YEAR2006

Jan 1. Pischikova's came for New Year's supper. Wonderful slide show and discussion of their Egyptian tomb and its restoration. The tomb is high up on the cliffs to the right of the famous funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahari, near the Valley of the Kings. (Outside the picture frame to the right) PS: An exhibition of Hatshepsut is scheduled this spring at the Met!
Jan 14. Music from Collection of Thomas Jefferson. Burkhalter and his group play music of the baroque at the Unitarian Church, Princeton: minuets ,sonatas, and marches, songs of the stage and concert rooms by the gifted soprano, Laura Heimes.
Feb 16. Timberland, after several delays, finally came to trim the trees. They did a good job, trimming exactly what I wanted to eliminate. Would use them again. Run by a young Princetonian, Shawn Smith.
Feb 19. The dryer efficiency dropped by half. Slow drying. Traced the problem to a big collection of lint in the ducts. Cleaned the ducts and replaced the gaskets with Dap gasket glop from Ace. Big question: how did the lint get past the filter? We always cleaned it after every usage.
Feb 24. Ned Stevens gutter cleaners made a lightning visit to our house yesterday. They flushed all the gutters, then left and came back to finish the front gutters, all in the space of 20 minutes. One of the young hispanics jumped around the roof like a cat. The roof was wet, so I feared that he would slide off and kill himself. What a headstrong bunch!!
Mar 6. Finally got the water supply in 7 Ham cleared up. The Princeton water co had dug up the wrong curb key, one that had been abandoned in 1987. Our plumber Paul then could not shut off the water to change our inside valve, so he pulled it off while the water gushed out at full pressure. A risky procedure. If he were unable to screw on the new valve, the water would have risen quickly to the window levels. Nobody would be able to turn it off. We would have flooded the whole street. Zowee!
Mar 14. Marian fell on Witherspoon St, breaking her nose and left wrist. Taken to Princeton Hospital by ambulance and treated in the emergency ward. Set up a visit on Fri to Dr Ark, an orthopedic surgeon, to put her wrist in cast. Next week to consult a plastic surgeon for nose. Cancelled her scheduled lectures at the Art Museum in Princeton and at the Met in NY.
Mar 18. Visits to Dr Ark and Dr Drimmer allayed fears for an extended recovery including surgery. The breaks on the wrist have not separated, so no cast necessary, merely a gauze supporter. The gashed nose is straight, and will not need to be straightened. The surgeon warned of further bleeding, however. The plastic surgeon is a jolly bon vivant who lives and works part of the year in Paris. Drops famous names like confetti.
Mar 29. Marian's back! She gave a great lecture at the Princeton Art Museum on Diaghilev's introduction of Russian opera to Paris, including sets by Benoit, Bakst, Roerich, and Golovin.
Mar 30. Good news on the Marian front: her broken wrist is healing properly, according to Dr Ark, and should be useable in a month or so. Bad news on oil front. The 550 gal oil tank was removed by HydroScience yesterday, revealing a leak on the bottom. Now the ball rolls onto the NJ Enviromental Protection Dept and retribution will grind on for months.
Apr 5. Marian gave her talk on the World of Art today at Columbia U. Only one lecture remaining for this season. Her healing continues. Still, it will be 3 or 4 weeks before she can lift objects with her left hand.
Apr 6. The dirt covering the old tank hole continues to settle. Asked HydroScience to top it up. Received an incident number from the NJ DEP. Told not to sign MOA, but leave the details to HydroScience. Eugene Roan scheduled to play organ in the chapel this afternoon. Will attend to see whether he continues to recover from his heart surgery.
Apr 19. Fascinating visit to Steve M, former Chair of the Art Dept at U of Maryland, in his stronghold on Green St in Soho. Just north of Canal St, the apartment is surrounded by street filth, broken sidewalks, and unkempt facades. New York noir, indeed. Inside the building are 6 apartments, one to each floor, connected by an open elevator from the nineteenth century. It has no summons system; that is, if you want the elevator, you have to phone the apartment where it is parked. If the occupant is absent, then you must walk up the stairs. The apt itself consists of one longish room, serving as living room and kitchen (with a huge granite counter) and a separate bedroom at the back. Closets and bathroom off to the side. White paint and minimilist hangings cover the walls. Apr 21. Armonica playing by Cecelia Brauer at the Patron's Lounge at the Met. Invented by Ben Franklin, this interesting musical instrument, consisting of 37 quartz cylinders placed end to end. The long cylinder is rated and then stroked by both hands to resonate the cylinders. Great for producing weird sounds, such as those needed in horror films.
Apr 22. The paintings of Munch, the Norwegian master, at MOMA. The show lacked his most famous work, The Scream, because it has been stolen, but two other Screams were put in its place. Afterwards, went to see Black Girl at the MOMA theater. An African girl from Senegal, unable to communicate with anyone after working as a servant for a family in Entibes, commits suicide by slashing her throat in the family tub.
May 24. Marian's birthday diary: (1) lunch at the Patron's lounge at the Met, where she gorged on crab salad; (2) visit the biennial at the Whitney. Particularly taken with the audio-visual. A film, a Journey that Wasn't by Pierre Huyge, interspersing views of the Antarctic and the skyscrapers of New York, with an end of the world soundtrack by a 40-piece orchestra. Slide show of the aftermath of Katrina on New Orleans; (3) Visit Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at 60th and Broadway to hear the classic jazz tunes of Bill Charlap's trio. Magnificent piano capers by Bill. Great view of Central Park east side and its surrounding canyons.