#HolidaysonFifth: 

Lighted Street Replicas Shed Joy

           and Hope During  Troubled Times

Sealed with a Wish

“What is one thing you think could bring all people hope and cheer this year? Write down your wish….

let the elves and Santa, too, work to make your wish come true…. Be kind and listen to your heart.” 

(NW corner of East 51 Street near St. Patrick’s Cathedral) 

                                                

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness…”

Charles Dickens and his words from A Tale of Two Cities describes how I feel this season holiday.   

 

During the holidays New York City is a magical place. It is a city of lights and sparkle. Thousands of people flock here from all over the world mesmerized by the beautifully decorated shop windows especially those of Saks, Bergdorf’s, Macy’s and Bloomingdales. They are awe-struck by the magnificence of the Rockefeller Center tree, Sak’s Fifth Avenue outdoor Light Show and Windows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOcZYsSwiLQ ,

Radio City Musical Hall’s Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes and the thrill of shopping, dining or ice skating at the Holiday Village in Bryant Park. 

This year Radio City is closed. Broadway, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall are shuttered as are many hotels, small and large.

 

Restaurants and bars are also empty. Those who have struggled are opened for outdoor dining, deliveries and pickups. Scores of stores, not just mom-and-pop shops, but big-name retailers have locked their doors for good. Usually Fifth Avenue is packed with people. Not this year! I am sad. I miss the excitement of busy sidewalks and bustling stores filled with tourists from all over the world.

I realize this season is the “worst of times” and the most difficult holiday season of many lifetimes. Surging COVID infections and deaths, soaring unemployment, hunger, homelessness, social injustices and political divisiveness, thanks to a contemptible White House leadership, soar to new levels. 

 

When I walk the city dark clouds hover over me even on nights when the skies are crystal clear. Two weeks ago, as I entered Fifth Avenue a slight glimmer of joy cracked through the darkness, thanks to eleven brilliantly lit festive replicas courtesy of #HolidaysonFifth. 

 

Nine of the ten pieces have plaques with words of cheer. 

These words lifted me to a different time when all was merry and fun.  These lighted replicas cracked the darkness just enough to make me smile and feel hopeful for 2021. Here is a sample of what I saw.

Fantasies Afloat

“Near SW corner of W55 Street far above Fifth Avenue, 

Floats someone with a gift for you. They wave down from a big balloon, lit by the glow of a full moon.” (Near SW corner of W55 Street)

                                                         

  Christmas Cab

“What festive fun we’re sure to have while in our cab on Fifth Avenue shop windows sparkle in the night below as show of dancing light…” (SE corner Fifth and 58 Street. Plaza Hotel and the Grand Army Plaza Menorah in background)

 

                                              

    

 Trove of Treasure

 “The Toy Box is a wondrous way to get to places far away

Enchanted forests, carpet flightsdeep sea journeys, shining knights….”(SE corner of Fifth and 59 Street)

                                                        

                            

                                                          

    Magic Landing

 “The Toy Box is a wondrous way to get to places far away with enchanted forests, carpet flights, deep sea journeys, shining knights….”(SE corner of Fifth and 59 Street)

                                                   

Photo credit: Rudi Papiri

The End

Walking NYC...

A StrayCat Finds Holiday Magic on City Streets

Lord&Taylor Fifth Avenue

I chuckled as I passed Bergdorf Goodman’s at 58^th and Fifth Avenue the day after Christmas 2015.

I did more than just chuckled. I stopped, stared and shook my head amazed when I spotted two very attractive, very fashionably dressed middle-aged women exiting the store. They moved effortlessly arm-in-arm, step-for-step, an impossible feat on an avenue bustling shoulder-to-shoulder with people gaping at the store’s spectacular holiday windows.

