A perfect Spring day in New York

Central Park nook. 5:30 PM. Photo: JH.

May 21, 2009. Yesterday was a perfect Spring day in New York. And last night was the perfect Spring evening.

Last night in New York. Making the Rounds. I left the house a few minutes after six and went down to the penthouse apartment of Terry Kramer and Nick Simunek. They were hosting a little trunk show for Jeannie McQueeny. This is a fashion story.

Jeannie is Genie Nuttal who has a luxury resort wear business in the Bahamas. Her clothes are made in a factory in Kathmandu by artisans who are descendants of the mogul craftsmen. Several of the women in the room were wearing them.

In the entrance gallery of Terry Kramer and Nick Simunek's UES penthouse.

Guests looking at Jeannie McQueeny's line.

Parties at the Chez Kramer-Simunek, whether it’s a birthday, a trunk show, a cocktail or a dinner, it’s all the same – it’s fun. The food is delicious and varied and tasty.

You’re always likely to find a guest or three or four in the kitchen, going right to the source before they come out on the silver trays. Terry’s staff carry the same ease around the guests and are not suprised to see the guests in the kitchen.

Donna Aquavella and Brucie Boalt checking out the items on the terrace.

guests heading right to the kitchen for the goodies.

Jeannie McQueeny creations.

Nick Simunek with his guests Jonathan Becker and Alexandra Kotur.

Lisa Anastos.

The terraces, which look south and north, are full of flowers and color, just like the hostess (in blue Jeannie McQueeny last night). Everyone feels cozy in this high luxe atmosphere because Terry and Nick are similarly welcoming. It’s fun to be with them.

On my way out I met the tall man in the white shirt who introduced himself because he knew I knew a lot of his clients. He has a salon called Salon 74 on 74th just off Madison. His name is Joseph Zelasco.

Hairdressers/hairstylists are part of the ne plus ultra class of New Yorkers. Marie Antoinette or Georgina the Duchess of Devonshire had nothing on these girls. Men like Mr. Zelasco of Salon 74 know this, but they take it all in stride, and are repositories of all kinds of secrets and doin’s. Imagine if they were novelists! Whoa! I mentioned my friend Joy Ingham (see NYSD HOUSE) whom I know is a client, slipping in a little Joy-ism into my mention, and he guffawed.

Our hostess.

Diana Oswald and Sam Bolton

Joseph Zelasco.

Genie Nuttal (Jeannie McQueeny).

Terry's granddaughters Brianne and Chloe Goutal and their mother Toni Goutal.

It was such a beautiful early evening that leaving the K-S’s, I decided to walk down the avenue to the Central Park Zoo where the Wildlife Conservation Society was holding its annual family benefit, the “Explorer’s Party.” The benefit is very popular in New York and there are Explorer parties at other WCS parks.

The Central Park Zoo last night at the Explorer's Party with lots of Explorers present for the party ...

It’s for children but we’re all children. There were all kinds of activities going on for the little ones as well as tents set up for the buffet picnic dinner. I liked watching the seals, although only one of them made an occasional appearance.

Leaving the Zoo, I walked couple of blocks down the avenue to 62nd Street, on my way over to Hermes on Madison and 62nd where they were holding an opening cocktail reception of the Gordon Parks “Portraits” exhibition. The show was curated by Peter Kunhardt Jr.

The show, exhibiting in the store’s Gallery on the 4th floor, will run through June 30th. I ran into Karen Lerner who, it turned out, is a lifelong friend of the curator. So I took their picture along with some shots to give you an idea of what you’re missing until you get over there to see for yourself.

Geoffrey Holder

Peter Kunhardt Jr. and Karen Lerner

The third floor of the Hermes store, one floor below the Gordon Parks exhibition.

A look at Gordon Parks “Portraits” exhibition ...

Looking down from the fourth floor gallery.

The exhibition.

The second floor with a guest who couldn't resist looking.

The Madison Avenue entrance to Hermes.

From Gordon Parks at Hermes I grabbed a cab and we went through the park over to Central Park West to the apartment of Peter Brown who was hosting a cocktail book reception for Drs. Sherrell Aston, Douglas Steinbrech and Jennifer Walden and their new (text)book “Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.”

A couple on the corner of Madison and 61st having a dual cellphone moment.

In other words, I don’t think you’ll find it on Amazon. Nor will it really be for you, unless you’re in med school. I missed Sherrell who evidently had just been there moments before and spoken to the group.

Sherrell has been practicing long enough now to be considered one of the greatest plastic surgeons in New York, if not the world. Jennifer Walden is an accomplished Plastic Surgeon, and Dr. Aston’s colleague. She is highly respected and has a very busy Manhattan Practice.

Doug Steinbrech, as you can see from his picture is in the bloom of his career, and is highly regarded.

Dr. Douglas Steinbrech

Why are all those guys out on the terrace?

