The front of the West Milford Historical Society in West Milford, NJ
Jungle Habitat display
The back gallery with paintings and Native American artifacts
The back gallery
West Milford Museum 1477 Union Valley Road West Milford, NJ 07480
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McDonald’s, Value Menus, $1, $2, & $3 Menu/$3.99 Bundles/$5.00/$6.00 Value meal
The McDonalds on West 84th Street in Manhattan is still one of my favorite branches
The $6.00 McDouble Value meal is still one of my favorites
The Mc Arabia that I had in Abu Dhabi I still think should come to the States
I have to have two of these once a year to complete my fix on the Shamrock Shake
Town Museum of Secaucus 150 Plaza Center Secaucus, NJ 07094
The front of the Town Museum of Secaucus at 150 Plaza Drive in Secaucus, NJ
The main gallery of the museum
The main gallery of the museum
Kearny Museum at the Kearny Library 318 Kearny Avenue Kearny, NJ 07032
The front of the Library and Museum at 318 Kearny Avenue in Kearny, NJ
The Main Gallery of the Museum
The main gallery of the museum
My Life as a Fireman: The Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association: April Meeting and Entertainment April 6th, 2025
The Members of the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association with our honorary member, Wells
Singer Gigi entertained the residents of the NJ State Firemen’s Home this afternoon
Gigi performing “More Today than Yesterday”
Gigi performing “One way or Another”
If you like the concert, here is Gigi Onofrio’s contact information for booking her.
Haring Farm Cemetery Old Haring Farm Court River Vale, NJ 07675
The family members buried in the family plot
The Haring Farm Cemetery in River Vale, NJ
The site cleaned up for a walking tour of the cemetery in April 2025:
The Haring Farm Cemetery after a good cleaning
Me with my students on a tour
Our group picture
Day Three Hundred and Thirty-Five The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association ‘Man and Member of the Year’ Award Dinner March 28th, 2025
With the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association, once a year we honor our own and we honor those who do good in the Hasbrouck Heights community. That’s how we award members and residents who go above and beyond for our community. Every year we chose a member for “Member of the Year”, who helps build our organization and whose contributions go above and beyond and best represent the organization.
Our second award of Community “Man of the Year”’” is given a resident whose contributions benefit the Borough of Hasbrouck Heights. It is our organization’s way of saying ‘Thank you’ to these active members of the community.
For the last three years, we have enjoyed our dinner at Segovia’s Steakhouse in Little Ferry, NJ. Our evening started with a cocktail hour and members and their spouses catching up with one another. It is always a nice way to relax and start the evening.
Enjoying the start of the evening with members and their spouses
It is such a great evening for members and spouses to catch up
The food and the service at Segovia’s is excellent and the meals are top notch. We always enjoy the assortment of dishes at dinner. The restaurant celebrates classic Spanish/Mediterranean food.
My review on TripAdvisor:
The Banquet menu at Segovia’s is extensive and the dinner that night was fantastic. While many members enjoyed a drink, then we started with Tapas to start our meal. It was a combination of salads, seafoods and sausages.
Garlic Shrimp, Calamari and Chorizo sausage
Mussels in Red Sauce
Potato Croquettes with cheese
The salad
The freshly baked rolls to sop up all the juices and sauces
As soon as we finished the appetizers, the pasta course came out and we continued our meal with wonderful conversation.
The Appetizer hour is always wonderful
Then we moved on to the Pasta dish that followed the Tapas.
The Penne a la Vodka
The entrees are a classic combination of influences from Spain and Italy representing the owners background from this area of Europe.
The seafood Paella was full of all sorts of meat and seafood
The Chicken Francais
The Poached Salmon
The Grilled Beef Steak
After the main part of the dinner was over, it was time for our honorees. Before that happened, the incoming board recognized me for the twelve years I had spent on the board. My feeling was it was time to step down and let the next group of guys take over from us and keep the building of the organization.
After that it was time to present the awards to our honorees of this evening. Our ‘Member of the Year’ was long time member Ed Hauptman, who was surprised and touched by the award when his name was called.
Congratulating Ed
‘Member of the Year’ Ed Hauptman
“Member of the Year” Ed Hampton with the Executive Board of the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association 2025
Our organization also picks a member of the community for “Man of the Year”, who has given back to our organization and to the community at large. This year we picked Jason Catalano.
