a wonderful friend and artist

I spent the day yesterday in Chelsea with my old friend Joe Radoccia who is a wonderful painter. He was down from his home in Beacon New York to meet up with me and to take photos of me for a portrait he's going to do. I'm delighted that I will be immortalized by this beautiful artist. We took in some shows including a strong group show at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery of Metal sculptures 1945-1970 which included some terrific works by a wide range of artists including the great Ruth Asawa, Nancy Grossman, Lee Bontecou and many others. Surprises galore here. The other wonderful group show was the Concrete Cuba show over at the 20th street Zwirner gallery on the 2nd floor. All small and abstract by a group of unknown Cuban artists who are all gone. These were great works done by a small group of artists during the 50's and 60's and they pretty much took my breath away, again a show full of surprises. Afterwards we went to the Rail Line Diner that use to be known as the moonstruck diner and Joe treated me to lunch. I had a nice bowl of chicken rice soup with a toasted bagel and Joe had eggs over with french fry potatoes.