Fallen Days

Sheep Meadow in Central Park. 2:00 PM. Photo: JH.

11/11. Yesterday in New York. Beautiful, sunny autumn day. Overcoat time although many were still in the early autumn mode.

Today is Veterans Day, first proclaimed as Armistice Day by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. I often heard the term “veteran” when I was a young kid living after the Second World War. It was frequently used in reference to someone nearby – a relative, a neighbor, a family friend. I knew my father was a veteran of the First World War – the navy – and my eldest brother-in-law was a veteran of the Second World War, serving in Europe. I was also aware, at a very young age, that veterans had not only served and sacrificed but also were exposed to a grisly, wretched side of humanity and its despair. My brother-in-law who was in the thick of it, never spoke of it. His manner was not uncommon.


	Louis Vuitton on Fifth Avenue.

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On my way to Michael’s at the corner of 57th and Fifth, I noticed Louis Vuitton had its Christmas/Holiday decorations up, as you can see from the photo. Rather goodlooking and festive and new and hip and all those things.

I often take my little digital with me to Michael’s because you never know where the photo op might be, who I might get a shot of. As it happened I didn’t use it except when going home.

My habit after lunch is catching a cab in the upper 50s on Sixth (Avenue of the Americas) and entering Central Park at Sixth and Central Park South. That’s where the horses and carriages enter also, and they were doing business yesterday.

The ride through the Park is very quick as well as beautiful. You can occasionally catch a glimpse of a tower or co-op along Fifth Avenue as you are riding through the metropolitan countryside; and then before you know it, you’re at 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue (and the Samuel F. B. Morse statue) and back in the teeming town.

Horses and carriages turn off the main park road and head back south with the Hotel Pierre and the GM Building in the background.

I started out last night at the Rainbow Room where The Week magazine was hosting a dinner and panel discussion “The Media & The Presidency” with Dan Rather, Ed Rollins, Joe Scarborough, Bob Shrum, Lesley Stahl, Jacob Weisberg and moderated by Harry (Sir Harold) Evans.

This was quite an impressive get together – an after work cocktail hour and dinner and discussion and all a gift from your host. Forgive the bluntness, but it’s rare and even more rarely done so well.

The Rainbow Room is a great place to visit anytime. At 6:30 last night, it was dark out and the town spread out below was sparkling from the city lights and the necklaces of the bridges to the north – the GW, Triboro, 59th Street, etc, and south.

There was an ample bar and several bartenders as well as waiters passing excellent canapés. And there was a big group, a good group of guests, such as: Amanda Burden, Chuck Scarborough, Shari (Mrs. Ed) Rollins, Tina Brown (Lady Evans), George Rush, Barbara Warner Howard, Nicholas Wapshott, Caroline Graham, Paula Zahn, Faye Wattleton, Heather Watts and Damian Woetzel, former Governor Bill Weld, Patricia Duff, Debbie Bancroft, Elizabeth Peabody and her father Sam Peabody, Peter and Jamee Gregory, Kelvin McKenzie, Robin Duke, Mary McFadden, Mary Louise Oates (Mrs. Bob Shrum), Ernie Pomerantz (his wife Marie Brenner was at her own book discussion party), Tara Meltzer, Valentin and Yaz Hernandez, Rick Hertzberg, Marsia Holzer, Richard Johnson, Barbara and Michael Gross, Frederic Fekkai and Shirin von Wolfen, Tom Freston, Michael Goodwin, Catharine and David Hamilton, Richard Cohen, Cece Cord, Ana Marie Cox, Norah Ephron, Shirley Lord Rosenthal, Joni Evans and Bob Perkins, Jeff Bercovici, Jeff and Myrna Blyth, Pamela Keogh, Steve and Cynthia Brill, and lots more just like em.

The panel: Bob Shrum, Joe Scarborough, Dan Rather, Harry Evans, Lesley Stahl, The Week's editor; Jacob Weisberg, and Ed Rollins

There must have been at least 200 hundred guests and what was significant to me about the guest list was that while it was heavily weighted with media and media-related names, there was also a substantial amount of other professionals as well as socially prominent people -- a mix which makes it more interesting for the guests, aside from the panel discussion (and the Cipriani meal).

Harry Evans is an excellent moderator. I’ve seen him at this a number of times over the years (and written about it too). He has a very congenial style to his queries with the guests. He plays devil’s advocate just as you imagine you would if you were being really openminded. He keeps his own cards close to his vest but he’s always pushing for “the story” in every question. He also stands and moves around while talking to his panelists and to his audience, with arms often outstretched and palms open as if to invite frankness and honesty. So there’s a bit of a performance there, without being hammy.


	Felicia Taylor

They were six panelists from different ends of the political spectrum. They do not or did not have heated political discussions like the rest of us might with those who sees things differently. They tended to cajole and kid, toss a barb or two but mainly have a good time and enjoy the company. You can see that the professional political advisors are strategists first and political philosophers last. If that. And the journalists are also media personalities. Performing too; some more than others, but these are people who are used to audiences.

