NY / RAYAN & HER VIEW
We met at Kybele Hotel in 1999, in Istanbul. She was a link to Turkey while I longed to return. A friend sent me a gift while I was recovering from surgery at my sister’s, and I used it to fly to New York. Rayan was working for the family business and living in Riverdale. God, we had fun.
NY / SUBWAY PERFORMER
He was beautiful once — Still a good performer — Musician in the subway station —
Kid with earlocks gazes at brass babes on Radio City Music Hall— Leslie in her office / & Marti in her dreams
NY MET / POPOURRI
Cypriot 1450-1200 BCE —Metropolitan Museum of Art NY — Little stone guys about 6” till 25-220 China — Vincent’s shoes — Tomb guardian Wei Dyn c550 CE China—“Oh no not I / I will survive…” — 800 BCE Syria Bronze —
Busker doing “I Will Survive” in the subway —My feet are screaming They feel like hot irons & splitting spears — Fra Filippo Lippi — India 1500-500 BCE copper — Copper Constantinople 300-500 CE
NY MET / ASSYRIAN GUARDIAN
c3500 BC Levant Copper — 4th Century BCE Assyrian Guardian / Ashurnasirpal II’s Palace at Nimrod — Back home / Sitting out on the terrace watching the wildest brightest thunderstorm I’ve ever seen… what a show… lightning everywhere pouring rain — Supercilious stone Bodhisattva / Pakistani 100-200 CE—– I drew a fast grid of the Guardian’s beard pattern without drawing even one snail-like beard curl. Next day, I showed up at the Met. The exhibit was closed. I went to the desk and started flipping through the sketchbook, explaining what I was doing. Before many pages the attendant made a call. The very Curator himself escorted me into the closed exhibit and waited while I drew a beard curl. Now that’s a world-class museum!
NY MET / DEREK & THE NEW ‘STASH
ON THE STEPS OF THE MET — Derek — Mexico 9-6th C BCE — Incense burner Persia —- & INSIDE — Faizal / August 20, 1993 / We share the same birthday —“I’m almost nine! I have a mustache!” —— The kid was there with his dad looking at the Persian stuff because they were Iranian. Derek was just hanging out, posed rocklike for twenty minutes, gorgeous.
NY MET / RAINA & THE COPPER CROSS
More MET — France 12thCent — Sabor 82nd & 10th — Rare affectionate Madonna & Child 1250-80 Ivory France — Tinna “My husband was Japanese American” — Raina A Desert tortoise taking the air with her owner in Central Park — Raina’s back plan
— Egypt —- 700 BCE —- Mosaic & Cross at the Met — Byzantine Copper Egypt 500-600 — Jackal 600-300 BCE——
NY / STATUE OF LIBERTY
So, I’m a tourist, I go to the Statue of Liberty, and find this fabulous poem:
I pray the fragile heart / Be bestowed quiet strength /Not be devoured by bitterness /The mind rid of torturing images / Left to react decisively / Aided by tender peace / Earnest wishes I pray
—–A Rictameter Prayer for the Americans by Heng Kaile posted in front of the colossal statue——
ROGER
NY / 515 MADISON
View of the Hudson from Riverdale Terain Station, New York — FIRE — New York Fire —- Detail on front of building, 515 Madison Ave, New York —-I [heart] Jesus——
NY / CHINATOWN WITH RAYAN
Singer sewing machines turn up in all cultures all over the world. I had one just like this years ago in LA. Wish I still did.