Well, someone likes the weather we’ve been having!

The azaleas are gorgeous this Spring.  An explosion of Joy!

Photo: dievca azaleas Hudson River 05/2023

30,000 of your closest friends : 5 Boro Bike Tour

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Today, more than 30,000 participants from all over the world will meet in Lower Manhattan, before cycling the NYC Five Boro Bike Tour. The route is 65 kilometres (40 miles) long and has been made completely car-free for this event.

dievca’s Dutch friend would really like to ride this tour – dievca isn’t interested in joining the 30K for joy.  The race makes for some interesting traffic patterns in Manhattan and the Special Olympics race through the Lincoln Tunnel made for some interesting traffic patterns in NJ.  Just a weird traffic weekend overall.


Coffee and a strange sight~

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What’s with the pink tree on the High Line and 10th Avenue?

A 25-foot-tall fluorescent pink tree, a sculpture by the Swiss conceptual artist Pamela Rosenkranz, will land on New York’s High Line next April like a synthetic being, rising amid its budding-green brethren where the elevated park bridges 10th Avenue at West 30th Street. Reading as a tree (but obviously artificial), this rendition will have visceral qualities, with branches tapering into blood vessels and roots reaching over the earthen-clad plinth as though poised for flight.

“The whole tree might remind us of an organ,” said the artist, 43, who is based in Zurich and is the winner of the third High Line Plinth commission, a rotating program for monumental public artworks on view for 18 months at a time. (The first artists were Simone Leigh and Sam Durant.) Rosenkranz’s work, “Old Tree,” was selected from 80 proposals solicited from artists in 40 countries, nominated by international advisers and posted on the High Line’s website in 2020 for public feedback.

Digitally merging scans of actual trees with those of human circulatory systems and muscles, Rosenkranz fabricated an armature in metal on which she is sculpting layers of tactile polymer, tinted with pigments of vivid reddish pinks. “This color has a history of being quite attractive,” she said in an interview, “but I’m looking for a dissonance, something that also awakes or repulses.”

She was inspired by Louise Bourgeois’s monumental sculptures of spiders when designing her tree’s animated roots that appear to be scrambling from the plinth. “There’s a bit of a humoristic aspect,” she said, “as if the tree would like to leave its planter.”

From a NYT Article from Hilarie M. Sheets

Photos: dievca NYC High Line 04/2023

View of the Earth via NYC

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Photos: dievca – NYC and th Hudson River 04/2023


Casual Dress: dining in Chelsea

cakeSo, the Birthday dinner ended up at a local Chinese Food restaurant in Chelsea (Grand Sichuan).  A bit of a dump, but the company was good and the birthday cake from Le Bergamote was spectacular!

It was raining lightly, so dievca dressed to bike (click on photos to see the brands):

The Party continued at a wine bar up by Times Square – but dievca tapped out.  she had worked a full day and had PT before the dinner.  

dievca thought her Sunday would be free and clear, but it turns out that she has been scheduled to meet friends for dinner. Thank Goodness they texted to ask what the dress code is for Cookshop otherwise she would have forgotten…

The dress code is stated as Casual Dress: With “casual dress”, anything goes. Let your comfort and the weather be your guide. Still, it’s important to use your best judgment. No matter how casual the dress, everything you wear should fit you well at your current weight, and be in good clean condition.

So, dievca is diving back in to her closet for something to wear (64F = 18C, no rain):


Mussels with Master and Sylvia Plath

Mussels

Master and dievca enjoyed a an evening of mussels at the B. Cafe on the UES

Mondays are a quiet dining night in NYC, so the experience was low-key and relaxed.  The mussels were fresh and well-cooked. 

Years ago, a bartender explained to dievca how you can have excellent mussels all year on the East Coast.  The mussel are sourced from the Maine on down the Atlantic Coast depending upon the season.  Hence, good mussels all year.  At the time, dievca was confused because the mussel season in Europe was shorter (as far as she knew).

Let’s honor the joy brought by a messy job with Sylvia Plath:

Mussel Hunter At Rock Harbor

I came before the water —-
Colorists came to get the
Good of the Cape light that scours
Sand grit to sided crystal
And buffs and sleeks the blunt hulls
Of the three fishing smacks beached
On the bank of the river’s

Backtracking tail. I’d come for
Free fish-bait: the blue mussels
Clumped like bulbs at the grassroot
Margin of the tidal pools.
Dawn tide stood dead low. I smelt
Mud stench, shell guts, gulls’ leavings;
Heard a queer crusty scrabble

