Friday lunch and Jewish Museum

Yesterday I had breakfast for the second time in a cafe over the road and saw  2 women that I saw the first time, both locals or at least very regulars.  They were greeted , separately , no orders were taken ,their food just appeared.

I dawdled a bit , then went into Midtown and met Joan , a cousin of a friend who I have met several times now in NY, for lunch. We talked for ages, then she went back to work and I went to the Jewish Museum.  Ihad been told that their permanent collection was being rearranged and  unviewable but that there was a good exhibition of Modigliani's early work. It was interesting.  Lots of his early African-ish heads and talk of his early painting life in Paris in the early 1900 when Jews were out of favour,  but he was Italian and didnot fit in anywhere and how this affected his work.

There was also an exhibition of clothing worn by Jewish women and some menswear collected from various continents over the years. Many different designs and textiles. It concentrated on how the different groups of Jewish people had adapted their dress to be more like the local country, or adapted the local costume to suit their rules and customs. There were quite a few garments from Bukhara, Uzbekistan with the characteristic patterns and colours that I recognised from 41 years ago.

A funny incident I donot want to forget .  I am normally careful , when I come out of a subway station,   to orient  myself  correctly before I move off.  The stairs out the subways always go round corners and I find it hard to remember which direction is which . Anyway , I forgot, walked off and realised when I got to the first crossroad that I had gone the wrong way, laughed at myself ( an improvement, I was not cross with myself) , turned around and there was a human sized Mickey Mouse waving at me.  I smiled at the universe that arranged for him to be there.