I took Tai Chi many years ago. 1999. It was at the Executive Fitness Center at the World Trade Center Marriott, which became the Fitness Company mid-membership. The nice thing about going to a pricey gym in the financial district was that most of the members were men. Men don’t like to take classes. If you went to a class it was nearly a personal training session with 6-10 people in the class (except for spinning which was popular, still more women but full.)

The instructor was a small  Asian women who had been teaching for many years and had been a champion of some sort. The first day she did a demo with a ceremonial sword that was completely mesmerizing. Her flexibility and stability and how low she got to the ground were amazing.

She did not speak English very well so every week there were one or two long-time students of hers to explain and describe what she needed to communicate to us. I remember we focused on arm movements and leg movements and then combined them slowly building on each form once we more or less understood them.

I got through the first 13 positions and then had to stop taking the class – It was right before I moved away the first time. A really clear memory I have is of the day when I felt like I finally got the moves. When I was shifting the balance of my weight and my arms and legs were connected in movement. It was a revelation.

I remember there being an Asian woman I would head to the subway with after class. I remember stopping with her in the middle of the concourse of the World Trade Center station to do the moves I was so excited/giddy to have knowledge of.

Right now 11 years later, I am back to learning from scratch and feeling all jumbled and confused. Not sure where my weight needs to shift to, not sure how to move my arms and legs and don’t feel the connection between them.

I am hopeful that I will feel that feeling again with time.

We should get to my mom’ s house by 8.30-9.00pm on the Wed. feel free to call us.

Thursday the 10th is pretty open at this point. It will possibly be a shopping day and the China Institute is free  from 6-8 and has a neat looking photography exhibition on. They are located on 65th betw. Lex and Park.  We may do that plus dinner with people or there’s the option of free talk/signing by Malcolm Gladwell at 7pm at the Union Square Barnes and Noble…or a talk on Comic Books after WWII at 7pm at the 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street with Arie Kaplan – $12.

Friday the 11th want to take advantage of free hours at MOMA for the Tim Burton exhibition. May also pop into The American Folk Art Museum …also the first night of Hanukkah.

Saturday the 12th the Jewish Museum is free (shop and cafe are closed) 11.00-5.45 – Fifth Avenue at 92nd and then the Guggenheim is Pay What you Wish 5.45-7.45 – Fifth Avenue at 89th. Then I got us tickets to see SonicVision at 8.30 at the Hayden Planetarium. The other option was Major League Dreidel at the Brooklyn Knitting Factory which will have to be a pass.

Sunday the 13th is a packed day. We will be heading to the NY Hall of Science in Queens (which means an early start for us) and meeting Barbara before seeing They Might Be Giants there then we will head into Manhattan to City Winery for a Keren Ann performance.

Monday the 14 – From 10am to noon there are free tours of the Eldridge Street Synagogue then Beyond the Pale are performing for free at the Winter Garden in the World Financal Centre at 12.30. Since we will be downtown we may go see the Magna Carta at the Fraunces Tavern Museum or go to the Museum of Jewish Heritage they have an exhibition on called Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow about Jewish refugee scholars at black colleges.

Nothing is set so far for Tuesday and Wednesday. (We leave Wednesday night). Some options include:

Brooklyn Botanic Garden free on weekdays. NY Aquarium which is just a walk from my mom’s house – $13. Attempting to get standby tickets for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon or the Colbert Report. Going to the top of Rockefeller Plaza for the view and/or TKTS.

Really the only firm plans are things we have bought tickets for in advance: SonicVision, They Might Be Giants and Keren Ann and MOMA on Friday to try and save money.

Hope people can join us on some of these adventures and are available to get together.

NY Post screengrab - Click on the image and click on all sizes to view it larger for yourself.

This screengrab is from today. A story about an ex-professor getting prison time for possessing child porn ends with, “Some of the photos found on the 62-year-old’s computer depicted infants being sexually abused.” It is followed by the question: “Do you know someone who has made New York a better place? Nominate your hero for the 8th Annual New York Post Liberty Medals.” [link to story here]

The New York Post has sometimes been known for fun wordplay Headless Body in Topless Bar: The Best Headlines from America’s Favorite Newspaper in this case an editor should have picked up on this. It makes it seem like the Internet is an afterthought and the staff doesn’t bother to find the time to check what will end up on the screen. Big mistake: I would guess more people are reading the story this way than in print. Can anyone help me get the numbers to back this up?

You get another NY-based paper going through a web redesign [via: via] that prioritizes the display over content. The paper is a ditz with a status update and shiny pictures.

On the other hand the NY Times is doing neat things with their website – data visualizations, game, ads, facebook, facebook app, twitter, global edition, NY Times Reader.

Ivri Lider

Went to see Ivri Lider perform at Ivri Lider at Avalon in NYC 2006-11-11. Photo set here.
Video from that gig on youtube.

Ivri Lider performing I Kissed a Girl. (I prefer his version of Barbie Girl. Leave a comment if you want an mp3 of him performing Barbie Girl.)

Rita’s “Bo” performed in English as “Your Soul” accompanied by footage from Yossi and Jagger. Two guys kiss in the video so you have to confirm you are over 18 to youtube to watch it.

Link to a short radio show he did on Galei Tzahal 13-November-2008 with the band as it is on the album and touring: Gilad Shmueli – Drums, Amir Rosiano aka Jango – Bass, Yehonatan Fridge – Guitar, Adi Goldstein – keyboard. Songs only download of the radio show here.

