Long weekend à Montréal!

A Montréal pour quelques jours, durant le Festival International du Jazz.

Vendredi, le 29 juin

Longue route, en voiture, de Toronto à Montréal. Accident et construction – détour par le chemin du Roy (« King Road ») à la hauteur de Gananoque sur la 401. Un bon 7 heures et demie! Faudra penser à une autre façon de rentrer…

Premier spectacle – Esperanza Spalding au Métropolis, debout! Je me sens floué un peu car je croyais avoir des places assisses. C’était ignoré ce qu’est le Métropolis – on y avait pourtant déjà été, entendre Arianne Moffat dans le cadre d’un autre Festival du Jazz, il y a quelques années… On y reste un peu…

Promenade sur la Ste-Catherine, question de s’imbiber de l’atmosphère du Festival… C’est effectivement une fête populaire, avec des milliers de Montréalais ordinaires et touristes d’occasion déambulant partout, autour des spectacles en plein air… C’est au cœur de ce qui est convenu maintenant d’appeler le « Quartier des Spectacles » - les quartiers généraux du Festival International du Jazz de Montréal s’y trouvent apparemment – qui regroupe entre autre, l’Astral et le complexe artistique de la Place des Arts (qu’on appelait à une certaine époque – la mienne comme étudiant – la Places des Autres!), augmenté aujourd’hui de la Maison symphonique, siège de l’OSM, inaugurée en septembre dernier (2011) - avec une production si je me rappelle bien de la 9e de Beethoven, dirigé par le directeur de l'Orchestre, Ken Nagano…

Une pâte dans le jardin du Latini pour finir la journée et entrer à l’hôtel (InterContinental).



Samedi, le 30 juin

Petit déjeuner traditionnel; toujours aussi original et copieux chez Olive + Gourmando, tout près de l’hôtel, dans le Vieux, Saint-Paul et Saint-Pierre.

Visite éclair au Musée McCord, en fin de matinée, pour voir cette exposition de caricaturistes québécois, sur le thème de la « fin du monde » (inspirée par la fin du calendrier maya – le 21 décembre 2012 – belle et juste explication vidéo d’Hubert Reeves!), et qui touchent finalement à tout – du 11 septembre 2001, à la tempête de verglas de 1998, en passant par Montréal, ses viaducs vétustes qui tombent en pièces détachées et ses « Glorieux » et leur déboire…

(Photo ci-haut: montage original qui donne sur la rue Sherbrooke, à côté du Musée McCord - "Forêt urbaine")

 Cirque du Soleil en après-midi – l’AmaLuna, dernier spectacle du Cirque, sous leur chapiteau, dans le Vieux-Port de Montréal. Éblouissant, comme à l’habitude, mais cette fois, c’est encore plus impressionnant. Thème féministe – que des femmes et quelques males « accessoires » : de quoi alimenter combien de discussions avec Cynthia! Évidemment, la prouesse des artistes – les incontournables acrobates Chinoises/Chinois, mais aussi cette équilibriste qui réussit à bâtir un montage de ce qui apparaît être des branches de palme sèches, qui ne tiennent ensemble que par sa dextérité! Et on ne peut qu’être ébloui par la splendeur des costumes – si colorés et perfectionnés! Un après-midi magique!

Une salade sur les terrasses du Jardin Nelson sur la Place Jacques Cartier – rien d’extraordinaire…

Et puis en soirée, toujours dans le cadre du Festival du Jazz, Jorane , Zeitoni et I Musici de Montréal – quelle combinaison! Et tout çà à la Maison symphonique, salle acoustique extraordinaire, dernière « acquisition musicale » de Montréal – si longtemps promise! Encore toute neuve, pas plus vieille d’un an! En début, cette pièce si langoureuse, cette mélodie en crescendo – adagio pour cordes de Samuel Barber, un Américain du siècle dernier, une pièce bien connue mais dont le nom et celui du compositeur échappent à tout le monde! (On l’a entendu dans combien de films – «Elephant Man», «Platoon», «Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain», etc., et à la TV. J’avais cru déceler du Mahler, ou même du Schubert, ce soir-là – je m’étais trompé!) Et puis Jorane – cette voix un peu roque, s’accompagnant parfois de son violoncelle, plus vocaliste qu’autre chose, chantant aussi des inédits et des compositions/traductions d’autres auteurs-compositeurs (l’énorme, et peu entendu, « une sorcière comme les autres » d’Anne Sylvestre, et l’omniprésente « Suzanne » de Cohen). Quelques rappels bien mérités! Autre moment magique! (Conversation par la suite avec son manager. Sébastien Nesra, ancien membre du Conseil d’Administration de la SOCAN, croisé par hasard dans le foyer, qui nous rappelle que c’est la troisième coopération de la chanteuse avec l’orchestre de chambre dans les 6 derniers mois, et que, peut-être…)

Des entrées dans le jardin du Latini – encore une fois (une valeur sûre)!