The discussion was mainly about the campaign. Everyone on the panel lauded Mr. Obama for what they considered a brilliant campaign.

They covered Mr. McCain and Mrs. Clinton too. In response to the criticism of the way Clinton and McCain carried out their campaigns, and whether the media was hard on them, Dan Rather offered a different way of looking at it.

Journalists, he reminded, are always looking for a story. And “new” is always a good story. Here we had a young man, an African-American with a message, running for President. He was new. Young, fresh and new. That, Mr. Rather, reminded, is a hard act to follow.

Mr. Shrum in discussing McCain’s campaign mentioned his concession speech during which Shrum thought: “where was this side of you during the campaign?”

Lesley Stahl didn’t cover any of the campaigns this time around. Instead, she watched it all on television in her bedroom. While the others were discussing the campaign trail and how it was going (from the inside), she pointed out that she only saw the finished product and only knew whether or not she liked what she saw and heard.

Jamee Gregory, Kevin McKenzie, Sam Peabody, Elizabeth Peabody, and Peter Gregory

In a word of neither support or objection, she said she felt all women were proud of the fact that Hillary Clinton got there and ran and stayed the race. She felt she conducted a great campaign and was the first woman ever to do such. Her sentiments seemed to be shared by everyone.

I recall another one of these discussions, also led by Harry Evans, also sponsored by The Week around another Presidential election – either 2000 or 2004. The discussion bordered on contentious among the panelists. They were civil but the air was uneasy.

Last evening was different. I had a sense that the upcoming Obama Presidency has given everyone at least a little lift, a consideration that maybe, just maybe things will improve and the mood of the country will lighten. Which takes me back to Dan Rather’s assessment of the situation: new, young, fresh. Whatever that may mean. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Robin Duke and Caroline Graham

Barbara Warner Howard

Michael Gross and Mary McFadden

Bob Perkins and Joni Evans with friends

Debbie Bancroft and Patricia Duff

Yaz Hernandez

Shirley Lord Rosenthal, Kathy Lacey, Amanda Burden, Margaret Carlson, and Ernie Pomerantz

I skipped the dinner at the Rainbow Room and ran up to Jazz at Lincoln Center for their Fall 2008 Gala and catch “A Celebration of the Music of Nat ‘King’ Cole” featuring George Benson, The Wynton Marsalis Quintet and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Before the concert began, there was a Special Presentation of The Ed Bradley Award for Leadership given to documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.


	Barbara Carroll and Lisa Schiff

Mr. Bradley served on the Jazz at Lincoln Center board from 1992 until his untimely death in 2007.

Many of us know the work of Ken Burns from his compelling documentaries on PBS. I saw Brooklyn Bridge when it was first shown and I was hooked on Burns. He is able to draw you into the story so that it seems as if you are in it also. In 2001, they first broadcast Jazz, the third in his trilogy of epic documentaries. 19 hours, ten parts. Our lives before us.

Music galas wear many of the same charms and bring out many of those who support other cultural institutions. But Jazz adds a little more spice to the stew because of its distinctly American bones.

In Jazz at Lincoln Center, they also have this music director, this Mr. Cool himself, Mr. Marsalis who is a potentate and professork of rhythm and melody if there ever was one. When you watch the concert, any concert where he’s on stage, you see a man in music.

And it’s incomparable. You know you are looking at greatness.

A view of Columbus Circle as seen from the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in the Time Warner complex, with the new Museum of Art and Design to the right and Central Park South directly ahead.

The dinner table.

But enough of that swoon. The Jazz audience gets it all and loves it. The dinner was held in the Allen Room overlooking Columbus Circle and Central Park South. At night, like the Rainbow Room, it’s pure magic

Sometimes I look at it and I think I really am in a movie – a good one. At the dinner table everyone was in an energetic and upbeat mood after the concert and Mr. Benson. The talk was marital gossip and those surprises, the financial situation and the financial situation with an occasional political point of view, all in fun. The mood ... is different. Right now, anyway.

Arlyn and Ed Gardner

Betsy Bartlett, Jones York, and Barbara de Portago

Georgette Mosbacher and David Schiff

Mildred Brinn

Patricia Patterson and Memrie Lewis

Hillie Mahoney and son Bob Merrill

Marti Stevens

Bill Rondina

Marcia Schaeffer

Memrie Lewis, Paul Healy, and Marlene Hess

Mark Stroock and Barbara Carroll

Also last night in New York over at the Marriott Marquis, The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation held its Magical Evening. The New York Rangers were recipients of the Dana Reeve HOPE Award, and Chuck Close was recipient of the Christopher Reeve Spirit of Courage Award. Broadway veteran and long-time Reeve Foundation supporter James L. Nederlander, (Jr.) received the Visionary Leadership Award.

Molly Simms, Jessica Szohr, and Lindsay Price with Francesco Clark

Alexandra Reeves Givens and Chuck Close

Co-chairs for the evening were Eaddo and Peter Kiernan, Francine LeFrak and Rick Friedberg, Glenn Close, Paul and Barbara Daversa, Meryl Streep, and Alseres Pharmaceuticals.