ART - Let's visit The Michener and The NYC Armory to view Hansel and Gretel - Poem: Breakfasting

See the hook up top?

Motto: Wherever there's a hook, hang something up. Above is one of two of my new Styrofoam mobiles.

 Michener, here we come!

 We parked in a huge parking lot behind the library and approached the Michener in the intense heat.

Confession: I couldn't turn off the flash on my camera so I took the pix quickly so the guards wouldn't see. They saw. This is the entrance to the museum. The hallway.

Nakashima Room. His daughter Mira had gorgeous furniture in the hall but I was too askeerd to photograph it. Flash flash Flash

  Kirk Johnson guided us in a Nova special on the Making of North America. One of the greatest shows I've ever watched.

 

“If I go look for dinosaurs, I will find them, because there’s tons of them out there,” says Kirk Johnson, the director of the National Museum of Natural History and the star of a new Nova series "Making North America." (WGBH)
Read more:

 View out Nakashima room of prison wall. 

The James A. Michener Art Museum is a private, non-profit museum in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania founded in 1988 and named for the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer James A. Michener, a Doylestown resident. It is situated within the old stone walls of a historic 19th-century prison and houses a collection of Bucks County visual arts, along with holdings of 19th- and 20th-century American art.

Stone walls do not a prison make. Thanks Richard Lovelace and Althea.

More museum photos and remember I am really scared.

Carmina Burana

These colorful abstracts looked stunning when you first entered the room.

The late Sam Maitin's early prints. When I worked at Art Matters I did a profile on Sam.The family probly liked it so much they probly buried it with him.

This is a nine-minute movie of something.

 Here's that painting Scott was standing near. And below....The Prison Door.

This is an outdoor sign.

On the way to the car.....hurry hurry hurry if you're not alone

Where are all the restaurants in Doylestown? We walked up n down the streets. I finally asked a woman in a homemade ice cream store and she directed me to Chambers.

I ordered ahi tuna, Scott got a crab cake samwich.

What are these, I asked the very tall waiter? Fried arti-chokes. Good!

 Wake up, Scott! Actually I told him to lemme film his food, so he made like he was Elvis collapsing into his soup.

 Wake up Little Ruthie!

Charles Sheeler 

Charles Sheeler (July 16, 1883 – May 7, 1965) was an American painter and commercial photographer. He is recognized as one of the founders of American modernism developing a style of painting known as Precisionism and one of the master photographers of the 20th century.

Lemme go check if it's raining now, at precisely 12:35 am.

Nope, just breeezing. 

BREAKFASTING WITH THE
BIRDS, THE GARBAGE CANS
AND HINTS OF SPIDERS

Got up early and watched
Action News. What terrible
things happen in our city.

Not once but three times
they mention a midnight shooting
of a 15-year-old girl.

Am I allowed to be happy when
our city is threatened?

Only yesterday a friend has
called, telling me she is
being watched. Not YOU,
my friend, not YOU!

Cares vanish as I sit on
the front lawn, the last cup of
Iris's Snickerdoodle Coffee tasting
as fresh as the dew on the lawn.

I wave as the orange Dodge Challenger
pulls out of the drive and Julien
walks by with Roxy.

The Roxy Four can be the name of his
dog or an ancient club back in Cleveland.

Seated in the green lawn chair spider webs
quiver in the morning light, tiny trapeze
artists like Burt Lancaster would maintain
their balance and never tip over

Neither did my coffee, still hot. Shall we
clink our cups together and hope for a final
defeat of the healthcare bill? I've got to
believe there are men and women of conscience
throughout this great land. Do you?

On Charlie Rose were two architects plus Ai Wei Wei in their new exhibit at the NYC Armory.

View the Armory here.

From Jehovah's Witnesses to Chainsaws to Matzoh Ball Soup

Chloe's Fruit Pop for dessert. Only thing I don't like is the stick.

 Oops! Almost forgot the mushrooms.

 It was delicious! Streit's mix.

Maybe I'll bring it next door for Eileen to try.

I didn't even know that the Colombians got a new fence. Click here to read My Five Stages of Grief for the New White Fence. Scroll down.

GIVE HIM A CHAINSAW AND WATCH HIM WORK

Where would you buy a chain saw?
Sears, but not on the Boulevard,
they blew it up years ago. We
watched the destruction of the
landmark in slo-mo on the television.

We drove to the one near Starbucks.
But don't expect the merchants to
know where the items are kept on
the shelves.

Scott went on an expedition around
the store. A woman rested her
legs inside a see-through tent, as
I took up the rear trying to discern
a leaf blower from a chain saw.

He was calm when he found it. Rarely
gets excited except when I forget to
close the car windows. We paid with
my credit card and rode home like
soldiers, ready to deploy.

