Stew. Sis. Eliasson. Belott. Winnie: The Sublime Art of NYC Awards, Summer '08

photograph: detail from "Books, books, books, books, books, books, and books." 

Brian Belott, 2005-2007

Just in from New York and the long tail of Long Island...

So much to say, so little time...a few highlights, for now:

Best Street? Elizabeth. Wonderful goodies. Not too glitzy. Clothes, toys, le labo olfactory brilliance, art, coffee.

Best Art Books? Belott, above, and more, at the MOMA. Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries. Next exhibit? Wunderkammer.

Best Play/Playwright/Performance Art & Best Coming of Age Story? "Passing Strange." Stew is a genius, and anyone who has not seen this play that can possibly get to the theater to see it should get there, right now asap do not wait. Again: genius. Wunderbar. Please go. Please.

Best Place to Eat on the Eastern Seaboard? Red Bar. Corollary: Best Dessert you never knew you were missing, but you are: Baked Alaska at Red Bar. (Note: You'll have to hop on the Jitney for this New York treat.)

Best Picture? Linda Elizabeth and Vivian Catherine photographed in front of Olafur Eliasson's magnificent Brooklyn Bridge Waterfall.

Best Sets, also: Best Place to be when it Rains? The top floor of the Polo Mansion with Tim DeN. (If you get there, check out the best leather picnic bag on the planet: you probably need it, if only to sneak a few portions of Baked Alaska out of Red Bar...)

Best Characters? The real Winnie and Piglet, ensconced with their true friends in a gorgeous vitrine (right next to a magnificent Gutenberg Bible) in a heavenly room at the breathtaking Fifth Avenue branch of the New York Public Library.

Best Museum Moment? At dusk, watching, from the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a magnificent red/gold sun set upon Manhattan and just to the right of Jeff Koon's "Sacred Heart (Red/Gold)." Up there, there is a nifty Martini Bar that serves ice cold water (!) and additional, more artistic libations that are just perfect for the end of a long hot summer day (I can promise you that it is the most delicious way to end eight hours spent zipping through the Met like Eloise looking for Skipperdee and finding, instead, enough glorious art to make your head and heart and internal gyroscope spin without cease.) Yummy, yummy, yummy.

I like New York in June, how about you?