Day 1 Tuesday, April 12 - Guggenheim and Born Yesterday

Microwaved egg and cheese. Fresh-brewed coffee. Salad.
The three S's  (Shave, shower, and sh_ _)
More or less ready when Deb arises.

Rainy forecast, and cold. I didn't bring rain-resistant coat (figured I'd use sports jacket for warmth).
We ran for 11:20 Long Island RR. Really can be done in 3 minutes.

In Penn Station, shopped K-Mart for umbrella and jacket. Got the first. They had NONE of the other! Crazy. They carried tents! coolers! sleeping bags.  No rain-breaker, nor ANY jackets.

We took the __ up to 86th street (and 7th), where the cross-town bus picked us up on a transfer to 5th Ave. We got out and walked 3 short blocks north to the Guggenheim.

They were featuring their OWN COLLECTION. The next day, front cover of the  NY Times Art Section, they were featured as one of many museums that have rediscovered themselves, so to speak, because of the lack of $ to bring in other collections.
It was wonderful.  The following (in blue font) was stolen from "ArtDaily.Org"

The Great Upheaval: Modern Art from the Guggenheim Collection Opens in New York

Franz Marc, Stables (Stallungen), 1913. Oil on canvas, 73.6 x 157.5 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection.

NEW YORK, NY.- When Vasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc formed the group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in late 1911, the artists predicted a watershed in the arts, a große Umwälzung (great upheaval) that would radically challenge traditional artistic production. Tremendous creativity and innovation characterized the years leading up to World War I. European cities were evolving, and the artistic avant-garde likewise adapted and responded to twentieth-century modernity, from its spectacles and technological feats to the social fragmentation and alienation of the modern metropolis. Cubism achieved recognition in Paris, sparking new directions in France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Russia. Art’s more expressionistic manifestations were at an equally momentous stage in Germany and Austria; Kandinsky wrote his influential treatise Über das Geistige in der Kunst. Insbesondere in der Malerei (On the Spiritual in Art: And Painting in Particular) in late 1911, and abstraction took hold. The Great Upheaval: Modern Art from the Guggenheim Collection, 1910–1918 illuminates the dynamism of this fertile period, as artists hurtled toward abstraction and the ultimate “great upheaval” of a catastrophic war, and also highlights the masterpieces of modern art that launched the museum’s collection. The exhibition unites the Guggenheim Foundation’s remarkable collections in New York and Venice in order to trace the origins of the museum and capture the spirit and dynamism of the European avant-garde. Featuring more than one hundred paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by 48 artists including Umberto Boccioni, Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, Kazimir Malevich, Marc, and Pablo Picasso, among others, The Great Upheaval attests to this period of collaboration, interchange, synthesis, and innovation. The exhibition is curated by Tracey Bashkoff, Curator, Collections and Exhibitions, and Megan Fontanella, Assistant Curator, Collections and Provenance. The Guggenheim Museum’s engagement with the modern period began nine years after the 1918 ceasefire, with a portentous meeting between founder Solomon R. Guggenheim and the young German artist Hilla Rebay in late 1927. Rebay was commissioned to paint the retired industrialist’s portrait, but what transpired was a fruitful collaboration that would last until Guggenheim’s death. Under Rebay’s guidance, the focus of the art collection Guggenheim had formed with his wife, Irene Rothschild, shifted dramatically away from the old master paintings, French Barbizon school, American landscapes, and other similar work that was fashionable within their circle. Instead, in 1929 Guggenheim began enthusiastically collecting the art of his time and especially exponents of nonobjectivity, an art form that aspired to spiritual or utopian aims. He simultaneously began to amass prime examples of European modernism, acquiring art directly from such artists as Robert Delaunay, Albert Gleizes, and Kandinsky. Since the establishment of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1937, subsequent acquisitions have augmented and enriched Guggenheim’s original collection. The Great Upheaval is arranged chronologically, ascending the unique spiral of the Frank Lloyd Wright– designed building in order to trace artistic development toward abstraction and underscore the interconnections between emerging artist groups. The first five ramps of the rotunda represent a different year of artistic activity from 1909/10 through 1913, while the topmost ramp highlights the war years, 1914–18.

We both enjoyed it immensely. I was surprised to read of several of these artists who enlisted in and never survived through the war (WW I).  They saw themselves as vital to human progress and often sought to incorporate music (esp. Kadinsky) and politics into their art, besides opening minds to see a different view of objects and the world.

Deb and I walked down 5th Avenue, along Central Park - which was pretty empty now because of the cold, drizzly weather. Deb gave me the man's jacket and hood that she was wearing, and she put on two scarves from her voluminous purse.

We were headed to 111 West 57th Street, where her friend from Hofstra college days, Roger, was watching a recording session. He (Roger) had been commissioned to write a Christmas song ("It's Always Christmas in New York") for the singer.  The ground floor of the building was the Steinway Hall (109 W 57th).  We signed in at the side-entrance lobby, and went to the 16th(?) floor and soon entered a serious professional studio. Lead and bass guitars and percussion accompanied the piano-playing singer,       
He was on his 14th song for the session. We watched as they did a few takes and corrections.

We paid Roger for the two pairs of show ticket vouchers he got us through TDF (Theater Development Fund). They were only about $34 per ticket. Then the studio co-owner, John Post, non-chalantly offered Debbie a couch in a side room when one of us half kiddingly asked about a place to nap. There was also a big reclining chair for me. He lowered lights, shut the door, and we got about 40 minutes rest in mid-town Manhattan.

We ate at a diner around 52nd and 7th, then went on to the Cort Theater on 48th to see "Born Yesterday" with Jim Belushi, Robert Sean Leonard ("House") and unknown Nina Arianda.  It also had Frank Wood from Law and Order and Criminal Intent.  The show was in trial runs still and Deb and I agreed that Wood - who Deb loves - needs work.  He wasn't feeling the part right - a brilliant ex-Attorney General now a jaded, alcoholic lobbyist for a crooked capitalist. I think he was afraid of being seen as just a stereotype drunk and he held back too much on that aspect - but the lines are those of a "drunk" and seem unnatural when not delivered that way.

Nina Arianda was a great dumb blonde. The play is from the movie starring Judy Holiday, recommended by Deb and Roger. I should see it some day.

The playwright, Garson Kanin (1912-1999) wrote the play in the late 40's. Included in his 20 plays, he also wrote film scripts, including - with his wife, Ruth Gordon - "Adam's Rib"  that starred Tracy and Hepburn. He also wrote the book Tracy and Hepburn.

We walked to Penn Station and took the LIRR home to Great Neck. Met a couple on the train - retired teachers who seem to share Deb's taste for theater. Odd they never met before - they'd seen so many of the same things. The man had kept all his Playbill's.  Actually rented storage space for them. Deb told them about VLOG  (Village Light Opera Group) in which she is very active. They'll produce Carousel in May - without Deb!! The director wanted a younger Aunt Netti! And then that director quit!

I had chicken and cereal and salad and fell asleep on the couch.