Sea Cliff to Springfield, VT

Stan Honda and I left Sea Cliff this morning, enroute to Springfield, Vermont, home of the Stellafane Convention.  Lots of traffic on Long Island, of course, but the skies really opened up when we were going through Wethersfield, Connecticut.  We stopped there at a Panera for lunch, and when the rain stopped, we continued north.  Then the clouds opened up with rain!  Many of you will be thrilled to know that Stan was driving, so I had both hands available for the camera!  I didn't have to deal with keeping the car on the road!  Eventually the rain stopped, and we had dry roads through most of Massachusetts and Vermont

"Mrs. N's Palace"

This is a work by Louise Nevelson, another piece in the new "Epic Abstraction" exhibition at the Met.  It is an astounding sculpture.  This is how the Met described the piece: "This sculpture composed of more than one hundred seemingly disparate but interconnected objects absorbs and emanates her spirit and that of her adopted home. Her largest work, it took thirteen years to complete and was unveiled on her eightieth birthday. The charismatic Nevelson is the "Mrs. N" of the title, the monarch of this massive structure that is both environment and monument, recalling grand memorials and tombs as well as intimate, private spaces. Nevelson was captivated by the beauty she found in discarded materials and urban detritus, tenderly composing, layering, and painting her "found objects" until they shed their skin, reborn as art. Here, it is forgotten things found by chance that together make up the whole—perhaps a metaphor for the city, even for life."  This is a view of the piece from the outside.  It is a huge piece,  11.5 feet by 20 feet by 15 feet!  

This is a photograph of the inside of Mrs. N's Palace, and it is as complex and as fascinating as the outside.  I have never seen this piece on display before, so it was an amazing thing to come across.  It stopped me in my tracks!  Isn't this just astounding?

The Cast of Characters

So this is the end result of all my travel out to the heart of Brooklyn.  This the cast of characters.  Most of the people here were the  group who went to Big Bend National Park last year.  So since then we have been getting together for dinner about every 6 months or so, either in a restaurant or at Antoine's house.  It is always a wonderful evening of conversation about all kinds of subjects, including astronomy and photography and the meaning of life!  Always a wonderful gathering.

A Kodachrome Moment

This is the Newkirk Avenue subway stop on the Q line out in Brooklyn.  This is the stop we got off at to get to the group dinner at Antoine's house.  As I was exiting the doors from the stairway, I saw all these brilliant colors on the stores along the platform.  I have never seen another subway stop like this before, surrounded by stores!  The colors were so brilliant, it reminded me of photographs that I have taken with Kodachrome back in years past.   From the Paul Simon song called "Kodachrome" - "They give us those nice bright colors... makes you think all the world's a sunny day."

Here is another view of the platform and all the stores.  There is another group of stores on the platform on the other side of the tracks.

Subway Trains Run Underground, Right?

In all the years I have lived in New York, every subway I have ever ridden has been underground.  They all run underground, right?  Wrong. When taking the Q train to Brooklyn the other night, imagine my surprise to find us on the Manhattan Bridge, way up in the air, crossing the East River!  What a surprise.  So I saw the Brooklyn bridge in the distance and wanted to get a photo of it.  Only problem is that the trusses on the bridge I was on were zooming past the window.  I must have taken 20 photographs as fast as I could, and only this one didn't have a truss running through the middle of the picture!

"Are You Bored With Reality?"

"Are You Bored With Reality?"  "Bored with Reality?"  ME?  You've got to be kidding!  I took the train to Fun City late in the day yesterday, on my way to Brooklyn to have dinner with a bunch of photographer/astronomer friends.  On the way from Penn Station on 32nd street to the subway at Greely Square, I passed by this advertisement on one of the buildings.  There were three of these arches with one message next to each.  I forget the other two.  I figured their point is that if you are bored, you can buy something in their store, and you will no longer be bored.  Makes sense to me!

Resting

This is Ann and Stan at rest.  It was exhausting to be on our feet for a couple of hours looking at the Moon exhibit, so when we got to the abstract art exhibit, we decided to rest for a bit.  They sat on one bench and I sat on the other.  I happened to look over and saw their arrangement, which I thought was an interesting shape.  I think one of them had moved a bit, so I asked them to move back to where I originally saw them, then took this photograph.  The painting in the background is another Mark Rothko, titled No. 21, done in 1940.