Dimanche, le 1er juillet

Brunch au Le Cartet, sur la rue McGill dans le Vieux Montréal., à 5 minutes de marche de l’hôtel. On fait la queue mais pas pour longtemps. Nos amis, Jacques et Josette, nous rejoignent (c’est leur recommandation!) Pas déçus – copieux et très bon service. Tables communales. On y reviendra demain pour déjeuner ?

Musée Pointe-à-Caillère, toujours dans le Vieux ; « Musée d’archéologie et d’histoire », aussi vieux que Montréal – pas le musée mais le site! C’est là que la première messe se serait dite en 1642 ; le nom vient du 3e gouverneur de Montréal qui en 1688 y construit sa résidence. Le musée, très moderne, ne date que de 1992 (350e anniversaire de la fondation de Montréal!) On (la SOCAN) y tiendra une réception en septembre pour les participants à la conférence semi-annuelle des sessions CIS de la CISAC. On vient d’agrandir la musée (le 20e anniversaire?), avec une aile de l’autre côté de la rue où se tient une exposition sur les Étrusques (à voir à la prochaine visite !) Aujourd’hui, nous y sommes pour les Samouraïs, exposition extraordinaire de la collection privée de Richard Béliveau sur le sujet! Extraordinaire à plus d’un titre : Béliveau est connu d’abord pour la lutte contre le cancer – il est docteur en bio-chimie et practique au CHUM ; qu’il ait pu trouver le temps – et l’argent – pour développer au cours des ans une telle rare collection (armures, masques, et autres «japonaiseries»!) constitue en soi un exploit! Mais aussi l’exposition en tant que telle : d’avoir su organiser une introduction à ce phénomène complexe que sont les samouraïs – Bushido et tout ! – avec une collection si riche et de façon si compacte doit être salué! On y apprend beaucoup : les commentaires du jeune guide – la visite guidée dépasse de loin les 25 minutes prévues! – sont fort utiles; de toute évidence, très passionné par le sujet…et tout ce qui touche le Japon, je pense… Çà vaut la peine de passer un peu de temps sur le site web du musée (http://www.pacmusee.qc.ca/) pour en apprendre davantage – sur le musée, l’exposition et Richard Béliveau!

Nos amis nous entraînent au Musée des Beaux-Arts – toujours un lieu favori: on peut difficilement venir à Montréal sans y passer un moment ! – pour voir cette grande exposition inédite de l’œuvre de Tom Wesselmann, cet américain du XXe siècle et du PopArt ! Une découverte pour nous, certes – c’est très évocateur de l’époque des années 60 et plus, les «Grands Nus» et surtout très coloré - quoique moi, je ne «fais» pas dans le PopArt trop trop (mais c’est bon pour ma «culture»?)
(Photo çi-bas, Jacques et moi, en grande conversation, au musée...)

Pause-café, et on passe des «japonaiseries» aux «chinoiseries» avec une bouchée – rouleaux du printemps, haricots verts au Chili et «chow mien» de rigueur ! – dans le restaurant très Hongkongais qu’est le Crystal Chinois, dans le Chinatown tout près.

En route pour ce dernier (pour nous) spectacle cette année du Festival du Jazz de Montréal, Stanley Clarke Band à la Place des Arts (théâtre Jean-Duceppe – çà me rappelle des souvenirs…) Je ne le connais pas – lui et ses trois autres musiciens, de toute évidence beaucoup plus jeunes que Stanley Clarke – mais c’est du jazz tel que je le conçois – contrebasse, batterie, piano et guitare, sans trop de mélodie mais à toute allure, «déchaîné» !

Mardi, le 2 juillet

Petit déjeuner au Le Cartet – encore une fois et toujours aussi copieux et délicieux !

