Friday night, post studio

exposed piano harp, for example

So, after all the copper plate and ferric chloride fun (see previous post), I left the studio to go meet up with Ben in TriBeCa. I was meeting him at Terroir, so walked south on Greenwhich, during which stroll I came upon an abandoned upright piano on the sidewalk. It was missing its front panel, so the harp was exposed, and several keys were no longer connected to hammers (or else their corresponding strings were gone), but it had enough functionality remaining to play  some chords. I wanted to rescue it, but it’s no easy thing to rescue a piano, and where would one put it?

The TriBeCa incarnation of Terroir is great, although a quite different feel, being such a larger space (and not in the East Village). After some wine and small foods there, we decided to go over to Blaue Gans, which a friend of ours had told us about; very casual with good food of the Austro-German variety (same owner as the Cafe Sabarsky in the Neue Galerie). It was a lovely space, large and beerhall-esque, but cozy, and not too crowded for a Friday night, although also in company, at two different tables, were Natalie Portman (from Black Swan to Blue Goose!) and Jake Gyllenhaal (a fellow Park Sloper along with his sis). The food was very good– and portions large enough to induce food coma and / or heart attack if finished.

Finally we stopped in at Weather Up– yes, the Vanderbilt Avenue gem has opened another, larger space on Work Island. Equally beautiful inside, having the same warm lighting fixtures and expertly cut white tiles; the cocktails also meet the exacting standard set forth by the original, but with Manhattan prices. In addition to a taxidermied peacock on a pedestal at the end the bar, there was a beautiful large piece hanging on one wall– the same sort of overlapped harp as seen earlier on the lost piano. Full circle.