Cease, and I neared the silenced
Edge of a cratered pool-bed.
The mussels hung dull blue and
Conspicuous, yet it seemed
A sly world’s hinges had swung
Shut against me. All held still.
Though I counted scant seconds,

Enough ages lapsed to win
Confidence of safe-conduct
In the wary other world
Eyeing me. Grass put forth claws,
Small mud knobs, nudged from under,
Displaced their domes as tiny
Knights might doff their casques. The crabs

Inched from their pygmy burrows
And from the trench-dug mud, all Camouflaged in mottled mail
Of browns and greens. Each wore one
Claw swollen to a shield large
As itself—no fiddler’s arm
Grown Gargantuan by trade,

But grown grimly, and grimly
Borne, for a use beyond my
Guessing of it. Sibilant
Mass-motived hordes, they sidled
Out in a converging stream
Toward the pool-mouth, perhaps to
Meet the thin and sluggish thread

Of sea retracing its tide-
Way up the river-basin.
Or to avoid me. They moved
Obliquely with a dry-wet
Sound, with a glittery wisp
And trickle. Could they feel mud
Pleasurable under claws

As I could between bare toes?
That question ended it—I
Stood shut out, for once, for all,
Puzzling the passage of their
Absolutely alien
Order as I might puzzle
At the clear tail of Halley’s

Comet coolly giving my
Orbit the go-by, made known
By a family name it
Knew nothing of. So the crabs
Went about their business, which
Wasn’t fiddling, and I filled
A big handkerchief with blue

Mussels. From what the crabs saw,
If they could see, I was one
Two-legged mussel-picker.
High on the airy thatching
Of the dense grasses I found
The husk of a fiddler-crab,
Intact, strangely strayed above

His world of mud—green color
And innards bleached out blown off
Somewhere by much sun and wind;
There was no telling if he’d
Died recluse of suicide
Or headstrong Columbus crab.
The crab-face, etched and set there,

Grimaced as skulls grimace: it
Had an Oriental look,
A samurai death mask done
On a tiger tooth, less for
Art’s sake than God’s. Far from sea —-
Where red-freckled crab-backs, claws
And whole crabs, dead, their soggy

Bellies pallid and upturned,
Perform their shambling waltzes
On the waves’ dissolving turn
And return, losing themselves
Bit by bit to their friendly
Element—this relic saved
Face, to face the bald-faced sun.


And the wind knocked dievca off her bike

Windy Weds

An eye-opener, for sure~


Signs of NYC Spring – 2023


Well, it wasn’t much~

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The Snow wasn’t very impressive at 10 pm, last night.
dievca doesn’t think it will be a problem this morning on the bike…
Carrying the cake will be tricky.

(It was sweet to pull out Mom & Dad’s measuring spoons plus dievca realized that her mixer is 25 + years old and going strong)

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Bao

xiao-long-bao-steamed-pork-260nw-175339121dievca had been introduced to soup dumplings by a friend in NYC who opened a restaurant, Bund on Broadway, just before COVID.  They made it through with pick-up service and flash frozen dumplings.  dievca bought a steamer just for the goodness of eating their tasty offerings.

dievca caught up with a good friend in CA and her friend wanted to hit a favorite restaurant, Din Tai Fung.  It was fabulous! (Note: this is the same friend, whose elderly Mother navigates NYC Chinatown at Warp Speed.)  Sometimes you feel very taken care of with the beautiful comfort food.

The word “bao” has two meanings in Chinese. One way it means “steamed bun,” and when said another way it means “treasure” or “something precious.”


Its been gridlock all day…

even on the bike.


Mysterious Mist – NYC

We do not have snow, but we do have interesting weather~ 

Click on the photos for more detail.

Photos: dievca Hudson River Walk NYC 12/2022


Winter Dawn – poem

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WINTER DAWN

The men and beasts of the zodiac
Have marched over us once more.
Green wine bottle and red lobster shells,
Both emptied, litter the table.
“Should auld acquaintance be forgot?” Each
Sits listening to his own thoughts,
And the sound of cars starting outside.
The birds in the eaves are restless,
Because of the noise and light. Soon now
In the winter dawn I will face
My fortieth year. Borne headlong
Towards the long shadows of sunset
By the headstrong, stubborn moments,
Life whirls past like drunken wildfire.

Translated from the Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

Tu Fu (713-771) was the leading poet in the T’ung Dynasty of 8th century China. In this remarkable piece called “Winter Dawn,” he captures a moment of flashing epiphany with language, so simple, that speaks from another plain and another time, decades earlier, about the swift flood of life rushing by — as John Prine wrote, “like a broken-down dam.”

dievca believes that Mr. Rexford took liberties in the translation to draw the poem into the future – its still lovely.

