Two minutes of pure joy

For all of you who have long since reached your quota of presidential politics, here are two and a half minutes of pure joy from a delightful little person (no bias whatsoever).

Enjoy!

Love,

Rebecca

15 July 2016

Escape to the movies

We managed to squeeze in a few movies over the past few weeks. Actually, I think there were four, but for the life of me I cannot remember what the fourth was, so I will write about the three I remember.

The first bore a long title, “The Music of Strangers:  Yo-yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble.” We could not see this without remembering that amusing bit from Emanuel Ax, who proposed a trio with colleagues Yo-Yo Ma and Violinist Anne-Sofie Mutter be named “Axe Yo Mutter.” 

The movie shows scenes from numerous performances by “The Silk Road Ensemble,” a group of musicians first assembled by Mr. Ma in 2000 who have been playing concerts all over the globe. While following the group to various performances, the musicians discuss the role of their music amidst the violent world as well as the challenge of coming together with all their different styles while remaining true to each of their own. The soundtrack is exquisite but the cinematography is also quite breathtaking. If you enjoy music or art or both, you will appreciate this film.

On a completely different note, we saw a movie called “Weiner Dog.” This is not to be confused with the movie we had seen some weeks back about a New York politician. This movie really is about a dog, or perhaps I should say more about the dog’s various owners.

When the movie begins, the dog belongs to a family whose young son is seriously ill. The parents have a troubled relationship, and their inability to care for the dog properly literally makes a mess of their ownership. The dog next goes to live with a young man and woman (Kieran Culkin and Greta Gerwig) who had at one time been a couple and accidentally run into each other just after the young woman has rescued the dog from being euthanized. They eventually end of giving the dog to the fellow’s brother and his wife, a couple with Down Syndrome. From there he lives with a screenwriter (Danny DeVito) who has his own pathology. Weiner Dog’s final home is with an older, unhappy woman (Ellen Burstyn) whose granddaughter visits only when she needs money.

Writer and director writer Todd Solondz has apparently made a number of similar films, but this is the first one I can remember seeing. I would not recommend it all that highly. It was a starkly bleak view of the world. Only the sick young boy, the couple with Down Syndrome, and the dog seemed to be reasonable beings; everyone else was selfish at best or downright mean-spirited at worst.

Earlier today we went to see one of the first showings of Woody Allen’s new release, “Café Society.”  This one has not gotten fabulous reviews thus far, and I know that many people cannot see his films without thinking about some of his unpleasant attributes. But for better or worse, we still enjoy his work. This one reminded me of a James Taylor quip during one of his concerts, “here’s a new song, sounds pretty much like all the old songs.” Woody could say “here’s a new film, pretty much like a lot of the old films.” And that’s just it – he is doing here what so many have enjoyed for so long. Mr. Allen directed but does not appear in this one, but you could say that he has replaced himself and Diane Keaton with Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart.

Bobby Dorfman (Mr. Eisenberg) is a fellow who moves to Hollywood where he falls in love with Vonnie (Ms. Stewart) after having grown up in a colorful family in the Bronx.  But Vonnie is also being wooed by Phil (Steve Carell) and when she decides to marry Phil, Bobby returns to New York, where he becomes a part of high society nightclub life and meets and marries Veronica.

I have been struggling the past few days trying to write something about all the horrific things going on in the world right now. But I simply cannot find anything meaningful or inspiring to say. I want to believe that each terrible event is the last, but unfortunately it does not seem to be so. Watching movies provides only a brief escape. When the lights come up, we are still right where we were.

Love,

Rebecca

An exquisitely designed museum

We celebrated our 43^rd wedding anniversary last week, and decided to do something a bit different. Aside from an initial trip in early 1991 when Mount Sinai was wooing Barry to join their faculty and brought the whole family for a week in New York, the two of us have never stayed overnight in Manhattan. We do sometimes talk about how different life would have been living in the City. We sometimes have fun thinking about how much we could now sell one of those $300,000 apartments we looked at, though could barely afford, at today’s prices. As a Midwestern girl, the high crime rate and garbage everywhere simply did not feel like the place for me. Of course much of that has changed, and we would be lucky to find a studio apartment we could afford after selling our 4-bedroom house in Riverdale. The wonderful thing about Riverdale is that it is about as close to the City as you can be and still have a private house, grass, and trees. So while it was nice being in Manhattan, we both came home after our two day adventure and realized how happy we are right here.

We had bought tickets to an Off-Broadway play, “The Effect.” This turned out to be interesting for me because it involved two young people who were participants in a pharmaceutical-company-sponsored study of an anti-depressant drug in development. This is precisely the type of project I first worked on when I joined Pfizer in 1992! In the play, there was no easy happy ending for either the young people or one of the psychiatrists looking after them.

