Love Minus Zero

On to Vienna

2012-01-27T14:00:00.005-05:00

Just because I'm on a roll - here are some more shots from the trip to Central Europe last fall.

Vienna was astonishing. Every bit as impressive as Prague (or any city I've been in, really) but in a completely different way. If Prague has a rather anarchic spirit, the spirit of Vienna is, well, archic. It's history as an imperial city is evident everywhere. It has to be the most follow-the-rules, law-and-order place I've ever been. Never have I received such stoney glares for jaywalking. Cory made the mistake of going out the in door at a supermarket and the manager literally ran across the store screaming at her. In German, of course. Disconcerting.

But it was a gorgeous, stunning place. A living monument to music, both literally in terms of the concert halls, opera houses, statues, etc., and figuratively as a historical capital of composition and musicianship. It's long and, um, complicated history is on display in all corners as well. The food was great, and copious. We dove as deep as we could in two days into the city's offerings of architecture and visual art: Klimt and Schiele, the Belevedere, the Secession (holy sh*t the Secession!) the Leopold.

Although we didn't stay with them, we had the great fortune to have a couple of friends to help show us around. Ellen, a filmmaker and producer whom Cory knows from the dance world, helped us book our hotel (a great hotel! We had a super room with a balcony and they served a really good breakfast!) at a discounted rate, had a couple meals with us and went on some long walks with us. Her husband Rudi, a lighting designer and technician, got us into a performance of Woyzeck, in German but with music sung in English by The Tiger Lillies. (One of the best quotes of the trip came from Ellen: "If anyone had told me I'd marry an Austrian, a non-Jewish Austrian, and live half the year in Vienna, I'd have said they were out of their minds") It was Rosh Hashanah, so Ellen took us to the kosher bakery to get challah and we talked theater on the walk back.

Let me mention at this point that pretty much the only exception to completely sunny days on our entire trip happened the morning we took the really early train from Prague to Vienna - which just meant that I got to see the sunrise through the mist while listening to Mahler. Don't know how we managed that kind of luck...

The Ghost of Times Square Past

2012-01-25T15:09:00.003-05:00

I am not a 'good old days' advocate (and I don't know that this would qualify for that at any rate) but I do sometimes miss this version of 42nd Street.

Ave Atque Vale Václav Havel

2012-01-23T22:05:00.005-05:00

I haven't yet written a proper eulogy for Václav Havel. Well, I'll never write a proper eulogy for him, but I want to write something from my point of view. He certainly was a personal hero of mine, which puts me in broad company. He was, of course, brilliant across an entire spectrum: writer, philosopher, activist, playwright, politician, theorist, statesman, artist. I guess I must have first heard of him in the late 80s, just before the Velvet Revolution was getting ready to happen. I'm sure the first play of his I ever saw was Audience, a brilliant and powerful one-act based in part on a time in Havel's life when the Communist regime forced him into line work at a brewery, and one of the first Off-Broadway shows I ever saw, back when I was just visiting the City from time to time, before I moved here.

He got a lot of press in the late 80s and early 90s, going from being a dissident who was never far from the threat of arrest, if not actually in prison, to being the President of the country whose leadership he'd helped to topple. Before I became aware of Havel and the Velvet Revolution, what did I know from Czech? I'd knew what Czechoslovakia was, of course, but only in those broad (and often only semi-true) strokes that a Midwesterner was likely to encounter: as a child I had general awareness that it was part of the Communist Bloc and therefore somehow vaguely evil, or at least repressive.

I later learned that it had been the first nation that the Nazis invaded and annexed against its will, but this was not to be confused with fleshed-out knowledge - again, just a vague sense of a place suffering from victimhood: it was a place lumped in with places like Poland that Hitler took over and where he built concentration camps; and then lumped in with Romania, Yugoslavia and, again, Poland as a place under the Soviets' thumb that tended to produce athletes who were successful in Olympic Games.

And then when I was old enough to watch Stripes, I got to see Czechoslovakia as the place that Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and company invade accidentally while on a joyride in the Urban Assault Vehicle they borrowed from Uncle Sam, and got to take misguided pride in the exchange (paraphrasing now)

Bill Murray: "It's not like we're going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia! It's like driving intoWisconsin!!"

Harold Ramis: "Yeah? I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once!"

Funny? Sure. But not much of a lesson in history or international relations.

Then college happened, and Czech got more real. Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera, Milos Forman. And Václav Havel and 1989.

Thanks to our trip to Prague in the fall, and especially to the time we spent with Ondrej, we got some more personal insights into Havel and the Velvet Revolution. Saw the café where he met and drank and smoked with other dissidents and writers; of course we went to Wenceslas Square (in Czech, "Václavské Námesti, Václav being the original Czech word for Wenceslas), but it meant a lot more hearing from our tour guide Jakob the story of the body of the 'dead student' that helped to intensify public support for the revolution (and learning that the guy was neither dead nor a student, but actually a member of the secret police who never explained why he did it), and hearing from Ondrej first hand about his going to the protest as a boy with his father, both of them rattling keys - as in the Keys to the Castle, as in "Václav to the Castle," the cry of the people who filled the square and fueled the transition.

Havel had been seriously ill for some time, but it was still a profound loss when he succumbed to cancer at 75. But I don't want to be too morbid in my mourning. I'll post the last couple photo-montages from our Prague trip and leave it at that for now.

What There Was...

2012-01-16T22:45:00.008-05:00

...in terms of food.

Shrimp and Grits (with bleu cheese and gorgonzola)

A certain amount of roast beef.

Not pictured here are the sweet potato soup, the Yassa garbanzo beans, or the collard greens.

For dessert, the old standards: mom's peanut brittle, bûche de noël, peanut blossom cookies.

Here's the bûche after the evening got the better of it. Looking a little tired in this photo, but it was pretty damn good, if I may say so myself.

Three Things

2011-12-28T14:40:00.004-05:00

No, I have not yet commented on the loss of Vaclav Havel here. That will come soon, and I'll post another slide show video when I do it.

For today, here are three things:

1. All hail Helen Frankenthaler, explosive Abstract Expressionist Extraordinaire.

2. Ave atque vale Sam Rivers, Loft Jazz Maestro.

3. Yet another way of demonstrating that there are many more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy.

Holiday Festivities

2011-12-27T14:48:00.003-05:00

Are you rockin' the Holiday action? I know you are.

Quick rundown of some of what's been going on:

Hanukkah Nights 2 and 7 were spent with Yo La Tengo - great shows, natch. Please send lots of good healing mojo to Ira the K.

Christmas Eve in Dumont with Cory cooking and eating the Feast of the Seven Fishes with Cory's Italian Family. All went well in spite of a small, shall we say, disagreement with a can opener.

Christmas morning I woke up way too early and couldn't fall back asleep for a long time, so I watched the last hour and a half of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Of course I did.

Later on, after waking up for real and having some steak and eggs (for some reason, I was craving a cowboy's breakfast) I called the folks and the grandfolks and then it was out to Paramus for Christmas presents and dinner with Cory's Extended Italian Family. Jollity ensued.

Boxing Day was chill; bit of running around looking for a place serving brunch food in the 'boken on a day that wasn't technically a weekend day but sure felt like one. Wound up at the diner. Later on, caught War Horse at the cinema up the street from BoHome before going to Maxwell's for dinner and the show.

And now it's back to work. I'll leave you with this holiday message from the world of Pop.

If my eyes and the internets don't deceive me, this is a poster from 1972 wishing "Season's Greetings from Ardent Records" We can only hope it's the real thing.

More Prague

2011-12-12T23:15:00.003-05:00

Here is another set of Prague pix. Went with some funkier music this time around, partly because, irrespective of the fact that this city is wildly historical, jam-packed with churches and has beauty from every age anywhere you turn, it doesn't take itself terribly seriously and has a long and proud party tradition. (And an extremely powerful connection to rock and pop music. Seriously. Did you see Tom Stoppard's Rock and Roll? Were you aware that Vaclav Havel proposed Frank Zappa to be the official U.S. cultural envoy in the early '90s?)

But mostly I went with the funkitude because our hosts Kristin and Ondrej like the music. Take a look and listen if you have a spare 6 minutes.

Heard from Kristin the other day, after the first slide show went up. As it happened, and very apropos my post earlier this month, she had been to a couple of events where the Dalai Lama was speaking that day. (She's a pretty amazing person and does some pretty amazing things on a regular basis. In case that wasn't already clear.) She shared what she found to be the most interesting thing he had to say: "Action is more important than prayer or wishful thinking."

Amen, sister.

The shots in this viddy are from our second day in Prague. The Eiffel Tower looking thing that starts you off is the Petrin tower, built two years after Eiffel did his thing in Paris and it's the same altitude - if you factor in the mountain it's standing on. Many of the opening shots are from the top of that tower, and there are also a bunch from a tour of the Prague Castle, including the Valdstein/Wallenstein Gardens, the Loretta and Capuchin Monestery (home of some truly astounding beer - in a world where excellent beer flows freely), more locations from the Amadeus shoot (look - there's the exterior for Wolfy and Stanzie's apartment!) and our own private wanderings. Enjoy.

Prague Pix

2011-12-07T20:08:00.009-05:00

Ok, much later than I'd expected, but here at long last is some visual and sonic stimulation from our trip to Prague. This little project is set to music, so you can't go through it at your own pace. Live with it.

Prague from nycmick on Vimeo.

This starts with a mini sort of 'greatest hits' montage, and then follows with introductions of the major players in our trip: Kristin, Jasmine, Zach, Ondrej, and of course Cory. Then it goes to images from our first day there, all to the strains of the overture to Magic Flute, played by the Vienna Philharmonic (thanks, Vienna Philharmonic!) Because as you know, Mozart lived much of his adult life in Vienna, and found one of his most receptive audiences in Prague, enjoying some of his greatest successes there. And you probably also are aware that the Amadeus film was shot in Prague. But you may not realize that we went to see The Magic Flute while we were there, in the very theater where Don Giovanni had its first performance ever (and where, not for nothing, they filmed most of the Opera scenes in Amadeus - fun!)

If you don't want to spend 7 minutes on it, just fast forward through it. You won't get to appreciate my attempt at meaningful synchronization, but you can still see the pix.

[Ok. I took away the upload and am now just embedding from Vimeo. The resolution is better (though still not as good as I'd like) so it looks ok either small or in full screen, and the synch problem is fixed. Whew! Enjoy.]

There Goes the Neighborhood

2011-12-06T11:26:00.006-05:00

Ok, I might not agree with every single one of these "reasons," but check out an interesting list of infobits about one Mr. Fred Rogers, courtesy the good people at Project Argus.

15 Reasons Mister Rogers Was the Best Neighbor Ever

1. Even Koko the Gorilla Loved Him
Most people have heard of Koko, the Stanford-educated gorilla who could speak about 1000 words in American Sign Language, and understand about 2000 in English. What most people don’t know, however, is that Koko was an avid Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fan. As Esquire reported, when Fred Rogers took a trip out to meet Koko for his show, not only did she immediately wrap her arms around him and embrace him, she did what she’d always seen him do onscreen: she proceeded to take his shoes off!

2. He Made Thieves Think Twice
According to a TV Guide profile, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”

3. He Watched His Figure to the Pound
In covering Rogers’ daily routine (waking up at 5; praying for a few hours for all of his friends and family; studying; writing, making calls and reaching out to every fan who took the time to write him; going for a morning swim; getting on a scale; then really starting his day), writer Tom Junod explained that Mr. Rogers weighed in at exactly 143 pounds every day for the last 30 years of his life. He didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t eat the flesh of any animals, and was extremely disciplined in his daily routine. And while I’m not sure if any of that was because he’d mostly grown up a chubby, single child, Junod points out that Rogers found beauty in the number 143. According to the piece, Rogers came “to see that number as a gift… because, as he says, “the number 143 means ‘I love you.’ It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say ‘love’ and three letters to say ‘you.’ One hundred and forty-three.”

4. He Saved Both Public Television and the VCR
Strange but true. When the government wanted to cut Public Television funds in 1969, the relatively unknown Mister Rogers went to Washington. Almost straight out of a Capra film, his 5-6 minute testimony on how TV had the potential to give kids hope and create more productive citizens was so simple but passionate that even the most gruff politicians were charmed. While the budget should have been cut, the funding instead jumped from $9 to $22 million. Rogers also spoke to Congress, and swayed senators into voting to allow VCR’s to record television shows from the home. It was a cantankerous debate at the time, but his argument was that recording a program like his allowed working parents to sit down with their children and watch shows as a family.

5. He Might Have Been the Most Tolerant American Ever
Mister Rogers seems to have been almost exactly the same off-screen as he was onscreen. As an ordained Presbyterian minister, and a man of tremendous faith, Mister Rogers preached tolerance first. Whenever he was asked to castigate non-Christians or gays for their differing beliefs, he would instead face them and say, with sincerity, “God loves you just the way you are.” Often this provoked ire from fundamentalists.

6. He Was Genuinely Curious About Others
Mister Rogers was known as one of the toughest interviews because he’d often befriend reporters, asking them tons of questions, taking pictures of them, compiling an album for them at the end of their time together, and calling them after to check in on them and hear about their families. He wasn’t concerned with himself, and genuinely loved hearing the life stories of others. Amazingly, it wasn’t just with reporters. Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life.

7. He Was Color-blind
Literally. He couldn’t see the color blue. Of course, he was also figuratively color-blind, as you probably guessed. As were his parents who took in a black foster child when Rogers was growing up.

8. He Could Make a Subway Car full of Strangers Sing
Once while rushing to a New York meeting, there were no cabs available, so Rogers and one of his colleagues hopped on the subway. Esquire reported that the car was filled with people, and they assumed they wouldn’t be noticed. But when the crowd spotted Rogers, they all simultaneously burst into song, chanting “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.” The result made Rogers smile wide.

9. He Got into TV Because He Hated TV.
The first time he turned one on, he saw people angrily throwing pies in each other’s faces. He immediately vowed to use the medium for better than that. Over the years he covered topics as varied as why kids shouldn’t be scared of a haircut, or the bathroom drain (because you won’t fit!), to divorce and war.

