Rambling on 2 - the 24 hour saga continued - RTC Meeting ends, Hitting the Museums - Morgan and Met

I began my report on an interesting 24 hour period with the Retired Teacher Chapter meeting on Tuesday which ended at 5:20.

• Rambling on - A Packed 24 hours + - Here's the first 4 hours - UFT Retiree meeting, ICE comes alive, Marianne videos expose Mulgrew

Surviving almost two hours of Mulgrew and Murphy, I needed fresh air. There was a segment on how seniors can avoid scams right after Mulgrew spoke and took questions. The presentation didn't include how to avoid the Mulgrew/Murphy healthcare scam. Luckily Marianne broke down the Mulgrew lies with 4 videos that add up to almost an hour --- it took an hour to debunk Mulgrew. To set the stage:

Mulgrew: I believe in democracy 

Marianne: Laughs out loud.

part 1: https://youtu.be/EzZKIwXrHFY?si=LVNE1iEMVEhrB6w2

part 2: https://youtu.be/dh5XkmWCaq8?si=QILNxZbcTzzEtQwR

part 3: https://youtu.be/dNXSP4khKDc?si=bVsSaqj37-MonlPT

Part 4: https://youtu.be/GjYf8WTX4SM?si=LrU2BIrK9c02gv0X

I needed to wash off the propaganda so I headed uptown where I had two conflicting events at 6. Oh the choices. 

One was the tree lighting at Bryant Park winter village with entertainment and watching professional ice skating.

The other was a members' invitation to the Morgan library for a two hour special tour of various exhibits with an expert talking about each one. I chose the latter.

Lots about Gutenberg and the bibles and also some great stuff about books on nature from 500 years ago. Morgan is a great museum and only a few blocks from my place so I go often.

The Morgan

 

Then off to one of my favorite diners - Murray Hill Diner on 33rd and Lex. Soup and sandwich - but no rice pudding.

On way back to my apartment I passed a storefront with about 20 women doing what looked like yoga but on some machine - I went in to talk to the young lady in charge and she said it was Pilotes. Do any men take this class? One guy was in there. I told her ti do hot yoga and she slapped me 5. I may try it one day -- with women who could be my grandkids.

The Met

I had to get up early on Wednesday for a press event at The Met for their upcoming exhibits this year. I love these events and they serve breakfast. And best of all the museum is closed on Wednesdays so imagine empty galleries. They introduced the upcoming exhibits (see below) but also after the program was done we had the opportunity to explore the newly opened European painting gallery until noon. I wish I had read this article before but I had fun just roaming around. I will go back. Read this before you go: 

700 Paintings, 45 Galleries: A Guide to the Met's New ...

The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com › Arts › Art & Design

Nov 24, 2023 — 700 Paintings, 45 Galleries: A Guide to the Met's New European Wing.

 

Shortbread cookies

entry to European painting

My new girlfriend

And an opera

 

For Immediate Release Exhibitions

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces Exhibition Program for Winter and Spring 2024 Highlights include The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism (opening February 25); Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance (opening April 2); and Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion (opening May 10) The Museum also revealed the artists for the 2024 commissions series: Petrit Halilaj will present a site-specific installation for the Museum’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden; Lee Bul will create sculptures for The Met’s Fifth Avenue facade; and Tong Yang-Tze will create two monumental works of Chinese calligraphy for The Met’s Great Hall

