A Walk in the East Village

By West Village Bill

Yesterday, my guy Tony P. and I had a wonderful walk in the East Village. It was initiated by a visit to the Michael Mut Gallery on Avenue C between 6th and 7th streets.

We know Michael because he's the partner of the piano teacher for our great friends Bob and Jen's kids. We went to the opening reception of his Look Again exhibit, which is a showing of collages he made that were inspired by works of Pablo Picasso. The collages incorporate fragments of photos of Michael's own paintings. Tony and I both favored Girl in Mirror, which was based on Picasso's Girl before a Mirror. At left is Seated Woman on Wood Chair, after Picasso's painting from 1941. The exhibit runs through April 7.

On the way back to our apartment, we walked west on E. 9th Street, purely by chance. What a charming little street.

We stopped in The Upper Rust, an antiques shop with many interesting finds.

Then we hit Pink Olive, which had lots of items I'd never seen before. I bought two issues of Uppercase, a new-to-me quarterly arts-and-crafts journal.

And finally, we went to Mascot Studio, which is having its annual show of dog art. I bought a couple of cards by New York artist Anne Watkins.

The 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

By West Village Bill

On Monday and Tuesday of last week, I caught the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. I've been recording and watching it on TV for years, but work has always prevented me from going in person. This year, the production schedule for the magazine I help edit fell in such a way that I was able to go. Woot!

The show is held over two days, always around Valentine's Day. The first day, the breeds in four groups are judged from the morning into early afternoon, and that night, the Best of Breed winners are judged to determine the group winners. As luck would have it, the two breeds I was most interested in seeing—the basset hound and the Pembroke Welsh corgi—were both being judged in the same ring starting at 8:30 on Monday. My partner and I have a basset named Rudy, and we used to have a corgi named Emme. (I ran a photo of Rudy and Emme on QNY a little over a year ago.) We had to have Emme put to sleep in September at the age of 16 after she lost control of her bladder and bowels.

There were only four bassets in the running for Best of Breed. The one all the way to the left in the photo below was the winner: GCH Fort Merrill Topsfield Yahoo, who's called Yahoo.

Going to the Dogs

By West Village Bill

Saveur magazine's October issue features a series of essays by 25 writers on their most memorable meal. The one by Rita Mae Brown, which I read on the subway ride home tonight, was so wonderful that I wanted to share a link here. It's about foxhounds, family, and Southern cooking.

Broadway Barks

By West Village Bill

Shubert Alley was overtaken by pooches and kitties yesterday during the 12th annual Broadway Barks. BB is an event started by Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters to promote animal adoption, and if I didn't already have two woofers of my own, I would almost surely have taken home one of the dogs that were first walked around to meet the public by volunteers from rescue organizations and then introduced onstage by Broadway stars.

My nonanimal companion—hee hee—Tony and I had fun petting on some wonderful dogs. I found myself drawn to the gentle-giant Great Danes from the Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League. And also to some adorable mutts, including a shy collie mix named Sam who was chided by Memphis's Chad Kimball for lying too far downstage and facing away from the audience.

Tony liked the beagles from Cascade Beagle Rescue, East, best of all. The CBRE volunteer in the photo at right told us she thought the beagle in her arms had been about ready to fall asleep because she had felt her getting heavier and heavier. Aww.

I was happy to see the BARC shelter in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, well represented at Broadway Barks. I got my terrific and now completely irreplaceable basset hound, Rudy, there a little over three years ago. I told some of the BARC volunteers that I had adopted Lewis—Rudy's name at the time—the basset, and a couple of them said they remembered him. Adopting Rudy was one of the best things I've ever done.

Even though I'm much more of a dog lover, I can't overlook the kitties. There were a half dozen or so trucks from rescue organizations lined up along 45th Street with cats in need of homes. Lisa, a volunteer with NYC Siamese Rescue, told me about Maximo, a Ragdoll/Snowshoe/Siamese mix who fell out of a window and onto the FDR Drive and had to have one of his front legs amputated. Lisa said she has helped foster Maximo, and he's a very sweet cat.

Before I roll out more pictures of dogs and celebrities after the jump, I'm thrilled to report the encouraging statistic that two out of every three animals brought into city shelters now find homes compared with a horrific 74 percent that were euthanized in 2002. Peters and MTM said that reversal was thanks to the efforts of the wonderful groups taking part in BB.