Hooray, The Summer Flickr is here at last!

[Angela M...]

I think the change in England is because of Jamie Oliver trying to get people to eat healthier foods and schools to take notice of the nutrition programs. I believe he was trying to get schools in the U.S. and Canada to do the same thing but many schools in Canada do not have a lunch program, kids bring it from home.

[Betty]

I don't ever remember there being a nice lunch available in school when I was a kid. It wasn't absolutely terrible but it wasn't good either. For 35 cents you did get a small milk, or tiny thing of juice though, or sometimes Jello. I think that was the best of school lunch memories. Military rations tasted better. I was in Air Force ROTC in high school, & had 2 brothers in the Marines, & Army. Dad was in WWII. So I did have a chance to try 1960s military rations. They were actually pretty good compared to school lunches.

Anything you packed for lunch was much better. 35 cents in the 1960s wasn't that great a deal back then, when you can get a rather big burger at Carols Burger, Burger Chef, or McDonald's for 29 cents, & a quart of milk was 25-35 cents. Back in the high school days when I got an after school & weekend jobs, I used to sneak out of school for lunch to the diner across the street.

A huge cheeseburger, & beverage like soda, coffee, or juice for 49 cents at the diner. They would still serve breakfast items at lunch too. I liked their 2 eggs with toast, butter, & jelly with soda or coffee for 59 cents. I'd even spring a dime or 2 to play my favorite rock tunes on their jukebox during lunch. Rod Stewart, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Procal Harem, Zeppelin, Gunthrie, & Baez were the hits at my school, & all on the jukebox. It was a Technical/vocational school for boys at the time, so we didn't listen to that low-IQ bubblegum pop-rock of the era. It was all the progressive or revolutionary stuff. The closest thing to pop we ever listened to was the Beatles & Stewart.

It was highly illegal to leave the school grounds, even for lunch. Eating outside on a nice day wasn't even allowed, & there was no AC for hot or humid days (downwind from the Great humid Lakes). You'd get hell if you got caught leaving school for lunch. I'd sneak in & out the back door for maintenance. The maintenance staff didn't care. I guess they felt it wasn't their job to watch the kids, or didn't like the school lunches either.

There would always be a couple other kids who ate at the diner for lunch, & some of the school teachers too. The teachers who ate there never turned us in... they all played like they didn't notice we were there so they don't get in trouble. I guess they didn't mind us there getting a better lunch, & chilling outside the school. But getting caught trying to sneak out while still on school property, would be a heap of trouble.

[andyg0404]

When I was in grammar school we weren't allowed to leave the school grounds for lunch and I brought my lunch which was usually a salami sandwich. Many kids did and you may imagine what the lunchroom smelled like. Then when I graduated to Jr. High School we were able to go out for lunch and every day for two years I ate at a luncheonette and had a hamburger, french fries and a coke. I would call my mother every day from the luncheonette just to chat. One time I called and she picked up the phone laughing. I asked what she was laughing about and she said that shortly before I called, the phone rang and she picked it up expecting it to be me. There was a child on the other line and my mother had a little conversation with him before they both realized she wasn't his mother. That made me laugh as well.

Andy G.

[Angela M...]

Hey Betty, it was the same when I was in high school, we were not to leave either but there was a diner in the plaza next door and also a Bowling alley and the lunch counter there was always busy at lunch time. I prefered the diner with my friends and the burgers were great. The place was also the local hang out after school too with car hops on roller skates bringing food to the car and music over the outside speakers. It was actually the only hang out for a short time until a burger & pizza place opened across the road from my house. Did not take me long to get a job there along with two friends and my sister. Flipping pizza in the front window was our special draw and it became the most popular place in town. I eventually became assistant manager there for a year or two. 

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

I’ve had a splendid week on vacation and I’m sorry to see it come to a close although I still have the Labor Day Holiday on Monday to look forward to. I had enjoyable visits with two of my friends, saw some wonderful art and generally relaxed. The weather cooperated, it was warm all week but not unbearable and today, due to Tropical Storm Hermine I guess, it was cool, breezy and not sunny at all. I went out in my shorts and short sleeve shirt but wouldn’t have been hot had I worn the long pants and shirt. I look forward to having every day to myself the way I did this week.

