Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Five-Star Chiffon


Songs (258)/Albums (83)

LGBT performers, country music & duets dominated my top 50 favorites playlist this year with only Billie Eilish (Hit Me Hard and Soft), Father John Misty (Mahashmashana) and Beyoncé (Cowboy Carter) releasing albums that encouraged sustained listening.    Loren Kramer's aching vocals and yearning lyrics pushed Gay Angels to the top, although MJ Lenderman's guitar made She's Leaving You a close second, indicating the extreme catholicism of my taste.  As usual, female vocalists supplied the comfort food, although Taylor Swift (like the incomparable Prince before her) served a little too much!

I’ve seen gay angels
Sleeping with eyes open
Staring right through the heart of dreams
Landing square on the face of God
Show me one difference between me and love
What’s the difference between me and love?

"Loved"by Four Tet
"Galaxy" by Stephan Moccio
"Dandelion" by SEUNGKWAN
"Te Maldigo" by Omar Apollo & Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (from Queer)
"Happy for You" by Dua Lipa
"Guilty as Sin" by Taylor Swift
"Don't Smile" by Sabrina Carpenter
"Decline" by Khalid
"Bodyguard" by Beyoncé
"Clams Casino" by Cassandra Jenkins
"She's Leaving You" by MJ Lenderman
"Prove It to You" by Brittany Howard
"Femininomenon" by Chappell Roan
"Good for Me"by Bishop Briggs
"Go Fast Go Slow" by Dolores Forever
"Beautiful Eyes" by Amy Shark
"A Night to Remember" by girl in red
"CHIHIRO" by Billie Eilish
"Sexy to Someone" by Clairo
"Promises"by Luke Hemming
"Death Grips"by Etta Marcus
"The Line" by twenty one pilots (from Arcane Season 2)
"I Hope It Hurts" by Jessie Murph
"Gay Angels" by Loren Kramer
"Dancing in Babylon" (featuring Christine & the Queens) by MGMT
"All Right" by The Dare
"Afterimage" by Justice & RIMON
"Pink Skies" by Zach Bryan
"Too Good to Be True" by Kacey Musgraves
"How Far Will We Take It" by Orville Peck & Noah Cyrus
"II Most Wanted" by Beyoncé & Miley Cyrus
"Purple Irises" by Gwen Stefani & Blake Shelton
"I Had Some Help" (featuring Morgan Wallen) by Post Malone
"Fortnight" (featuring Post Malone) [BLOND:ish Remix]
"Midnight Ride" by Orville Peck, Kylie Minogue & Diplo
"Life" by Jamie XX & Robyn
"Compress/Repress" by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (from Challengers)
"Baddy on the Floor" (featuring Honey Dijon) by Jamie XX
"Brand New" (featuring A-Trak & James Vincent Morrow) by The Blessed Madonna
"Girl, So Confusing" (featuring Lorde) by Charli xcx
"Archangel" by Olly Alexander
"yes and ?" by Ariana Grande & Mariah Carey
"Dancing Star"(solomun extended remix) by Pet Shop Boys
"Lift You Up" by Jessie Ware & Romy
"L'AMOUR DE MA VIE" (OVER NOW EXTENDED EDIT) by Billie Eilish
"Until There's Nothing Left" by LP Giobbi & Alabama Shakes 

Books (25)

Rarely do novels influence my travel destinations, but I couldn't wait to go to Poland after reading a tragic gay romance set behind the Iron Curtain and championed by Dua Lipa, of all people.  A first-person account of Auschwitz and a best-selling novel published during my childhood about the Warsaw ghetto made the contemporary state of the world seem tame by comparison but the books also offered a terrifying and resonant reminder of how bad things can get when authoritarian leaders scapegoat specific groups of people for society's inequities.  And nobody, NOBODY has done social media or the pandemic better than Michael Cunningham.  Day just barely edges out Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow as my favorite book of the year.