Setlist:
Beketzev Ahid Betnuot Shel HaGuf – בקצב אחיד בתנועות של הגוף
Mitorer – מתעורר
Metayel Australi – מטייל אוסטרלי
Yoter Tov Klum – יותר טוב כלום
Hadrachim Ha’arukot – הדרכים הארוכות
VeUlay – ואולי
Hakos Hakhula – הכוס הכחולה
Aluf Haolam – אלוף העולם.

More Ivri Lider on Israboot here.

Ivri Lider online – official site, myspace, facebook, youtube, wikipedia, emusic, amazon mp3.

INVITATIONS

Figure out when you want people to have their invitations. Don’t give in to pressure and send out invites as they get made. This can lead to people wondering if they are invited if they have heard that someone else has received their invitation already.

For a traditional invite, Wilton make pretty do-it-yourself kits. They have a full range that includes Save-the-Date, Thank you cards, place settings, favors and more. In NYC, Jack’s World [110 W. 32nd (between 6th & 7th Avenues) and 45 W. 45th (between 5th & 6th)] sometimes has their products at highly discounted prices.

My husband was dead-set against a traditional invite and lucky for me he is talented enough to design us something different. He wanted an invite that would reflect our personalities as opposed to something stuffy and boring. [His reaction, I don't mind the traditional invites but love what he came up with instead.]

The cover:

We took A4 sheets of black card stock (from Kid’s section of Staples) and cut them in half length-wise. Our cards are an A6 landscape design. We did this with a paper trimmer from staples. It was then given an edge in the middle with the same trimmer, different attachment.

On the cover we pasted a mosaic photo design printed on a Canon Selphy printer & paper. The mosaic of a photo from our engagement party is composed of pictures from a vacation we took last summer. If one looks at it with a magnifying glass you can make out the individual pictures. (If we were to do this again we would slip in flat, business card size magnifiers with an explanatory note.) I like the idea that our invite reflects us being composed of our previous experiences. We used a photosafe gluestick to attach it and it gives the card a bit more heft.

We tried a few different options for paper supplies that didn’t work out. Printing directly on white card stock (from Kid’s section of Staples) with a laser printer did not look good. It came out very flat and not interesting. The same was true for Tesco Photo Greeting Card papers. It came out very amateurish. Fine for a little kid’s party but not a wedding.

The inside:

We printed the inside on white tracing paper (from Kid’s section of Staples) with a laser printer and stapled it inside the black card. It is a cheaper take on the vellum idea. It looked great. The left side features Hebrew with English translation and a picture of the bride as a child. The right side features English with a picture of the groom as a child. RSVP is by phone, web, email or snailmail. The website we put up included useful, local information for people who were traveling and contact information for us. There was also the cover photo from the invite, clickable to a larger size so you could see the individual photos.

I really like the way it came out. Be advised if you’re going to go with pictures of yourself as children, people will hound you even more so about when you will start working on children that look as cute as that….sheesh! :-)

The night-do:

There was also a separate card that served as an invitation for the night-do. Four cards printed on the A4 white card stock we didn’t end up using for the invites. They were cut with the paper trimmer and had the same theme as the inside of the invite.

For envelopes we used Tesco Finest C6 envelopes. They have a different color lining inside (like pricier options), but overall they are pretty thin if you are using a thin-tipped marker to address them. We weren’t really bothered about the envelopes since they go straight in the trash, these were a step up from C6 brown envelopes, or security envelopes that look like it should enclose a check or a PIN.

We got great feedback on these invites. People enjoyed that they weren’t the same old thing…so if people [parents, friends] raise objections to trying something different stick to your instincts and do what you want. Remember at all times that it is YOUR day.

FAVORS or FAVOURS

Placecards:

Placecards were made by my amazing husband until 2:00 AM the night before the wedding. This is a leftover stack. A4 white card stock was printed with 8 placecards, then cut and given a crease with the paper trimmer, then folded and handwritten with names. The names could also have been printed. They looked great and we didn’t buy expensive frames or holders for them at a $1 a pop.

Poems:

The two poems were an amazing surprise for us. Laurie Giles, a former Northeast radio presenter and current chair of the Sunderland Pianoforte Society, read the Shakespeare as part of our ceremony in the morning. He and his wife Nora were spot-on in finding poems we really liked. They printed and laminated the poems on A6 cards and made enough to put one at each place setting.

Chocolate:

Does anyone like the stale coated almonds that are usually given as wedding favors? We decided to make our own. We made 75 out of plain Tulle White Circles from Party City in Brooklyn NY. It is $6.99 for a pack of 75. We bought some ribbon to tie it up and some slightly snazzier netting for the bundles on the head table as in the photo above from a shop in Hartlepool [Cake Decorating Workshop, part of The Arches complex on Park Road]. They were about 20 pence each. We also rented our cake stand from them and bought the silver platters for the cakes there as well.

There are tons of expensive boxes for these kind of things and I personally think they are a waste of money, even the slightly more expensive tulle pouches are a waste. These looked great and they were a lot cheaper. For a personal spin we put in American (3 Hershey Kisses) and British chocolate (1 Cadbury Hero – mini-Cadbury chocolates) to symbolize our union.

By furtive glances, I noticed her eyes and that she was dozing a bit as I do in the mornings with her bags in her lap. Her two gloves were mismatched colors (dark blue and black) and underneath her long dress as she got off the train I noticed she had on white socks.

Told my Israeli coworker Naomi about this….her response: they’re crazy….I said it was similar to religious Jewish women covering up….she agreed but retorted….they’re crazy too….they are alike….