Our ‘Man of the Year’ was Hasbrouck Heights resident, Jason Catalano with his son
“Man of the Year” Jason Catalano and son with the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Board
We were very proud of our winners and the contributions they make to our community. Our awards recognize these contributions the Hasbrouck Heights community. To the end the evening, it was time for our traditional group photo and dessert.
The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Membership for 2025
Our traditional toast at the end of the dinner at the bar at Segovia’s
Our dessert, a traditional Cannoli Cream Cake with our town colors
What a wonderful way to end the evening.
It really was a wonderful evening for our organization, our family’s and the winners of our awards. Thank you to the Hasbrouck Heights community for supporting us and making us the success that we are as an organization.
We are looking forward to another successful year in 2025!
Day Three Hundred and Thirty-Four Private Members Night at the Museum of Modern Art ‘Abstraction Unbound’ (MoMA) March 25th, 2025
Right after the Metropolitan Museum of Art had their private members night, ‘Met After Hours’, the Museum of Modern Art countered with their event. Neither museum has the whole museum open but at least at The Met there is more than one bar open and they keep two of the restaurants open for patrons so you can have dinner at the museum.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) kept only two floors open and had one very crowded bar open that evening. Still it was nice to visit the museum after hours and walk through the halls.
The front of the Museum of Modern Art at 11 West 53rd Street
My review on TripAdvisor:
West 52nd Street the night of the Members Night
The entrance to the Members Night
Looking down on the bar crowd as I walked to the second floor
Listening to the music play with the artwork
The first piece of art I saw was ‘Cadence’ by artist Otobong Nkanga. This colorful and impressive piece took up the entire second floor atrium and the interesting part of the work was that it was interactive and you could walk through the display. It looked like a volcano had exploded and the rocks that spewed out you could walk around.
The work ‘Cadence’ by artist Otobong Nkanga
The write up on the this interesting work
The work took up the second floor atrium
The rest of the second floor of the museum was closed that evening so I made my way to the fourth and fifth floor to visit the galleries.
There was no special exhibition on the fourth floor so I stopped room by room to admire the art. Sprinkled amongst the paintings and sculptures, the museum had placed clips of movies, a few of them silent films. One of my favorites was showing, George Meles’s ‘Trip to the Moon’.
George Meles’s silent film ‘Trip to the Moon
The write up of the piece
The YouTube video on the movie “A Trip to the Moon”
I had first seen this film in high school and had fallen in love with the elaborate sets and the campy storyline. I never got how they thought they were going to get home. Still the movie is fun to watch and you think to seventy years later to movies like ‘2001 Space Odyssey’ and ‘Apollo 13’ and even the footage of really landing on the moon and think how far we have come.
Roaming around the Picasso gallery
Then I walked around the Contemporary Galleries and admired all the works by Picasso and Brancusi. Everyone else was still down at the bar on the first floor so I had these galleries to myself for the first forty-five minutes. I quietly walked and admired all the works.
The contemporary gallery
The works ‘Fish’ and ‘Bird in Space’
Brancusi’s works especially ‘Bird in Space’ I had studied in my Art History class at Michigan State University and zI had admired them for a long time. I had forgotten that versions of them were at the MoMA.
‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’ by Piet Mondrian
The signage
Then I passed ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’, another work I had studied in college. It is amazing how many great works were at this museum. I just liked the colors and whimsy of this painting. Then I walked through the Claude Monet gallery where the famous ‘Water Lillie’s’ paintings were located.
The gallery dedicated to Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’
The signage
Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lillies’
I love these immense murals either their beautiful colors and calmness to the painting.
I then turned the corner and came across Picasso’s ‘Girl before the Mirror’
I had forgotten that this painting was here and I stopped for a while and just admired it. I loved the simplicity of the idea but enjoyed its bold colors and crazy cubism to it. I have been attracted to this painting since I was a kid when my mother took me to the Picasso Retrospect here when I was a freshman in high school.
The signage for the painting
As the night wore on I visited the floors that were open and it was only two floors, four and five and the second atrium that were open so I visited the bar area when I finished with the other floors.
The prices here were just as expensive as the earlier Member’s Night at The Met and the selection was not as nice, so I bypassed it. I just watched everyone from a distance.
