Picasso Sculpture

coming soon!

in the NY Times

at MoMA

Picasso’s “Woman With Hat,” made of painted sheet metal in the early 1960s, 

is in “Picasso Sculpture”

NYC, the skywalks

Chelsea market

10th Avenue

Gimbels

Madison and Park

Tribeca

NYC, the psychics

The Lavanburg Homes

The Lavanburg Homes were built in about 1925. This is how a young student wrote about the new buildings (so many years ago) in his PS 97 school newspaper called, "The Mangin Herald."

The buildings were located on the short block called Baruch Place. Many decades later, these buildings became part of Henry Street's Homeless Shelters. 

Henry Street Shelters

And here are these buildings as they still stand today, holding so many poignant memories of times from so long ago. 

And this is how, in about 1925, a young boy's mind wandered in a classroom of PS 97 and this is his little story later as he wrote about it for his school newspaper so long long ago: 

Red Apple Rest

The Tuxedo Motel

in the Washington Post

"Before the advent of the New York State Thruway, New Yorkers headed to the Catskills had to spend several hours on New York Route 17 to reach their resort, summer camp or stand-up gig. The Red Apple Rest, located midway between New York City and those destinations, filled many hungry bellies and provided many fond memories. Elaine Freed Lindenblatt chronicles its history in her new book, Stop at the Red Apple: The Restaurant on Route 17.”


RIP Red Apple Rest

And here is Elaine Freed Lindenblatt, the author of the book and the daughter who lived and lives inside this story!

Fairy Tale Fashion at FIT

The Museum at FIT
The NYPost

Alice in Wonderland                                                                 Little Red Riding Hood

The Snow Queen                                                    Rapunzel

         

The Little Mermaid                                         The Swan Maidens

The Sopranos, the finale revisited

"T" is Dead!

Although David Chase has written: "The Sopranos: The Complete Book," and in it he discusses the future of the family, I am going to blog my thoughts on the series finale as they were before part of the book's contents were revealed.

I rewatched "Made in America" on HBO On Demand... which was the controversial and confusing last episode to the phenomenal series "The Sopranos." Many fans were disappointed and even angry that the series did not come to a more satisfying conclusion with more clear closure. It was so layered with different innuendos and possibilities that some diehards referred to the last episode of "The Sopranos" as the Zapruder film of TV finales. But, now I am even more convinced than ever that my initial impressions and interpretations are valid.

The textured theme for the entire run of this series has been the meaning of life and the afterlife. "You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right," Bobby asks Tony in "Soprano Home Movies" when they are out in his little boat on the lake. That one line was a nuanced foreshadowing in terms of the final scene of "Made in America" which opens with the soundtrack of a funeral dirge and then moves along to the family dinner at Holsten's. A suspicious guy in a Members Only jacket enters the restaurant and he nervously looks around. We are thinking he could be dangerous. When he gets up to go to the bathroom, the tension that has been building is unbearable. And all of this is happening while Meadow unsuccessfully attempts several times to park her car. Just as she runs across the street, Tony hears the bells as the restaurant door opens and he looks up and seems startled. 

Then, the infamous quick and unexpected cut to a dark and silent screen that lasts for about 20 seconds before the credits roll. "What the fuck?" we all initially thought. And all across America customers were calling their cable companies.

After I calmed down, I realized Tony Soprano got whacked by the guy in the Members Only jacket! In his death there was no lighted "Inn at the Oaks" filled with deceased family members, no big answer to "where am I going," and no insight into his desert revelation, "I get it." There was no validation to Paulie's spiritual hallucinations and no parallel experience to Christopher's vision of hell when he was in a coma. Carmela was wrong... Tony did not go to hell. And even Bill Burroughs got it wrong. The blank and silent screen at the very end implies Mama Livia was right all along! "It's all a big nothing," she told AJ. How funny is that? In my book, that's surreal, mind-boggling, and ultimately amazing. The series ended in great irony and dark comedy.

My jaw drops open at that final 20 second blank screen each time I see it. David Chase has to be disappointed that people reacted so negatively at first to his masterpiece. They did not "get it," so maybe it was a bit too esoteric. But it remains a twist so bizarre, so richly funny, so blended with the theme of the entire series, that "I just can't shake it." In the end, Mama was right and "it's all a big nothing!" "T" RIP.

In June 2007, I sat shiva for Tony Soprano.

Art Homes

The Haines Shoe House

The Benson Ford Cargo Ship House

The Dog Bark Park Inn

The Flintstone Home