Puis la longue route, avec détour via Smith Falls, sur Toronto…

The Rockies – June 2012

Had forgotten that it can be much colder in the mountains – 10 degrees Celsius it says (it was well into the 20s when I left Toronto...)

Surroundings around the Banff Springs Hotel, so majestic – view over the river (Misty River that merges close by with the rueful Bow River) and the golf course, surrounded by snow-cap peaks and conifer-covered mountains – the site has not changed since when the hotel was built more than a hundred years ago – I saw it first in the summer of 1969 – and will not change as long as that place is up (there is no sign either that it is coming down!)

The “Calgary Herald” for breakfast reading. The news of course is the weather (what else?): “Freak snowstorm adds to region’s flooding fears” titled the paper. It’s still spring, even if we are in June, and the weather can be capricious in this part of the world. Mind you, I think the snow was mostly in the mountainous region (there was no trace of it in Calgary when I arrived yesterday), and what we witness is the result of a “magic combination of a heavy snow pack, late melt and heavy rain” to the mind of a quoted expert (it is apparently not over as they say we are going to get some more...)

Sign of time: the paper reports that the last Calgary Liberal MP, Pat Mahoney, has died in his eighties! He was elected to the HofC on the strength of the Trudeaumania back in 1968 – he was trounced at the next election in 1972 by his Tory opponent – more expected from this part of Canada: Calgary, not a pillar of liberalism, to say the least! (The West is not a Liberal bastion: I remember hearing in 1980 in Vancouver what I thought was a very good speech by Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal minister, from Winnipeg – I think that is as far west the Liberals went at that time – to very timid and lukewarm applauds!)

A “think” piece on “entitlement” – front page. The Greeks, students in Quebec (the front page picture – full half-page – is showing students demonstrating in the streets, with the “fleur de lys” flag flying high!), Old Age Security in Canada, etc... Do we live in the “Age of Entitlement”, asks the paper (in this article from Postmedia News, a Toronto-based large publishing company usually associated to the right, issued from defunct Canwest)? I say it is a matter of generations, perhaps? Governments – and the economy – could afford more liberal social policies some forty years ago... Not anymore though (and it has been the case for some time now...) “Adjustments” are required...in Canada and elsewhere...the economy and demography can’t allow anymore! This is complemented by another “opinion” piece on “equalization” – always a favorite subject in these parts! (Referring to a very Canadian thing – no doubt another “entitlement”! – whereby money – some C$15B of it – is transferred, through a federal program, from “have” provinces (Alberta for sure, but also BC) to “have not” ones (Quebec for sure – largest share- but also now Ontario!) The claim is that these transfers don’t help the economy of the “have not” provinces, and they are not legally enshrined in the Constitution... Reminiscent of Trudeau’s call for « une société juste : Un Canada juste, où les provinces riches donnent aux provinces pauvres... » Oh yeah!

Off to the Banff World Media Festival...

Banff, June 10, 2012

Stratford - 2012 season’s opening week

Much Ado for Nothing

I can’t stop marvelling at Shakespeare’s versatility! From the romantic – like this well-known comedy, very well put together and played here, in this turn-of-last century South American context – to the tragic (Hamlet, Macbeth, etc...) to the magical (The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, etc...)! Then there is the Hay-Carlson phenomenon, the real-life married couple: she playing the feminist-before-the-time “Beatrice” against Carlson’s precious and shy “Benedick”. Both originated from the Shaw Festival; he came earlier – I remember him first as “Hamlet” a few years back, the only play I saw more than once that season, because of him...

42nd Street

A surprise to me – and a good one! I normally don’t particularly go for “musicals” (strange, would you say, for someone in the music business...!) but that one, wow! Storyline, interpretation, singing, dancing, ...and the costumes! Too much of a departure for a “Shakespeare” company? Perhaps...but I enjoyed, and if it is, it is a nice diversion... Cynthia Dale, a favorite of the Festival (and of me anyway, since TV show “Street Legal”), returns (very skinny) as the leading lady “Dorothy Brock” who gets pushed (literally) out of the limelight in the play by “Peggy Sawyer” (relatively junior Jennifer Rider-Shaw). Interesting to know that“42nd Street” was a film first, from the ‘30s, before it hit Broadway in the ‘80s...

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown

Peanuts strips on stage! Well polished and humorous– the dog is very funny – but not my cup of tea...