Two women, from Milan, I learned later, visiting the city for Christmas, and dressed stylishly blended perfectly with the glamour of Fifth Avenue’s (or Cortina d’Ampezzo, St. Mortiz, or Aspen’s) haute couture boutiques. One woman wore a white Moncler coat, her suntanned face tucked inside its fur-lined hood. Her friend had on a black Bogner Ski Jacket with fur-lined collar and cuffs. A slouchy dark knit slouchy hat with a fur pom covered her head. Large silver framed Gucci sunglasses masked her eyes. Both wore gloves, mid-calf length shearling boots with rolled over shearling tops and large scarves loosely draped around their neck. Yes! They looked stunning as if they just left a photo shoot of Town and Country or Quest, magazines for the affluent.

You may wonder why I smirked and raised my brows when I saw these two women? For one the three twenty-something dudes walking in front of them offered a contrast of styles. One had a hoodie and short pants, another had on only a tee shirt, shorts and Santa hat, and the third guy wore a long sleeve NY Ranger shirt and torn jeans.

Second, the temperature hit 66 degrees, a city record for the date. On Christmas the temperatures soared to 72 degrees, also a new record, with a low a 63, numbers more in tune to a Los Angeles Christmas than a New York City one.

Shirtless volleyball players competed in Central Park, surfers tackled better than average waves at Rockaway Beach, and runners in tank tops and shorts worked up a sweat jogging in Hudson River Park. In several neighboring suburban beach towns the temperature went as high as 76, several degrees warmer than July 4 of this year.

Okay maybe this year pushcart vendors sold fewer roasted nuts and pretzels, and Starbucks may have had disappointing sales hawking their gingerbread lattes or eggnog frappuccinos but the spirit of the season glowed as strong as ever.

Rain, sleet, snow, frigid weather, or unseasonally high temperatures can  never have a negative impact on the city’s long-standing reputation as one of the world’s great stages for celebrating Christmas and the New Year.

What the Straycat saw as he darted from 60th Street to Herald Square.

Bloomingdale's 

Interactive Photo Displays. Straycat Image in Top Shot

Barneys New York

"Chilling' Out Arctic Chase" 

Bergdorf Goodman

Welcoming in 2016 at the Costume Ball

Harry Winston

"Talk to me, Harry Winston" Marilyn Monroe sang in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree  

The 83rd Annual Rock Center Tree: 78' Feet Tall Norway Spruce from Upstate NY with 45,000 LED Lights, 9-foot Swarovski star w/25,000 crystals

Saks Fifth Avenue Light Show

The Largest Display of Festive Holiday Windows; plus a Light/Music Show Every Ten Minutes

Saks Fifth Avenue Window

From Rome to Fifth Avenue "The Ice Cold Coliseum" 

Lord & Taylor

Seeing the Wonders of the Holidays on the Face of a Child

Macy's

 Miracle of 34th Street Began Here in 1947 Starring Natalie Wood, Maureen O'Hara
and Edmund Gwen

Photo Credits: Rudi Papiri

NYC Style Through the Looking Glass

The Windows of Jay Kos, Kate Spade, Tom Ford, TAGG, Yoya.....And What I Found

*Remembering Elaine Stritch and The Ladies Who Lunch

                **I'm not strange, weird, off, nor crazy,
                    my reality is just different from yours.

New York City is a window shopper’s paradise and Fifth Avenue from 49^th to 60th Street is its main stage. During the Christmas holidays its store windows sparkle with colorful and festive displays, some traditional, some contemporary and some avant-garde but all capture the wonder and beauty of the season in a unique New York Style. 

Crowds swell in front of the huge windows of Saks, Bergdorf Goodman, Lord & Taylor further south on Fifth at 39^th Street, and Macy’s gargantuan Herald Square store at 34^th.  Street.

On this stretch of Fifth you will also find the U.S. flagship stores of Tiffany, Cartier, Armani, Gucci, Versace, Henri Bendel, Faconnable, FAO Schwarz, and Van Cleef and Arpel.

