No. 1 for December 14, 2013

The Danforth Art Museum/School in Framingham, MA

Having been blown away by Jacob Lawrence's War Series back in October, seeing a listing for a series of paintings by him on The Legend of John Brown had me hopping on a commuter train to this unlikely destination (conveniently located near the train station, though). Perhaps due their being prints of too-delicate-to-display originals, the paintings come off a bit more flat then their brethren at the Whitney which are painted with tempura on composite board. Lawrence is very adept at depicting sorrow, pain and inner turmoil without showing faces, allowing some of the crudeness of the figures to not matter. The sometimes subtle, sometimes overt placement of crosses framing the characters of the painting got me thinking “why don't we have religious fanatics devoted to such noble causes these days."

Top 3 from October 17, 2013

Carl Schurz Park, New York City

I'd recently just seen Spike Lee's film 25^th Hour and was impressed not only by the film, but by the setting of its opening and climactic scenes, the lovely little park along the East River overlooking the northern tip of Roosevelt Island and the southern tip of Randall's Island. Also great views of the Triborough Bridge and the Feelin' Groovy 59^th St. Bridge. Take the Lexington Ave. subway to the 86^th street stop and walk east till just beyond the point where you think it might not be worth it, but once you go over the little hill and the view presents itself, you'll be glad.