An amazing story ...

An amazing story … Came home to the answer machine light blinking. It was message
from a guy in Seattle, Washington, named Roger Ligrano. Said he had come by 19
or 20 paintings by a David Grossblatt. And that he had looked him up on the internet
and found my website on the Café Rienzi, and could I please call him back, as
they were very eager to find out the background of these paintings. When I called,
Roger Ligrano, as it turns out, is also an artist. He has exhibited with Dale
Chihuly at the New York Botanical Gardens in 2006. Anyway, here’s how the story
unfolds … A friend of Roger’s somehow managed to intercept three truckloads worth
of paintings on their way to the dump. He salvaged 19 or 20 of them and took them
to Roger. Roger started hunting down the artist. “Do you know,” he told me, “there
is almost nothing about David Grossblatt on the web? But whatever there is seems
to be closely related to this Café Rienzi.” He had come across my Rienzi page
and from there discovered my business page and phone number and decided he would
attempt to contact me after a number of other leads failed. He was very interested
in finding out about the artist, and whomever was getting rid of these paintings,
and about the Café Rienzi. So I called my Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom and am in the
process of hopefully hooking them up with Roger so he can interview them, so to
speak. In the meantime, Roger emailed several photographs of David’s paintings,
and without further ado, here they are:


Featuring the Discovered Works of Artist David Grossblatt, Co-owner of the Cafe Rienzi


courtesy of Ligrano Studios, Seattle, Washington












More tidbits from my conversation with Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom:

Memories of the Cafe Rienzi

first in a series of posts on the Cafe Rienzi

There are 11,000 hits when you "google" the internet for information of the Cafe Rienzi on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, New York. It is mentioned in reminiscences and memoires of famous authors and poets and artists and musicians and even in the speech of a Nobel prize winner (The Dream Machine-Nobel Speech mentions the Rienzi). James Baldwin, Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan and many, many more well known names crop up in connection with this cafe - as well as memories of many ordinary people who visted it and frequented it. It was a apparently a Mecca for these types of people in the 50's and 60's much like Paris was a Mecca for artists in decades and centuries preceeding.

What seems little known about the Cafe Rienzi is its beginnings - its roots. My aunt and uncle were two of the original group of friends who launched the Cafe Rienzi in the early 50's. I grew up hearing all those stories - the good times, the fights, and how one by one the original group sold their share and left. My aunt said she received $2000 for her share and spent two months or two years in Europe in grand style in London and Paris and Italy. She went over on the Queen Mary.

By now my aunt and uncle and the other folks who started the Cafe Rienze are quite elderly - in their 80's. But here I hope to start a thread of their memories of this historic and influential Cafe and piece of 20th Century American history. I have asked my aunt to write some of her memories about it, and she in turn has asked her friend Eva, and we will see if those are forthcoming - but for now, my feeble notes will have to do.
More to come as I get the time! My Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom Durant, two of the founders of the Cafe Rienzi, are pictured below.

JuneBug

Beginnings of the Cafe Rienzi ...

Okay, I finally have time to sit down and type out a few notes from my last telephone conversation with my aunt about the Cafe Rienzi. It was started by a group of seven friends who were writers and painters in Greenwich Village:

• Tom and Joan Durant - Joan was a pianist and a writer, and Tom was a painter and philosopher.
• Eva (an Austrian immigrant) and Gert (a German immigrant) Berliner* - Gert was a painter. I'm not sure what Eva's art passion was at that time. Gert and Eva eventually separated and Eva is now a retired professor at an exclusive college in New York City.
• Amy Nakamura* (from Japan) - I believe Amy was an artist.
• David Grossblatt - a painter
• Harry Justman and Gloria Siegal

