We had arranged to meet Suzanne and Gary for dinner. They are closing up their house in the country and will be moving back to the city. We don't get to see them very often when they leave the Hudson Valley. Il Cenàcolo is usually a terrific restaurant. It seemed somewhat off this time, the truffle pasta, though good was a bit overcooked and somewhat stuck together, Gary and Suzanne seemed to like it, but then they never had it before. The langoustines were excellent. I ordered sweetbreads and had to send them back. I gave Suzanne a taste, and she agreed with me that they were very tough and seemed overcooked. After talking to the waitress, who was quite nice, that it was either or a combination of the purveyor and not being trimmed correctly, and the cooking was an issue as well. The snow peas that came with all the dishes were hard to eat because the strings hadn't been removed. Cathy and I thought that because it was a Sunday, and possibly that the regular chef was not there, this might explain the problems. Although I assumed I had been there on some other Sunday, we hadn't been there for quite some time and will come back at some point. Hopefully, the issue is not because the restaurant is not as good as it used to be. I did order Red Snapper to replace the sweetbreads, and it was quite good.]]> Steven Holl performed a Shinto like a ceremony to inaugurate the building site. He blew a huge horn for a groundbreaking, even though the ground had already been broken and the slab poured. Steven's daughter blew a little toy trumpet for the ceremony. Someone tried to put a robe over her shoulders as well, but she kept shrugging it off. The second part of the ceremony consisted of Steven pouring salt in all the corners of the slab. The salt was to "protect" the framing to that was next to be done. I usually have a nice time at the ‘T’ Space openings. On my way home, I realized something about the event left me with a sadness.]]> This was near the end of dinner, quite spread from the front opening of the tent back through the rest of the tables. That was because there was a dancer dancing just outside the tent entrance. We all stood up to be able to watch. After dancing for a while the dancer moved to the right and took a little while for the people sitting at the entrance to realize they were supposed to follow the dancer. She led us, like a parade, to the poured concrete slab for the new building. She continued to dance for a while on the slab. See the previous five entries and the following entry.]]> This is the table where I sat. Lunch was pretty good. We had roasted carrots, roasted squash, potatoes, au gratin, and quiche. See the previous four entries and the following two entries.]]> This is the table where I sat. Lunch was pretty good. We had roasted carrots, roasted squash, potatoes au gratin, and quiche. See the previous three entries and the following three entries.]]> As I was finding a place to sit, I chatted for a moment with these three people. These are the people who led me to the tent. See the previous two entries and the following four entries.]]> When I first arrived, I was directed towards the small gallery where the models and drawings for the new building were located. When I left the building, I had no idea where to go. I asked some other people if they had any idea which way to go, and a man who introduced himself as Nick (Nicholas Karytinos) indicated that I should follow him and his friends. When we got to the lunch tent, everyone was standing around talking and nibbling. I talked with some people and thought I had done better in collecting people's names who I photographed than I actually had. As you can see from the previous entry, I didn't do that so well. See the previous entry and the following five entries.]]> Catherine (Murphy) was supposed to go with me, but she decided to stay home and work. The event was at T2 Reserve, which is ‘T’ Space's second and newer space/place down the road from the original site. There is a small gallery building on this site. In it was an exhibition of the drawings and models of Steven Holl for a new building that will be built on this site. Lunch was served in a heated tent. It turns out that I didn't know anyone there except for Steven Holl, Susan Wides, and Jim Holl. I was about to sit down at lunch when a group of people came to the same end of the table. I asked them if they wanted me to move, which one woman said yes and pointed down further to the middle of the table. I realized I didn't want to move there because of my vantage point in photographing the people of the table at which I was seated. So I said, "Sorry, I think I will sit here after all." That might explain why the man sitting opposite me, seemed uninterested in talking to me and answered my attempts at conversation with as short answers as possible. The woman on the right of me was much friendlier, as was the woman next to her. Near the end of eating lunch, quiet spread from the front opening of the tent back to the rest of the tables. Those of us further from the front of the tent were slow to realize that there was a dancer outside the tent entrance. We all stood up to watch the dancer. As the dance was ending, the dancer disappeared to the right. It took a few minutes for everyone to realize that she was leading us up the path, and we followed. She led us to a concrete pad that will be the foundation for the new building. See the following six entries.]]