October has arrived and the leaves are slowly turning into their new, bright selves. We've been going to New York a lot. One trip early in September was because, mon dieu, I remembered the James Ensor show was almost over. So off we went to the South Street Seaport (the exhibit of Dutch New York), on the way discovering a cool lunch spot named Resto (it's Belgian and I shoulda had the beer, but the hamburger and frites were delishious), and finished off the day at the MOMA Ensor exhibit. The printed material suggested Ensor's love of masks and weird costumes of course came about because of his family's souvenir store in Ostende. I was lucky to have visited there in 2002 (the James Ensorhuis). Our trip down and back in one day was pretty exhausting.
The next day I was in the Guilford Citizens Parade--twice! Well, I mean the Friends of the Library let me march with them--actually I sat in a haywagon and held up picture books as we rode by the crowds. And since the Friends haywagon was early on in the parade, when that was done I leapt down and ran to see the rest of the entries. So when the Guilford Peace Alliance came by, Edwina, Greg, Gwen and Norm marching prominently with their signs, I joined them, too. Was thinking some of the folks by the side of the road would be scratching their heads--wasn't that woman on the library haytruck earlier in the parade?
Paid for all this activity, came down with a baad cowd. But a week later we went back down to NY again, this time staying overnight to pamper ourselves. The main event was the opening of the Poets House new building near Battery Park on the Hudson. A sunny day and the lineup of poets reading was impressive: Mark Doty, Marie Howe, Philip Levine, Billy Collins, Galway Kinnell, among others. We met up with Gwen and Norm and one of Gwen's painting friends--we ate tapas together at Boqueria.
In between these trips the sun shone brightly during the month, and I discovered the walk at the end of Neck Road (the street that starts in Madison and ends up in Guilford). The beach skirts the edge of the Sound and lands you at the red shack on Grass Island. And the nice thing about it is that even though it's an "island," you don't have to cross any water to get there!
Will have more of New York starting again soon, next weekend it's back to Open House New York, trekking about various neighborhoods, sneaking into some of the most interesting buildings in NY. Til then.