(in the video I made a mistake and said that the front was actually the back. It’s the other way around)
Today I visited the Seguine Burke Plantation–nowadays, more often called the Seguine Mansion–in Princess Bay, Staten Island. It takes its name from the street that it is on.
Plantation from the front side.
This is one of my favorite places in the entire city. It’s only open a few days during the year for people to go in and be given a tour, which I did once. I couldn’t go inside today. However, I previously visited this historic house in 2007 during the week that they were giving tours, and below is a photo I took of one of the rooms.
Seguine Burke Plantation Interior Room
The man who is now living in the house has the task of trying to restore it to look something like it did back in 1836. This home has the most beautiful grounds I’ve ever seen. They have peacocks that have total freedom and are often seen walking around the surrounding streets. How I would love to live in that neighborhood. They also have horses and people come to horseback ride. The estate is located only a few blocks from the Atlantic Ocean at Raritan Bay.
An Estate Peacock on gate to backyardPeacock on frontyard fenceBackyard of Plantation with Peacock. To see the peacock better, click on above photo to enlarge .The plantation has many horses and has a ring for horse back riding.Peacock in backyard of Plantation
Today I traveled into the city even though it was raining. I saw a lot of public art which I took videos and photos of and then made the above video when I got home. One reason I love this city so much is the public art that is so much everywhere, plus the great buildings by great architects. Today I rode on this subway car (the shuttle between Times Square and Grand Central Station) that was painted on the inside like a rain forest, even the seats, and on the outside had a frog on it. I always liked graffiti, when it was good, but institutions like the MTA seem to only approve of representational painting. Anyway, I hope you like my little video. I just got a new computer yesterday in order to make better videos. At least now they will be in H.D. Presently, both a teddy bear and a lady bug have an artistic presence on Park Avenue in NYC.
While I was walking around the City, I got very tired. I was near the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. Trump has a bar there called The Trump Bar. Such an original name. I was so tired that I went in and ordered an Irish Coffee. It was the worse Irish Coffee I’ve ever had in my life. The coffee wasn’t hot and the bartender, whom I can’t believe ever went to bartending school, put a lemon twist in it. Have you ever heard of an Irish Coffee with a lemon twist? And no whip cream on top. I don’t think I’ve ever had an Irish Coffee anyplace on earth where they didn’t put whip cream on top. I should have said something, but I never do. On top of that, it cost $13.50, when every where else in New York, it only cost $9.00 for an Irish Coffee even in the high-end restaurants. My advice–when in NYC, stay away from the places that mainly cater to tourists. New York seems too expensive to tourists. That’s only because they don’t know where to go. When I recently visited L.A., L.A. was just as expensive as New York City, as far as the normal places to eat go–not the tourists traps, which usually are in or near hotels. In New York City, the tourists’ traps are mainly in Times Square, are anything associated with Donald Trump, and around 5th or 6th Avenue and 57th St.–the heart of midtown.
I found this video on Youtube of an Improv filmed in the Trump Tower Building. The bar is on the level above the escalators and next to them. Of course, I couldn’t be so fortunate as to have something like this happen while I’m there.
I love these improve’s. I wish I could witness one.
Teddy Bear on Park Ave. Sculpture by Urs Fischer, a Swiss Artist
Last night attended a member’s only party and showing at the Guggenheim of their new exhibit called The Great Upheaval, referring to European painting from 1910-1918, when a radical turn in art took place. Those years were the beginning of abstraction in art. This was also a period of tremendous turmoil and change in world history that rather culminated in WW I. The exhibit traces the development of abstraction, during those 8 years, by over 100 works by 48 artists including Marc Chagall, Robert Delaunay, Vasily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, Kazimir Malevich, and Pablo Picasso.
The majority of the paintings didn’t seem to be from A-list painters, although I did enjoy some of the paintings that I had never seen before from painters whom I had never heard of before.
The few Picasso’s were his very early cubist paintings that aren’t his most outstanding. They put together a new show out of old pictures from their collection. It didn’t seem very innovative. The Guggenheim doesn’t allow people to photograph their paintings or exhibits, so one has to be content with what one can photograph from the outside of the building or from the ground floor. Fortunately, that is mostly the magnificent Frank Lloyd Wright building, which is the main reason everyone goes to the Guggenheim in the first place. The only reason the Guggenheim is a famous art museum is because of the building. However, when a security guard wasn’t looking, I managed to take a photo from above the ground floor, as you can see in one of the photos below.
The NYC Guggenheim at night on February 4, 2011Guggenheim, Interior
This video contains a few of my favorite photos taken in Venice, California on my 5-day trip to Los Angeles, in September 2010, in order to attend my 50th high school reunion.
