BARBRA STREISAND & 'CATS', THE BROADWAY MUSICALS

Today, The Grandma has visited an old friend, Barbra Streisand, who is celebrating her 80th anniversary in New York City.

 

Together, they have enjoyed a great musical in Broadway, Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats written by T. S. Eliot.

Cats is a sung-through musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot.

It tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make the Jellicle choice by deciding which cat will ascend to the Heaviside layer and come back to a new life.

As of 2022, Cats remains the fourth-longest-running Broadway show and the sixth-longest-running West End show.

Lloyd Webber began setting Eliot's poems to music in 1977, and the compositions were first presented as a song cycle in 1980. Producer Cameron Mackintosh then recruited director Trevor Nunn and choreographer Gillian Lynne to turn the songs into a complete musical.

Cats opened to positive reviews at the New London Theatre in the West End in 1981 and then to mixed reviews at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway in 1982.

It won numerous awards including Best Musical at both the Laurence Olivier and Tony Awards.

Despite its unusual premise that deterred investors initially, the musical turned out to be an unprecedented commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$3.5 billion by 2012.

The London production ran for 21 years and 8,949 performances, while the Broadway production ran for 18 years and 7,485 performances, making Cats the longest-running musical in both theatre districts for a number of years.

Cats has since been revived in the West End twice and on Broadway once. It has also been translated into multiple languages and performed around the world many times.

Cats started the megamusical phenomenon, establishing a global market for musical theatre and directing the industry's focus to big-budget blockbusters, as well as family- and tourist-friendly shows. The musical's profound but polarising influence also reshaped the aesthetic, technology, and marketing of the medium.

Cats was adapted into a direct-to-video film in 1998, and a feature film directed by Tom Hooper in 2019.

More information: Cats, The Musical

Memory is a show tune composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Trevor Nunn based on poems by T. S. Eliot.

It was written for the 1981 musical Cats, where it is sung primarily by the character Grizabella as a melancholic remembrance of her glamorous past and as a plea for acceptance.

Memory is the climax of the musical and by far its best-known song, having achieved mainstream success outside of the musical. According to musicologist Jessica Sternfeld, writing in 2006, it is by some estimations the most successful song ever from a musical.

Memory was named the Best Song Musically and Lyrically at the 1982 Ivor Novello Awards.

More information: TPAC

 Memory, all alone in the moonlight
I can dream of the old days
Life was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, ROBERT REDFORD & JANE FONDA

Today, The Grandma has visited two old friends, Paul & Corie Bretter. Together, they have spent the day visiting Central Park.

Barefoot in the Park is a 1967 American romantic comedy film directed by Gene Saks from a screenplay by Neil Simon, adapted from his 1963 play of the same name, starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda as a young newlywed couple.

Paul, a conservative lawyer, marries the vivacious Corie, but their highly passionate relationship descends into comical discord in a five-flight New York City walk-up apartment. The supporting cast features Charles Boyer, Mildred Natwick, Herbert Edelman, and Mabel Albertson.

Barefoot in the Park was released theatrically by Paramount Pictures on May 25, 1967, to critical and commercial success, with critics praising its adaptation, light-hearted tone, and cast performances.

The film grossed $30 million worldwide on a $2 million budget. For their performances in the film, Natwick was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and Fonda was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress. Simon received a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Barefoot in the Park spent a record 12 weeks at Radio City Music Hall in New York City grossing a house record $2.3 million.

More information: On the Set of New York

Central Park is an urban park in New York City, between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan.

It is the fifth largest park in the city, covering 341 ha. It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually as of 2016, and is the most filmed location in the world.

After proposals for a large park in Manhattan during the 1840s, it was approved in 1853 to cover 315 ha.

In 1857, landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition for the park with their Greensward Plan. Construction began the same year; existing structures, including a majority-Black settlement named Seneca Village, were seized through eminent domain and razed.

The park's first areas were opened to the public in late 1858. Additional land at the northern end of Central Park was purchased in 1859, and the park was completed in 1876.

After a period of decline in the early 20th century, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses started a program to clean up Central Park in the 1930s. The Central Park Conservancy, created in 1980 to combat further deterioration in the late 20th century, refurbished many parts of the park starting in the 1980s.

Main attractions include landscapes such as the Ramble and Lake, Hallett Nature Sanctuary, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, and Sheep Meadow; amusement attractions such as Wollman Rink, Central Park Carousel, and the Central Park Zoo; formal spaces such as the Central Park Mall and Bethesda Terrace; and the Delacorte Theater.

