Astri, Vincent, and Wolfie

2011 was a year of birthdays, deaths, travels, concerts, and visits. Sometimes I am surprised at the pace and amount of enjoyment Astri and I have of what New York City offers in culture and friends. New York City has never been the place I most want to live, though I feel fortunate that I live here. I enjoy the place and its people, and my friends from many other countries.

The Middle East has been a region of upheaval and change in 2011. Many people of various ages have bravely demonstrated against oppressive and manipulative governments, with thousands dying in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Egypt and elsewhere. The United States Government watches, and I expect behind the scenes promotes leaders and political parties that advocate and practice democracy. Politics can be a delicate process.

The economies of the USA, Europe, and Middle East are having tremors also, with governments spending more than their income. When Astri and I were in Lisboa, Portugal, in 2002, we seemed almost the only ones paying the subway fares. Politicians frequently seem to offer programs in the USA and elsewhere without enough concern about payment for them. While at the moment I favor the re-election of Barack Obama, I chuckled when I saw a bumper sticker that read ‘2012, THE END OF AN ERROR’. Catchy.

My partner Astri’s 70th birthday was celebrated in Florida in January, with all her siblings, their spouses, and a few others of us there. I liked seeing Astri fussed over. She is kind, respectful and sensitive as a person.

Astri and Her Niece Kate

Astri and I attended concerts this year, in New York City and western Massachusetts. She enjoys singing as a member of the St. Cecilia Chorus. She and her sister Penny sang in a concert by Penny’s granddaughter Chandler, and Chandler’s friend Marissa. Astri and Penny also sang this year in Vancouver, Canada, as members of a Berkshire Choral Festival.

Astri and I helped celebrate the 10th wedding anniversary of our friends Alice and David Andersen in Connecticut, with four other of their friends. Astri and I were in Illinois in June, attending my nephew and Jen’s wedding. Astri’s brother-in-law Ian celebrated his 80th birthday in October with family members with a small crowd of family and friends, with his grandchildren eager to help him blow out the candles and watch him open gifts.

Jen and Bob Hayley's Wedding

Celebrating an 80th Birthday

She and I also attended memorial services for friends and relatives who died during the year. Our friend Dora died in April, in her 90s. She had Alzheimer’s. My friend Al died at 84 in June, after a short illness. My friend Harold died in Missouri, in his 90s. I used to write him approximately each 6 weeks, during his nursing home years. When I first met him, he would tell me about his years in World War II. War leaves its impressions. Astri’s Aunt Allyne died in Connecticut, 3 hours into her 89th year. Astri and I visited her and her four children and a daughter-in-law, when Allyne was home, weak, a few days before she died, and attended her memorial service. She was a quiet, friendly, outgoing woman.

Some of my international friends passed through NYC this year. My friend Paul and his friend Jorie, who live in The Netherlands, visited the northeast of the USA, and into Canada. Ryo, a Japanese jazz pianist, composer, and singer, was in the city for a few weeks in September. So was my Indonesian friend Ting, who lives in California. A young friend, Aong, from Thailand, is in the city for a few months. I accompanied an Indian friend Suresh and his friend David to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. My friend Harry who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, was in the city to run the NYC Marathon in November. His friend Curt traveled to NYC with him, watching the race. Astri and I cheered Harry and Astri’s nephew Giles, and hundreds of the thousands of runners.

Jorie, Vincent, and Paul - at Newark Int'l Airport

I was international in my own travel, to South Korea for 2 weeks in September, days in Seoul and a southern coastal city, Chongwan, meeting friends in both cities.

Jay and Vincent, Mountain Climbers - in South Korea

A happy 2012 to you and those you love.

Vincent

Astri and Vincent: Years of Art

Music:  Astri and I heard concerts by the New York Youth Symphony and Jazz Band Classic, both groups made up of young musicians of the New York City area. We were at two other jazz programs, a Cyrus Chestnut quartet and a Marty Ehrlich quartet.

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was partly held at Rockefeller University, a 20 minutes walk from our apartment. I heard 38 pianists in 7 days, Astri with me some of the time.