Relative to this, our ending was rather benign: in three independent trials, the new drug addressed neither the symptoms of depression nor some of the side effects seen with existing compounds. The leader of the Clinical team asked me to present the results to our senior management. I assumed it was because he did not wish to be associated with these three negative studies. So I did the presentation, and what the head of Clinical and Scientific Affairs has stuck in my head all these years. “We had a question, and we set out to answer that question. We ran a good study, you did a fine job analyzing and presenting the data, so now we have our answer. That is what we needed.” Perhaps this is not strictly verbatim but I think it is fairly close to what she said.

Ordinarily we might have bought tickets to something a bit more upbeat, but we have been shying away from live musical presentations as part of the traditional observance of the year of mourning for Barry following the loss of his mother. This summer when the grandchildren come, we bought only two tickets for each of the shows, and Barry will just be our chauffeur.

The next day, we had planned to go to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum followed by a visit to the Whitney Museum, but that second part never happened. The 9/11 Museum was far more extensive and beautifully moving than we could ever have expected. If not so emotionally draining there is easily a full day or more to see there, but we were drained after three hours. 

If you are interested in learning more about the museum, you can look on:

www.911memorial.org/museum 

We did not really know anyone directly who was in the Towers that day, but we did have three names we looked for and found. The first was Mark Rosenberg, the husband of the niece of one of our close friends.

The second was Andrew Zucker, a friend of our neighbor’s son, who left behind a loving and pregnant wife.

And the third was one of whom we had just learned, Christopher Quackenbush, the father of the delightful young man who led us on the tour of Citi Field; CJ was just 9 years old in 2001.

What more is there to say?

Love,

Rebecca

Finally, a few minutes to write

When we came home on Sunday, just the two of us, we had to spend a few days catching up from all the fun we had with Joshua last week. We have talked a good deal about whether Joshua will still want to spend a week with his doddering old grandparents as he gets somewhat older, and whether we will be up to the task when the two youngest grandchildren are old enough for this experience. And even if we are, will the children still want to hang out with two seniors for a week? The one asset we do offer is the ability to afford to take them to things that their parents, who are responsible for all of their care and feeding the other 51 weeks of the year, do not have as many resources to do. If that fails, there is always that old adage about grandparents and grandchildren being close because they share a common enemy….

The first few days of Joshua’s visit were largely consumed with baseball. Going to games with him is really a joy because he so enjoys it. This week he was determined to learn to keep score on the traditional baseball score sheet.

The backstage tour of Citi Field was fantastic. I cannot say enough about that moment when we stepped out onto the field. I really did feel in awe just standing there, and I am far from what you would call a baseball fan.

Sunday’s (19 June, 2016) game was against the Atlanta Braves. Except for one hit early on, the Braves pitcher pitched a perfect game with a final score of 1-0. This was an auspicious day. Nearly 52 years ago to the day (21 June 1964), Barry saw Jim Bunning pitch a perfect game against the Mets. Both games were played on Father’s Day, and Barry went to both of them with a Joshua: the first, his father and the second his grandson, named after his father.

On Wednesday we were back at Citi Field for our third time to see the Mets beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3.This game was fitting payback for the last game we saw with the Royals when they beat the Mets in game 5 of the world series.

On Tuesday we went to the Bronx Zoo, always a big hit with the children and for us. We brought along a picnic lunch and had a lovely day there. Mid-afternoon we came back home, and went over and had frozen yogurt at Menchies.

Thursday was our day at the American Museum of Natural History. The highlights were the newest IMAX Film, “Dark Universe,” narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, and a beautiful film called "National Parks Adventure," narrated by Robert Redford. We managed to see all of the major exhibits and enjoyed the various exhibits, 

On Friday we had to spend some time preparing for Sabbath, so we had a briefer closer-to-home outing to a miniature golf course. We had never been there and figured it would be good to know about for the other children when they come. It was actually quite nice, clean and well kept. There were not a lot of steps but it was still too much walking and too difficult to do with a walker or wheelchair, so the boys played and I had fun watching and cheering them on.

This was the first time we had Joshua with us over the weekend. Friday evening services at our synagogue are especially nice, and Joshua enjoyed it although like many an 11 year old he thought it was a bit too long. We went back on Saturday morning and then had a nice lunch and played various games throughout the afternoon. Joshua and Barry went outside a few times to play catch but it was too hot even for Joshua to stay very long!

On Sunday we packed up Joshua’s things and drove up to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, where we met Dina and the two girls. We walked around to see all the fish and watched the sea lion show, then had our lunch. They headed back up to Sharon and we drove back home to New York.

My, it is quiet here!

Love,

Rebecca

Full schedule!

I last wrote about our visit to Citi Field on Monday. We spent a good part of Tuesday at the Bronx Zoo, followed by another baseball game at Citi Field – the Mets won! Thursday was spent at the Museum of Natural History. I will share pictures of all of these when things settle down next week.

We did not want to venture too far for too long today, so we went somewhere we have never tried – a miniature golf course about 5 miles north of us. New York is a big and diverse metropolitan area and you never know what you will find just a few short miles away. But this one was quite lovely, clean, well kept. The course was fairly compact and fairly flat, although still too difficult for me to navigate. So Joshua kept me updated and I was the scorekeeper and photographer.

