Too close for comfort

It's been a very sad week.
The election has put a damper on everything and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it...the implications for all of us are yet to unfold, we'll just have to see what happens. And pray this country can hold it together.
This much I do know: I am very close to the eye of the storm. When I went to vote this week, it was the first time since I've moved to this neighborhood. My voting place is a high school on 56th Street and 2nd Avenue just two blocks away. When I got there the lines were wrapping around the block and there was an unbelievable cortege of press, cameras, and police. Then it all made sense. This is where That Candidate was going to come vote. See, his golden tower is just a few blocks away. I voted, it took forever, but had to leave to make an appointment. Sure enough, he showed up with his wife to vote a couple of hours later and was greeted with boos and shouts of "New York hates you!" (Thank God for New Yorkers).
But now that the dust is settling on this very unnerving election, I realize that his properties could be--God forbid--major targets for terrorism...and my building in close proximity by just a few blocks. If I sound skittish, I am. Oh, what scary times we live in...

11.8.16

Autumn on Sutton Place

Snapped a beautiful picture of my favorite neighborhood park this morning on this Election Eve day.
Is it the calm before the political storm??

Ya gotta have heart (and art)

The most recent addition to The Beautiful Wreck is a piece of artwork I created, a piece of sculpture I placed on the coffee table. It's an oversized depiction of the human heart, the medium is paper maché.





I'd say it's about 90% accurate based on photos and models I researched on the web. Some liberties were taken with the colors for effect. It took a few weeks due to the long process of sculpting each section then having to let it dry, but I'm quite proud and happy with the results. In some ways it reminds me of the Mexican Bingo card ("Loteria"), the heart ("El Corazon").



It's Dali meets Claus Oldenberg with a dash of George Segal thrown in. It's the right touch of oddness that the apartment needs.

The port cocheré...continued

And I thought MY renovation took forever.
If you remember my post from a few weeks ago, they're refurbishing the front of my building. And by 'refurbishing' I mean a total overhaul. There was some structural problem that has involved replacing the metal support I-beams underneath the port cocheré entrance. We're being told it will be finished by December 14th, the day of our Christmas party. I'm not holding my breath.
Just this past week they were tearing up the entire SIDEWALK in front of the building too.
I'm predicting it won't be done til Easter. Anyone wanna take me up on the bet?

The Beautiful Wreck makes Instagram

I was going through my Instagram feed last night when I saw a posting that looked all too familiar...it was a picture of my kitchen! I did a double-take and realized that it was from my architect Steve. A few months ago he had come to the apartment with a photographer one weekend when I was away to take photos for his website. I had completely forgotten about it until now.
He smartly posted black and white shots of the way the place looked 'before' the renovation, the horrible MESS that it was...and then really nice 'after' shots of the way it looks now. I'm assuming there might be more shots added later, I'll post those here as they pop up. In the meantime, here are some angles of the main living room area and the kitchen.









Steve is a wonderful architectect. Very talented and brimming with ideas...he's also extremely easy to work with. I recommend him highly.
You can visit his website here.
And his Instagram page here.

CORRECTION: These photos are NOT from the photo session Steve had with the photographer. They are from that day but they're shots he grabbed on his own iPhone. He was not happy with the shots from that day's session and is going to schedule another day to come back and do a re-shoot with another photographer. I will of course post the new shots when they become available. He felt that he wanted to share something from this job to his IG feed so he posted those shots for the time being.

That "Manhattan" view, pt. 2

My intrepid friend Joe solved the mystery of which street that scene from "Manhattan" was filmed on: it's East 58th Street. He sent me a still from a very cool website that matches scenes from old movies and TV shows with prints of the location today. You can visit the site here. And here's the scene from the movie matched with the street:




Thanks Joe! :)

That "Manhattan" view

I ran across this still frame from Woody Allen's classic film "Manhattan" the other day. I know this scene was shot right in my neighborhood just off Sutton Place at the end of one of the streets that cross it down by the East River, I just can't figure out which one it is. It's either East 58th Street or 59th. I also know that the movie's art director had to dress the 'set' with the lamp pole and bench, they didn't exist there then and still don't. I have to do some more investigating, stay tuned. In the meantime enjoy the walk down Movie Memory Lane.

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen in "Manhattan"