I had another little run in with technology this week. I had to reset the password on my email, something I was reluctant to do as I have lots of passwords and it’s not always easy to keep them straight as to which password is for which site. First of all there have been issues with Chrome which have prevented me from going into my webmail which I access when I’m in the office. Chrome has become another unreliable browser and I’m thinking I may go back to Firefox. I Googled the issues I’m having with Chrome and Verizon and discovered there are many others experiencing the same thing.  Verizon has no interest in solving this problem saying that Chrome is part of Google. I tried to point out to the Verizon representative that while that may be true, it’s Verizon’s customers that will look for another provider if they can’t access their email on their browser of choice. I spoke to Verizon last week as I was locked out and when I reset my password I used the same one because I thought the problem was with Chrome not actual hacking. But the next morning I received an email response from someone that was sent to Alan Scheer questioning what the invoice Scheer had sent to them was about. When I looked at Alan Scheer’s email address it was mine. So I made my password much stronger. As I said, this whole password business is annoying, trying to keep it straight and not use the same one for everything.

I did find things to do this week although I’ve mentioned that there are no new exhibits up. I went to the Met and saw a very small exhibit of paintings of Benjamin Franklin by the French artist Joseph Siffred Duplessis. It consists of three paintings, the oil portrait that is the iconic image of Franklin, the one that appears on the $100 bill, that is from the Met’s permanent collection.  There were actually two $100 dollar bills in a display case. Also a pastel portrait which is on loan from the NY Public library and a reproduction of the first painting either by the artist or his shop. Replicas were popular as many people wanted a portrait of Franklin to hang on their wall. The pastel is very beautiful.  This is a link to the Met website with more information about the artist as well as illustrations of the paintings. http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/benjamin-franklin

One morning I walked all the way down to the Bowery to visit the New Museum, a very long walk. I did an enormous amount of walking this week going over ten miles on several days. I hope to continue to be able to do this as I age as I think it’s the best exercise. I bought a pair of Skechers athletic shoes and I’m really pleased with them as they have a thick sole and are very lightweight. Finding the museum wasn’t too difficult but I wound up walking over to Third Avenue by mistake when I was crossing over looking for Fourth. On a walk this long I didn’t need to have to double back. On the way back I was very lucky. I walked up a few blocks to East Houston and walked West. I checked which Avenues were west and made sure I was crossing them so I’d know I was heading in the right direction and after a few blocks I came to a subway station for the #6 as well as the BDFM. Of course I stood on the platform waiting for the letters without realizing it was the #6 line. And I had looked up at the sign too but I clearly didn’t read it closely enough. So I went downstairs and caught the B for West 4th then transferred to the A which took me back to the Port Authority. Traffic has been terrible this week and my bus rides and waits for the buses have been long. I got to the museum a few minutes before it opened and I was surprised to see a line although it wasn’t a very long line. It was a fairly odd exhibition, I don’t expect I’ll be going back very often. The museum itself is very large, 7 floors, and they’re big floors. The first exhibit is on the fifth floor and when I walked down the stairs there were so many twists and turns that I thought I would wind up in the lobby but eventually I came to the fourth floor.

The main attraction was an exhibit called The Keeper which was about collectors. Since I am a collector I was curious to see what it was about. The highlight was  Partners (The Teddy Bear Project) which consisted of 3000 family photographs that include a teddy bear. They are displayed in a large room, ceiling to floor, with four spiral staircases to take you up to the ceiling, as well as cases with an actual teddy bear and more photos and memorabilia. It was fascinating. Another exhibit which may be of interest to the board is Henrik Olesen’s Some Gay-Lesbian Artists and/or Artists relevant to Homo-Social Culture Born between c. 1300–1870 (2007). This was images clipped from magazines and other media all having to do with the gay experience. One small section was listed as mother’s with effeminate sons. The best among them was Edward Hughes Portrait of Mrs. Drury Wormald and her son. You can see here that he would be very much at home on the board. http://artpaintingartist.org/portrait-of-mrs-drury-percy-wormald-and-her-son-by-edward-hughes/ There were other odd collections, rocks and a closet filled with the artist’s mother’s clothing and drawings by Vladimir Nabokov of his butterflys. Nabokov was an ardent butterfly collector.

