NEW YORK 2011 SAGA 5:

NEW YORK CITY TRIP
November 11 -16, 2011

During my trip to New York City, Bill and I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art specifically to see the Frank Lloyd Wright Room installed there—for two reasons: one to see the room but also Bill owns two stained glass windows from the same house!!!

It's the Living Room of the 1921, Francis W. Little Summer House (Little Residence II) of Wayzata, Minnesota, called Northome. (Mr. Wright always named his houses.) (The Little's first Wright house was 1904, in Racine, Wisconsin.)

The room is large and grand.

Official photographs:

My photographs:

click to see: Little House Living Room.

Bill's windows are inherited from Lewis Muller, his architectural partner. Lewis got them in 1996 at a Christie's auction. The two windows were $16,000. They are of the tall, narrow-type located at the end of a row of windows. Bill believes they are from the Dining Room.

The tall, narrow windows in the Living Room at the Met.

When we got home, I photographed Bill's windows:

Bill has promised to will them to me! Maybe he'll give me one now?

click to see: F LL W Interview on CBS.

NEW YORK 2011 SAGA 4:

A WEEK IN NEW YORK CITY

David was on vacation in the Middle East and offered his NYC apartment for me to stay in!

I chose to be there for the week of November 11 through 16, 2011. And while David's offer was an incentive to go to New York, I ended up staying with Bill to share each other's company.

I went up on the "Chinese Bus". What an experience: crowded and difficult! But saving $200 verses the train was worth it. I'll do it again.

I had a wonderful time! NYC is so vibrant and exciting. I truly enjoyed being there for an extended time.

On Saturday, I struck out to find more cashmere scarves at the street fair. (The last time I was in NYC, I ran across this vendor in the street fair along Sixth Avenue, near Bill's apartment and bought a scarf for Ted as he was taking care of Memphis, my cat. But when I got home I wish I had gotten more.) I had no idea where the vendor  was so I asked a taxi driver where the street fair was. HE KNEW! It was this weekend on Madison Avenue between 42nd and 57th—fifteen blocks long! He drove me to the start of it at 42nd Street and low and behold, the scarf stand was the second stand in!!! I got 10 scarves for various friends.

Saturday night, Bill Mc and Jesus from Washington, along with Johnny from Short Hills, New Jersey, were in town. We all had a marvelous dinner at the Elephant & Castle in the Village. Bill Mc said it was the best meal he had had in NYC. Bill and I really enjoyed ourselves. Johnny talked about his new penthouse in Hell's Kitchen with a lovely roof garden and a 270º view of the city! We walked and talked and viewed the City.

On Monday, Bill and I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, mainly to see the Frank Lloyd Wright Room. Entry fee was $25—my, oh, my, inflation! (I'll explore the room in the next blog installment.) Also at the Met, we saw a lot of American ceramics and Tiffany glass.

Also, a major exhibit of Steiglitz and his art collection was on display.

Tuesday found us at MOMA. What a cool museum. I wanted to see the product design section. It was thrilling. I've always liked industrial design. Seeing the Macs was a special treat!

Bill at the Design Exhibit with the Philip Johnson Courtyard in the background.

There was also a marvelous de Kooning exhibit of 20 rooms of his work.

On the last night, David had arrived from his trip and we went to the Cuban restaurant, Copellia for dinner.

A last glimpse of NYC:

NEW YORK 2011 SAGA 3:

"BIG APPLE" APPLE TRIP
New York City

I went to New York City on October 20-22, 2011, mainly to orient my two friends to Apple computer products. Meanwhile, I had a wonderful time sightseeing, dining out and getting a good visit in with Bill and David.

I also got to visit with the architect Giuliano Fiorenzola, my teacher/mentor for my 1982 Italian tour. It was wonderful!

We had lunch at BIRRERIA, the beer garden-type restaurant on top of a 14-story building with an open roof! This is partially owned by Sam Calagione, the owner of Dogfish Craft Brewery here in Milton, DE.

click to see: SAM CALAGIONE

I wore a Dogfish Head hoodie and the people at the restaurant got a big kick out of the fact that I was from Milton and knew Sam. In fact the manager, Mallory, waited on us and said to be sure to say "hello" to Sam for her. It was a delight sitting in an open air space, having a wonderful Tuscan sausage meal with DFH's "Punkin Ale" and overlooking the Flat Iron Building. The whole complex of restaurants and shops is called "Eataly."

