A week ago today, Wednesday, we were coming up here with the two dogs and what

has turned out to be a very persistent head cold but two weeks ago today we woke in Queens,

another New York Day, which appeared warm from inside but according to Ivana was,

returning from Pip’s walk, “almost gloves”.  We found that the nearby 7 Train conveniently terminated at Hudson Yards, where an immensity of construction is going on above

[and down into] Chelsea.  Below 30th the art got pretty rewarding with,

at Paul Kasmin’s several locations, a small well-curated David Hockney drawing show spanning decades [not shown], major Lee Krasner paintings and Bosco Soldi’s modular terra cotta towers

while outside the crazy construction [including but not limited to swooping Zaha Hadid condos]

continued.  Things we saw; Lee Mullican’s vintage California pyschedelia avant le lettre

at James Cohan [and a MOST significant discovery; restrooms behind a downstairs Starbucks!]

Donald Baechler still Donald Baechler after all these years at Cheim and Reid;

Brian Fahlstrom, a heretofore unknown-to-me Californian, whose work somehow evoked

Neo Rauch – Germainic but terrific – at Marlborough…then a really smart two-person exhibit of Roy Dowell and Richard Kalina [not shown, more geometric] at Lennon Weinberg.

Above, The High Line, natch, and, below, an amazing “discovery” for us was Anna Conway

at Fergus McCaffery,whose spooky landscapes and interiors were a bit reminiscent

of Blade Runner 2049…

Ziggurats from the Estate of General Idea at Mitchell Innes and Nash;

Down the street Pace presented a massively stunning Elizabeth Murray show;

On a last lap onto 26th we saw another really interesting pairing,

Pepe Prieto and Dean Monogenis at Bryce Wolkowitz, before we hit

the Big One, Gagosian’s “LA Invitational”, with barely time to check in on Frank Gehry plus

the late Chris Burden’s little flotilla of self-driving [one of ‘em anyway] sailboats before lunch.

All of which made us want to come back, but we were due to meet Linda’s dear friend and former colleague Lydia for crazily good Korean food at Barn Joo, where the stories kept us

into late afternoon, followed by a visit to an old friend of mine from earliest New Haven days, not seen since Elm Street 1965 except for the dinner last night, at his classic Greenwich Village

carriage house before the rush hour crush back to L.I.C. for dinner [finally!] with Ivana plus Luz and Izel at Manducati’s, the legendary Dick Bellamy’s favorite neighborhood restaurant which

was even more old school Italian than the daughter’s Manducati Rustica two blocks west where we’d eaten just – though it seemed much longer ago – the night before.

Thursday more bright sun, warmer sun…

again the 7 Train and

an uptown express to 125th

seeking David Eicholz at the David Richard gallery’s new New York outpost where after wide-ranging and not entirely focused conversations we extricated ourselves to venture south

to the Whitney, lunch with Christine,

and an all too brief brief tour of the Jimmie Durham exhibit, which had some amazing videos.

Pressed as ever for time we managed a little Laura Owen [below, not typical, though none of her work is “typical”] on our run out into the rush hour crush [yet again] to connect

with Stephen Hendrickson for a tour of his “Good Fight” law offices and courtroom sets just across the Pulaski  Bridge, back with just enough time to buy wine, clean up and make it

to Brooklyn Heights where, emerging disoriented, we found Luz, Christine and Izel exiting from the same A, all looking for Sarah’s apartment and our dinner there. Once the kids were gone we stayed late, talking about Sarah’s project in Venice with Lynn Kirby last summer as well as

plans afoot for continuing higher education when her son goes off to college next year.  Late again, finally calling a car, the Heights of Brooklyn being quite a ways from L.I.C. as it turns out…

more anon…