manhattan:
Grilled camembert at The EateryMeat loaf ravioli mac and jack at The EateryLisa’s bagelSweet italian sausage risotto croquettesAt The Boathouse in Central ParkThe Boathouse, Central ParkFlor de Mayo, Peruvian restaurant upper west sideFlor de Mayo, Peruvian restaurant, upper west sideHot pretzel in Central ParkFlor de Mayo, Peruvian restuarant, upper west sideDeli, lower East sideSesame seed crackers at The EateryShmears at a deli in the upper west sideShmears, continued, at a deli in the upper west sideYet more shmears at a deli in the upper west sidePain au Chocolate at the Brasserie Pushkin across from the Museum of Modern ArtDining Room at Brasserie Puskin NYC
Blackbottom cheesecake from The Bake ShopGrasshopper (mint chocolate chip) from The Bake Shop
Some of these you’ve seen before. A bit of that old longing for New York is starting to build, so I opened up the vault to trip down memory lane with favorite shots from The Big Apple. New York felt like home the first time I climbed up to the street from a subway station and stepped into a river of Type A humanity rushing through a high-rise canyon. Since then, I’ve been back more than 20 times. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my photo of the crowds near Grand Central Station today. These are all quiet pictures. I’ll just need to go back and take that photo again!
From Central ParkLooking up from the lobby of the Guggenheim MuseumLooking back from Roosevelt Island
I really like bridges and buildings, especially together.
Time to make your reservations for New York if you want to go in September. These photos are from a month in New York last year, half September, half October. You can rent an apartment through VRBO, one with Wi-Fi so you can work. Hopefully these photos will inspire you to try living in the Big Apple for a month, experiencing what it’s like to be a New Yorker.
Welcome to new followers of this blog! Here is a re-post of a popular topic. Loyal readers, thanks for your indulgence as I work up an interesting new series called: “Inside the author’s mind.” And don’t worry, it’s not my mind we will be exploring. My interviewees for this creative-process exploration are a lot more interesting.
Trip dates: 9/15 – 10/13/12
Pushkin Brasserie (near Museum of Modern Art),
Add to Pushkin Brasserie ambiance this and a spiked cappuccino and you’ll recover from exhausting museum going:
Share these from Crumbs Bake Shop:
Blackbottom cheesecake cupcake
(upper west side, 97th/Columbus.)
Grasshopper (mint chocolate chip) to die for
“Wine-dark in a shallow lemon sea, pelted with capers, the curl of octopus ($16) looked messy and primeval, as if just plucked from the deep. It is the dish that a Greek restaurant lives or dies by, simple yet exacting. Tenderness should be victory enough. But the octopus at Boukiés had gone a step beyond, the flesh undoing itself, achieving a texture, at its core, close to nectar.” Ligaya Mishan, New York Times 9/21/12
Looked scary, tasted heavenly:
Boukies (pronounced Boo KAY is) in Greenwich Village
For less money and a different though not lesser pleasure, a hot pretzel in Central Park:
Do you love cheese? There’s a name for that.
Cheese shop in Greenwich Village
A choice of Schmears (upper west side, Broadway):
Oyster bar in Grand Central Station:
Spinach and kasha knishes from Yonah Shimmel’s Knishery on East Houston Street (lower east side):
Pastrami and corned beef sandwiches at Katz’s Deli (near Yonah’s, lower east side):
Tiny cupcake:
Sugary Sweet Sunshine Bakery
Cappuccino in Tribeca:
Comfort food at The Eatery after a show (The Phantom of the Opera).
Sesame seed crackers and champagneSweet italian sausage risotto croquettesGrilled camembertMeat loaf, ravioli and “Mac and Jack” (macaroni and cheese with grilled onions on top)
Elevation of a bagel:
Peruvian cuisine on the upper west side at Flor De Mayo (Broadway around 98th):
Beef stew in a cilantro sauce with potatoesRoasted chicken and plaintainsAji Gallina Chicken with eggs on a bed of lettuce
Exiting the High Line. Starting here, headed toward the World Trade Center and the western edge of Greenwich Village.
