Mar

12

This is a wonder filled British bookstore.

I'd seen the "Keep Calm" posters. This video explains their origin, but it's worth looking at the video just to see this bookstore.  And through that link I found this page of the 20 most beautiful bookstores in the world.

These are the types I things for which I love the web.

Best wishes,

Iris

p.s. I vote for the two Ralph Lauren mansions on Madison off 72cnd Street. They have small bookshops scattered through out them. The books and the ways they're displayed are often changed during the year.

May

11

We were at an opening night revival of "Fiddler on The Roof" on Sat. It was performed by The Village Light Opera Group at their new venue in Pace U. in lower Manhattan, right near J & R. It's worth the trip. The glorious music and lyrics by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick are set to an original story by Sholem Aleichem. What this group brought to the stage was the energy and sensitivity which did justice to the underlying ideas.

The story's set in a Jewish village in 1905 Russia at the first dawning of revolutionary change. The simple narrative approach chosen by director Tony Spinosa allows the audience to experience the positive changes, followed by the emotional turmoil felt by the main characters as traditional values begin to slip away. It moved Iris to tears.

Mr. Spinosa is also a choreographer. He reproduced the original Broadway choreography by Jerome Robbins. The singing brought enhanced meaning to Harnick's lyrics. The fact that there were no show stopping performances was actually a plus because our attention was never distracted from the story. There are three more chances to catch this musical before it goes away.

Best wishes, Paul and Iris

Jun

18

Lovers of New York City or movies have until this Fri., June 22 to see the multimedia exhibit in Grand Central Terminal. It's based on the book, "Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies," by James Sanders.

But the book can't compete with experience of standing in Vanderbilt Hall in front of a gigantic painting of the stairway in the Penn Station, which was torn down decades ago. There are interiors and landscapes used in MGM films such as "North by Northwest" and "The Clock", plus film segments and stills of NYC streets and skylines in movies from the 1910s to the present.

The display has stills from films such as "The Fountainhead" and location photos used as inspiration for the recreations of NYC in Hollywood. The hundreds of photos and paintings have descriptions making their functions clear. An example of this is quote from by the art director Eugene Lourie: "We didn't want to eliminate reality, [but] to create the most suitable reality for the film. By omitting certain useless details, by underlining others…the designer could make the sets more expressive than real locations… A poetic reality, a reality with a soul."

The show is open from 10am to 7pm, 7 days a week. This Friday, June 22 is the last day.

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