As you can see by this blog, I’ve been making a lot of videos lately. That is because I found this really nice little program for making videos on the Internet that you can download for free, if you have Windows Vista or Windows 7. It may take other versions of windows, I’m not sure. Go to http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker?os=other However, it won’t accept all file extensions. It won’t take photos from my new camera, which is a Nikon, but it accepts photos from my old camera, which is a Canon.
Having recently discovered the High Line which runs along the Hudson River from 14th Street up to about 23rd Street, at this point in time, while walking it, I’m amazed by the beautiful modern architecture, which I love, that exists in the Chelsea area of Manhattan. Here are a few photos I took today of building that one sees while walking along the high line.
The Chelsea Area of New York CityDesigned by Della Valle Bernheimer
On my recent visit to L.A., the first place I wanted to visit was the area of the Venice Canals in Venice, California. I lived there in a one-bedroom apartment at 440 Howland Canal, almost 50 years ago, when I was attending Santa Monica College. At that time, I paid $40/month rent. My apartment was still there, but now surfaced in a lovely brown shade of stucco.
The canals have a very interesting history. Abbot Kinney, who first designed Venice, California in 1905 was in love with Venice, Italy, and he modeled the canals, after the canals in Venice. Italy. Today, there is a main street named after him.
House on Canals
The water in the canals is much cleaner now than when I lived there, 50 years ago, because they never cleaned the canals, they were perpetually covered with moss and plants from the sea. If I remember correctly, there was a small outlet between the canals and the ocean. The canals have the most beautiful landscaping I’ve ever seen. Using tropical plants, many well-manicured palm trees, and numerous varieties of succulents.
Many people who live in the houses on the canals also have boats.Another House I Liked
I’ve always loved living in that neighborhood because it’s so unique. The canals were completely renovated in the early 1990’s and have mostly beautiful and expensive homes. What I loved most, the ducks and the boats on the water are still there.
House on Venice, California, Canals
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My Friend Linda of Playa Del Rey on a Venice Canal When we VisitedOld Friend Dr. Frank Clayman Cook in his home on the Canals
The Flatiron Building on 23rd Street, Broadway and Fifth Avenue
Flatiron Building (built 1902) at 5th Avenue, Broadway, and 23rd St. in Manhattan
During the last few weeks, I’ve been spending some time in the area of Madison Square Park, around Broadway and 23rd St, often referred to as the Flatiron District, because the Flatiron building, across the street from Madison Square Park is the main focus of attention in that area. What has drawn me to that area of late was first my discovery of one of my favorite stores on 23rd St.: the Home Depot, and, then, this summer, the Antony Gormley art installation of 31 bronze nude men situated in Madison Square Park and on top of buildings that surround the park. I love these public art installations that the City always has. Last year it was waterfalls, this year nude bronze men. I can hardly wait until next year.
One of 2 Bronze Men by Antony Gormley in Madison Square Park on Display from March through August 15, 2010
Spending some time in the Flatiron District made my fondness for it to expand. I also became aware that the great writer Edith Wharton was associated with this area of the City. I suddenly got the urge to read The House of Mirth. My copy from Amazon arrived this morning. The book begins in Grand Central Station. What was “funny” is that Rhinebeck, New York is mentioned on the second page, which seems so appropro. At the end of the second page–I quote: Her discretions interested him almost as much as her imprudences: he was so sure that both were part of the same carefully-elaborated plan. In judging Miss Bart, he had always made use of the ‘argument from design.’
Gormley's Bronze Nude Man Standing on Top of the Flatiron building
Having no idea what “argument from design” meant, I looked it up. It means the argument that there has to be a God because of the elaborate design of nature, and the world. It’s as if there can’t be a design without a designer, and the earth is certainly designed and formed according to rules of nature.
So, who invented those rules? I think this is rather a brilliant way to describe a person. It’s as if everything about Miss Bart were part of an overall plan. It’s interesting that Edith Wharton, whose great love in life was interior decorating, would be attracted to this metaphor.
Antony Gormley's Nude Bronze Man on Top of Building on Fifth Avenue. You can see this guy in first photo, at top of blog. He's on the right, between the two lines, but you have to really look hard to see him.
A few pages later, in the House of Mirth, Ms. Bart runs into an old friend of hers in Grand Central Station, and he takes her up to his apartment for tea. She says to him: “If I could only do over my aunt’s drawingroom I know I should be a better woman.” That sounds to me like the same type of modern woman who thinks that if she could just find the right outfit to wear, her life would come together.
However, I previously visited this historic house in 2007 during the week that they were giving tours, and below is a photo I took of one of the rooms.
Old Woman on a Bicycle 