So we just have to get people to see their similarities…or an ingenius plan I heard in a recent documentary I went to see Encounter Point about workers for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict….make all the smokers get their cigarettes from either the territories or Israel whichever is the home of The Other and people will get along in service of their nic fits…

I think it’s neat that except for a glance or two, at the odd sight of it, people went about their business. It’s one of the things I like about NYC…The countdown to leaving has begun so of course I have to appreciate it before I go.

Woke up at 5:00 AM. Registration was between 6:30-7:45AM according to the website and ride was supposed to start at 8:00AM…I could have woken up at least an hour later. Since I had my vest already I just had to show up – even getting there at 7:30 AM was early – since the ride didn’t start until at least 8:15 AM.

At the beginning and at some points in the middle there was so much congestion with 32,000 riders that you had to walk your bike, and generally the ride is a slow one. While this might suck for an experienced rider this was perfect for me. My mom went to the Salute to Israel Parade and ran into a family that decided to leave the ride because of how frustrated they were….she didn’t mention that what frustrated them was actually ideal for me :-)….

There was some entertainment at the beginning of the ride and along the route in the form of flying inflatable balls being passed along the crowd during the wait for the ride to start, some folks on stilts, Cousin Brucie announcing where people were from, a man in little girl drag with blond pigtails sitting on a large tricycle wishing people a good ride and some jugglers. One bus shelter along the route held a steel drum band and Commerce Bank who sponsored the ride had people in sections to cheer.

The rest areas also sometimes had music and food for purchase. Being given out foodwise there were bananas and oranges being handed out. Drinks were slightly more varied with water and different juices. Tour de Brooklyn rules with their peanut butter and jelly bagels.

People in groups decorated their helmets to make them more visible. Attached to helmets were flowers, ribbons, stuffed animals, beer / energy drink cans, palm trees, arrows and flags – nationality and sports teams. My favorite were a group that had furry rats attached on little platforms, each rat wore a little fluorescent bike helmet.

The basic route info can be found on the Bike New York website. The detailed route is on the NYC.GOV website. It is really neat to ride on highways and bridges without cars.

Anyone considering doing the ride who is intimidated shouldn’t be. You might feel ridiculous for feeling scared when you see little kids doing the ride on their tiny bikes with even tinier wheels (I did, a bit.). There are parts where you walk because of congestion and there are plentiful rest areas (5 before the end.) The pace is really comfortable / easy, partially because of how many people there are. The ride was capped at 32,000 this year and was sold out before ride day. Definitely register before ride day to ensure you will be able to ride and there may be a discount for early registration.

On my way to the Staten Island Ferry I ran into Steve. Hung out with him at his place for a little while. The stopping moving made it very difficult to move later when I walked the 2 miles to the ferry. He accompanied me and either way don’t think my body was willing to get back on the bike. I was completely stiff. To make things worse we went up the ramp to the regular ferry entrance only to be told we would have to go all the way around – bikes (and their riders) were being loaded on the lower level (that used to be for cars). From the ferry caught the R train and then transferred to the Q. Then the hardest ride of the day was the 1 mile from the train station home. I’m hoping my ass will forgive me someday soon :-) or at least before June 3rd.

Lining Up for the Bike Tour

Bjork at Radio City

Randomly had a hotel room not far from the show for the night through work. Watched some Bravo before going, an episode of Project Runway [Finale of Season 2] and Shear Genius which I had never seen before. Headed over to Radio City,

Bjork at Radio City

Row F in the orchestra is way further back then it should be because Radio City is one of these venues with double letter rows before single letter.

Konono N°1 were the opening act. They were ok if a bit repetitive by the end of their set. Made me yearn for the Afro-Cuban All Stars.

Björk was great but the venue was really wrong for her. I remember seeing her at the Tibetan Freedom Festival and much prefer seeing her outdoors. A lot of the crowd was dead and the energy of the hardcore people got lost.

One of the more bizarre points in the evening was when I told the guy next to me I think she has a wooden leg attached. The beats were really cool and I literally could have sworn for a bit that she had a third leg on that she was using to bang on the stage and create the extra beats. I took a bunch of photos focusing on her legs to prove / disprove the notion. It was actually a bit of fabric hanging form the dress that I was misinterpreting. It’s kind of funny that I didn’t think it too weird for her.

RCMH setlist is below. I am a bit jealous of those who saw her at United Palace theatre because they got Hunter and Immature (and Bachelorette and Hyperballad). Though we got All Is Full of Love and Jóga so I guess it balances out.

Setlist:

01 Earth Intruders*
02 Venus as a Boy
03 Aurora
04 I See Who You Are**
05 Oceania
06 Dull Flame of Desire***
07 All is Full of Love
08 The Pleasure is All Mine
09 Pagan Poetry
10 Jóga
11 Where is the Line
12 Army of Me
13 Innocence
14 Wanderlust
15 Pluto

Encores:

16 [encore break]
17 [band introductions]
18 Anchor Song
19 Declare Independence

*With Konono N°1
**With Min Xiao-Fen
***With Antony Hegarty

After the show I was hanging out by the stage door, at first in hopes of taking a photo of the setlist under the false assumption that the hardcore folks who nabbed it would be hanging out.

Saw Idan Raichel waiting around too. Normally I wouldn’t go over to someone famous but what the hell Bjork wasn’t coming out…Ended up talking to him about the Bjork show – he was really impressed by Antony Hegarty [Antony and the Johnsons] and about seeing him perform in The Idan Raichel Project’s very first show in Tel Aviv. I had even seen him perform back in the day when he was the keyboard player for Ivri Lider. It seems he is in NY a fair bit these days because he’s got a gorgeous NYC girlfriend.

