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"

Catty-corner

That's how we used to say it in the South, "catty-corner", when something was placed or situated on the diagonal.
In the main room of the apartment I had my desk on the diagonal in the back corner, facing into the room (mainly so that I could watch TV while I was doing work on my computer).
Well, my friend Tony came over the other week and re-stated his position (I'd heard it before) about furniture placed 'catty-corner': he hates it. You gotta love someone for being honest, right?
So I took his advice and re-situated the desk and aligned it with the bed, it's now squared off, almost on a grid with the other furniture in the room.
I think I like it. I know this for sure, it's much easier to get in and out of the desk chair. You don't have to go all the way around the desk to sit down now. I think i'll leave it this way for now, I can always change it back someday if I get tired of it.
Here's the original layout:



And here's the new desk position:



And here's a side-by-side comparison:

Pocket park #3

There's yet another little park in my neighborhood at the dead end of East 58th Street. This one is a little different in that you access it by traversing down a ramp and some steps to get there. It's almost like a little terrace overlooking the FDR Drive. And it has a stunning view of the East River and the Queensboro Bridge.
The block leading up to it that's east of Sutton Place is lined on each side with beautiful townhouses.



A sign warns you that there's no turning back.

A townhouse on the South side of the street

The approach to the little park

The view of the Queensboro Bridge

The little terraced landing of the park