OUT & ABOUT BLOG by AMANDA GORDON
A Picnic Grows in Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s "Passport to Summer" picnic Thursday night went beyond red and white-checkered blankets and potato salad.
True to Brooklyn chic, the tables were covered in turquoise cloth and were just slightly raised from the ground.
Guests did sit on the ground -- on tan and beige mats -- but they filled their plates at a lavish buffet offering salmon, roast beef, and barbecued chicken.
The event, a fund-raiser for young professionals, supported the garden’s educational programs for children.
Poetry Comes Home to Battery Park City
It was a night words and music triumphed over rain. Poets and poetry fans convened Wednesday for a picnic in Battery Park City organized by Poets House.
Songwriter Jill Sobule sang melodious ballads, engaging some of the poets in her performance. For example, Hettie Jones took the stage and began reading her poem "Home." Ms. Sobule and her band then joined in transforming the poem into a rock song.
Poets Matthea Harvy, Cornelius Eady, Li-Young Lee, and Kay Ryan read their work without musical embellishment.
Birthdays Have Their Rewards
The credit crisis isn’t stopping one famous credit card company from throwing a party. On Wednesday, American Express invited its platinum cardholders to lunch at Eleven Madison Park to mark its 50th anniversary.
And they not only got lunch, they got two sugar cookies iced to resemble actual American Express cards. With perks like these, it’s easy to see why American Express has made it to the ripe old age of 50.
--KATHERINE BALLAINE
An Avenue Goes on a Diet
In a townhouse on Park Avenue Tuesday night, Dr. Stuart Fischer celebrated his new book, "The Park Avenue Diet," a six-week regimen consisting of daily menus combined with exercise, hair, makeup, and interpersonal tips.
Judging from the menu for the party, it's a Spartan diet: the spread included green grapes, orange slices, strawberries, pineapple, and a selection of mostly vegetarian sushi.
If only every Park Avenue cocktail party could be so healthful.
The Original Bash for New York's Original Park
To the Battery they came from the Grand Concourse, Eastern Boulevard, Governors Island, Upper Fifth and Lower Broadway.
Truly, the Battery Conservancy's gala drew cultural leaders from across the city, which seemed fitting, since the Battery was the place where the New York story really began.
And so for the gala, they united, to celebrate flowers, step on floor chimes, and sit on benches made out of the same granite used for the base of the Statue of Liberty. There they united to imagine just how cool the park will look when SeaGlass -- the first carousel to feature fish -- is built.
Socio-Horticulture
Coming in Monday's paper: Coverage of the Conservatory Ball at the New York Botanical Garden. Above, a glimpse.
More is online at:
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080606
Gala brings in $3 million gift for El Museo del Barrio
The gala itself raised $850,000 Thursday night at Cipriani, but a surprise announcement late in the evening increased the impact of the night significantly for this critically acclaimed museum on Museum Mile devoted to Latin and Caribbean art, set to mark its 40th anniversary next year.
Alanna Heiss takes a picture
Here's the sign of a museum director in the swing: After photog Sandra Hamburg snapped her photo, Ms. Heiss took the camera and snapped one back... captured at the Kitchen benefit last night.
View here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYMWGP2DHQY
Art parties for IFA and the Kitchen
Photos from the Institute of Fine Arts 75th anniversary celebration (that's Richard Meier entering the institute for the party on Tuesday, above):
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080521ifa
And last night's Kitchen benefit: T-shirts, ball gowns, and everything in between:
Do Cows Fly? They do at NYC Parties.
The New York Foundation for the Arts benefit was pretty fun, as is on display in this video. Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSr71f-eLio
A Week's Worth of Whirl
In the week ahead, the benefit circuit brings us events for National Audubon Society, American Ballet Theatre, 92nd Street Y, the Kitchen, SummerStage, El Museo del Barrio, Riverkeeper, and the Noguchi Museum.
And here's what we got to do in the week just past:
* admire Kimberly Dozier, a journalist injured in Iraq who has just published a memoir
story: http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/no-headline
* ignore Mariah Carey in favor of some of the New Yorkers who helped raise money at Operation Smile's benefit
Chad Row for 'Recount' Premiere
At the premiere of "Recount" at MoMA Tuesday night, the president of HBO Films, Colin Callender, noted the auspicious timing of a film about the election process, in an election year. "As good the HBO press department is, it could not have created the political environment we have now," Mr. Calldender said. "But they did bring in five voting boths, so you'll have your chance to see hanging chad and dimpled chad, in the HBO presidential elections."
Order out of Social Chaos
So much going on this week, when I sat down Wednesday night to make a list of all the parties I'd gone to so far, the list had 10 items on it. And it was only Wednesday.
Now it's Saturday, I technically have the day off, but I have a baby naming in Brooklyn soon (yay Abigail!). Before I go, though, I'm going to sort through the week and give you the highlights.
