Back home from a whirlwind trip to NY. What a fantastic, impossible place. It is a shining example of the great American experiment. It's a wild, multi-cultural stew. Hard not to love it.
The Lovely Carla and I dipped our toes in the pool of artistic inspiration, taking in Richard Foreman's new play, Wallace Shawn's one-man show, a retrospective of Saul Steinberg's drawings, and a photo exhibition featuring Henri-Cartier Bresson's amazing, in-the-moment photos.
Somehow, everything seemed connected, or somehow everything kind of leached into each other. In Foreman's play, you are lost in a sub-conscious world where everything seems to be something else. It is striking, unique theater, beyond criticism, it just is, like a dream, a cloud, a mountain, or your favorite aunt or grandfather. Wallace Shawn (we got to share a glass of champagne with the man himself) examines the connectedness of us all. We live in a world of rich and poor. We are responsible, and accountable to each other.
Steinberg fled Romania, escaped the Facist hordes and brought his wildly inventive eye to the shores of America. He became a great commentator of New York and America. He brought a light touch, a great sense of humour to the absurdity of the modern world. Bresson was captured twice by the Nazis, he buried his camera,(he retrieved it after his second escape), and then dedicated his life to capturing the fantastical and strange world we have made for ourselves. He documents a world long gone, Piccasso and Giocometti, the slums of Mexico, of Spain, the boulevards of Paris, the streetwalkers, the food vendors. It's all there in gorgeous black and white. Bresson had a eye like no other.
Anyway, it was a total feast. We also ate quite well, I highly recommend Pure Food and Wine, it's gourmet, raw cuisine (you cannot make this stuff at home, I promise), a nice, clean, comfy place where the animals are not on your plate, only on the walls around you -- ducks, cows and sheep smile down at you in appreciation. You won't want to eat them. And you will still enjoy the meal and get your fill and well, yes, you will feel good about it too. It was a great trip. Now if only we could make each day a vacation day - now that's something to shoot for!