I attended a performance and discussion of Japanese music at a theater near Lincoln Center, and Astri and I heard a conversation on film, dance, and video at the Japan Society. Astri and her friend Esta were members of the Berkshire Music Festival this year in Montreal. Astri and Astri’s sister had a week of Berkshire Choral Festival voice classes in western Massachusetts and sang a concert there as members of the BCF, more than 150 members that evening. This year Astri joined the St. Cecilia Chorus that will give a concert at Carnegie Hall in early December. Astri is also one of six women of a drumming group who get together one evening a week practice rhythm with drums. The teacher of the group is a professional drummer with her own band.

Theater:  Astri and I saw live theater, sometimes though tickets given us, and sometimes with purchased tickets. She and I watched Cirque du Soleil in one of its surreal productions of acrobatics, music, and mime, Kooza. We were also at the play Irena’s Vow, about a young Catholic woman who bravely hid eleven Jews in Poland during World War II. Irena’s daughter spoke and took questions from the audience after the play. Astri and I hosted our friend Barb for an afternoon of theater for her 70th birthday, seeing Angela Lansbury and Rupert Everett in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit. The three of us afterward went to an Asian restaurant, Tao, for dinner. In August, while Astri was at the Berkshire Music Festival in Massachusetts and I was enjoying the western Connecticut home of Astri’s aunt while her aunt was away, I attended the musical The Music Man at a theater 20 minutes by car from the house. The program was lively, and skillfully performed. Astri’s aunt had offered Astri and me her house for two August weeks when her aunt would be vacationing in Maine. I enjoyed the house for a week with Astri, and a week by myself while Astri was at the Berkshire Choral Festival.

Books:  My brother-in-law Jerry DePinto published a novel this year, Ride the Serpent, about a year in the 1960s. Well written, it covers, through funny dialogue and visual descriptions, life in Chicago during racial and political tensions of social unrest and personal discovery. The book is sold through Lulu.com for about $20.

My Thai friend Seng, also known as Buffalo Boy and Weeraphan Thawaitakahm, who lives in Canada, published three books of photography this year. I helped him with grammar in his Taste of Asia, a collection of photos he took on trips in Thailand and to Hong Kong, Laos, Cambodia, India, and Nepal. With all the color in that book, its price is high, about $45 for the paperback version though Blurb.com.

A Year of Transition:  We as citizens of the United States have had our own review and upheavals during and after our presidential election. The treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, at first described as excesses of individual U.S. soldiers, was revealed as officially sanctioned and encouraged by the Bush Administration. The imposition of waterboarding at Guantanamo has been acknowledged and the refusal of some legal rights to prisoners there has been reviewed and altered. Our country, that 4 years ago re-elected George Bush and his go-it-alone policies, this year elected our first Black president who challenged those same policies. We are a curious mix of political views.

May we all listen more, and shout less, and may you have a season and new year of much happiness.

I have been planning a little for some travels. In January I expect to be in Florida for 3 weeks. I may be visiting in Asia, starting in April, for 2 or 3 months.

You may photos related to what I am about to tell you, without ready my letter, at

http://vincentnyc.multiply.com/photos/album/38

This month I mailed cards to friends and family in the United States and elsewhere. The addresses of many friends are not known to me. For those friends, you may read my message at

http://vincentnyc.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/reviewing-2008

My friend Miki who lives in Washington, DC, was in New York City December 8th. Early that day he attended a lecture in New Jersey about Yoko Ono whom he appreciates, the artist and widow of John Lennon. Miki was in New York City and the afternoon with me. That day was the anniversary of John Lennon’s murder. Miki and I walked to Strawberry Fields in Central Park where other New Yorkers were gathered to remember John through song. John spoke to many people of the world through his lyrics.

From Strawberry Fields, Miki and I traveled to a large Japanese bookstore in Manhattan. I bought a two gifts for Astri – origami paper and a sketchbook. Earlier in the week or the week before I bought a book on women artists for her. She will be getting those presents early next year. I left them in the city accidentally. We are at her house on Long Island this week and next week.

At the Japanese bookstore were kimonos for sale. Some are made of printed cloth. One, expensive, is woven rather than printed. I have liked kimonos for many years. Someday I would like to add one to the art collection that Astri and I have.

Astri and I attended a concert of the Brearley Singers on Friday the 12th. Astri is a member of that chorus. She had a sore throat, deciding not to sing that evening. Most of the concert I did not like, one or two of the soloists screeching more than singing. A small group of young women who are students at the Brearley are called The B Naturals. Their singing is lively, with harmonies. I enjoyed their music.

