A Day for Ballantine

Geo | August 31, 2008

If you follow my id “newcolonist” on twitter.com, you’ll know I headed out to the Newark Museum today. I can honestly say I haven’t come upon such an unexpected delight since visiting the Toledo Museum in 2007.
It’s also the second mansion built by beer I’ve been to, the first being the Pabst Mansion in [...]

Antiques go online (Continued)

Hui | August 26, 2008

On my first visit to the antiques strip along Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn, I noticed almost all stores have their websites, except probably Horseman, which is stuffed with mid-century items scattered over five floors.
In the “Incurable Collector Antiques” store, a Columbia University student majoring in journalism was interviewing the owner when I was there. [...]

A Stroll at Dusk

Hui | August 25, 2008

The other side of the East River
I hear the tides of the Sound

Leaves whistling, flowers trembling
and brown stones shimmering at twilight

Everything is quivering,
like struck by a Cupid’s arrow
mellowing out in sweet sorrow

Lights off
and on
Lady Columbia puts on her night gown
in a gossamer of Cabernet Sauvigon

A nightingale sings
through the darkness [...]

Atlantic Goes Online

Geo | August 24, 2008

“Even the antiques along Atlantic Avenue are getting too old for the hip, new neighborhood.
A quarter-century ago, the street was an antiques destination and home to 34 stores selling Victorian-era furniture, 1970s-era rotary phones, and everything in between — and homeowners citywide descended on Atlantic Avenue to fill their brownstones.” Link to the story [...]

Night At The Brooklyn Museum

Geo | August 10, 2008

I never got to see Penn Station, but today I was able to see part of it; and with that I’m beginning to put the remaining peices together. I had probably seen it before, but not knowing what it was, I didn’t pay attention.
The building, the fourth largest in earth when it was built, [...]

A Visit to Lefferts House

Hui | August 5, 2008

I went to the Lefferts Historic House on the east side of Prospect Park last Sunday. It was a delight to see a house with an outdoor garden. Lefferts’ first house was burned during the revolution by interestingly American instead of British. The current house or more precisely homestead was built in the 1780’s; therefore [...]

Class notes from “Rethinking Period Rooms”, a series of lectures at BMA — 2. The Evolution of Chairs

Hui | August 4, 2008

The most interesting thing in the study of objects is that not only the styles inevitably change, but also the notions of what that particular object means to people have changed in a dramatic way. The rarity of fabrics in the 17th century made its presentation and preservation (such as linen press or kas) the [...]

Stanford White, Collector

Geo | August 3, 2008

Stanford White may best be known for his murder by Pittsburgh businessman William Thaw, but he was also an antiques collector, and we might also note, an architect. I imagine White himself might like to be best known as an architect, so I’ll note his achievement in the Washington Square Arch, which I mentioned [...]

John Sloan and A Tower in New York

Geo | August 2, 2008

A while back at a John Sloan show at the Westmoreland Museum of Art in Greensburg, I noticed a tall brick Victorian tower in one of the paintings. I had been to “The Village” many times yet hadn’t noticed this building. I wondered if it had been taken down, but somehow I had the [...]