Idan Raichel with fans

I channeled my mother for this picture. These two fans came over and told him they were fans. Without asking him if it was ok I asked them if they wanted a picture with him. Then, I said – if that’s ok with you….it would have been assholic for him to refuse just like it was assholic for me to do what I did….It was a bossy, Israeli, Jewish mother – the matter was settled before he was consulted, like I said assholic thing for me to do. The girls got a cute picture…Sorry Idan….it was ridiculous. The price of fame I guess…

Didn’t end up waiting for Bjork. Had a great salad to go from Metro Cafe and got back to my hotel room to watch some more Bravo. I really don’t get the show Work Out.

I’ll have to try an upscale one at the cute Peanut Butter and Co. (240 Sullivan Street).

Is it because my parents (and me, technically) were immigrants that I didn’t know about this All-American treat? What else have I been missing out on?

Just Married

Just Married by director Ayelet Bechar was really good. It documents the difficulties of two couples Israeli Arabs who marry Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank. As of 2002 there is a law prohibiting family reunification.

Suhad and Rabia are a young couple that met at university. To be together Suhad becomes an illegal resident in Jerusalem. The film depicts her change from vibrancy to depression as she stays in her home most of the time so she is not caught. In a depressing bit of circular beaurocracy, her husband Rabia (the one with legal status in Israel) requests a permit for her and is told he must file for Family Reunification but that no requests are being taken at this time and she cannot be given any other sort of document because she needs the one of family reuinification.

For the older couple on the film Kifach and Yazeed, the solution is to stay in Berlin until the law changes and they can go home. Kifach struggles to learn German and at the same time, she must be in Israel for part of the year so she does not lost her status as is threatened in one municipal office. She had been very active in the struggle for coexistence in Israel and has many photos with major Israeli political figures such as Shulamit Aloni and Ehud Barak. Her husband views Barak as slime and does not want to see the photo, there is elegant symmetry in the film as Kifach later confronts Barak at a conference in Berlin about this law keeping families apart.

There is also a beautiful symmetry as the film ends with both families giving birth to children.

It is a complex issue. The situations these people are in are terrible. They are being kept from having a family with the person they love in their homes. The Israeli government believes that this horrible law may be saving someone’s life; it feels it must ignore the fact that it is also adding much misery to many innocent civilians.

The law was ammended so that women above the age of 25 and men above the age of 35 may now apply for family reunification. The director was at the screening and gave the update that Suhad was about to have her birthday and would more than likely obtain family reuinification and that Kifach’s struggle continues as well.

It makes me feel lucky that all I have to deal with is a bunch of paperwork and a $1000 fee for a fiancee visa to the UK. Our revolution was a really long time ago. (Though, it does suck that the price doubled as of April 1st of this year.)

There is a great summary of the Israeli law involved from a recent Jerusalem Post article (Background: Terror plot may have blown family reunification By DAN IZENBERG, April 11, 2007) :

“Prohibitions on family reunification were first introduced by the Interior Ministry on April 1, 2002, following the suicide bombing at the Matza restaurant in Haifa’s Neveh Sha’anan neighborhood in which 15 Israelis were killed. The driver of the car bomb was a Hamas terrorist who had married an Israeli and carried a blue identity card.

Initially, the freeze on family reunification was total. No Palestinian who married an Israeli could begin the five-year process for obtaining residential rights or citizenship, and those who were in the middle of the process could not advance.

On July 31, 2003, the Knesset turned the administrative decision into a one-year law, which was periodically extended.

On July 27, 2005, the law was amended so that Palestinian women above the age of 25 and men above 35 could live with their Israeli spouses if they met security criteria. Younger Palestinians were still barred from living in Israel.

On March 21, 2007, the law was amended again and extended until July 2008. The current law provides a humanitarian committee to consider exceptional requests for family reunification from women under 25 and men under 35, but toughens the security criteria and extends the restrictions to spouses from countries classified as enemy.

The law in all its forms has been harshly criticized by human rights groups in Israel and abroad. In May, the High Court narrowly rejected a petition to overrule it in its second version. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Meretz MK Zehava Gal-On and the Israeli-Arab rights group Adalah have already declared they will petition against the newly amended law.

The human rights groups claim the law violates the fundamental right of every citizen to a family and is motivated by Jewish demographic concerns. The law prevents roughly 20,000 Palestinians from living in Israel with their Israeli spouses and also prevents them from raising families in Israel.

The government insists the temporary law is based on security considerations. Granting Palestinians Israeli identity cards and the right to unrestricted freedom of movement throughout Israel is dangerous, officials say.”

UPDATE: 29 Oct. 07: Israel to approve some 3,400 requests for family unification in one-time action

program

Classic Stage Company is awesome again. Went to see a reading of The Tempest last night. The culmination of their Monday Night Open Rehearsal Series where you explore parts of a text with different directors and actors. It had Michael Cumpsty reading Prospero with Brian Kulick directing (full cast below). There are times when I go to a crappy show and am really impressed by the lighting or the scenery in service of something mediocre but a night like this reminds you that a good text and good actors are all you need.

Full Cast (Apologies for any errors. The program listed only their names so matching the actor to the character was via google searches and process of elimination in some cases.):

Craig Baldwin – Antonio
David Costabile – Trinculo
Michael Cumpsty – Prospero
Herb Foster – Alonso
Melinda Helfrich – Miranda
KK Moggie – Ariel
Luis Moreno – Caliban
George Morfogen – Gonzalo
Lorenzo Pisoni – Ferdinand
Steven Rattazzi – Stephano
David Skeist – Sebastian

Upcoming at CSC is an open rehearsal series for Aquila Theatre Company and The Iliad. I think I’ll skip that one but for those unafraid of the classics go for a really unique theater experience.