Astri and I traveled to Massachusetts the next day for a visit with Astri’s sister, Penny. Two of Penny’s grandchildren performed during the afternoon in a ballet, the Nutcracker. Penny, Astri, and I arrived at the theater early. I walked to an art gallery for a fast look around. The ballet was colorfully and skillfully choreographed and danced, some of the lead dancers perhaps guests. I liked a Chinese dragon walking about on stage, snorting fog at the audience. The first half of the ballet did not communicate much to me, though I enjoyed watching some of the dancers. The second half was livelier. During the second half I stood at his side of the auditorium taking pictures with my Canon, setting it for no flash, a quick speed, and tungsten lighting. Many of the photos were surprisingly detailed. I posted some of them on the Internet.

http://vincentnyc.multiply.com/photos/album/37

In the afternoon, Penny’s brother-in-law stopped by with his dog Pippi. Sunday, Penny and took Astri and me to the studio of a local potter, Marty Phinney. Penny had some bowls from Marty that we liked. I bought a similar one. Astri bought two smaller bowls with a pattern similar to Penny’s and mine. Astri and I were there the next day when we were departing for New York. Astri bought a ceramic mouse, I bought little face in white leave, the face and the leaves ceramic.

I was with my friend New York City friend Vijay Tuesday, the 16th. He and his partner live in Manhattan. Vijay and I took winter pictures of each other in front of a Christmas tree before we walked to his apartment where I left him.

Astri and I visited our friend Dora on the 18th, to celebrate Dora’s birthday early. Dora is in her 90s. Sometimes when I talk with Dora, I feel as though she knows I am talking though does not follow or understand what I am saying. She gives me a friendly smile. Astri gave her a CD of Bach piano music as a birthday present. While we all listened to it, Dora was gently moving her fingers as though playing a keyboard. She seemed to be enjoying the music.

Astri and I attended a piano concert of a young Israeli, Alon Goldberg, at Rockefeller University on Friday. He spoke briefly about some of the music before playing some of the pieces, telling us for instance about Robert and Clara Schumann hearing Johannes Brahms when Johannes visited them. Robert was the editor of a music journal. After not writing for the journal for 10 years, he wrote one more article, expressing his appreciation for the young composer.

Astri and I traveled to Astri’s house on Long Island on Saturday. We will be here through New Year’s Eve. Tuesday night, Wednesday, and Wednesday night, Penny was with us. The three of us were at the home of another of Astri’s sisters for Christmas Eve dinner and caroling, Astri playing the piano while she and others sang. I have photographs of that evening. Christmas dinner would be at a large home of that used to belong to Astri’s mother. Astri, Penny and a few other relatives were decorating inside the day before Christmas, setting the table for the Christmas meal.

Another of Astri’s sisters gave me a book for Christmas, Lost on Planet China, by J. Maarten Troost, a young author and traveler. He tells about his visit to China. The subtitle of the book is The Strange and True Story of One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation. To me, China is a large, diverse country of friendly people, rather than mystifying. I like meeting and understanding for myself. I will like traveling in the book’s pages.

Christmas dinner went smoothly, most of the cooking by Astri over 2 days. A small fire was in the fireplace of the large room, of the house that had been designed by Astri’s grandfather to display antiques he collected in Europe before and during World War I. In the house is a fireplace maybe from the 1500s. Astri and another of her sisters have prepared the house for rental, after tenants of five years left this year.

Pictures of our Christmas gathering are posted in Multiply.com, with other pictures of the weeks, at the site I mentioned before,

http://vincentnyc.multiply.com/photos/album/38

After dinner some of us were outside, watching a Long Island sunset.

For much of January this year, I was in Monett, Missouri, visiting my mother who was seriously incapacitated by pneumonia after an operation on her liver. During the liver operation, cancer was discovered again. Earlier she had had breast surgery for cancer. When I was there in January, she was at a nursing home, about 20 minutes from my sister and brother-in-law’s house, where the three had lived for many years. She and I communicated at the nursing home with short sentences. I took her for brief walks in her wheelchair, inside and outside, sitting with her in the sun, amid leaves on the ground. I would read poetry to her under an outdoor shelter, or sit quietly, talking slowly with her, while her eyes were closed. When I asked her how she was, she usually said ‘fine’, though I knew otherwise. Astri was with us for about a week. She said my mother looked pleased with hugs that I gave her in the wheelchair. Mom died in February.

