Sunday, September 24, 2023

MIKE DAWN ROBIN BOBBY DEBBIE IN GENEVA

 

We had our annual Autum meetup here at Lakefront 41 in downtown Geneva.


The hotel was right on Geneva lake



Here is Robin looking at the distances to many places named Geneva around the world.


The rooms are nice, and there were a few issues as per usual.  

The daytime clerk was not helpful for determining some things, like what we had booked and whether I have duplicate Wyndom Accounts.  I'll have to call on the latter.

The curtain did not cut out the light in the room as it was too narrow and set in from the window so that light leaked. 

But I had no problem sleeping.

One of our company had hairs in the new bed, and they came and changed sheets again.

Another had an old toothbrush holding the shower head in place.  

But the views were fantastic. There was a Farm to Table restaurant with good food, few people and a great view of the quiet lake and the gulls and one lone fisherman.


Outside we could walk along the water and out a long pier.  



I loved all of it.

I like the dining area here with a view of the lake, and we had a nice lunch of flatbread covered with beef and a blue cheese mix.   But we decided to eat in the little downtown.  It was a nice walk and there was some street music on one block.

We ate at Beef and Brew and that was good as well, but they advertised 4% off if we paid cash and then could not give us that because one person used a credit card at the table.  Strange because we had separate checks.  I had the bill refunded and paid by card as well.

Lots of stories.  Dawn told stories about Michael twice sleeping through huge noises in the night at there house.  One was a limb cutting at midnight due to neighbor complaint.

Elizabeth and I danced to the street music.  It was a fine walk in the dark with streets all full of lights.  Here is a short video of our dancing:

Facebook

Sunday it rained, but it did not much affect our activities.  

We are a fine breakfast at the restaurant here.  I had brunch, a sandwich with perfect French Fries, rare in my experience.  It was sliced pot roast and blue cheese.

Robin had pancakes which were the size of a small frizbee, and I tasted.  They were good.

Bobby had French Toast with peach topping.  I tasted, and that was good also.

We went to the Women's Rights Museum and just caught a fine lecture in the original chapel where the Women's Rights National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Here we listened to a grand lecture from a Park Ranger that was very good.  We listened while sitting in the pews the church where the first for Women's Rights was held in 1848 and the " Declaration of Sentiments" was presented and approved by the gathering. By the time the right to vote was achieved only one woman in the groups was still alive.  She was bed ridden at 100 and could not go to the polls.  Sad.

Then we went to the Women's Rights National Historical Park (not a park but a gallery holding a fine display of materials about the history of Women's Rights.)

Women’s Rights National Historical Park, New York - AYERS IN THE AIR

It was better than expected with some fine wood sculpture and odds and ends of items.  Sometimes museums like these only show on-wall displays of things that could easily be found on a computer, but this was more artistic and more interesting and actually included a few artifacts.

This painting of a woman in Seneca Falls and one in Persia caught my attention.  I'm trying to get more information on it.


Here Dawn gives her version the famous speech, shorter but much more animated.  In Dawn's version women were superior to men.  

How quickly equity vanishes!












ELIZABETH COMMENTS

These friends have been part of each others lives since 1964 when Mike entered college and eventually joined the International Club at UB. Their history combined with the history of the Women's Rights convention made for a spine tingling weekend for me. The Women of 1848 were inspired in part from the indigenous women who lived in a matrilineal culture where women had rights that the women of 1848 did not have. Lucretia Mott was a celebrity lecturer spreading abolitionist and feminist thinking throughout the nation. Alice Williams and I were here in Seneca Falls in the late 1980s in support of the Equal Rights Amendment which has still not passed all the states required for the amendment. Alice had a birthday celebration every year for Elizabeth Cady Stanton to honor and remember what these women did for us.

We stopped for wine tasting and a visit to the Belhurst Castle

Finger Lakes Hotels - Castles in New York | Belhurst Castle




We came home with 3 bottles on a Buy 2 Get 1 free sale.









We had a great Italian Supper at Consentino's, an old fashioned sort of Italian restaurant.

www.cosentinosgeneva.com

I ate greens and beans over gnocchi with sausage.  It was great!

The fellow gave us a grand table back and in the corner.  Good people.  Our waitress was a relative of the owner.  She lived in Texas and would go back in a week or so.  She was very personable.  She was the only girl; she had five brothers.

I tasted Robin's calamari and it was very good, crispy and mild.

When we came to leave, I had lost my phone.  We looked everywhere.  Later that night Elizabeth located it using an app on the computer and it was tucked into a corner of the car, under the seat.