Movies (84)

Several of the stars of Gladiator II filmed a clip thanking the audience for watching their movie in the theater (did we have a choice?) even as more than one member of the audience pretended they were at home, texting friends ("u won't believe this, sharks are circling ships in the arena, whatever it's called!").  At least nobody sang along to Wicked although I did make sure to go in the middle of the day when people were presumably in school or at work, and even this old curmudgeon could have forgiven them if they had jumped for joy during Jonathan Bailey's big number.  Luca Guadagnino definitely has his finger on my nostalgic pulse:  both Challenger and Queer recalled the adult themes explored during the golden ago of cinema in the 70s.  But nothing I saw packed the pure emotional wallop of All of Us Strangers, which visits another dimension to explore coming out, and the tender, unexpected reactions it engenders.  And if home movies of the Rolling Stones tickle your fancy, Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg is the doc for you.

Origin (T)
Queer (T)
Wicked (T)

Theater (13)

A chance encounter with Jonathan Groff when a red light on Fifth Avenue stopped us both on our bikes helped me overcome my reluctance to pay full price for a Broadway show even though we ended up talking about the Challengers soundtrack. Fortunately, Merrily We Roll Along was well worth it.  Our Class rips the scab off Poland's complicity in the Holocaust better than any of the world-class museums I visited there, and Swept Away reaffirmed that low expectations can contribute almost as much to the theater-going experience as a superb performance and script (Michael Stuhlbarg in Peter Morgan's Patriots, which makes the ups and downs of a Russian oligarch as deliciously entertaining as The Crown).


Streaming (34)

If the "golden age" of streaming is over, I haven't noticed yet.  Somebody Somewhere convincingly demonstrated how finding your community can foster a healing balm, even in flyover country, although you definitely want to steer clear of Jon Hamm's scary jurisdiction in Fargo.  The superb cast of Pachinko left me sobbing after nearly every melodramatic episode did double duty as a history lesson in the decades-long conflict between Korea and Japan.  Jerrod Carmichael brilliantly turned self-exposure into an art form that also ensnared his family and friends.  Becoming Karl Lagerfeld dissected the power dynamics of a tortured gay relationship and the testosterone-deprived My Brilliant Friend proved a that a not-entirely-faithful television adaptation can be almost as cerebral as its four-volume source material.  Heads up to fans of Veep:  Hollywood provides an even juicier satiric target than the nation's capital.  Wait until you see Daniel Brühl's comedic chops!  If trauma floats your boat, look no further than the tragic Irish history depicted in both The Woman in the Wall and Say Nothing.  Finally, have denizens ever been better cast than they are in Deadwood, a show that celebrated its 20th anniversary and could never be made today?

Max
Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show
Hacks (Season 3)
True Detective: Night Country
My Brilliant Friend (Season 4)
Deadwood (All Seasons + Movie)
Somebody Somewhere (Season 3)
The Franchise
The Alienist (Both Seasons)

Showtime
The Woman in the Wall

Netflix
One Day
Baby Reindeer

Hulu
Life & Beth (Season 2)
Becoming Karl Lagerfeld
Fargo (Season 5)
English Teacher
Say Nothing

Apple
Pachinko (Seasons 1 & 2)

Exhibitions (57)

Discovering the Bunker Artspace in West Palm Beach definitely improved my snowbird experience, but there's nothing quite like New York City's museums and art galleries. They sustain me more and more, particularly at a time of political upheaval.  


Prior Five-Star Chiffon:


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Saturday, December 21, 2024

The Solace of Art

While visiting North Andover, I saw my first exhibition of the season at a New England prep school, thanks to a recommendation from Randy.

"Fond Jaune" by Ellsworth Kelly (1950)
Twenty five more followed, including The Joffrey + Ballet in the U.S. at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts where I noticed this neon sculpture for the first time.


The exhibit included homoerotic footage from "Astarte," an innovative 1967 work that also used rock music.


Jenny Holzer made terrific use of the space at the Guggenheim.


Contemporary artists "reimaginged Himalayan art" for the last exhibit at the Rubin Museum before it went virtual.

Self Portrait-Green Tara by Monsal Pekar (2021)
Jenny Kendler used oyster shells to raise environmental consciousness on Governors Island.


