i’m back at sonnystone…suitcase is unpacked, pictures are downloaded, nap taken. yesterday daughter and i went to the recently-renovated MoMA (museum of modern art), giving me name-dropping rights on darn near every GREAT artist in the last 100 years……attention, students! compare and contrast my previous sculpture hiking trail pix to these of MoMa’s sculpture garden:
our midtown sojourn included sushi, tiffany’s, bendelman’s, and another excursion through central park and “the gates”.
with barely a nap, we forged ahead to the Opera House for the performance of “Turandot”. this is one of moon’s favorites and i was excited to see it as well. i felt like an extra on a movie-set at kennedy center; the music was of the sort that makes your heart swell. we were up late so i only got about 3 hours sleep… hopped into a limo for a 6:45 a.m. flight out and arrived home at 10:40 a.m. with no hitches—well, there was a little detour past Shea Stadium on the way to the airport, but the driver finally let me help him find his way. wink (or blinky palermo, as he likes to call himself) has become most uncivilized in my absence and husband didn’t water the seedlings (peat pellets, if you will). it’s obvious they’re quite lost without me. waiting on the desk were birthday cards and a present from specially-loved people… i have to say this has been the Best Birthday Week Ever. Thanks, all.
i am safely ensconced with my lovely daughter, her handsome husband, and their two precocious kittens. my birthday-day began this a.m. with a walk to and through central park to experience “the gates”:
while you may have seen many pictures, there is not a good way to explain this phenomena. i’ll be going back and work on some sort of adjectives. we walked and walked, had a nice lunch at a place called “nectar”–omelette, for those who are keeping track of menu choices. we went into the metropolitan museum to see a romare bearden exhibit (great, but small), then walked through the whole moden art section and i just loved it. we stopped at several museum shops on the way back to the apt and bought a hat from a street vendor. the temperatures got up to 40 or so; moon’s cheeks froze, but my skin is too dry to freeze. tonight we had a lovely dinner at cafe turino in greenwich village (spinach cheese ravioli for me). we were only blocks from the Village Vanguard, but opted not to wait around for the 11pm show…
walked over to the magnolia bakery for cupcakes….we put a candle in one just for me! i spoke to husband and he’s out taking care of highways…eville’s supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow; around here, they’re predicting 1-2″ in the morning and 2-4″ tomorrow evening. oh, moon gave me a gift of The Little Prince (among other things) and i can’t explain the effect of this little book. i plan to re-read it for deeper messages….so much for the birthday-day, but the week is not over yet. on to the opera!!
i had a great time planting tomato and bell pepper seeds last night…i used peat pellets and marked them with little ice cream sticks–6 dozen, watered and covered and watched over in the kitchen. my new greenhouse is upstairs, so this morning when i prepared to carry the flat upstairs i was so watching wink, thinking he would destroy them if given half a chance, but carried them safely up. i sat the flat down and kept watching him, unzipped the greenhouse cover, and when he didn’t show up realized he was using the box…..great! so i grabbed the flat..by the ends..which made it buckle in the middle– sending peat pellets, dirt, and water flying to the floor…..feeling humbled and noticing there was still no wink in sight, i quickly put the pellets back in place, losing track of what pellet has what seed planted and wondering how severely i had just harmed my harvest. wink sauntered in a few minutes after i had cleaned it up…i swear he winked at me.
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who-oo-o-oo-ewh!!! or however you spell it. we got lost going over to the botanical gardens, so we went downtown to eat first. driving down broadway in nashville i was attracted to a really clever neon sign featuring pigs with wings…after parking we walked down to jack’s bbq. the sign on the door said something like “the only thing smoking in jack’s had better be the meat” and upon stepping into the place i was high on the smell of the smoking pork shoulder that permeated the wood floors and ceilings.
i am sorry to report that i did not try all of the sauces, but can testify that the vinegar-based pepper-spiced sauce brought me to tears. we went to the botanical gardens after eating, but i will wait for another post with that story.
we ended up downtown around 6:pm and made our way beer-by-beer through dives such as bluegrass inn, second fiddle, the stage, and finally landed at Robert’s Western World.
