3.19.10: Thank God it's Friday | New York Social Diary

Thank God it's Friday

Playground activity in Riverside Park. 3:45 PM. Photo: JH.

March 19, 2010. Another wildly beautiful early Spring day, yesterday in New York. Sunny, in the mid-60s. The vibe is fresh. The mood is up.

Stuff. At the New York City Police Foundation gala on Monday night. I was sitting next to Somers Farkas when Andrea Catsimatides and Chris Cox came by to say hello to her. Mr. Cox is the son of Tricia Nixon, and grandson of Patricia and Richard Nixon.


	Andrea Catsimatidis and Chris Cox.

He is planning on following in his grandfather’s footsteps, and is running for Congress from the Suffolk County district that includes Southampton. Ms. Catsimatides is his constant companion and supporter.

I’ve met Mr. Cox a couple of times. He’s a kid to these eyes and looks to be in his late 20s, early 30s. He’s bright-eyed, friendly and polite, and all of it clearly comes naturally to him. He has that New York kid natural forthrightness (compared to those of us who grew up in small towns) and yet none of the smug smoothness that people associate with a certain type of New Yorker, namely the privileged. You can’t not like him.

It will be interesting to watch his progress. As improbable as youth looks for national politics, his grandfather was only 34 when he went to Congress in 1947.

Three years later he was elected Senator from California, and two years after that he was elected Vice-President under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Five years from taking his first elected office he became Vice President of the United States. (And sixteen years after that, he became President.)

The grandson comes from far more privileged beginnings than Mr. Nixon who seemed like the kind of man who would have been very proud of his grandson’s ambition, and maybe full of good ideas on how to achieve his goals.

The White House wedding of Tricia Nixon to Edward Cox.

Also going around that night at the Police Foundation gala (and maybe you’ve read it or heard it already), was the rumor that Mayor Bloomberg’s longtime companion Diana Taylor is thinking of running for the Senate. I’m assuming as a Republican. Against, presumably, Kirsten Gillibrand, who took Hillary’s seat when she became Secretary of State.

Ms. Taylor is a very popular figure in New York. Her relationship with the mayor has raised her profile publicly but her popularity among her peers has always been there. She’s a very good public speaker. She has lent herself to a number of good causes and philanthropies, particularly those having to do with women’s rights and choices. She’s a tall, slender good looking woman who’s definitely used to the political process now.

I got a shot of the first blossoms in the neighborhood just inside the gate of Carl Schurz Park. I used to think they were forsythia but they are not. I was corrected a year or two ago by a reader and have since forgotten my lesson. These blossoms are the beacon for me right now. 12:45 PM.

Beautiful night last night. Riding down the FDR heading to 16th Street. At 7:45 the pale grey-blue twilight sky set off the sparkle of the Empire State, as well as the Citigroup Tower across the river to the east in Queens.

Once off the Drive, city traffic was very heavy and the streets were crowded from the far East Side all the way across town (heavier in the mid and west side of the island). It was the weather. And, as my cabdriver pointed out, it was still rush hour traffic. People were energized. A lot of people felt it was too nice out to go straight home from work.


	The cover art for the invitation for First Bloom.

I was on my way to “First Bloom” billed as an Art and Photography Auction to Benefit Friends of the High Line. It was being held at the Equinox on 100 10th Avenue right under the High Line, or on the edge of it. They recruited a large group of New Yorkers to “host” (basically: show up) including Harvey Spevak, Patrick McMullan, Andre Balazs, Brooke Shields, Donald Baechler, Mary and Peter Max, Catherine Malandrino, Joshua David, Tory Burch, Kelly Klein, Charlie Scheips, Charlie Horne, Sally Hersberger, Peter Davis, Sarah Mudge, Luigi Tadini and Maria Hamburg Kennedy.

It was one of those New York parties that was about the crowd, pure and simple. There must have been several hundred people. was A big crowd on a perfect night to go out and be with hundreds of others throwing back the cocktails, chatting up, taking in the exhibition of auction items (there were hundreds from some of the most prominent names in the arts and photography today -- and the prices were good).

Patrick McMullan was in the middle of it all. He was being followed around by a New York Times reporter (carrying pad) who is doing a piece on Patrick for their Style section. The crowd was downtown-ish, hip neighborhood style-wise, with a little garnishing of Upper East Siders; mainly twenty- and thirty-somethings. This is one of the things that people who come to live in New York love about living in New York. The scene. The people. The energy at 8 pm at the end of a beautiful Spring day. That was yesterday in New York.

Someone had tied up this little beauty outside the Equinox. This is a very DANGEROUS to do with a dog in New York City where they are more vulnerable to the elements of inhumanity than their owners. People steal dogs all the time to use in dog fights. Any dog can be A VICTIM, including a victim of careless negligence. I waited and others waited until finally a young man came to take charge. His girlfriend had tied the dog up for a "few minutes" while she went inside to see a friend. Fortunately all ended well for our Best Friend.

The crowd and a touch of the exhibit.

Patty Caparasso prefers you see a profile of her right hand.

Her friends, however, are happy to oblige this greedy photographer.

Rose Hartman's photograph of Jerry Hall and Andy Warhol.

Rose Hartman, Charlie Scheips, and Judy Taylor

Photographer Roxanne Lowitt holding a card of her the cover of her book Back Stage Door.

Brigid Berlin's breast impressions. Signed.

A sense of spring was all around.

Charlie Scheips and Harry Stendhal.

Patrick McMullan shooting. Lower left: Christian Simonds.

Mary Clemente and Alice Judelson.

Anita Sarko.

Photograph of Todd Eberle's parents' living room.

A curtsey for DPC.

Amdrew Saffir, Patrick McMullan, and Daniel Benedict.

Carlton DeWoody. A carving on wood of a rose with lyrics to a song he wrote in the circle around it.

Necklace by Catherine Malnadrino.

Night sky above Hudson River. 6:30 PM. Photo: JH.

On Wednesday night, Serena Tufo and Carolina Dorson hosted a party for the launch of Malcolm Dorson's book Octopus Summer. It's a coming-of-age novel that Dorson, a graduate of Deerfield Academy and the University of Pennsylvania, penned based on real-life experiences growing up in New York City.

It follows protagonist Callum Littlefield's return to Manhattan the summer after getting expelled from boarding school. The book launch, at Lisa Perry Style, was attended by High Society personalities Paul Johnson-Calderon (a Deerfield graduate) and Jules Kirby. The crowd moved on to Orsay afterward, and as it was the night of St. Patrick's Day, a few continued on to Dorrian's to close out the night.

-SD for NYSD