Spring Morning in the Heart of the City

Image as cropped in my datebook.

As a child, I was little impressed with Manhattan more than as a really crowded place with a big, famous statue in the harbor. It wasn't until relatively recently that I have come to appreciate the history, the culture, the human achievement strewn wildly about the small island.

One of my favorite places there is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In addition to the vast collection of magnificent art, it offers an almost decadent amount of perfectly staged indoor space in which to imbibe in the art. While we didn't make it there on our most recent flash tour of NYC, I have a date book that weekly reminds me of both New York, and the MMA: New York New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art: An Art Book and Engagement Book 2011.

Today, I'd like to share the image that accompanied last week's dates. I hope you enjoy this spring morning brought to you by Frederick Childe Hassam as much as I have.

Spring Morning in the Heart of the City, Childe Hassam, 1890

This painting of Madison Square was completed when Madison Square Garden was actually in Madison Square!  The building so named had quite an illustrious and notorious history.  Read more about the four buildings which carried that name on to fame, below.

Madison Square Garden I (1871-1890)
Madison Square Garden II (1890-1924)
Madison Square Garden III (1925-1968)
Madison Square Garden IV (1968- present)

Happy Spring.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Plainsies, Clapsies

A ball bouncing game from my youth instructed the player to throw the ball up ( plainsies ), throw it up and clap ( clapsies ) throw it up and roll your hands ( roll the ball ) and touch your shoulders ( tabapsies ). In trying to locate the rest of the ball bouncing chant, I found out not only is my “tabapsies” a mondegreen , but also the motion – touching your shoulders – isn’t even the correct movement! You are supposed to clap your hands behind your back and say “ to backsies .”  Yeah. That makes much more sense. Being only slightly deflated by this discovery, I will still share my exciting news.  In an attempt to counteract the stretching of my wrist from doing front squats two days in a row, I pulled out the tabapsies motion this morning.  This, in itself, is not newsworthy.  However, I grabbed both shoulders with all five fingers!!! Again, not exciting unless you know that when I was nine years-old, I broke my left elbow doing a running c...
Read more

Memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution

Image
In preparation for celebrating the 222nd anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787, here are a few videos that I hope will inspire you to at least memorize the brief, but powerful Preamble. First, here is my first attempt at video editing with the bare bones Windows Movie Maker (no ability to step through frame by frame with sound, or ability to mark stops before cutting). My daughters are reading the Preamble to the Constitution from the little book I carry in my purse. They can recite it by heart, but it I thought it would be a little different (and a little less exposed) if they did it this way. Let's not even talk about the 20 takes due to laughter. If you knew it as a child, don't worry, it'll come back to you as Barney shows in this video. Finally, a little treat for my sci-fi loving friends. And if memorizing and reciting The Preamble in creative ways leaves you wanting more, you can find out which Founding Father you...
Read more

Why I am an Objectivist

I am a human being who values her life on this earth above all other things. The right and good is that which contributes to my life and the wrong and evil is that which destroys it. Every action I take must pass through the gates of identification before being pursued as a value which I understand will contribute to my life. Happiness is my ultimate goal. I understand the importance of identifying, applying, pursuing, and achieving those values which will contribute to my life, not just in the immediate sense (which every child understands), but in the long-term sense (which develops with experience). This is not to say that I’m really good at always identifying, pursuing, and achieving those values, or that I remain consistent in my applications of them; merely that I had already understood that this selfishness was the key to my happiness when I was relatively young. The importance of the fact that I understood I was responsible for my own happiness can not be overemphasized here. W...
Read more