Down came the weeds, the vines, the
small twisted trees in his backyard.
Looked like the injured on D-Day.

In round two he took on the path
made by the deer, centuries earlier,
cutting down more twisted trees,
the path that my kids took to
get to the bigger world outside
our home, and he, to the SEPTA train
to make the 8:20.


YOU ARE INVITED

When I yelled down from
my upstairs window and
asked in my gruffest voice
"Who is there?" expecting
Window Wizards or driveway
pavers, it was worse than
I expected.

Without my glasses
I could tell they were
The Witnesses. Nicely
dressed people of color
they were swarming our
street like wasps.

You are invited, they said
in their angelic voices,
as they placed the invitation
per my request in my mailbox.

"Don't Give Up" is this year's
theme at the Liacouris Center
in downtown Philadelphia.

Why such disdain for the Witnesses?
They are smart people. The driveway
pavers are forbidden from soliciting
in our township.

But not the Witnesses. They battled Goliath and
won the right to walk down our
cracked sidewalks, passing by my
jungle of growth in the front garden,
the squirrels scolding them from the wire,
and urge us to save our souls or
attend their conference.

They shall be there, these righteous
individuals, chosen by God, believers
who hope to change the world.

Go for it, thinks I.
Do you suppose they use Ziploc bags
for 17 different uses?

The Fleisher's 50th Anniversary Party - Biking on Pennypack Trail - The Duster is published

The party was planned months in advance by Aaron Fleisher and his wife Anissa. The downtown restaurant was selected by a friend of Aaron.

View Positano Coast here. 

Scott and I left in plenty of time but still had a tough time finding both the restaurant and a place to park.

There were a series of one-way streets so we circled the rest. about five times trying to find the entrance.

When we walked in we were greeted by loads of people AND Lou and Lois Fleischer. I had met them years ago at Aaron's wedding. Now they were unrecognizable.

Below are the pants I wore. My friend Marcy from CA was helping me find them, which I finally did. 

 Delicious food included bagel and lox.

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 Rich and Ada were shocked when they walked in the room. Above is Rich and a guest.

See the photo of the young Fleishers? Photos were scattered all over.

Donna, above, was a kaleidoscope of lovely colors.

 Sandy, above, and her son Stuart, who lives in Lancaster, PA, with his family physician wife Donna.

Part of Ada's acceptance speech.

We exit down the ramp. Valet parking was $21. But this is Philadelphia! Not Willow Grove.

 The Ritz Theater across the street. The favorite place of my friend Judy D, before she moved to Niwot, CO, to be with her kids. Since this is the historic area, cobblestones line the street.

The above gorgeous bldg used to be The Philadelphia Stock Market. Scott has a book of historic Philadelphia photos and showed me the building last night.

 I walked down the stairs, very carefully, and photographed myself and other customers all looking at emselves in the meer. 

Stock market. Hmm, lemme buy some more Amazon stock since they just bought out Whole Foods.

Our gift to the Fleishers was a gift card from Barnes and Noble for $50.

What would YOU buy if it were you?

*

Later on, Scott and I went biking at Pennypack Trail.

We chose 5:30 so it wouldn't be too crowded or too hot.

We went about two miles, the first time in months.

Then, we had another event. Every Sunday our township has music at Masons Mill Park.

Dave Deluca...
New for 2017, That’s Amore: A Century of Dean Martin. This one man band
imitates Martin’s relaxed, crooning voice as he performs songsE D
like Everybody Loves Somebody and Volare.

Deluca was very good. They may have had 200 people in lawn chairs on the grass. Scott brought our beach chairs.

I was soooo relaxed.

Read below poem about it.

Here's THE DUSTER.

PRESENTING DAVE DELUCA

He was good, very good,

a stout man who sang

Dean Martin favorites

to an overflow crowd

in Mason's Mill Park

We brought our lawn chairs,

colorful as Picassos. I

stared. A parade of

big-bellied men passed by.

Soft, like Strohman's bread.

The two-year-old passed

by with Mum several times,

holding his toy car in

the well of his hand.

My two-year-olds, Grace and

Max, had turned four and six.

A good-looking teen was the

only one dancing, reminded

me of my brother. In front of

me a young boy set up his

lawn chair, blocking my view.

Just you wait, I said to myself.

He toppled from his chair, three times,

then righted himself until

Dad came along and pulled him

back to the fold of the family.

Families!

The Muslims were picnicking over

by the pond, the smell of their

BBQ flowing like soft head scarves

through the air.

We nodded to them as we returned

to our cars.

Inside, buckled up, I said to my man

Scott, that was the most relaxing thing

I've done all week.