Tribeca Film Festival

Tickets are now on sale for the 9^th Annual Tribeca Film Festival! 44 films will make their world debut starting this Thursday and more than 500 movies are expected to be screened during the week long event. If you can’t skip work to walk to red carpet, you can participate from online from your office, or from your home couch. A $45 pass can give you internet access to 8 feature length films, 18 shot films and preview videos. Time Warner is offering flicks from the 2010 Film festival On Demand. Happy viewing!

Sidewalk Art to take home

We know New York is filled with talent. Sometimes you actually stumble across it on the streets. Turning a corner in SoHo, I saw Kazuya Morimoto, sitting on his little foldable chair, transferring the imposing loft buildings into a colorful aquarelle on his drawing pad. Morimoto is a Japanese painter working in the New York for the past five years, who only does these whimsical cityscape drawings as a distraction from his true daily work: abstracts.

If you don’t want to face the odds of running into him on a corner anywhere in Manhattan or Brooklyn, you can check out his work at the opening reception of his show this Thursday, April 15th starting at 6 pm.

Go here to see a sample of his abstract paintings.

If you prefer his cityscape renderings he accepts commissions: you can have any of your favorite NY facades on paper, painted with mastery for $800.
A NYC souvenir just can’t get more custom that that!

Kazuya Morimoto: though April 17th
215 west 57th street
The Art Students League of NY
2nd floor Pillip Harriman Mason Gallery

The Henri Cartier-Bresson opening party at the MoMA

Henri Cartier-Bresson’s first major retrospective after his death in 2004 at the MoMA’s 6th floor was competing with the museum’s sculpture garden. On this uncharacteristic April balmy evening, guests were lingering outside sipping their glasses of wines. And so was I, holding on dearly to my rose, while enjoying the warm breeze. But once I finally made it all the way upstairs, I forgot all about the outside world. Viewers get immediately sucked into a historical tour du monde in vivid black and white.

At the start, you might think you’ve seen it all before, after all, who is not familiar with the vast work of this photojournalist who founded the Magnum agency and brought to light realities around the globe never seen before.

His travels are beautifully represented on huge graphic maps by Adrian Kitzinger.
View them here.

If you missed the glorious combo of garden & photography of last night’s opening party, you can replicate this magical atmosphere at one of “Thursday MoMA nights”. The evenings always feature different DJ’s and a cash bar.

Until then, enjoy the interactive preview.

A forbidden snapshot using my phone camera of a 1951 Cartier-Bresson photo taken in Scanno, Italy

Prada, Armani, etc: Madison Avenue storefronts embrace spring

 

By Alexandra Forbes, special contributor

Spring is here! And the storefronts on Madison Avenue have embraced the new season. Here are a few of our favourites, all clustered between 77th and 65th streets:


Valentino….


Armani megastore:













Dolce & Gabbana…





Prada….


The Tom Ford menswear boutique

Chef David Chang opens Má Pêche restaurant in New York's Midtown

chef David Chang

by Alexandra Forbes, special contributor

It’ll be very interesting to see how this turns out…. David Chang, chef-owner of the cult restaurant Momofuku Ko and king of New York’s hip downtown, is opening a restaurant in (yikes!) the very touristy and corporate Midtown.
Although I havent’ been to Momofuku Ko, for the sheer annoyance factor of trying to score a reservation through the impossibly difficult online system he’s set up, I am a huge fan of his more accessible restaurants – especially Ssäm Bar, which serves what I consider to be the world’s tastiest sandwich (barbecue pork).
Now he’s opening, this Wednesday, a restaurant called Má Pêche (a play on peach, his budding empire’s logo) in a part of New York that is very…. un-Chang like: Midtown!
Let’s see if it becomes as successful and sought-after as his other restaurants…

Má Pêche
15 W 56th St
(between Fifth and Sixth Aves.)
tel. 212-247-2011

Ringling Bros. circus at Madison Square Garden: Easter weekend only!

By Alexandra Forbes, special contributor

This weekend is your last chance to see the amazing Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus at Madison Square Garden and.... I highly recommend it to anyone with kids.

I went with my 3-yr. old not really knowing what to expect but... WOW! Quite the show! Beautiful tigers, several dancing elephants, trapeze, clowns, snake charmers, jugglers, dancers, trampolin tricks, you name it: they had it all. Don't believe me? Then watch this vid:

2010 New York International Auto Show

Statistically, if you are in NYC you are probably not driving a car. But chances are, if you made it here, you have an appreciation for fine lifestyle, and therefore great automobiles. And if you are a true New Yorker, you expect VIP treatment. Today is your chance to beat the crowds and have access to the most exclusive show of privately owned custom cars and the latest brand new 2010 slick machinery creations on wheels. The cocktail party for the private viewing starts at 6pm (tickets are $150), and dinner at 8:30 (tickets start at 1,000). Both purchased entrances are tax-deductible.

All proceeds of the Gala Preview of the New York Auto Show will fund the East Side House in the South Bronx, which provides education and technology training to over 8,000 residents of the poorest congressional district in the US.

Quite a nice happy hour program: aperitif strolling through shiny beautiful cars, in a nice atmosphere filled of new leather smell without the hassle of the masses. An immersion into luxury while chipping in for a great cause.

Thursday, April 1

6-9 PM Cocktails

8:30 PM Benefactors Dinner

The Jacob Javits Center

11th Avenue at 35th Street

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