A major exhibit of Aboriginal art took me back to my circumnavigation of the Australian continent four decades ago.

"Journey to America" by Djambawa Marawili (partial, 2019)
I'd never been to the Asia Society before.  Nice views of the Upper East Side.


I hoped Bronx-based mosaicist Manny Vega might take my mind off the frightening election results

"Bomba Celestial" (2009-10)
. . . only to discover that the Museum of the City of New York was honoring a groundbreaking politician with integrity.  At least I emerged with an early New Year's Resolution:  find even more escape in friendship and art than usual.  After the glorious but false promise of Barack Obama's election in 2008, American politics is beyond repair, at least in my lifetime.


The Whtiney's tribute to Alvin Ailey made me sorry I had missed my opportunity to see him perform back in the 70s.  AIDS killed both Ailey and Robert Joffrey, whose company I did see perform thanks to Stuart, who was living with a dancer from the company when we met.

Alvin Ailey by Carl Van Vechten  (1955)
An exhibition of hip hop jewelry lured me to the American Museum of Natural History for the first time in 20 years but I enjoyed the incredible Insectarium a lot more.  This piece belongs to A$AP Rocky.


Images from gay porn inspired "Sibilant Esses," a slew of dreamy portraits by Paul P. at the Greene Naftali gallery.

I don't think I saw a more thought-provoking exhibit all year than "Draw Them In, Paint Them Out" at the Jewish Museum, which displays "hood paintings" by two artists of different generations and races with congruent sensibilities.

Untitled by Philip Guston (1969)
"Let's Try the Yellow Triangle Angle or The Return of Piss Christ" by Trenton Doyle Hancock (2022)
"Edges of Ailey" introduced me to Ralph Lemon's notebook drawings of musicians.  When I went to see a major exhibition of his multimedia work at PS1 a week or two later--the kind of aesthetic chime that only a city as big and cultured as New York City can offer--I also discovered Sohrab Hura and these formerly incarcerated artists, too.

"Man Of Growth" by Mike Jean & Nadene Isis Richardson (2024)
"We Who Believe In Freedom Cannot Rest, Mattress II
by Daniel Kelly & Jenny Polak (partial, 2024)
The Brooklyn Museum showcased local artists and riffed on Solid Gold

"Nsea" by Yaw Owusu (partial, 2024)
"Path To Nine" by Zadik Zadikan (partial, 2024)
. . . but I much preferred the superb retrospective of Elizabeth Catlett's extraordinary work in service of human equality.

"... And a special fear for my loved ones" (1946)
I wonder what Catlett would have had to say about this evocative illustration of our country's most famous novel, on exhibition in the newly reinstalled American art galleries? It ignores Jim's name in the title, as did Mark Twain, of course, an omission that Percival Everett finally has rectified in James!  It's on my list and, it seems, on everyone else's too.

"Huck Finn" by Thomas Hart Benton (1936)
Tom crashed at 47 Pianos the night before attending a memorial service for Peter Westbrook, one of his fencing buddies.  I took him to the Shed in Hudson Yards to see Luna Luna, the resurrection of a 1987 Pop Art amusement park.


Manhattan's pigeons have gotten a lot bigger since the last time we roomed together in 1972!


You probably don't get much more "outsider" than artist Helen Rae whose work, exhibited as part of KAWS's wonderful private collection, made a big impression at the Drawing Center.


Exhibits at the Met took me to Egypt, Mexico and Siena.

Long Tail Halo by Lee Bul (2024)
Kenny Scharf is popping big at both Luna Luna and the Brant Foundation.   One huge work is visible from the exterior of the building, an old Con Ed substation built more than a century ago.


"The Days of Our Lives" (1984)
47 Pianos had a rare and cuddly house guest in early October.  Magda & Joe dropped off Moofy before celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary with a New York City getaway.


I forgot to take his picture until I stayed with them in Boston the night before Thanksgiving, after he'd just been shorn.