10. He Was an Ivy League Dropout.
Rogers moved from Dartmouth to Rollins College to pursue his studies in music.

11. He Composed all the Songs on the Show.
And over 200 tunes.

12. He Was a perfectionist, and Disliked Ad Libbing.
He felt he owed it to children to make sure every word on his show was thought out.

13. Michael Keaton Got His Start on the Show
As an assistant — helping puppeteer and operate the trolley.

14. Several Characters on the Show are Named for His Family.
Queen Sara is named after Rogers’ wife, and the postman Mr. McFeely is named for his maternal grandfather who always talked to him like an adult, and reminded young Fred that he made every day special just by being himself. Sound familiar? It was the same way Mister Rogers closed every show.

15. The Sweaters.
Every one of the cardigans he wore on the show had been hand-knit by his mother.

Seriously.

Celebrate

2011-11-23T13:10:00.002-05:00

In honor of Thanksgiving, which will see me with my family for the first time in a looooooong long time (since high school? Is that possible? I can't think of a time since then that I spent Thanksgiving with my blood relatives except for Freshman year of college, and that was when Dad came out to Boston to have Turkey Day bachelor-style):

And also in honor of Carrie, with whom I saw La Boheme last night, and who I think would approve:

2011-11-20T11:37:00.002-05:00

Today

2011-11-17T13:57:00.006-05:00

Happening now, after work, and, well, as long as it needs to.

Losing Control

2011-11-09T11:35:00.007-05:00

This year's election day was fairly anti-climactic in a lot of ways. No big national contests or anything. But there were a few important items if you were paying attention.

First, some of the good stuff:

The one that got the most press as far as I could tell was a ballot initiative in Mississippi that defined human life as beginning at 'fertilization.' Turns out that was a bridge too far even in a place so devoted to ending abortion, maybe because the wording could be interpreted as making certain forms of birth control illegal. And in vitro fertalization. And chemo for pregnant women. And forcing a woman to carry her rapist's baby might be too much even in Mississippi. And it was voted down.

Then, in Ohio, the voters decided it is actually not a very good idea to prohibit your public workers' unions from collective bargaining, and they rolled back a bill that had taken that right away from them. We can only hope that that trend catches some traction in Wisconsin, New Jersey, and other places dear to me.

But in a sad and upsetting turn of event in my own city, Hoboken had a disaster of a referendum, replete with the most demoralizing kind of municipal bullying and buying of political power.

The basic sitch: a landlords' lobbying group succeeded in getting the Hoboken City Council to pass an amendment to the Rent Control law in my city. It's not the worst amendment they could have come up with, but... one thing I think everyone should be able to agree on is that if a landlords' advocacy group supports an amendment, the amendment benefits landlords; and if a tenants' advocacy group opposes that amendment, the amendment benefits landlords. In this case, it would seem to benefit the mostly absentee landlords who have sponsored (some would say forced through, by means of the threat of an expensive class-action law suit) an amendment to weaken rent control protection in Hoboken, and at the very least make it easier for landlords to get away with bullying long-term residents into vacating their apartments so they can 'deliver vacant' (with raised rents, of course), and make it harder for tenants to fight back, while reducing the amount of time the tenants can take to figure out the best way to do it.

So a repeal of the amendment was put on the ballot as a referendum. I figured that putting this in the hands of the voters was a fairly decent way to put the matter to rest and stop the attempted erosion of tenants' rights. If you vote "yes," you support tenant's rights; if you vote "no," you support additional protection for landlords. Straightforward: it's your right to have either opinion and vote your convictions.

What stopped me in my tracks after I voted and sent me straight to my computer to write letters to local papers and websites was when I ran into an activist canvasing for "no" and when I asked her why, she said she was there to protect rent control, and had a pile of fliers that claimed as much (though the flier didn't do a very good job if you bothered to read it). Not only were they trying to make it easier for landlords to skirt rent control laws, they're trying to make it look like it's good for tenants. I probably shouldn't be surprised. It's even confusing how it was put on the ballot - all the dancing around with double negatives - if you want them NOT to change Rent Control, vote YES; if you DO want them to change Rent Control, vote NO.

Never was I so envious of my friends who have jobs that give them election day off. Never have I had such an impulse to make a homemade sign and wave it around in front of a polling place. I scarcely have to tell you the result of the vote: the amendment-supporting "NO" won. In a landslide.

I know that I spend a lot of my life and work in New York City, to the extent that my handle on this site is "nycmick," but I've been a proud Hoboken resident for enough years now that I feel no shame calling myself an LTR. But I feel a lot of shame around the way the city government and local media let this play out.

Reminded of a quote from Howard Zinn's You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train, appropriate to the situation, and even more so to what's happening around the Occupy movements.

The state and its police were not neutral referees. They were on the side of the rich and powerful. Free speech? Try it, and the police will be there with their horses, their clubs, their guns, to stop you. From that moment on, I was no longer a liberal, a believer in the self-correcting character of American democracy. I was a radical, believing that something fundamental was wrong in this country—something rotten at the root. The situation required not just a new President, or new laws, but an uprooting of the old order, the introduction of a new kind of society—cooperative, peaceful, egalitarian.

Take from that what you will.

Meanwhile, just to round out the day, here's something a PAC of Herman Cain supporters put up on their home page, but evidently took down quickly when people started to notice:

From A to Z

2011-11-07T15:15:00.002-05:00

Well, yeah. That's pretty much it.

Got this little compare-and-contrast from Mike Daisey, via his blog. Worth a look, as Mike's work always is.

Speaking of that, if you live anywhere near New York you should make a trip to the Public to see The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, Daisey's current monologue, which toggles back and forth among his personal history of semi-obsessive interaction with computers (especially Apple products), Steve Jobs' biography (which includes the rise-fall-and-rise of Apple, of course), and the progression of Apple's/America's involvement with electronics manufacturing in China, as viewed through the lense of Daisey's research visit to Shenzhen. It is amazing, alive, and astonishingly powerful. And it's been extended through December 4.

Seriously, go see it.

If you want to read up on the subject beforehand, there's plenty out there on the internets about the show and about the earlier incarnations that Daisey developed over the last year or so in various locations, none of it hard to track down. To give you a boost, here's the piece he wrote for the Times in the immediate wake of Jobs' death.

More Fun with Pythagorean Tuning

2011-11-02T16:04:00.003-04:00

Happy November, everybody.

I know I'm supposed to care about the romantic breakup of the dynamic pop stars behind She & Him and Death Cab for Cutie, but I'm sorry - I just don't. Oh wait. I'm not really that sorry.

On the other hand, check this out:

This little slice of amazing comes from Alexander Chen, who seems to be pretty handy in the musical/graphic ideas department. In a nutshell, he's created an 'impossible harp' where each line in this viddy represents a string that changes length to accomodate the frequency needed for each note in the first Prelude of the first Bach Cello Suite. 8 notes per phrase, ergo 8 lines - check out the link above for his discussion of the math behind string length and pitch, Pythagorean Tuning and the way Chen put this together.

Topics for Discussion

2011-10-24T15:21:00.003-04:00

Well, the Cherry Orchard has been chopped down.

Could this have been avoided? Or was it the inevitable result of the end of a pseudo-feudal aristocracy and the rise of market capitalism? Why or why not?

Discuss.

*Extra credit for references to Occupy (fill in your city's name here)

And Another Thing...

2011-10-18T16:57:00.003-04:00

I'm doing a production of The Cherry Orchard at the Theater at Schapiro Hall at Columbia U. this weekend. I have not been very vocal about it (or anything else, lately) in this forum, but it's been taking up quite a bit of my time. Here's a little promo viddy from the director, Katie Naka.

Email mydogluvsnuts@gmail.com for your free tix!

Irresistible

2011-10-18T16:41:00.003-04:00

If the internets are to be believed, this is a screen shot of Bill O'Reilly telling Tavis Smiley and Cornel West that Wall Street has committed no crime.

Stunt? Maybe. But - worth how many words?

We Have Returned

2011-10-03T22:35:00.006-04:00

A day and change later than we planned, and smarting from the delay, but happy, relatively healthy, and uninjured for all intents and purposes. And very much basking in the glow of one of the best trips ever.

Best. Trips. Ever.

And we could call it three trips in one, since we hit not only Prague, but Vienna too for a couple days, and Český Krumlov for an overnight. If you know me (and if you're reading this, you almost certainly do) it won't surprise you much to know that the trip was fairly arty, church-y, beer-y, and theatrical. I'll have a lot more to say about this soon (well, soon-ish) and plenty of images. But since I've been up for just about 22 hours now and went to a rehearsal immediately after I dropped my luggage off at home, for now I'll leave you with this shot, chosen at random from our week away

That would be the astrological clock in Old Town Square in Prague. Lots, lots more to come.

So, Then This Happened

2011-09-21T22:16:00.002-04:00

AS you might have surmised, the R.E.M. breakup remained on the forefront of my mind for much of the day. When I first got word, I shared the news with the people around me at work, and one guy said "Well, they are pretty... seasoned."

I stifled an outburst and mentioned that the Rolling Stones have a lot more 'seasoning' and they still entertain a crowd once in a while. The co-worker then said something to the effect of "In my opinion, the Rolling Stones should have pulled a Seinfeld years ago." Meaning that they would have been better off quitting at the top of their game (as R.E.M. appears to be trying to do) rather than dragging on.

Ok. Perhaps. I grant the possibility.

But that didn't really mitigate my mental breakdown when, a while later, another guy from the office came by and asked how I was doing. I said, "Well, R.E.M. broke up, so I'm a little shaken about that."

His response: "R.E.M.?! Man, that is past time! They were the 90s! I was all about them back then though. (singing) Jeremy's spoken..."

I have some regret that I was not able to restrain myself from grabbing my head in my hands and saying "Urggmmphhh! THAT'S PEARL JAM!!!" I was able to restrain myself from literally shouting that exclamation, but just barely.

When I told Cory this tale, she asked "Did that vein in your forehead bulge out?"

Yes. Yes, I believe it did.

I have, very clearly, lived too long.

That said, for today's listening list, I am through Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, and am now almost at the end of Lifes Rich Pageant. It's going to be like this for a while.

It's the End of the World

2011-09-21T16:11:00.004-04:00

Well, not really.

But evidently, it's the end of R.E.M.

photographer unknown

And I don't know how to feel.

Touches of Autumn

2011-09-15T10:30:00.003-04:00

There has been a lot of summer in the air (still so hot and humid!), but little flashes of fall have been peeking through.

Related topic: this Van Gogh painting of an almond tree in blossom clearly represents a springtime event, but the red background makes me think of autumn.

Discuss.

The Voice of Absurdity

2011-09-04T10:04:00.004-04:00

All right.

It seems there is no direct way to upload an audio file to this platform without using an online file storage site. In addition to increasing my desire to set up a proper website for myself, this has prompted me to go for the temporary fix of creating a video out of my audio voice over demo.

Please listen first (if you're inclined to listen) with your eyes closed or the screen blacked out or something, as the audio portion of this enterprise represents a bona fide effort. Then feel free to watch my little testament to the absurd.

And that's what I have to say about that.

Fun from the World of Audio

2011-09-02T16:28:00.003-04:00

Taking a break from working on a voiceover project (mostly involving putting together emails, demos and letters to send to agents - send good mojo to the casting gods!) to have lunch and bang out a post for your reading and listening pleasure.

First of all, Happy Birthday Chris Knox! I've written about him before here, and on the occasion of this, his not-quite-60th birthday, feel free to take a look at this article from Pitchfork which looks back at some music Chris enjoyed at 5-year intervals in his life.

And not only that, here's a pre-stroke video from a show that I don't remember existing called Recovery (I guess) that seems to have had The Fauves as its house band. (it did? shouldn't they have told us about this?) Chris' performance is superfab, and shows how much fun can happen when things go wrong.

As chance would have it, Jeff Mangum (who figured so prominently in the Chris Knox benefit last year) has been leaking some un-or-barely-released Neutral Milk Hotel tracks as teasers for the big boxed-set coming out later in the month. Click here to get a taste. Down on the right, to the side of Jeff's always-interesting curated playlist, is an unreleased version of Engine. The regular playlist is worth a listen too!

In case you're wondering what I'm listening to now as I do my thing in the Hoboken kitchen of random magic - we've got Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights going on, vaguely in anticipation of seeing Richard at Town Hall in October.

What I would love to do but have not figured out how to do is attach my VO Demo to this post without making it into a movie. Why should it be hard to share an audio file? Can anyone help with this?

Stay tuned for photos from the Vineyard. Meanwhile, happy long weekend, everybody!

Wait a Minute...

2011-09-01T00:26:00.003-04:00

"Echo" is still up in Madison Square Park. Not taken down two weeks ago, as it was scheduled to have been.

And I'm not disappointed by that circumstance, as I like the sculpture and I like the way it works into the park.

But... why must you lie to me, Mass Media? Why???

Goodnight Irene

2011-08-28T22:19:00.003-04:00

Easing out of what was a great week of vacation, capped by a very intense couple of days of travel and hurricane-fatigue.

We had a wedding to attend in Connecticut yesterday. And although it was a four hour drive (plus a ferry ride from Martha's Vineyard) to get there, we made the somewhat questionable decision to leave the reception early enough to get back in the car and bolt to New York before the really heavy stuff hit. That's right, we figured our best bet was to drive into Hurricane Irene, on the logic that we wouldn't be able to get through if we waited until today, and, well, we really wanted to get home.

In retrospect, it was the right call. The drive was hairy (lots of rain, roads already flooding, defogger overworked) although I have to say the traffic was lighter than I've ever seen on those roads. As in, scary empty on I684, the Hutch, the Saw Mill and the Hudson. As in, one of those spooky apocalypse movies "empty-but-for-other-crazy-people" empty.