David and Bill at Birrera.

I gave Bill a painting by Ray Petersen, a local Milton painter and friend, that he had seen in a book two years ago. He loved the image, so I purchased it for him to liven up his apartment. He was thrilled beyond belief. It's going to be wonderful hanging in his living room.

I just love being in NYC: the hustle and bustle, noise, tall buildings, etc.

I saw the new Freedom Tower building up close. It's three-fourths up. Will be the tallest building in the U.S.

Freedom Tower has the crane on top.

As I said, the main thrust of the trip was to help David get set up on his MacBook and iPhone. And to get Bill an iPhone.

First task was David's equipment.

He still had only "Leopard" as his operating system on his Mac. We went to two stores to finally find the last "Snow Leopard" disc available in NYC! (Otherwise, it would have to be mailed, which would arrive after my visit.) So, we were able to install "Snow Leopard." We updated it, then installed and updated "Lion," the current operating system. This all took about four hours. Then we started on David's iPhone—another two hours to install its latest operating system, "iOS 5." All-in-all we used up the better part of the first day.

On the second and last day, the mission was to get Bill an iPhone. He was unsure about it but we finally went to the AT&T store and purchased the iPhone 4, 8GB for $100 with a new 2-year contract. Over the next four hours we installed the new operating system "iOS 5," backed up the iPhone onto his newly installed iTunes on his PC, and did some instructing on its operation. He was very tentative at first but soon became very interested.

After I got back to Milton, we talked an hour on "FaceTime," a program that puts a picture of the caller on an iPhone or Mac, learning how to contact each other. This way, David and Bill can talk and see each other while David is on his two-week trip to the Middle-East—all on wireless at no cost!

All-in-all a very successful trip to the Big Apple.

NEW YORK 2011 SAGA 2:

GIULIANO FIORENZOLI VISIT
New York City

In 1982, I lived for four months in Florence, Italy. Giuliano was my professer/guide/mentor for my Parson's School of Design study tour of that I took for a month.

He was a delight as well as inspirational. We studied in Rome, Florence and then Venice.

Touring with and learning from Giuliano was like a breath of Florentine fresh air. He was effusive, charming, bright, informative and personable. (Plus he gave me an "A" for the graduate course.)

IT HAPPENED! I did see Giuliano in his studio on a trip to NYC in late October 2011.

We had a wonderful visit. We talked of many things: our Italian adventure, his teaching at Pratt Institute, about his daughter going to Harvard, about the architect Bruce Goff, etc. (I told him about Bill Murphy having worked for Mr. Goff in Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Giuliano wants Bill to come talk to his Pratt students about Goff!)

Giuliano much appreciated the gift of a copy of my book, "My Italian Adventure." He reciprocated with a jar of capers he grew from his island home in the Mediterranean. The capers were preserved in olive oil from his post-modern Tuscan villa. (This is the villa we had visited as a class when I was in Italy on my 1982 tour.)

His work reminded me of Bruce Goff's architecture: very creative and organic. He let me photograph some of it.

It was such a warm, delightful visit. We hugged good-bye.

Giuliano said I could stay at his Tuscan villa anytime I wanted!!!!!! He's there in the summer. He would arrange it with his brother, the caretaker, anytime I wanted to go! I couldn't believe such a great, generous offer. Maybe I'll take him up on it—wouldn't that be fantastic!!

NEW YORK 2011 SAGA:

SOMETHING AMAZING...                (An interjection.)

        ...has happened with my blog. On March 19, 2011, I got a hit from Korea because someone was searching on Google for Juliano Fiorenzoli! So, in curiosity I went to Google. I put in Juliano's name and my Don Voth blog came up! Except at the top, it had its ubiquitous "Did you mean:" and it said "Giuliano Fiorenzoli". So, I clicked on that and I got him: Giuliano Fiorenzoli, a professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn!  

There he was and lo-and-behold, I had misspelled his name—a bit older but I recognized him! Here he was in Venezia!

I went through all the My Italian Adventure Sagas and changed Juliano to Giuliano. I was particularly interested in Saga 15 because it was to be published online the next morning. I figured by putting in also his last name it would appear in Google again.

I am especially excited about this because I'm going to be in New York City on vacation and I'll try to contact him.

Wouldn't that be amazing?