Tag Archives: american culture

Homage to Hammer’s Dairy Restaurant

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    So many of our memories involve food and this one is no different. This is Steven Hammer, my classmate, a sweet little second grader with red hair. His dad was Bill Hammer, and the Hammer family owned Hammer’s, the dairy restaurant at 243 East 14th Street, off Second Avenue. I don’t think we were in any other classes together, having consulted my stack of class photos, but for some reason, I remember his face so clearly, a seven year old. It was 1955-1956. The class was taught by a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Marion Oppenheimer, who later left to … Continue reading →

A Visit to The New-York Historical Society Brings Me Back to the 1960s

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Visiting day, on the banks of The Hudson River, the early 1960s, St. George’s Camp. I am on the lower right   A visit to The New-York Historical Society brought back some very specific thoughts and memories. When I attended camp I never realized the history of the river where my camp was located. I had vague knowledge of the Indians who had lived on the shores centuries ago: I found a piece of a jaw on the shore replete with a molar. We would find fossil arrow heads. Small bones. The counselors would take them. There was life here, … Continue reading →

Steller Story Series: A Charmed Life: Book 10: The Bio Bracelet

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  I have been photographing—and re-photographing my collection and designs; so this is a multi-faceted project: one project, the collecting, then the designing, begat another; the photography and presentation. Here is a link to the on-line presentation on Steller. If you are so inclined, download the Steller app. It is lovely the way the pages “turn.” The view is especially impressive on a large screen, as on a tablet. Feel free to comment!   Steller Link: Book 10    

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Steller Story Series: A Charmed Life: Book 9: ‘Twas a Marriage Made in Heaven …

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I have been photographing—and re-photographing my collection and designs; so this is a multi-faceted project: one project, the collecting, then the designing, begat another; the photography and presentation. Here is a link to the on-line presentation on Steller. If you are so inclined, download the Steller app. It is lovely the way the pages “turn.” The view is especially impressive on a large screen, as on a tablet. Feel free to comment!   Steller Link: Book 9  

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Sex and Power. Don’t Blame The Victim

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  Folks, we are living in strange times. Actually, all times have been strange since the very beginning, but the fact that we are living in these times make this our strange reality. Let me take you back to the 1960s. I graduated from high school in 1966. The times they were a-changing. It was about twenty short years since a horrific war. Some of us went home after school to a Betty Crocker existence. Some went home to an empty house and wore keys on strings around our necks because our mothers had to work. Some of us went on … Continue reading →

What Just Freaking Happened? leading to …137. Mother-Daughter Journey

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  This has been a wacky few weeks. As I mentioned, I was giving an on-line iPhone photography course (they call it a workshop, but the amount of time and work that went into it could have gotten me tenure at a university) so I was on-line posting and creating and helping, and researching. And migraining. It was an awful month for migraines, just about a daily event of one kind or another, and I do think I mentioned about the violent vertigo attack; these scare the crap out of me. I try to live, if I can in between … Continue reading →

Need A Laugh?

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    Hello, all, and a happy Monday to you. I have been missing in action, I apologize! Into the second week of a photography workshop I am giving (and loving it). A friend directed me to the following Saturday Night Live segment. I think you will enjoy this. Maybe I should get an Alexa for my mother, and rename it Moishe. I just need the “uh huh, uh huh, uh huh factor, and the ability to turn down the thermostat when the heat is on—in JUNE!

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On Passion

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  I am a member of an on-line group via facebook where the members, who live all over the world, have studied iPhone Photography. We have decided to carry on. In doing so, we work in teams and bring a monthly workshop to the group. I volunteered and in January began thinking about what I wanted to do. The group is largely based on group validations, some constructive criticism, and ego. We all want to be good, we all want to be recognized, but when learning a craft, there is more. We have to explore those who have come before … Continue reading →

On David Bowie, Mercury in Retrograde, and Vertigo

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  OK, kids, life has been strangely quiet on the mother-front. I think this Mercury in Retrograde has had the opposite effect of the usual; it sometimes brings issues to a head and aids in their solving. SO FAR the only electronic issues I have had were: 1. missing a phone call—a spam call came through while the museum restaurant was calling to offer a table, causing me to miss the call from the restaurant, and 2. one of my Verizon Fi-Os set top boxes got stuck in a flashing light loop indicating it missed an update and tech support … Continue reading →

112: Mother-Daughter Journey: Diversion

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What better thing to do on Christmas day? A blog, of course. A Merry Christmas to all! As I was drinking my coffee this morning I was thinking of writing about some of my diversions. You see, when one is under stress, one needs diversions. Those of us who are “creative” can escape for a while into our own heads while the world around us spins. I know the spin well: it leads to vertigo, anxiety, migraines. I am learning to hold in less, speak up more and live in the moment. Sometimes. One of my biggest fears is the … Continue reading →