She enjoyed writing poetry.  One she wrote when she was visiting Astri and me on Long Island, New York, in July, 1991.

I held a thought in my mind today –
It was much like
cradling a small life form
in the palm of my hand,
feeling the pulse beat,
sensing its gathering of it resources
to itself
to make its statement,
to be …
It was exciting to watch
the birth of an idea.

A young friend of mine, Jaa, died in April in Malaysia, 32 years old, maybe of a combination of dengue fever and severe pneumonia. We chatted for about a year before meeting for the first time in 2003, having a little vacation together in Melaka, a famous historic port city in Malaysia. I met him again last year in Malaysia, at a restaurant for about an hour. I knew I liked him. I knew after he died that I liked him more than as just a friend. He was a quiet man, who did not say much by phone, who talked fast when with me in a car, a restaurant, or walking about.

I wrote a poem about him soon after being notified of his death.

Fast talking,
Handsome,
He was a quiet sparkle in my life.
We walked Malaka,
Stood in the Equitorial pool,
Had meals in the sunny dining room,
Traveled to a forest waterfall
Four years ago.

Last summer
Again we were,
That time for an hour
At a mall,
Chatting
About his work,
His friends,
His future.

This year, April 12th,
He stopped chatting,
He silent forever
From pneumonia
At 32 years old.

His name is on my chat room list,
Our pictures in my albums,
His flowing words in my ears,
His perky smile and
Short black hair
With me.

Our conversation is absent,
No more.
That is what hurts,
That we cannot talk again.

I have another friend in Chengdu, China, that was in the news this year after hit by a strong earthquake. He was not injured. He said the earthquake damage was mostly a short distance from Chengdu.

Astri and I enjoyed concerts this year, a few of them choral evenings in which Astri was one of the choral members. She sang in the Berkshire Choral Festival in Massachusetts in July, singing Randall Thompson’s Frostiana and a requiem by composer Mack Wilbert, with her sister Penny and me in the audience applauding. In September she and Penny were near Salzburg, Austria, without me, singing a Beethoven mass in Salzburg Cathedral. During that visit to Europe, Astri also visited her niece in Oslo.

Astri and I subscribe to the New York Youth Symphony. Talented young people, in their early 20s and younger, give 3 symphonic concerts a year, and another group of young musicians sponsored by the same funding organization give jazz concerts 3 or 4 times a year.

My two brothers, 3 of my 4 sisters, their families, and Astri and I met for our family reunion in July. We have a family reunion once each two years, this year in Paducah, Kentucky, a riverside city where the National Quilt Museum is located. My brother John retired to Paducah from the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, where he was an animal control officer. He now lives comfortably in Kentucky with his 4 dogs and a cat.

May the stock market rebound, and may you have many happy days in 2009!

http://vincentnyc.multiply.com/photos/album/36

November 4th was an historic day, with the election of the first black president of the United States, 143 years after the end of the American Civil War. Astri and I were at our polling place two blocks from our apartment early. A line of voters stretched over two half blocks. Though most New York City voters often vote Democratic, the look that morning was that people wanted to be part of the process, when the outcome might have been the same even were many of us not there.

My impression of the two candidates was that Barack is a calmer and more thorough analyst than John McCain. I try to vote in terms of social objectives and political skill more than in terms of sex or color. I am what could be described as an affirmative action voter, giving my vote to a woman or minority member when other qualifications seem close to equal.

I was near Times Square late in the afternoon the next day with a friend. I paused when I saw red chairs clustered outside, and photographed them. I stopped at the Art Students League to look at student art, liking a few paintings by a young Japanese artist, Yuka Imata. In the evening I walked home as a light rain fell, taking pictures along my route.

Astri and I went to Astri’s house on Long Island on Thursday, the 6th. On Sunday I walked about out there, taking more pictures.

We were in the city again Monday. On Sunday we attended a peace concert at the old Episcopal church in Greenwich Village, part of New York City. Nearer our apartment building I paused to photograph the evening moon.

On Wednesday the 12th, Astri and I were at her house on Long Island, having lunch at a restaurant, the Golden Pear, owned by a young couple who are friends of ours. A large dog sat outside by the front door of the restaurant. Our friends had just adopted her from one of their customers.