Photo: dievca NYC dawn 01/2023


Surviving SantaCon

Yesterday, it was SantaCon in NYC.
dievca had PT in Times Square, so she ended up in the thick of it during the late afternoon.  It hadn’t gotten super bad at that point.

Santa Con

What is SantaCon?

SantaCon is celebrated as an annual pub crawl where participants—all dressed up like Santa Claus—spend the day drinking at different participating bars.

As the SantaCon website says, “What is it? A SantaCon is a convention of santas – groups of men & women dressed like Santa. Why do it? Because it’s fun. That is all. It’s one of the few chances left for adults to be silly without any kind of agenda.”

When was the first SantaCon?

While an event of Santa-garbed people began in 1974 as an anti-consumerism demonstration, it wasn’t until 1994 that the first official SantaCon took place, which happened in San Francisco.

This is an interesting point that the SantaCon started as anti-consumerism – dievca was locking her bike to buy sushi for dinner, she asked a bouncer to keep an eye on it.  The bar had a consistent influx of “Santa’s but the bike was in his direct view.  After dievca picked up her sushi, she asked the bouncer how the afternoon was going and he pointed to the bar windows – the bar was packed. dievca then asked if SantaCon was a headache and the bouncer said that its a blessing – a boost in income for the year.

As dievca unlocked her bike, a group of 8 Ladies in their early 40’s wandered into the bar with their sparkly teal blue Santa Hats and matching t-shirts.  They had called in advanced to make reservations.  Does consuming drinks count as consumerism?

OK, Fair. SantaCon is annoying as heck when you get stuck in the middle of it while sober, but the activity does bring salvation to the Pubs of NYC.  It’s like putting up with the Tourists – New Yorkers just do it for the good of the City.


Fog

fog-rotator

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

Photo by Carl Glassman/Tribeca Tribune


Always on your busy day…

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Bike to work, bike home.
Shower.
Bike to PT, bike home.
Formal Dinner.
All while navigating the Rain and the Wind….

 


~Autumn has finally arrived in NYC~

coffee-hot-warm-fall-season-mug

What
Sub-freezing temperatures as low as 25 expected.
Where
In New Jersey, Hudson County. In New York, New York (Manhattan), Bronx, Richmond (Staten Island), Kings (Brooklyn), Northern Queens, Southern Queens and Southern Nassau Counties.
When
From 8 PM this evening to 10 AM EST Monday.
Impacts
Frost and freeze conditions will kill sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor plumbing.
Additional Details
The growing season will be coming to an end for these areas Monday November 21, and Frost Advisories and Freeze Warnings will no longer be issued for this season after Monday.
WARM COFFEE A NECESSITY AFTER THE BIKE RIDE TO WORK!


Urban Hawker – NYC (recommended)

Urban Hawker Ramendievca’s been off her game for a couple of days. Allergies into Sinus Infection into Bronchitis.  she’s been masking at work and otherwise laying low.

she’s out of Chicken Noodle Soup and she needed to shake off and move a bit, so she rode up to 50th Street between 6th/7th to get a bowl of Ramen at Urban Hawker — early enough so the crowds weren’t in evidence (4:30 pm).

Putting Anthony Bourdain’s dream into reality – Urban Hawker is a food market curated and helmed by KF Seetoh, who is the founder of Makansutra, a company revolving around Asian food culture. Urban Hawker features 17 different vendors, 11 of which are directly from Singapore.

dievca chose a soup (above) from Prawnaholic, a Hokkien-style prawn noodle soup stall.

she had a hard time of choosing because the selection of Asian street food that looks very appetizing is immense. she though the soup would be good for her health and soul.

Matcha TartAfter following up her dinner with a Matcha Tart, dievca hopped on her bike to follow the 7th Avenue Bike Path home.

Urban Hawker, which boasts a 200 person capacity and a 14,000 square foot space, is located a few blocks away from Times Square in Manhattan at 135 West 50th Street.

urban-hawker


NYC Marathon 2022

marathon-routeThe runners have been out in force along the Hudson River Bike Path for the last two months.  There is an uptick in foreigners wandering the City, this week.  Today is going to be warmer than most distance runners might like – a high of 75 F (24 C). Hopefully, most of the runners have been training through the Summer and we all know that this past Summer was very warm…

Anyways, ages ago, dievca sprinted in High School and College – her longest race was a 1/2 marathon along the Moselle River (FLAT!) in Graduate School and though she did well, she hated it.

Kudos to the dedicated people for the NYC Marathon.  dievca will be your cheerleader around Central Park. But before then she’ll be taking her extra hour of sleep, chilling out in the morning, drinking coffee and waking up to THE WHO. XO

(Just a side note — How many people are going to mess up the race start time with the time change?)