I am not a window shopper. I am city walker who walks at a brisk pace. I appreciate the magic of an artistically designed window no matter what time of year. Often I have stopped in midstride drawn by the hypnotic lure of these movie-like sets

My favorite street for window viewing is Madison Avenue from 86^th

to 63^rd Street. Sorry but Barney’s located at 61st street does not make the cut. Madison Avenue loses it intimacy and small town feel as one get closer to get to bustling 57th Street, plus the buildings are much taller.

Most major cities have a street for the luxury or fashion conscious shopper. I have walked several including Milan’s Via Montenapoleone, rue Saint-Honoré

in Paris, the other two fashion capitals of the world. I have also walked Worth Avenue in Palm Beach and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

I first encountered Madison Avenue many years ago when I walked home after a high school baseball game in Central Park’s North Meadow. I discovered an avenue with scores of brightly lit windows, filled with expensive well-tailored and bespoke clothes, shoes, linens, furniture, antiques and paintings created by celebrated designers. That night I felt as if I had I had crossed an imaginary line leaving New York City at one corner and winding up in some far-away place, many stores posted the locations of their stores worldwide.  Madison became my “yellow brick road.” It did not lead me to OZ but to Paris, London, Milan, Saint-Tropez, Portofino, Geneva, Tokyo, San Paolo, and Barcelona.

There are several fashion streets and neighborhoods in the city. Recently, over the course of several days, I searched for fun, stylish windows.  Instead of taking my standard mental photo I snapped over 200 pictures with my iPhone. I share my fourteen favorite windows. Theys are listed by neighborhood. I have excluded touristy Fifth Avenue.

Madison Avenue

Loro Piana  748 Madison Ave. near 65th St

"Your So Vain"  Walking Madison Avenue

Mallet Antiques  929 Madison Ave. 75th St.

Commode by Jean Royere, France 1950

Pair of Art Noveau Wall Light, Belgium 1900

Pair pf Rosso Levanto Columns 1780

"Welcome to My House a Very Fine House"

Ralph Lauren  Madison Ave. at 72nd St.

"Madison Avenue I Am Ready for My Closeup"

Missoni  1009 Madison Ave. 78th St.

Opening Night at the Opera

Tom Ford  845 Madison Ave. bet. 70-71St

"Steppin' Out of the Elevator"

MeatPacking/West Village

Alice+Olivia

431 West 14th St

Summer in the Hamptons

YOYA  646 Hudson St.

Cool Kids of the West Village

Tiziano Zorzan  69 Eighth Ave. near 14th St.

Sunday in the Park with Zorzan

Nolita

Patricia Field  306 Bowery 

Get Your Freak On

Bed Head Pajamas  252 Elizabeth Ave.

Mother and Child Pajama Party

Jay Kos  292 Mott St.

What I  Saw Through the Looking Glass

Tribecca

Agatha Ruiz de la Prada  466 Greenwich St.

Under the Big Top...Send in the Clowns

Hell's Kitchen

***TAGG  720 Ninth Avenue 49th St

Strut Your Junk...Buns in the Oven

*Store window photo at the beginning of the article.

Kate Spade  789 Madison Ave 66-67th St.

**Quote: Lewis Caroll, Alice Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
***Most "Fun" Website - Signals  the "new" Hell's Kitchen. Click on TAGG!

All Photos by Rudi Papiri

Dance at Bougival

The Frick Collection:

Dancing with Pierre-Auguste Renoir... 

Dance at Bougival

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art are special places. Millions of people come here from all over the world to explore their treasures. It is exhilarating to visit these museums anytime but especially when there is a major event, even if it means waiting on long lines.

I crawled with hundreds of people through the Iris & B. Gerald Canter Exhibition Hall at The MET in the summer of 2011. During a three month stretch almost 662,000 people visited the late Alexander McQueen’s “Savage Beauty" exhibit. They came to see his “bumster” trouser, three-point origami frockcoat, S&M jewelry, spray-painted dresses, futuristic styles, a life size hologram of Kate Moss, and many more of his ultra creative costumes. They came not out of sympathy for the famed British fashion designer who committed suicide at 40, a year before his exhibit opened, but to be dazzled by his uninhibited sense of fashion, art, history, and workmanship.