The Cafe Rienzi opened in June 1952 at 113 MacDougal Street. It was the first popular Coffee House in the Village. It had 25 to 30 tables - and seated 150 to 200 people. It had a back room and a front room. There were other Cafes in the Village at that time - small Italian Cafes, that only Italians went to - and a ritzy Cafe named The Peacock.
From the stories I heard growing up, it was a successful albeit tempestuous start. The original group of friends left one by one. Uncle Tom left after the first few months - actually I recall Aunt Joan told me once that the group (including her) kicked him out - I need to get the rest of that story.
Gert, Eva's husband, was the next to leave, and then Aunt Joan left in November and realized a life dream when she traveled to Europe for the first time. She went over on the Queen Mary.
Eventually Harry and David had the Cafe for ten years.
Almost all the famous writers and painters of the fifties and sixties, the beats and the abstract expressionists, frequented the Cafe - and my Aunt and Uncle had opportunity to meet them before they really became famous. Poets - Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Peter Allosci. Artists and sculptors - Mary Frank and Robert Frank, Franz Klein, Jackson Pollock, DeKooning, Bob DeNiro (the actor's father), and Paul Resika, who painted Aunt Joan's portrait and who lived downstairs from Edward Hopper. Writers like Larry Rubin, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin.
Aunt Joan recalled that they used to have loft parties and that she and Bob DeNiro used to love to dance together to Billie Holiday's music. Aunt Joan was also a counselor and teacher's aid at the Greenwich House for the son - Bob DeNiro the actor when he was a boy.
Well, other duties call, and that's about all I have for now. I'm hoping that Aunt Joan and Eva will be supplying me with more stories as time passes by. Aunt Joan wrote a couple of plays based on the Cafe Rienzi that were performed on Off Broadway.
JuneBug
*Thanks to Artemesia for the corrections on the names!

larry's Memories of the Rienzi

Just got a response back from larry, Harry Justman's nephew about the Cafe Rienzi.

"I was about 12 when harry left the biz.....my brother david did work at the rienzi on sunday afternoons for a while . I recall harry having only one partner named david....last name unknown. I could draw a floor plan from memory. I recall the display of fancy Italian pastries.....flimsy wire backed chairs and tables....real la bohme territory....big brass colored expresso machines...a dinky kitchen facility. While in law school in 1979 a friend of mine arranged a double date.....and in the middle dinner it flashed on me ......this resturaunt is the old rienzi, a proustian moment.

as to memories....my parents . quite provincial, seemed facinated by the bohemian types.....and as a child it was clear that my parents thought the patrons a bit exotic/dangerous.

harry liked the beats .....and got out of the biz when the beats morphhed into hippies.....who he did not like. My cousin nina had a birthday party in the back area .....complete with a then exotic pinata.

Before passin I would ask harry about the various iconic peoples passin through in rienzis heyday.

he would repond with statments like.....Kerouac, a fucking drunk............ect.

regret not being more concrete .....i was very young."

Thanks, larry!

Junebug

More Memories of the Cafe Rienzi

This comment about the Cafe Rienzi came to me on another message board by the way of Doug Schneider:

A bunch of my high school friends and I would take the Long Island Rail Road into New York, and head for the Paperbook Gallery. After buying our books, we would then go the the Cafe Rienzi. Here I would order a himbeersaft and hope that people would think I was a real beatnik, instead of a high school kid from the suburbs.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Doug! I was no where near New York and the Rienzi during my high school years, unfortunately. That was in the sixties. Makes me feel like I missed out. I just remember the stories my aunt told of the original founders starting it up and the hi-jinx and fights - arguing violently about how to cut the cake and what size to serve and throwing plates at each other across the kitchen. I think that last part was primarily my aunt and uncle's doing, lol!

My parents divorced when I was 13 or 12 and living in South America. But in my childhood, we used to be in and out of New York all the time visiting my grandparents and aunt. I loved to spend the night with Aunt Joan - she was so much fun. She'd take me to Charlie Chaplin movies in the Village and to coffee houses to get that real Italian lemon ice. I knew about real lemon ice and cappucino long before they found their way into the midwest mainstream - and it's still hard to find a really good one (of either) here in the midwest, altho occasionally I get lucky. Uncle Tom took me to his painting studio and let me paint.

Sometimes the family would eat out in the Village too - I remember this one place that had a garden area in back where you could eat outside - I think my Mom and Dad, and Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom, and I were all there for a Sunday meal. I was really little and I tried to catch the pidgeons ...