The biologically diverse ecosystem has several hundred species of flora and fauna. Recreational activities include carriage-horse and bicycle tours, bicycling, sports facilities, and concerts and events such as Shakespeare in the Park.

Central Park is traversed by a system of roads and walkways and is served by public transportation.

Its size and cultural position make it a model for the world's urban parks. Its influence earned Central Park the designations of National Historic Landmark in 1963 and of New York City scenic landmark in 1974.

Central Park is owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation but has been managed by the Central Park Conservancy since 1998, under a contract with the municipal government in a public–private partnership. The Conservancy, a non-profit organization, raises Central Park's annual operating budget and is responsible for all basic care of the park.

More information: Central Park NYC

You don't learn from successes;
you don't learn from awards;
you don't learn from celebrity;
you only learn from wounds and scars
and mistakes and failures.
And that's the truth.

Jane Fonda

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S WITH CENTENARY IRIS APFEL

Today, The Grandma has met Iris Apfel, the American businesswoman, interior designer, and fashion icon, who is a Grandma's old friend. Together, they have had breakfast at Tiffany's remembering another old friend, Holly Golightly.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is a 1961 American romantic comedy film directed by Blake Edwards, written by George Axelrod, adapted from Truman Capote's 1958 novella of the same name, and starring Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, a naïve, eccentric café society girl who falls in love with a struggling writer. It was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures on October 5, 1961, to critical and commercial success.

Nominated for five Academy Awards (winning two), with the music (including Moon River) nominated for six Grammy Awards (winning five), the film was selected in 2012 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

More information: BBC

Iris Apfel (née Barrel; born August 29, 1921) is an American businesswoman, interior designer, and fashion icon.

In business with her husband, Carl, from 1950 to 1992, Apfel led a career in textiles, including a contract with the White House that spanned nine presidencies.

In retirement, she drew acclaim for a 2005 show at the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring her collection of costume jewelry and styled with clothes on mannequins as she would wear it. She has become a fashion icon, she signed to IMG in 2019 as a model at age 97 and featured in a 2014 documentary called Iris by Albert Maysles.

Born Iris Barrel in Astoria, Queens, New York on August 29, 1921, Apfel is the only child of Samuel Barrel (1897-1967), whose family owned a glass and mirror business, and his Russian-born wife, Sadye Barrel (1898-1998), who owned a fashion boutique. Both were Jewish.

Although raised on a farm by her parents and grandparents, she often rode the subway in to explore Manhattan, where she fell in love with Greenwich Village. While still a child, she shopped its antique shops, starting her extraordinary collection of jewellery from around the world.

She studied art history at New York University and attended art school at the University of Wisconsin.

More information: Twitter-Iris Apfel

 As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands,
one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

Audrey Hepburn

THE NEWTONS VISIT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NYC

Visiting the MoMA was one of the proposals of Isa and Yamina Newton, and The Grandma accepted it.

 

The Newtons have visited this wonderful museum today, and they have enjoyed an unforgettable day between some of the most spectacular art works of the world.

Before visiting the MoMA, the family have been studying some English grammar. They have chosen There is/There are.

More info: There is/There are

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the largest and most influential museums of modern art in the world.

MoMA's collection offers an overview of modern and contemporary art, including works of architecture and design, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, prints, illustrated books and artist's books, film, and electronic media.

The MoMA Library includes approximately 300,000 books and exhibition catalogs, more than 1,000 periodical titles, and more than 40,000 files of ephemera about individual artists and groups. The archives hold primary source material related to the history of modern and contemporary art.

It attracted 706,060 visitors in 2020, a drop of sixty-five percent from 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It ranked twenty-fifth on the list of most visited art museums in the world in 2020.

The idea for the Museum of Modern Art was developed in 1929 primarily by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and two of her friends, Lillie P. Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan.

They became known variously as the Ladies or the adamantine ladies. They rented modest quarters for the new museum in the Heckscher Building at 730 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and it opened to the public on November 7, 1929, nine days after the Wall Street Crash.

The Museum of Modern Art closed for another round of major renovations from June to October 2019.

Upon reopening on October 21, 2019, MoMA added 4,400 m2 of gallery space, and its total floor area was 65,800 m2.

The expansion and refurbishment was overseen by the architectural firm of Diller Scofidio+Renfro.

The institution began offering free online classes in April 2014.

More information: MoMA

Art is what you can get away with.