Otherwise it was just a perfect night and a perfect apartment overlooking the green green of the Park across the way. It was almost eight o’clock when I arrived (it was called for from 6 to 8) and the host hadn’t turn on any lights yet, so the room going dim with the light coming in from the windows gave the scene a painterly quality, reminding me of the New York artist John Koch who flourished mid-20th century in Manhattan. It was one of those moments when being in New York takes on other dimensions in the imagination, and crosses time.

When I first arrived I saw four or five men crowded out on the tiny balcony. Aside of the verdant view, I wondered why they were all there at once. And so I took a picture. Only one was unable to completely conceal the “why” they were there. Having a ciggie of course. Probably all but one of them are quote-unquote Non-Smokers. Like kids sneaking behind the barn to light up. Older kids, these.

Bruce Addison and Jeff Sharp.

Louise Nicholson and our host, Peter Brown.

Memoirist/columnist/cabaret artist Bob Morris wondering if he really could use a little plastic surgery. The doctor remains steadfast.

Leaving Peter Brown’s reception, I decided to walk for awhile before getting another cabt to go home. Walking parkside, it was still very light out at 8:15, so I decided to walk across.

The Park is so beautiful right now. Just a few hundred yards inside it, the sounds of the city fades away and there is a lot of silence interrupted only by an occasional passer-by or the rustling of the trees or birds calling. And very green in the twilight. Rich. Walking past the Delacorte Amphitheatre, the great lawn had lots of visitors both in groups, even parties, in couples, solo, relaxing in the early evening.

The view of Central Park from Peter Brown's terrace.

The message on the Unitarian Church at 75th Street and Central Park West.

Approaching the underpass just before getting to the back of the Met, there was a lone violinist playing. I was thinking of the 1960's film “Blow-Up” and the park scenes and the camera shots, and the orchestration.

All this just from walking across the park instead of taking a cab. Seeing a path bridge crossing the transverse at 79th and Fifth, I decided to take a picture of the cabs exiting onto the intersection. I’ve seen this view a million times from inside a cab, but never from this angle looking down.

Walking up Central Park West next to the Park.

A look inside.

The Swedish Cottage, imported from Sweden in the 19th century, now the location of the Park's Marionette Theater.

The Great Lawn, looking northwest at 8:15 PM.

The walk by the south side of the Metropolitan Museum heading east.

Looking east onto the transverse and the corner of 79th Street and Fifth Avenue (8:20 PM).

Then it was back on the pathway out of the Park. I ran into a lady whom I’ve met before who is a professional dog-walker. She had four dogs with her – two of which I photographed. The small one is eleven. This lady is a native of Trinidad although she’s lived in New York most of her life, and she has four shih-tzu rescues at home in Queens. One of them she rescued at less than 3 months. The pup had been born blind and was going to be put down. She later got special surgery for the pup and its sight was restored. I asked her who was minding her dogs while she was minding the dogs of others. She told me she has a daughter who is also in the dog-walking business. She works an earlier shift and so there is always someone home with the dogs.

Two neighborhood dogs taking a break during their walkies.

This last shot of the corner of Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, I took because it’s one of my favorite corners in New York, just chock-full of history. This entire block from 79th to 78th, from Fifth to Madison, is all townhouses and mansions, former and present none more than five or six stories high.

Along the avenue is, left to right, the Isaac Fletcher house, now the Ukrainian Institute, which also once belonged to the American oilman Harry Sinclair during the time his reputation was being tarnished by his involvement with E. L. Doheny and the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s.

The next two houses were designed by Stanford White at the beginning of the 20th century, the larger one for Col. Oliver Payne who gave it as a wedding present to his beloved nephew and heir Payne Whitney and his bride Helen Hay in 1903. Jock Whitney and his sister Joan Whitney Payson grew up in this house. For a short time, their great-uncle Oliver lived in the narrower house next door, now the residence of businessman Victor Shafferman.

The corner of 79th Street and Fifth Avenue at 8:25 PM.

The house on the right is the James B. Duke mansion designed by Horace Trumbauer for Doris Duke’s father, who died there in the mid-1920s, leaving his daughter one of the richest teenagers in the world.

Ms. Duke gave it to NYU in the 1960s. On the diametric opposite side of this great residential block, on the northwest corner of 78th Street and Madison Avenue stands the house of Mr. and Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, also designed by Stanford White, now under renovation, having been acquired by Mayor Bloomberg for his foundation. Mrs. Fish, known as Mamie to both friends and (sotto voce) detractors, was one of the outspoken queens of society in the last days of the Mrs. Astor, late 19th, early 20th century. She’s the Mrs. Fish who once gave a dinner at her Newport “cottage” for a Prince del Drago. Very formal affair, of course, front leanings white, for royalty and all that. Except Mrs. Fish’s “prince” turned out to be a monkey. Dressed for the occasion, of course.

Comments? Contact DPC here.