Lately

 I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see ‘Ancient Sculpture in Color’ and ‘In America, a Lexicon in Fashion.’

They, the restorers of classic sculptures, have discovered a way of exposing paint on the sculptures of antiquity and have used that knowledge to paint some of the sculptures which are now on view at the Met:

And fashion:

I spent a week at Angela’s in Brewster and one day we took a ride across Putnam County to Cold Spring where we visited Magazzino, Italian Art Museum in which we got to see Piero Gilardi, who looks like someone I used to know.  I’ve seen at MoMA.  

He creates carpets: Tappeto-Natura 

And other Artists of the Modern Movement in Italy called Arte Povera.

Michelangelo Pistoleto:

‘Alamo ed Eva’, Silkscreen  print on polished stainless steel and the cloths he used to polish the stainless steel become the Italian flag … Arte Povera.

And more flags outside with clouds that reminded me of calligraphy:

Other artists: Janis Kounellis, Senza titolo

Giovanni Anselmo, Il panorama fin verso oltremare

Mario Metz, ‘Igloo con vortice’ and ‘Turbina’:

And the Broadway show Moulin Rouge which won the Tony Award for best musical and has no original music.  A spectacular spectacle very much in the style of the movie by Baz Luhrmann who had nothing to do with the show except to inspire it,

Tired, yes but still manageing to  get out and move.
 

Yesterday

 I was riding the elevator in my building and an elderly woman I haven’t seen in years, after seeing my medication/caused bruised arm, asked if I was okay.  With my best smile I said :”I’m still here”.  She said “me too.”  Then out of the blue she added: “ We bought a building in Greenpoint”.  

A building that was formally a Greek Church.  “We” referred to her group.  I didn’t get the name but it is a group of Basque immigrants.  She is Basque, hence “we” bought a building.  She talked about being a Basque as we both walked out onto the street, cane next to cane.  Franco is not popular with the Basque.  I would have guessed as much but not that Guernica is in the Basque region.  It is called the Basque region because the name of the area translated is “ where basque is spoken”.

Did I mention Boise, Idaho? 

Tired confused ditzy with these med changes.  Now back on 5 mg of prednisone.  

Anyway: Amelia, that’s the name of my new friend, told me the Basque Museum is in Boise, Idaho.  It’s an old farmhouse, converted to a boarding house: that used to board shepherds from the region where basque is spoken.  It is preserved as it was in the 19th Century.  First, the region where basque is spoken is in both France and Spain.  Amelia says the French don’t think so but the basques are in France too.  Second, the shepherds obviously didn’t have much.  All that is at the museum is what belonged to the boardinghouse owner, not a Basque. 

Maybe that building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, previously a Greek Church, will grow into something beyond Franco and Guernica and Basque shepherds’ rooming house.

She turned left to go to Rite Aide for a spray (she found a roach) and I went straight towards the market.  We smiled and waved our canes goodbye.

Ditzy.  “Yesterday”, happened 2 weeks ago.