Andy Warhol

THE NEWTONS & ROSALIA AT THE MET CERIMONY IN NYC

Today, The Newtons & The Grandma have arrived to New York City. They are going to spend some weeks in this amazing city, enoying its people, history and places.

They have arrived with enough time to assist to the Met Gala, where they were some of the main guests. They have arrived with another compatriot, Rosalia, and they have spent a wonderful night together discovering the last tendencies infashion and design.

During their travel by plane from Barcelona to New York City, they have been studying some English grammar. They have started with the ABC, the numbers and the articles.

 

More information: Numbers, Letters & The Articles

The Met Gala, or Met Ball, formally called the Costume Institute Gala or the Costume Institute Benefit, is an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City.

 

It is popularly regarded as the world's most prestigious fashion event, and an invitation is highly sought after. Celebrities from various professional spheres, such as fashion, film, television, theater, music, business, sports, social media, and politics, are invited to the gala, organized by American fashion magazine Vogue.

The gala is held annually on the first Monday of May. It marks the opening of the Costume Institute's annual fashion exhibit on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Many of the attendees are depicted on the covers and pages of Vogue. Each year's event celebrates the specific theme of that year's Costume Institute exhibition, which sets the tone for the formal attire of the night. Guests are expected to curate their fashion to match the theme of the exhibit, which is generally haute couture. American journalist Anna Wintour, who is the editor-in-chief of Vogue, has chaired or co-chaired the Met Gala since 1995.

The Met Gala was established in 1948 by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert as a fundraiser for the newly founded Costume Institute to mark the opening of its annual exhibit. The first gala was a dinner and tickets were fifty dollars each.

Over the first few decades of its existence, the Gala was simply one of many annual benefits held for New York charitable institutions. Accordingly, the attendees of the early galas were almost entirely members of New York high society or the city's fashion industry. From 1948 to 1971, the event was held at venues including the Waldorf Astoria, Central Park, and the Rainbow Room.

When Diana Vreeland became consultant to the Costume Institute in 1972, the Gala began to evolve into a more global and glamorous affair, although one that was still aimed at the societal set.

More information: BBC

The event started to become higher profile celebrity-oriented with attendees like Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Diana Ross, Elton John, Liza Minnelli, Madonna, and Cher intermixing with the city's elite. It was during the Vreeland years that the Gala was first held at the Met and that Gala themes were introduced.

The Gala is widely regarded as among the most prominent and most exclusive social events in the world. It is also one of the biggest fundraising nights in New York City, with US$9 million raised in 2013 and a record of $12 million the following year.

The Met Gala is one of the most notable sources of funding for the Institute, with total contributions surpassing $200 million for the first time after the 2019 event. Anna Wintour, the chairperson of the event, assumed the chairmanship of the Institute in 1995. Also, The Met Gala is held on the first Monday in May, according to Wintour. Her guest list grew to include celebrities globally from the worlds of fashion, entertainment, business, sports, and politics who would eventually grace the pages of Vogue.

Since 1948, the Met Gala has occurred consecutively each year, except in 2000 and 2002.

The 2020, the Met Gala was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Gala resumed in 2021, but was held in September rather than in May that year.

In 2022, the Gala returned to holding its traditional May ceremony.

More information: Vogue

Music is a language in itself
and the songs have their own soul,
every song has its soul.

Rosalia

CHAITÉN VOLCANO ERUPTS IN CHAITÉN, PALENA (CHILE)

The Grandma loves volcanoes, and she has been reading about Chaitén, the Chilean volcano that began erupting on a day like today in 2008.

Chaitén is a volcanic caldera 3 kilometres in diametre, 17 kilometres west of the elongated ice-capped Michinmahuida volcano and 10 kilometres northeast of the town of Chaitén, near the Gulf of Corcovado in southern Chile. 

The most recent eruptive phase of the volcano erupted on 2008. Originally, radiocarbon dating of older tephra from the volcano suggested that its last previous eruption was in 7420 BC ± 75 years. However, recent studies have found that the volcano is more active than thought. According to the Global Volcanism Program, its last eruption was in 2011.

The caldera rim reaches 1,122 metres above sea level. Before the current eruption, it was mostly filled by a rhyolite obsidian lava dome that reached a height of 962 metres, partly devoid of vegetation. Two small lakes occupied the caldera floor on the west and north sides of the lava dome.

The translucent grey obsidian which had erupted from the volcano was used by pre-Columbian cultures as a raw material for artifacts and has been found as far away as 400 kilometres to the south and north, for example in Chan-Chan.