Pretty in Camelot
At the top of the list of fun nights at Avery Fisher Hall is the New York Philharmonic's performance of a popular work at springtime. This year it's Lerner & Loewe's Camelot. On opening night of athe limited run, ladies were pretty as princesses, men acted princely, and bronze castles surrounded by purple hydrangeas added courtly chic.
See more in the photo gallery:
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080509nyphil
Ice Palace @ Costume Institute Gala
The Temple of Dendur tonight has been transformed into an ice palace for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute gala hosted by Giorgio Armani, with chairmen Julia Roberts and George Clooney.
Guests will go up the 26 steps of the museum's grand staircase, flanked by paparazzi, then follow a red carpet into the new exhibit showing fashions side by side superhero costumes, then continue for cocktails in the Petrie Court, before hitting the ice palace.
Gallery Adds: Ballet, Night in D.C., Young Lions, PEN
Scenes from this week's parties:
The White House Correspondents' Bash: http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080428whca
New York City Ballet Opening Night:
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080502nycb
Young Lions at the New York Public Library:
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080429nypl
The PEN gala:
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080429pen
Naming at Namer's Peril
The risk of naming gifts is often put on the side of the institution: what if the donor gets into trouble, or can't pay up in full? But a recent story in the Yale Daily News about the Thain Cafe in the new Bass Library at Yale (yes, the Thain running Merrill Lynch) shows that the exposure can go the OTHER way: in this instance, some students are alleging that the Thain Cafe's operator has been passing off decaf espresso as the real thing.
Read more here:
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24755
The D.C. Party Report
News organizations are competitive, on the number of scoops, the number of readers... and the number of celebrities they can get to come to their parties. On one night a year, these organizations decide to compete simultaneously, and it becomes a fierce sport. That night is the White House Correspondents Dinner. Sadly, what that competition means is that the point of the event, which is to celebrate the journalists who cover the office of the America's commander in chief gets a lot obscured.
Wilco at Tanglewood
How to become relevant in an instant to a whole new generation of affluent music lovers? Book Wilco. Tanglewood has done it, and it's cause to celebrate with a Yankee fox trot. Wilco will play August 12. Tickets, ever so reasonably priced at $26 to $36, go on sale tomorrow, April 25, through the Tanglewood Web site (www.tanglewood.org).
Manhattan Institute Glam
That Alexander Hamilton was an elegant man, and his disciples at the Manhattan Institute follow in his footsteps, as I hope this photo, taken at the Institute's Alexander Hamilton Awards on Tuesday night, indicates.
But this admittedly fuzzy photo of that glamorous woman (guess who)doesn't tell the whole story. In sharper focus, Henry Kissinger, Maurice Greenberg, Paul Singer, Mayor Giuliani and others made the event about issues, such as bilingual education, trade, and welfare reform.
More soon.
Tribeca Film Festival Fashion
The Vanity Fair dinner opening the Tribeca Film Festival, which took place last night, is by now one of New York's socially exclusive traditions. With Graydon Carter presiding, the event pre-figured his Waverly Inn, except in some ways it still has more punch, because it takes place not in the well-established small-scale West Village, but on an open frontier downtown, namely, the State Supreme Courthouse.
Arriving guests posing for photographers played out a fashion runway that gives a sense of the freedom and strictures of Tribeca dressing.
Here She Comes to Save the Day
The Met doesn't need to be "saved" by anyone, but it is sure lucky to have fashion superhero Anna Wintour on hand to plan the Costume Institute's fund-raising party.
The party is tied into the summer Costume Institute exhibit on superheroes, and today Vogue has posted a video giving a preview of the exhibit and event.
Highlights:
The curator of the exhibit, Andrew Bolton, says the party is "Impossibly glamorous...The Oscars of the East Coast" and that we're living at a time when superheroes are relevant.
Top Decorating Dish
Fear not. Decorating is a “logical, rational process that anyone can understand and adopt,” reads the introduction of “Decorating Master Class: The Cullman & Kravis Way” (Abrams), by Elissa Cullman and a colleague, Tracey Pruzan.
The pair seemed well matched at their book party at Christie’s last week (pictured above, with Tracey on the left and Ellie on the right), but as the book title indicates, the firm even today carries the name and pays homage to the 13-year run of partners Mrs. Cullman and Hedi Kravis, who died in 1997.
Peter Yarrow @ Channel 13 Gala
Light one candle for this singer-songwriter, and Happy Passover.
Photos of Channel 13's send-off to Bill Baker are here:
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080418cu1
Orpheus Snapped, Soundcheck Observed
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's gala last night is the newest addition to the photo gallery, here:
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080418
The highlight of the evening was the performance of Bartok's Rumanian Folk Dances, with the help of an ensemble of the Budapest Festival Orchestra — a performance in honor of the event's Hungarian honorees, Daisy and Paul Soros.