This is a link to the website explanation of the exhibit. http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/the-keeper
This is a link to the NY Times review with illustrations. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/arts/design/the-keeper-reveals-the-passion-for-collecting.html?_r=0

On another day I saw what I believe is the last current exhibit at the Met that I might have interest in, Aesthetic Movement in America. It’s in the same gallery as the furniture. It was enjoyable although much of what was there seemed to be left over from the very nice furniture exhibit. In the entrance they were running a video of Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring, the television version from 1958, which I watched for a while. I’ve never really seen ballet like it before. Afterwards I wandered through the American Wing and visited old friends. I saw the Homer watercolors again as well as the Hudson River painters.

The best thing I saw all week was at the QuestRoyal gallery on 79th Street and Park Avenue, which has a very strong American art exhibit up right now.  I’ve been there before and they always have quality art. This is a link to their index. http://www.questroyalfineart.com/artists?artists=all

Notable among the many fine paintings were
William Trost Richards – Atlantic City http://www.questroyalfineart.com/16385/atlantic-city-new-jersey.html I don’t believe I had ever seen a watercolor by Richards and this was a fine one of Atlantic City, well before the casinos.
 

Winslow Homer - Through the Fields http://www.questroyalfineart.com/16103/through-the-fields.html and A High Sea http://www.questroyalfineart.com/16192/a-high-sea.html Two drawings, the first pencil and gouache, the second charcoal and gouache. I’ve seen a few of Homer’s drawings and these are particularly nice. 
 
 

Sanford Robinson Gifford – Study of Windsor Castle - http://www.questroyalfineart.com/16389/study-of-windsor-castle.html Gifford is a favorite of mine and this is a splendid oil depiction highlighted by the rainbow rising on the right side of the painting. The provenance says it may have come from his estate which to me indicates he liked it enough to keep it rather than sell it.
 

John Singer Sargent – San Geremia http://www.questroyalfineart.com/15310/san-geremia.html I’ve written many times about Sargent and this is a wonderful watercolor of San Geremia in Venice.
 

Willard Leroy Metcalf – The Waterfall http://www.questroyalfineart.com/15967/the-waterfall.html I was really taken with Metcalf’s waterfall, very impressive, comparable, if not as great as, Frederic Edwin Church’s Niagara Falls, an enormous painting in the National Gallery of Niagara Falls which when you stand in front of it makes you almost damp from its presence. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frederic_Edwin_Church_-_Niagara_Falls_-_WGA04867.jpg
 

And finally, Francis Silva – Moonrise Over New York Harbor http://www.questroyalfineart.com/16556/moonrise-over-new-york-harbor.html I just fell in love with this painting due to the beautiful moon suspended over the water in the middle of the painting. Another painting that I wouldn’t mind waking up to every day.
 

And so ends another week. Let’s see if anything is going on at the Flickrs.

Andy G.

16 723w

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mariaclare/28264583092/

Minidress in the sun

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dianalondontv/27928278046/

DSC07584CK3

https://www.flickr.com/photos/117560929@N03/28228908491/

f23951488

https://www.flickr.com/photos/29982139@N05/9761840636/

Summer Dress

https://www.flickr.com/photos/135749866@N08/27843605563/


Another Jackie K. look

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132986144@N05/26686503294/

Princess of July

https://www.flickr.com/photos/meagancrickett/28002599020/

flashing my new tits

https://www.flickr.com/photos/59762335@N03/27943378973/

Dude in a skirt

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fordfanjpn/28202657610/

TransformaciĂłn.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shirleystonyrock/28310532302/

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

Our weatherman said today would be outrageously hot, unusual for almost mid-September and much like the dog days of August we experienced. But while it was hot it wasn’t as humid as they predicted and there was a breeze which helped so for me it wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as it’s been. Came home from my walk damp but not soaked. My friend, who has retired to Arizona, scoffs when I talk about hot weather as he lives where 100 degree days are the norm. As for me, whether officially or not, Summer has passed and I’m not terribly happy to see it go. I can live with Fall but I hate Winter. I’m hoping not to have to deal with the commute in the dead of Winter.

