PJ's Studio: April 2023

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Paris 3

If you had only one day in Paris, what would you do?

It’s not a hypothetical question because my brother’s upcoming trip includes a one day stop-over in Paris.

I’ve been lucky enough to have visited twice –

both times for two weeks so my itinerary was quite different.

I even had time to sketch on location. 😊 (I loved the way these multiple bridges overlapped. And the Conciergerie was where Marie Antoinette was held before she was executed.)

They’ve penciled in the Eiffel Tower of course.

And the Louvre.

But with so many other places to choose from,

will the Musee d‘Orsay make the cut?

My advice – save energy and time by using the Metro to get from place to place.

And leave plenty of time to stroll.

Here are links to the previous Paris blogs…

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2013/06/paris.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2017/10/paris-2.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2019/04/notre-dame-cathedral.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2019/05/im-pei.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2020/01/notre-dame-2.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2020/08/notre-dame-3.html

Cheers!

Sunday, April 23, 2023

Croatia – 1970

My brother and his family are heading for Croatia in a few weeks.

I’ve never been there.

But my grandfather Luke Stern has.

So, I thought I’d feature his slides from his visit in 1970 on this week’s blog.

You’ve got to hand it to him.

Taking photos was far more difficult in those days of manual cameras.

Not to mention the fact that he actually visited Yugoslavia –

not exactly a hot tourist destination in those days since they were behind the iron curtain.

Luke’s visit included Dubrovnik and Split – also on the current agenda.

And, Zagreb, not on the agenda. Maybe next time 😉

Cheers!

Sunday, April 16, 2023

Mrs. Maisel on 5th Avenue

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel began airing season 5 on April 14^th. To celebrate/publicize the event, a Fifth Avenue takeover dubbed “The Marvelous Mile” took place.

Per the map a variety of selfie stations,

Instagramable set-ups,

free gifts, and even black & white cookies were shared between 46^th and 55^th Streets.

To get the free gifts, you had to take a selfie. Many were happy to comply.

Interestingly they did not stop traffic – instead the pink carpets were run up the sidewalks.

There was plenty of staff dressed in costume to keep the cookie line moving.

And take the photos…

But some people bought their own photographers too.

A bunch of old cars and customized cars were also available for photo ops. And some visitors wore costumes.

Many wore pink too.

The planners even covered the entrance to St. Patrick’s Cathedral with fake pink roses.

I found myself thinking back to my event planning experiences and marveling at how well they pulled off such an extensive pop-up. And how lucky they were to have summer like weather.

Cheers!

Sunday, April 9, 2023

Collaboration with Tim #31 – Palm Sunday on the UES

The Church of the Epiphany on the Upper East Side has a Palm Sunday procession every year, complete with bagpipes! 😊

Last year I happened to be outside when the procession went past and was able to capture this photo of the final participant waiting for the light to change so she could cross the street.

Tim liked the shot so much, he decided to immortalize it. And that of course makes it extra special.

Here are some previous collaborations with Tim. And you can follow us on Instagram at @pjlehrer and @timbaynes…

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2023/03/collaboration-with-tim-30-met.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2023/02/collaboration-with-tim-29-bethesda-in.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2022/12/collaboration-with-tim-28-seagram.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2022/11/collaboration-with-tim-27-74th-street.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2022/09/collaboration-with-tim-26-grand-central.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2022/08/collaboration-with-tim-25-south-street.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2022/07/collaboration-with-tim-24-ny-pavillion.html

https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2022/06/collaboration-with-tim-23-esb.html

Happy Easter everyone!

Sunday, April 2, 2023

Central Park – 4/1/23

I have to admit that I have been wishing for a really nice warm day lately, but when the thermometer said 70 degrees yesterday, I did wonder for a moment if it was an April Fool’s Day joke.

It wasn’t!

So, I did what all the locals did, I headed to Central Park, to see the tourists taking selfies.

I can’t take credit for that line. I overheard it in the park.

And, on the walk over – “New York seems pretty chill.” “Well, this is the Upper East Side… But New York is chill, unless you go to places with lots of crazy tourists like Times Square.”

Yes, New York is a tale of two cities.

Tourists & Locals.

The park was of course packed – mostly with locals sitting around being chill.

While I suspect most of those in the carriages were tourists, I overheard a young lady tell her parents that “the next time they came to the park she wanted a ride in that carriage.”