Hoboken was closed off altogether - evacuated, cars off the streets (including the parking spaces), so that wasn't even an option. As it happened, we made it to Chelsea in a couple of medium-tense hours, got a parking spot for Lola on reliably high ground, unloaded and unpacked (including the four gallons of spring water we brought home from Massachusetts), filled the tub with water, made sure the flashlights were handy, and absorbed from TV and the internets all the reasons why we probably should have stayed away. We had considered staying with friends in New Paltz and just sticking it out until Monday - it's doubly good we didn't do that, since New Paltz actually seems to have been hit with at least as much flooding as New York.

Woke up to see the rain mostly gone but the wind still in full vigor. Laid low for a while, then went to Kelly's for a bad weather movie party. Exhausted now, and not sure if the trains will be back up tomorrow. Watching the VMAs for some reason and about to fall asleep. Kevin R. Free gets some points for pointing out via Twitter that pop culture itself jumped the shark. Take a moment to mull that with me.

And while I love what Anthony King tweeted about the storm ("If Steve Jobs was still CEO, iRene would have been HUGE.") if we're going to be disappointed that this storm wasn't more disastrous than it actually was, that's the kind of disappointment I can live with pretty easily.

Goodnight everybody.

His Goal in Life...

2011-08-13T17:24:00.006-04:00

...is to be an Echo, of course. (It's well known to all the visitors of Solid Sound.)

Which is also the name of the Jaume Plensa sculpture that's been gracing Madison Square Park for the last few months.

As in Echo and Narcissus. As in from the Greek myth of the beautiful nymph who is cursed to be able only to repeat what others say. Whose last day of residence in the park is tomorrow.

It's been a great sort of up-from-the-ground, "what's that?!" addition to the area, in my opinion. Little bit of mystery, little bit of mythology. If you haven't seen it and you're around, maybe run by and pay a visit.

And it's one of the corollaries of public art that it doesn't always get to stick around forever. And this Echo's farewell may not be as heartbreaking as the one she gave Narcissus, but it does mean that we won't be able to have this scene any more.

Or this one:

And with that, I give you a lovely little viddy of the song that gave this post its title. Enjoy.

Reveling in Excess

2011-08-07T21:29:00.010-04:00

That phrase has a couple different meanings for me this week. On a personal level, I've had a big week for music - made a visit to my local shop in Hoboken and got some fun stuff, including the Feelies new album (their first in just about forever), a really good Buddy Holly tribute album, a Peter Greenaway/Louis Andriessen opera that I haven't had a chance to listen to yet, and Volume 2 from the Baseball Project, just in time for the Sox/Yanks series.

Not only that, but I have been slowly but steadily collecting Bach music in various forms, well, forever, but in an intensified manner since reading Eric Siblin's The Cello Suites, which I recommend fiercely. Highest marks, for real.

And then the thing that made it borderline excessive was when I went back to my place a couple days later to find a package from my friend Scott in Rochester, who had texted me to let me know that he was sending me a thank you for a few CDs I'd sent him a long time ago. This "thank you" turned out to be an insane amount of music. I believe the technical term is "a sh*t ton." An embarrassment of riches (much of which I haven't heard in years, and plenty of which I have never heard at all). Had some fun exploring that, and will enjoy many more hours delving into this music.

So that's the good part, on a personal level.

But you couldn't be blamed for thinking that when I title a post "Reveling in Excess" in August of 2011 that I might be referring to some of the more depressing recent news items. That perhaps I was alluding to something like, oh, I don't know, the nonsense surrounding the recently-put-on-hold-but-hardly-put-to-rest debt ceiling debate; or the hit the U.S. credit rating took the other day; or the anemic nature of the "good news" about unemployment numbers; or the perverse-and-getting-worse disparity between the rich and poor in this country - the stat that seems to come up a lot lately mentions that the richest 400 people in America control more wealth than the poorest half of all Americans, i.e. more than 150 million people. [Read a fact check here by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, scarcely a liberal mouthpiece.] You'd think that the disconnect would get some real attention from people holding elected office in a time of serious financial crisis.

But it doesn't.

And you might have noticed an article this week about a distinct uptick in spending on high-end luxury items. Embarrassment of riches takes on a whole other meaning.

I will leave you for now with an excerpt from Drew Westen's very good opinion piece in today's Times. I encourage you to click on the link and read the whole story, but for this quote, Westen envisions Obama's Inauguration Day, in the wake of brutal political discord, questionable military policy, and especially the devastated economy. Here's what he thinks the American people wanted, or maybe even needed, to hear Obama say on that day:

“I know you’re scared and angry. Many of you have lost your jobs, your homes, your hope. This was a disaster, but it was not a natural disaster. It was made by Wall Street gamblers who speculated with your lives and futures. It was made by conservative extremists who told us that if we just eliminated regulations and rewarded greed and recklessness, it would all work out. But it didn’t work out. And it didn’t work out 80 years ago, when the same people sold our grandparents the same bill of goods, with the same results. But we learned something from our grandparents about how to fix it, and we will draw on their wisdom. We will restore business confidence the old-fashioned way: by putting money back in the pockets of working Americans by putting them back to work, and by restoring integrity to our financial markets and demanding it of those who want to run them. I can’t promise that we won’t make mistakes along the way. But I can promise you that they will be honest mistakes, and that your government has your back again."

Yeah, something like that would have been nice. It still would.

This Is a Public Service Announcement

2011-07-28T13:06:00.005-04:00

PSA that evidently has been running on television in Scotland.

I dare say this falls into the category of "Things the Scottish are doing right."

RIP AMY

2011-07-27T12:55:00.003-04:00

Posted in Michael Stipe's tumblog:

BOB WHITTAKER AND AMY WINEHOUSE OUTSIDE MY DRESSING ROOM
PHOTO BY DAVID BELISLE
POWER BUMMER

So, there you have it.

Down by the River

2011-07-25T19:31:00.009-04:00

Specifically, at the plaza outside the Winter Garden just behind the World Trade Center site, one of the venues of the River to River festival.

They had a great day of movement theater a couple weekends ago. The first of three acts was a singular dance ensemble from Australia called "Strange Fruit." While that name conjures dreadful acts from the American South as hauntingly related by Billie Holiday, this was, well, not that.

This was a troupe of three dancers who climbed atop 15-foot posts in colorful corsets, dramatic headdresses, pantaloons and stockings.

Then they hoisted up giant hoop skirts that Scarlet O'Hara could only have dreamed of.

The dancers struck poses and fixed the audience with expressions alternating among coy, coquettish and seductive.

And then, it got weird.

They dipped and swayed and swerved and defied both gravity and reason, at a pace somewhere between outer space and flying trapeze. Very dreamlike, very surreal.

I got some video that gives a sense of the act in motion, but technical difficulties prevent me from posting it (for now, anyway... Anybody know how to synch a Samsung Galaxy S loaded with Froyo to a Mac? I can't believe that that language makes sense to me. And it's annoying that knowing what it means doesn't help me solve the problem. Another chapter in the seemingly endless saga of upgrade frustration. But I digress.)

The rest of the performance was fab too - Michael Moschen up close and juggling-historical, and the Streb company performing Human Fountain, their interpretation of dancing waters brought to life with bodies, scaffold and some big ass mats. The River to River people encouraged us to grab footage (and if I had a better memory I'd know what hashtag to use when Tweeting about it), and I'll share what I got when I'm able to load the video.

OH! And while I'm still in the neighborhood of the subject of dramatic clothing: go see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met before it closes. The crowd is insane, but it's totally, completely, 100% worth it.

More Songs about History

2011-07-20T22:24:00.002-04:00

And while we're on the subject of videos, did you chance to catch this gem last night? Or on the interwebs. Very much worth a look and listen.

Gotta love the Roots. It's the law.

Oh, and you'll want to go see the Tribe Called Quest documentary, Beats, Rhymes and Life. I mean, unless you're opposed to music. And fun.

Paris through a Window

2011-07-20T21:03:00.006-04:00

Or a lens.

My friend over at Bionic Grin just had a little spell of Parisophilia, and by coincidence I came across a few viddies we took there last fall. Here are a couple from our first day there.

The first one shows the end of the demo we encountered upon our arrival:

And this shorter one was from close to the end of the evening on our walk home.

Nothing particularly special about either of them other than the memories. It's worth mentioning that in both cases the music you hear is live ambient sound, not something added afterward. Hope they feed the artiste within...

Ai Weiwei

2011-07-13T10:36:00.003-04:00

You've been following the Ai Weiwei story, right? Artist and dissident in China, detained under conditions somewhere between house arrest and imprisonment this spring, recently released (well, sort of; he's still under surveillance and under indictment and can't leave the country without permission) but under a gag order.

The news today is that Ai has accepted a lecturing post in Berlin. He'll go there if he can, but it depends on the Chinese officials permitting him to, unless he goes the full-on refugee/expat route and defects under cover of darkness or something. Which would be pretty out of character, I think.

Meanwhile here are some shots of Ai's beautiful sculpture series of the Chinese Zodiac figures that is by the fountain at the Plaza.

Here's to bold artists everywhere.

The Big Cry of the Heart

2011-06-20T12:56:00.005-04:00

I didn't realize that Clarence Clemons had died until I opened up my laptop yesterday morning and saw the news.

It was a gut punch like I haven't felt for a long time.

Even though the stroke that ultimately did him in came the Sunday before, so we had almost a week to hold our breath and send him all the mojo we could muster, Clarence's death was not, could not be something we were prepared for in any way. He'd been hurting, but he was still so vital, still harnessed vast forces of music and energy and all-but-universal good will. This wasn't right. This was altogether untenable. The Big Man does not succumb. A stroke does not bring down a forever young maker of saxophone magic. "His loss," as Bruce wrote in his beautiful tribute statement, "is immeasurable..."

There have already been some really nice pieces written, and hopefully the tributes will continue for a good long time. Cory and I had to run off to appointments yesterday - meals and meetings and rehearsals; and it was Father's Day, which rightly required phone calls free from mourning. But now I need to mourn, loud and long. Keening to the sky, a cri de coeur that can only aspire to match the wailing moans of loss, of longing, of desire, of joy, of triumph, of wordless uncategorizable feelings that poured from his horn so freely every time he raised it to his lips.

I love these shots, the top one by Peter Klaunzer with its straight ahead muscularity, and this one by Jeff Kravitz, with a halo around his black beret and the light piercing through. But I hope the Big Man won't mind if I close this with some un-rock-and-roll imagery. Already miss you so much.

Go the F*#k to Sleep

2011-06-16T11:24:00.005-04:00

Perhaps you've heard of Go the F#*k to Sleep, the new Not-Really-a-Children's-Book by Adam Mansbach & Ricardo Cortes. It's been getting more than a little media attention these days, and its press run has already crept up toward the half-million copies mark. Why? Because it's f*^king brilliant is why:

Mansbach, according to the official version of the story, was frustrated for the umpteenth time by the time and effort involved in getting his 2-year-old to go to sleep for the night, and posted on Fbook a joke to the effect of: "Be on the lookout for my forthcoming children's book, GO THE F%&K TO SLEEP." The reaction from his friends and fans (he was already an award-winning grown-up fiction writer) was so fiercely positive that he decided to write the book for real. He got himself an illustrator and, well, here we are: smash hit children's book that is utterly inappropriate for children, but all kinds of fantastic for adults.

And now, plug in your headphones and take a look at this little slice of amazingness - Werner Herzog (yes, the Werner Herzog) reading along with America's new favorite book.

After the bizarre media events of the last couple weeks (will there come a time when people look back and ask if we really spent all that time talking about a congressman's kinks when there was a war on? Sorry - three wars?) this just about made me weep tears of joy.

Advancements in Journalism

2011-06-08T14:32:00.006-04:00

Oh, there are so many things wrong with this, from an Oregon Daily Emerald review of Sasquatch!

Bob Mould, a forty-something with thinning hair and no other musical accompaniment, hit the stage first. He tore off a brisk 45-minute set, warming up the crowd with his electric, Ted Leo-esque sound. Although he wasn’t well-known, Mould has collaborated with Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Foo Fighters. The surging crowds, fresh off a full day in the sun, met him with equal intensity.

That someone who would write this would choose to (or be allowed to) go into rock journalism might be the wrongest thing of all. But really (really): minimal research (even a quick trip to the internets) would have at the very least allowed this guy to minimize the damage. It's just a student paper, but still...

Sigh...

While we're on the subject of music festivals, let me take this opportunity to raise a glass to Sherin, JP and Annie, and the other 78,997 people on their way to Bonnaroo this week!

And another glass, to continued journalistic excellence. And continued academic success.

Kitchen Therapy

2011-06-06T17:54:00.003-04:00

We can safely agree that whatever this is (and it isn't much) it is not a home-improvement blog. But I have been doing some work on Bohome, and so I thought I'd share some of that.

The most major and most recent project has been to re-do my kitchen floor. Now, lest you think that I'm handier than I am, let me hasten to add that by "re-do" what I mean is "put carpet tiles on." So we're talking about real work, but not the kind of thing you need to go to trade school to learn how do to.

Here's a shot of the bare floor once I got all the furniture off of it and gave it a good cleaning.

Doesn't look that bad in this shot, but if you've been to my place you know that these particular planks of hardwood bite back.

These photos come from my phone, so they're not up to snuff, but that little gouge in the wood gives you the beginning of an idea of how splinterrific that floor can be. After years of doing a very sad dance with my landlord(s), I finally accepted that this situation would not be handled by them, and would not take care of itself. So, with a lot of help and encouragement from Cory, I picked a place that sells good product and did some research and ordered samples and we went to the FLOR showroom in Soho and picked out colors. The tiles were delivered on Friday, and I got down to business.

Step one was to put down base lines. The instructions gave very detailed info on how to do this in a regular rectangular room with four even walls and corners. Guess what, folks: that ain't my kitchen.

I used the stone base of my (certifiably antiquated but lovely and very functional) oven as a guide for the base lines.

Then it's a question of taking stock and coming up with some design notions and color pattern ideas.

What's wonderful about these FLOR tiles is that you don't need to staple anything down, or even use adhesive on the actual floor; you just put some little sticky circles face up on your base line, and on strategic corners. I played around with form and function, weighting the areas where I do the most work with food (and therefore do the most spilling) with darker colors.

