Category Archives: History

MOMA on Sunday

March 3, 2025Food, History, Museums, NYCPaul Mason Fotsch

Two Sundays ago there were two very long lines extending down the steps and sidewalk before The Met Museum; once inside, another long line to buy tickets. On the positive side, the lines moved fairly fast, and the Caspar David Friedrich exhibit was well worth it.

Today, MOMA had a surprisingly short line and was not too crowded. Walking the galleries, it is sometimes shocking how many iconic modern paintings they own. In part, this is thanks to Lily P. Bliss, one of the museum’s founders. Highlights of her collection are assembled into an exhibit, including postcard bestseller: Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

At the other end of the value spectrum were Flat-Bottomed Paper Bags, displayed as part of Pirouette: Turning Points in Design.

After the museum, we stopped by K. Minamoto where edible art is displayed like jewelry behind glass cases. The white peach jelly Tosenka I found especially luscious.

Ho Tam at Carriage Trade

March 2, 2025History, Museums, NYCPaul Mason Fotsch

Yesterday I saw Ho Tam‘s exhibit “Haircut 100” at Carriage Trade on Grand Street. The exhibit is based on his 2015 book (Ho Tam #7) and focuses on the barbershops of NYC Chinatown, which in his map extends roughly from Delancey to Madison and Baxter to Essex. This makes the gallery location ideal for access to current community members (with approximately 100,000, it is likely the largest concentration of Chinese outside of East Asia), and Tam has usefully posted an exhibit description in Chinese on the door.

The Last Message (unknown)

November 27, 2022History, Music, podcasts, Technology, TVPaul Mason Fotsch

In 1977, the Fonz jumped over a shark on the TV show Happy Days. Although the show went on to have six more successful seasons, it became a symbol of decline and something that everything from baseball teams to podcasts should avoid.

We’re On For Thursday (Chris 32)

November 22, 2022Chicago, History, Music, NYC, podcasts, TVPaul Mason Fotsch

In the initial years of Television, Game shows were a popular part of networks’ prime time schedule until a 1959 investigation revealed they were often scripted. During the 1970s and 80s, daytime TV broadcast shows like Password and 25,000 dollar Pyramid. In 1999, Who Wants to be a Millionaire brought the genre back to network Prime Time.

Gainesville (Julia 7)

November 13, 2022Chicago, History, NYC, podcastsPaul Mason Fotsch

In the summer of 1990, a series of murders spread fear across Gainesville Florida. Nearly eighty years earlier, the collapse of a small bank led to tragedy on the lower east side of Manhattan.