I just enjoy watching everyone having a good
time. I makes the evening even more special.
Watching the crowd while admiring the beautiful interactive art. This work kept moving around to the music in the background
The painting would move in different directions to the music
It had been a short but relaxing evening and got my mind off everything between work and home and I guess I needed a change of pace to shake me out of it.
After a short visit to the gift shop, I left the museum and headed home. As I turned the corner past the museum, I stopped to admire the lights of Seventh Avenue. I sometimes forget how breathtaking Manhattan can be at night.
Seventh Avenue at night around the corner from the MoMA
I took a short walk around the neighborhood, thinking about where I could stop for a snack. None of the restaurants at the museum were open the evening and they had nothing at the bar.
I remembered a wonderful hamburger/ hot dog place near Eighth Avenue, Lucky’s Famous Burgers at 370 West 52nd Street.
The meal specials at Lucky’s Famous Burgers
https://luckysfamousburgers.com/
My review on TripAdvisor:
My review on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com:
I settled on the ‘Double Dog’ special meal with two dressed hot dogs and a large size of French Fries with a large Coke. It was enough food for two people. The hot dogs here are fantastic and the French Fries are cooked to order. The meal just hit the spot and really cheered me up as had the visit to the MoMA. It was the perfect meal to cap off the evening.
The Doubledogs with French Fries meal
The delicious twin hot dogs
They were nicely decorated
What a way to end the evening
It was quick and relaxing evening and shook away the blues of the past days of gloomy weather and some of the long nights of grading papers at work. A pleasant night at the MoMA can really cheer you up!
Walking back to the bus station on Eigth Avenue
Boro of Lakehurst Historical Society Museum 300 Center Street Lakehurst, NJ 08733
The front of the Boro of Lakehurst Historical Society Museum
The air transportation exhibition
The museum’s home life collection
Day Three Hundred and Thirty-Three Private Members Night ‘Met After Hours’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art March 20th, 2025
I love being a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art!
The Metropolitan Museum of Art at 1000 Fifth Avenue
My review on TripAdvisor:
It is especially nice when the museum is closed and you can visit the museum with all the other members in a private event just for us.
It was time for another ‘Met After Hours’ member event
I wait for these evenings as a member. It is so much fun to walk the halls of the Met after the museum closes and just relax, look at exhibitions that I might have missed on my last several trips to the museum, have a much needed cocktail (one specialty drink is more than enough) and enjoy listening to the speaker.
Entering the main hall of the museum
The beautiful Cherry Blossoms are in season in all the urns
Walking through the Greek Galleries on my way to the exhibitions that were open that evening
The Jesse Krimes Corrections exhibition
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/jesse-krimes-corrections
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/jesse-krimes-met-museum-exhibition-1234728767/
I decided to start on the second floor of the museum since most of the members seem to settle on the first floor. My first stop was the Jesse Krimes exhibition ’Corrections’.
Krimes’s image-based installations, made over the course of his six-year incarceration, reflect the ingenuity of an artist working without access to traditional materials. Employing prison-issued soap, hair gel, playing cards, and newspaper he created works of art that seek to disrupt and recontextualize the circulation of photographs in the media (Met website).
Displayed at The Met in dialogue with Bertillon, whose pioneering method paired anthropomorphic measurements with photographs to produce the present-day mug shot, Krimes’s work raises questions about the perceived neutrality of our systems of identification and the hierarchies of social imbalance they create and reinscribe. An artist for whom collaboration and activism are vital, Krimes founded the Center for Art and Advocacy to highlight the talent and creative potential among individuals who have experienced incarceration and to support and improve outcomes for formerly incarcerated artists (Met website).
The description of the show ‘Jesse Krimes Corrections’
The art work ‘Purgatory’ where the artist put faces of the artist’s imagination while in solitary confinement.
The signage for the piece
The sculpture ‘Naxos’ with thousands of pebbles from prison yards
The signage for ‘Naxos’
I then toured through the Asian Galleries to see what exhibitions were open that evening. Some of the displays for Chinese New Year were still prominent in the galleries and I admired them in the cases.
This very evil looking statue just stares at you while you pass it
I admired the Chinese Zodiac sculptures in the Asian Wing and found my sculpture in the year of the Snake. Chinese New Year was over but the displays for the year of the Snake were still on display.