And here we go! New kitchen floor for the Bohome...

My main beef at this point is that there's an area in the entryway where the bottom of the door goes too close to the ground for even this thin carpeting to fit (a combination of an ancient, uneven floor, and door that could probably be stand a re-hanging.) After the fire a couple years ago, they put up metal doors on all our apartments, so I can't plane off the bottom edge; I just need to leave a little space uncovered. And I may cut some carpet to fill some of the nooks and crannies around the edges that are still bare for the time being. But all in all, I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Come on by for some barefootin' in the 'boken!

Long Weekend

2011-05-28T16:17:00.003-04:00

Beautiful day in New York today: hot, sunny, mimosa-worthy; kind of perfect for what is treated as the unmeteorological-yet-quite-official First Weekend of Summer.

Relaxing morning followed by a nice walk to brunch followed by a lingering and even nicer walk to run some errands and now we're back in Chelsea listening to Django Reinhardt and about to get ready for a Sweet 17 birthday party for one of Cory's clan.

Very sad to read about Gil Scott-Heron last night. He had a hard life in a lot of ways, but did some very good, very important work. Very happy to have shared some time on this earth with him.

For him and for the day, here are a couple shots of a sculpture in a park in San Francisco - called Ecstasy in its current incarnation, it's a repurposed and reclaimed piece that Karen Cusolito and Dan Das Mann originally did for a huge Burning Man project. Fortunate to have crossed paths with this beautiful work while it was out in public.

SF MoMA

2011-05-25T21:54:00.004-04:00

Happy Birthday Bob!

2011-05-24T11:33:00.003-04:00

And not just that, but happy 70th birthday to the singing cowboy who wrote the number that gives this blog its name. Very exciting, and there are some good events to honor the occasion.

First, and most immediately I suppose, is that WBAI is devoting the whole day to archival interviews, studio sessions, and Dylan-related audio artifacts. You can listen to 99.5 FM or stream by clicking the link above. It's their semi-annual beg-a-thon too, so be warned about that. Small price to pay. (Hey, a station's gotta make a living. Especially a station full of dissenters, most of whom volunteer their time.)

Film Forum is showing a couple flicks documenting the early days. Don't Look Back, the D.A. Pennebaker doc that's been around since '67, and Murray Lerner's The Other Side of the Mirror, which covers the performances at the Newport Folk Festival from '63-'65, but was just released in '007. They're playing through June 2, so don't delay too much if you want to catch them.

And, of course, there is no shortage of ways to celebrate online. Articles, editorials, shoutouts, discussions, suggestions, photo essays, tributes, and of course blog entries...

Have at it!

R.E.M. Sleep

2011-05-17T09:54:00.003-04:00

First of all, a shoutout to Carrie for getting through finals; and a special shoutout to Sherin who is somewhere in the final stages of her Master's (so thoroughly embedded in research and writing that I don't even know exactly what's left for her, but I know she's nearing the finish line, if not yet across it).

And so here's a testament to one of the presumed, if elusive, rewards of getting through grad school, which is also a nod to the screening/talk with Michael Stipe (about the very cool short 'films' curated by Stipe to accompany the songs on Collapse Into Now) Cory and I went to a couple weeks ago.

Long Pause

2011-05-16T18:53:00.004-04:00

SO - this is the most out of it I've been since I started this thing. I think.

I was out for a variety of reasons, including travel, work, ennui and inertia. Then I started and restarted responses to the responses to Bin Laden's death, but didn't want to go with any of them. Suffice to say that I am not among those who feel that the event was a good excuse for a Frat Party/Girls Gone Wild moment, nor a mediathon around that reaction.

With that, here's a quotation from MLK, a few photos from his memorial in San Fran, and then we'll get back to it.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. … Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Check out the Freedom Riders documentary on American Experience tonight, if you have a moment. We caught a preview screening and talk a while back - it's very worthwhile.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Variation on the Magic

2011-04-05T19:22:00.010-04:00

Tried an experiment with iTunes today - turned out to be worth mentioning. Sort of a key word variation on the ol' Magic 8pod.

I was reading some article that referred to the R.E.M. cover of the Wire song "Strange" which made me want to listen to it, which sent me to the computer (and of course that's a whole other box of wine), which gave me an idea: what would come up if I searched for the word "strange" on the music library that happens to be loaded on the hard drive on this particular day?

Funny you should ask.

Fugazi - Strangelight
Duke Ellington - Strange Feeling
Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra - Isn't Love The Strangest Thing?
Johnny Cash - Come In, Stranger
David Byrne - Strange Ritual
R.E.M. - Strange (this of course being the song that led me down the rabbit hole)
The Smithereens - Strangers When We Meet
Leonard Cohen - The Stranger Song
Beck - Strange Apparition
Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar cast album) - What's The Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying
Jeff Buckley - I Woke Up In A Strange Place
U2 - Stranger in a Strange Land
Prince - beautiful strange
Prince - Strange But True
Prince - Strange Relationship [it bears mentioning that this list is sorted by album, not artist, and yet three Prince songs from three different albums end up adjacent.)
Yo La Tengo - Mr. Ameche Plays The Stranger
The Everly Brothers - Love Is Strange
The Magnetic Fields - Strange Eyes

There's some potential in this, wouldn't you say? Get in a mood, and see where your tunes take you. Put in a word and see what pops up.

Strange days, indeed...

Saturday in the Park with George

2011-04-04T15:04:00.005-04:00

Ok, first things first: today is Cory's birthday. That is momentous, and I think you should take a moment to acknowledge the awesomeness of the occasion. Perhaps light a candle and sing a song. Or something. Something juicy.

Cory came up with the title for this post. You see, as part of her birthday celebration, she got a girls' day and night with our friends from last year's birthday day out. They took a trip to the outlet malls, and while that sort of sounds like punishment to me, they actually planned the whole thing out and were looking forward to it and everything.

One thing Kristin did ask of me was to look after her dog George for the day. "Ummm... ok!"

I mean!

So they came to Chelsea and dropped off George, then took off to Woodbury Common. And George and I got a day together. I'd send them little phone photos with text updates: "George at brunch" (I took him to brunch. No, I didn't feed him from the table.) "George finds the chair." "George finds the couch." "George finds my lap."

It was a ridiculous amount of fun.

And after brunch, and walking through the Village, and listening to part of an opera, and watching a movie together, we decided to go to the dog park in Madison Square.

See, this is life. One day: no fun. Another day: So much fun!

I could go on, but for now, here's a little photo essay of George's interaction with a Weimaraner puppy at the dog run. It's a little scary at first, but it gets better...

See? You think he's in trouble, don't you?

Total stand off.

But many things can be resolved with a little bit of sniffing.

Followed by a little more sniffing.

Those kids are going to get along just fine.

And that's how a bill becomes a law!

There's more to share, but I have to get ready for the Big Birthday Dinner!!!!

Happy Opening Day!

2011-03-31T10:13:00.002-04:00

It's not feeling too springy, but it's the first day of the baseball season! Woo hoo!

Gotta tell you though, this kind of thing just feels weird and wrong.

Season of Tennessee

2011-03-28T20:09:00.006-04:00

Maybe you realize that Saturday was Tennessee Williams' 100 Birthday. Maybe you don't. The fact that it's an open question is something of a problem, in my view. This is one of those things that should be cause for a year-long celebration of National Pride, festivals on the White House lawn, parades in Memphis and New Orleans and New York, marathon readings and TV specials and Oscar-worthy biopics devoted to the life of this man, the Great American Dramatic Poet.

What we do have is a few more productions of Tennessee's shows. So that's, well, something.

Scott Brown wrote an article for New York Magazine a few weeks ago discussing Williams and the neglect his centenary is suffering. He does a pretty good job of opening up some of the issues that may have stood in the way of the celebration Tenn deserves, most especially this maddening sense that he stopped being good somewhere around 1961 and that the last 20 years of his life were just wasted, which pushes me around the bend a little bit. What do you people want? Even if it were true (which it is not) that everything after Night of the Iguana sucks, what would you have preferred? That Tenn had died in a James Dean-esque car crash so we could cast him in the Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die role? That perversion aside, I think that 'bad' Tennessee Williams is a little like the 'bad' Shakespeare plays and the 'bad' Dylan records - you may have to dig a little deeper and open up a little more, but I still don't want to live in a world without Titus Andronicus, or Saved. And in terms of history, the night is pretty young for Signore Williams. Just as people have come around on The Tempest (and, it's worth mentioning, have turned away from the Henry VI plays to a certain extent) I wouldn't be surprised if people learn how to see and hear Small Craft Warnings over time .

By the way, I didn't catch Vieux Carré (quelle domage! For reals. I'm borderline despondent to have missed that, but the tix were elusive.) but I did see the Michael Wilson-directed The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore at the Roundabout, and I may see it again. And so should you. 'Twas most worthy.

I have to include this last one, from the 1959 film of Suddenly Last Summer, for Elizabeth Taylor. We'll miss you, Liz.

Supermoon

2011-03-21T00:46:00.003-04:00

Lincoln Memorial, meet astronomical phenomenon.

Photo: Bill Ingalls. Nicely done, Bill.

Equinoctial

2011-03-20T13:26:00.003-04:00

Happy First Day of Spring, everybody!

So far, I've been celebrating by not even leaving the apartment, but that just seems wrong, so I'll shift gears soon. but first I wanted to say I hope you all had a good winter (as uncooperative as the weather tended to be) and that you're in good health (no small wish in this era of earthquakes and tsunamis and wars and floods).

This week was a full one, with networking and socializing on Monday, a kind of a night off on Tuesday, Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met on Wednesday (great! It's part of the HD broadcasts too, so you can catch it at a theater near you...), The Motherf**ker with the Hat on Thursday (which evening included dinner with a couple of my good friends who had somehow managed not to be in the same room with Cory until now), the Premier of the Mel & El webisodes at Ars Nova on Friday (featuring yours truly as a Mean Man, according to the credits; my bitchy gay character was rechristened by Kevin and Carl as one of the Mean Girls. I'll take the career boost.) and the Martha Graham Dance Company at Jazz at Lincoln Center last night (featuring the company of out-of-town guests from both Virginia and Italia)

Whew!

How do we do it? The secret is to sacrifice cleanliness.

Anyway, it's clearly time to change over the wallpaper photo on my phone from the snow-covered branches outside our window to something more printemps. I'll try to grab something this afternoon.

Night Off

2011-03-15T22:33:00.003-04:00

It's thunderous in Nuevo York. We just watched a viddy (Dream of Life) on our only night off this week, and now the thunder is raising a ruckus. We have to clean up from dinner before we crash - very good simple meal: brown rice pasta with red sauce with lots of garlic, onion and mushroom, green salad with mushrooms and kalamata olives, a surprisingly excellent sourdough, and some predictably excellent cheeses to round it out. Oh, and some a Wisconsin beer I've never had before called Eastside (don't know why, but it's kind of hard to get non-mass-produced Wisconsin beer out here). I also got us a bottle of acqua minerale because I've been thinking about Rome, in part because our Roman friends are coming to NYC in a couple days.

Anyway, it's good to have a night off sometimes. Rain will turn up as we sleep.

YLT on FMU

2011-03-06T17:22:00.005-05:00

You all know that I have a deep appreciation for Yo La Tengo. You'd have to be paying a little closer attention to realize that I also appreciate the awesomeness of East Orange's own WFMU. SO - it only makes sense that I throw them my greatest support when they get together to kick out the jams.

Which they did the other night as part of the annual (yes public radio listeners, just once a year!) fundraiser. YLT returned from their tour this year to play, as they've done for a good long time, a set of requests from people who donate to what might be the best free form radio station in the world, and is certainly the best one I've found in this or any other area. You may have enjoyed this event on the radio or online in the past, or perhaps you've sampled the sonic offerings as documented on the legendary (some might say anti-heroic) Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics.

We stayed in on a Friday night to listen. Well, ok, it's not the only reason we stayed in on a Friday night, but it was a factor. And we put our heads together to make our request (Cory had the singular inspiration to request Because the Night) and made our donation to a good cause and even watched along on the webcam for a while. Here's a screen shot of them taking on Patti and Bruce in their inimitable fashion:

No sign of Gil as far as we could tell, but there's Bruce Bennett helping out on guitar and knowledge of tunes common and obscure.

Superfun.

And now, to read Patti's book until I drift into oblivion.

Even yet still more birthdays

2011-03-03T19:48:00.002-05:00

"What?" you say, "Haven't we had enough of these incessant birthday celebrations you keep babbling about? Is nothing going on in the world besides celebrations of the day somebody happened to be born? Because, you know what? I think a few other things are going on!"

Yes, you may say that, and you'd have a point. But let's look at the data from another vantage: today is not simply the birthday of Ira Glass of This American Life. It's not just the birthday of actresses Miranda Richardson and Jessica Biel and the 100th birthday of Jean Harlow. It's not only the birthday of inventor Alexander Graham Bell and athletes Herschel Walker and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Nay - it is also the birthday (and not just any birthday, but his 13th birthday: that luckiest of numbers and his entree to the world of teenagedness) of my very own nephew Sam, who's way out in Phoenix and I won't be able to see him, but it's worth celebrating anyway, wouldn't you say?

Happy Birthday, Sister!

2011-02-27T15:48:00.004-05:00

In honor of what I hope is a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY for one of my favorite women - my sister Lori - here's an article from Gloria Steinem in today's Times Style Magazine. As reproductive rights, health care, and women's rights in general have been taking some punishment lately (that's putting it lightly) we can take some small comfort (while continuing the resistance to such hideous attempts) that the Senate and White House will surely stifle the attacks (right??) and that there is also some really good news out there in terms of women in politics and policy that should not be allowed to be buried under the depressing weight of "reality" TV.

I have some mixed feelings about the fact that this piece ended up in the Style Magazine, but no matter what ads surround it, this reminder is welcome and overdue. Thanks, Gloria.

Happy Birthday Lori!!