Although the Halloween decorating competition on my block got an even earlier start this year, not much had changed since last year.



I never can decide if fall or spring is prettier in Central Park.






Despite a pro-Palestinian demonstration on the first day of classes at Columbia, campus protests did not interfere with my swimming routine.  This tent-like structure on campus--surrounded by security guards when it first went up and the only indication of continuing protests--didn't last very long.


Manhattan walkabouts--to and from matinees or museums--always provide surprises.  En route to Once Upon A Mattress, I encountered "The Chair" by Iván Tovar.


Catholic brotherhoods of Peruvian origin celebrated El Señor de los Milagros (the Lord of Miracles) in midtown as I returned from Maybe Happy Ending, blocking traffic as the long procession crossed Sixth Avenue.


The gantry in Hudson River Park remains one of the few unchanged landmarks since I began living on the Upper West Side, although the area around it has been utterly transformed.


Hudson Yards offers a mammoth backdrop for"A Journey" one of several sculptures by Oliver Lee Jackson that greets visitors to the High Line.  The development's new buildings dwarf the Vessel, now open again (and netted).


There's still a lot of construction going on below.


At sunset, the World Trade Center looks almost ethereal from the West Village.


I guess the residents of this East Side townhouse had nowhere else to put her . . . 


During the two weeks I spend photographing holiday windows, I often take other interesting shots, too, like this bizarre array of bath dolls at P!Q, the Japanese gift store in Hudson Yards.


The Oculus and one of the 9/11 Memorial pools, under repair, looked beautiful the night I caught "Queen Bitch" at the Perelman Center for the Performing Arts.


This beach cruiser display at Madison Apothecary reminded me of my imminent departure for Lake Worth Beach.  Too bad the Colony has stopped promoting Thursday as gay night. Whatever will I do with my new pocket square?

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Swept Away (5*)

What kept me away from this terrific show is probably the same reason it will close shortly after Christmas:  who wants to see another musical about cannibalism?  'Tis a pity, because Swept Away's actual theme is fraternal love, beautifully evoked by Stark Sands, as the older brother, and Adrian Blake Enscoe (the prat from the under-seen Dickinson, heartbreaking here) who's had quite enough of the family farm.  He wants to see the world so badly that he leaves behind Melody Anne, and finds employment on a whaling ship.  Although it doesn't end well, you don't end up in judgment of the lifeboat survivors because the tubercular narrator of the tale, John Gallagher, makes sure the audience empathizes by breaking the fifth wall.

Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening and American Idiot) does wonders with the female-free staging, no surprise.  You may even experience some minor sea sickness, and the peacefulness of the night sky is rendered as believably as a raging storm.  The score, by the Avett Brothers, considerably reworked from Mignonette, their 20-year-old concept album, lends itself to joyous dancing, romantic yearning and yes, even devil worship.  There's also a tantalizing whiff of situational homosexuality, but that may be wishful thinking on my part.


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Season's Greetings from Manhattan

It’s getting harder and harder for your intrepid photographer to find holiday spirit in New York City, and not only because retailers continue to cut back on their decorating budgets.  


When I first began this project nearly two decades ago I only recently had turned 50 and getting up and down the stairs of my third-floor walk-up—even loaded with my bike and a week’s worth of groceries—wasn’t an issue.  But now, permanent retirement to the house I share in Florida looms so enjoy these photos—they may be my swan song.


This year’s batch (too many, I know) is organized geographically and comes complete with my sentimental and occasionally snarky commentary.  HO HO HO!

Upper East Side

Did any of the window dressers at Bloomingdale's actually see "Wicked" which I loved, much to my surprise.  First, the Wizard doesn't even fly in his balloon, which Hudson Yards does so much better anyway. 


More importantly, mannequins must not come in green.


And if you're not going to give Glinda a bubble, shouldn't she at least have a wand?


Christmas seemed mostly MIA on much of Madison Avenue this year.  Once home to some of the city's most delightful windows ( RIP Barney's) you're now more likely to find nail salons or empty storefronts.

