NY Now 2014 Gift Show at Jacob Javits Center, NYC

Last August I reported on my visit to the Javits Center in New York City for the Home and Lifestyle Show, and today I returned to something similar called the Gift Show. No matter what it's called, it's quite the gathering of home design, from carpets to glassware to clothing and picture frames, guaranteed to overwhelm and entice. I am packed to the rafters with home decor, yet for a moment I considered chucking it all so that I could start over and pick and choose from what I saw today.

It's hard for me to imagine making decisions as a buyer at one of these shows, as after a short time one's senses begin to break down after seeing that there are hundreds of booths to pass one's eyes over and consider. I suppose that experienced buyers know who will be there and plan their routes in advance as to which aisles hold the likeliest vendors, while still leaving energy for the discovery of someone new with exciting products.

The main floor held hundreds of vendors, most of whose displays were beautiful and costly. It's much more involved than a 6 foot table with some fabric thrown over it and a few stands, as you'll see. This is serious expense and effort that I hope will pay off for them. It didn't seem that crowded (the above pic was taken as I left at 5:00 PM) but with the Superbowl in town, and it being Sunday, this made sense. This week it will probably be mobbed.

Liz Glasgow showing off the new Coloring Book. Hilda's gorgeous line drawings have been de-colorized and are waiting for you to create your own color schemes.

I was there as a guest of my friend Liz Glasgow, as I was last year. Liz and I have known each other since grade school and attended 3 schools together, from toddler ballet to elementary school to junior high. Liz's mother, Hilda Glasgow, was a famous fashion illustrator, and Liz has lovingly taken her incredible work and introduced it to a new generation of fans in the form of prints, greeting cards, table accessories and many other inventive pieces via her company, The White Cabinet.

Greeting cards, notepads, party invitations, gift tags, place mats (I can see a wall clock in their future) and other paper products (cool chair gift wrap!) to choose from, that already appear in hundreds of shops around the country.

This year I wanted to examine the new coloring book and pencils - what great packaging! Liz showed me pictures of customers at the recent Atlanta Gift Show who had colored in their drawings beautifully and wanted to take them home afterward.

Hilda's work is being managed by Kitchen Papers Hester and Cook Design Group, and their setup area this year is larger and airier and features all kinds of paper wonders as well as textiles and imaginative recycled lighting with an industrial edge.

Gift wrap and textiles by Kitchen Papers on an ingenious custom-made pipe display rack

I am seriously coveting a "spoondelier" for my kitchen (tho not this huge) 

Teacup chandelier hanging from spoons and silver plated trays and stands.

Is this not the wittiest thing you've seen in ages? Obviously it's perfect for a tearoom or coffee house, but it's also a delightful choice for a bridal shop or bookstore. Jane Austen, anyone?

I wrote about this blueprint lighting fixture last year, and here it is again. Great for an architectural firm, over the conference table or in the waiting area. 

There are also some very interesting and edgy fixtures like this one,

and this,

and this one, which would be sensational in a library or pub. Enameled lock plates never looked this good!

Here's the info about the lighting fixtures.

Color-in jewelry on paper that can be punched out and worn afterward! How would this go down at your little girl's next party?

After visiting and lunching with Liz I spent a couple of hours wandering around looking at as much as I could manage to absorb. It was the first day and not that busy, and I wasn't a real buyer so I didn't stop to chat too much to the vendors and this drain their energies and tried to be discreet while taking pictures. There are products to fit every design aesthetic, from minimalist and monochromatic to bright colors and hairy textures and ethnic influences. I am attracted to color, so that's what I focused on and share with you.

Shall I start with the A's? Jonathan Adler, whose work I am warming up to, with its bright colors and graphics. I am working my way from a vintage sensibility to a modern and graphic one style, and love the lift these colorful pieces can give to a room.

Bright and vibrant, and there was also a children's decor area. I can't imagine a better designer to furnish a child's bedroom.

Comfortable chair in the ever-trendy turquoise (velvet)

Great foreign cities pillows! Love the Rome and London designs. :)

Speaking of turquoise, Liz and I stopped by the Dansk booth to check out the "new" Kobenstyle cookware that the company is re-issuing. Liz and I both inherited vintage Dansk enameled pots - she has vintage turquoise and I have yellow and pumpkin orange. This cookware iss also available in tomato red. Sadly, my yellow 7 qt pot is no longer white inside but I am determined to keep the orange soup pot as pristine inside as possible. Love the casserole pan! Wouldn't something cheddar cheese-colored contrast nicely with the blue? Think World's Fair.

After all of that walking, we needed a little sugar and stopped by this mouth-watering display and tried some samples. I didn't get the name of the maker of these pretties, which I regret, as the chocolate peanut butter blob topped with Reese's pieces was divoon.

I love the pink lattice design topped with little white balls, upper left!

Cute and a great gift for the traveler. :)

Uhhhhh.....no. Not the way I would display my knives. Sorry.

I will continue tomorrow with Part 2! Lots more to come.

Thinking of You

Four years ago this night, I sat in a quiet small room at Lenox Hill Hospital with my brother as our father passed peacefully from this world into the next. It was the end of a two-year period that saw a steady decline as he dealt with some serious health issues, even though he was in remarkable shape for a man in his early nineties. He wanted to reach his 94th year, as his father died at that age. He almost made it - he was 93!