> Billy called that morning to see if Cathy and I could meet for lunch at the Palace dumpling. We said we could. Simon was here working, so when we left, he worked on recording phone messages for this site. Palace Dumpling never served ice cream before. They had two kinds, green tea ice cream and black sesame seed ice cream, which they got from an ice cream place near where Cathy and I live. The food was, as always, very good, and the ice cream was a wonderful surprise.]]> Ralph Arylick and Elizabeth Cardonne Arylick thought we might be interested in seeing this theater piece. We met for dinner at Osaka in Tivoli (see last entry) and then headed to Bard. The production was in the LUMA Theater. Andrew Schneider and Company were in residence at Bard and worked on this piece, and we were told by I presume Andrew Schneider at the beginning of the production that this was a work in progress. There was a question and answer session after the production, but Catherine (Murphy) and I didn't stay for it. There were some really beautiful aspects of the production. They did some terrific things with time. Because they used a lot of bright lights going to black many times, it was hard on one's eyes.]]> Thursday evening, Catherine (Murphy) and I headed down to NYC for an opening and dinner. We stayed overnight and headed from NYC straight to New Paltz for dinner. We all met at A Tavola. See the previous two entries.]]> We spent the night of the 13th in NYC. Today we saw a number of exhibitions before heading to New Paltz for dinner. We ran into Susanna Coffey at Jacqueline's show. See the following entry.]]> We spent the night of the 13th in NYC. On the 14th, we saw a number of exhibitions before heading to New Paltz for dinner. We ran into Robin Hill at Stephen's show. The opening for this show happened that evening. See the next two entries.]]> I taught my first two classes at Vassar and then headed home, skipping computer animation, which Tom Ellman taught by himself. Cathy and I headed to NYC in time to get to the Thomas Schütte opening. After the opening, we went to a dinner. Dinner was at Lafayette, a French restaurant, Downtown Manhattan. Catherine (Murphy) sat next to ?. To her left was Jayne Johnson. To her right was ?. See the previous four entries.]]> I taught my first two classes at Vassar and then headed home, skipping computer animation, which Tom Ellman taught by himself. Cathy and I headed to NYC in time to get to the Thomas Schütte opening. After the opening, we went to a dinner. Dinner was at Lafayette, a French restaurant, Downtown Manhattan. This photograph is of the people who sat at the same table as me. Anne and Thomas sat down after I took the first photograph. See the previous three entries and the following entry.]]> I taught my first two classes at Vassar and then headed home, skipping computer animation, which Tom Ellman taught by himself. Cathy and I headed to NYC in time to get to the Thomas Schütte opening. After the opening, we went to a dinner. Dinner was at Lafayette, a French restaurant, Downtown Manhattan. This photograph is of the people who sat at the same table as me. See the previous two entries and the following two entries.]]> I taught my first two classes at Vassar and then headed home, skipping computer animation, which Tom Ellman taught by himself. Cathy and I headed to NYC in time to get to the Thomas Schütte opening. After the opening, we went to a dinner. See the previous entry and the following three entries.]]> I taught my first two classes at Vassar and then headed home, skipping computer animation, which Tom Ellman taught by himself. Cathy and I headed to NYC in time to get to the Thomas Schütte opening. After the opening, we went to a dinner. See the following four entries.]]> Bi-monthly Majors and Correlates Group Critique. See the previous four entries.]]> Bi-monthly Majors and Correlates Group Critique. See the previous three entries and the following entry.]]> Bi-monthly Majors and Correlates Group Critique. See the previous two entries and the following two entries.]]> Bi-monthly Majors and Correlates Group Critique. See the previous entry and the following three entries.]]> Convocation was scheduled to end at 5 pm, so we decided to have a studio faculty meeting at about 5, and then start the critique at 5:30. I got to the meeting at 5:23. See the following four entries.]]> We headed down to NYC in the morning so we could get to Davis and Langdale by around 12:30. I wanted to document the gallery because Cecily was planning to close it soon and would sell the building. I have been showing my work there since the 1970s. We then went to Sant Ambroeus (Madison and 77th) for a late lunch. After lunch/dinner, we headed to the Lower Eastside for Rackstraw's opening. At Tibor de Nagy (which shares a space with The Betty Cunningham Gallery), there was a show opening of John Ashbery's collages. See the previous four entries.]]