Discovered the artwork of Ted Lange via a boingboing link to his Son of Super Mario today with some great drawings based on The Tempest.

I don’t think that he is Isaac from The Love Boat.

Sidewalk Cafe has free live music (2 drink minimum, not too strictly enforced plus they pass a bucket around for the artists – suggested $5). I used to go all the time in college to hear Matt Sherwin play on Monday nights. The Trachtenburg Family Sldeshow Players are playing next Friday! I will be in Chicago though.

Ivan Sandomire's Guitar

It is difficult to shoot photos at Sidewalk Cafe because it is really dark there.

Saw Phare Play’s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). It’s like something your really talented friends from college put on and you have a great time. And there are plastic cups of wine sold during intermission – poured generously and only $4.

It’s at the Lodestar Theatre. Make sure you take the address with you. I had the address with me and still walked by it. It’s at 616 Ninth Avenue (between 43rd and 44th.) There is no marquis or sign, just the show’s poster on the door. You have to go up the stairs and there you are. And if your friend is late you will end up texting them during the show while they try to figure out how to get there.

Video from the show below:

The quality of the video is not that good….but the show is quite fun and is running through April 29th.

Just bought these at Ricky’s cause my Adidas sneaks are definitely not waterproof.

Sondre Lerche

Sondre Lerche is a really fun performer. This is the second time I have seen him…the first time with the Faces Down. It was extremely difficult to google the names of the members of The Faces Down for labeling photos so here they are…I had to dig out the CD insert to Duper Sessions…: Guitar: Kato Adland, Bass: Morton Skage, Drums: Ole Ludvig Kruger. The vibe was very different at the solo Hiro Ballroom gig which was all goofy and acoustic. This was full of energy and creativity, full-on rock. And he is so cute! and married (Sorry Lee!)

Thomas Dybahl, one of the opening acts (sorry I missed them), dressed in a ridiculous outfit and danced on stage for Phantom Punch. I thought he might be Captain Morgan of the rum for the alcoholic punch. Most songs came from Phantom Punch with some older songs thrown in for good measure.

After the show Sondre sat in a corner signing whatever people brought him. There was a long line. Lee offered to pretend to be going into labor so I could skip the line…Asaf, Ofer’s friend suggested I use the Holocaust as a reason, no, six millions reasons. Israeli humor…The Faces Down also roamed the crowd happy to chat and sign things for fans including bassist Morton Skage trying to sign a towel that a cute Asian girl had gotten from the stage from one of the roadies. (See my flickr set for photos.)

I ordered the tickets in advance from ticketweb. You have a choice of getting them delivered in advance for $14 or doing Will Call (for some reason I don’t recall regular mail being an option for the show). If you like to collect ticket stubs you’ll have to pony up the $14 because at willcall they just cross your name off of a list. If anyone has a ticketstub from this show, I would love to have it.

Setlist:

Airport Taxi Reception
The Tape
The Curse
All Luck Ran Out
Well Well Well
Minor Detail
Dead Passengers
Tragic Mirror (solo)
Modern Nature
Everyone’s Rooting For You
Face the Blood
Hello Headphones
Track You Down
She’s Fantastic
Phantom Punch
Say It All
—
Sleep On Needles
Two Way Monologue
John, Let Me Go

Photos and CDs below. The new Phantom Punch for alterna-dance-fun-rock, Duper Sessions for jazzy goodness, The others for more acoustic rock and gorgeous lyrics (the great lyrics applies to all of them.). The Don’t Be Shallow E.P. has a beautiful cover of Night and Day.

We were both hungry so we tried to go to the nearby, standby Zen Palate. Their kitchen was closed but we found a new, nearby, vegetarian falafel place Maoz Vegetarian that is open until 3 AM. We sat, ate too much, and talked. It was very fun. So sad that I had to go to work the next day.

The staff were helpful and friendly. Though there are very few places to sit. 4 stools to be exact. It seems like it is more of a lunchtime takeout kind of place. We were lucky, a couple was just finishing up as we got in. The falafel, Belgian fries and salads were good and fresh. It is a franchise business. We were told by one of the staffpeople that the founder is Israeli and opened the first one in Amsterdam. We picture a ישראלי מסטול (stoned Israeli) thinking up his big idea. Apparently, there are a bunch of them now in a load of countries. Good on him.

One of the other staffpeople is originally from Morocco and his English is amazing for having come here two years ago. He recommended a Moroccan singer called Pinhas and an online Moroccan music site to find him. Look under Par Chanteur for him or other artists. There’s some good music there.

Yes, we sat there a long time.

mom and me

Please take this opportunity to register to be an organ donor. It is an amazing gift you can give. My mom is the proud recipient of a kidney transplant. She was lucky. There are thousands of people on waitlists around the country.

Read more about my mom’s story here. You will also find links to more information about becoming an organ donor.

Presidential proclamation here.

In NY register here.

For organ donor families, recipients and loved ones Saturday, April 14 “Remember and Rejoice.” Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO) of Manhattan hosts its 12th Annual Ecumenical Service from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. Join TRIO to remember donors and their families, and to rejoice with recipients. No tickets or reservations necessary. All welcome. For information, call 718-597-5619.

brochure

Saw Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands tonight at BAM. New Adventures was in fine form, the dancers were great and so was the set. The tweaking of the story (adding a prologue) for the stage worked. The town vixen was especially fun.