Sadly, I don’t remember the name of this band, but they were inspiring. they evoked images of my daddy with their menu of 1960’s to 1980’s country music: merle haggard, ray price, buck owens, johnny paycheck songs; titles like “goin’ down the road feeling bad” “is it cold in here, or is that you?”, “rollin in my sweet baby’s arms”, “the only daddy that’ll walk the line”, and an instrumental of “ghost riders in the sky” that left me convinced that there are fourteenhundredandthirtyfour guitar pickers in nashville that can play better than any other guitar picker anywhere (see nasvhille cats). after an hour and a half of them, the opry was pretty tame, but Emmylou hosted her half-hour and included “get up, john”, one of my favorite bill monroe numbers. it’s a mandolin-dominated song and she couldn’t help but dance, but my picture of her dancing was distorted. she introduced vince gill, he played one song and she came back and sang with him an old gospel song…sweet harmony.
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february needed a boost, so i was born…. it is my custom to observe Birthday Week. The Celebration kicks off tomorrow when the husband and i head south to music city tn for what is becoming a birthday tradition: the grand ole opry. during january and february the opry is broadcast at the Ryman Auditorium. as i was glancing at upcoming guests, i saw one of my all-time faves: Emmylou harris. her first album, with “one of these days”, is a well-worn treasure in my life. i had almost forgotten the first time i “met” her live and in person: i was married to a no-good (but charming) rascal and was working a lot at the steakhouse while he babysat young moon. one day in february, Marshall Tucker Band was scheduled to perform in our homeburg with their opening act: Emmylou. while i was at work, mr. B loaded up moon and went over to the local holiday inn where he boldly proceeded to knock on the door of one of the band members and introduce himself and his (then) daughter– the moon remembers this— the whole group fell all over her, naturally. i had to work the night they were in evansville, so he got us tickets to their performance in nashville a couple of days later—my Birthday. when we went to nashville we had backstage passes (got to drink their beer and eat their chips) and met Emmylou, charlie daniels, tommy & toy. we watched the first part of the show from backstage, so in a way i’ve never “seen” emmylou perform– but i’ll see her tomorrow night, along with vince gill, nasvhille bluegrass band, the whites, etc, etc: at the Grand Ole Opry.
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look at what that husband of mine did! he left to work a 16-hour day before i was up. when wink and i finally dragged out here was a gift! i love casey! (he gave wink credit on the package and claims that it was his idea!) am i the most blessed gal or what?
i was directed to the grammies tonight just in time to hear freebird, fooled around and fell in love, ramblin man, and sweet home alabama….whether it’s my own experience and memory, whether it’s the power of the music, or maybe it’s just i’m a sucker for slide guitar riffs and gravity-challenged lengendaries, i was shouting, clapping—later, the gospel session that introduced the rap awards was as enlightening as a TBN praise the lord session and twice as thought-provoking…..what does this mean? i dunno anything for sure about this particular incident, only that MUSIC MOVES ME. i love it. actually, i have no idea who won the awards, does anyone care? it’s the performance….which segues nicely to my upcoming visit to nyc to experience The Gates. stay tuned.
after a solid week of swollen gums, headaches, lortabs, ibuprofen, soup and whining, i have determined to start fresh: finish what i started before these nasty surgeries, get out into solla sollew, and start some seeds…the paperwhites are beginning to bloom inside and the amaryllis will be beautiful for the bridal shower and i’m with them! oh, by the way, neutering is required for any pet you get from the humane society so “believing” in it is not an option when you rescue pets; believing it will calm an animal down may be a misunderstanding, though; i should have realized that every eunuch i’ve known has been a real party animal.
having the winkster fixed was a hopeful plan; picture a mellow cello fellow, if you will. he’s still WILDMAN WYNC, WEIRD, WIRED, & WILEY…i wonder if they gave him some steroidals…..
