Email Newsletter July 2014: New York and Philadelpia

Brooklyn Bridge, with the Manhattan Bridge in the background
[Photo By: KPA]

Here is my most recent email newsletter. If you would like to be included in my list, please let me know.

Dear Friends of Western Civilization,

It has been a while since I've updated you on my book, website and travel projects. But that doesn't mean I've been idle!

Here are some of my recent activities.

I continue to update my website Reclaiming Beauty regularly, with the aim that it becomes an online record of activities that includes a wide range of contributors, and eventually develops into a "Beauty Movement."

I have started a new project: An online beauty museum, which I have titled The Museum of Beauty. The aim is to put exhibits and collections online, and to eventually look for a physical location. It is the "cheapest" form of a museum that I know to build right now. With added material, it will hopefully attract interest to pursue its larger ambitions.

I applying for a grant to the New York Public Library, again! I was rejected the first time, and I think it is probably due to insufficient ethnic, feminist, Third World, etc. identification, and my book's aim to introduce (or re-introduce) Western beauty in this world of non-Western multiculturalism. I might just inflate my "Ethiopianness" a little. After all, this is a year's salary while living in the expensive New York City that I'm competing for!

I am applying to attend and present in a conference titled The Power of Beauty, which is in October 2014 in the Franciscan University of Steubenville, in Ohio.

I was recently in New York and Philadelphia for the July 4th holidays, and managed to pack quite a bit in, which I am chronicling in Reclaiming Beauty. I've written a couple of posts on my travels, but have a few more to go. The great New York Public Library was open only for limited hours, although I did manage one visit there.

While in New York and in Philadelphia, I took a large number of photographs, which I'm still processing through, with a camera I bought especially for the trip. I hope to use some of these photos in my book.

I met and stayed with some dear friends.

I attended Larry Auster's new gravestone commemoration, made from beautiful Vermont granite, at the St. Peter and St. Paul cemetery near Philadelphia. I've chronicled it here.

I missed meeting with my "round table" of friends and like-minded people where we discuss literary, cultural and social topics, and to have a good meal together. But, I will certainly be with them again soon.

I visited the American Museum of Natural History for the first time, and was enchanted with an exhibition titled Natural Histories, of scientific illustrations spanning 400 years from the museum's library. Some of the illustrations were wonderfully fantastic.

In Philadelphia, we did a quick tour of the formidable Philadelphia Museum of Art. And we went out of town to the Longwood Gardens, which have spectacular fountain gardens. I have taken photos of many of these sites, so please check back on Reclaiming Beauty.

I finally made it across (or halfway across) the Brooklyn Bridge! I've taken photographs, which I will post shortly. There is a preliminary one above, showing the Manhattan Bridge in the background.

I have some new additions in my Best of New York City post. This includes the pleasant Toast Restaurant where our Round Table meets. I was at Toast a couple of evenings, after the short deluges we got in New York when I was there. These evenings made for lovely, dusk, photos, which I've posted here.

At Toast, I recommend the rosé Bieler Pere et Fils, 2011, served by the glass, which goes wonderfully with the smoked salmon appetizer ("House smoked salmon with capers and herb mayo," from Toast's menu).

I bought a couple of books in New York, including one titled New York Stories, which I have posted on here.

My most recent, and most contentious, post at Reclaiming Beauty is on Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, and an unflattering portrait of her painted by a Pakistani (that's how he presents himself), artist. I describe this portrait as "downright menacing" of a white leader by a non-white portraitist. Here are my posts: Portrait of a Lady: Revisited, and Portrait of a Lady: Critique.

Thank you for your interest in my newsletter. Please check back at Reclaiming Beauty for my recent photos of New York and Philadelphia.

Sincerely,

Kidist Paulos Asrat

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Reclaiming Beauty Newsletter: New York in Spring

Below is the email newsletter I sent out for March 15, 2014. If you would like to be included in the list, please send me your email to cameralucidas@yahoo.com.

Kidist

March 15, 2014 Dear Friends of Western Civilization, Thank you for those who made my upcoming trip to New York possible. I will spend six days in New York City from March 17 - March 22. Actually, it will be four days, since on two of the days I will spend travelling from and to Toronto, a 12-hour trip by Greyhound. And before you feel sorry for me, it is a wonderful ride through western New York, parts of Pennsylvania, crossing New Jersey, before reaching Port Authority. The ride is mostly through rural and farm land, and we pass by some small towns. I blog about the route here at Camera Lucida in 2009. Here is post I did with photos I took of the mountain ranges I travel through. And here is a poston the Finger Lakes, with photos of Lake Cayuga. Customs at the American border is at Buffalo, and I am always surprised at the grand buildings in the center of the city. In New York, I will join the roundtable group I mentioned in my last newsletter for dinner and discussion. I will spend most of my time at the New York Public Library to continue with my research for my book Reclaiming Beauty: Winning Back Our Civiliztion. I am also going through various guides to find exhibitions that would be worth visiting (some might even be "essential viewing"). Two so far: - Radiant Light: Stained Glass from Canterbury Cathedral At the Cloisters, Feb 25-May 18 - The History of the Dressing Table At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, through April 23 And Lincoln Center. When I was a student in New Jersey (in Rutgers) I used to make day trips to New York to listen to the free concerts. Actually, they were rehearsals open to the public. It was very intereting to see how the pieces were put together, and how the condictor went about doing so. Now, these rehearsals (called Open Rehearsals) cost $20, and the reviewer at the New York Philharmonic site agrees with me, saying:"An Open Rehearsal is a fascinating opportunity to watch the New York Philharmonic at work, and see how a piece of music is shaped and polished by the conductor and the musicians." There's an Open Rehearsal on Thursday, March 20, at 9:45 am, at Avery Fisher Hall for: - Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major - Weill: Symphony No. 2 - Gershwin: Concerto in F With Jeffrey Kahane conducting. I had mentioned (in passing) on my blog that I had been through a long series of medical tests this past year. My latest doctor's visit (two days ago) showed that I have a clean bill of health. This is great news, and I believe that St. Michael, of St. Michael's Hospital, where I have been going through most of my tests, is watching over me. St. Michael Slaying Satan  St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto [Photo by KPA]