Cymbeline

So Shakespearian...and so good! This is Shakespeare as I think of it; it has everything that I associate to his plays: complicated and very involved storyline (entangled threads), identity substitution, blood, battles, swords, magic potions, smoke, ghosts, even mythical gods (Jupiter appearing atop of an eagle!) And it all dissolves, and gets resolved, in a grand finale! The bard wrote Cymbeline towards the end of his writing career (of his life?) – The director of the play, Antoni Cimolino – the current General Director and the coming seasons’ Artistic Director succeeding Des McAnuff – was telling us that Cymbeline is thought by some to be Shakespeare’s last play, a reflection on his life...Cymbeline is also a bit of a “home coming” for Graham Abbey, the local boy returning to his roots as “Posthumus”, having been away from Stratford, for TV and other things in Toronto and elsewhere, since 2006.

The Pirates of Penzance

It’s a Gilbert & Sullivan – très peu pour moi, merci! It is a swell production though – the set and the costumes are magnificent. Congratulations to the set and costume designers – as only the Festival can put out.

The Matchmaker

Final opening of the week! Celebrating the 75th anniversary of this play by Thorton Wilder (of “Our Town” fame – subject of my high school English class!). I understand that the play was a major flop when it came out on Broadway in 1938, and that in the early ‘50s Tyrone Guthrie, then Artistic Director of the Festival, gave Wilder “a second chance” to” re-write” and adapt the original play into what is now “The Matchmaker”. It became a major hit, on the West End first, then on Broadway. Entertaining but, in my book, not convincingly!

So 3 out of 6 - not bad!

This is the 6th season opening at Stratford for us  – Cynthia started at the Festival at the end of the 2006 season; we caught the latest plays that year – the introduction year – among which I recall “Coriolanus” and “Don Juan”, en français, both with Colm Feore (extraordinary performances as well in the later play that was presented twice, one in English and then in the original text, by the fabled Jean-Louis Roux as Don Juan’ s reproaching father, and Benoît Brière who “stole the show” as Sganarelle)

I spent some time this week listing all the plays we have seen since our return to Canada – in Stratford for most of them, but also in NYC and Toronto – and I don’t remember seeing anything of the Stratford 2007 season (I have reviewed the play bill of that year – King Lear, Oklahoma, The Merchant of Venice, An Ideal Husband, To Kill a Mockingbird, My One and Only, The Comedy of Errors, Othello, Of Mice and Men, Shakespeare’s Will, etc... – and nothing comes back to mind), probably because I missed it altogether!

This year though, we attended a symposium – “Interpreting Shakespeare Across Settings and Media... featuring influential theatre artists and intellectuals in discussion about how Shakespeare’s work lends itself to a broad range of media, interpretations and settings” – organized and chaired by the Festival’s Archives Director, Francesca Marini, with Colm Feore – at his energetic usual! Katherine Rowe – a professor very specialized in the field. And especially Norman Lloyd – in his time an actor, a director and a producer who has worked with “greats” such as Charlie Chaplin, Jean Renoir, Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock! The man is 97 years old, still has the required booming voice and a mind clear as a whistle! He appears still to be “a man about town” – just back from attending this year’s Cannes film festival! I was asking him how to “explain” and his answer was “tennis”! He plays 2 or 3 times a week (while in France last week, he went to witness the beginning of the French Tennis Open at Roland Garros!). Great recounting and anecdotes: how lighting defined Orson Welles’ rendering of the seminal “Julius Caesar” in 1937 in NYC; the inspiration for his role – the poet – in this play; Peter O’Toole as “Shylock” – for him the performance that marked him the most; etc... (Talking of anecdotes, Feore used one to great effect– that happened while filming “Titus Andronicus”, with tough film director Julie Taymor, and “do nothing” as advised by Anthony Hopkins – to explain the relationship – and difference – between acting for the camera and acting on stage!)

Must see the 2007 documentary entitled “Who Is Norman Lloyd?” – Lloyd tells me it is available on Amazon... He is also the author of a book, Stages: Of Life in Theatre, Film, and Television, published in 2004.

Stratford, Ontario, June 3, 2012

P.S. Restaurants: pizzas as usual at Pazzo; breakfasts at Foster's Inn and Balsac's Coffee Roastery. Discovered Mercer Hall (will be back) and great dinner at Bijou Restaurant (had not been there for a few years - excellent duck!)

