Time Out

The young man next to me on the subway was reading Chemistry and Artists' Colors, 3rd Edition, which caught my eye because he was the only person actually holding a book. Everyone else had phones in their hands, including me. I peeked over his shoulder and saw dense text and lots of molecular diagrams, and I wondered if I could ever pay attention enough to read a chemistry book again. Unlikely. And I wondered if anyone could read a book like that on a screen. Grant said yes; I have my doubts.

The Cello by Felix Valloton  

We were in New York City to see Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera. Magnificent cast, magnificent set. We heard Kevin Short and Angel Blue in the title roles. We had flown in that morning and spent the day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at an exhibit of Felix Vallotton, a contemporary and sometimes colleague of the Nabi painters we had seen in DC last month. Cited as the person who revised woodblock prints, once he married a rich widow, he spent more time painting. I particularly liked his Red Peppers and his "composite landscapes" of sunsets. Somehow I missed a highlight of the exhibit, the side-by-side display of his and Picasso's portraits of Gertrude Stein. Perhaps I was distracted by the two old ladies I heard discussing how disappointed they were in the exhibit even though "the Times really talked it up."

I had found Citadine's, a boutique (i.e., small and catering to Europeans) hotel, at 45th Street and 5th Avenue. Location, location, location. On the same block is Valerie, a bar and kitchen (much chicer than calling it a restaurant, I guess), with delicious food and marvelous gin and tonics. I broke my no-booze-until-I fit-my black-pants resolution and shared with Grant a citrus one, (Fords London dry gin, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, Fee Brothers grapefruit bitters, Red Penguin Thistle tonic), and a spicy one (Seneca Drums gin, 5 spice, Bar Keep apple bitters, Thomas Henry classic tonic). With as much walking as we did, I hope to come out calorie even.

Untitled (Four Arches) by Sam Falls 

Sunday morning after brunch at Gotam, oatmeal with fruit for me, a salmon bialy for Grant, we walked the High Line which we had never seen in winter. The weather was sunny after days of gray; everyone was out, filling the space like a mall at Christmas. The installed art this year, En Plein Air, included a series of ceramic and rail arches with impressions of plants in season along the line.

We took the bus back to our hotel, picked up our backpacks, and subwayed to LaGuardia. A long, tiring, delightful weekend and respite from finding housing, healthcare and new phones.