Eco Fest: Learn How to Save the Hudson & More at the NY Historical Society

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Parent Category: Travel Info

Category: Travel Feature

Published on Friday, 19 April 2019 15:35

Written by Brad Balfour

This Earth Day take some time to help NYC and meet organizations on the front lines of environmental crises and the battle against climate change. Eco Fest, held on April 21, is at New York Historical Society (170 Central Park West) as an extension of their Hudson Rising exhibit.

Eco Fest is a  chance to learn about conservation and ecological efforts to preserve the environment with members from Riverkeeper, The River Project, Palisades Park Conservancy, and the New York Botanical Garden, will tell you about their work, and how you can get involved and make your voice heard.  EcoFest, tours, and activities are free with museum admission.

To learn more, go to: https://www.nyhistory.org/EcoFest

Eco Fest

April 21, 2019

New York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024

Harry Potter: A History of Magic — Journey to Where Magic and Myth Began — Closing This Week

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Parent Category: Travel Info

Category: Travel Feature

Published on Thursday, 17 January 2019 14:46

Written by Brad Balfour

Harry Potter: A History of Magic
A British Library Exhibition at the New-York Historical Society
October 5, 2018 – January 27, 2019

Capturing the traditions of folklore and magic at the heart of the Harry Potter stories, “Harry Potter: A History of Magic” unveiled century-old treasures including rare books, manuscripts, and magical objects from the collections of the British Library and New-York Historical Society — with original material from Harry Potter publisher Scholastic and J.K. Rowling’s own archives. From medieval descriptions of dragons and griffins to the origins of the sorcerer’s stone, explore the subjects studied at Hogwarts and see original drafts and drawings by Rowling as well as Harry Potter illustrator Jim Kay.

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the U.S. publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone — the first book in the series — one can view illustrator Brian Selznick’s cover art designed by for the 20th anniversary edition of the Potter series, published by Scholastic in June 2018. Mary GrandPré’s illustrations created for Scholastic’s original editions — are on public display for the first time—as well as costumes and set models from the award-winning play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a special audio tour featuring the voice of actress Natalie Dormer—available to ticket holders as a free Audible download—providing in-depth content on the objects on view.

All visitors must book a timed-ticket to visit Harry Potter: A History of Magic. We strongly recommend booking your ticket in advance; availability cannot be guaranteed to walk-in visitors.

Extended hours for the final week:

• Monday, January 21: 10 am – 7 pm
• Tuesday, January 22: 10 am – 7 pm
• Wednesday, January 23: 10 am – 7 pm
• Thursday, January 24: 10 am – 6 pm
• Friday, January 25: 10 am – midnight
• Saturday, January 26: 10 am – midnight
• Sunday, January 27: 10 am – 7 pm

Harry Potter: A History of Magic

New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West at Richard Gilder Way (77th Street)
New York, NY 10024

www.nyhistory.org

Cork, Ireland’s Favorite Novelist Billy O'Callaghan Explores a Coney Island of The Mind in His Latest Book

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Parent Category: Travel Info

Category: Travel Feature

Published on Sunday, 08 December 2019 14:31

Written by Brad Balfour

My Coney Island Baby
author: Billy O'Callaghan

publisher: Jonathan Cape (UK), USA)

Ireland has long been home — physically, culturally and metaphysically — to those with literary ambitions. Much of what defined the written avant-garde was created by Irish scribes such as Samuel Beckett, Flann O’ Brien or James Joyce. But the public notion of Irish literature often seemed fixed in time, sandwiched between the Rising and The Troubles. Yet, Ireland has fostered many more generations of literary lights who are just as, if not moreso, disruptive than their predecessors.

As one of Eire’s new literary lions, Corkman Billy O'Callaghan experiments not only with form but also time and space. In his second novel, “My Coney Island Baby,” O'Callaghan applies a skillful subtlety to make two outwardly ordinary characters and their interior lives engaging and derive meaning from their portrayals. “The Dead House,” his debut novel, had already won him praise for how he used supernatural tropes to create a haunting story.

This new book provides a sensitive look into two middle-aged lovers — who happen to be adulterers. Focusing on these two characters, with their spouses as background abstractions, O'Callaghan’s Michael and Caitlin are two flawed individuals who had accepted each other's imperfections while carrying on a 25-year affair. They’re equally locked in their marriages and the confines of the hotel rooms in which they meet. In simple but elegant language, he presents an intricate look inside a relationship — and the moment when it all is about to change. The book makes no moral judgment on their affair; just that it... is. And considering its origins in what was once one of the most Catholic of countries, this book is a quiet a taboo-breaker.

Evoking such established Irish authors as William Trevor and Colm Toibin, “My Coney Island Baby” reveals, within the course of one day, the histories, tragedies and even touching moments that define these two  lives who have been stitched together into one seemingly intertwined cloth. And though much doesn’t happen outside, the notion of “Coney Island” adds a further element to the landscape of the book and producing conscious or unconscious reference to ideations of the place, as a play land, a Lou Reed song and its nature as a popular oceanside tourist spot.

And in the way it recalls repressed longings and melancholia, it harkens back to characters from Joyce’s “Dubliners” or Toibin's “Brooklyn,” in which some of the principals sleepwalk through life without emerging as a free and whole beings. hat existential malaise populates these tomes and others with Celtic influences. Yes, they’re adulterers and betrayers of those they've sworn to love (albeit getting married in the 20s) but from a novelistic point of view that only adds to the drama and tragedy of their lives — beautifully expressed by this fine chronicler of inner worlds.