Jimmy Choo
Baccarat
Manolo Blahnik
Roger Vivier
Loro Piana
Valentino
Asprey
Bonpoint
Not only did the footprint of Hermes shrink after relocaing across the street, its now cluttered displays lack the WTF creativity that made the store one of my favorite destinations.


Ralph Lauren, at least, kept up the holiday tradition although the grandness of the company's buildings is more impressive than the stale decoration which could use some zhuzhing.


Zitomer, on upper Madison Avenue, deserves honorable mention.  This independent pharmacy does something fun and different every year.  Just look at the critter on the scooter.  Ride, kitty, ride!


Diptyque
Love Shack Fancy
The green and red Helmsley Building, a dozen blocks downtown, looks more impressive the closer you get.


Berluti
Miu Miu
Fendi
Midtown

Penn Plaza and Madison Square Garden have spruced up as a result of the magnificent Moynihan Train Hall.  They're both a lot more welcoming with new facelifts.



Speaking of Moynihan, it's a great spot to enjoy some pre-or-post commuting holiday cheer.


Apparently, the Macy*s Thanksgiving parade is America's most widely watched entertainment event.  If only all those viewers would express their appreciation by shopping at the bricks-and-mortar flagship in Herald Square, the dowager empress of New York City's department stores.



The windows remain vibrant, especially for kids who grew up with screens.




But if you really want to find traditional Christmas spirit, you'll have to patronize a shop that merchandises it.


In recent years Bryant Park has blossomed into a holiday destination with a Christmas market and an ice skating rink.  Can you find the Empire State Building?  Newer skyscrapers have begun to obscure it.



Here's the gorgeous Helmsley Building from another angle.

Fifth Avenue

Time for a rant.  Lord & Taylor, an early victim of one-click shopping, once boasted the most traditional (and visited) Christmas windows in Manhattan.  They drew crowds to lower Fifth Avenue by quaintly celebrating the season more than commerce. When an internet company purchased the building, the windows sat empty.  Amazon filled them this year, adding insult to injury.


It's no wonder Jeff Bezos is one of the world's richest people.  The Amazon windows could not get much cheaper, more branded or more utilitarian.  Shoppers can use a QR code affixed to the glass to order the products on display.  


Bah, humbug--this fox definitely found his way into the hen house!


While working at the New York Public Library early in my career,  the New York Times quoted me after a thief stole Patience's wreath.  "'It makes people at the library wonder what kind of people prowl around on Fifth Avenue at night." Holiday photographers, for one!


The circulating library across the street, which re-opened during the pandemic after extensive renovations, may not look like much from the outside, but inside it's a gorgeous oasis of urban calm for adults and children.


Like water seeking its own level, this Christmas market "popped up" in front of an empty lot.  Note the green and red spires in the background.


I photographed the entrance to St. Patrick's Cathedral to make a scandalous point. SKIMS (Kim Kardashian's body wear line) just opened a new store less than two blocks uptown in the former Vanderbilt Triple Palace. So what?  It houses an enormous, headless statue of a voluptuous, nude woman with visible pubic hair.  Have the sacred and the profane ever been in such close proximity?  You should have seen the line to get inside (the only way to shoot an NSFW picture)!


This year Saks Fifth Avenue cancelled its holiday light show--a crowdpleaser projected on the facade of its flagship store, across from Rockfeller Center--and slashed its window-dressing budget.  To quote a retail maxim, "You get what you pay for."  



Cartier's sales, on the other hand, must be booming!


A week after I took this photo, Skims opened in the store to the right with papered windows (Cartier also occupies the former Vanderbilt Triple Palace, erected for multiple branches of the robber baron family).


Coach
This little bird also alights on a roof deck of Tiffany & Co.'s recently refurbished building.


Apple

Dior
This year, Bergdorf Goodman's windows celebrate New York City's landmarks, including those used by pets.  Funny story:  when I was in college my stepsister came to visit at Thanksgiving.  We bought a gag gift  called "Dog Gone" at FAO Schwartz, then located just around the corner.  A slightly curved, stiffened leash, it also had a harness about a foot off the ground.  We elicited peals of laughter from holiday shoppers when we stopped at every fire hydrant on Fifth Avenue to relieve our invisible pooch.  