Partnership with Children Turns Back the Century
One small step at a gala, one giant step for Partnership with Children. For the organization's centennial last night at the Pierre Hotel, dozens of women wore turn of the 20th century attire (one small illustration above, with more to come in the column in print).
Pictures are up here:
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080417pwc
Nonprofit Prize Awarded to African Educationalists
Henry and Marie-Josee Kravis both had solo time at the podium last night to introduce (Henry) and present (Marie-Josee) the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, awarded by Claremont McKenna Collega, Henry's alma mater.
This year the prize and $250,000 went to the Forum for African Women Educationalists. The organization educates girls and women, often saving them from forced marriages and dire poverty.
Ladies Lunch #...
The honorees at the Jewish Women's Foundation of New York Benefit Luncheon, Pierre Hotel, Thursday, April 10, around 2 p.m.: Melva Bucksbaum, Jane Weitzman, Annette Insdorf, and Darcy Miller Nussbaum.
The foundation gives grants to organizations and programs that empower Jewish girls and women. A program in Westchester reaches out to victims of domestic violence. A new grant will focus on the issues of adolescent girls. The organization, which marks its 10th anniversary this year, has distributed more than $1.5 million in grants.
Lots of Green with the Pink
Above, Evelyn Lauder with her granddaughters, Danielle and Rachel, at last night's Breast Cancer Research Foundation gala at the Waldorf-Astoria. More than $5 million raised.
Photos here:
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080409
The Morgan: Starting to Feel Like Home
With its new architectural configuration coming on its second anniversary, The Morgan Library & Museum is starting to feel like home. So now, for those faithful supporters who attend the museum's gala every year -- including Charlie Morgan, who has a 45-year tenure on the board -- it's all about getting used to a new director: William Griswold started his term earlier this year, and introduced himself formally at the podium last night (see photo above) before guests headed to dinner. More photos are up in the Out & About photo gallery, at this address:
Murakami-Louis Vuitton Love-In at Brooklyn Museum Gala
Louis Vuitton threw a lot of dough at the benefit it sponsored for the Brooklyn Museum Thursday, to open the Takashi Murakami exhibit that comes to New York via the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Nobu food, Murakami placemats, and programs with the Louis Vuitton logo and the slogan "Protecting Creativity." (BizBash has a report:
http://www.bizbash.com/newyork/content/editorial/e10584.php).
Last Night at Bloomingdale's SoHo: A Healthier, More Beneficial Runway
New York private school students took to the runway last night to raise money for Camp Sunshine, led by three peers, Alison Karasyk, Jake Lewin, and Greer Tessler. No doubt the students had the walk and style of professional models (some of the students have attended shows in Bryant Park), but there were some positive differences: no one was too skinny, and no one was afraid to smile for their parents who sat in the front rows, snapping away.
Reckoning with New York's Rate of Change
Friday night, around 7 p.m.: Actor Jim Dale, historian Gordon Wood, journalist Christopher Hitchens, architecture critic Paul Goldberger, and the president of the New-York Historical Society, Louise Mirrer.
Architecture critic Paul Goldberger focused on the rapid pace of change in New York Friday night at the New-York Historical Society's Chairman's Council Weekend.
Here are the highlights of his remarks, which I recorded in my reporter's notebook while covering the event:
On the Town with Historians, Explorers, Thespians: New Photos Posted
Caption: Winner of the New-York Historical Society's American History Book Prize, Daniel Walker Howe, with his wife Sandra. Mr. Howe won for his Oxford History series volume, "What Hath God Wrought." The Howes met at Oxford 47 years ago.
Additions include:
LAST NIGHT:
New-York Historical Society's Chairman's Council History Weekend http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080405
LAST MONTH:
The Explorers Club Annual Dinner http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/nysun/outandabout/20080405msl
"South Pacific" gala at Lincoln Center Theater
A Tribute with all the Frills, and Trills
The tribute today at the Waldorf-Astoria to director and designer Franco Zeffirelli started with photographs of his mother and father and a slew of childhood photos of Franco.
New Season, New Site
To new and loyal readers of the Sun's social column, welcome to the Out & About column's new Web presence.
We've created this new section of the redesigned New York Sun Web site with several goals in mind:
1. To make it possible to view the photos that appear in the column on the same page as the article;
2. To make it easier for readers to find out about upcoming fund-raising events, not just ones that have already taken place;
Fun at the Garden
When people dress up in a beautiful setting, both the people and the setting benefit. The trick is to ensure that they're not competing with one another. The smartest and most stylish women who attend charity events know this, and plan accordingly, even taking the time to find out the colors of the flowers and other decor, to coordinate their outfit.