Read a recent review that questioned the need for the retelling of the film in dance theater form….Lots of fairy tales get retold again and again…there is no reason not to add a modern work to the mix. Definitely a good time. Upcoming dates (in Toronto, St. Paul, MN, Denver and Seattle) can be found here.

Summary of Matthew Bourne’s talk on the 15th can be found at BAMDialogue: Matthew Bourne

Riposo 46
667 Ninth Ave
212-247-8018

playbill

Went to see the first preview of Inherit the Wind at the Lyceum Theater. The play is a fictionalized take on the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. A teacher is put on trial for teaching evolution in a science class, contrary to biblical teaching, and a high profile trial with the great legal minds of the day ensues.

It is left in it’s historical context even though very similar issues are still being argued in today’s courtrooms. The Supreme Court just recently ruled it illegal to force the inclusion of Intelligent Design in public school science classrooms as an alternative theory to evolution, ruling it religious in nature rather than scientific and you would probably then have to include the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The play was already really tight. It is a limited 16-week run. Christopher Plummer is amazing. I would watch him reciting the telephone book. I would watch him watch paint dry. He has great lines and is really captivating. He plays the character based on Clarence Darrow.

I find it funny that I already associate Brian Dennehy with two made-for-TV films he did based on real trials. Skokie based on a Free Speech trial. In To Catch a Killer he is scary, evil, serial killing clown John Wayne Gacy. He is also quite strong in Inherit the Wind.

There is a large cast and they are quite talented. Maggie Lacey does a great job as the conflicted Reverend’s daughter who happens to love the defendant. Byron Jennings is very righteous as the Reverend. Assorted townspeaople really add to the atmosphere – and seem like they are having fun.

I did not like Denis O’Hare as E.K. Hornbeck, a big city journalist who comes to town to cover the trial. He has great lines and I don’t enjoy his reading of them.

It is worth the price of admission to watch Christopher Plummer. I had seats in the first row on Stage. It is as though you are part of the jury. You sit facing the rest of the audience so at times you see people’s backs. At the same time tickets are cheap, $36 or so and you can’t get any closer to the actors. I recommend the experience; discounted tickets on the stage are also available at the fantastic Spring Awakening (am ready to see this for the third time, it is in heavy rotation on my iPod.) I am so excited to be seeing Duncan Sheik in May, he is supposed to be singing songs from Spring Awakening in addition to his stuff.

Related media:

Inherit the Wind (Book) Authors:Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee Manufacturer:Ballantine Books Released:20 March, 2007

Monkey Business: The True Story Of The Scopes Trial (Book) Authors:Marvin Olasky, John Perry Manufacturer:B&H Publishing Group Released:15 May, 2005

Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial And America’s Continuing Debate over Science And Religion (Book) Authors:Edward J. Larson Manufacturer:Basic Books Released:02 October, 2006

The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA (Book) Authors:Gordy Slack Manufacturer:Jossey-Bass Released:18 May, 2007

The Essential Words and Writings of Clarence Darrow (Modern Library Classics) (Book) Authors:Clarence Darrow, Edward J. Larson Manufacturer:Modern Library Released:12 June, 2007

Inherit the Wind (DVD) Manufacturer:MGM (Video & DVD) Released:11 December, 2001

Skokie (DVD) Manufacturer:Evg Released:12 February, 2004

To Catch a Killer (DVD) Manufacturer:Image Entertainment Released:21 September, 1999

Spring Awakening (2006 Original Broadway Cast) (Music) Artist:Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, Skylar Astin, Lilli Cooper, John Gallagher Jr., Gideon Glick, Jonathan Groff, Brian Johnson, Lea Michele, Lauren Pritchard Manufacturer:Decca Broadway Released:12 December, 2006

Setlist:

01. O Santo De Polvora (Milladoiro)
02. Wayside (Back in Time) (Gillian Welch and David Rawlings)
03. Stay Away
04. Blind Leaving the Blind (Four Movements)
05. Recreation of the first time they played it
06. How to Grow a Woman from the Ground (Thomas Anderson Brosseau)
07. The Beekeeper
08. Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground (White Stripes)
09. Watch ‘At Breakdown

Encore 1
10. If The Sea Was Whiskey
11. The Eleventh Reel

Encore 2
12. Ophelia (The Band) (Gabe Witcher, Main Vocals)

Banter before Stay Away:

Thank you.

This is not the regarded Carnegie Hall. This is Zankel Hall.

We’re not nervous in the least and uh and very actually amused that you all decided to show up in nothing but underwear.

Kind of ridiculous though what were you thinking?

We got dressed up. Looking pretty sharp for all of you.

So Ok.

So we started with a song called O Santo De Polvora and despite the title and despite that it was written by a Spanish band called Milladoiro um we kind of feel that it’s fitting to play it on St. Patrick’s Day.

First of all it sounds Celtic. But also because again the title O Santo De Polvora we’re almost sure that it’s a tribute to the great Cubs thirdbaseman Ron Santo and he was a Chicago Cub. Chicago, might be the most Irish of all American cities.

And he played Of course at Wrigley Field, Chicago which had the Ivy League of Green.

And it’s a baseball field so actually there’s a lot of green.

So we feel like that one was completely appropriate.

The song after that less appropriate and we will continue to play less and less appropriate songs and music

That one was called Wayside and the parenthetical title which I mention only because I like saying parenthetical And that is Back in Time. That was written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

And Dave, Dave always dresses sharp. So does Gil. He would have shown up in a suit and tie if he were playing.