The sculptures of the Chinese Zodiac
The sign for the Zodiac animals
At the entrance to one of the galleries, one sculpture stood out to me that has been accented by peacock feathers.
The peacock sculpture ‘Mahamayuri on Peacock’
The sign for the sculpture
The piece stood out for its grace and its beauty. There was something unique about it.
I then visited the other side of the floor that was open in the Arabic Wing. I had visited the gallery in length during one of the other member nights when they officially reopened. I love all the displays of rugs and decorative objects throughout the various rooms.
Walking through one of the rug gallery rooms
What I admire the most from some of these artisans is the approach to precious items like gold, silver and jewels in the works. You could really see the amazing detail to these works.
Several decorative items in the display case
One of the special exhibitions in the Arabic Wing was the Merchant Ivory exhibition ‘Ink to Ivory’ from the Director’s private collection.
The sign from the ‘Ink and Ivory’ exhibition
This focused exhibition presents a selection of superlative drawings from the courts and centers of India and Pakistan (with a few related Persian works) dating from the late sixteenth to the twentieth century. These works are mainly selected from The Met collection in partnership with film director James Ivory, whose recent gift to the Museum of nineteenth-century photograph albums will also be featured in the exhibition (Met website).
The drawings will include fresh and informal preparatory exercises for paintings as well as beautifully finished works in their own right. The photographs will present the subject matter and styles that came about in the contexts of royal patronage and ceremony; views of architecture, cities, landscapes, and people, among others. As an artist and filmmaker, James Ivory will help us appreciate this material through his unique gaze (Met website).
The description of the show at the Met
The exhibition was a selection of drawings and photos from the British possession of India. I could see from the pictures the Caste system that had been created. The drawings though were quite interesting and showed a different perspective of Indian life at that time. I liked the mix of royals both from England and India.
When I got to the first floor, I noticed the time as getting late in the evening. This special evening was ending at 9:00pm rather than the usual 10:00pm and after the last three weeks that I had with Midterms and papers to grade and leading a recent field trip with my students. I really needed to relax and have a drink.
The Temple of Dendur gallery was lit for the evening and music was playing when I arrived. I guess all the other members felt the way I did as the place was packed. I was wondering why the halls were so quiet.
The Temple of Dendur Gallery was set up for the Members Bar
The lighting really accented the ancient temple
The crowds really packed the cocktail tables
Everyone had to get drink tickets to get a beverage and trust me this did not look like the soft drink crowd. They were featuring a ‘Berry Fizz’ as their signature drink that evening.
The signature drink ‘The Berry Fizz’
Relaxing at the end of the evening on the rim of the pool at the Temple of Dendur Gallery
Relaxing and talking to other members at the Temple of Dendur that evening
The bewitching hour of 9:00pm came and the bar area was still going strong but other parts of the museum began to clear out and close for the evening.
As we left, members of the staff handed out Chocolate Flowers that represented the Cherry Blossoms that were prominently featured all over that entrance and would be blooming all over the City in the next few weeks.
The Chocolate Flower we got when we left. I think this was a nice touch as was the pumpkin at the Halloween members night
All the Cherry Blossoms around the Great Hall entrance as I left
It was not a pleasant night as we left for the evening. It was pouring down rain and I could see this when I was in the Temple of Dendur Gallery.
I walked to East 72nd Street and had dinner at Shanghai Chinese Food at 1388 Second Avenue for dinner. This little hole in the wall restaurant has some of the best Chinese food in Manhattan.
I needed the ultimate comfort food that night and ordered the General Tso’s Chicken with Pork Fried rice. That took the gloom off this rainy evening.
https://www.mapquest.com/us/new-york/shanghai-chinese-restaurant-527392156
My review on TripAdvisor:
My review on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com:
The crispy rich sweetness of the dish is so satisfying
I love this delicious dish
Each piece was a delight
The nice part was that the staff let me relax and finish my dinner. Since I was still dressed in a suit from classes earlier in the day I just assumed they thought I worked at the hospital nearby. It is always so funny to see peoples reactions to me being all dressed up.
It was a nice relaxing evening and a great way to end the day.
mywalkinmanhattan 