On Wisconsin

2011-02-24T21:02:00.004-05:00

This is a bizarre time. There is something very much like a full-on attack on women's rights and workers' rights going on in the U.S. right now, but there are some heartening developments: the Justice Department backing away from the "Defense of Marriage Act;" widespread popular resistance in Wisconsin. (though I have to ask, as I did in November - where well all y'all on Election Day when your brothers and sisters voted those union busters in?)

Not surprisingly, both trends are easier to spot if you peek a little bit beyond the mainstream media. Ladies and Gents, I love the Times in a bunch of ways, but it is now what it pretty much always has been: a tool of big business. It's just extra-special obvious these days.

I went to a rally by the FOX news building the other day to stand with my union in support of the workers. I was glad to be part of it, but it was kind of deflating too. A few hundred people doesn't seem like that many in a city of this size. And there's something downright sad about hearing a 'the workers united will never be defeated' chant fall apart in disunity (while on the other side the "FOX lies!" chant faded away, in spite of its accuracy).

So today I thought I'd share with you something I never thought would get any space in this forum: a link to community access TV in Madison. It's every bit as cheesy as you'd think it would be in some ways, but Wayne's World it ain't. There was just a live stream of Amy Goodman and Sharif Abdel Kouddous speaking at a theater near the Square; and citizens talking in church basements about the practical aspects and repercussions of limiting Medicaid, and the philosophies of Bob La Follette's is actually pretty cool to see.

The Empress of Sex

2011-02-17T12:44:00.006-05:00

That being the title of the play we performed (well, in staged reading form) with the Hive Theater company a few weeks ago in Times Square. It was, of course, somber tragedy. Oh wait, no: it was a sex comedy. A ridiculous sex comedy. I have described it thusly: "Sort of a live-in-person cross of The Hangover, No Strings Attached, Twelfth Night, and that cable series Spartacus. Maybe a dash of Porky's." Like I said, ridiculous. BUT - with some good writing, some good acting, some good music, and plenty of laughs, if I may say so myself.

It was very staged for a reading, so there was also some skin. One purpose of a staged reading is to get a sense of how a show might work in full production, and this is one of those shows that you really just won't be able to tell how it works if there isn't a certain amount of boobage. And butts. And simulated sex acts. Cory came with our friend Joe and they were sitting at about the 4th table back (this happened in a comedy club with cabaret-style seating). One of her comments was something along the lines of: "I didn't have a very good view of that part where you were on the floor surrounded by those three topless muses and you had all those boobs in your face. Yeah, I was ok with that." It was a big mess, but legitimately funny, I think, and quite a bit of fun for a bunch of people.

And no, I did not show any excess skin of my own. Probably for the best...

And Speaking of Birthdays...

2011-02-09T18:28:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was James Dean's 80th. Which is worth mentioning.

I don't know where this photo is from or what photographer to credit, but I love it.

And tomorrow is JP's b-day. And Laura Dern's. Pretty good company, friend.

More Fun with Economics

2011-02-08T14:26:00.003-05:00

Would it be curmudgeonly, in this era of Celebrating Reagan's Centennary, to remind people that his so-called Economic Theories were big steaming piles of (oh, let's be kind) error? I say 'so-called' to modify the word 'his' in that sentence, because I remain unconvinced that the Gipper himself ever did so much as pay attention through an extended, detailed economic discussion, much less come up with any actual theory, even one as elementally flawed as Trickle-Down. [He sure was good at selling those bullet points, though, wasn't he?] The term 'so-called' also applies to the word "theories" in that sentence too, because I think what we're talking about as far as Reaganomics is concernes is more of a Sales Pitch. Or maybe a Snow Job. Or a really really BIG Big Con.

You see, a real live scientific theory is based on logic, evidence and/or applicable principles, is proveable and repeatable. Trickle Down is based on made-up logic, has no evidence backing it up, and counts on specious principles involving an impulse among profit-driven corporations to share with each other and with the workforce out of the goodness of their hearts, or maybe some sense of patriotic responsibility. (I know, I know - but a lot of people bought it then, and buy it now.) And what's been proved, repeatedly, is that these sorts of policies lead, not to increased job creation, but to increased poverty, and to a big increase in the gap between rich and poor.

Along these lines, read this piece by Robert Reich. It doesn't mention our dear departed national treasure by name, but it does paint a picture of the indelicate balance between Reaganomics and what's starting to look like Obamanomics.

...I've been watching (and occasionally trying to deal with) the Chamber [of Commerce] for years, and all I know is it has a deep, abiding belief in cutting taxes on the wealthy, eroding regulations that constrain Wall Street, cutting back on rules that promote worker health and safety, getting rid of the minimum wage, repealing the new health-care law, fighting unions, cutting back Medicare and Social Security, reducing or eliminating corporate taxes, and, in general, taking the nation back to the days before the New Deal.

There's no secret to creating lots of jobs by reducing the median wage, slashing benefits, compromising health and safety at the workplace, and, effectively, reducing the standard of living of millions of Americans. We've been doing it for years.

Those people who consider this situation to be perhaps less-than-ideal should pay extra-special attention to policy developments that are presented as 'victories.'

And, oh yes, no disrespect meant toward the Great Communicator who restored everyone's faith in Democracy and made people Believe in America (all rights reserved) again. National Treasure, American Hero, God rest and keep him safe in Mary's bosom.

(Not much of an actor, though...)

Some Kind of Sunday

2011-02-05T16:52:00.005-05:00

Ok.

I have my Packers t-shirt.

I have my GO PACK GO sign.

I have all the fixings for a big vat of chili.

My friend (from Green Bay, no less) who is hosting the party is putting together a big spread of Wisconsin cheeses to make grilled cheese sandwiches.

There will be beer.

One of my best friends who is doing very well in acting is THERE in Dallas playing in a 'celebrity' flag football game and gets to go to The Game too.

That is all. Carry on.

Oh wait, one more thing:

Go Pack GO!!!!

from the "You Are F*%king KIDDING Me!" Files

2011-02-02T14:26:00.007-05:00

I suspect you've heard about the Bill (H.R. 3) introduced in Congress by Representative Chris Smith. (who represents my own state of New Jersey, which seems to be going out of its way these days to restore the grimy, punchline-worthy reputation it seemed on the verge just a teensy while ago of shedding.) This bill endeavors to limit further the already minuscule Federal funding for abortions, which currently is available in cases of rape, incest, and when the health of the mother is in grave danger. Perhaps the most controversial element of the bill is its insistence that the funds be available only in the case of 'forcible rape,' presumably removing coverage from date rape, drunk rape, drugged rape, statutory rape.

Excerpted from my open comments sent to my Representative (not Smith, fortunately) via the Move On petition drive:

What does Congressman Smith's bill even hope to accomplish? A show of opposition to abortion that would be laughable if it weren't so cruel? It approaches the very heights of cynicism; and I wish that the supporters of this legislation will each take on the experience of going up to an assault victim whose unwanted pregnancy would be 'protected' by this bill, and explain to her how what she has gone through wasn't 'really rape.'

Please oppose this bill, immediately and loudly.

Update: There has been a seemingly positive response from the Sponsors of this bill, (who have, I think it's fair to say, relented in the presence of strong and immediate public reaction). They have removed the qualifier 'forcible' from the 'rape exception.' But, to quote NARAL's Ted Miller: "I would caution agains saying this is a victory, because the other provisions in H.R. 3 are so bad."

Just so.

Goings On Around the World

2011-02-01T17:32:00.004-05:00

As the weather wreaks havoc nationwide, we are seeing some fascinating things globally. Tunisia has experienced a 'Jasmine Revolution' (well, some people are calling it that) resulted in the ousting of Ben-Ali; massive popular movement in Egypt has already produced a commitment from Hosni Mubarak that he will not seek office again (i.e. extend his term beyond thirty years) in September, and may yet result in his resignation; and we'll be hearing much about how social media is playing a part in other contested areas (and those 'contests' will continue to take a wide variety of forms).

There will also be many reports in the coming days about the high-end players behind the scenes who 'made this happen,' who spurred on the events via political channels and manipulation of social media. As all this happens, I think it will be fitting to remember Howard Zinn, who passed almost exactly a year ago, and how he continually reminded us that it is social movement that brings about change. Not that policy-makers, statesmen and important leaders don't play a part, but in the end it's pretty much always, without fail, popular movement that spurs meaningful change in a population.

So... what makes this ok?

2011-01-19T23:43:00.014-05:00

Credit my friend Joe for drawing my attention to the current Administration's "expanded interpretation" of the Public Safety Exception to Miranda Rights, the guidelines of which are being kept from the public.

The Obama administration has issued new guidance on use of the Miranda warning in interrogations of terrorism suspects, potentially chipping away at the rule that bars the government from using information in court if it was gathered before a suspect was informed of his right to remain silent and to an attorney.
But the Department of Justice is refusing to publicly release the guidance, with a spokesman describing it in an interview as an "internal document." So we don't know the administration's exact interpretation of Miranda, even though it may have significantly reshaped the way terrorism interrogations are conducted.

All I'm going to add right now is: if the President's last name was Bush, a lot of the people whose opinions I share would be going nuts and raising the roof in protest. I'm wondering what sort of fervor they'll whip up now?

More Hanukkah Miracles

2011-01-09T16:57:00.008-05:00

Hanukkah at Maxwell's is kind of an amazing time. Kind of really amazing. This is due, of course, to the annual residency of Yo La Tengo, musicians extraordinaire, and the volunteered time of a panoply of guest musicians and comedians, in a series of shows for the benefit of various worthy recipients of their largess. That's a long-winded way of saying that in most Decembers there are 8 incredible nights of music at Maxwell's courtesy of Hoboken's own.

I've written about these events here before. This year, we were fortunate enough to catch two of those shows. The first one for us - joined for the show and a Sunday Soul Food dinner by Sherin and Megan - was on the 5th night of Hanukkah, Sunday, Dec.5th - it was a loud one, with Mission of Burma and Wyatt Cenac as the special guests. MoB also loaned the soundboard skills of Bob Weston to the band for some rad loopage during the YLT set. It was a great show, and an education for me on what I thought I knew and should have known. Unfortunately, Ira cut himself above his eye at one point late in the evening, but he brushed it off as a bit of punk rock that he was willing to spill for the sake of the International Rescue Committee and Partners in Health.

As good as that show was (and it was) the one we saw two nights later after Hanukkah latkes was, if anything, even better: Bonnie Prince Billy, eyeliner and all, brought us home to our roots; and Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler provided a lively dose of anarchic hilarity (including a spasmodic horse ride through the wilderness of children's theater and a mixed-media extravaganza called The Taintalogues that defies description). We were so excited that at the break we went and got the night's mix CD, an instrumental journey put together by Georgia.

And then, as foretold in the prophesy, Nels Cline joined the dance for a set that was beyond the beyond.

Ok. So maybe it wasn't fulfillment of prophesy. But I think that we may have conjured this conjoining. Remember Solid Sound, from back in August? Well, I know I didn't write about it much, but on that weekend, as we reveled in Nels' work with Wilco, the Nels Cline Singers, and at his effects-pedal installation up in the galleries, we commented on how earth-shatteringly-awesome it would be if he and Ira were on stage together, how the resulting dueling guitar orgasms would result in unspeakable brilliance. Or madness. Or both. Well, some deity somewhere seems to have heard our call, because there they were, working together onstage a few feet in front of us. We may not deserve actual credit for the collaboration, but I'm ecstatic that we were there to reap the rewards.

It was one of those shows that started great, and just got better as it went along. Not only that, but the crowd somehow peeled away little by little until we were almost at the lip of the stage. And after a crazy good set with none of the bloodletting of Night 5, they played some Ramones songs for the encore and brought everybody back up to close things out with some Lou Reed. And, as if that weren't enough, Cory must have made some pretty substantial eye contact with Gil (YLT's indefatigable guitar tech), because he brought Nels Cline's setlist right over to her after the show.

A-MAZ-ING night. Ira and Georgia, if you're reading this for some reason, we want to have you over for dinner.

Portishead Said...

2011-01-06T11:02:00.003-05:00

On the subject of their album to be released this year, Portishead musician and producer Geoff Barrow has exuded the following:

“There will be NO free downloads There will be NO bonus tracks There will be NO remixes There will be NO hidden footage. There will be NO additional content There will be NO corporate partners There will be NO fashion lines There will be NO tabloid pictures. There will be NO £25 unit cost There will be NO streetteam There will be NO myspace There will be NO celeb producer There will be NO twitter There will be NO press/blogger gig There will be NO acoustic session There will be NO meet and greet There will be NO edited version. There will be NO iTunes only There will be NO press launch There will be NO asian version There will be NO radio friendly. Just music and us.”

Well. There that is.

Holly Daze

2011-01-05T16:15:00.002-05:00

Well, I've been fairly lousy at keeping up with this particular outlet recently. I didn't even bother to celebrate (or even notice) that my last post before this one was my 500th post. And I am NOT one to miss out on an opportunity to celebrate something.

That said, I have my excuses (there are always excuses). The holidays were busy as all get out; I had out of town guests of various shapes and sizes; there were social engagements at every turn; we had to go to Paramus; we had a blizzard; I was short-listed for a Nobel Prize; it was chaos!

I'll fill in some of the blanks in the coming days, but for now, here are some headlines:

Yo La Hanukkah - the annual Maxwell's 8-night orgasm of music and fun. We caught two of the shows: one was great, the other was unbelievably awesome
Real Hanukkah - fewer latkes this year, but we still brought out the celebration for the Festival of Lights
Alvin Ailey - I got to go to a few shows this City Center season, including by great good fortune both opening and closing night. Both were great, although Judith Jamison's farewell show was really over the top special and wonderful
Julie! And her family. We had pizza and saw Lombardi. Nice.
Davin! In town on a mission or three
Wedding in Westchester
Holiday music and movies - in both live and recorded form, it's an annual tradition and a half. This year's highlights included: the choral group Angelica on the UES; a Renegade Cabaret performance on 14th Street; Oy to the World, volume 13; The Bishop's Wife at Chome on Christmas Eve; Christmas in Connecticut with Kelly (at the beginning of the Blizzard!)
True Grit in Bkln w/Dominic
The Big Christmas Gathering
Black Swan with Susan & Daniel
The Big Parental Visit - delayed along with several thousand of our closest friends by the same Blizzard, but still very fun
New Year's Eve - Ailey for the folks, Patti Smith for us (along with Sue and Steve and Beth B.) A splendid time was had by all, in spite of some in-crowd obnoxiousness (did they forget what show they were at?)

