Photo Pest: Hot Fun in the Summertime

Dining at Anthony's & John's in Baldwin is always a pleasure.

Anthony took Thom, Jerry and me to Point Lookout Beach, too. A lifeguard thought I was in distress. Embarrassing!

Thom and I staked a claim at Riis Park with Andrew & Steven. They were newbies. A week later, the New York Times published the first article I've ever seen about "the people's beach." It's about time!

It's a lot different than the Pines, where Victor invited Thom, Chris and I to spend time. Neither it or the Grove haven't changed much in our summer-long absence. I can't say I miss Fire Island much. Although there's less sun and sand in my life, there's less stress, too. Even reluctant house mothering takes a lot out of you.

Thom and I drove up to Randy's for a couple of days. He took us sightseeing at the Florence Griswold Museum and the Gillette Castle on a glorious summer day. Who knew there was so much to see in Connecticut?

Florian and Arko sent many greetings from Chicago.

Speaking of Germans, Nanno got back in touch with me. We met in Berlin two decades ago. It's absolutely shocking how old we all get, particularly now when phones make high-quality photography so accessible!

Nanno introduced me to Robbie Williams in his lovely Schöneberg apartment. I didn't realize it had a terrace.

My stepsister Barb and her husband Gary flew in from Arizona for a day tour of Manhattan before departing on a cruise.

9/11 Memorial

Saks Fifth Avenue

They took me to dinner before we went to see The Lion King. Feta cheese dusted the watermelon salad.

Cynthia's daughter got married. Would you believe the mother-of-the-bride baked both the wedding and groom cakes?

Cynthia wore false eyelashes for the first time, too!

Thom took me to Old Westbury Gardens for my birthday. We should have coordinated outfits.

My walks took me all over New York City.

Upper West Side

Terminal B, LaGuardia Airport

Lobby, Bergdorf Goodman Building

Milton Avery Self-Portrait, Yares Art Gallery

"The will to make things happen" (partial) by Woody De Othello, Whitney Biennial

"Apache School Girl" by Oscar Howe, National Museum of the American Indian

"Da Vinci Eternity" by Raphael Montanez Ortiz, El Museo Del Barrio

The staircase at the Museum of the City of New York is really something.

I'd never seen the Stettheimer dollhouse, built by Carrie, although I'm a great admirer of sister Florine's art.

"Activist New York" celebrates homegrown advocacy. People forget how early Gloria Steinem--pictured here with Dorothy Pitman Hughes--recognized the intersectionality of the women's and civil rights movements. Watch The Glorias if you don't believe me.

A signature hat represents the loudmouth contributions of Bella Abzug.

Currier and Ives illustrated "The Ladder of Fortune" as part of the temperance movement.

"New York, New Music (1980-1986)" included a Keith Haring drawing of Larry Levan, an influential Paradise Garage DJ.

In case you forgot the location of the Garage, the exhibit provided this nostalgia-inducing nightlife map.

The Morgan Library introduced me to Rick Barton, a gay blade who's finally enjoying his 15 minutes of fame 30 years after his death.

"Barcelona" by Rick Barton (1962)

The Morgan also celebrated the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses. I'm surprised nobody mounted similar for "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot, also published a century ago.

James Joyce by Patrick Tuohy (ca 1924)

Robert Motherwell provided color etchings for a 1988 deluxe edition which follows Dubliner Leopold Bloom through the course of his day as if he were a mythological Greek wanderer. "Yes," the last word of "Molly's soliloquy," is about all I remember from reading the very, very difficult book in college.

I also noticed this statue of the bard of Stratford-on-Avon for the first time.

William Shakespeare by William Wetmore Story (1881)

Here's the ceiling of the New York Public Library's Celeste Bartos Forum. The room was a basement when I worked there many years ago. Julio Torres and Cole Escola superbly read scenes from WARHOLCAPOTE as part of an "NYPL Live" program, the best I've attended. Rob Roth based his non-fiction play on 80 hours of musings recorded by two of my favorite 20th-century queer culture icons who had vague ambitions to write a Broadway hit of their own. Funny and surprisingly poignant!

And when there weren't any summer field trips on my agenda, Central Park continued to provide an endless supply of distractions from the routine of retired life.