The Chaitén volcano entered a new eruptive phase for the first time since around 1640 on the morning of May 2, 2008.

The Chilean government began an evacuation of the nearby town of Chaitén, population 4,200, and the surrounding area the same day, the main phase of which was completed by May 3, 2008.

One elderly person died while at sea en route to Puerto Montt. By the afternoon of May 3, the plume of ash from the eruption had spread across Chile and Argentina to the Atlantic Ocean, contaminating water supplies, and reportedly coating the town of Futaleufú located 75 kilometres southeast to a depth of 30 centimetres.

More information: Andean Geology

Ash thickness estimates are often exaggerated during volcanic crises; later field investigations suggest that the average ash thickness deposited across Futaleufú was less than 5–10 cm.

A team of scientists from the US was dispatched to the area to assess the air quality and the risks from chemicals in the falling ash.

The initial phase of the actual eruption in 2008 was characterised by ash emissions and seismic activity; local seismic measurements in 2005 registered earthquakes up to magnitude 3.6 MW below the Chaitén volcano.

On May 6, 2008, the force of eruption increased significantly, producing pyroclastic flows and possibly some lava explosions, and raising the eruption column to a height of perhaps 30,000 metres. The remaining personnel and almost all inhabitants of Chaitén and nearby villages were evacuated, as was Futaleufú.

In the early phase of the eruption on May 2, 2008, two separate vents had developed in the old lava dome.

An overflight on May 6, 2008, found that these had fused into one vent roughly 800 metres across. OVDAS warned of possible major pyroclastic incidents, and the likelihood of prolonged activity.

On May 8, 2008, the government said it would force the last residents from the danger area, but this was later legally challenged by some residents and left to no effect by the Supreme Court. Government personnel later returned to attend to livestock and rescue dogs and other animals.

Through the remainder of May and June 2008 the eruption continued as a variable but gradually decreasing emission of ash, with intermittent seismic activity and pyroclastic flows.

More information: Global Volcanism Program

On May 21, a new lava dome was observed to be forming in the crater, which by May 24 exceeded the height of the old dome.

Initially, the dome extended towards the north side of the caldera, but following the emergence of two new vents in the south of the old dome around June 11 and a later one to the west, the expansion moved to the south, eventually blocking the drainage from the caldera floor.

As of July 3, 2008, Chaitén continued to erupt, with associated seismic activity, an eruptive column of ash up to 3,000 metres, and a growing lava dome. Whether the dome will be stable remains uncertain, and there is an ongoing risk of collapse and explosive pyroclastic eruption.

In August 2008, an expedition reached the summit of Chaiten volcano. The summit crater contained a 120 metres high lava dome. Earthquakes were felt at the summit. The lava dome was loudly degassing, and avalanches of lava boulders fell from the dome side to the crater floor.

On February 19, 2009, a partial dome collapse caused pyroclastic flows to descend through the Chaitén river valley reaching down to approximately 5 kilometres from the town of Chaitén.

The ash once again reached Futaleufú and parts of Chubut province in neighboring Argentina. The approximately 160 people that were in Chaitén were strongly urged to leave, and all but 25 people who refused to leave were evacuated that day.

This eruption is known as the first major explosive eruption of rhyolite magma in nearly a century, since the 1912 eruption of Novarupta, in Alaska. 

Although there have been rhyolitic eruptions in the southern section of the Southern Volcanic Zone in the past, these are relatively scarce and there is no historic rhyolitic eruption of the magnitude of Chaitén.

More information: EAG

I experienced the California Northridge Earthquake of 1994
and the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980,
and I have thus seen firsthand how terrible
and awesomely devastating a force of nature can be.

Paul Watson

PENNY BLACK, FIRST BRITISH ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system, that was issued in the United Kingdom in 1840.

The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. 

It was first issued in the United Kingdom, referred to in philatelic circles as Great Britain, on 1 May 1840, but was not valid for use until 6 May. The stamp features a profile of Queen Victoria.

In 1837, British postal rates were high, complex and anomalous. To simplify matters, Sir Rowland Hill proposed an adhesive stamp to indicate pre-payment of postage. 

At the time it was normal for the recipient to pay postage on delivery, charged by the sheet and on distance travelled. By contrast, the Penny Black allowed letters of up to 14 grams to be delivered at a flat rate of one penny, regardless of distance.

