Oster, April 1990 Vierwaldstatter See, CH

happy Easter! Photos from 1990... boat ride on the Vierwaldstatter See from Luzern to Burgenstock and back. What a good trip with my Zurich amigos!

impossible to answer but tried to give a list of my favorite books on a site..... so many favorite books. as a college professor I have spent 30plus years reading, recommending, creating curriculum. A recent favorite is Istanbul, by Pamuk! Wow such history, perspective, a good story of growing up! Prior to that was Pankuj Mishra's An End to Suffering. (I am such a NYReview of Books junkie).

My all time favorite gay book is Becoming a Man, by Paul Monette! Whoa what a story... the best yet! Another Country by James Baldwin has to be the best NYC novel ever!

my long time favorite social perspectives are by the iconics such as: Richard Hofstadter, C Wright Mills, Peter Gay, bell hooks, Sindiwe Magona, Ann Burack-Weiss all being other Columbia University faculty/grads. Havent read President's Obama's memoir, but as an alum, I instinctively understand his perspectives. (My first college years & degree in art from Brooklyn College and then time at the NY Art Students League, so love Lee Bontecou, Sylvia Stone, Pearlstein...). In the last year or so, I have mostly religiously read endless issues of Art Forum so I am also a bit out of the literary au courant news!

I know a bunch of authors/publishers/editors so biased towards their works. love the Harry Potter series... (no one predicted Arthur would be the publisher! whoa) I wrote a letter to the Diane von Furstenberg crew , they replied with her book! What a fast good read!

love the classics such as Dante, Freud, DW Winnicuit, deTocqueville, Marx, Habermas, James Joyce, Agnes Smedley, Pema Chodron, Georges Simenon!

I am busy working so I am gathering my next reading list... Bolano, Nathalie Serraute.... Every 5 years or so, Ihad a year to just read all who I have to read. in 2002, I read Dante, Saint Augustine, the Tibetan book of living & dying, then James Joyce! I will die before reading it all but maybe I have some clues to the next life..( ?)

hugs, peace, compassion

backtrack to Purim

posting the pages of an invite to a fundraiser held in 1984 for klezmer music. Great music for Purim! I was on the event committee, organized by a NYC family foundation, predominately supported by employees of a leveraged buyout company. The company officers were all Harvard MBAs and the company was their endeavor. (I declined going into the Harvard MBA program as I had just finished my Columbia MSW degree in 1982). The family foundation was run by the CEO and his wife. They lived on East 82nd street doors from the Metropolitan. We usually met with committee members at the Stanhope Hotel around the corner.

Such a festive event! great music! excellent food. There was a pre-concert dinner of Moroccan food at a committee member's home. Nice apartment... 111 East 63rd St... close to today's infamous Bernie Madoff! I had written down Madoff's address but misplaced it as I knew the address was somewhat similiar. The hosts of the dinner moved south in 1986 and I didnt stay in touch. A really lovely family! They were very involved in NY Philharmonic fundrasing.

The concert took place at the Americas Society on Park Avenue. This November 2008, the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House held a klezmer music soiree but don't remember the performance spot. I was going to fax this 1984 invite to the assistant exec director just for fyi... I worked for Lenox Hill in the 1990s at the Park Avenue armory program (down the street from the Americas Society).

The fundraiser made some money although not sure of the results as in 1985, I was recruited to work for the NYC Board of Education to help create new social work programs. I didnt stay in touch with the foundation until the 1990s when I heard the couple had broken up, the foundation closed.

In 2009, I am amazed once again by how busy I was in the 1980s! But also over time the different meanings which locales and places have. In 1984, I paid no attention to the Park Avenue Armory. In 1985, I went to a fundraiser for the Nation magazine there. Ran into some Columbia professors which was great fun! Watched James Baldwin and Gordon Parks smoke cigarettes and drink at the bar! Who knew I would be working in the armory 11 years later! It is almost ten years that I have walked the streets of the UES (although I zoom through on the 6 train to the Bronx a lot)

hugs, peace, compassion