Distractions

Ugh! The days are going by so slowly, and yet I dread the weekend, when I will have to confront my darkest fears... Meanwhile, I'm making a kick-a-- mix cd that will hopefully help me get out of my funk. I don't have time to be heartbroken! Let's get to the good stuff!

So anyway, I forgot I'm not supposed to be focusing on ME, but on this fabulous city that I live in. I love New York! I can just walk around on any street and I feel alive. Endless faces go by, so many people to watch, so many sights, sounds, and smells to take in. It's rejuvenating, even with winter coming on. And the gray skies and dirty streets are kind of soothing right now, actually.

A few mid-afternoon hours to kill, and I was at at the American Museum of Folk Art (MOMA's little brown neighbor) today, where I decided on a whim to see their research library. Do people realize they have access to this rich pocket of knowledge? Anyone who wants to can go research there, and I commend this library for its friendly people and lack of stuffiness that you find in other museum libraries such as the Frick and the Met. And as fate would have it, though it is normally open by appointment only, I was able to go in and find the book I've been searching for all over the ciy. Mennonite Arts. I've been doing research for my next paper, on Joseph Lehn, a Pennsylvania German craftsman of the mid-19th century. This book had the best information I've seen on him so far, and color pictures to boot. This week I'm doing all my research, and next week I'll write, because I'll be home and I'll have nothing else to do except pine, and I don't want to do that.

Later today I found myself next to the projects in East Harlem, where Carswell Berlin has his warehouse. Berlin is the expert on American Empire furniture, which are pieces made between in 1805 and 1825, or thereabouts. Empire furniture comes after Federal, and it is a marked change from simple spare geometry to conglomerations of carved sphinxes, gilded bronze mounts, and all the greco-roman and Egyptian gaudiness you can imagine. Names such as Duncan Phyfe and Charles Honore Lannuier dominate this time, and New York was the center of it all.

Unfortunately most American furniture collectors focus only on 18th century furniture, and label 19th century work as tasteless and unrefined. There's certainly nothing subtle about a pier table with bare-breasted winged sphinx ladies supporting a marble top, with hairy lions paw feet, and every other surface gilded. However, there is an exuberant glory here that certainly cannot be ignored. Berlin has some fantastic pieces--worthy of museums. In fact, he pointed out several reasons why one particular French-influenced secretary, with every exquisite detail just perfect down to its original inkwells, is better than anything in a museum. It certainly was breathtaking. I just felt good because out of the three card tables he had, I guessed which one was worth the most. Maybe this education is paying off after all...