Impressions furtives – Kuala Lumpur & Singapour, mai 2012

Déjà 4 ans depuis ma dernière visite à Kuala Lumpur. (février 2008 – voir blog). Ici pour la réunion annuelle du Comité Asie-Pacifique de la CISAC.

Descends au Anggun Boutique Hotel, situé dans le quartier Bukit Bintang – dans le fameux “Golden Triangle”, à quelques minutes où nous habitions, il y a déjà 15 ans (je me suis rendu jusqu’au “Regency Tower » sur Jalan Ceylon)!

Un petit hôtel, à peine quelques 20 chambres, dont la mienne, faisant face à la rue (un peu bruyant mais on s’y fait…) Charmante, meublée d’antiques (vrais ou faux?) Seul inconvénient: la douche! Aucune pression et très peu d’eau! Petit déjeuner au dernier étage, à l'extérieur (photo, çi-bas)

Reminded (YLT magazine, issue 16) of the disappearance 45 years ago (in 1967) of Jim Thompson, the American businessman credited with reviving the interest in the Thai silk industry with the establishment of his own company (that still thrives today). He disappeared in mysterious circumstances, still not elucidated; he would have gone for a post-lunch walk in Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands, on an Easter Sunday, never to be seen again. He was 61 years old. Many theories abound – from getting lost in the much denser jungle at the time, to being kidnapped by remaining Communists for his alleged CIA past (the fact that his older sister was violently killed a few months later served only to renew speculation in his mysterious disappearance!) Amazing that Thomson’s story still has so much currency today!

Je sais que les choses ont changés en Malaisie depuis 15 ans, mais Anwar est toujours dans les nouvelles, encore poursuivi en justice – injustement selon lui – par le gouvernement (je veux dire par l’appareil judiciaire!); la « Malaysian Airlines » est toujours déficitaire, et à la recherche de quelque 3 milliards de dollars cette fois!...

Dîner avec un ami de longue date, dans un restaurant huppé – même un peu-très prétentieux, avec des portions qui s’amenuisent de plus en plus, à mesure que leur prix s’élève! Ancien représentant de Bombardier, il fait maintenant dans la poésie et la philosophie – conversation stimulante!

A Singapour. Dernier voyage, il y a 5 ans, s’était terminé à l’hôpital – une semaine à Tan Tock Seng Hospital (陈笃生医院), pour soigner et guérir une rupture de l’œsophage (syndrome Mallory–Weiss)! Attention à la diète cette fois!

Descends ailleurs qu’à l’hôtel où se tient la conférence : je préfère le Naumi au Ritz Carlton local. Le Naumi Hotel, « boutique hotel » reconstruit, il y a peut-être 5 ans, là où était « Le Métropole » (et son restaurant-apothicaire chinois si bien connu!) Que 4 ou 5 chambres –plutôt grandes – par étage. Situé à côté du « Raffles Hotel ».

Après le « socializing » et le dîner, promenade solitaire vers minuit (seul temps peut-être où l’humidité est supportable!) Promenade nostalgique – Clarke Quai (encore bruyant à cause des « show cases » de « Music Matters »), Boat Quai (beaucoup plus calme, c’est la fermeture), Fullerton Hotel… puis les théâtres de l’Esplanade, et l’énorme « Marina Bay Sands Hotel » qui se profile plus loin, avec cette immense structure, comme un bateau qui flotte sur les 3 tours qui constituent l’ouvrage principal (de Moshe Safdie).

Singapour s’est « enrichi » de quelques casinos (qu’on appelle ici plus politiquement correctement « Integrated Resorts », dont le Marina Sands Hotel et le « Resort World Santosa » sur l’île du même nom. Leur établissement avait fait l’objet d’un référendum à l’époque (2005?), et Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) s’y opposait si j’ai bonne mémoire. Mais il avait laissé le jeu de la « démocratie » l’emporter! Seule concession aux « valeurs morales » si strictes et chères à l’île : un billet d’entrée de S$100 imposé aux Singapouriens, pour éviter la « dégradation sociale » des classes moins fortunées du pays (et que LKY disait, de Tokyo hier, qu’il aurait dû être de S$500)!

