My parents' visit continued on Friday with an early-morning start, a Grand Central departure for Beacon, New York. Dia: Beacon is a marvelous one-year-old museum--a sprawling old factory space, filled (or rather, barely filled) with minimalist art. Spare art in a spare space nestled in the gorgeous Hudson River Valley. In fact, the train trip up the Hudson is one of the most beautiful parts of a day at Dia. My favorites inside the museum are the Fred Sandback string sculptures--these wonderfully weird string installations that play with your head by dividing up the space visually without actually dividing it up physically; and the Richard Serra torqued pieces--vertiginous ellipses and spirals made of thick curving steel. In one of the Serra pieces there's a moment as you walk through it where an opening to a cavernous black space seems to appear--but you reach out to put your hand into that darkness and it hits the steel about six inches from your body--a thrilling, dizzying illusion.

Friday night, back in the city, we joined the tourists in Times Square for a traditional evening of theater, namely the current Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. I am happy to report that we were all thrilled with the show. I always go to Broadway shows with the lowest of expectations, as I've been less than thrilled with so many productions, especially revivals of great shows like Fiddler (the recent production of Kiss Me Kate comes to mind--great show, lifeless production). But the new Fiddler is wonderful. I thought everything about it worked just right. The acting and directing were really strong. I liked Alfred Molina's take on Tevye because he underplayed it in certain spots where you expect Zero Mostel to come bounding out of him. And you could still see Jerome Robbins in the dancing, thank god. Even the weaker songs ("Wonder of Wonders") were successful. The audience was rowdy and fun-loving which made it even more fun.

We went to dinner at Blue Fin afterward. I love it there. We had four kinds of oysters, three pieces of sashimi, and gin martinis to start. Then Mom had sea bass, Dad had halibut, and I had snapper. Everything was fresh and delicious. After dinner we strolled slowly through a trafficless Times Square (they were setting up for a race the next day), and I walked my folks back to their hotel.

Saturday was another day focused on food (that happens a lot in this family!). We had brunch with some friends, including my cousins and my niece & nephew. Greek brunch at Pylos again. Then it was out to Brooklyn for Damion and Bryan's annual Kentucky Derby party. I ate fried chicken, corn fritters, corn pudding, collared greens, red velvet cake and many (too many) mint juleps, which I was in charge of making. There was so much food it was obvious Paula was involved in the preparation, even though she wasn't there (she had to work). I didn't win the pool of money for the race (thanks a lot, Master David, you losing horse).

When the party wound down we found ourselves in a caravan of cars heading to the Brooklyn Museum for their "First Saturday" of the month party. What an interesting event! The museum stayed open to 11pm, with all the galleries open and free to the public, and in their big hall in the middle of the museum there was dancing. The museum was filled with the most diverse group of people I may have ever seen, from hipsters to young families. We didn't stay long, but I was happy to see it.

Sunday came and went quickly. I had breakfast with my parents before packing them off in a cab to LaGuardia, and then I wandered the city with Paula for a while. I was supposed to go to a concert at Columbia University at 8pm, but I took an accidental nap and didn't wake up until 8.30pm.

And now it's Monday. And raining. So I guess that means I have to go to work.