In 2012 I saw CindySherman’s Retrospective at MOMA, also heavily attended. It featured more than 170 photographs, all self-portraits that traced her artistic career from the 1970’s to the present. A master of disguise Sherman dressed as a faded movie star, sex kitten, naïve ingénue, straight-laced secretary, housewife and more. She accomplished this by physically altering herself with wigs, costumes, makeup, and prosthetic-body parts. She meshed art, cultural influences, pornography, fairy tales and horror films. In one work she appeared as Grandma Moses in a banana leather jacket and a sky-blue taffeta, another as a Renaissance Lady in an elegant dress, jewel adorned hair with a fake nose.

No exhibit inspired me more than the Renoir, Impressionism and Full-Length Painting at The Frick Collection in 2012.

Small in size, it featured just nine large life-size paintings, several measuring almost six-foot in height displayed in the Frick’s East Gallery, a long classical styled room with an arched portal, elegant keystone, fluted Ionic pilasters. Colin B. Bailey, the Frick’s Associate Director brought these works together for the first time. Built around The Frick’s La Promenade (1875-76), a mother walking in the park with her two young daughters, the museum’s most important impressionist work, the exhibit studied Renoir’s portraits and subjects from the mid-1870’s to the mid 1880’s. 

The other eight paintings included La Parisienne (1874) from the National Museum of Art, Cardiff; The Umbrellas (1881-1885) from The National Gallery of London; Dance in the City and Dance in the Country (1882-83) from the Musee d’Orsay, Paris; The Dancer (1874) from the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Madame Henriot “en travesty” (1875-76) from the Columbus Museum of Art; Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (1879) from the Art Institute of Chicago; and my favorite, the reason I write this article, Dance at Bougival (1882-83) from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 

Born at Limoges, France in 1841, Pierre-Auguste Renoir is considered one of the great artists of the French Impressionists movement. The size of these paintings and their bright colors gives the illusion his characters, specifically the trio of paintings of dancing couples, are ready to lurch off the canvass. But Bougival is why I returned to the Frick three times with a different friend each visit.

Bougival drips with gusto, life, and lust. It is earthy and sexy. The outdoor setting – painted in a studio - is a Sunday country-dance near Paris. Art critics chat about the dirt floor littered with cigarette buts, chestnut trees and people drinking beer from plain mugs sitting at an oak table in the background, but the male dancer’s passion and assertiveness mesmerized me. Standing in this very large wing with maybe only fifteen other visitors I am free to savor Bougival from many vantage points, and I too, wanted to whisk my partner, all three, around this beautiful gallery.

The young woman in Bougival, is Suzanne Valadon, a trapeze artist turned model, Renoir’s one-time lover, and mother of artist Maurice Utrillo whose father was rumored to be one of several men including Renoir. The gent, a working-man, with clunky brown boots and straw hat, holds her firmly against his body and stares intently at her beautiful face and head wrapped in a long flowing red bonnet. She looks away, her eyes cast downward in a shy yet flirtatious way as if desire stirs within her as they dance oblivious to the festivities around them.

Standing in front of Dance at Bougival I think of Leonard Cohen’s song….

"Dance Me To The End Of Love"

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin

Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in

Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove

Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the end of love

Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone

Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon

Show me slowly what I only know the limits of

Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the end of love

The Renoir exhibit  completed its United States run September 3, 2013 at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

Paley Park, St. Luke in the Fields, St. John's...
Manhattan's Peaceful Open Spaces

Finding a quiet outdoor space in Manhattan is as challenging as Indiana Jones search for the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The ear-shattering blasts of horns and sirens and the deafening roar of construction trucks and buses make it impossible to have a conversation without shouting.

The city is an exciting place but we need a quiet zone to escape the madness.

Of course there is Central Park with its rolling hills, expansive meadows, and rowboat lake and the beautiful but crowded Bryant Park behind the New York Public Library on 42^nd Street.