So - there that is. I'm sure I'm forgetting some really important stuff. More to come...

Ask. Tell. It's cool.

2010-12-20T08:11:00.001-05:00

No, really. It's cool.

Nicely done.

Life in These United States

2010-12-15T19:00:00.003-05:00

Remember Bradley Manning?

No? He's the enlisted serviceman who was at the front of that other Wikileaks scandal, way back in May. Did you know that he's been incarcerated ever since? In fact, he's what the Army calls a "Maximum Custody Detainee," and he's been kept in "intensive solitary confinement" ever since.

This Glenn Greenwald article does a pretty good job of explaining (since, evidently, it needs to be explained) why it might not be a good idea to keep a person alone in a room 23 hours a day without allowing him so much as a pillow or the right to exercise. Especially a person who hasn't been convicted of anything. And is 22 years old.

Now, much of the world considers that level of solitary confinement a form of torture. Greenwald links to an Atul Gawande article you might have read last year that makes that case. (I remember reading it - scared the hell out of me then, and turns my blood cold now.)

To recap what's going on, if you'd like a summary: an enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army is alleged (but not convicted, it bears repeating) to have borne witness to a vast swath of classified documents revealing what appears to be a long long list of illegal and often horrific misdeeds on the part of the country he was serving. He then, according to the allegation, shared that documented evidence with the press in the form of the dreaded Wikileaks. Once the leak was traced back to him, he did not get a public hearing or trial (or even a private military hearing, as far as I know, though presumably one is pending) but rather was put into a brig in Kuwait for two months under the aforementioned brutal conditions (if you're not convinced of their brutality, please do read the Gawande article) before being transferred to a brig in Virginia. Where he remains. Under the same conditions.

Those conditions are perhaps not as extreme as those in the prison in Guantanamo Bay, or unacknowledged sites worldwide (well, unacknowledged except in memos like the ones leaked by Private Manning), although those prisons contain people accused of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism against the United States. That is to say, that's who we think those facilities contain - many of those prisoners haven't even been charged with anything, much less convicted.

Meanwhile, the President has been doing his darndest to extend a tax cut to the richest percent of American wage earners to the tune of 700 billion+ over the next couple years and calling it a victory because unemployment benefits might be extended. And standing idly by while the TSA sexes up security procedures in airports (yup, I kind of agree with the righties on this one - though I won't pretend it makes sense to me how the naked scanner is such a huge violation of civil rights while extraordinary rendition and warrantless, probable-cause-free stop-and-frisk city police procedures [for instance] are a-ok). And the job situation, well, that's not really a lot better. And, oh yeah, the war. And all those things that the leaks revealed presumably go on, business-as-usual.

Well, Mr. President, I'm just gonna come right out and say it: I'm not ok with this.

I know you have to work with Congress, that you don't have power simply to dictate policy (and I wouldn't want you to). I know you are brilliant, way smarter than I am; and charismatic, and persuasive, and an expert on Constitutional Law, and knowledgeable about how things work in domestic and international policy. But... I don't know what you're doing. I keep thinking you must have something up your sleeve, some ingenious plan that will be revealed over time. I keep waiting for you to pull that rabbit out of the hat.

But I can't wait forever.

And I guess I may as well remind you (and my Senators and Congressmen, and especially that ridiculous Governor) that I don't owe you my undying loyalty. Or even my vote. No one does.

30 Years On

2010-12-10T16:57:00.003-05:00

It's two days too late for this to be a timely post, but I stumbled on this and wanted to share it with you.

“Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City. John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the west side of New York City, the most famous perhaps of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back and rushed to Roosevelt Hospital. Dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash...”

—Howard Cosell announces the death of John Lennon during Monday Night Football, December 8, 1980.

Glancing Back

2010-12-07T17:30:00.008-05:00

Well, this one's behind the times...

Full spread included: pumpkin lentil soup (Joe); those collards drying up above (Cory & I); cranberry bread (Eric & Shirin); brussels sprouts (Deborah); quinoa (non) stuffing (Cory & I); bakery-fresh chardonnay bread (Eric & Shirin); cranberry sauce (Sherin); sweet potato rounds (Deborah); potato & onion casserole (Eric & Shirin); soy-sauce-and-honey-glazed turkey & gravy (Cory & I); cookies (Joe) and pumpkin mousse (Sherin) for dessert. And a bunch of stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting. Oh - and beer, wine and cider brought by all and sundry!

Oh, and here are Eric and Shirin, sitting pretty. There will be a player-to-be-named-later playing for that team come the new year! Mazel Tov, guys!

Arts (Non) Profiteers

2010-12-05T10:51:00.003-05:00

I guess that this viddy has been sweeping the internets in a wildfire-like rage. Have a view:

So you think you can non-profit? Be ready for lots of conversations like this. Lots.

You don't help sick African Children? That sounds like bad business practice. You should contact Gatorade.

This video comes via the good people at xtranormal. I think they're good. Or anyway, I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary yet. And I haven't used their service, but my understanding of it is that you go to their site once you've set up an account, pick character icons and a background, and input dialogue that you've composed (no fair putting in the "Are you talking to me?" monologue) and it will generate an animated scene. Pretty nifty.

There are some really good ones out there, including this one that struck a particular nerve for me in it's spot-on account of the ever-so-useful You should be on Broadway "advice."

Leakage

2010-12-01T16:55:00.005-05:00

Have you been following the most recent WikiScandal? I don't see how you can have completely avoided it.

Hand wringing, back-pedaling, and finger pointing all join up in the great new dance of the body parts.

Thanks (once again) to Mike Daisey for drawing my attention to this Slate article by Jack Shafer. Worth a peek.

"...the history of scandal in America is the history of institutions and individuals routinely surpassing our darkest assumptions of their perfidy."

It's a messy world. Worth holding the mirror up to it once in a while, wouldn't you say?

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be

2010-11-30T15:35:00.003-05:00

“People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are “The Advertisers” and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

F*ck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.” — Banksy

Thanksgiving Thoughts

2010-11-29T11:18:00.006-05:00

Being thankful for friends is one of the most fundamental forms of gratitude for me; my family of friends is an amazing source of support, and I can't believe how lucky I am to have them.

Family family is also something to be thankful for; mine dealt with a rough event last week, and have been going through a lot in general, but all are well, thankfully. Please send good mojo as they swing through another transition.

Health is one of those things it's important to keep in your conscious gratitude too - it's all too easy to take it for granted until it slips. I write this as I fight off a cold with a carving knife and a machete.

Last night I finally went down the rabbit hole to the world of fancy phones. And now I know what makes those birds so angry...

Kanye's new record may not be quite as good as all the hype, but it's pretty effin' good.

If you have a taste for theater, you should go see Mistakes Were Made at the Barrow Street. Seriously, it works on a bunch of levels, is funny as hell, and you won't see better acting very often than you'll get from Michael Shannon.

I'm thankful I live in New York. And New Jersey.

Video Shoot

2010-11-22T13:12:00.004-05:00

Remember Mel & El? From celebrations past?

Well these days, in addition to their monthly residency at Comix, they are shooting a Web Series about their ongoing musical attempts to save the world from tedium and stupidity. It's an uphill battle.

I started a full day yesterday by shooting a scene for one of their episodes. Without wanting to give away too much (these episodes are full of surprises) I'll say that I play an extremely high-powered doctor in high society. Yes, you should quake in my presence.

Well, in addition to my line (yes - line, singular. But that one line contains multitudes.) we engaged in some improvisation. Some of which went really well. But at one point we had an exchange that went something like this...

C: So what hospital do you work at?
Me: Grey's
B: (Supressing a laugh) Grey's??
C: Nice hospital...
Me: I mean Grace. Seattle Grace.
C: Oh yes, I've heard of that one.
B: You had some trouble there recently.
Me: Umm...
C: A pretty bad shoot up, I heard.
Me: Uhhhhh...
C: I guess you weren't there for that.
B: (supresses another laugh)
Me: Oh right. That. Yes. No. I wasn't there when that happened. They called me in to help with the aftermath.
C: I heard there's a fiery lady there who really stirs things up.
Me: ??
C: A black doctor, I think.
Me: Oh, yes. Chandra... something.
B: (cracks up)
C: (looks at me like I fell off the short bus for remedial
improvisers)

Ok, ok. This was a rehearsal, not a real take. So no harm, no foul. And, as I wrote, some of our other improvisation went quite well, and I think they may keep some of it.

But still... It was a little embarassing.

And I have actually watched Grey's Anatomy for the last couple seasons. I was thinking of Chandra Wilson, who is the actor who plays the doctor that C was referring to. Which is a thing I do (more real dialogue from my life - watching an episode last night: "Wait, who is Hunt?" Cory: "Owen. Head of Trauma." Me: "Right! Sandra Oh's husband.")

But the lesson here is - be ready for an improv at all times. If there's a camera around, it could be rolling. And once you've signed that release, they can use whatever you give them.

By the way, click here to check out Mel & El's Kickstarter campaign! It's a fun read, with lots of good video links, whether or not you can donate. (But of course I think you should give generously...)

More Heaven, More Details

2010-11-17T13:20:00.014-05:00

Getting tired of Paris? Hope not. Remember what Samuel Johnson said of London: "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life..." I figure that can be said about Paris too. (Not to belabor the Paris/London connection, but it's been bouncing around for centuries, after all.)

Still, we're on the home stretch as far as blogification of our visit. Today, we'll touch on a couple more churches.

On Sunday morning, we went to Mass at Saint-Sulpice. The second largest church in Paris (after you-know-what) it was built in the 17th and 18th centuries, damaged during the Revolution, and restored by a team that included Eugene Delacroix. It also has some renown as the spot where Charles Baudelaire and the Marquis de Sade (that famously observant Catholic) were baptised, and where Victor Hugo was married (hmm... I'd have thought it'd have been you-know-what for him). And a couple scenes of The Da Vinci Codetake place there, if that's your thing.

But we went there for the organ.

I'm not a total organ geek, but I'm getting there. And St. Sulpice is a pretty good place to get started on that track. The instrument itself was built by Aristide Cavaille-Coll and is considered one of the greatest masterpieces in the world (well, the world of pipe organs, anyway). The St. Sulpice organ is singular not just for its immensity but also for its versatility: the variety and scope of the sounds and timbres that can be produced by its 5 keyboards and 100+ stops allows the organ to be equally at home with the music of its native Romantic era and with Classical or Baroque music, and more than capable of handling Modern compositions as well.

Since Cavaille-Coll completed construction on the organ in 1862, there have been only 6 principal organists (including an entire century from 1870-1971 during which only 2, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré, held the post). Equally amazing is the fact that since the earliest organ was used at a church on this site, going back to some time in the 1500s, there have been only 16 principal organists.

These days, the title is held by Daniel Roth, who plays for two Masses each Sunday, and gives a 20-30 minute concert in the time between them. We went to the early service (but missed most of the prelude music because we were across the street having coffee) and stayed for the concert, natch. If you're really hardcore, you can go up to the organ loft for the second Mass and watch Daniel in action; we chose not to go that route, but it was a phenomenal experience, both musically and religious/theatrically.

I didn't take photos that day, so I'll let you hunt down images of l'eglise on your own if you like.

The next day (among other things) we paid a visit to Sainte-Chappelle. I've already mentioned that we caught a piano concert there on Friday evening; but this visit took some persistence to get past an overeager security guy. (But that's another box of wine.) It was also during the day, so we got to see the stained glass in all its glory.

The Rose Window

Here's the thing with Sainte-Chappelle: it's unbelievable. As in, it nearly defies belief. The facts about this church fall into the "truth is way stranger than fiction" category.

The Holy Family going to Nazareth

It's not that large. It really is 'just' a stone chapel (compared to, say, the Cathedral across the Île) though a very royal one, and an architectural and artistic wonder. The sanctuary walls are completely covered with stained glass: panels telling virtually every story from the bible, and a few "Go France!" type messages tucked in along the way.

This is some of the best of this kind of glass in the world; it's under restoration (which takes a long time, as you can imagine) and it's kind of tough to shoot, so have mercy on your humble photographer.

Knights and Pilgrims, doing their thing

Remember how long it took them to build Notre Dame? Couple hundred years. Know how many years it took to build this place? Fewer than 10. Thousands of panels of stained glass and all, and before the dawn of the 14th Century.

Priests and Sages discussing the design of the Girl Scout logo

The king in question was (Saint) Louis IX, who was one-of-a-kind: a peculiar mix of devout and suggestible. He loved the Church, loved the Pope, loved Jesus. LOVED them. Kind of went to crazytown in his enthusiasm, and spent vast fortunes on things like the "true" Crown of Thorns that Jesus wore at the Crucifixion, according to the account. Vast. Fortunes. Louis spent 135,000 livres (French currency of the era) in 1239 on that crown, convinced of its authenticity by Emporer Balwin II of Byzantium, who not coincidentally was also the guy who sold it to him. The king also bought a bunch of other relics, including a "Piece of the True Cross" (I know, I know) and over the next few years started construction on this church to house them all, dedicated to the glory of God, the Church, and France.

One of Herod's servants beheading John the Baptist, and wishing it was Louis IX

By the middle of 1248, the church was finished at a total cost of 40,000 livres. That's less than a third of the cost of the True Crown of Thorns to you and me, but still a princely sum. Well, kingly, in this case.

A bizarre initiation ritual for a Holy Roman Fraternity

All snarkiness aside, Sainte-Chappelle is a stunning place. And after all, Louis IX is far from the only head of state in history with a gullible streak. [I'll pause to let you reflect on that a moment...] And if you're going to misuse the public coffer, there are worse things you could do than build an incredibly gorgeous structure devoted to a supremely artistic account of religious texts and local history.