Jour d’élection (partielle – Hougang) ces jours-çi : couverture égale entre le parti du gouvernement (le « People’s Action Party – PAP) et l’opposition (Workers’ Party - WP) en première page du « Straits Times » : les choses ont effectivement changé! Le gouvernement de Singapour (où LKY n’est plus que « Mentor Minister » - toujours présent à 88 ans cependant – et moins influent) s’est « ramolli »!

Dîner au "Saint-Pierre". Propriété d'Emmanuel Stroobant et de sa femme, chinoise si je me rappelle bien. Dernière visite remonte à il y a près de 10 ans. Rénové; moins "froid" qu'avant. Emmanuel (chef belge, que nous avions connu à KL) n'y est pas. Déliceux cabillaud ("black cod" - ou plus communément appelé morue!).

Singapour, le 26 mai 2012

NYC – 3 days in May (3)

Enough of museums; this is a beautiful, warm, sunny day, and things will happen outside! So we went for crossing the East River on the Brooklyn Bridge.

This is, as I recall, the first serious bridge built between Manhattan and Brooklyn. I remember seeing a documentary on this, flagging the engineering prowess its construction represented. This was at the end of the 19th century. It was the longest suspension bridge in the world for some 20 years, since its inauguration in 1883. The bridge has a pedestrian pathway built in its center, above the automobile traffic level. At times of public transportation strikes or catastrophes (such as nine eleven), it is the main means of crossing the river, to the point that it may sway, or “wobble”, when too many people are using it! Not today though! People, mostly tourists but also lots of locals, are walking or running it, or biking it. A bunch of school kids stopped us, and Cynthia answered their questions, in response to some school assignment.

Once crossed over, off to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which is inaugurating this week a new visitor center, a 22,000 square-foot, plant-covered roof top building! garden in the middle of this humanity – so quiet, so pastoral! I must admit, for an agglomeration that is often described as the largest in the world, between Central Park and this Garden, there is a lot of green! A walk in the middle of a rose garden, all colors and smells, in such glorious sunny weather, what a delight (much more for sure than the excuse for lunch we had at its café!)

Returned to Manhattan, in the East Village, to see the girls and have a coffee at the (very rococo) Bowery Hotel, where Eric, Laurence and Béatrice are staying. Across the street where Core 77 has elected to erect its pavilion and make its contribution to NYC Design Week! Then time to for the airport – not an easy task to secure a taxi on the streets of New-York at 5 on a Friday…even less easy to leave the island in this traffic! (Ehud Barak, currently minister of Defense of Israël, did not help the situation with his “walk in the ‘hood”…along with his considerable security detachment!) NYC, May 18, 2012

NYC – 3 days in May (2)

Early morning, walked up to Central Park, to go to the Metropolitan Museum. Beautiful! The sun is shining throughout! A few thoughts to remember the one that conceived the Park – Omsteld – a book about him a few years back – and “Angels of America” – the scene at the fountain!

Visit the Met: 2 exhibitions. The Met's Spring 2012 Costume Institute exhibition, Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations, shows what links Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, two Italian designers from different eras in an imagined conversation between these iconic women… exploring similar themes in their work through very different approaches. The show exhibits several designs from the two designers – by Schiaparelli (1890–1973) from the late 1920s to the early 1950s and by Prada from the late 1980s to the present – who argue on different sides – all made up…

And then, on the roof of the museum, Tomás Saraceno on the Roof: Cloud City, a young artist from Argentina who has created large interconnected modules of mirrors that one walks by and in! By such weather – glorious!

Followed by a light lunch at Petrie Court Café and Wine Bar... in the Museum…and a digestive walk in Central Park back to the hotel. (The wonderful music of the “Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain” in my ear…watching the film…)

Graduation ceremony in the afternoon at the Beacon Theater, on Upper West Side – Dominique received her Master degree from the NYU Gallatin School. A few hours, mostly spent looking after Béatrice, running around, full of energy…. Photos, and then we all went (by subway – probably the most expeditive way to get around NYC!) for a celebration dinner at ISA, a new restaurant on the South side of Williamsburg in Brooklyn (Cynthia had spotted a short review in the NYT weekend magazine a few weeks ago). Unusual; the latest creation of Taavo Somer, I read, who had designed a couple of other well-known simple restaurants in Manhattan. The chef is Ignacio Mattos. Wood predominates, and a fairly simple menu. We had the cod (soft, barely cooked), the duck (could have been warmer!), and wine – an Alsacian Crémant for a toast and bottles of white and red from Italy. The porridge that was served to Béatrice ended up being had by the adults – it was delicious. We had appetizers as well (beef tartare in my case) and desert (although nothing memorable that I can recall…) and coffee. Recommended. And then we all went home, back on Manhattan.

