Gardening at the Carl Schurz Park

These beauties can be found right at the entrance of the park. I'm not sure what they are so I'll need your help.

The purple flowers at the rear seem to be part of a bush tree thing.

Flowers on the Upper East Side

By far the Gristedes on 86th and 1st have the best fresh flowers at incredible prices. Who new there were so many flowers on the Upper East Side. I'm keeping my eyes open for you.

Flowers on the Upper East Side

I'm not sure what these are but it's sure worth a walk up there to check it out. You can find them on 86th and first on the north side of the street.

Gardening at Carl Schurz Park

Did I mention that the daffodils have been planted and are blooming at the Carl Schurz Park?

Planting Flowers Carl Schurz Park

This year (since I know nothing about gardening) I have decided to follow the experts. The gardeners at the Carl Schurz Park create a magical place in the summer and I have decided to follow them along to see what to plant and when. The problem is I can't identify these flowers so I'll need your help. If you know what they are give me a shout.

There are three flowers have have been planted so far. Please see the pics. I know one is the Petunia but the rest?

Easter Nightmare at McDonalds

I'm not sure who decided to decorate the McDonald's on 23rd and Park like an Easter holiday on crack but this really takes the cake. Notice the anemic bunny hanging from it's neck from the ceiling scarring the kids? I could hardly finish my burger LOL

DO NOT MISS U.E.S. "Special Event"

Please mark your calenders for March 10th at 7:30 at the Yorkville Creperie on York ave, between 83rd and 84th. Artist Peter G. Pereira will be having an art show and Live performance art piece at the Saloon stage next door. That's right performance art on the Upper East Side. And he had been sponsored by some of the local businesses, including Dorian's Fish Market, Mansion restaurant, Logos Bookstore, Pintale's Pizza and Ciao Bella Napoli.

It's about time this dynamic community took it's place in the art world! And I urge you to be there, this is going to be fun.

PLEASE note however this is an RSVP event and space it limited. You can put as many people as you want on the guest list but they have to be on to enjoy free admission and a free beverage or glass of wine! Email kayhallny@yahoo.com to get on the list or call me at 646 932 2388.

U.E.S. Santa Sightings

This Santa was found outside Mansion deli on 86th and York. Their decorations are great!!

My advice to Tiger

Life wouldn't be complete if I didn't weight in on this situation. Tiger is a powerful, successful young male. He likes the ladies a lot- obviously. My advice to Tiger is this.

First, get a divorce, there is no way you are going to stay home, stop golfing and suddenly become a better husband. Obviously you don't want to be married so pay the girl.

Second, keep golfing. It's the only thing that you have left, it gives you strength it's part of your identity. If you keep yourself from that sport it will be like cutting off your right arm.

Third, close the checkbook. Pay no one for their silence. Let them have their moment of fame. This to shall pass. Best of luck Tiger!!!!

Fourth, fire all the people that surrounded you and created this nightmare. You were set up to fall. You might be down for the count but you're not out.

U.E.S. Winter Windows Flowers of NYC

The challenge for me has been to find as many wonderful windows and lobbies on the U.E.S as I can find in this Xmas season.

First mention goes to Flowers of NYC on 1621 First Avenue, at 84th street. They made this window look like a winter wonderland and I just love it. Also they have a great St. Nicholas Santa that your kids are going to love to pose with.

I'm sorry I haven't blogged lately, but I'm shooting a sixteen episode reality show and it's been an awesom expereince.

U.E.S. Gossip Insider #10

Here's the problem. Someone on 81st street has placed a huge giant plaster foot on his front yard. The neighbours are loosing their minds. The foot as you can see is just that a plain old foot. I think it is a cast of the foot of the person who owns the duplex and he has put his foot down What do you think?

U.E.S.Sightings #24

While walking down 86th street the other day I saw these wonderful young men carrying what looked like palm leaves. They stopped me and said Suka. This is a Jewish holiday that I know very little about.

St. Francis Day!

I took my little Chihuahua ,Henry to be blessed at the church of the Epiphany on Sunday. The day could not have been nicer.!!

U.E.S. Subway sightings #22

I found this woman dangerously teetering in stilettos on the subway platform. Is she waiting for someone to push her or just loose her balance?

Another reason NOT to wear high heels in NYC.

U.E.S. Events #27 Oktoberfest

Got nothing to do tomorrow? Head down to the early Oktoberfest on 84th street between York and First for some fun. It should be a nice day!

Happy New Year to my Jewish Friends.

I just want to wish all my Jewish friends a very happy new year. I'm dipping a slice of apple in some honey right now!! (For those who don't know that act symbolizes the sweetness of the New Year to come). Everyone should try it...you can't go wrong.

