New York City

At the corner of our street on the way to the subway stop, we passed the General Electric Building built in 1931. It was quite the change from Frank Lloyd Wright. GE maintained its headquarters here until 1974 and donated it to Columbia University in 1993.

It was festooned with images associated with electricity. Check the link for more pictures.

St. Patrick's Cathedral was just down the street. I was fascinated by the notion of Virtual Prayer Candles (SaintPatricksCathedral.org/light) as advertised on the banner.

We have virtual candles of a sort that are battery-powered with a remote on/off shooter, but this is something completely different. I wonder if it is a hold-over from COVID shutdowns.

640 Fifth Avenue had this relief. There were others for Religion, Government, Ex Libris, Transportation, Family, Science, Arts, Communications and Industry.

I've not been able to find out anything about the original purpose of the building itself. It has since been remuddled.

And now a blast from the past.

When I was managing the Tandem Computers System Support Group in Reston, VA, back in the 1980s, one of our customers was Banco Popular de Puerto Rico. They had intractable data communications problems that earned them the (undeserved) name Banco UNPopular.

At one point I traveled to their HQ in San Juan to sooth ruffled feathers and convince them that we really were attempting to address their problems ("your call is important to us, please hold"). As luck would have it, the problem recurred while I was there and by further blind luck I was able to capture the magic troubleshooting data that enabled us to fix it. I was instantly transformed from sacrificial lamb to heroine of the hour.

I was delighted that the bank is still around and had a branch just down from our hotel. I wonder if they are still using the NonStop systems now marketed and supported by HP Enterprise.

I have no pictures of Saturday's ballet performance. The venue, the New York City Center, is itself photogenic inside and out, but I didn't take my camera when we went by to pick up the tickets.

We anticipated seeing Agnes DeMille's original choreography of the ballet Rodeo staged by the Martha Graham Ballet Company, but there was more to the program.

The story of Rodeo centers around a cowgirl raised at Burnt Ranch, striving to step out of her "just one of the guys" persona. She seeks the attention of the Head Wrangler, who is, like the rest of the cowboys, infatuated with the Rancher’s Daughter. Eventually she catches the eye of the Champion Roper who has just lost the Rancher's Daughter to the Head Wrangler. In a tale as old as time, the Cowgirl puts on a beautiful dress for the Hoe-Down and finally attracts the attention of the Head Wrangler. The ballet culminates with the Cowgirl and Head Wrangler locked in a Hollywood kiss in the middle of the dance.

At this performance the Copland music for Rodeo was performed by a bluegrass ensemble! This is not out of line because DeMille had selected several songs in the American folk tradition as the basis for the music. Some of the tunes are Sis Joe, If He'd Be a Buckaroo, I Ride an Old Paint, Bonaparte's Retreat,  Mrs. MacLeod, and Gilderoy. It worked.

For more on Rodeo, see this discussion on the Kennedy Center website. It also includes a recording of the initial segment of the ballet.

In addition to Rodeo, the program included two 21st century ballets: We the People, with music by Rhiannon Giddons  and Cave. We had seen Giddons perform with her group The Carolina Chocolate Drops at our local Lime Kiln Theater. In our opinions the best thing about the We the People production was the music. Cave was mesmerizing. A snippet may be seen on YouTube, but it doesn't convey the full impact.

A very satisfying visit to The Big City.

We were up early the next morning for our train back to Newark and the long drive home. It was good to be back.