The following Monday Astri and I took a short walk on public streets near her house, my camera with us.

On the 19th I met my friend Jerome in New York City. He is a freelance writer and medical caregiver I have been with him three times. You may see some of his writing at his blog site,

Astri and I sorted through dolls close November 21st that had been sent to our apartment weeks earlier by a Malaysian friend of mine. Astri and I were admiring the detail in some of the sewing. A small pair of rubber boots looks amazingly similar to actual boots.

I went to the Whitney Museum that evening. The museum has a pay what you want policy on Friday evenings. An entire floor of the museum was devoted to work by Alexander Calder: wire sculptures, mobiles, stables, and paintings. He was quite playful and skillful in his use of wire.

http://www.whitney.org/www/calder/images.jsp

Saturday evening Astri and I went to Brooklyn to hear the opera Lucia di Lammermoor, presented by the small group Regina Opera, and a local orchestra. Astri’s friend Esta was one of the group singers. She was dressed in a bright blue dress. Astri and I enjoy her enthusiasm for music.

Astri was making greeting cards Sunday, the 23rd, in the city, cutting and pasting colored paper that she assembled into jolly figures as covers of the cards.

Tuesday the 25th I met a friend who lives in San Diego, California. He was in NYC for most of the week, to celebrate Thanksgiving with relatives. It was our first meeting, after chatting or writing each other for about 3 years.

Astri and I were at Astri’s house the day before Thanksgiving. I worked on getting cards composed and printed for end of the year mailings to my friends. This year I have sent approximately 200. Cards are another way for me to have conversations with friends I see only once in awhile, and friends I see more often. This year in the card I mention my Malaysian friend Jaa who died in April.

Thanksgiving for Astri and me was at the home of her sister Flicka and Flicka’s husband Ian. Their three children and their children’s children plus Astri and I, numbered 10 adults and five young people.

Saturday Astri and I came into New York City for a Sunday concert by the New York Youth Symphony. A young 18-year-old Chinese pianist, Haochen Zhang,

was one of the featured artists. He was loudly appreciated by many of the audience. He acknowledged them by playing an encore, a piano composition that may have been reflective of some Chinese poem.

The last piece on the program was Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Programs notes stated that Mussorgsky had been seriously depressed after his partner, a painter, died. Visiting a show of his paintings, Mussorgsky was again recalling the closeness and talent of his partner, giving the paintings another voice through the music. The conductor, Ryan McAdams, was so absorbed by the orchestra and its performance of Pictures that he stayed facing the orchestra afterward for maybe 15 seconds while the audience clapped. I felt he might be hiding his tears from us.

I was with my friend Jerome again on Monday, December 1st. We had supper at a coffee shop, after which we walked to a large bookstore where we browsed about. I walked him to a subway station, leaving him there.

Astri and I had an afternoon date on Thursday the 4th. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant. From there we stopped by an art gallery near the restaurant. We rode by subway to 59th Street, browsing in Bloomingdale’s before taking a bus back to our apartment.

The young Japanese painter, Yuka, whose paintings I had seen 4 weeks before, was at our apartment Friday evening, delivering the one I had bought. The scene is of the roof or dome of a church in Cadiz, Spain. We showed her some of our collection. She had small snacks and a drink with us, while the three of us talked for two hours.

She mentioned that some paintings famous American are in storage, public storage, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while its American Wing is undergoing renovation. She likes that she could get closer to those paintings then when they are hanging in galleries. I walked to the museum the next day to have a look. You can see some of the photos I took that day.

In the three late November days of mayhem and murder in Mumbai, India, are bloody examples of cruelty for political objectives. One of the shocks for me was how nice looking many of the killers were. Extreme attitudes and cruelty are not confined to older, sour, serious faces. We, much of the world, wait to discover the motives of those 10 young men who killed almost 200 people, intent to make their statement to the world.

I get annoyed with media who show distraught faces or a crying child, giving the public a chance to identify or live some of the tragedy. Then I see photographs sent me by a friend, of the bloody train station and dismay in Indian faces. The events become more personal than a news program.

Again, my pictures, and pictures of Mumbai by others, can be seen at

http://vincentnyc.multiply.com/photos/album/36