New (to me) York

As promised, I’ll continue.

Tuesday was another hot day, but we had two indoor activities planned for critical moments of the day, i.e. when it was at its hottest.

N enjoyed a leisurely morning, while I headed to the West Village to pick up a couple of things (pastry & coffee at my usual haunts). We met up a little later, ate some pastry in WSqP and then headed together to our first destination, right up 5th Avenue.

While our later in the day planned visit to the Guggenheim had been scheduled weeks ago, our first stop was a bit more spontaneous in nature. We’d both been interested in seeing the Anne Frank exhibit, which opened earlier this year at the Center for Jewish History on W. 16th St, but hadn’t expected to be able to grab same day tickets when we realized we might have time to do both on this particular day.

Extended numerous times since it opened in January, the Anne Frank exhibit is a comprehensive presentation of what happened to the Frank family during WWII. The care taken to create such an almost immersive display was evident and I feel fortunate to have had the chance to have seen it.

I have a confession, though. I know the Anne Frank story* more than casually. I’ve read a lot about her and WWII history. I’ve visited the Annex in Amsterdam three times. I went to a lecture given by the author of a recent work about Anne, The Many Lives of Anne Frank.

I’ve shed many tears about Anne Frank and the victims of the worst holocaust ever recorded, but that wasn’t what prompted me to tear up during this visit. It was somehow, to me, (said in the most respectful way for all the losses suffered) more about what was happening now in our world, instead of what happened during WWII.

Have we learned nothing?

Anyway, catch it if you can. Through 10/31/25.

Next stop, via a very pricy cab ride, was the Guggenheim Museum. At least the ac worked in the cab. In my opinion, the Guggenheim is the most friendly museum in NYC. It just invites you in to see everything!

We spent about 2 hours there and were both stunned by the power of Rashid Johnson’s work. The visual story he told was captivating and very self revealing. Repeated themes of tradition and family and nature and world history were present. I also loved seeing the Faith Ringgold pieces, which were remarkable, in person after having only seen her glorious quilts on the pages of a picture book.

After hitting our capacity for art, we sought out lunch, with tacos on my mind. Lolita’s was decently reviewed and we were very pleased with our low budget lunches. The margaritas were refreshing and the birra tacos were frigging great.

How did I live before I knew about birra tacos?

If you read the title of this post, you might have noticed the slight variation in title since I published, Part I. There’s a method to my madness and here it is: I went to a new place in New York State, that I had to talk about…

Daryl’s House!

In terms of appearance, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. It was very woodsy on the inside and Roadhouse on the outside, neither of which I’m opposed to, I just had the misimpression that this performance space would be more barn-like, more rural. Maybe it moved locations?

It’s neither here or there. We had a great time watching two Tilbrook men perform. First Leon Tilbrook, a young talented guitar player with a good voice, great energy and a more than passing resemblance to Salvador Dali, opened for his dad, Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze fame. Yes, it’s probably nepotism, but they were lovely together and Leon shouted out Squeeze with his wearing of what maybe my favorite current t-shirt.

It was a great show and I would definitely go down that way again. I do, however, wish there were more options in the area for accommodations. If you go, which you should, to a show at Daryl’s, be aware that there are tables, barstools, and an area for standing only. Make a choice when you buy your tickets. It’s very civilized, though, and we were comfortable enough standing with a shelf in front of us to hold drinks and my damn good chicken fingers.