Between the meat packing district and Greenwich VillageCheese, anyone?Yes, cheese rocks.Famous intersectionA day in the “nabe” (new term for neighborhood)
After reading this: “Wine-dark in a shallow lemon sea, pelted with capers, the curl of octopus ($16) looked messy and primeval, as if just plucked from the deep. It is the dish that a Greek restaurant lives or dies by, simple yet exacting. Tenderness should be victory enough. But the octopus at Boukiés had gone a step beyond, the flesh undoing itself, achieving a texture, at its core, close to nectar.” Ligaya Mishan, NYT 9/21/12, we had to try it:
Heading to the subway station and back to home away from home:
Take the Highlights of the Museum tour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s free (with admission, which is free also, sometimes).
Begin with the Greco Roman area, the basis of Western culture, early Greek sculpture. Observe symmetry and, with one foot forward, the beginnings of motion in sculpture. Note the hands held stiffly by the side.
100 years later, this Greek statue in the heroic pose was created. Note musculature and movement.
See this contemporary artist from Ghana who composes sculptures from found items, in this case bottle caps and labels from liquor bottles. The artist believes art, like life, is always changing, so he does not provide instruction on how the piece should be hung, leaving it to the curators to arrange the display.
See a reconstruction of Marie Antoinette’s room where she lived during her confinement. Artists made things for her during this period and, according to her requirements, imprinted the letters “MA” on any furniture they created for her. The desk shows the beginning of multi-purpose furniture, a new idea at the time.
The bust of Diderot, a contemporary, one of the philosopher-creators of the Enlightenment era and the creator of the first encyclopedia, stands on a side table in the room.
Next a corner of Impressionists containing four works of Claude Monet, who said, “Light changes even stone.”
Monet worked on the same subject, painting it repeatedly in different lights to explore this idea of light and mood. In these paintings, he also used complimentary colors, blue and gold, to help create a soothing effect. He spent three years on this motif, renting an apartment in a drapery store located across the street from Parliament, so he could render the subject in varying light. He used impasto, a style of layering on paint.
During this period, sculpture employed studied composition, as shown in this piece, which displays a highly orchestrated, triangular arrangement, with smaller figures below and the main figure being the largest in the middle.
Then Rodin shocked the Paris scene with this sculpture called the Burghers of Calais. Rodin revolutionized sculpture on many levels, depicting ordinary people performing heroic acts, with figures formed in equal and realistic sizes, walking rather than posing,
When Calais was under siege, these burghers offered themselves to the king as hostages to save their town.
Rodin believed that the hands and feet reveal our emotions so he made them larger. The feet are big and heavy, rooted to the ground by the burden they carried.
There is a happy ending to the Burghers-of-Calais story. The queen, upon hearing the story, persuaded the king to set the men free.
In the baroque period you see allegorical painting, with the different elements of the composition representing different concepts; for example the bird represents natural music and the lute represents man-made music.
A year, later, Velasquez launched a new direction with this piece, in which he painted an ordinary man and his emotions, breaking with tradition and launching a new period. This painting depicts his slave, whom he freed shortly after doing this portrait. The slave liked working with Velasquez though, so he stayed with him as a salaried employee. The former slave was also a painter.
Next, visit the music gallery where you’ll see a lute, invented at the time of the above allegorical painting.
This room shows the baroque period’s leisurely pace and the abundance of the period in which the invention of new instruments blossomed. This harpsichord is decorated in real gold. The frieze and figures depict a story.
Can a room be art? Visit this room created by a Japanese artist. The water flows evenly over all sides of this stone, which is carved to be different on each side. The giant stone from the artist’s home area sits on a bed of rocks from a sacred river.
End the tour with this painting of an American woman living in Paris by an American artist. The woman was obsessed with having pale skin, taking arsenic and using lavender powder to make it more pale. (This painting is distorted by the angle from which it was shot.)
The painting created a huge scandal in Paris and nearly destroyed the artist’s career so he went back to painting people in their proper clothes.
At the end of his life, the artist donated the scandalous painting to the Metropolitan and said it was the best work he achieved in his career, and it was one of his first. Artists, pay attention, be careful about creating only things that conform to society’s mores.
Return to the impressionist galleries to linger over a visual feast.
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