I’ve occasionally copied old diaries into private pages of this blog. One section was largely lifted from a section I typed in 20 years ago, on the Color Classic Mystic. Generally my handwritten diaries are numbered alphanumerically, but the ending portion of this section mystified me: I didn’t know where it came from when I copied it into this blog last year. Finally I found that it was in an unnumbered book, the spiral-bound A4 sketchbook I bought in Sydney in early 1999. A matter of some embarrassment to me. I decided to call this book 46A. I note on the bottom of the blog page that it follows, and is followed by:
the pink marbled Michael Roger Press book numbered 46.
But where is that pink, marbled-cover book? I see it in my mind’s eye. Tan pigskin binding at the spine, Pink and marbled silkscreen-type cover, roughly quarto- or P4-letter-sized. I misplaced it in early 1999 (evidently), then found it late in the year, around the time I moved to Hoboken. In the mental crystal ball I see it at the bottom of a stack of books, its bottom (non-spine) edge turned outward. This was probably last misplaced last year (2024), as I haven’t come across it in the last move of a month ago, but clearly identified it when I copied and expanded the notes on the 1999 diaries. Might it be on the Moki desk? In the Moki area? Where the Color Classic still is? (I have been thinking of moving that to the armoire, the upper shelf, where I can hook it up to the ethernet for occasional light use and research.) *
I think I wrote that I found the Glorious Victory card prints in the black Jil Sander box. No. They, and the Palmerston CDV, are in the Powerhouse Museum shoebox, covered with Australian memorabilia from 1999. The Jil Sander box has greeting cards, mostly used, with correspondence.
The screensaver on FireTV (in which I enrolled last summer, after cutting the cord for the regular FiOS cable TV and cutting Verizon expense by 60%) has started to show a slideshow of some old images and newsclippings. Apparently I had chosen an option of “Daily Memories.” But where were these images coming from? At long last I found yesterday they’re in my Amazon Photos, uploaded there around 2010-2012, and plumb forgotten about since. Linked to my m*****@b****.net account, my master email address and still used for one acct on Amazon.
Some are real finds. Central Park Lagoon, St. Luke’s Hospital, other buildings, 1862 (full-size one from NYPL Digital Collection, above). Captioned photo of W 54th St in 1867 (Rockefeller house and St Luke’s), a panel from George Cruikshank’s The Bottle, some 1850s newsclippings about fugitive slaves in Canada, John Urquhart Andrews stuff.
A Napoleon Sarony comical litho from 1861 Valentine’s Manual:
I have a distinct memory of finding that image online and posting it various places, around June 2011. The townhouse on the left still stands. Sarony was later famous for his photographic portraits of Oscar Wilde, W. T. Sherman, Sarah Bernhardt. His litho draftsmanship was honed while working for Currier & Ives. He must have been their most talented artist, as his composition and detail are much better than most C&I that I’ve seen. In the above and some other lithos, I get the distinct impression he was already getting into photography and using photos as reference material. Some vistas, such as the view from lower Central Park in 1857 or the upper Park in 1865, would not have been reproducible in the technology of the time, but could be copied and improved upon in a lithograph illustration.
1865, Central Park from 110th Street end. From Major & Knapp, but no Sarony as he was away and about to set himself up as photographer. The old fortifications and gatehouse foundation, now covered with weeds and grass, are just left of center. The former Mount St. Vincent’s chapel is at the top of the hill, upper right.
I didn’t recall buying any Wolf Chili from Amazon, but apparently I did last week, as two cans arrived. Heated up one today, the no-beans variety. Looks like dog food, tastes okay. I put in a can of black beans to give it some more substance. A cube of beef bouillon and some Gebhardt’s chili powder.
Slowly finishing up the video lessons and quizzes for the Anchor business.
Called 48th St SSA about applying for SSI. The negress was discouraging. It’s Federal welfare, she tells me, and I’m not going to get any if I have over $1400 per month in SS benefits as it is. But I could make an appointment to apply anyway. I have decided not to. Futile. And it would be zeroed-out by the other money I’ll be getting, from Anchor, nruns, whatever.
Tomorrow to T&L court, 9:30 am. Not looking forward. Yet I am much better off now than I was six weeks ago. I got the SCRIE almost immediately, solved the ERAP problem (landlord dropped the ball, and that is apparently the reason why they wrote off the 2023 rent), have prospects of some bleak work starting. I also have my EBT card, which eases one burden though does not directly affect the rent owed. The SCRIE does affect that; I need to recalculate the amount of rent owed/paid since April 2024, using the $1877.xx rent-freeze rate. Make up a spreadsheet of that, an extra copy of the SCRIE approval, have that for Rebecca and the T&L court tomorrow morning.
Sent in those $1200 and $688 checks to Jeffries Morris a week and a half ago, they haven’t gone through yet. Par for the course.
Card for Jury Duty. I postponed it to June 17, and now that is coming up. Must postpone again, as that is the one and only nruns race this month. Need a good excuse. Or maybe bag nruns instead. Perhaps I’ll be working for Anchor then. The Anchor deal still strikes me as iffy. My plan was to be the carer for Grimm, but he hasn’t entirely sealed the deal yet with his DSS medical contacts. Just asked for a lot of hours of care (ie by me).
To Whole Foods yesterday afternoon. Honey, milk ($4.69 a gal, was $4.09 two weeks ago; has been $3.99 at Wegman’s and TJ’s), two Blake’s pot pies (a “last chance” deal marked down to $3.99), the $4.99 pink grapefruit juice. Very heavy Samsonite bag to carry home. Stopped at Chinawoman’s for a half-pint, as I had $5 in cash with me and dasn’t drink more vodka than that. Went through it in about a half-hour. Found myself fiendishly hungry for ice cream. Cheap cookie-dough ice cream at the drugstore, and nuts.
I got a call from front desk on the intercom phone an hour and a half ago. A workman in the building is installing sensors in the apartments. What sensors? I asked. For gas, I was told. He wanted to come up now. No, I said, I’m leaving now, will be back before three. I find this sort of call on the spur of the moment, very annoying. Is it really impossible to give us a day or two notice on these things? Now, Moki loved having handymen and mechanics and decorators and the super come in all the time. Me, I don’t like it at all. It’s always they’ll be here at 10, then when they don’t show I’m leaving at noon and THEN they show up. And then they have to go away and come back later. That colored kid who installed the caption-phone a couple of weeks ago: he was here precisely on time, was in and out within a half-hour. Really excellent service.
- My mental crystal ball was pretty accurate. It wasn’t on the bookshelves or in the Moki area, but a few feet from me in the bedroom, underneath a big sketch/notebook, bits of mail, a folder marked Weiss & Toynbee, and on top of old issues of the London Review of Books.
