Peak moments

Trinity Church Cemetery. 2:00 PM. Photo: JH.

Friday, 11/11/11. The significance of this date is lost on me but evidently not on many others. Only two days ago I was made aware of its “significance” although I am not clear exactly what that is. No doubt, if it is, I will become aware of it. Otherwise it goes into the Y2K slot. Remember that one? Much ado about…?

It was another beautiful sunny day in New York. I went down to Michael’s with Nina Griscom to talk about her latest projects. One of them is very interesting. Something she is doing with Carolyne Roehm. I call it The Divestiture – and that’s a clue, although that’s because the word is so applicable to all that is practical and sensible these days. And Nina is nothing if nopractical and sensible. Anyway, much more about all that next week.


Mother Nature's palette brightens up Madison Avenue at 63rd Street yesterday afternoon at 3 pm.

After lunch I walked part of the way home up Madison Avenue. I think yesterday might have been the peak moment for the foliage in the City. After all my bellyaching about how we don’t get the foliage they get north of here, suddenly the city became alight, bursting with clouds of delicate burnishes and pastels that have suddenly appeared. It’s almost as if it happened overnight as another kind of glory. Maybe that’s it.

I caught this one shot of a tree on 64th and Madison. I mean just look at Mother Nature’s palette!

I started out the night over at the Plaza for the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. This is their annual big fundraiser. This year the theme was “Protecting Kids First.”

When I got there Alex Donner and his band were playing merengue music and the place was lively. I wanted to take a picture of who is one of the organization’s vice presidents and who gets this thing off the ground every year (for me anyway). That is a project in itself.

This year’s gala co-chairs were Amanda Friedman, Jacquie and Jerry Storch, Deborah Norville and Karl Wellner. They honored Mark Weiss, Vice Chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, and Allan and Tamara Houston of the Allan Houston Legacy Foundation. There was a special performance by Lynda Carter, and Deborah Norville led the way, emceeing the evening.

A lot of these women are the workerbees who get what it takes to stage a fundraiser like this and actually raise funds.

Betsy Bartlett and Joy Ingham. Betsy kept closing her eyes when the camera went off and so I kept taking them. Eventually she kept her eyes open although by then Joy was getting a little bored with the whole thing.

The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children does not carry the urgency that food and cancer do for most people. It’s that simple; the perception. Ironically, it is possibly a MORE crucial issue before us than the aforementioned because the children are the future and We are all the children. So it was good to see the ballroom filled with supporters (in black tie).

I had another commitment last night also but I wanted to stop by just to remind you that the NYSPCC needs your attention and your contributions. Have a look, give that you should receive www.nyspcc.org [1].

The Alex Donner Orchestra in the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza last night.

Leaving the Plaza I caught a cab to take me over to the old Tavern on the Green building on Central Park West and 67th Street, just inside the Park. The occasion was the first of its kind. A fall fundraiser for the Conservancy. In the past number of years, the event has been a Halloween Party. Halloween was getting a foggy. People would show up in their costumes and then it was downhill from there. This year it was a dinner dance, and everybody was up for it as if it were an innovation. Simple yet innovative the way things are going these days.

It was held in a huge tent set up next to the former restaurant, with a transparent roof so that the gorgeous foliage could be lighted at night and showing through the roof. The tent had been set up for the Marathon and they left it up for a few more days so that the Conservancy could use it.

The Bronson van Wyck decorated entrance to the Central Park Conservancy's dinner dance last night at the Tavern on the Green.

The dinner tent with the Starlight Orchestra at the other end. You can see the lighted trees outside the roof of the tent,

Closeup of the roof of the tent and the exterior.

Guests entering the dining tent went right to the dance floor and soon it was mobbed.

The Starlight Orchestra rocking the place.

The first course. A diced beet salad with goat cheese and greens. Excellent.

The hosts were The Board of Directors of the Central Park Conservancy. The Co-chairmen were Kitty and Tom Kemper, Fiona and Eric Rudin, Gillian and Sylvester Miniter, Suzanne and Woody Johnson. The evening was sold out so there must have been several hundred. Bronson van Wyck did the autumnal décor which you can see is sensational. Mother Nature’s assistance just outside the transparent ceiling made it seem as one.

Abigail Hirsch catered a delicious dinner. The Starlight Orchestra had people dancing as soon as they arrived. This simple matter was remarked upon over and over. And that was it. Doug Blonsky, the president of the Conservancy, gave a short speech thanking the co-chairs and introducing a short vidio on the seasons in the Park. And that was it. Afterwards it was dining, dancing and dancing and dancing. It was one of those perfect nights with the full moon over Manhattan and 11/11/11 only hours way with our fate in its hands.

Ann Harris and Clint Howell.

Debbie Bancroft with Davin Staats and Ashley Baker.

Will Zeckendorf showing Gayle Atkins her seat, her husband Charles right behind.

Michael and Eleanora Kennedy.

Michael McCarty, Ray Mikulich, Karen Klopp, and Barry Rosenstein.

Arie Kopelman, Liz Peek, and Michael McCarty.

The painter's hands.

The painter, Kim McCarty, and Karen Karlsrud.

Patricia Shiah.

Michael and Elyse Newhouse.

Ambassador John Loeb and Sharon Handler.

Couri Hay and Janna Bullock.

Sylvester Miniter and Alexandra Lebenthal.

Catching up. Last Tuesday night I missed a cocktail party that Gillian Tett, the U.S. Editor of the FT gave at her East Side apartment for Vanessa Friedman and the launch of a new section of the FT called Luxury 360. I’m not really interested in promoting other media businesses although this particular one involves two of who I think are the smartest women in media today. And talented.

Vanessa covers Fashion for the FT and she not only explains what lies before us visually, etc., but puts it in a historical context. Gillian is a young British woman, whose background was originally anthropology and is now one of the sharpest, most perceptive commentators on the financial situation today. And they’re nice to be around.

Andrew Sollinger (FT), Gillian Tett, Vanessa Friedman, and Jonathan Chaffin (FT).

Vanessa Friedman, Stephane Jaspar (Stella McCartney), James Gardner (Createthe Group), and Delphine Krakoff (Pamplemousse Design)

Michael Bruno (1stdibs) and Amy Todd Middleton (Sotheby's).

Samantha Barnes (Moet Hennessy) and Nancy Murray (Louis Vuitton).

Melissa Beste (Akris), Harpreet Bhandari (Devi Kroell), and Emilie Rubinfeld (Akris).

Also. This past Tuesday was the Opening Night of the Public Theater’s King Lear with Sam Waterston, Bill Irwin, Michael McKean, Kelli O’Hara, and John Douglas Thompson. You only have until November 20th (a week from Sunday) to see it.

Public Theater Chairman of the Board Warren Spector and Shakespeare Initiative Director Barry Edelstein (center) at the Opening Night of King Lear at The Public.