Year2004

Jan 1. Another year, another website, number 4. How long can it go on?
An afternoon at the Solomon's amidst their friends, wine and cheese, this year from New York instead of the usual scrumptious selection from London.
Jan 28. An evening celebrating the Fund for the Met in the new gateway to the Egyptian Wing of the museum and a reception in the Temple of Dendur. Elegant red and orange lights lit up the temple, its image shimmering in the undulations of the moat. A spectacular sight! Met my host for the evening, Elena P and her daughter Luda. Drinks served on several tables and the best food I have ever experienced at the Met. The lamb stew and monkfish were delectable! Met a great variety of people from the museum and from a number of Marian's tours throughout Europe. A night to remember.Phillipe told us how wonderful the Met was (especially the contributors to the fund). We were shown a video of the earliest Met archaeological digging in Egypt, pictures of the temple from 1906 to the present, and shots of substantial contributors to the fund (the famed big hitters). The Fund director reported that the Met fund is now 670 million and that they hope to raise this to 900 million by the end of next year. Sadly, Marian missed this extravaganza. She went to hear Harlow Robinson speak at the other Met.
Feb 4. Izumi performing on the Appleton Pipe Organ at the Met Museum. Marian, I, Eugene Roan, her former professor at Westminster, and John Burkhalter, a superb flutist and musical historian from Princeton, sat up in the gallery listening to her playing Stanley and Bach. Tea and coffee afterwards in a coffe shop on 83rd street and Madison.
Feb 6. Escorted Mary L from the Presbyterian/Cornell Med Center at 68th and York Ave to a diner opposite her apartment on 89th street. She had her second cataract operation. Everything went well. She will wear an eye patch for a day or so. Those laser procedures have made this operation routine now.
Feb 15. Afternoon at the International TradersExpo at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. What a change from last year. The attendance was good, free drinks (non-alcoholic), a party on the 9th floor at 6 pm. The only thing in short supply: good speakers. Last year we heard John Bollinger give the best talk I've ever heard in my life. In retrospect, however, his views turned out to be completely wrong. The market did not bounce up and down all year. It soared straight up in mid-year.
Feb 19,20. John O'Conor plays the piano in Richardson. Three nocturnes and a sonata by John Field, a little-known Irish composer of the 18th and early 19th century. In his later years he moved to St Petersburg, where he was greatly respected. He died and was buried in Moscow. Highly romantic nocturnes by Chopin and the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven completed the program. The following afternoon O'Conor gave a lecture and snatches of Field's work at 85 Nassau St. and in the evening Jean Cootes invited us along with many of her musically minded friends to a supper in her home on the west side. We chatted with O'Conor, an articulate, amusing, and informed Dubliner.
Mar 1. Marian talks on the history of museums for the Volunteers at the Met. I am invited to lunch at the Patron's lounge.
Mar 11. German Expressionist opening at the Neue Gallery on 5th Ave & 86th st. The weird coloration of artists like Kirschner and Peckstein (green-yellow, or acid yellow, as Marian puts it) makes a vivid impression. Lots of lively young people sipping wine in the cafe, cleared for the night for cocktails. Met Magdelena D, always the source of lively conversation.

Apr 8-13. Visit the Harries in their new home in Virginia Beach--the retirement community Westminster-Canterbury on the beach, with a great view of the ocean from the 9th floor. Pricey, but spacious and elegant. Met Carl and Pat W,great collectors of art from all corners of the globe. Every corner of their house filled with paintings, masks, blow-guns, you name it. Amtrak takes you from New York in ten hours, including a 2 hour bus trip from Newport News at the end.

Latest deep space view from the Hubble

Within a hundred million years of the Big Bang