I'll leave you with a shot I took of the ceiling of the upper chapel. Placed the camera on the floor and set the remote timer so it could be perfectly still for a long exposure.

Wasn't counting on the surprise guest, but I'll call it a happy accident.

America (as seen in court)

2010-11-08T15:07:00.005-05:00

1944: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Igor Stravinsky.

Well, almost: Stravinsky was not arrested in Boston for writing an unconventional arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner, as online mythology would have it. However, his version of the National Anthem was Banned in Boston on the logic that he was "tampering with public property."

This mugshot, often conflated with the Anthem incident, would seem actually to be from some kind of visa application process. How he got banged up? That's a story I don't know, but would love to hear...

Oh Wisconsin

2010-11-03T10:51:00.001-04:00

How could you?

Tomorrow

2010-11-01T11:19:00.006-04:00

At risk of beating a proverbial dead horse: please vote tomorrow, y'all.

By way of encouragement, I'll just remind you that it's the simplest and most direct form of participation in a democracy, even one as lopsided and, well, semi-fictional as the one currently operating in the U.S.A. Oh, and you may want to remind your friends in other parts of the country to vote. (That would be the second most direct form of participation.)

And since we're here, I may as well link to a Frank Rich piece from the Times last weekend.

Karl Rove outed the Republican elites’ contempt for Tea Partiers in the campaign’s final stretch. Much as Barack Obama thought he was safe soliloquizing about angry white Middle Americans clinging to “guns or religion” at a San Francisco fund-raiser in 2008, so Rove now parades his disdain for the same constituency when speaking to the European press.

Now, that makes me insane. Not because it shines a light on politicians' hypocrisy (I consider that to be pretty much a constant). The thing that scratches my blackboard is that he refers to Obama 'soliloquizing' to those patrons, when everyone knows that a soliloquy happens when you're alone. This offends me as an actor even more than as an activist. Obama wasn't in soliloquy mode; he was addressing a crowd. You really are pretty safe soliloquizing, no matter what you say, unless maybe the room is bugged, or your uncle is hiding behind a curtain. That's the whole point of a soliloquy. Maybe not everyone knows that, but one person who really really should know is the guy who used to be the f*$king DRAMA CRITIC FOR THE NEW YORK F*#KING TIMES. That drives me out of my mind.

Ahem.

Back to the matter at hand, I will close with another useful illustration from Mr. Rich's otherwise worthwhile op-ed, which I do suggest you read.

For sure, the Republican elites found the Tea Party invaluable on the way to this Election Day. And not merely, as Huckabee has it, because they wanted its foot soldiers. What made the Tea Party most useful was that its loud populist message gave the G.O.P. just the cover it needed both to camouflage its corporate patrons and to rebrand itself as a party miraculously antithetical to the despised G.O.P. that gave us George W. Bush and record deficits only yesterday.

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and Wall Street Journal have been arduous in promoting and inflating Tea Party events and celebrities to this propagandistic end. The more the Tea Party looks as if it’s calling the shots in the G.O.P., the easier it is to distract attention from those who are actually calling them — namely, those who’ve cashed in and cashed out as ordinary Americans lost their jobs, homes and 401(k)’s.

Hope that all of you who went to D.C. for the rally had a great time! Go out there and vote, won't you please?

Heaven is in the Details

2010-10-21T14:53:00.023-04:00

Well, you knew this day was coming. This was a pretty churchy trip, and eventually we made it to the most famous Church of them all. (Well, other than that one in Rome.)

Notre Dame de Paris. Nearly 200 years in the making, many hundreds more as a gothic inspiration.

They say that heaven is in the details. Lately, I've taken that to mean that if you want to get to the crux of the thing, anything, look closer. See the big picture, sure, but keep looking until you see the things that go into it.

I would say that that approach works particularly well at a place like this cathedral. It has survived the Hugenots, the Revolution(s), Napoleon, the Commune, the Nazis and, well, just hundreds and hundreds of years. And it is Massive.

And awe-inspiring.

And ornate.

And see, just in these few images so far - the details start to emerge and tell a story that has more impact than what happens if you just go and get overwhelmed by this Big Huge Obligation of a Church. You notice the way the vast Rose window works from the outside, and you see the light pouring through it from the inside. You take in the Holy Mother ("Notre Dame" refers to her, after all) with her baby, flanked by angels in the front window. You might take a look at some of the other 36 (!) representations of her in and around the Cathedral. You look at the other figures sculpted into and onto the edifice.

And then you climb up to the top.

The way that happens is that you climb a bunch of stairs and then they make you wait in a holding area (which also serves as a gift shop, of course! They wouldn't want you to miss a chance to buy stuff.) until enough time has passed that some of the people already up there have gone back down, then you climb a whole BIG bunch of more stairs. We positioned ourselves so that we were at the front of the line when they opened up the door, so we wouldn't get caught behind any slowpokes, and Cory took the opportunity to charge up those steps. She seriously was on a mission. By the time we were about halfway up, it was she and I and one other guy who decided to keep up with us, and the rest of our group was way back behind.

And of course once we made it, Paris was there to greet us.

Sacre Coeur through the fog.

And the gargoyles were, if anything, even more amazing than I'd imagined.

Those of you who know your Gothic architecture (I, of course, am now an expert on Gothic architecture, having read at least two online articles and a few tourbook entries) realize that most of these guys are actually chimeras, rather than gargoyles (which are only properly so called when they function as water spouts) and that they were added as part of a 19th Century renovation.

What's incredible to me is how many individual treatments there are - each with its own character and, again, its depth of detail. This one may be the most famous, situated to greet you as you emerge from the stairs, and having been so often referenced in other art works. (Including, my nephew was quick to point out, The Simpsons.)

So many characters, each one unique. These are all full color photos, by the way (though that teaser from the earlier post was a B&W)

Now that you're fully involved in attending to details, you're surely wondering something along the lines of "Hey... wait a minute! If this was such a gray day, what's up with that blue sky and those cottony nuages in the establishing shot for this entry?"
Well, you caught me. We did stop by the Cathedral on two separate days. on Saturday, when it was bright and sunny, we took in the outside, and strolled through the sanctuary (that's also why the colors in the stained glass are so vibrant.) On the day we went to the top, Paris was muted by clouds.

Here are a few 'true gargoyles' from both days, with their functions as drain spouts still active.

One other thing before I go. Compare this last shot with the other two images of the most iconic chimera in this series (we'll call him "Moe") See how he changes depending on the light, on the juxtaposition with the other figures, or with the horizon and Sacre Coeur.

It's a pretty nifty world. Look closer.

2010-10-19T23:04:00.004-04:00

Back to that Saturday in Paris

2010-10-19T14:38:00.004-04:00

From the Opera House (remember the Opera House?) we made our way through the 1st Arrondisement (by way of the only disappointing meal we had the entire trip - I was so hungry and in need of caffeine by that point I allowed my judgment to slip and took Cory down with me. Sad. And we thought we were being so clever!) to feast on some art without a camera in tow.

L'Orangerie was the first stop. Stunning. Monet had a hand in the design and layout of the galleries of the upper level (where we concentrated our limited time there). An empty vestibule is situated there simply for the purpose of providing a moment of transition between the outside world and two very large oval rooms, each full of vast and justly iconic water lillies paintings. Monet's personal testament to peace, to the subtle and variable beauty of nature, to the silent center. It is a magnificent place, worthy of great respect, not to say reverence. You should go.

Walked through the Tuilleries to get to the grandest Musee of them all: the Louvre. Of course. We'd been there that first night - just walked through the corridor and heard a really good sax player and saw the pyramid and drank in the gorgeousness of the night. This was different. This was a full-on weekend day with buckets of tourists (including us) vying for a view. Now, the Louvre is too big to handle in a day. WAY too big. So we chose a few items of particular interest and saved the rest for another visit. Probably nothing you wouldn't also choose to see on your first visit: the Nike of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo, the Greek Friezes, the Mona Lisa.

SO - I will restrain myself to two things to say on the subject:

1) the Winged Victory/Nike is astounding. Truly awesome, in the sense of inspiring Awe. Powerful, amazing, alive. You can't get it from a picture. Trust me.

2) I may be the only person I know who was not disappointed by the Mona Lisa. This probably has to do with the fact that I've spent my whole life hearing people come back and talk about how small it is, and how disappointing it was, which led me to lower my expectations. Yes, the gallery was ridiculously crowded, and yes, it's behind this really think bulletproof glass and yes you have to stand several feet back. But even given all of that, I gotta say - this painting is kind of worth the hype. The photos do not do it justice, and neither do essays on sfumato. La Giaconda is quite the gal, and she's worth meeting in person.

But I will admit, I'd like to find a way to spend time with her away from the crowds...

What are you doing New Year's Eve?

2010-10-15T16:29:00.003-04:00

Am I a total dork for making my New Year’s Eve plans in October? Maybe so. But we’re going to see Patti Smith at the Bowery Ballroom, so I’ll live with your derision.

AND – as an added bonus: when I visited Patti’s website today just after buying our tickets, I noticed that she posted her own memorial for Joan Sutherland (and a Frenchified 'souvenance' at that). To add to Patti’s celebration of the numeracy of Joan passing on 10-10-10, I’ll add the personal touches that Cory and I went to Melanie and Damon’s wedding on that day, and that it was my grandfather’s birthday.

It’s well worth clicking on the Lucia di Lammermoor video that Patti embedded in her post.

Ave atque vale, and grosses bises, Dame Joan.

Backtracking

2010-10-15T13:07:00.006-04:00

Going back in time a bit...

After the Rodin Museum, we went to Musee d'Orsay, which was fantastic and incredible. Cory and I relied on some podcasts on this trip, and this was one of the places they came in handy. We didn't really have time to cover the whole place, so we let an online guide help us out. Some cheesy Rick Steves humor aside, it was useful to have some direction to streamline our visit, and the background information was rather good. Some of the info was outdated (floorplans/layouts evidently change with some frequency in Parisian museums) but that just gave us some small mysteries to solve. We communed with Degas and Renoir, Courbet and Cezanne, Daumier and Delacroix, Millet and Gaugin in this architectural wonder of a reclaimed railroad station. We got there too late in the day to get into what looked to be a pretty bitchin Van Gogh exhibition. But what the hell - you can't do everything.

Then we made our way to St. Chapelle where we were meeting friends for a piano concert. We had to wait on line outside for a bit longer than we'd thought, but that gave us the time to grab a quick cup of espresso from one of the friendly local establishments. (The Parisian's reputation for rudeness is not deserved, on the whole. Certainly no more so than in most of the places I've been.) St. Chapelle is gorgeous, with a fascinating history that I'll have more to say about later. Its beauty was very much muted by the evening darkness, but that helped to place a focus on the music. It was a concert of Chopin and Schumann solo piano works, in honor of this year being the 200th birthday for both composers. The pianist was Hugues Chabert, with whose work I must admit I was unfamiliar. It was a fine, intimate performance in a space that was sublime on a number of levels: accoustic, architectural. historical, aesthetic. And since I'm closer to worshipping music than any religious doctrine, let's go ahead and say it was a spiritual experience too.

As if that weren't enough, we then took a walk over to the Right Bank, where we sought a place to eat without the benefit of personal (or guidebook) recommendations, and settled on a no-frills but thoroughly delicious spot. I don't remember what Cory had*, but my duck confit was fab, and so was the Bordeaux that Johnathan picked out.

It was a pretty good day.

*Cory just reminded me that she had Quiche Lorraine. She enjoyed it. It felt very French.

Banksy Couch Gag

2010-10-13T16:44:00.005-04:00

This tidbit of the cautionary clever is not just my entr'acte to posts about Paris, but is also a spur to those of you who need a little reminder that now is not the time to be politically complaisant or defeatist.

Now is EXACTLY THE TIME to be active and vote-y and inspired and inspirational. Or else, like Al Jean says, the holes in all your DVDs will be punched out by sad unicorns.

And yes, you should feel free to have a discussion on the nature and purpose of FOX hiring - or at least allowing to be hired - a radical graffiti artist to design a 'subversive' title sequence (aimed squarely at itself) for one of the most prominent satirical voices of the last 2 decades, in the light of the world we live in today. Proceed.

For some more direct prodding, take a glance at this editorial, about a part of the country that is rather personal to me, and that historically knows better.

A Day at the Opera

2010-10-12T16:24:00.009-04:00

It seems only fitting that on the day we are mourning the very much beloved and sorely missed Joan Sutherland I take the opportunity to share some notes from our trip to the Garnier Opera House.

We had a long and fervent walk to the Opera House from our Hotel - there was no good Metro route, we weren't down with the buses at that point, and we sort of underestimated the distance. I slept in a bit more than usual that morning (can't really explain that - the wine? travel catching up with me?) and so we didn't get going as early as we'd have liked, and there was an English Language tour we wanted to make it for, so we really hoofed it to get there. No stopping for croissants, no stopping for cafe: not a recipe for a happy morning couple. But we made it just in time for the tour - only to find a huge long line extending onto the street.

Cory took the French approach and went in through an alternate door to ask for some guidance; which we got, advising us to completely blow off the line to get on an interior line for the tours. Where we waited. And waited. The French way of dealing with queues is singular. There's plenty of pushiness, and not much devotion to order; but there's also not really much in the way of hurrying or urgency. Eventually we found out that the English tour was totally sold out and there wouldn't be another one until the next day (because of a dance performance taking place that afternoon). So we opted for a self-guided visit to this incredible building and hallowed hall of music.

We did miss something by not having someone take us through it, but the place is gorgeous no matter how you slice it.

We had no access to the orchestra seating area. Only people on tours got to go there. (Stifled shouts of frustration.) But we got to see Chagall's incredible ceiling from a box in the corner.

We made up for some of our bad luck by having the very good luck of seeing the painted faux curtain on the drop when we stopped into the other corner box. It was only down for a couple minutes, and it was very dark, so the image isn't so hot, but it gives you a sense.

The ceiling from the other box. It was truly awe-inspiring.

Notice the details of scenes from operas and ballets. Daphnis et Chloe; The Firebird; etc.