And so it goes~ Gala Night

The Moon was rising over Manhattan when dievca set out to the show and the Gala:

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she opted to wear:

dievca doesn’t know if the COVID epidemic caused her to go back to her Generation X roots of being a “loner”, perimenopause is causing her to get tired/irritated or starting work at 6 am put her over the edge by 10:00 pm – after 3 hours she wanted out. So, she left after the meal, before the awards, to hike up her skirt and bike her a** home. 

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Photo: dievca – Moonrise Chelsea NYC 10/2022, dievca’s bike, foot, dress, coat and bag…10/2022


Reality Check (a small dievca disaster)

20221020_194723So, dievca was on a bit of tight schedule. Work ended at 5:30 pm in Chelsea she had to get up to Manhattan Valley to look at a Coop for Sale (1930’s building, good views, well-maintained, excellent price, VERY SMALL). She then had to get down to 55th for a Twyla Tharp performance at City Center.  A cab ride downtown got her into the area, but not early enough to meet friends for dinner.

subway-meatball-marinara-subAt this point, dievca was feeling successful about quick cab rides, navigating the subway stairs, etc. she had time to step into Subway Sandwich shop to get a meatball sub…

Sometimes in NYC, you can buy your food but there isn’t anywhere to sit and eat. dievca decided to eat on the street and then head to the Theater. With her first bite of the meatball sandwich – a meatball shot out the back end, hit her her shoe and rolled on to the sidewalk.  dievca thought, “Ugh! I’ll eat the sandwich then pick up the meatball before feeding the rats.”  It was working, until a tourist kicked the meatball on to the subway train air vent and squashed it into the grate…  “OK, rats fed for this evening.”

With the sandwich finished, dievca made her way to the Theater, early, and was able to catch an empty elevator up to the “cheap seats”. (Her ticket was $45 total).  Note: masks were required for the performance.  

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Since dievca had a bit of time, she thought she could visit the restroom and wipe the meatball sauce off of her shoe.  Perfect!  The bathroom was empty.  The only problem was that the retrofitted stalls didn’t have much space between the toilet and the door.  dievca had a full backpack, coat, scarf draped over the door and managed to knock her face mask into the clean toilet…  she fumbled around to find clean napkins and thankfully the inside of the mask was not wet.

Stepping out of the stall, gathering her plethora of stuff – dievca tried to look more graceful washing her hands and cleaning her shoe wearing a slightly soggy mask. No one noticed.

The performance was amazing and dievca managed to make it home without any more mishaps.

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Photos: dievca City Center 10/2022

It’s a Beautiful Day!

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Cue the U2 Song – “Beautiful Day”

Photos: dievca – NYC Harbor Ferry Terminal 10/2022


Taking a Moment

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To appreciate a Masterpiece.

Photo: dievca NYC Hudson River Sunset 09/2022


dievca always wanted an outdoor shower, she got it in NYC.

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Not super private (in more ways than one), but the view is fun and the water is warm!

Photo: dievca Hudson River, NYC 09/2022


First Day of School

Sexy Teacher

It’s the First Day of School here in NYC.
Kids are either celebrating or bemoaning their fate.
Maybe the Teachers are, too~

Halloween is coming up soon – a little Cosplay “Hot for Teacher” anyone?

PS. Does anyone have Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” in their head?


Seeing Pink (without filters)

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Photo: dievca, Sunset in NYC 07/2022


“In this world in which we live simplicity and kindness are the only magic wands that work wonders”

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― L. Frank Baum, The Emerald City of Oz

Is that OZ  in the distance?
No. New Jersey.


Rain rolling in~

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When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day …

Shakespeare (or Robert Armin) from Twelfth Night

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(Photos: dievca NYC 07/2022)


Smell the Roses

As dievca made her way to the composting area along the Hudson River there was a double blossom rosebush that gave off the most delightful of smells:

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The composting guy has a passion for what he does and he explained the various plants grown by the volunteers to the Hudson Riverway Park.  In return, dievca was able to share the breakdown of corn starch packing materials via composting –> Carbon Dioxide and Water… 

Equals Happiness.

XO

Photo: dievca – Hudson River Greenway 06/2022


NYC – experiencing Thunderstorms

Getting to Times Square is a trick when you can’t ride your bike because of the thunderstorms.
Getting a cab is a trick when it’s raining and your PT session is at 7 pm in Times Square.
dievca was opting for a canoe.

Photo: Myrna Loy rows a canoe down a flooded street, circa 1925 Hulton Archive -Getty Images