FAREWELL TO SUMMER

Saratoga Race Course, July 2014
Photograph Electric City Pictures Blog www.electriccitypictures.blogspot.com

One of the most resonating markers of the end of summer in Saratoga Springs is the conclusion of the racing season, this weekend, at the Saratoga Race Course. Now in its 151st year, this fantastic, historic track is the second oldest in the country. In the art and literary world, the Saratoga Race Course has been the setting in more than one work of fiction, and the artist Matthew Barney actually filmed part of Cremaster 3 at the track in 2002. We especially love to visit in the early morning, before the track opens, to watch the horses train. Really lovely. Until next summer…

MANGER + MIMI THORISSON

Another favorite blog here at THE BATON is Mimi Thorisson’s Manger. If you love food (yes), all things French (indeed), and stunning photography (of course), you too should be reading Manger. I think it is best described as one big, gorgeous, glorious feast. Thorisson’s new book A Kitchen in France, A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse is due out on October 28 — no doubt just as splendid as the blog that inspired it.

A Kitchen in France, A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse by Mimi Thorisson (Clarkson Potter, 2014)

www.mimithorisson.com

COROLLA VILLAGE BAR-B-QUE

At the beach in North Carolina this week we discovered the totally old school Corolla Village Bar-B-Que. The seating is entirely out-of-doors, set under trees with roaming chickens. Exactly right. And the menu, seriously straightforward. Yum!

Corolla Village Bar-B-Que, Historic Corolla Village, 1129 Corolla Village Road, Corolla, NC

MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT

Photograph www.sonyclassics.com

Despite the generally tepid reviews, I really enjoyed Magic in the Moonlight. Classic Woody Allen and the ideal summer movie, the costumes were lovely, the scenery transporting and the film itself very easy to watch. It was like a perfectly wrapped gift. And to be honest, I would see anything with Colin Firth… 

GARRY WINOGRAND

Garry Winogrand (1928-1984), New York, 1965
Photograph www.metmuseum.org

One of the best exhibitions I have seen this summer is Garry Winogrand at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Winogrand, one of the most important and prolific American photographers of the 20th century, created hundreds of thousands of images in his relatively short career. This installation contains some 175 photographs, a number of which have not been previously seen, even by Winogrand himself. My favorite images are those that document Manhattan in the 1950s and 60s, for me two of the most compelling decades in the history of this city.

Garry Winogrand runs through September 21.