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A
bench in Central Park. 10:30 AM. Photo JH.
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There
was a terror alert in the city at the beginning of the weekend, having to do with the subways, which may explain why the street
traffic was so much heavier on Friday at the start of a long holiday
weekend.
New Yorkers seemed not indifferent but instead displayed something
more like a combination of dread and skepticism, which makes for
an interesting political concoction. After many previous “color” alerts
in the past few years, as well as the natural disasters that we’ve
witnessed here and all over the world, the reaction was more like
a light daze.
On Saturday night, in keeping with the expectation
of extremes, New
Yorkers experienced an evening in early October when the air was
tropical and the rain came down in torrents. Many streets and avenues
nearly flooded over. The downtown subway on the Lexington Avenue
line was closed until today. It was tough for the cabbies because
a lot of people stayed indoors, but people welcomed the long needed
rain.
Sunday was dry (and overcast) and much cooler. JH was invited to
a Yankees game and reported back that it was a beautiful night up
at the House that Ruth built, as his Digital attests.
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The
scene at Yankee Stadium for game 4 of the Yankees/Angels series
which the Yanks won 3-2. 10:10 PM.
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Last
Thursday night I went over to Sotheby’s where they had
an exhibition of the late Laurance Rockefeller’s possessions
that will be auctioned tomorrow and Wednesday in its auction
rooms at York and 72nd Street. Mr. Rockefeller passed away
in June 2004 at the age of 94.
He was a
very interesting fellow with myriad involvements and commitments.
Like his brothers, and his father, as well as his grandfather
who created the family fortune, he had enormous influence because
of his ability to endow an idea and was inclined to pursue
big, even controversial ideas. Like his forebears and his siblings,
he set the example of great philanthropy. There are many wealthy
people today who enjoy the idea of "philanthropist.” It
is a very popular notion these days for “socialites” to
eschew the term and to instead refer to themselves as philanthropists,
mainly as a means of flattering or aggrandizing themselves.
Mr. Rockefeller probably never gave a thought to the difference
but he embodied the term philanthropist.
He was greatly
interested in UFOs, for example; and in spiritual research
and crop circles. He generously funded health projects and
medical research including the research of Harvard Medical
School’s Dr. John Mack, author of Passport to the Cosmos.
He was also deeply committed to conservation, the environment, and the protection
of wildlife. He funded, for example, the expansion of the Grand Teton National
Park, including the donation in 2001 or his 1106-acre ranch in Wyoming to the
Park. And like other members of his family, promoted the creation and expansion
of many other national parks.
His business interests included his company Rockresorts which opened hotels
at Caneel Bay in St. John’s, Virgin Islands, in Puerto Rico, in the British
Virgin Islands and in Hawaii. He was credited with providing seed money for
both Intel and Apple which, God knows, must have made him richer than he already
was from investments and inheritance. After his death, his apartment at 834
Fifth Avenue was sold to publisher Rupert Murdoch for a record $44 million.
Meanwhile, back to the sale: The proceeds from the lots that will go up for
sale tomorrow, estimated pre-sale by Sotheby’s at $12 million, will benefit
the Laurance Rockefeller Fund.
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From
the Rockefeller lots |
Sotheby’s
described the Rockefeller lots as a “range of decorative
arts and Impressionist paintings.” With my trusty Digital
I took a few shots of the shelves and shelves (and shelves) of
Mr. Rockefeller’s copious china services and porcelain
pieces. There were two grand pianos, including an interesting
looking Art Deco Steinway. There were rooms of sofas, chairs,
side tables, lamps, most of which was very lived-in looking (after
all, the man was 94!), a lot of (no doubt) very good silver and
a great deal of decorative art hanging, all of which reflected
Old Money but none of which reflected a collector or a connoisseur.
