Stacy Horn

My birthday treat on Sunday was a trip to the Frick Museum, which is “pay what you wish” on Sundays between 11am and 1am. I wished to pay a dollar. I have always loved this museum. It’s NYC’s equivalent to Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, although can we all admit the Gardner Museum is more fun? The paintings here are astounding. Also, I couldn’t help staring and staring, thinking, “that paint was laid down in the 16th century, and look at the color.” I love Frick and his daughter Helen’s taste (I learned that at least one of my favorite paintings there was acquired by her).

I just realized that I’ve never been to the Frick Art Reference Library, which Helen established in 1920 as a memorial to her father. How is that possible??

It’s a shame how expensive this museum is. I’m looking at their brochure of summer programs and I’d go to practically every one of these except for the cost. Although I can’t really complain. Obviously I can go any Sunday I like.

They won’t let you take pictures anywhere except in the Garden Court, which didn’t inspire me. I didn’t even want to sit there, it felt cold and unnatural. So here’s one shot. But luckily, yesterday was the Puerto Rican Parade, which went right by the Frick. A shot of the parade also follows.

I hope this girl is studying dance. Imagine what a dancer she’ll become as she grows into these arms and legs!

Heading home this afternoon I walked straight into a wall of people. “What are you here for?” “Gold Rush Rally!!! WOO!!” “25 million dollars worth of cars are about to drive by.” “WOO! WOO! WOO!” Well, okay. That’s not something you see every day. I stayed to watch. Pictures and a short movie follow. This all took place on Bleecker Street and I’m standing near Perry.

One of my neighbors (I’m guessing) making a quick exit. The cars kept revving their engines and it was ear-piercingly loud.

This woman was giving away wrist bands. “I’m sorry! I don’t have very many!”

Totally missed by everyone who was focused on the cars, was Laurie Anderson.

When this car drove up the crowd went absolutely NUTS. I quickly learned this woman was Concubine. That’s because everyone around me was screaming, “CONCUBINE!” “CONCUBINE!”

The man on the right is the driver of that car, Bryan Salamone. I googled him and learned that he was driving to raise money for the Sisters of St. Francis, a charity that was established to end human trafficking in Zambia. So, Bryan is a nice guy.

I made a short movie. Concubine and I share a laugh at the end because Bryan starts calling out, “Where’s Anne?” Anne appears and it turns out she’s his mom, which struck me as funny, the way he was calling out “Where’s Anne?” Apparently Concubine thought so too.

My Thursday birthday treat was the Loser’s Lounge. They were doing a tribute to the Talking Heads this time. The picture below is of Alyson Greenfield, who was particularly great that night, and singer Tricia Scotti, one of my favorite singers who sings back-up at the Loser shows. Actually, everyone was on fire, the band especially. I decided they must really love the Talking Heads, because it brought out the best in them.

PS: I wish I was good enough to be a back-up singer. In my opinion they get the best part, making harmony. If you’ve never experienced it, it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world. It’s a full-body, extremely pleasurable sensation and it beats being the star. If you’re singing something that also means something to you, it takes you into the stratosphere of pleasure.

For my Wednesday birthday treat I went to The Museum of Mathematics. The Change of Perspective lecture was given by professor Michael Orrison of Harvey Mudd College. At the end he put up a slide with a stanza from a Blake poem:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

After his lecture I really did see and understand those words in a new way. Unfortunately, I saw that my mind still shuts down and refuses to do math. But I had a few real aha moments during his lecture, and was able to apply what he was talking about to my world. I think he would be glad that his point regarding mathematics worked in another setting. It was kinda the whole point.

This lecture was part of a series called Math Encounters, but they have a lot of events there, I see, and one coming up next week involving math, wine, cheese and chocolate.

This is looking through the doors into the museum. The symbol for Pi was used for the door handles.

As I said, I’ve decided to make this my birthday week and every day I’m doing some fun thing in the city. I forgot to mention, it has to be free or very close to free. For instance, I went to the Met on Monday, but at the Met you can pay whatever you like so I paid a dollar. On Tuesday I went to the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).

Speaking of FIT, I’ve always wondered why they are not the ones associated with the show Project Runway. Not that Parsons isn’t deserving but FIT is strictly about fashion. I just googled it. Tim Gunn was the chair of fashion design there when the show started. I love Tim Gunn. (One must never lose an opportunity to praise Tim Gunn.)

The show currently at FIT is all about lingerie. They wouldn’t let me take pictures inside the show but I was allowed to take pictures of the garments outside in the lobby. This was designed by a recent graduate, Vianna Occhino. The picture is not capturing the glittery elements in the skirt.