NYC, May 17, 2012

NYC - 3 days in May (1)

My daughter’s graduation (Dominique) from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study brought us to NYC.

Took advantage of our visit to see a few plays: two revivals, Jesus Christ Superstar of course – a must for Cynthia and anyone closely associated with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival! Could not pass Des McAnuff ‘ s “flashy” – to use the expression of the NYT’s critic Isherwood – revival of Tim Rice’s and Andrew Lloyd Weber’s pop-rock musical of the 70s, brought down from Stratford. A JCS sans Nolan (replaced by his understudy today); I like Chilina Kennedy (she can’t do no wrong in my book!). Great performances also by Josh Young as Judas and, of course, by Bruce Dow as a very sassy and girly King Herod. All actors from the Stratford theatre company. Then Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, the latest revival of the 1960 Broadway hit (it had been “revived” once before in 2000). Quite dated but a fascinating political thriller, plus a few prescient “pearls of wisdom” – about TV and politics, polls, etc. – that are still ringing very true. Smashing performances by old pros such as Angela Lansbury (the consummate political convention operator) and James Earl Jones (as the relaxed, still conniving but dying former President); I like Larroquette as Secretary William Russell, the patrician candidate, less McCormack (Will in TV’s “Will & Grace”) as Senator Joseph Cantwell, the ruthless underdog. I hadn’t seen the play before, but I remember vividly the 1964 film, with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson (no need to say who played whom!) based on a screenplay by Vidal himself (a bit of trivia: Ronald Reagan would have been turned down for a role in the film because of lacking that necessary “presidential look”! Also Vidal would have apparently cheerfully admitted that he meant the character of William Russell, the upper class candidate, to remind people of Adlai Stevenson and that Joe Cantwell, the plebeian underdog, was based on Richard Nixon!) In between, oysters and lobster (with Cava and Sauvignon Blanc) at John Dory Oyster Bar, next to the hotel where we are staying. (Çà fait bien 30,000 mètres d’altitude, survolant le froid, la neige plus bas, le Groenland, ou la Mongolie…en route pour l’Asie…)

Staying at the ACE Hotel. Opened 2 or 3 years ago. Have stayed at the hotel of the same name in Portland (there are 4 of the same inspiration in the US – the first one at Seattle, and the latest one at Palm Springs). Same style, large room, with the turntable, even a guitar this time, and the NYC afternoon sun in, the marble top dining table, the separate WC. Perfect. Located not too far south of Times Square. Only issue, the room doorknob, the key – it does not work when we want it to work! A hotel run by younger (hipsters?) people, in a transformed building – the “Breslin, a grimy single-room-occupancy hotel at the corner of 29th Street and Broadway”.  (update: see very interesting article in the NYTimes magazine, Sunday Nov 11, 2012, about the hotel and its neighbourhood)

To describe the room, in the words of the New York Times travel critic: “…This (room) had the promised king (size bed), plus an old dining table, a collection of retro office chairs, a 1950s-style refrigerator filled with snacks and drinks, and even an Epiphone guitar. An indie band would have a great time jamming here, but I found the unadorned black and white walls and harsh lighting depressing. The bed was comfortable, except for the scratchy Pendleton blanket; the TV had an easy-to-use interface, though few premium channels….The bathroom: The one whimsical touch — a faux-Victorian mirror bearing the words “Love Is Meant to Make Us Glad” — wasn’t enough to break the brown-tile boredom. The tiny soap-on-a-rope over the sink was a smart way to avoid slimy bar syndrome. The shower — a brass head over a tub (not in our case - no tub!) — had plenty of water pressure… The lobby doubles as a bar... the Breslin, a new restaurant from the owners of the West Village gastropub Spotted Pig... Also adjoining the lobby is a branch of Stumptown Coffee Roasters, out of Portland, Ore. Wi-Fi is free throughout the hotel…” We probably enjoyed the place more than she or he did… Would I stay here again? Despite the $100 credited back because of the difficulty with the door? It remains to be seen…

NYC, May 16, 2012