Saturday Rant: Something is Rotten in the State of …

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  Brazil’s Largest Food Companies Raided in Tainted Meat Scandal Read about it here.     We are all connected… As the world turns. Should we be surprised by corruption in the Brazilian meat-packing industry? We’ve seen it here ourselves many years ago when Upton Sinclair’s book revealed the industry’s atrocities and shocked us into new federal food safety laws. The sad thing is that the tainted meat in Brazil was destined to be the lunches of school children. But, take a look…China and their scandals, some of which include lead paint in toys, melamine poisoned milk and baby formula… … Continue reading →

Song In My Head Tuesday: The Band

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I switched on PBS the other night and fell into some nostalgic reverie. After that I have been unable to get the song, “It Makes No Difference” out of my head. (see video at 10:42) Call it post-election-funk, or disbelief each time I read the newspaper at the state of this world. I do believe we are going through a strange period in history and I do believe that even knowing and understanding history is not changing anything in the present. So, I pack my mental bags and leave to my sci-fi fantasy world which includes: Westworld, Orphan Black, Game … Continue reading →

NYC Photo Journal: From the Whitney to The Highline: Spring in December + Contest Wins

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Hello and Happy New Year! The first nice thing I can report is that the above photo which was one of thirty in a weekly contest held by the iPhonePhotoAcademy, was also one of one hundred in the annual contest: (click link>>) The 100 Best iPhone Photos Of 2015 The second thing is that I just found out this morning that another photo, also in the architecture domain, was chosen for The iPhone Academy on-line magazine. You can view it here>>>: 10 Essential Design Elements To Improve Your iPhone Architecture Photography       On to business. New York City … Continue reading →

NYC Photo Journal: The Process of Processing

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    Telling a story. The process of processing. Getting drawn into the world of the captured. I have always loved street photography, the candid, and the other worlds of others. I do this as a blogger, incorporating where I go and what I see into a world for the viewer. Recently at the Museum of the City of New York I saw an exhibit of Jacob Riis’s heart-gripping photography from the late 1800s and on. Riis was so taken by the way the poor lived–rather existed– in the city that he was compelled to photograph every example he could. … Continue reading →

NYC Photo Journal: I Guess I’ve Been Busy: BKLYN/OHNY/Kings Theatre, East Midwood

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This is me multitasking: notice how I can take a selfie of my selfies at the same time   So, kids during my hiatus I have been caring for my mother’s issues, caring for my own issues, taking a lot of iPhone photos, doing a little playing: I’ve watched up to Season 5 of Game of Thrones, and everything but the final six or so episodes of Season 7 of Mad Men; I’ll be sorry to see these series end. As for movies; I loved Learning to Drive, I liked 99 Homes, saw a few plays at MTC (Manhattan Theater … Continue reading →

NYC Photo Journal: A Return to The Brooklyn Museum: Wiley, Basquiat

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  One of my favorite places is The Brooklyn Museum. I caught two current exhibits by black male artists. Kehinde Wiley (Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic, at the Brooklyn Museum) Born in 1977, Wiley studied the old master painters; he embedded black hip-hop portraiture into the framework of the old to create the new. The backgrounds, redolent of kitschy wallpaper backgrounds from old Catskill Mountain hotels, the culture of the past is imbibed with that of the present in huge works. Colors are bright, vibrant, somewhat garish. The subjects rarely look directly at the viewer, most are presented three-quarter face, … Continue reading →

Review: Constellations: Pole Dancing in the Parallel Universe

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  Last Sunday emanated from a parallel Universe. Show tickets, the decision to drive to a specific train which had a stop near the theater. The transit website said, “no delays.” Arriving at the train proved otherwise, in fact it seems always to prove otherwise when the site indicates no problems. The platform was mobbed and a train was going out of service. As the clock ticks toward the curtain going up I have to calm myself down. It is either traffic or trains, in New York City you picks your poison. Finally an E train is rerouted around the … Continue reading →

NYC Photo Journal: November: A Month of Back-Blogs (part 3)

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The New-York Historical Society New-York Historical Society 170 Central Park West at Richard Gilder Way (77th Street) New York, NY 10024 Phone (212) 873-3400     I was able to catch several fascinating exhibits:   A Brief History of New York: Selections from A History of New York in 101 Objects; Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage: “Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage charts a new direction for one of America’s best-known living photographers. Unlike her staged and carefully lit portraits made on assignment for magazines and advertising clients, the photographs in this exhibition were taken simply because Leibovitz was moved by the subject. The images … Continue reading →