I did something fairly stupid this week. I sent an email to a friend with the subject line, I’m an idiot to describe it. I started by noting it wasn’t the first email I had sent with that subject line. On Wednesday morning I was in my kitchen getting ready to do my exercises when I noticed a coffee spot on the linoleum and bent down with a wet sponge to wipe it away. My exercise regimen consists of stretching exercises, knee bends and pushups. Then, before I go upstairs to ride the stationary bicycle, I run around the first floor of my house. I start in the living room and run along the perimeter as I head into the dining room and kitchen to circle back to the living room. Just as I was finishing, coming out of the dining room, my foot hit the tiny wet spot I had created, my foot went right out from under me and I went down like I had been shot. I skidded along the floor and hit the wall. Let me count the ways I injured myself. Put a bump on my head, opened up a bb sized hole just below my shoulder, cramped my the fingers on my right hand and banged my left knee. The next day I noticed skid marks on my right hand. And my shoulder and knee are still sore. Other than that no damage. If I see another spot on the linoleum I will wait until after I do my exercises to deal with it. Wiping it dry is probably a good idea as well.

This morning I walked up to Christie’s auction house for a preview of their Chinese Paintings. I was a little disappointed. The first floor was filled with objects that the Metropolitan Museum of Art was deaccessioning, porcelain and ceramic vases, dishes, bowls etc. which are beautiful but a little goes a long way. There were also Himalayan and Indian wall hangings which nice but not remarkable. The Chinese paintings were on the second floor and even they were a bit of a disappointment. There weren’t that many of them and many of them were contemporary. I’m not a knowledgeable person on the quality of Chinese painting but these didn’t strike me as being in the first tier. It wasn’t like being at a preview of European paintings, there were no artists I could seek out and none of the names meant anything to me.

Here are a few of the things I liked, click on them to enlarge:

Gibbons Playing - http://tinyurl.com/zkwnmxo
Winter Landscape - http://tinyurl.com/zav4s4c
Lady - http://tinyurl.com/zeaz9w6

This is a link to all the paintings: http://tinyurl.com/hutkqwh

Sotheby’s also had their Chinese preview and I had to choose which one to visit as I didn’t want to do both of them today. I chose Christie’s for its proximity, Sotheby’s is a hike across town to the far East side. But in looking at the Sotheby’s site I see it wouldn’t have been very different, maybe a larger selection. Of course when I retire I will be able to go to both. But it was a pleasant diversion for a Saturday morning while waiting for exhibits to start opening. Next week I will go to the Morgan Library for their just opened Memling exhibition.

I think on that note we can now tiptoe over to the Flickrs.

Andy G.

Throwback Thursday!! Pic on the left is me at about 8 years old playing my favorite game of "dress up" at my cousin's house…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143793198@N08/29116246152/

I scored on this outfit!!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143366935@N04/27717384644/

Sissies on Parade

https://www.flickr.com/photos/msemilytv/2832764903/

Susie543

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24899087@N05/28469332141/

Shelley Jayne - Double Tree - Sparkle 2016

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shelley_uk/27965691830/

Dating with MISAKKY 002

https://www.flickr.com/photos/misakky/28481601286/

Guessing game. Like it? Did I buy this?

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

Today is an absolutely beautiful day. Started out cool, in the 50’s, so I wore my long paints and flannel shirt in the early part of the day but when I came home from the City I was able to go back to my shorts. I probably didn’t need my flannel shirt but the weatherman told me to take a jacket and I’d rather be warm than cold so it wasn’t a problem.

