My Retreat Week

It began like any other week...

Dianna and Jackson emailed me a shot from the premiere of "Whip it", she is wearing Pamela Barish:

But when I realized that I couldn't miss my friend's show in New York, in the spur of the moment, I was able to clear three days from my schedule to go.

My single purpose was to be there for producer Hal Wilner’s concert at Carnegie Hall. It was a benefit for “Red”- Bono’s charity to eliminate AIDS in Africa. It was also the 50th birthday of Gavin Friday, childhood friend of the U2 camp and founder of punk band “The Virgin Prunes”. To realize Gavin’s dream of playing Carnegie Hall, Hal presented a remarkable show- U2, Lady Gaga, Lou Reed, Courtney Love, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Anthony, Scarlett Johansson, Joel Grey, etc. etc.


The after-party was downtown at “The Spotted Pig”. Hal was revered in an awesome toast by Bono while Gavin enjoyed a big birthday bash.





The next day I visited the Guggenheim to see the Kandinsky Retrospective. http://www.guggenheim.org/

I dropped by Bill and Christine’s to visit them + the dogs. I saw the James Turrell Show at the Pace Gallery in Chelsea. http://www.pacewildenstein.com/

Then onto the Frank Stella sculpture show at Paul Kasmin Gallery…GO SEE THIS! http://www.paulkasmingallery.com/

I walked the Highline with Christine and saw a completely different perspective of Frank’s Building, watched a Richard Serra sculpture about to be installed on the street-completely unguarded (of course, it probably weighed 1000 tons!) Then I took a walk through Nolita and had lunch at Balthazar in Soho with Rani.

At the end of the day I went to Hal and Sheila’s and concocted Arlo’s Halloween costume- scary!

Trudi prepared a delicious meal: turkey stew and sweet potatoes. Then we all relaxed as Hal read Arlo a Halloween story.


In the morning I had coffee with Lois at Sant Ambroeus, visited her new digs on 5th Ave...then drank elderberry soda at Café Sabarsky, rambled through the Met...took a walk in my beloved Central Park to Strawberry Fields.

On my last day, I had lunch at Bergdorf’s with Cal, then a brief visit with Peggy and Ethan, off to Virgin America and back to LA.

No fabric, no fashion, no shopping! I know that New York may not be on your list for peaceful retreats, but I came home relaxed, refreshed, enriched and inspired. That’s the point, right?

Talk to you next week.

Be Nice,
Pamela Barish