Downtown Photos

The Freedom Tower, awesome and thrilling


And, I took these photos from the window of a friend's apartment


Ellis Island, at sunset



The Statue of Liberty, washed in pink watercolors



Little boats on the Hudson River, at sunset

On the way... to the library

I "sighted" Kim Kardashian having lunch with Jonathan Cheban at Cafeteria.





And then I arrived at the architecturally glorious Jefferson Market Library.

The Sidewalk In Front of 80 St. Marks Place

Group 1 includes:

Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Gloria Swanson, and Lillian Roth

Group 2 includes:

Joan Crawford, Dom DeLuise, Hildegarde, and Myrna Loy

Group 3 includes:

Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones

Dark Shadows Festival

It was today, in Brooklyn, at the Marriott Hotel.

Kathryn Leigh Scott

Marie Wallace

Jerry Lacy

David Selby

A Visit to Hoboken

Hoboken Historical Museum

Today, I went to the Hoboken Historical Museum. It is in a lovely area of Hoboken and I very much enjoyed the day. (In an edit, some photos from a July 12th visit were added on July 13th.)

Mulholland Dr.

This is my general interpretation of David Lynch's enigmatic and mysterious film, "Mulholland Dr."

"Betty" (Naomi Watts) is a winner of a jitterbug contest who comes to Hollywood filled with dreams. She hopes to become an actress and play a coveted role in a film called, "The Sylvia North Story." Betty desperately wants that part. Laura Harring plays the physical manifestation, in an elaborate hallucination, of the part Betty wants. The hallucination is named "Rita." Rita has amnesia (after she is in a car accident as a character in a film) and she does not know her identity. She will not know who she is until she is cast in "The Sylvia North Story." Rita wanders off to the apartment where Betty is staying. Betty tries to make the part her own by having her hallucination, Rita, wear a blonde wig and think she could be named "Diane Selwyn." Diane Selwyn is Betty's name in the second part of the film. And Betty falls deeply in love with the physical manifestation of part, played by Laura Harring. This is all revealed in a flashback after Betty falls asleep at the beginning of the film.

"Betty" auditions for the role and she is terrific. But, another actress, Camilla Rhodes played by Melissa George, gets the part in "The Sylvia North Story." That piece of fate sends Betty into a downward psychotic spiral. We see Diane unravel in part 2 as she continues to see her hallucination and the real Camilla, Melissa George, as Laura Harring. Laura Harring is playing Melissa George, who is Camilla, in a pentimento. We are seeing the film from Diane's perspective and she always sees the role from that script as Laura Harring. Diane plays small roles in Camilla Rhodes's films, but she never achieves great fame and success.

Diane kills herself at the end because she has completely unraveled and she can no longer separate truth from fantasy. She wasn't able to wake-up and face reality. And her dreams are gone. She has no more hope.

Fate came knocking at the door...
It was indeed fate that came knocking on Diane's door and Rita saw Diane's fate when they visited the Sierra Bonita apartments.

The two old people were there when "Betty" was filled with hopes and dreams and they were there in her head when she realized she would never achieve her dreams... and so she ended it all.

The box was fate, the "monster" behind Winkie's was the keeper of fate, and we saw the keys to Diane's fate.

And at the end... we are reminded by the "blue haired lady" that fate is best rendered "Silencio."

a show at The Art Students League

Tonight, I attended a show at The Arts Students League of New York.





Jerry Torre was displaying two of his amazing sculptures: TECHMUSH LIMESTONE and RUINS DORATA.

TECHMUSH LIMESTONE





RUINS DORATA

Lunch with Lila and Susie

Lila Afiouni is an artist from Sydney, Australia, and she came from San Francisco to New York City with her friend, Susie, who lives in San Francisco. I know Lila from a Beat online forum, and we met today and went for lunch at Le Pain Quotidien. We discussed many interesting topics and I had a great time!

Please check out the art of Lila Afiouni.