My Retirement at Ury So Far
2021 - 2024
Stephen Lauf
Dedicated to
Beth Atkinson, Librarian
all because she wouldn't accept my Ury House dossier
2024.04.21
I'll start with the sequence of events in just the past two days.
Friday, 19 April 2024
'Art that can be construed as supporting LGBTQ+ rights at museumpeace.com' is already online at theartblog.org when I go to see if it's there around 8:45 am. I also receive a response email from Hoang Tran, Director of Archives and Collections, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts:
Hi Steve!
Thanks for the insights!
These volumes are my favorite works in our archives. The etchings are simply amazing. Moreover, I’m fascinated with the history of how we acquired them and with the new information you’re suggesting makes them even more amazing!
Next Thursday is open 12-4:30pm and Friday 9am-4:30pm.
These are large volumes so I or my assistant will need to be present to flip the pages for you.
Then I texted Ryan deRoche at theartblog.org -- Thanks Ryan  -- before heading over to 'Prospective Artists and Performers Open House' at Glen Foerd where, for the first time, I meet Hayley [sp?] in the parking lot, and it turns out Hayley and I are the only artists to show up for the open house, so we're both treated to two hours of Alice Thompson's inspiring Glen Foerd tours--Alice is the Arts & Culture Program Manager at Glen Foerd and this was my second Alice Thompson tour within a month, and both tours are among the highlights of my retirement so far. It also turns out that I spent two hours with two quite incredible women. As we returned to the parking lot Hayley and I talked about the Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction happening tomorrow night.
Back home I respond to Hoang's email and go on to compose the 19 April page of ATCBCASLGBTQ+R. After doing that I decide there's enough time to take The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe over to the library of Ryerss Museum and Library to formally start my Ury House Dossier project, unaware that the first act of the two act play Dossier and Not!, starring Beth Atkinson and Stephen Lauf, is what was really going to happen. What a shock and a blow for me, but that was because Beth already had her lines and knew exactly what role she was going to play. I was caught completely off guard and had to ad-lib pretty much everything I said. You'll see in the second act (tomorrow, Saturday) that Beth accuses me of being hostile, but boy was she the hostile one in act one, to the point where I did get one good line when I said, "I really think I want what you just said to me on video." To which Beth quickly replied, "Go ahead, and I'll write it down for you too." I exit act one shaken and dejected.
Again back home I call Jeannie (Jean Broden) to tell her about the Glen Foerd 'open house,' but our phones didn't quite connect. Then I went to pick up some medication at the pharmacy; Viet and I kind of commiserate over how we don't see each other much anymore since my brother's passing in January, but I did tell him I heard about the Mary, Kelly and Debbie 'reunion' at Debbie's retirement party. "Yeah, yeah, we've been socializing a bit more lately."
And again back home I try to relax the rest of the evening/night and ultimately have a phone conversation with Andrew Kovacs who is, although we've never met in person, the first new friend I've made since turning 65. I did a lot of the talking since Andrew was driving somewhere in Los Angeles on his way home. Andrew is our time's leading architect/designer/artist of follies, most recently Rainbow Rings, Yucatan, Mexico and Gloriette-R1 on what is more or less the last property directly downhill from the HOLLYWOOD sign--uniquely top-notch works. Among all kinds of stuff I tell Andrew about my plans for what manifests into act two of Dossier and Not!
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