Celebrating Father's Day, 1950s, with father Sam and sister Dot

The daily life of a very elderly person isn't easy - the simple act of getting up from a chair is tricky and requires planning and determination, as does every little movement one thinks of making. The daily effort of dressing, eating and daily functions, even with help, can be very wearing. There was always some new adaptation to limitations that had to be learned, whether it was a new food or nutrition supplement or medical contraption to contend with. Fortunately, he was able to get around his large apartment with a sturdy walker, which he came to rely on and regard with an almost friendly attitude. He was a proud man and never wanted to be seen as old and feeble, and refused a wheelchair even though walking was difficult and this made his outside world's circumference much smaller.

Watching Central Park runners, using his walker, Fall 2009, wearing a fleece jacket that I made for him years ago that he jokingly called "the pill jacket. This fleece was an early version of the now-ubiquitous fabric that in those days sometimes pilled heavily after only a few wearings.

The end involved a fall, even though we tried to make home safe and guard against this often life-changing event. Three weeks and one hospital stay later, he slipped away quietly, with dignity, and I  believe, with relief. I sang to him (not well, as my singing days were long past, but with feeling, one of his favorite words) so he heard music as he left us. Dad was tired and was ready to go home to his parents and siblings. I only wish that I hadn't been so frightened of this idea at the time and had put less pressure on him to "get well" and accomplish the impossible like put on weight and get stronger, when the signs were right in front of me that all he wanted to do was calmly get on with the process of taking his leave without resistance. If I could do over anything in my life, it would be that.

I don't know how to attach a music file, which is a shame, as I would so love for you to hear Dad sing (he was a singer and teacher of music). There used to be a third party widget that I had on this blog that allowed just that, but the owners let it go and now it's unusable. If anyone can recommend one that will work with this Blogger format, please let me know.

Teaching class, possibly at the Ansonia Hotel, NYC, 1960s

Dad had an interesting array of "artistic and thoughtful" head shots made over his career, so I will close with them. Bravo, Maurice - you were splendid and I am so happy to have shared some wonderful times with you. I know that you are entertaining the Finkles up there and I hope that there is one giant, glittering piano in the sky that you are standing on top of, singing "Reaching for the Moon" as you did as a boy at the tail end of Vaudeville. Happy Days!

Aged about 15, first head shot

I love this one - it's all ahead of him, and he's so dapper. 

You think they retouch pictures today? What about this one? Photos taken by Bruno of Hollywood.

Serious, studious and wearing a bow tie

I prefer this photo of all of them. The star sapphire pinky ring was a gift from my mother

Casual plaid...and check out the eyebrows!

Maurice the beatnik - very Bohemian in a black turtleneck

This is the one he chose and had hundreds, if not thousands, of postcards made for mailing. 

Anyway, thinking of you with love, Dad, always.

Visit to the Cloisters

On Sunday I dashed to the Cloisters, my first visit in a few years, to catch the last day of The Forty Part Motet, a sound installation by Janet Cardiff  in the Fuentidueña Cloister. This is copied from the Cloisters web page about this exhibit:

The Forty Part Motet (2001), a sound installation by Janet Cardiff (Canadian, born 1957), will be the first presentation of contemporary art at The Cloisters. Regarded as the artist's masterwork, and consisting of forty high-fidelity speakers positioned on stands in a large oval configuration throughout the Fuentidueña Chapel, the fourteen-minute work, with a three-minute spoken interlude, will continuously play an eleven-minute reworking of the forty-part motet Spem in alium numquam habui (1556?/1573?) by Tudor composer Thomas Tallis (ca. 1505–1585). Spem in alium, which translates as "In No Other Is My Hope," is perhaps Tallis's most famous composition. Visitors are encouraged to walk among the loudspeakers and hear the individual unaccompanied voices—bass, baritone, alto, tenor, and child soprano—one part per speaker—as well as the polyphonic choral effect of the combined singers in an immersive experience. The Forty Part Motet is most often presented in a neutral gallery setting, but in this case the setting is the Cloisters' Fuentidueña Chapel, which features the late twelfth-century apse from the church of San Martín at Fuentidueña, near Segovia, Spain, on permanent loan from the Spanish Government. Set within a churchlike gallery space, and with superb acoustics, it has for more than fifty years proved a fine venue for concerts of early music.

The large space was filled with people as it was that last day, and I was sorry that I hadn't made an effort to see this earlier when it might have been possible to wander around more freely and listen to the various voices from their individual speakers. It was interesting to watch how people listened and reacted to this short but stirring presentation and I took a few pictures with a new camera that I needed to test. It was beautiful to see the joy and wonder on so many faces.

The Fuentidueña Chapel, looking toward the entrance. The speakers placed around the room each represent an individual voice.

The interior of the half dome is decorated with a Catalan fresco depicting the Virgin and Child in Majesty and the Adoration of the Magi from the church of the Virgin near Tredòs, and a magnificent twelfth-century painted Spanish wood crucifix hangs from the arch. 

Many people recorded the 14 minute presentation and like me, took photos while listening.

                                                                                     

Gathering and transporting manna, 15th century, Munich

Medallion of the face of Jesus carved from Baltic Amber, 12th century

St. James the Greater, alabaster, gilding and polychromy. Gil de Burgos, 15th century Spain

Room that houses the Unicorn tapestries, which was extremely crowded.