At this point someone’s program drops from the second balcony up. Chris offers by gesture to throw the used tissue on the stage near him that he has just been using. The offer is declined.

Intro to Blind Leaving the Blind:

Alright, so we’re going to play this piece that I wrote for five of us to play.

Quintet, quintet

A stringed quintet as the preferred term for our instruments and three of us will sing and we’re very very excited.

And it’s in Four Movements. It may sound like six depending on how you count.

There will be three complete stops. During which we’ll tune no doubt. All of us.

See there are two stops where some of us will tune you may think that that’s a new movement.

You would, sitting there in your underwear. We love you people.

That’s what the whole problem is. We love it here.

This song is called

This song?

a nice tune.

a nice tune.

A lttle long, It’s a little long. Really.

We hope you like it.

It’s called the Blind Leaving the Blind.

And it’s in V??

[Lights go blue]

That’s why it’s Carnegie Hall.

There’s a vibe, there’s a vibe if you play in here.

Blue for Bluegrass.

After Playing Blind Leaving the Blind:

CT: Thank you very much.

(From Audience: Thank you. That was nice.)

CT: Ok, we’re gonna do a couple more normal songs now.

CT: Oh dear, I’m not ready to come down yet. Is everything 15 BPMs too fast?

NP: The first time that we tried playing certain sections of this piece It was about a year and a half ago. We got together for about a week. And the first thing we started learning which was the final movement the hardest part. Which I think that’s Chris’s style, of course, to do the hard part first We tried playing that, certain sections of that last movment. After three days of rehearsal in the Living Room in NY about a year and a half ago And I don’t know how we had the idea that we could get through it but we told ourselves we’ve got to just still play it This is the only way we’re gonna get better at it And if anyone makes a mistake It’s no big deal But if you make a mistake that you can’t recover from Just scream out “What?” in the middle of the song And we started the piece And about 40 seconds into it Critter (Chris Eldridge) yelled out Who-What.

CT: We’ll recreate it for you. Ok now And then I was actually so incredibly nervous it really was like 15 beats per minute too fast and we’ll recreate that part as well

[Reenactment of first performance including the yell]

(From audience: We love you critter.)

CT: It was awesome.

He then suggests the recording of that first time should be secret track on the new record with Critter making some extra royalties on it or something.

Beekeeper Intro:

This was the last bit of banter where Noam Pikelny explains where the title for “The Beekeeper” comes from. Not because of the current crisis with bees rather people ask what it’s like to play with Chris Thile all the time and the best way to describe it is that he’s a Musical beekeeper, he gets an idea and then just runs with it and goes crazy messing things around, speeding things up and then telling them where to play it, how fast to play it, play it faster, and then they have the piece. They started rehearsing it and then Gabe came up with an idea, Chris ran with it and came back 15 minutes later and had all these very difficult, very fast parts to play. Musical bees and he told Chris he wouldn’t play it unless he called it The Beekeeper, and a deal was struck.

my flickr: Chris Thile and The Tensions Mountain Boys

CDs from amazon:

Punch Brothers - Punch

How to Grow a Woman from the Ground

Nickel Creek - Best Of

He tried acting at 15. This is how he has found to express himself. It is the freedom to create, having only one rule, there is no voice, but can use all styles. It is not necessarily dancing, also acting. It is very character based. Each character has a whole life story. The character comes before the movement.

He is asked how he casts his productions. He uses traied dancers and he tends to attract the people who want to express the acting in what they do. He wants them to contribute and to look like they come from the real world, not cloned. They are not costumed identically. You gain character, individuality, a wealth of detail. You also lose the ability to make the stage unified. The dancers have to go for precision rather than energy and have to work doubly hard to be understood. The costume is working against them.

He is very conscious of the audience and is telling the story to everyone, of different ages, backgrounds. A child can enjoy something on a diferent level from an adult. Wendy Perrin contributes that her father liked Swan Lake, he was ok with it and he doesn’ exactly go to gay clubs.

Matthew Bourne continues that he is not interested in shocking the audience; he is interested in surprising the audience.

Has he ever tried to do a plotless, abstract ballet? In school, in London, at age 22 (he was late to dance training.) he did what he was taught. He then went to do what was true to him…Characters over body dancing. He loved watching it but was uncomfortable with it, with not knowing who you are, being just a body.

He’s always been an Astaire fan, Fred Ashton, Twyla Tharp. His guilty pleasure is he loves abstract ballets but understands why his wider audience wouldn’t necessarily get it.

As he worked on Edward Scissorhands, Caroline Thompson, the screenwriter was by his side. It is based ona stray dog who needed to be loved and taken care of. Also, how do we treat people who are different? The hands are symbolic of anything different. The story is bigger than the crazy story. The setting was changed from the 80s to the 50s in order to present it to a British audience who are used to those symbols of America from sitcoms and movies.

In Lez Brotherston, designer, he has found a likeminded person so he does not have to explain much when going into a production.

How does he feel about the symbol of success at the end of the film Billy Elliot being Billy dancing in his version of Swan Lake. He says it makes sense for the character since he is rebellious. Can’t imagine him being the prince in Swan Lake at Covent Garden. It is a letdown. In the original script sent to him 2 years prior to the making of the film that was the ending! He becomes a dancer in Swan Lake at Covent garden. When he returned the script he threw out there that it would make sense for him to be in his production of Swan Lake. Adam Cooper left the Royal Ballet to do [New Adventure's] Swan Lake. And he is the dancer at the end of Billy Elliot.