We had our final breakfast there at the hotel and left on Monday after checking out.  A great meetup.

On the way home I bought two nice tomatoes from an Amish woman selling them at the Thruway stop, and our neighbor had brought us corn from PA.



Wednesday, August 30, 2023

CLARK WITH PETER AND KIRSTEN






I liked this one each visit.  
The contrast between these idylic paintings of girls on the bridge and the famous scream are huge.

When I went with Bruce and Abigail, I talked about this with Bruce.  I always wonder what the wheat feels, because those who eat the wheat are thinking that they don't bring pain to animals.  But, do they bring pain to the wheat?





 

Saturday, August 5, 2023

COYOTE FLACO

 While in Williamstown visiting the Clark, we stopped for supper at Coyote Flaco, The Skinny Coyote.

Although it is a Mexican Restaurant, the sign says they serve food from Spain, so I was moderately hopeful.
"food from Spain" on a restaurant sign is very different than "Spanish food." which generally means food from South America.
It is hard to find authentic food from Spain. We found some in St. Petersburg, Florida at a place that made an assortment of tapas that were what one might find on a menu in Spain.
Well, The Skinny Coyote was 95% Mexican, but they did have a chorizo special that featured the chorizo one might find in Spain. I had it and it was very good.
My Mexican taste was elote, the corn on the cob one finds offered by Mexican street vendors. It was good, but only one ear with a little salad. Still, for $6, not bad.
I liked the restaurant itself. The music was low. The decorations were interesting. The service was excellent. Our table was in the main room and too close to another table. Next time I'll ask for a table for two by the fireplace in the other room.
For dessert we shared a nice portion of flan.
Tons of choices for margaritas. The NA beer was Corona; they were out of Buckler.
We got there as they were opening. No reservations are accepted, but it was good timing to get a table. No wifi available.

CLARK MUSEUM FOR THE THIRD PLAY READING

 We went to the last play reading of this season, Wipeout   and unlike the one we last saw, this was great.  Very funny.  It was set out on surf boards where three older women were taking a lesson in surfing.  It was very funny, but it had some serious themes.  One of the women was approaching Alzheimer's.  In the end she manages to stand up on the surfboard and so symbolically overcome her failing abilities.

Emily Kuroda played one of the other characters.  We remember her at Mrs. Kim, mother of Laurie Gilmore's best friend.  It was grand to see her again and in person.

We had a half hour or so to wander through a new exhibit of Rennaisance Printing.  Normally, I am not much for printing art, but this was really fantastic.

We also toured a room of British art, featuring John Constable.  I like Constable and enjoyed time to see the paintings.

Both these small room galleries were in the basement where the research library exits and the auditorium for the play.   That is why we had time to see them, as the museum closes fairly soon afet the play is over.


******



I like Constable's levels of sky, green and yellow wheat as well as the people and the story their images tell.  





Marcantonio Raimondi
Italian, 1480-1534
After Raphael Italian, 1483-1520
Two Women with the Zodiac 1517-20
Engraving on paper
Clark Art Institute
Gift of Renée E. Watkins in memory of her father Dr. Kurt Max Neu
1991.23

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Andrea Mantegna
Italian, c. 1431-1506
Virgin and Child Engraving on paper
1480-85
Andrea Mantegna became one of the first Italian painters to explore the technical potential of the print medium. Although he hired a professional to engrave his drawings, Mantegna learned the very specialized technique of engraving a copperplate, and this small, devotional Virgin and Child is likely one of the few engravings executed by his hand. The intimate composition and the freely moving line reveal the artistic experiments of a seasoned drawing practitioner, who embraced the innovative craft of printmaking.
Clark Art Institute 1955.983

Sunday, July 16, 2023

BOSTON TO SEE DANA AND TARA

 The ride To Boston seemed shorter than I expected.  

I did not nap.  

We stopped for a McDonald's breakfast sandwich. I liked the muffin, but I should remember to have the biscuit.

The traffic was easy unlike that going in the opposite direction, which for miles outside Boston was bumper to bumper.  I was happy not to be in the big city and escaping for the weekend.

We easily caught parking in front of the building, and so we were set for a nice walk along the harbor and a meal at Reel House. There I had a great lunch of sirloin beef tips that were juicy and tender with parmesian fries that were good, but a bit soggy.  

The beef was in spices and a good portion of spinach.  Very good.

We took a boat taxi back, a short but fun ride.  Dana helped us in the boat.  It was very choppy in the harbor and many small sailboats zipped about.  Wonderful.

But hot and humid.

I was uncomfortably overdressed in a heavy shirt.