JuneBug

Thomas Durant

I promised more to come in the way of my eulogy, when I wrote of my Uncle Tom's passing a few months ago. Uncle Tom was one of the co-founders of the Cafe Rienzi, and an artist in his own right - only one of his many accomplishments. He originally hailed from the suburbs of Chicago, and as a young man, roamed a sales territory in Indiana for his father's business. Uncle Tom knew just about everything and could do just about anything. He and my Aunt met in the labor movement in Detroit after he served in World War II. He followed Aunt Joan back to New York, her roots, and they lived on the outskirts of Greenwich Village for over 60 years until he died. I remember him taking me to his studio in the fifties and teaching me about abstract art. I was maybe eight or ten years old. He let me paint a picture. It remained with me for a while, I even took it to classroom show and tell as my parents moved around the hemispheres in pursuit of my Dad's geology career. It eventually disappeared into my distant childhood.

Uncle Tom and Aunt Joan were fabulous cooks. They tended to fight for control of the kitchen. Uncle Tom cooked me many a wonderful meal ... I still remember steamed mussels, seasoned with a sauce, probably consisting of garlic, olive oil, fresh parmesan cheese, and I don't know what all else, when I brought my girlfriend to New York back in the early 70's.

Yesterday I was visiting with my Aunt Joan on the phone to find out her and my cousin Anna's Christmas plans this year - their first Christmas without him. Aunt Joan gave me quite a few tidbits about Uncle Tom (and the Cafe Rienzi) that were new to me. So here they are:

The Cafe Rienzi was located in what was an old macaroni factory, with a grocery store in front. Uncle Tom, with his architectural affinities, designed the Cafe out of the existing facility - and all the founders worked to turn it into a reality. Aunt Joan has been a prolific writer in her life (not just poetry). I look forward to the day when more of her work is published, because I believe it is a great gift to future generations. Anyway, for a period she wrote plays for Off-Off Broadway, and Uncle Tom built all her sets. Many of Aunt Joan's plays were performed in Theater for the New City currently located at 155 First Avenue, New York 10003-2906.

image courtesy of bike snob nyc blog

This current location was originally an indoor market with vegetable stands and such. Again Uncle Tom provided the architectural drawings and plans to convert this area into a theater. Aunt Joan says the artistic director Crystal Field still provides her with complimentary theater tickets as a thank you.

Uncle Tom also played a key role in assisting a long time (albeit younger) friend of the family artist David Maurice of Star Metal in setting up his metal works business. Star Metal does decorative and architectural metal work for downtown New York buildings among others. 

Well, I will close for now, but I am pleased to add these new details to the online record. One of the fond images I have of Uncle Tom - in addition to all the wonderful family discussions over the dinner table, and growing up with his inspirational paintings decorating my Aunt and Uncle's New York apartment is as master gardener. Uncle Tom brought his midwestern roots to New York. He put out garden every spring. For years he had a wonderful roof garden in Manhattan, complete with a fig tree, which we all enjoyed. He even grew sweet corn up there. And wonderful little strawberries and all kinds of vegetables. Even after the roof became unavailable for gardening, he continued to grow tomato plants on their tiny metal window seat balcony off the back bedroom.

I hope some of the folks who have purchased Uncle Tom's paintings will eventually find these writings and perhaps provide photos of his work. 

JuneBug

Introducing Joan Durant- One of the Founders of the Cafe Rienzi - on YouTube: Interview With a Poet

In my previous posts about the Cafe Rienzi, I have introduced my Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom Durant - a couple of the Rienzi's original founders. Laura Collins has done a breathtaking feature on my Aunt Joan Durant on YouTube which I am thrilled to present to you here:

YouTube - Interview With a Poet

Another David Grossblatt Painting Discovered!

I received the following email and photographs from Kyle Johnson who has graciously allowed me to share them with you.

