Hi all,

Went to the Neue Galerie and ate at Cafe Sabarsky; the first recommended by my high school buddy, Deborah Mann, and the second by restauranteur Michael Wild (Baywolf). Fortunate that they are in the same building. The Neue was having an amazing exhibition of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's character head sculptures. They looked so contemporary, but Messerschmidt was alive and producing in the 18th century. John Yau says Arneson loved Messerschmidt and we can see why. Cafe Sabarsky served a lovely lunch, but nothing to touch the Double Duck dinner at BayWolf we had the night before we left. Those of you living within driving distance of Oakland should not miss going to at least one of these. They are fabulous!! A yearly event, end of September.

Also saw the Matisse show at MOMA; skipped Big Bambu at the Met as our ex-son-in-law, Kevin Rowell, has been building mammoth bamboo sculptures all over this land and in some foreign lands for years. (That is before he started helping on the Haiti reconstruction efforts.) They look just as awesome as the pics we have seen of the Starn twins' structure, but that is good that the Starns are jumping on the bamboo wagon. Also walked to the Asia Society, but we skipped the Yoshitomo Nara exhibit. Not our favorite.





































Era with Guardian

Saturday evening was unwholesomely hot and humid. We walked through Times Square, which was crowded with fevered people who seemed to be barely moving. We did snap this Where's Waldo type picture of a giant billboard of the crowd. (picture taken another cooler evening)


We are standing at a small round table, close to a woman sporting a bright red jacket. Or right above where life.forever appears.





































Unidentified tourist, getting into the spirit of the good ol' USA.

Had dinner at John Yau and Eve Aschheim's house. These generous friends have had us over for dinner almost every trip we have taken to NY. Poor John cooked in that heat while Eve de-loused the head of a neighbor child. As the Japanese say, Thank you for exhausting yourselves.





































John, daughter Cerise, and new dog Charlie. Eve upstairs de-lousing a neighbor kid.

We mentioned our ex-son-in-law, and yesterday morning we got an email from Kevin in response to the travel blog you all received. He was in NY for 1 day, meeting with people from the Rockefeller Foundation and the UN, fundraising for the re-construction efforts in Haiti. He and some other good people are putting together a program which will teach people in the Haitian community to build both sustainably and safely.


We had a great dinner with Kevin and our lovely niece Kate Hamaji, also working for a non-profit. Very fun!


We just about did it all (actually that's impossible to do in NY in less than a week), but did not manage to meet with artist Katarina Wong, fortunately we will see her in Stockholm. Also couldn't meet this trip with my cousin's daughter, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, who is now a prize-winning author, but we'll probably see her in the Bay Area when she goes on her book tour. She has written a book on Hiroshima. She interviewed my mom for it, and Rahna said Mom figures prominently in it, so I am excited to read it.

Now at JFK, waiting to catch a Singapore Airline flight to Frankfurt. (Now sending from Frankfurt).

Love to all,

Era and Don

Hi friends and family,

Everything going smoothly here, although it is still quite hot and humid. Many NY'ers walking around in short shorts and flip flops.

Arrived very late Tuesday evening. Wednesday had a very good meeting with Chuck Close at his studio. Some promising projects and new ideas. Got a tour of Chuck's apartment and tasted some delicious Sweet 100 baby tomatoes he is growing on his rooftop deck. Lunch at Chuck's studio; delicious sandwiches from The Smile. The executive chef is Melia Marden, Brice Marden's daughter. Keep it in the family.

We met two lovely women at Chuck's Studio, one being the president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund. She's a very attractive and pleasant woman named Cecile Richards, who is also the daughter of Ann Richards, former governor of Texas. They loved the tapestries hanging in Chuck's studio.

Went to the Rubin that afternoon; we were pleasantly surprised to run into Tsherin Sherpa, a Tibetan artist who lives in Oakland and visited Magnolia along with Katie De Tilly, Hung Liu's Hong Kong dealer, and Gonkar Gyatso, an artist who shows at Katie's gallery, 10 Chancery Lane. Tsherin Sherpa and  Gonkar Gyatso  are currently in a very interesting show at the Rubin called Tradition Transformed. All the artists are living Tibetan artists and looking at Tibetan imagery from a contemporary or Western perspective. Two of the artists, Losang Gyatso and Tenzing Rigdol, have works in The Missing Peace. Tsherin Sherpa gave a talk, which Don and I crashed, to a group of students from The New School. He spoke about his struggles and doubts while learning traditional thangka painting and then breaking with tradition. He is a lovely man with an open-hearted demeanor.

Tsherin said that he tries to paint happy paintings, and that is always his original intent, but somehow they all end up being dark. He got a sympathetic chuckle from the audience.


Tsherin Sherpa at the Rubin. We love his deities in gas masks. We were stopped from taking pictures by museum officials.

We're staying in Brooklyn and took a walk Thursday thru Prospect Park. Don't know if you heard about the tornadoes which ripped through Brooklyn and the Bronx about a week ago, but the devastation was shocking. So many stately old trees blown over. Paul Discoe, our daughter, Marisha, or many of our environmentally active friends would know what to do with these trees. I hope they're not wasted.



Broken Tree, Prospect Park, Brooklyn

Finally arrived at the Brooklyn Museum after walking in circles and dodging fallen trees. Loved this stained glass gypsy carriage in their lobby. Reminded me of Romania.


That evening we went to Thierry Despont's opening at Marlborough Gallery on 57th Street. Magnolia had produced 9 mammoth tapestries for Thierry. They looked stunning against Marlborough's gigantic walls. The whole effect was otherworldly. I'm afraid our pics of the opening are not great.


Era, Thierry Despont and unidentified art lover at Marlborough



More later; Love,

Era and Don