On 13 February 1837, Sir Rowland Hill proposed to a government enquiry both the idea of a pre-paid stamp and a pre-paid envelope, a separate sheet folded to form an enclosure for carrying letters. Hill was given a two-year contract to run the new system, and together with Henry Cole he announced a competition to design the new stamps. 

There were some 2,600 entries, but none was considered suitable; instead a rough design endorsed by Hill was chosen, featuring an easily recognisable profile of the former Princess Victoria. Hill believed this would be difficult to forge. An envelope bearing a reproduction of a design created by the artist William Mulready was also issued.

The portrait of Victoria was engraved by Charles Heath and his son Frederick, based on a sketch provided by Henry Corbould. Corbould's sketch was in turn based on the 1834 cameo-like head by William Wyon, which was used on a medal to commemorate the Queen's visit to the City of London in 1837.

This portrait of Victoria remained on British stamps until her death in 1901, although by then she was 81 years old. All British stamps still bear a portrait or silhouette of the monarch somewhere on the design. The first stamps did not need to show the issuing country, so no country name was included on them. The UK remains the only country in the world to omit its name on postage stamps; the monarch's image signifies the UK as the country of origin.

Initially, Hill specified that the stamps should be 3/4 inch square, but altered the dimensions to approx 19 x 22 mm to accommodate the writing at the bottom. The word POSTAGE at the top of the design distinguishes it from a revenue stamp, which had long been used in the UK; ONE PENNY. at the bottom shows the amount pre-paid for postage of the stamped letter. The background to the portrait consists of finely engraved engine turnings.

More information: The Postal Museum

The two upper corners hold Maltese crosses with radiant solar discs at their centres; the lower corner letters show the position of the stamp in the printed sheet, from A A at top left to T L at bottom right. The sheets, printed by Perkins Bacon, consisted of 240 stamps in 20 rows of 12 columns. One full sheet cost 240 pence or one pound; one row of 12 stamps cost a shilling. As the name suggests, the stamp was printed in black ink. A two penny stamp printed in blue and covering the double-letter rate (up to 1 oz or 28 g) was issued on 8 May 1840.

Although the stamps were not officially issued for sale until 6 May 1840, some offices such as those in Bath sold the stamps unofficially before that date. There are covers postmarked 2 May, and a single example is known on cover dated 1 May 1840.

All London post offices received official supplies of the new stamps but other offices throughout the United Kingdom did not, continuing to accept payments for postage in cash for a period.

The Penny Black lasted less than a year. A red cancellation was hard to see on the black design and the red ink was easy to remove; both made it possible to re-use cancelled stamps. 

In February 1841, the Treasury switched to the Penny Red and began using black ink for cancellations instead, which was more effective and harder to remove. However, people still reused stamps by combining the uncancelled parts of two stamps to form an unused whole, so in 1864 as a further safeguard the top corner stars on the Penny Red were replaced by the lower corner check letters in reverse order.

Imprimatur sheets are from among the first sheets of stamps printed from a finished printing plate. The actual imprimatur (Let it be printed) refers to the written permission of the Inland Revenue officials entered on the back of the sheet of stamps. In the 19th century, it was common for officials to remove some stamps from each sheet to present as gifts to dignitaries and other important people. Individual stamps from an Imprimatur sheet can thus be found for sale on the open market.

More information: BBC

A complete sheet of the Penny Black without check letters is held by the British Postal Museum. This unique item is in fact a plate proof, and by definition not an imprimatur sheet.

The Penny Black was printed from 11 plates, but as Plate 1 was completely overhauled due to excessive wear, it is generally considered to be two separate plates, 1a and 1b. Plate 11 was originally intended solely for the printing of new red stamps, but a small number were printed in black. These are scarce.

The stamps were printed in imperforate sheets, to be carefully cut with scissors for sale and use. As a result, stamps with badly cut margins, or no margins, are common and worth very little, while examples with four clear margins are rare and valuable, and fetch very high prices, especially if in mint condition.

An original printing press for the Penny Black, the D cylinder press invented by Jacob Perkins and patented in 1819, is on display at the British Library in London.

The total print run was 286,700 sheets, containing a total of 68,808,000 stamps. Many were saved, and in used condition they remain readily available to stamp collectors.

The only known complete sheets of the Penny Black are owned by the British Postal Museum.

Considered a British cultural icon, the Penny Black design features in the innovations section of the new British passport in 2015. 

Also in 2015, the search engine Google marked the 175th anniversary of the postage stamp with a Google doodle of the Penny Black.

More information: Age of Revolution

A penny saved is a penny earned.

Benjamin Franklin