Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:20:30 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Out & About :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/movers-shakers-converge-at-pillow/81220/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST There's a lot of talk about collaboration in the Berkshires, but so far this year, only one summer-season gala has brought together so many of the region's heavy hitters: the season-opening fund-raiser for Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Add the choreographers, dancers, and teachers assembled (Sandra Burton, Garth Fagan, Bill T. Jones, Anna-Marie Holmes), and there was a preponderance of talent, delighting in a thoroughly charming place — the festival's campus in Becket, Mass., where exhibits... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/shakespeare-swings/81106/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST To all those who did not see me covering parties in the Hamptons last month, please accept my apologies. As some of you may know, I have a crush on another resort area. The Berkshires doesn't have FreshDirect delivery. It does have the Berkshire Co-op Market and Guido's, and — here's where my knees get weak — gems of cultural institutions with gem supporters. At Shakespeare & Company on Saturday night, I met a donor who has helped fund a clever renovation of an underused building on the... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/an-artist-meets-his-patrons/80945/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The Waterfalls party on Thursday night at South Street Seaport gave the patrons who helped fund the $15 million art project an opportunity to meet its artist, Olafur Eliasson. "The waterfalls are meant to be experienced individually, but they are also meant to be a shared experience," Mr. Eliasson said. The crowd of arts and civic leaders included the head of the Art Production Fund, Yvonne Force Villareal, a former chairman of the Museum of Modern Art, Robert Menschel, the director of the... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/supporting-local-health-care/80946/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Against a backdrop of an election-year national debate on health care, New Yorkers gathered Thursday to raise money for the United Hospital Fund, which supports quality care and financing at local hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes. "New York City is a place that has leadership," the president of the fund, James Tallon, said as about 200 people gathered around him. The fund has attracted leaders such as Marianne Hardart, a director in the Child Life division at New York University Medical... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/hot-city-nights/80834/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The eighth annual Friends of the High Line benefit on Wednesday, which raised $2.4 million, celebrated some of the individual donors who, in tandem with government allocations, are helping to turn a beautiful dream about an abandoned segment of railroad into an actual, incredibly imaginative park, using what the High Line design team of Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro call "agri-tecture." Lisamaria and Philip Falcone gave money to build the stairs at 14th Street. The 10th Avenue... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/gluttons-for-charity/80759/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Tim Zagat casually made the rounds at the City Harvest tasting event on Tuesday night, sampling dishes from 29 restaurants. The food ranged from chef Cheryl Smith's chicken wings topped with arugula, from Cheryl's Global Soul in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, to chef Luc Dimnet's foie gras, enriched with a caramel cherry vinegar sauce and served on tortillas, from Brasserie in midtown Manhattan. It would have been in character for the creator of the Zagat restaurant surveys to critique the fare... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/feting-a-spiritual-and-social-home/80629/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Marc and Eve Karstaedt received enthusiastic greetings as they introduced their 7-year-old son, David, one of the few children at the Jewish Center's annual gala on Monday. "Family is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the Jewish Center," Mrs. Karstaedt, a stay-at-home mom, said of the Modern Orthodox synagogue and community center on the Upper West Side. "It serves as a spiritual and social home," Mr. Karstaedt, a wealth adviser and international wealth specialist at Morgan... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/romancing-the-stone/80472/ Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Early in the evening Saturday, Pritzker prize-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando climbed a trail in the woods with red lanterns and chimes hanging from tree branches, crane and koi fish puppets dancing above him, and the country air filled with the sounds of a Japanese drum troupe. A few hundred others followed, making their way to the opening party for Mr. Ando's building, the Stone Hill Center, at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/introductions-for-a-green-arrival/80418/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The Dutch designer who will lead the creation of a park and promenade on Governors Island, Adriaan Geuze of West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture, received a high-powered welcome Monday night at the Museum of Modern Art. Mr. Geuze started the working party clinking glasses with landscape architect Laurie Olin, a member of the jury that selected West 8 for its first commission in America, along with Rogers Marvel, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Quennell Rothschild, and SMWM. He ended the party... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/meet-at-the-castle/80300/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Before the crowd at the opening night of Shakespeare in the Park enjoyed "Hamlet," they enjoyed, at a pre-show supper that raised $1.5 million, speeches inspired by "Hamlet." "To sponsor or not to sponsor?" the president of Bank of America's private wealth division, Alan Rappaport, said, referring to the financial support the bank gives to the Public Theater's presentation of Shakespeare in the Park. The answer was a definitive yes. Mayor Bloomberg could have talked about what he will or will... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/opening-doors-in-city-and-in-israel/80197/ Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Putting aside the extravagance of a dessert buffet offering mini pecan pies, fresh kiwi, blackberries, and cherries, lemon sorbet, profiteroles, Florentine cookies, and chocolate-colored strawberries, the American Friends of the Open University of Israel exhibited good judgment at its annual fund-raiser on Monday night. The organization chose an appropriate venue: the Plaza Hotel, owned and newly restored by an Israeli businessman, Isaac Tshuva. For the students of the Open University, many of... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/fresh-coat-of-party-for-the-citys-historic-houses/80046/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Paint swatch samples were napkin rings at the Historic House Trust of New York City's 20th anniversary gala honoring the paint company Benjamin Moore. The company "has literally painted the town," Mayor Bloomberg said, "and not only the Little Red Lighthouse." The lighthouse is one of 22 structures that receive support from the trust, which Thursday raised $460,000 at its best-attended party, and announced it has raised $200,000 as part of a $1 million endowment campaign. Mr. Bloomberg said... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/bringing-their-new-york-to-the-big-screen/80051/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST At the Ghetto Film School benefit held recently at Bottino in Chelsea, film industry professionals celebrated the talents they believe are the future of their business, such as Ariel Morales, of the Lower East Side, who decided he wanted to be a filmmaker after seeing "Raising Victor Vargas," because it captured his own neighborhood so vividly, and Naheem Kujenya, of Staten Island, who already has his own production company, Wrong Number Films. "I would love to hire a good director from the... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/park-of-originality/79963/ Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST To the Battery they came, from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Governors Island, and the middle of Manhattan, for the Battery Conservancy's annual gala. The honorees came: the director of the New Museum, Lisa Phillips, and the president and chief executive of Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Mark Wagar. The patrons came: Elizabeth Atwood, Frank Bisignano, and William Rudin (the conservancy's chairman), to name a few. The designer Charlotte Pinson came. She is the one who made the president of the... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/man-vs-museum/79837/ Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Art often overpowered guests at the Museum of Modern Art's 40th annual Party in the Garden Tuesday, demonstrating not only how pale and short people can look compared to a lot of modern art, but also how complex the relationships can be between museums and their supporters. Even though 850 people paid thousands of dollars to dress up and eat beef tenderloin, even though some of them had their names on the walls, the Museum of Modern Art imposed its presence. The expansions of the past few years... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/for-ballet-togas-and-croissants/79482/ Fri, 6 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST On Monday, dancers and patrons of the New York City Ballet will pretend they are in Rome for a fund-raising party planned in large part by the dancers and led by Megan Fairchild, Sean Suozzi, and Georgina Pazcoguin. The dancers so embraced the theme that they posed in Roman costume for photographs by Arthur Elgort, which were used on the event invitation. But partying in Europe isn't just a fantasy. In September, the dancers will go to Paris to perform at the Paris Opera — and the itinerary... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/promoting-mental-health-on-campus/79483/ Fri, 6 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST It's early for parents and high-school seniors to be tackling the pre-college summer agenda: packing towels and Band-Aids, browsing through the course catalog, and learning the names of the freshman roommates, to name a few items. So there's plenty of time to heed the message conveyed at the Jed Foundation gala Wednesday, that parents and students should prepare for the mental health challenges of a big transition year, and of the college years in general. A child's life could depend on it... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/the-gores-and-wynton-marsalis-join-schiff-safari/79385/ Thu, 5 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST With some civilized partygoers crowded around him, Wynton Marsalis's trumpet playing Tuesday night at the Central Park Zoo wasn't quite a call of the wild. But the managing partner of Kuhn, Loeb & Company, David Schiff, got called some wild things at the safari-themed event in his honor, a fund-raiser for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Noting that a past honoree, Howard Phipps, had "practically a whole colony of Naked Mole Rats" at the Bronx Zoo named after him, Mr. Schiff's daughter... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/out-about/79260/ Wed, 4 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST At the New-York Historical Society's annual Strawberry Festival Luncheon on Monday, the society's president, Louise Mirrer, sounded remarkably Victorian in her remarks about the event's honoree, Nancy Newcomb. "She has performed exquisitely in public life, and in her personal life, she has been beyond reproach," Ms. Mirrer said, sounding like she could have been speaking at the society's first Strawberry Festival, back on June 15, 1856. Fortunately, in 2008, the language seemed to suit Ms... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/embracing-the-child-within/79068/ Mon, 2 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Within every successful, hard-driving, fund-raising New York adult is a smiley, giggling child, as demonstrated at the Sesame Workshop gala. The chairman of Time Warner Inc., Richard Parsons, was in a suit and standing very tall Wednesday night, but one could see the boy within as he greeted Elmo and his Indian counterpart, Chamki, who appears on "Galli Galli Sim Sim," India's locally produced version of "Sesame Street." Time Warner is Sesame Workshop's corporate partner in India. The gala was... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/good-excuses-to-stretch-at-the-library/78977/ Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 EST 'It's always good to be an excuse for a stretch," the donor of the New York Public Library's largest gift in history, Stephen Schwarzman, said Wednesday at the dinner in his honor after the 180 guests gave him a standing ovation. Later, they serenaded him with "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." The attention acknowledged not just his gift of $100 million, but the timing of his gift. "At a time of some retrenchment, some stepping back, Steve is not stepping back, he is stepping up," a board member... LIZ PEEK http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/robin-hood-breasts-subprime-crisis/78869/ Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 EST A subprime miasma hung over the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Tuesday night as the stars and superstars of the financial community gathered for the Robin Hood Foundation's annual gala. As founder Paul Tudor Jones conceded, "A lot of us aren't doing as well as we were last year." Whereas last year Wall Street's royalty was treated to decor featuring gigantic castles and thrones, this year the visuals emphasized some of the causes favored by the foundation. Lighted signs saying "Survivor" and... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/stars-come-out-for-robin-hood-event/78828/ Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Filmmaker Harvey Weinstein, Marchesa co-founder Georgina Chapman, model and actress Karolina Kurkova (wearing Marchesa), schools chancellor Joel Klein and attorney Nicole Seligman, and "American Idol" winner David Cook were among the nearly 4,000 people at the Robin Hood benefit at the Javits Center on Tuesday. But the stars of the night were the grantees the anti-poverty foundation placed in the spotlight during the event. And it was some spotlight, targeted on a platform in the center of a... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/the-swing-set-parties-for-its-playgrounds/78829/ Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Drew Ross, 3, likes to swing "really low and super high" at the playground. Alexios Poyiadjis, 4, likes to climb on the rocks. J. Holland Humphries, 5, can usually be found climbing on the "spider web," a jungle gym constructed of rope. But most of the children at Heckscher Playground yesterday were too busy hanging out with their parents, dancing, and eating popcorn and cotton candy, to do something as simple as go on the swings. The party was a fund-raising event for the Central Park... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/the-color-that-brings-in-the-season/78761/ Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 EST According to old-school etiquette, now that we're past Memorial Day, it's all right to wear white. But New York women are always ahead of the game — led, perhaps, by some of the town's most beautiful ladies in white, Elie Nadelman's "Circus Women" marble sculptures on the promenade of the New York State Theater. White has been popular by day and night recently, making dramatic statements at social events, against not only the perennial black, but also the bright colors being worn this season... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/partying-like-15-year-olds/78618/ Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Yaz Hernández was so devoted to the Quinceañera theme of the El Museo del Barrio gala that when the waiters at Cipriani 42nd Street brought out the birthday cakes, she looked like a delighted 15-year-old at her coming-of-age party. In fact, Ms. Hernández, a co-chairwoman of Thursday's event and a museum board member, has helped push the museum forward into a sophisticated, adult phase of life. To wit: the gala brought in $850,000, plus a $3 million gift from the Unanue family. The museum, which... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/a-place-where-booing-is-welcomed/77391/ Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Everyone but the plumber and 8-week-old Sam Worthington came to the Kitchen's annual benefit Wednesday, where, by the way, there was not a sink in sight. The variety of the crowd — which included artists, lawyers, museum directors, a reverend, and the purveyor of the Champagne Palmes d'Or — showed the far-ranging appeal of the Kitchen, a nonprofit performance and visual arts space in Chelsea. A banker, a fashion designer, and an advertising executive all singled out a recent performance by Nico... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/institute-of-fine-arts-finds-the-limelight/76846/ Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 EST With a heated-up art market and expanding museums dominating the cultural landscape, it was only a matter of time before a graduate school of art history found the limelight, too. It happened this week, to New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, which announced not only the recruitment to the faculty of the outgoing director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philippe de Montebello, but also an expansion into the building next to its home on 78th Street and Fifth Avenue, made possible by... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/art-benefit-for-aids-resarch/76805/ Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Still riding the high of her birthday celebration last month, a benefit for Creative Time, Beth Rudin DeWoody poured her heart into curating "Unframed," an art sale to benefit Acria, the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America. The art on sale Monday and yesterday at Charles Cowles Gallery, by 17 artists, including Ms. Rudin DeWoody's son, Carlton DeWoody, and Kevin Baker, Peter Gerakaris, Paul Henry Ramirez, Chris Verene, and Chuck Webster, was evidence of her taste for whimsy, color... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/noguchi-is-feted-in-chelsea/76806/ Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 EST The patrons of the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City didn't seem to mind having their annual dinner at the Frank Gehry-designed IAC Building in Chelsea. The relocation was due to an $8.2 million renovation under way at the museum. But the consensus of guests was that the museum itself — which remains open during the construction, and which until Sunday is showing an exhibit of furniture Isamu Noguchi designed with Isamu Kenmochi — is the ideal venue. "Give yourself a present," the chairman of... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/evening-of-smiles/76639/ Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 EST What goes on at a gala is too often removed from the work the gala supports. That wasn't the case at a fund-raiser for Operation Smile on Thursday, "The Smile Event." All those guests smiling the night away — especially the event's benefactors, which included Jennifer Marsico, Charlotte Moss, Andrew Tisch and his daughter Lacey Tisch-Sidney, and Vanessa and Donald Trump Jr. — couldn't help but understand the power of a smile, after viewing photographs and a video that showed the children... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/diamonds-and-friendship/76640/ Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Diamonds are said to encourage friendship, so the new Leviev boutique on Madison Avenue was the perfect setting for a cocktail party organized to introduce diplomats to the America-Israel Friendship League, a nonsectarian nonprofit that promotes relations between the two countries. Janice Gillerman, the wife of Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, served as hostess with guests including the president of KLG Jewelry, Thierry Chaunu; the president of Park East... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/book-triumph/76641/ Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Though the week is just starting, many of us already are looking forward to the upcoming long weekend in honor of Memorial Day, a tribute to those who have died in military service. There will be parades, barbecues, and lives to remember, and this year, there will also be a powerful new book to read: CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier's "Breathing the Fire," an account of surviving a car bomb while on assignment in Iraq — on Memorial Day weekend two years ago. The book also tells of the... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/bagels-and-inspiration-at-womens-breakfast/76570/ Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 EST With 2,400 female guests filling the New York Hilton's ballroom, among them some of the city's most generous philanthropists, the collective wealth at the New York Women's Foundation's Celebrating Women Breakfast yesterday was great indeed. But in a few moments, the wealth became nothing compared to the spirit and sacrifice of a group of women from Uganda who took the stage to be honored for pooling their earnings from quarry work and sending $1,000 to families displaced by Hurricane Katrina... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/celebrating-african-art/76571/ Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 EST When Jason Wright saw guests lined up outside the Puck Building on Wednesday night, waiting for the doors to open at 6:30 sharp, he knew he'd done well as co-chairman of the Museum of African Art gala. But it got better: Guest after guest told him the event felt like an intimate dinner party at someone's home, a high compliment in Mr. Wright's book. The event drew 480 guests and raised $700,000 for the museum, which has an exhibit of board games on at the United Nations as it builds a new home... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/old-friends-new-home-for-brooklyn-philharmonic/76572/ Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 EST At its gala Monday at the Rainbow Room, the Brooklyn Philharmonic raised more than $550,000, some of which will help renovate its first permanent home, a former firehouse in Cobble Hill. It also toasted founders Stanley Kriegel and his late wife, Charlotte, who passed away in December. Together, they were champions of the Philharmonic starting 54 years ago (Mr. Kriegel is still a board member). All New Yorkers should aspire to their example. Children of immigrants, they forged a communal life... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/feeding-new-york/76575/ Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 EST City Harvest helps feed the city's hungry. It also teaches children to cook and eat healthily. "When you can sum up an organization is a few words, you know it has a worthy mission," a vice chairman of City Harvest, Michael Young, said yesterday at the nonprofit's annual On Your Plate luncheon, which raised $2 million. The women gathered, meanwhile, hung on every word of eating advice from Dr. Mehmet Oz. Summed up in a few words, he said to eat vegetables, fiber, and avoid empty calories... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/cast-of-characters-comes-out-for-a-carnival/76496/ Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 EST The emcee was a man in a blue-sequined full-body leotard and bunny ears calling himself Scott the Blue Bunny. The entertainment included artist Edisa Weeks giving willing guests "hairstyles for the playful at heart," and burlesque star Julie Atlas Muz, the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, and Big Dance Theater. And dinner, at Café Un Deux Trois, was steak frites. At this "carnival" on Monday to benefit the New York Foundation for the Arts, everything seemed larger than life, everything except the... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/painting-the-town-pink-and-purple/76266/ Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 EST In a time of unknowns — who will be elected president, how the economy will fare in the coming months — women this spring have turned to a familiar and reliably beautiful wardrobe choice: pink, from the lightest blush to a deep purple shade, in day and evening. Nature, of course, has signaled its agreement, with cherry blossoms and wisteria blooming all around town. And it will continue to do so, with gorgeous pink peonies and roses on the way. The Conservatory Ball at the New York Botanical... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/where-the-superheroic-meet-the-super-fashionable/76191/ Fri, 9 May 2008 00:00:00 EST The connection between the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute exhibit "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy" and the party by the same name, which celebrated its opening, is worth examining. Not that guests at the party Monday night had the optimal opportunity to do so. Among the distractions were liquor, the desire to socialize, celebrity spotting, a Temple of Dendur filled with plastic forms resembling ice crystals, and a meal featuring a "Spider Web" appetizer (a fettuccine nest filled... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/hot-dinner-topic-darwin/76192/ Fri, 9 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Wearing a double helix tie with the now-faded signature of James Watson, the science-loving trustee of the New York Botanical Garden, Lewis Cullman, who has helped forge a collaboration between the garden and the American Museum of Natural History, spoke at a dinner Tuesday celebrating the garden's new exhibit, "Darwin's Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure." "Now we see, you can't tell a plant from an animal," Mr. Cullman said. "Some of you may think you're a mushroom." Actually, most of the... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/hot-dates-moms-daughters/76193/ Fri, 9 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Charles Darwin developed a theory of evolution. This society columnist, meanwhile, works to develop theories of social, fashion, and fund-raising evolution. One trend spotted this week is mothers and daughters on the town together. One of the perks of New York living not documented in "Sex and the City," it's a joy to observe and experience. (Thanks, Mom, for being my most reliable, fun "date," always.) At the superheroes-themed Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute gala, mother-daughter... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/making-their-own-shade-at-a-central-park-lunch/76110/ Thu, 8 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Not even the broadest-brimmed hat could keep ladies away from their sunglasses yesterday at the Central Park Conservancy's Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon. Yes, the sun was shining brightly on this event, which honored a former president of the conservancy's Women's Committee, Nancy Paduano, and a former chairman of the conservancy, Ian Smith, and his wife, Margaret. For some, shades alone — those by Chanel, Versace, and Armani — were all the high-fashion headgear necessary: making enough... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/new-yorks-own-wonder-woman/76012/ Wed, 7 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Kelli O'Hara made the most of her Monday night off from "South Pacific." It started at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala, where she became part of the "superhero" fashion brigade in a red Michael Kors gown. But there was no after-party with George Clooney on her agenda. At a quarter to midnight, she hit the stage of Joe's Pub, having changed into jeans and a blue silk halter top, to celebrate her new CD, "Wonder in the World," which went on sale yesterday. "The title, I'm... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/garden-blooms-in-bedford-stuyvesant/76013/ Wed, 7 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Just in time for the good weather, Hancock Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn is getting spruced up. Planters along the block of brownstones are filled with purple petunias, thanks to the efforts of the Hancock Neighborhood Block Association. And the pocket garden at 392 Hancock St. has just reopened after a total redesign by the Manhattan-based interior designer Elissa Cullman, of the design firm Cullman & Kravis. Ms. Cullman found the park in need of care through Bette... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/east-end-training-begins/75838/ Mon, 5 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Preparing to bare skin at the beach isn't the only kind of spring training going on right now in Manhattan. When summer comes, and whole social circles have decamped to the East End, the social calendar makes a radical shift, to the weekend. That means waking up on a Saturday and dressing for a brunch at 11, a boutique opening at 3, and a cocktail party at 7. Did someone want to go to the beach? There's always Wednesday. Turning the weekday party muscles into weekend ones can be hard work, so... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/american-india-foundation-has-big-night/75772/ Fri, 2 May 2008 00:00:00 EST So many hands went up so quickly, that auctioneer Sandhya Jain Patel, onstage at the Waldorf-Astoria on Wednesday night, could not keep track. "Over there, the woman in the sari," she said, forgetting in the chaos of the moment that almost every woman in the room was wearing a sari, each more beautiful than the next. The hands in the air marked $1,000, then $5,000, then $100,000 contributions to the American India Foundation's vocational training programs in India. By 2010, the foundation... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/getting-in-touch-with-the-spirit-of-juilliard/75773/ Fri, 2 May 2008 00:00:00 EST While Juilliard's gala Monday featured Barbara Cook in concert and raised $1.3 million, some of the guests like just hanging out on campus. "I love it here and I come back as much as I can," an alumna and the event's honorary chairwoman, actress Laura Linney, said. She credited the school's president, Joseph Polisi. "He's the reason why the school has flourished. He's hands-on and approachable." Recently, friends and family members made a donation to the school in honor of Ms. Linney's... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/artsconnection-honors/75774/ Fri, 2 May 2008 00:00:00 EST 'This country will never be the country we aspire to be until we get right on education and we are not today right on education," New York City's schools chancellor, Joel Klein, who attended P.S. 151 in Queens, said Monday. He was accepting an award from ArtsConnection, a nonprofit that brings performing and visual arts instructors into more than 120 schools in the five boroughs. The event, which raised $600,000, also honored artist George Condo, whose own children attend Trevor Day School... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/out-and-about/candid-conversation-helps-fountain-house/75775/ Fri, 2 May 2008 00:00:00 EST It was a ladies' luncheon, with all the likely suspects, but the presentations drew men, too. Massachusetts State Senator Robert Antonioni and the chief executive of EMC Holdings, Philip Burguières, spoke about their depression openly, each with the goal of encouraging other men to seek treatment. The event raised $1.15 million for Fountain House, an organization which provides support to people with mental illness. agordon@nysun.com...