And P.S. What a beautiful day! I'm headed over the museum with Peter.

U.E.S. Business Highlight #2

I stopped in my tracks when I saw this baby. Finally a mannequin that looks like me! Bravo Intimacy the hottest bra shop in Manhattan It's located on 91st and Madison.

U.E.S. Hot#19 Gift Ideas Star of David

This is a great gift idea for the Holiday Season. You can purchase prints from Peter G. Pereira from the Logos Bookstore 1575 York Ave. Check out the star of David a hot, original gift idea for the season. I've included a review of the show from one of the premier art critics in NYC. The great Ed McCormick from Gallery and Studio Magazine. He's been around since the 60's coined the term "puck rock" and hung out with Warhol. He raves about Pereira in the Sept/Oct issue. I'd take him seriously if I were you.

Remember this is a local artist and these works were inspired by the Carl Shurz Park that we all love so keep it real keep it local!!!!

Art Review. Peter G. Pereira Hydragea Epiphanies

Visual Alchemy: Peter G. Pereira’s “Hydrangean Epiphanies” by Hila Ratzibi August 10. 09

The latest work by artist Peter G. Pereira straddles genre and mediums to create a hybrid form dubbed by the artist as “surreal photographic paintings.”

Composited over a period of four years, these pieces were gleaned from roughly 10,000 photographs of hydrangeas taken by the artist at Carl Shurz Park, on the upper east side of Manhattan, which were later “painted,” modified, and reconstituted digitally. The result is a kaleidoscopic panorama of floral repetitions, in hundreds of shades of purple and blue, which draw the viewer in and hold the gaze in a kind of sustained hypnotic attention.

Appropriately, the pieces were exhibited in the backyard garden of the upper east side bookstore, Logos, run by Harris Healy, who had the unique vision to display the work among plants and flowers. The juxtaposition of real plant life with artistic representations of flowers added a layer of visual irony to the experience, highlighting both the confluences and contradictions between nature and art which were part of the artist’s vision.
What appear at first glance to be merely O’Keeffe-like photographs of flowers, doubled and redoubled in mechanical arrangement, become more than what they seem upon closer examination. Like a Rorschach test, strange images emerge between the surface shapes, out of the emptiness of negative space. Seemingly innocuous images yield sudden, minor terrors; black eyes peer out of the space where petal corners meet: eerie, yet simultaneously delicate and gentle. The eye travels between the foregrounded floral images and the shapes hidden in the background, as though journeying between consciousness and unconsciousness. Peel your eye for seated Buddhas, lotuses, alien-like faces, birds, and dragonflies. At times, images seem to randomly materialize, and one wonders whether these are visual coincidences or part of the artist’s plan. In other cases, the artist imposes more authorial control, by chiseling recognizable symbols out of the photographic compositions, such as crosses and stars of David.

This collision of the organic image of flowers with familiar human symbol systems represents the fundamental irony and contradiction inherent in this work. It brings to the forefront the human influence on nature, but without the obvious display of the artist’s immanence found in more painterly pieces. These are vestiges of technology’s cold yet consistent hand, its ability to reproduce, refract, and reassemble. But human vision, while distant and removed from these surfaces, is ever-present though unseen, like an omniscient, third-person narrator, more organizing principle than immediate presence.

The technological dimension of these pieces brings to mind mass production, the commodification of the natural world. Yet at the same time, the computerized reproduction of these botanical photographs mimics the very patterns in nature itself. Look closely at the leather-like texture of a leaf, its repeated lines and surface symmetries, and it is not unlike the repetitive patterns imposed by the artist. There is a harmony between the world of nature and the world of human technology, but an acknowledged detachment is required for the artist (and the viewer) to enact that relationship. Where realism attempts to represent an exact visual replication of nature, these abstract photographic manipulations attempt to mimic the underlying patterns that govern the natural world. The human witness disappears, the artist’s hand invisible, and what remains is the almost hubric desire to understand the secret processes of creation. These pieces are an act of visual alchemy, sometimes bizarre, but often wondrous and playful. They transport the viewer through realms where reality and imagination are blurred, where nature is simply a mirror of the human mind.

U.E.S. Business Highlight

You're not going to want to miss this one! Ever sit at home on the U.E.S.wondering what fabulous restaurant to experience only to end up with same old same old? Well.. Michael Frankel (that's him on the left) has solved all our dining problems. He has opened a company called Specials by Zip. That means you can sign up for FREE and you are emailed all the specials from the local restaurants... including full menus, pictures, and payment methods.

You can even channel the Julia Child in you and write and post a review!

It's free to sign up and there's lots of giveaways in December. So remember... http://www.specialsbyzip.com/