Day5 NYC (St Patty's Day Parade)

 {ed. note: THB had his camera set inadvertently to take "live" pics and those won't load onto the computer with the MS office tool....screw you Apple....and thus a few pics of the glorious walk through Central Park, along with a few of fitness center and the Met have been lost and possibly wandering around in the clouds over NYC}

Weather: Again cool and clear, warm in the sun by early afternoon

Fitness Center: THB does his 7 minute workout for the first time in 5 days. Mandarin has a compact and very functional set of equipment. In addition, THB and DB put in Nineteen thousand two hundred steps today.

Breakfast: Leftover rolls from Sullivan and Le Pain Quotiden accompanied by two decaf au laits ($6) from Paris Baguette near the hotel (THB cannot find the Starbucks...is that even possible, they are everywhere., just not where a blind guy can see them)

The Met: About 1/2 hour + walk and a bit more time to wait for the opening bell, and we're off to see the big current show, Harlem Renaissance of artist from the 1930 and 1940s overlooked by the white mainstream art market.

Phew, now back to our regular programming: lots of pics and a few captions

Same price as Moma

Samuel Brown Jr.

Elizabeth Catlet

William Johnson

Suzanna Ogunjami

Henri Matisse: to make a valid point, The Met put a few of their more famous works into the mix of the Harlem show...and it isn't easy to tell the difference

Same-same with Picasso

Roland Penrose (there were a number of photographs by Harlem artists in the mix as well)

James Van Deer Zee

Archibald Motley Jr - few Black artists painted nudes of Black women, considering it undignified

Van Der Zee: identical twins

Richard Nugent

Romare Bearden : The Block

Moving on to other galleries in The Met

Norman Lewis

Helen Frankenthaler

Francis Picaba

Joaa Miro

Textiles (this one is 1,000 years old)

Another ancient work

Close-up

Lenore Tawney

Anni Albers

detailed

Met Humor: putting new work in the mix with work "buried" in a gallery called the Byzantine Crypt. Not easy to find and most people used it as a pass-through between other galleries, never stopping to look

Ana Mendieta

Old Byzantine figures

New work by Amia Huffington

New work by Whitfield Lowell

Louise Bourgeois

New work, artist name not captured

new work by Alwar Balasubrami

Bruce Metcalf (no relation to The Met, same age as THB!): some of you will recognize Bruce's work, and how it belongs in a crypt

Made by a Viet Nam war vet: studies for arterial limbs

Lunch at the Pastrami Queen (of course under scaffolding): a repeat from a number of years ago and just as good now. Platter with enough pastrami for2 substantial sandwiches, sides of cole slaw and potato salad and two types of dill pickles. With water and ice tea, $45

On the wall are pics of other famous houses of pastrami including the best one in LA, Langers

The rest of the day is spent going to galleries that have something to do with Asia Week. Joan Mirviss carries Suzuki Goro, he of the "chair" ceramics. Note the price for a small sake cup: $1,250 USD

Two works by Hoshino Satoru at the Dai Ichi gallery. THB and DB and EW and JW visited the Hoshino's home/studio in Japan years ago on a great trip. The W's bought Satoru's work, THB and DB bought the plates by their son

St Patrick's Day Parade, started at 11, these pics were taken at around 2:45

Bus parklet near Times Square. Apparently the other 200,000 people walking this area at night didn't want to dine outside

Dinner at a place open only for one month: a vegan sushi place with two size menus, $60 ot $100pp. We went whole hog and ordered the entire chicken enchilada special. Very creative, very flavorful, and nothing like a fish based version, and served very fast. Somehow we managed to down 4 small glasses of sake as well; with tip around $350. A once-in-a-lifetime experience!

every item had at least 5 ingredients and THB couldn't remember 10% of them

see, nobody got on the bus parklet