I walked down to the Morgan Library this morning to take in two new exhibits. The first was a small show, Hans Memling: Portraiture, Piety, and a Reunited Altarpiece. It revolved around a Memling altarpiece which had been separated many years ago and was finally reunited for this exhibit. It’s a triptych and the Morgan owns the inner wings. The center panel is owned by Musei Civici in Vicenza, Italy, and the outer wings by the Groeningemuseum in Bruges, Belgium. The outer wings were meant to be seen when the altarpiece was closed being on the other side of the inner wings. At some point in the altar’s history, the outer wings were sawn off and removed. The exhibit shows through radiography how Memling changed and repositioned aspects. Additionally there were drawings from his contemporaries and several portrait paintings of his, one from the Frick which has always been a favorite of mine, as well as one in the Morgan collection, Man with a Pink, and one from a private collection. Always exciting to see something from a private collection as your opportunities to see it are rare. And the art was more accessible to me being hung at my eye level. The Morgan pieces come from Mr. Morgan’s library and usually hang above his bookcases which make them harder for me to see. This was a wonderful exhibit, so much great art in such a small room, the cube. This is a link to the Morgan website description of the exhibit which has illustrations of some of the art. http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/hans-memling This is a press release for the exhibit. http://www.themorgan.org/sites/default/files/pdf/press/MemlingPressRelease.pdf  And this is a review from the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/arts/design/review-hans-memling-morgan-library-museum.html?_r=0

Afterwards I walked over and enjoyed a second visit with Rembrandt’s early masterpiece, Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver. I wrote about this wonderful painting on my previous visit a few months ago. The exhibit closes tomorrow and I’m glad I got to see it again. Then I went upstairs for the Charlotte Bronte exhibit. This was filled with original manuscripts, letters, first editions, original artwork from the three sisters and their brother Branwell and all in all was very interesting. The National Portrait Gallery in London loaned the iconic chalk drawing of Charlotte by George Richmond for the exhibit, http://www.themorgan.org/sites/default/files/images/exhibitions/galleries/1-George-Richmond-portrait.jpg as well as the portrait that Branwell painted of his three sisters. http://www.themorgan.org/sites/default/files/images/exhibitions/galleries/13-Branwell-Bronte%CC%88-portrait.jpg He had included himself and then painted himself out of the picture. It’s creased and damaged because it sat, folded in four, on top of a wardrobe in the home of Arthur Bell Nicholls, Charlotte’s husband. It was discovered by Nicholls second wife and given to the National Portrait Gallery. It had never traveled previously.  This is a link to the Morgan website description of the exhibit with illustrations of some of the objects http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/charlotte-bronte  This is a link to the press release for the exhibit http://www.themorgan.org/sites/default/files/pdf/press/BrontePressRelease.pdf This is a link to a NY Times review of the exhibit http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/books/she-was-no-bird-jane-eyre-manuscript-on-first-trip-to-america.html?smid=pl-share

Hope you enjoyed today’s art discussion, I’m still waiting for the Fall preview of upcoming exhibits.

Let’s fly over to the Flickrs now.

Andy G.

Ready for the Grand National

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22092915@N05/26325945075/

always so lovely...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/madeleinelabelle/25885664550/

DSC_0143

https://www.flickr.com/photos/swisstabby/27929281846/

another tgirl classy look

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125361336@N05/24586741562/

Dressed up for my date

https://www.flickr.com/photos/74475326@N08/28645606636/

IMG_4496

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144292514@N08/28498096082/

old tricks

https://www.flickr.com/photos/124219044@N07/28537062786/

More Maids at BWBG

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shonajones1/28328300900/

Ahem!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sissyfifi/16412192428/

Evenin' all

https://www.flickr.com/photos/starrynowhere/28042800894/

[Angela M...]

Thanks Andy for another great gallery review with links I can follow. Of course we all love the pics that follow in your weekly post as well. When you retire for good will this be a daily post (can we hope ) LOL. Thanks again.