This area of Boston is primarily for younger folks.  I saw very few old ones like me, and very many pretty girls.  It is a grand multicultural mix, so people watching is great fun.

We talked a while and gave presents.  Dana liked the book with logical puzzles I found which his Vanas grandparents had given his father Paul, and which contained Paul's notes.

We had supper at a very upscale restaurant that had the smallest portions I have ever seen.  Still, the food was tasty.  I had three teaspoons of a scallop dish, some of Elizabeth's bluefish on toast, and a pork dish.  The rolls were really wonderful with a crisp top.  The ambience, a bit of French flavor, was grand.  Plenty of French posters for French liquors and music just at the tight tempo.

Restaurant — Troquet on South (troquetboston.com)


We had a fine visit.  Elizabeth talked about her Bruce Lipton's Biology of Belief.  She and Dana had quite a talk.

We went back at Tara's where we watched a couple episodes of SUITS.

SUNDAY

Lazy morning.  Just hung out in the apartment and took a bit of a nap.  We walked outside the back door and saw the fine area there for viewing the harbor.  Rain precluded staying outdoors.  

The rain continued most of the day with few breaks.

Dana picked us up around noon, and we went to 

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum


Isabella Stewart Gardner - Wikipedia

It was a fine visit in this old house.  The walking was tough, but we did find few places to sit, and we had a good meal in the middle of the visit. 

The great irony is that I would want to sit down for a few minutes and there would be 50 chairs in the room, but all of them would be roped off so they were not damaged.

I did not go in the newest garden room exhibit, and the others were not much impressed with it.

It was more crowded than I usually find in museum visits, a very popular place.  In fact, we had to get permission to enter at a certain time.  Our Clark cards got us in for free.  Nice saving of $36.

We just renewed our Clark Sustaining Membership in July and already we have most of the value back.  Today (Friday) there is a free gathering of members with snacks after we see the play reading.

Ellen's favorite was there but in miniature.

Incensing the Veil | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

It was not as impressive as the Clark version of painting.  It was very small and somewhat faded.

John Sargent was very popular, and there were many books on his art on the shelves.

I particularly liked this painting of Spanish flamengo which was huge and framed to give it a certain depth.  

Spanish Cloister | Gallery Rooms (gardnermuseum.org)

While I was there, a young girl of perhaps 4 or 5 ran to it saying, "Spanish, Spanish" and then posed it front of it in a stance she found was like the dancer. She was very cute.

In the center of the photo and next to sitting guitarists was a man with his head back against the wall and his mouth open.  He looked like he was sleeping in the middle of the performance. I found him very funny.


There was this painting.

The Rape of Europa


I've been reading a good amount of Greek and Roman mythology lately.  This complimented the reading.







This is a Velasquez, the Spanish painter who often painted this wimpy king.  



King Philip IV of Spain | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum







I missed the easy ability to photograph the artists names and the titles with brief posted notes.  There were guides that could be loaded on a phone, but I would still have to remember what I heard.  So, I did not often even know the title of the work until I was home.

We went back to Dana's and hung out for the rest of the night talking about family and Dana explained what he does for work which in part is setting up servers to speed the video games in all parts of the world.  The newest was in South Korea. The speed is measured in microseconds and 40 is much better than 240.

We ordered Chinese from a place they knew called Double Chin.  We had duck and lots of vegetable dishes.  It was grand tasting.  The only dish that was not so good was the fish and chips as it was soggy.  We took that back to Tara's to warm up for breakfast on Monday and it was just fine warmed up with some Frank's hot sauce.

We took an Uber back to Tara's.  The driver pointed out this pizza place which he said was famous in Boston.

SANTARPIO'S PIZZA, Boston - Jeffries Point - Menu, Prices & Restaurant Reviews - Tripadvisor

We watched two episodes of SUITS and noted there are quite a few seasons to go.

Sometines I love the show; other times I get bogged down in it, and sometimes the soap opera plots get old.

MONDAY

We had the leftover fish and chips for breakfast.  

We went out the back door to the nice courtyard overlooking the Harbor.  

A man (probably Swiss) came by walking two huge St. Bernard dogs.  One lay down as soon as he saw us.  The fellow explained that his wife had taught them to lay down if they saw another dog and they generalized that learning to include people.  We gave them a few pats and went our way.

We sat in benches and took in the harbor. 


We settled into a bench near the water and watched boats, including quite a few tugboats. We watched an egret, a cormorant, and sea gulls feeding in the inlet.



A fishing boat came in and unloaded about ten poles, and docked the boat.

Around the corner at the edge of the walkway was one of the cows that decorates Massachusetts. 



