Between the East and West Side I found Currier and Ives

Sunday afternoon I left Harry and our bags at the NYC Historical Society where he spent time with NYC Divided - a timeline of the city during the civil war. It reminded me of Gangs of NY with real artifacts. We had several shows to see before our departure at 4:30 so I made my way across Central Park and found it to be even more enchanting than I expected. The roads had been cleared and were closed to automobiles so my journey was much easier than I assumed it would be. There were bagpipes, saxophones, joggers, strollers, dogs wearing designer galoshes and horse and buggies... it even had a soundtrack!

I tore myself away from all that to see the Lorna Simpson and Gordon Matta-Clark exhibitions at the Whitney. I encountered NO LINES! This was a first. I quess Whitney Lovers don't like snow. There proved to be nothing new for me in either of these shows since work by these two artists has been reproduced endlessly and both are well known. A few pieces stood out because they don't translate accurately photographically... particularly Simpson's photo silkscreens on flannel panel. I love those things. They have a quality that reminds me of the new tapestries Chuck Close is doing - though more subtle.

All in all it was a perfect afternoon made even richer when I dashed BACK across the park and came across a group of bagpipers from Quebec. (I am assuming this was their point of origin since French was being spoken.) Harry and I left the Historical Society and walked downtown to the ICP to see a collection of Louise Brooks photos (Harry's a Brooksian fanatic) and Cartier Bresson's scrapbooks. There was a wonderful video interview with Bresson I would have loved to have stayed for... maybe I'll find it on Netflix. Years ago I would dream of running into Bresson on the rue Rivoli and I was staying on rue de l'Hotel de Ville. Too late for that now.

We had an easy walk to Penn Station from there but barely managed seats on our bus at 33rd and Seventh. A lovely woman gave up her seat so we could sit together and that proved to be a real blessing. Sharing our dinner across length of the bus would have been true theatre. BTW, the Gyro place across the street from the bus stop is excellent!