If one were to judge by the exhibition, one would have thought Mr. Rockefeller
didn’t have either an eye or a taste for art. However, to the contrary,
Mr. Rockefeller had so much great art hanging in his houses that he even had
a Leonardo that was kept in a closet for want of the right place
to hang it in his vast triplex apartment. His greatest art went to MoMA which
was founded by
his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and which sits today on
the grounds of the house where he was born and grew up during childhood (and
later turned over to
the museum). And much of his art and his very good furniture, I was told, went
to family members, as it should.
What is always surprising to the public about these exhibitions of personal possessions/properties – such
as Mr. Rockefeller’s, such as Mrs. Onassis’, or Mrs.
Harriman, is
that they, like the rest of us lived with things that after awhile showed the
wear and tear of time, rather than what us lesser economically endowed folk,
now so jaded by the cacophony of shelter magazines, might imagine would be spic-and-span,
spanking, shiny, glamorous mansions full of priceless treasures. A home’s
a home for all that and lucky’s the man and/or woman who has one. |
A
vast selection of porcelain from the
Rockefeller lots
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Meanwhile,
I’m
a little behind, but two Saturdays ago, my esteemed business partner,
JH celebrated a birthday by holding a small party for himself at
the SoHo Grand, a hotel downtown that I’ve never been to.
So I took a $25 cab trip down there (I could have taken the subway
and hoofed it too if I hadn’t waited so long to leave the
apartment) with my Digital to get a few shots of the occasion.
The hotel which was built in 1996, the first major hotel built in that part of
town in a century. “Swank, sexy and very very SoHo” is how they see
themselves. That, and a “pet and hipster” paradise in world where
the terms can even be interchangeable, “for the anonymous but refined traveler.” Hip
hip, my pet.
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The
SoHo Grand lounge
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The hotel is
owned by the Hartz Mountain Industries folks, namely Leonard
Stern and family, and like everything else the Sterns do, it is first
rate all the way. 363 rooms styled in wood, clay, canvas and leather, featuring
Bergamo linens
Blisslabs bath and body products, a refreshment center stocked by Dean & DeLuca
(hip and hip-hip hooray), Bose CD/radio and you can bring Buster, or Fido, or
even Missy or Oliver – the quadrupeds, I’m referring to. They even
provide doggie toothbrushes and toothpaste, plus room-service delivered dog and
catfood. Woof-woof-and-a-meee-oww. Oh, Jon Favreau and Janeane
Garofalo shot
a famous scene from The Sopranos there. And it looked like there were
a few would-be
cast members in the bar too.
However, those invited to JH’s shindig in the Lounge were all bi-peds – at
least they still were when I left the party about quarter to midnight – were
mainly old school friends of his (he grew up in the city) along with his ma,
pa, sis and bro. The Lounge is large-scale and much darker at night than the
picture indicates.
As far
as hipsters are concerned, most of the SoHo hipsters went out with
the rents – when the area turned co-op and the luxury boutiques
moved in. As I’ve written here before, SoHo became SoHo (as
in South of Houston Street) in the late 1960s when artists moved
there because they could get gigantic former industrial and warehouse
spaces for a couple hundred bucks a month. Because nobody wanted
to be there. Dirt cheap and not chic. By the late 70s, however,
the rich uptown ad execs and Wall Street wannabe hipsters with
their eternal desire to be cool, started moving in, fixing up,
dolling up, and the prices started moving up. The artists who got
rich bought their buildings, or they moved away. The artists who
didn’t get rich but stayed got rich by buying in low and
selling high. And now SoHo is high-yi-yi. A million bucks will
get you an okay loft that once upon a time rented for $150 a month.
A room at the SoHo Grand goes for $300 to $500 a night. A drink
in the Bar and Lounge, however, which is a real scene (read: big
crowd, young), are competitive. It didn’t matter on JH’s
bday, however; his pa who was too tired to stick around after a
day on the links, split and picked up the check. Or vice versa. |
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JH
with his mom
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Jason
Post and Jen Lippman
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Shira
Dinar and Jason Hirsch
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Danny
Silvers, Dan Martin, JH, Stefanie Hirsch, and Charlie
Burger
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Joshua
Crane, Charlie Miller, and Andy Rosen
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JH
and DPC
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