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Wagner and Wotan

My first "Ring" opera: Die Walküre. Wonderful, traditional production conducted by James Levine with Placido Domingo as Siegmund and James Merrill as Wotan. Domingo was fine, yet Merrill has the far bigger role as the God who is trapped by his own machinations to retrieve the Ring. But typical Wagner:

Maestro

Serendipity.....I passed by Steven Spielberg on Broadway this evening. Later, after a brilliant dinner at Roth's, I finished the night by watching Empire of the Sun. Wow.

Eternal Sunshine

Saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a few weeks ago. Quite good and thoughtful. As zany as the plotting is, you really don't have to worry about it. Though you spend lots of energy trying to figure out if a scene is present time, past memory, or some combination

Dining Room

The rough framing and sheetrock and some electrical is done. Here you can see the new "dining room". I have a temporary table there for the weekend while Charley is here. The columns will separate the dining from the living room; the piece of duct tape stringing between them simulates

Initial Framing....

The initial framing for the office/2nd-bedroom is done. Hard to see in the photographs perhaps, but I can walk through the space and get a real feel for the rooms. The sizes/shapes, flow, seem to be pretty good.

Law&Order - Renovation Unit

Good news - lots of work done. (Of course, ostentatious demolition is the easy part of a renovation project). You can see that the main living wall is completely gone and new openings have been made to the kitchen. Meanwhile looking back to the studio's doorway, you can see the

Breakthrough

It has begun....Meanwhile, there's a wall of plastic dividing my living room and hallway. The other half of the living room is piled with stuff. Not exactly sure if I thought this through all the way....This shot is from the center of the studio apartment looking into my

Before - Day '-1'

Look for many postings regarding the renovation. Here are the before pictures, looking in to the current living room's main wall. The next two look in to the new apartment. Today, I'm off checking out tiles for the foyer and the kitchen. The guys start working tomorrow morning!

Contractor Contracted

Richard Trieste has been selected as the contractor. He'll start this Monday!! The price is ok and he's favored by my architect. By the way, here's the plans:

Fiddler On The Roof

A great musical, oddly (like Lear) restrained. Alfred Molina stars as the long-suffering Tevye; Molina has been in starring and secondary roles in movies for the past twenty years, including a bad sit-com; it's great to see him in such a big role. So why does he play it so