It was called Luna, the Moon Cow.

Dana came with the car and Tara and loaded up our luggage.  We took the car, said our good-byes and thankyous, and were on our way.

They are so good to us when we visit.  Dana picked up all food bills, all Uber prices, and we saved by not having to rent a place to stay.  They seem very happy, and we are very happy for them.

We had a good ride out of Boston.  by going a route that avoided the tunnels and the tunnel shutdowns due to rain and construction. 

We saw quite a bit of Boston this was, and it was very interesting to me.  We saw the Honey Dew doughnut shop.

Home - Honey Dew Donuts


STOP AT MARGARET'S APARTMENT


One of Elizabeth's Authentic Movement friends who  she dances with on zoom about once a week, lives in Leominster where she was raised.  She is a bit infirm, but she has hope to be cured.  

She was just wonderful.  She told stories of working for the United Nations in Thailand for 10 years an on the island of Timor,

Timor - Wikipedia

where she did an assortment of projects, writing, video making, and others.  She was fascinating.

I don't want to join Authentic Movement.  I just like to hang out with those who do it.  I have found all of them I have met to be pleasant, intelligent, outgoing and interesting.

I saw Gainsboro on Margaret's wall and asked about it.  I recognized it, but I can't find it online.  It turned out to be a paint by number that Margaret had done when she was a girl.  She so loved it when she did it and now she loves it as a memory.

In one bathroom was a delightful painting of geese on a piece of parchment and framed. Male and female geese were featured.  I loved it.

RENTAL IN AMHERST

Elizabeth says her last place to stay in Amherst was better than this place, but I love this place on Bridge Street, out in the country.  We were in the basement so there are stairs, but they are easy. It is not damp or in any way like a basement apartment sounds.

She has a fine double bed in a large room;  I have a small bed in a smaller room, but I'm happy,  Some hanging space.  Plenty of drawer space.  I never unpacked at Tara's, but I did here.  Perhaps the wrinkles will drop out of my shirts.

The kitchen is fine with Kreps coffee maker, but reusable inserts.  We picked up some Hazelnut coffee to mix with Elizabeth's coffee.  

The kitchen table had leaves for expansion and so I can use my computer there and still have room to eat breakfast.

Generally, it was quiet outside.  There was one beeping truck in reverse gear, but they seemed to have stopped that.  It was not on this property, but I could hear it from the kitchen.  Elizabeth could not hear it.

They left us half a dozen eggs, tea bags, a few slices of some sweet bread, some butter, and some candy.  All nice.

To check in we just found the key and let ourselves in.  We have not seen the owner.

There are perhaps three other rooms scattered someplace.  One was above us.  On the property is a huge garage for working on plumbing, I guess.    

The railing is like my grandfather used to make, made of old-style plumbing, fit into elbows.  Very nice.  Old style pipes always made the best railings.  I used to buy lengths of this pipe cheaply at a wrecking place in Albany.  I made a few railings in my time.  I still have the old pipe cutting tools in the basement.  It was an exact construction and I needed to measure just right.  Not like plastic or copper pipe.

We stopped for supper at Bistro 63
BISTRO 63

where we both had a mediocre lobster bisque and split a very tasty lamb stew.  

I discovered when I went to bed that the mattress was a bit strange.  I thought it was a waterbed, but it was just memory foam.  

I slept well. I enjoyed the intense quiet. 

Once a train came through somewhere not too far away and blew its whistle.  I find that delightful.  I was very happy to be awake for it.  Where I grew up in Buffalo, I could sometimes faintly hear a train, and on Lime Lake the train came through across the lake and as a baby, I cried.  Later, I liked it.

I had some fine dreams, but I can't remember them, only the pleasant sense after waking.

The landlady came and helped Elizabeth get Suits on the TV.

In the morning, we had sour dough bread and manchego cheese which we bought at Whole Foods.  The manchego was good, but not like I remember from Spain.   With the Whole Foods app I get ten percent off and all the sale prices.  We even bought some things to take home, including LaCroix seltzer on a good sale.

I should visit the Whole Foods store more often in Albany.

We had enough leftovers for supper if we added just a bit, so we stopped at a local grocery that was sort of a farm store.  We bought some great meat balls that went well for supper.

I also found some of my well loved Sam Adams NA beer to take home as well as untried Athletic called Wit's Peak and a Corona NA.  The Wit's Peak was a disappointment.  Really watery. The Corona was less than what I remember.  I forgot to add a lemon.

TUESDAY

We went to the Emily Dickinson home where we had a great tour with a wonderful guide.  To prepare I read for a while in the Thomas H. Jefferson Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.