On Sunday we plan to meet up with Joshua’s family at Mystic, and they continue to predict great weather for this weekend.

Here are a couple of pictures from all of this. Hope to find some quiet time next week to fill in the gaps and finish the story.

Love,

Rebecca

A good excuse

Things have been quite hectic these past few weeks, with school ending, Joshua’s graduation from 6^th grade, Shavuot, and many activities with the children. But lest you think I am confined to quarters recuperating – and that might be a wonderful idea – we are really busy now with Joshua here for his Nana/Sabba week.

He’s keeping us quite busy, and I cannot spend too much time typing, so what I will do instead is upload a few pictures.

First, Joshua’s graduation.

After spending Shabbat in Sharon, we headed back to New York first thing Sunday morning to catch the Mets at Citi Field. They have been in a bit of a slump but the weather was fabulous and Joshua is a great sport who sees the joy in the game even when it does not go well for his team. One big advantage of the New York major league ball parks is that they have kosher food concessions. Of course the disadvantage is that most 11 year old boys fail to accept the idea that the following menu

Lunch: two hotdogs, a potato knish, a bottle of Sprite

Late afternoon snack: an ice cream sandwich

Dinner: fried chicken nuggets and French fries

can cause some abdominal upset. We know this about him but it is so hard to say “no” to that adorable face of his! We’ll be going again on Wednesday and I think he really means it when he says he plans to limit himself a bit more!

This morning we spent on our tour of Citi Field. This was totally cool, particularly standing right there on the field. It is such a different view. There was one part of the tour that was not accessible but the boys came back and reported to me. And of course we took lots of pictures.

Stay tuned for future installments! And enjoy Spring!

Love,

Rebecca

Time flying by

Where has the time gone? Well, I have accomplished some things. I had the dining room chairs re-upholstered, and ordered table pads which arrived over the weekend; not soon enough for this Sabbath but to be used the next time we are in New York. Everything looks good.

What I have not done is keep any sort of careful track of my activities. I must have been doing things because I know that I have not been sitting around eating bonbons, but I am hard pressed to come up with any sort of list. It is somewhat embarrassing but mostly just frustrating.

We did see a couple of movies. The first was “Maggie’s Plan.” Maggie (Greta Gerwig) is a 30ish woman who is still sort of trying to find herself. One thing she does know is that she wants to be a mother. Not having found a life partner, she sets out to find a man willing to donate sperm. She runs an advertisement and her interest is piqued by a fellow named Guy who makes artisanal pickles in Brooklyn. This brings back memories of “Crossing Delancey,” a charming 1988 movie with Amy Irving and Peter Riegert. She fills the turkey baster and begins the process but is interrupted by John (Ethan Hawke), a man she has recently met due to some mix-up with paychecks. John, of course, is already married - to Georgette (Julianne Moore), but it is not what anyone would call a good marriage. Two Saturday Night Live veterans, Maya Rudolph and Bill Hader, play their friends, a couple that leave you scratching your head wondering why they ever married in the first place. 

Fast forward a few years, Maggie and John are now married with a young daughter but having some of the same issues that left his first marriage in bad shape. You can sort of see what is going on but I do not want to ruin this entirely because there is one “surprise” due to a detail from early on in the story. This movie received good reviews but I was not terribly enthused. Maybe it was Julianne Moore’s rather odd accent.

The other movie, as far as I can see, has only one thing going for it: it provides another politician for consideration whose personal life and style leave a lot to be desired. Interestingly, he may well have been a good public servant. But his behavior was so bizarre that it is difficult to fathom why he and his wife would have ever agreed to allow the film maker to speak with them and film them. We tried to figure out how they could have possibly signed a contract that did not have an escape clause, because they really should have run like the wind (I think that Huma Abedin would have if she could). The movie is “Weiner.” We are not in 4^th grade any more so his name is no joke when you look at his life. It is just overwhelmingly sad to me to see someone self-destruct so miserably and then go back for a second round.

I seldom work on the New York Times crossword puzzles on Friday and Saturday. It would be easy to use Shabbat as an excuse; the real reason is that I am just not that good. On Sunday, the puzzles are larger but are sometimes easier than Friday and Saturday. So when I have some time I will challenge myself. Something in this past Sunday’s puzzle brought a chuckle:

New York Times Crossword, Sunday 05 June 2016

73 Down: City whose name looks like it could mean "my friend"

(5 letters, and I was pretty sure the middle letter was an A)

Then it hit me, although I had never thought about it, we learned this from Dina when she was just a little girl. We were planning a trip to southern Florida and Simmie kept talking about the trip until finally Dina said (read it out loud)

"Simmie keeps saying we are going to her "Ammy", but when do we get to go to my "Ammy?"

No matter how hard we tried, it was never easy to keep things completely equal!

Have a nice week!

Love,

Rebecca