Yesterday was spent hanging around in the morning and movie going in the afternoon. Little Squid saw the new Fantastic Four movie as part of a birthday party and the rest of us saw the new Shrek movie. Good stuff! Since the party included pizza and such afterwards, and was no where near home, the rest of us wandered about the neighborhood and did some book shopping.
Today we are still wiped out but I got everyone on their bikes and we did a light ride down to the Lower East Side and got ...
ice cream! Squidette has decided that as much as last summer was all about the chocolate, this summer will be all about the ice cream. Yum!
Flavors sampled -- chocolate malt, chocolate, strawberry, vanilla and ginger. Mmmm.
(Notice my new hairstyle? The braids are lighter and cooler then a single one down my back. I may look like I'm eight years old but I'm comfortable.)
Look! This really is a knitting blog!
This afternoon Squidette and I went off to the big NDI performance at Laguardia High School. Several of her friends were in it so we were there for more than just the great performances.
Laguardia High School is what the High School of Performing Arts became when it merged with the High School of Music and Art in 1984. Performing Arts was the school on which the movie Fame was based.
Across the street stands the building that was formerly Martin Luther King Jr. High School. (High school, not Junior High School) The two schools were as different as apples and oranges. Laguardia served (and still serves) a select population and King drew from the nearby housing projects. King closed in 2005 and the building now houses six smaller schools, none bearing the name of the great man whose name graces the building. I've always found the contrast to be quite sad.
The article that I linked to, by the way, is wrong. One of the first schools closed for low performance in NYC was Benjamin Franklin High School in 1982. Founded in 1935, Ben Franklin was an amazing place, an integrated school in a time of de facto segregation. I've met many of the graduates over the years and those from the earlier days -- even as late as the 70's have nothing but good things to say about Franklin. The grand edifice that was Ben Franklin High School now houses Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics High School (est. 1982) and Isaac Newton Middle School for Science and Mathematics. Yup, where I work.