> We headed down to NYC in the morning so we could get to Davis and Langdale by around 12:30. I wanted to document the gallery because Cecily was planning to close it soon and would sell the building. I have been showing my work there since the 1970s. We then went to Sant Ambroeus (Madison and 77th) for a late lunch. After lunch/dinner, we headed to the Lower Eastside for Rackstraw's opening. At Tibor de Nagy (which shares a space with The Betty Cunningham Gallery), there was a show opening of John Ashbery's collages. See the following three entries and the following entry.]]> We headed down to NYC in the morning so we could get to Davis and Langdale by around 12:30. I wanted to document the gallery because Cecily was planning to close it soon and would sell the building. I have been showing my work there since the 1970s. We then went to Sant Ambroeus (Madison and 77th) for a late lunch. After lunch/dinner, we headed to the Lower Eastside for Rackstraw's opening. At Tibor de Nagy (which shares a space with The Betty Cunningham Gallery), there was a show opening of John Ashbery's collages. See the previous two entries and the following two entries.]]> We headed down to NYC in the morning so we could get to Davis and Langdale by around 12:30. I wanted to document the gallery because Cecily was planning to close it soon and would sell the building. I have been showing my work there since the 1970s. We then went to Sant Ambroeus (Madison and 77th) for a late lunch. After lunch/dinner, we headed to the Lower Eastside for Rackstraw's opening. At Tibor de Nagy (which shares a space with The Betty Cunningham Gallery), there was a show opening of John Ashbery's collages. See the previous entry and the following three entries.]]> We headed down to NYC in the morning so we could get to Davis and Langdale by around 12:30. I wanted to document the gallery because Cecily was planning to close it soon and would sell the building. I have been showing my work there since the 1970s. We then went to Sant Ambroeus (Madison and 77th) for a late lunch. After lunch/dinner, we headed to the Lower Eastside for Rackstraw's opening. At Tibor de Nagy (which shares a space with The Betty Cunningham Gallery), there was a show opening of John Ashbery's collages. See the following four entries.]]> We went down to NYC so I could photograph the gallery (Davis and Langdale) before it closed for good. After we went out for a midday meal, we went to Rackstraw Downes' opening at The Betty Cunningham Gallery. See the next five entries.]]> The first art department meeting of the 2018 school year. Susan Kuresky and Nicholas Adams retired at the end of last year. Andrew Tallon is ill. Peter Charlap and Gina Ruggeri couldn't make it to the meeting. See the previous entry.]]> This was the first art department meeting of the 2018 school year. Susan Kuresky and Nicholas Adams retired at the end of last year. Andrew Tallon is ill. Peter Charlap and Gina Ruggeri couldn't make it to the meeting. This was the first meeting of the year and Lisa's first year as chair. It was also about 1,000 degrees. Lisa brought watermelon water for the department. It was quite refreshing. See the following entry.]]> Catherine (Murphy) and I ran into Dede Leiber and her grand children at the Rhinebeck farmers market.]]> Gary and Suzanne recently moved back to Stone Ridge for the summer. We had been trying for a few days to work out a day to meet up for dinner. We were all glad to work this out and go to Mercato Osteria Enoteca (which we all love). As usual, we had a terrific time and constant conversation including the nature of surrealism in relationship to Richard Serra's take on it. Part of this revolved around Richard Serra's assertion that Donald Judd was a surrealist, because of his use of concealment.]]> The four of us went to Hudson to the Jeff Bailey Gallery to see Erik Schoonebeek show. In addition to Erik's show, we saw a quite good exhibition of a young painter named Louis Fratino. Then we headed to The Corner in Tivoli, NY for dinner. See the previous entry.]]> Tom, Joyce, Cathy, and I met up at Jeff Bailey's Gallery to see Erik Schoonebeek's show. After this, we went out to dinner. See the next entry.]]> The Barrington Stage Company debuted Billy's (William Finn) new musical at the Boyd-Quinn MainStage theater. We had seen earlier versions of the show some years ago, and the changes, new production, and casting are terrific. We got to Pittsfield in time to check into our hotel, Hotel on North, before the performance. It was a three-year-old hotel that is less than a block from the theater. It is a nice hotel with some thoughtful design features. The photograph here was taken at the theater before the show started.]]> We were invited to a dinner party at Elena Sisto and David Kirkpatrick's house in Rhinebeck, NY.]]> This was the yearly ceremonial. There were a cocktail party and lunch followed by the ceremony in the auditorium. At the ceremony, prizes and purchase prizes are announced and presented. There is also a yearly speaker. The people on the stage without white name tags are probably members of the academy. And the people with the tags are probably prize winners. See the previous six entries.]]> At lunch. See the previous five entries and the following entry.]]> At the cocktail party. See the following four entries and the following two entries.]]>