Scooters and e-bikes are pretty much the bane of my existence, but who can begrudge them when they're this bejeweled?


My favorite window was entirely devoted to the library!  Working there for nearly five years was like a continuing education.  With no exams.



Hailing a boxy yellow cab that easily could seat parties of up to six was so much more glamorous than calling an Uber.


IMHO--after taking these holiday photos for nearly 20 years--Bergdorf's is the only remaining store that can justify a window celebrating itself.


I do love a poodle, even a purple one.  The dog reminds me of my childhood.


Believe it or not, you can find all of these creatures in New York City's parks.  


I can't ever recall seeing a menorah in a Bergdorf's display.



I'll bet passengers on the North Pole Express don't see as many sights as you'll find in this blog post.


Fifth Avenue & 57th Street

Let's be real:  LVMH owns the world of luxury retail, including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Christian Dior, Fendi, Loro Piana and Marc Jacobs.  We just (window) shop in it.  If ever there was any doubt, look no further than this intersection.

Louis Vuitton
The white Tiffany's bird is hard to see but visible perched just to the left of the red snowflake.

Louis Vuitton & Tiffany's

There's the bird again, to the right of the Tiffany's blue band.


Rockefeller Center

The annual lighting of the tree occurred the evening after the early-morning murder of the United Healthcare CEO.


Security was as tight as I've ever experienced in midtown during the holiday season with foot and bike patrols out in force.


Metropolitan Museum of Art



Soho

Retail in Soho is like a game of musical chairs.  The stores rarely stay put from one year to the next.

A Bathing Ape
Tory Burch

Concepts are often high in neighborhood art galleries.  



Louis Vuitton
Etro
Anthropologie
MCM
Thompson Street
During the early 80s, a friend of mine once briefly sublet a loft in Soho.  He had to throw down the keys when I visited, just like in After Hours.

7 For All Mankind
Newer structures lack the old world charm that make the neighborhood iconic.

Jaquemus
Note the chili pepper wreaths.  My stepmother sent me one many years ago from New Mexico.  After the holidays, I turned the wreath into powder with a food processor and then used it for a red enchilada sauce that I served to my housemates in the Pines.  It set their mouths afire!


Don't get me started on the cost of chocolate.  Be prepared to spend $160 before opening the box in the Neuhaus window.! 


I blame Virgil Abloh for the functionalism of many luxury retailers.  Just look at Gucci and Chanel.  It's all about the clothes, not the decor.

Gucci

But it really doesn't take much to signal the season.

Moschino
. . . even a simple color contrast can do it.


Symbols do the trick, too.




During the holidays, NYC firefighters use their down time to decorate their houses.


Lower Broadway

Prada
I always forget there's a Bloomingdale's downtown.



Look closely and you'll be able to guess the name of these retailers.



Swarovski
Lower East Side

My passion for street art makes this corner at Houston and Canal Streets a favorite stop, but the holiday projections, new this year, seem a little incongruous.


Flats make the wreath.


Basilica of Old St. Patrick's

Hudson Yards

Nieman Marcus may have abandoned ship too soon.  The center of retail gravity in Manhattan seems to have shifted south and west as a result of the High Line and Hudson Yards.


P!Q




Lower Manhattan

The Oculus added an under-utilized skating rink, at least on a Thursday evening.


A few more skaters could be found at Brookfield Place's rink, just across the West Side Highway.  Right on the Hudson River, it offers winter-crisp views of the Jersey City skyline and the Maxwell House Coffee clock.


"Holiday Under The Palms," complete with a children's castle, replaced the high-tech luminaria in the lobby.



I do love a seahorse.


The World Trade Center light show is visible from the entrance to Brookfield Place.  Escalators take pedestrians to a passageway that connects to the Oculus.


Louis Vuitton really is inescapble.



Nordstrom

That's actual snow on top of the golden doves!



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