I liked:

I many times thought Peace had come
By 

I many times thought Peace had come
When peace was far away,
As wrecked men deem they sight the land
When far at sea they stay.

And struggle slacker, but to prove,
As hopelessly as I,
That many the fictitious shores
Before the harbor lie.

I learned she was a prolific letter writer, and our guide suggested we read her letters, especially to her intimate and best friend, Susan Gilbert.  Susan saved the letters, but Emily had her sister burn those that Susan had sent, a great loss to us.

I also liked this quote:

"House is being cleaned.

    I prefer pestilence."

She did not follow her mother as perfect manager of a house.  Her sister did that.  

There is very little evidence her sister was interest in academics or wrote much at all.  

THESE PHOTOS REFLECT THE TOUR

This is the original Franklin stove in the bedroom/writing room.  It allowed Emily to stay sequestered and still have heat, or to let the fire burn down to coals and a large log so as not to be disturbed by workers remaking the fire.



Especially when Emily became more reclusive in later years, she dressed in a dress like this and declined to wear a corset. To the far right and a bit cropped out is the very small writing table she used.




This was the original bedroom wash up ceramics.




This was a neat display of one poem with movable words to reflect the choices Emily considered in words to complete the poem.


Here is our tour guide.


Here is a newspaper layed out in a reading area as it probably was back in her day.


Where you could hang your hat on the way in.  And if no one was home, you could leave a calling card.


This is the original bookcase, but the books are just of that period.  They are working to reproduce the books that would have been here in Emily's time.




While she was reclusive and not available to the world, she was very close to friends and family and visited them often.

A few of her poems were published with pseudonyms.

Susan lobbied to have the rest published, but Emily declined. 

For one thing, she did not want to use standard punctuation or have titles.  After her death, the first publications of her poems had both, but since then scholarship has embraced her original use of the dash.

After the tour we sat in the garden, which is much different than the gardens Emily had.  Still, it was nice to sit in the yard.  The white oak in that area is one of a very few in the area spared by a huge storm in the 1800's.  It is a grand tree.

This is the house from the front:



Here is one shot from the garden, showing the white oak.



That white oak is just behind Elizabeth and to the left.

****************************************

Afterwards, we stopped at the Yiddish Book Center

Yiddish Book Center

I expected a small library of Yiddish books with some for sale.

What we found was a full museum, telling the story of a 21 year old student of Yiddish, who, when he could not get the books assigned by his teacher, started collecting all the Yiddish books he could find and has now expanded into this Book Center with over a million books.  It was amazing!

Older people loved to give him there collections.  Their children did not want them, and they were delighted to know they would be kept and enjoyed.  I can relate to that.  My books will be dispersed when I am gone.  Some I bought for a dime when I was in college, and thought of them as treasures.  I still do. 

There were interesting posters around as well as some paintings by Ray Faust.









Here the entire band was in a boat up on one of the lakes where they performed in the Catskills.



I believe this is one photos of the collected books that were piled in the center before any were sorted or shelved.




Interesting old press for making books.



I was taken with Peretz in this painting,  his expression, and the way he holds the book he has as if it is a treasure.



Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) - jewish heritage, history, synagogues, museums, areas and sites to visit (jguideeurope.org)

Ben Katchor - Wikipedia



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Here is the art of Ray Faust which reminded us of Grandma Moses.





*****************************************

STOP AT STORE


LAST DAY

Ate left overs for breakfast.  I had manchego.

Started home about ten.

Stopped at this place for brunch.

Old Creamery Co-op – Our Hilltown Community Co-operative

Elizabeth had gazpacho.  I had a bagel sandwich with lox and capers.  Very good.  I also had a piece of cherry pie, most of which I took home to have for supper with some fresh picked sweet corn we bought along the way.

We also had coffee and sat at a table with an old woman who was a sculptor and lived in a town nearby.

Stopped at Four Fat Fowl on the way home and got some of their cheese.  Across the street was the Stephentown Library and they let me use the bathroom there.  A group of preteens were at day camp playing some sort of game.  I looked over the books for sale and bought three:

John Irving   Last Night in Twisted River

Alexander McCall Smith  - 

       The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

        The Miracle at Speedy Motors

Both of these are in the NO.1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY series

I have started the John Irving and am enjoying it.  It is much different than The World According to Garp  of "The Son of the Circus."   I loved Garp and dislike Circus.

























































MIKE DAWN ROBIN BOBBY DEBBIE IN GENEVA

  We had our annual Autum meetup here at Lakefront 41 in downtown Geneva. The hotel was right on Geneva lake Here is Robin looking at the di...