Les Troyens; Castor et Pollux; Swan Lake; Boris Godunov; the Magic Flute; Fidelio; on and on...

Had to get a shot of the Phantom's box (Number 5)

And the obligatory shot of me dancing in a holy place. (No trip is complete without one or two of those.)

This is nothing close to a worthy testament to the memory of La Stupenda, but I'm glad I could put something out there for her today.

Post Production

2010-10-08T21:16:00.003-04:00

We pause now so I can give myself a little pat on the back.

I'm getting better at the post-production stuff in the photo department. Can you guys tell which photo in the last series had me pulling out the magic to hide a woman standing behind one of the sculptures? Can you see where she was?

In other news, what the hell is going on with Cincinnati's defense?!?

Musee Rodin (or, Hell is in the Details)

2010-10-08T15:02:00.010-04:00

After a most delectable lunch of galettes and cider with Christina and Johnathan at a creperie called Josselin, we went over to the Rodin museum to get our sculpture on.

The weather turned before long.

So we just took that opportunity to go to the indoor part of the museum (converted from the residence where Rodin lived for several years toward the end of his life).

For this next one, I pretended to be shooting a sculpture but got a nice shot of Cory peeking around it

It was a fantastic museum, of course. I wasn't too shutter-happy inside, but when we went back outside, I got drawn into the Gates of Hell pretty deep.

Like Milton and Marlow, Bosch and Goethe and (especially) Dante, Rodin had a special fascination with the infernal, and and it was the subject of some of his best work.

I'm the first to admit that it can damage the experience (and be just plain annoying) to spend one's travels totally focused on taking photographs or shooting video. But by the same token, if you maintain a balance, the camera can help you pay attention to visual elements in a number of ways. I spent a lot of time on this trip engaging with details in some fairly grand works of art and architecture.

You can see the raindrops on the bronze in some of these - it rained pretty hard while we were inside, and it sprinkled on and off when we went back out too.

Rodin worked directly from Dante's Inferno to make this masterpiece, and he incorporated elements of some of his other major sculptures.

It was a pretty wonderful museum experience. This was mid-afternoon on our second day there.

I'll leave you for now with a reminder that the Eiffel Tower should never be interpreted to have any phallic significance whatsoever.

Jardin du Luxembourg

2010-10-06T12:03:00.006-04:00

After that amazing dinner Chez Denise, including sharing an incredible ile flottante for dessert (thanks Eevin for turning us on to that particularly French bit of deliciousness, and thank you very friendly French couple at the next table who ordered one so we could see how fabulous it is there!!) we took a little walk down to the pont des arts to... well, if you know Paris well, you may be able to guess what we did on that bridge. If you don't, I'll fill you in on that a few posts from now. For now, suffice to say it was quiet and romantic and lovely.

The next morning, we walked a bit, grabbed a coffee on Rue Monge, breakfast bread at a boulangerie across the street (Cory had a croissant au chocolat, and I had a croissant au beurre) and then headed over to Jardin du Luxembourg. A fairly beautiful early autumn day (it was rather cold for much of our time in Paris) and a gorgeous garden.

The apiary where they make honey that they sell on weekends

A flower show happened to be going on while we were there.

This one came when we were back out on the street, naturally. There was more graffiti in Paris than I'd thought there'd be - most of it a ways out of the historic part of the city. So this was a little rare for being right in the thick of things, and nearly singular for being in English.

Later that day...

2010-10-01T13:07:00.011-04:00

...we had a walk around the Latin Quarter and the 5th Arrondissement in general. It was chilly in Paris while we were there, and we had some rain to contend with part of the time, but this was a very nice afternoon. The strike was subsiding by the time we left the hotel, and we strolled up to some nice boulangeries and had some much-needed coffee. Among other things, we saw the Pantheon (from the outside)

and an outdoor market

and I insisted we take a peek at an experimental theater.

A reading at Shakespeare and Company that night tapped my inner James Joyce and the steak and wine we had at Chez Denise brought out my Hemingway and Henry Miller (though they were not the ones who graced the walls there. For whatever reason, the American who got a portrait up on their wall - at least the wall we could see from our table - was Norman Mailer. Who knew?)

At Shakes & Co., Adam Haslett and Nick Flynn read from their new books to a packed house that spilled out onto the sidewalk outside. Afterward, there was jazz in the library upstairs, but we were too tired and hungry to make that scene.

Vive la France

2010-09-30T10:03:00.005-04:00

We got back from Paris a couple days ago. As cities go, Paris was, you know, ok.

I am lying my ass off, of course. It is amazing. As beautiful as you imagine it is going to be, and with a bunch that you couldn't have imagined.

For those of you who kept track of international events while we were gone, the Mick & Cory-specific headlines are:

We were not involved in the bomb threat at the Eiffel Tower, although we were at the Eiffel Tower the day before. Whew!

We were indeed involved with the Transit Strike/national protest of the proposal to raise the French retirement age to 62. These days French strikes would appear to be more for show than for real shut-down, but the fervor and popular involvement is impressive. [As election day approaches staggeringly quickly, I crave some of this passion here in les Etats-Unis. Seriously. Please do not consider not voting this November. And maybe do a little more than vote. Don't make me start whipping out the reasons why it's important not to cave to racist, hate-filled fear mongers.] What this meant to us was that we had to do some extra work getting from the airport to our hotel in the Latin Quarter. We'd done some advance homework, so were fairly prepared - made a train transfer that wouldn't have been needed on a non-strike day, which sent us to a different station that was a little farther away. And when we approached the location of our hotel, we saw a mass of people up on Boulvevard St. Michel. Like - a BIG mass of people. It soon became clear that the demonstration going on pretty much surrounded the place we were staying. We had a perplexed-tourist moment, noses in the map, trying to figure out how to get around it, when a very friendly student asked us (in English, no less) if we needed help. I said, something to the effect of "well, we need to get to Rue Sommerard, and we're trying to figure out how to get around the demo," and her smiling response was "just go through it." So we did. I have yet to go through most of the photos I took, but here's this shot I snagged with a phone camera of the scene:

Lots more to come...

Zoo Time

2010-09-20T18:55:00.005-04:00

As you know, my sister's family moved to Long Island a few weeks ago. Their first visit to the city since that move came a couple weekends ago, when they drove in to celebrate Mary's 11th birthday.

The current vagaries of my life are making it tricky to devote sustained time to creating a post, so for now, enjoy this mini-series, shot by Cory, detailing our side-trip with Anna and Jason to the children's zoo:

Anna trying to feed a llama. He was pretty blasé.

She had a little better luck with a sheep.

The sheep thanking me with a nuzzle to the noggin.

Cory's closeup of a llama.

There was much fun that day. Maybe I'll get to posting more about it later.

But first... I'm off to Paris. Au revoir for a few days!

Saturday afternoon in the wonderful world of TV movies

2010-09-18T16:19:00.006-04:00

Maria Conchita Alonso's character:

"You screwed up our marriage with your booze, and pills... and those sleazy hookers."

Michael McKean's character:

"Well your skirts weren't exactly pristine, honey!"

And so it goes.

Still More Adventures in the Commonwealth...

2010-09-14T15:53:00.009-04:00

...The Madeleine Chronicles

You may remember Miss M from last year's excursions. Well, now she's a year older, badder and bolder. She has her day-to-day civilian persona, of course.

But on occasion... she emerges from the shadows to embody, not just one superhero identity, but a whole slew of them. These include, but are not limited to:

Accordion Maestro

Spinning Technicolor Commando

Jellyfish Wrangler and All Around Beach Babe

Glamor Model

Mountaintop Yogi

Stealth Tourguide (and remote lighthouse keeper)

Spaceship Pilot

Speeding Racecar Driver (with spotted dog sidekick)

Tamer of Flying Horses

She is a force to be reckoned with, and could surely fill many entries on her own. For now, this will have to do.

More Adventures in the Commonwealth

2010-09-10T15:04:00.011-04:00

Back to the Vineyard...

Once we got some sun, we went out and about quite a bit. One morning into midday, we headed out to West Tisbury for an event at the library for Madeleine.

While she and SJ did their thing. Cory and I hit a farmers market and the general store. Then we all met up and found a (not terribly well-hidden) secret passageway through the trees to a land of oversized people and things.

Ok, it was really a sculpture garden. But a really cool one! Adjacent to the Field Gallery, these Tom Maley sculptures were enough to bring our mood up and break through the clouds.

This one has some attitude, wouldn't you say? No matter where you look at him from, no matter how you shade him, he's got some fierce going on.

You can see that the sky was still pretty gray that day, but we felt totally released going out into the elements.

This one's Dance of Joy was contagious - and reflective of the mood inside the gallery: among other exhibits there was a showing of Herb Greene rock-n-roll photos from San Francisco in the 60s and 70s - included some pretty well known images of Janice and Jimi, and the shot of Jefferson Airplane that turned into the album cover for Surrealistic Pillow, as well as some other perspectives on the period. Didn't shoot any of that; that tunnel of photos of photos gets pretty narrow pretty quick. Rad exhibition, though.

The field at the Field was grazed by a protective herd of cast iron cows. (Carved iron? I don't know)

Last but not least is this exhuberant father and daughter duo. I don't think that it's a Tom Maley - didn't catch who it is, but I really like the energy there!

Live Tennis is pretty awesome

2010-09-07T16:41:00.010-04:00

We interrupt this program to bring you a special message from the U.S. Open:

\

Live tennis is really fun to watch.

And Roger Federer is astounding.

In other news, the sky is blue.

Also, there were other stars there, who need no introduction.

Thanks are most definitely due to the dayjob for hooking me up with some pretty bitchin perks every so often.

Live from Flushing Meadow, good night.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

9/02/10

2010-09-03T11:11:00.006-04:00

As in 90210. Yup.

Here's a celebration of the auspicious (?) date, courtesy the good people at Go Fug Yourself. There's a whole rabbit hole there devoted to the event if you want to jump in.

Yes, that was yesterday. And no, I didn't catch it then. And it's pretty likely that I would never have caught it if it weren't for Sherin. What does this prove? I don't think very much, other than that I am probably not a girl.

Images from the Island

2010-09-01T16:55:00.005-04:00

Two quick shots to sate you for today.

First this one from outside the General Store in West Tisbury. In addition to the general composition, note that the advertised public telephone appears to be invisible.

And then there's this fearsome moment:

That menacing visage is a one-up from the scene a few years ago in Maine. I wasn't thinking much of the Red Sox factor when I was cooking those beasts last week, but I'd love to see some of that mojo wrap around the Sox this year. Not much time, guys...

Adventures in the Commonwealth

2010-08-31T15:55:00.006-04:00

Yes, I've been away. But I'm back. For now...

Cory and I both have colds, but we're otherwise uninjured from our travels, except a slight burn on my arms, where I seem to have missed a spot or two with the sunscreen. But I am getting ahead of myself.

As you know, a few weekends ago we went to the Solid Sound Festival/aka Wilcofest at Mass MoCA. I've forborne posting on it here, partly because there's already SO MUCH out there on the internets about it. If I get truly inspired, maybe I'll jot down a few notes on the subject. Suffice to say, it was an exercise in awesomness.

The following weekend, we were back in the Bay State - saw the Sox get truly pummeled by the Blue Jays at Fenway. Ugh. Still, it was a beautiful night in a beautiful place, and we were with Molly, so that can't be a bad thing.

A relaxing couple of days later, we saw a couple of our Wilcofest comrades perform at the Church. My Own Worst Enemy, live and fully rocking, in spite of a cold that Sue brought back from the Berkshires. Hey... wait a minute... is that where we got this cold from? Suuuuuuue! (insert shaking fist here.)

The next day after breakfast it was off to Martha's Vineyard. That's right: it's not just for Presidents anymore. But you knew that, because you saw it here last year. This year's stay was different, in a number of ways. And we'll count those ways in posts to come, but for now I'll start you off with a couple images of what the first couple days looked like through the window.

Please do not confuse this with a complaint! We had a wonderful time the whole week, and I'll share some photographic evidence of that in the course of the next several installments of our adventures.

Countdown to Wilco

2010-08-12T16:13:00.004-04:00

T minus 27 hours and counting.

Tomorrow, Cory and I are taking Lola (fresh with a brand-new battery, a little ahead of schedule in my opinion, but she did have that rough day last year, and it's good not to have to worry about it) to Mass MoCA for the Solid Sound Festival, featuring the musical stylings of Wilco, Mavis Staples, the Baseball Project, the Books, and bunches of others, in the company of Sue & Steve & Laura, and graciously hosted by Sue & Kevin (and Max & Jackson!)

Can I get a Woo Hoo?

But Mama Grizzly Says It's a Good Thing!

2010-08-10T11:35:00.007-04:00

Paul Krugman on preserving the Bush tax cuts.

It’s a disastrous choice in both the short run and the long run.

In the short run, those state and local cutbacks are a major drag on the economy, perpetuating devastatingly high unemployment.

It’s crucial to keep state and local government in mind when you hear people ranting about runaway government spending under President Obama. Yes, the federal government is spending more, although not as much as you might think. But state and local governments are cutting back. And if you add them together, it turns out that the only big spending increases have been in safety-net programs like unemployment insurance, which have soared in cost thanks to the severity of the slump...

The antigovernment campaign has always been phrased in terms of opposition to waste and fraud — to checks sent to welfare queens driving Cadillacs, to vast armies of bureaucrats uselessly pushing paper around. But those were myths, of course; there was never remotely as much waste and fraud as the right claimed. And now that the campaign has reached fruition, we’re seeing what was actually in the firing line: services that everyone except the very rich need, services that government must provide or nobody will, like lighted streets, drivable roads and decent schooling for the public as a whole.

Ok, yes, I threw in some emphasis. I'm not sure how to put it any simpler other than to say it's a very, very bad idea.

In case you're keeping score, my opinion is that we need to roll back the cuts on more than just the top 2%.

Of course, I could be wrong.

8-9-10

2010-08-09T19:48:00.004-04:00

A/K/A today's date.

Which is pretty cool.