Locating a small intimate outdoor space is not hopeless. You just have to know where to go.

Here are several to visit:

Paley Park

Paley Park 

Located on the site of the legendary Stork Club where the city’s high society dined from 1934 to 1965, Paley Park is one of the finest vest-pocket parks in the world according to the Project for Public Spaces.

Opened in 1967 as a private/public space and financed by the William S. Paley Foundation (Paley, late CBS chairman) it offers a reprieve from crowded Fifth Avenue. 

Its beauty is not apparent when you first see this narrow rectangular space. Once you ascend the steps and walk past tall ornamental gates you feel its magic. Ivy covers the east and west walls. Seventeen locust trees create a canopy over the park. The unique feature is a 20-foot high cascading waterfall at the back wall. The falls, which are lit at night, generate 1800 gallons of water per minute. The gushing water blocks all street noise. Iron mesh chairs and tables are moveable. 

A concession stand serving soup, sandwiches and hot dogs is hidden to the right of the entrance.

Paley Park: 3 East 53^rd Street between Madison and Fifth.

  

Garden of St. Luke

Garden of St. Luke in the Fields

Even in the West Village with its charming townhouses dating back to the 1800’s and quaint streets there is a need for a quiet space. St. Luke’s, built in 1822, on land donated by Clement Clarke Moore, has an idyllic garden. The church became a mission of Trinity Episcopal Church in 1891 and remained so until 1976. The present building was reconstructed after a 1981 fire.

Hidden behind a high brick wall and an iron gate is a lush pastoral garden that wraps around the church. Tall trees, colorful gardens, four stone walkways, two passing under metal arches covered with vines and flowers creates a mini green oasis.

 St. Luke in the Field: 487 Hudson Street between Barrow and Christopher Streets

  

Prayer Garden St John's

Prayer Garden at The Church of St. John the Baptist

Walk through the doors of the Brutalist style monastery, of the Franciscan Capuchin Friars on 31^st street, past administrative offices and up the steps or ramp to the church you will find a small sanctuary. 

The silence of this garden is in sharp contrast to the heavily congested streets and bedlam generated by its neighbors Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. The sun-filled garden is in a walled off space between the two buildings. It has plants, flowers, shrubs, palm trees, stone and wrought iron benches and an oval two-tier fountain filled with gold fish during the warmer months. 

Officially known as the Padre Pio prayer garden there are statues, candles and plaques with meditative words. All are welcome.

St. John the Baptist’s Church:  210 West 31^st Street.

Public Plaza World Wide Plaza

World Wide Plaza Public Plaza

 Mid-block on West 49^th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, on the site of the old Madison Square Garden, is a large urban space located between World Wide Plaza One and Two, commercial and residential towers respectfully.  

The park has over 40 trees including 20 Japanese Zelkovas, and 16 Honey locusts. There is large fountain called The Four Seasons designed by the late sculptor Sidney Simon. Four female statues hold up a huge globe. There are over one hundred moveable chairs and tables. The plaza has tworestaurants. It is accessible from 49^th and 50^th Streets. It is spacious and a great place to enjoy blue-sky days.

World Wide Plaza Park – mid block 49-50^th Streets west of Eighth Avenue.

Urban Space Eventi

Eventi Urban Space

Behind the luxury high-rise Eventi Hotel Chelsea you will find a long urban plaza. The space, part of the hotel, is open to the public. Built in a minimalist style it has a reflecting pool, 2 weeping European Birch and 15 Honey Locust trees. There are 55 moveable chairs and tables. Brighton Food, a beach-themed food court, connects to the plaza. What makes this space special is the 20-foot wide TV screen attached to the west wall high above the space. All major sporting and awards shows are shown.

Eventi: 851 Avenue of the Americas between 29 & 30^th Streets.

Try this great city APP -  NYC Open Spaces - an easy way to find an ideal outdoor or indoor public  space. Free! Available on iPhone, iPod touch iPad.

Photos by Rudi Papiri