Whirlwind

"New York, New York/It's a wonderful town..."

My twentieth visit to New York was a beaut. A snowstorm delayed my arrival, but also dusted the city in a lovely blanket of snow. I left just around the time it was all turning a bit dirty and slushy.

My first order of business was hitting the fabulous special exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Over 100 drawings by Van Gogh and dozens of remarkable paintings by Fra Angelico. Because I just cannot seem to get the proper code working here to hyperlink, just cut and paste http://www.metmuseum.org and check out the special exhibitions section to see some of the terrific stuff I got to experience.

On Saturday, I was off the Frick Collection for its special exhibition of works by the Flemish master, Hans Memling. He was particularly adept at portraits. Prior to hitting the museum, though, I took a nice walk through Central Park and enjoyed the way the sunlight played on the snow. Lovely!

In the afternoon, after lunch at Candle Cafe, I went to see the matinee of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" -- not a great show, but the performers (including Marc Kudish, who is totally yummy) were great -- followed by an evening show up at Lincoln Center: "The Light in the Piazza." Great show with a talented cast, beautiful score, divine sets.

I so enjoyed the Van Gogh and Fra Angelico exhibitions, I returned again Sunday morning to peruse a few of my favorite pieces more closely; I also visited the terrific handful of works by John Singer Sargent over in the American wing.