(New York, November 30, 2023)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced its schedule of exhibitions and programming that will activate the Museum’s galleries and featured architectural spaces in the coming months. “The Met’s upcoming season will offer dazzling presentations of art from the ancient times to the present day and reflect the breathtaking scope of human creativity through new scholarship, commissions, and groundbreaking exhibition displays,” said Max Hollein, the Museum’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “We are excited for audiences to visit and take part in this thrilling next chapter of our programming.” Winter highlights include Women Dressing Women (opening December 7), a timely exploration of the creativity and artistic legacy of women fashion designers; Don’t Forget to Call Your Mother (opening December 18), examining how artists use family photographs and archival material to reflect on the complicated feelings of nostalgia and sentimentality; Cycladic Art: The Leonard N. Stern Collection on Loan from the Hellenic Republic (opening January 25), a landmark international loan exhibition presenting 161 Early Bronze Age sculptures from the esteemed private collection; Vision and Verse: The Poetry of Chinese Painting (opening February 3), exploring the interconnection of painting and poetry in Chinese culture; Indian Skies: The Howard Hodgkin Collection of Indian Court Painting (opening February 6), presenting the Museum’s recent acquisition of Indian paintings from the 16th to the 19th century from the collection of artist Howard Hodgkin; and The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism (opening February 25), a groundbreaking exhibition exploring the comprehensive and far-reaching ways in which Black artists portrayed everyday modern life in the 1920s–40s in New York City’s Harlem and nationwide. In the spring, The Met will present Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art (opening March 5), analyzing the striking connections between textile artists of the ancient Andes and artists of the 20th century; The Art of the Literary Poster: Works from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection (opening March 7), introducing audiences to a subgenre of posters from the 1890s publicizing magazines, journals, books, and other types of literature; The Real Thing: Unpackaging Product Photography (opening March 11), illustrating how commercial camerawork contributed to the visual language of modernism; Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance (opening April 2), the first exhibition to examine the Renaissance tradition of multisided portraits in which the sitter’s likeness was concealed behind hinged or sliding covers; Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion (opening May 10), reactivating the sensory capacities of masterworks in the Museum’s Costume Institute collection through first-hand research, conservation analysis, and diverse technologies; and Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co. (opening June 9), displaying the work of the silversmith for Tiffany & Co. alongside his expansive personal collection of global decorative arts, which inspired his creations. The Met also announced new artist commissions for the 2024 season. Petrit Halilaj will present a site-specific installation for the Museum’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden (April 29); Lee Bul will create four sculptures for the niches of The Met’s Fifth Avenue facade (September 12); and Tong Yang-Tze will create two monumental works of Chinese calligraphy for The Met’s Great Hall (November 21). Programmatic highlights include a series of talks about cultural heritage sites in Africa, Oceania, and the Americas presented in partnership with World Monuments Fund and leading up to the reopening of the reenvisioned Michael C. Rockefeller Wing in 2025, as well as the return of two popular celebrations—Lunar New Year (February 3) and Teens Take The Met! (May 13). The Museum also previewed its winter MetLiveArts season, which will include the world premiere of Handel: Made in America (February 15 and 16), a new work written and performed by Terrance McKnight with opera stars Davóne Tines, J'Nai Bridges, and Noah Stewart. Visitors arriving at The Met during the current season can explore the must-see exhibitions Manet/Degas (through January 7) and Africa & Byzantium (through March 3) as well as Look Again: European Paintings 1300–1800, the renovated suite of 45 permanent collection galleries situated atop the Great Hall stairs. Through January 2024, The Met’s holiday season is in full swing with comprehensive festivities at both The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters, including beloved annual displays and seasonal dining and shopping opportunities. ### November 30, 2023 Contact: Communications@metmuseum.org

 

I got the ferries back to Rockaway Wed afternoon. 24 hour away and it felt like a week.

-------

News Update: So what's a little mistake? Or was it a mistake if you are a conspiracy theorist?

The New York Times reports on how Israel knew about the Hamas plan a year ahead and did nothing. Not exactly nothing. Bibi actually withdrew forces and sent them to the West Bank to protect the murderous settlers. If I were a conspiracy theorist I might say the attack is exactly what he wanted as an excuse to destroy Gaza.

The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named 'Jericho Wall,' outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people. ...

Then, in July, just three months before the attacks, a veteran analyst with Unit 8200, Israel's signals intelligence agency, warned that Hamas had conducted an intense, daylong training exercise that appeared similar to what was outlined in the blueprint.

But a colonel in the Gaza division brushed off her concerns, according to encrypted emails viewed by The Times.

 For the pro-Putin crowd:

Russian Supreme Court Bans the 'International LGBT Public Movement' Activists are advising "LGBTQ+ Russians to flee the country, and call[ing] on international rights organizations to help people from those groups find refuge outside Russia." via the Washington Post and the Guardian.