Hey, I'm Kyle. So I was searching google for David Grossblatt because I'm here in Washington, DC helping my great aunt clean out her house and in the basement I came across a large painting sort of hidden in the corner. So I took it out, looked at it and say Grossblatt signed on the front and on the back it read David Grossblatt NY, NY. So here I am, searching google when i see that you have a blog about him and some of his finds and I thought I'd let you know I found one. Story behind it goes my great uncle's friend knew David, who at the time was trying to go to Paris. Before Grossblatt left, he wished to have a typewriter, which my great uncle's friend traded to him for this painting. And somehow it was traded to my great uncle where it was placed on a wall for a while till the wall was painted. This is how it ended up in the basement to be forgotten until I came upon it. Attached is some photos that I took earlier this morning. Enjoy

Here are Kyle's photos:





For those of you just coming in on this discussion, David Grossblatt was the co-owner of the Cafe Rienzi in Greenwich Village and he held quite an influence in the abstract-expressionist art movement. I have been posting tidbits of history about the Cafe Rienzi because my Aunt and Uncle helped to start it. I remember my Uncle Tom Durant taking me to his art studio one day and teaching me about abstract paintings. He let me try my hand at one - I was about 8 years old. Just from that little memory, and looking at the painting, I think David Grossblatt was a big influence at that time.

JuneBug

One of these days I'll get around to posting some of Uncle Tom's paintings.

An Old Menu from the Cafe Rienzi

With thanks and apologies to Ben Austin, son of Avel Austin, who thoughtfully sent me this information back in 2018, I am finally posting these photos of an old Cafe Rienzi menu for people to enjoy. I seem to remember seeing one like this for sale on an antiques site last year. :)

Everything looks scrumptious! Enjoy! Thank you, Ben!

JuneBug

Thanks to Harry Justman's nephew ...

... for passing on this piece of information about the Cafe Rienzi.

"my uncle harry justman was one of the original owners......he sold his intrest in the mid 60's. my parents spent time there occasionally on sunday afternoons with my brother ands and me. my mom was harry,s only sibling.Harry died approximatley 4 years ago and is survived by his sister, two daughters,and four grandchildren."

Thanks, larry! Do you have any personal memories of the Rienzi? I was pretty young when my aunt and uncle got out of the scene. I have personal memories of Greenwich Village coffee houses, but they're pretty vague.

JuneBug

So, you want to write an ebook ...

A Furniture Refinisher's Newsletter

Check out a preview of our new ebook at Amazon or at Google Play Books!

Greetings again to my readers!

This post continues the story started in the previous post. First let me recap briefly. I have spent almost two years writing an ebook about our former furniture refinishing and antiques business. That book A Furniture Refinisher's Newsletter is finally finished and available for purchase at Amazon and at Google Play Books. But even though I'm finished (finally!), it turns out I'm not; I find that the contented albeit often lonely experience of writing this ebook has left me with a lot to share and talk about! So let's talk shop! Who among you, my readers, is currently contemplating writing an ebook? If you are, then I hope this post provides some helpful sign-posts along your journey.

What I shared in the previous post is just one of the hurdles I encountered in my ebook-writing adventure. And that hurdle was more about the technical aspects of promoting your book on your own website than it was about creation. So ...  here's the rest of the story.

Charter Founder of Cafe Rienzi Passes

Saturday, July 17th, 2010, Uncle Tom Durant, one of the charter founders of the Cafe Rienzi passed away, just short of his 90th birthday. We love you, Uncle Tom, and we miss you.

More information to follow.

JuneBug

Back to Beginnings

When I first started this blog in 2006, it was with the intent of chronicling my job search, after losing my job of 21 years. I hoped to connect with others in similar circumstances to perhaps find and share encouragement along the way. I also thought it would be fun to share my interests as a hobbyist photographer. Well, as time passed, I found a job, and branched out in other directions. I wrote about my family and the Cafe Rienzi, my great aunt Firma Phillips who was a local scenery artist, and several other other noteworthy personalities and topics. Then last year I lost my job again. So this spring I went back to college through Ivy Tech's Senior Scholar Program which allows people over 60 to take classes for free. Recently I have been blogging about that experience as it ties in with my interest in instructional design.

With this post I'd like to get back to the blog's original intent, my interest in photography. This past semester I had a wonderful opportunity to take a computer graphics class at Ivy Tech. The first half of the semester we worked in Photoshop and the second half we spent on Illustrator. Having played around with Photoshop version 7 for many years, I enjoyed this formal class immensely and thought it would be fun to share some of the products in the next few posts.

Our first series of projects were from the Photoshop Cookbook. I especially enjoyed the out of frame effect as shown in the following series of photos:

Effect	Original

Effect	Original

Effect	Original

More effects to come! Stay tuned ....

JuneBug