What will he do next? He is not sure. Mary Poppins [He choreographed the Broadway show.] and Edward Scissorhands took ten years. He is taking a year off and possibly will work on a small production that has a chance to fail. It is a privelege he has because of the other shows he is involved with. Play without Words, which had been performed at BAM, was meant to be a two week production not a touring show.

How did he choose Edward Scissorhands to adapt as most in the audience could probably think of a film or work they would love for him to adapt. He felt the film was driven by music and he is attracted to outsider characters. It is great for a designer since it is both gothic and suburban. The music is the main thing.

How do his works change over time? The audience may not notice but those involved know all the changes that are there. He changes the choreography and states that he is an “absolute meddler in my own work.” He says he cannot watch DVDs of his works as they are fixed entities. In Swan Lake there is a new cellphone gag that hadn’t been in previously.

Has he ever rejected an idea outright as being to crazy to do? He doesn’t reject anything that he has thought of. It may be recycled into the next project he works on.

He has learned from directors he has worked with on Oliver! (Cameron Mackintosh) Sam Mendes, Trevor Nunn.

His dancers talk like actors. At the National Theatre he asked for the principals to be called actors. There is still a heirarchy where dancers are at the bottom and it is also a matter of payscale. Even in the small roles they are creating a whole character’s world they call them performers.

An Italian journalist asks where he gets his spark of creativity from. He brings ideas together for a big idea. With Swan Lake it was the idea of the male swans and royal scandal. Is his lover an animal, a man or in his head.

For Cinderella, Prokofiev wrote it in the time of WWII so set it there.

Car Man was inspired by the Postman Always Rings Twice.

Who would he like to work with? He generally looks to the past for inspiration but he would like to work with Rufus Wainwright.

I’m glad I went to the talk. I had seen Swan Lake in Tel Aviv so it was very cool to hear him discuss his work. Am going to make sure to see this Edward Scissorhands production.

More Matthew Bourne on Edward Scissorhands here. Below are related photos and media:

Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake (Matthew Bourne)

The Car Man (Matthew Bourne)

Tchaikovsky – Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! / Matthew Bourne, Anthony Ward

Edward Scissorhands (Collectible Tin Anniversary Edition)

Charlie Rose with Tim Burton; Johnny Depp (November 15, 1999)

Edward Scissorhands: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Edward Scissorhands

Dance Magazine

Songs:

Korin Allal and Eran Zur – Cshe’zeh Amok – Hebrew Lyrics
Korin Allal and Eran Zur – Tmuna Impressionistit – Hebrew Lyrics
Eran Zur – Parparei Ta’atu’a – Hebrew Lyrics
Eran Zur – Leilot Shel Yareah Maleh – Hebrew Lyrics
Korin Allal – Motek – Hebrew Lyrics
Korin Allal – Ein Li Eretz Aheret – Hebrew Lyrics – Was kinda fun to listen to this song in a roomful of Israelis who have chosen to live in NYC.
Korin Allal – Hataba’at Nafla – Hebrew Lyrics
Korin Allal – Zan Nadir – Hebrew Lyrics – Not Zan Adir
Korin Allal – Eretz Ktana Im Safam – Hebrew Lyrics

Aqualung were fun as ever with a mix of old and new songs and cute banter. Pressure Suit is available as of today. I finally have a women’s aqualung shirt….damn American Apparrel….some of their XLs fit and some of them don’t….the cute Memory Man shirt fits! Lee and I both wanted shirts, the trouble was they didn’t take credit cards and we didn’t have cash so we ran out to get money from a nearby ATM (at the bodega where I ran to get batteries during the Robyn Hitchcock/Mark Pickerel gig)….the stupid machine wouldn’t take my card but did take Lee’s card. We ran back and the doors to the venue were closed….we weren’t too worried because the drummer was outside smoking a cigarette but I had left my camera with Jason and Kate and we definitely needed to get back in there….thankfully Jason thought to come out to open the door for us….

We then got to talk to Matt and I asked him to sign the Strange and Beautiful poster I got at the closing Tower Records (R.I.P) for me and Kevin….Kevin sent me their music originally and Strange and Beautiful and Brighter than Sunshine were a part of our soundtrack for our long-distance relationship. We used to listen to them together/apart.

Below are photos and videos from the show and a link to their CDs on Amazon:

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Strange and Beautiful (Music) Artist:Aqualung Manufacturer:Sony Released:17 January, 2006

Memory Man (Music) Artist:Aqualung Manufacturer:Sony Released:13 March, 2007

Dateline Israel: New Photography and Video Art

Went to a preview of Dateline Israel: New Photography and Video Art at The Jewish Museum. Got free tickets through Dor Chadash. Went with Jocelyn and we both agreed to go in quick, check out the stuff, and leave before anyone gave a speech.

The image in the postcard is Pavel Wolberg‘s “Qualqilya (Outskirts)”, 2002. It is a small exhibit with some quality stuff. Though “New” is a bit relative here, most of the works are from the early 2000′s, I had seen many of the works in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem when I was living in Tel Aviv from ’99-’03. Among the artists featured are Pavel Wolberg, Miki Kratzman and Gillian Laub. I was surprised not to see any works by Adi Nes and I’m pretty sure I was at the protest featured in the film by Amit Goren.

The museum has free admission on Saturdays if you want to check it out through August 5th, 2007.

Chris Difford’s description here.

Squeeze will be performing some shows as a group again!

South East Side Story (Music) Artist:Chris Difford Manufacturer:Luna Records Released:19 September, 2006

I Didn’t Get Where I Am (Music) Artist:Chris Difford Manufacturer:Drt Released:17 February, 2004

Squeeze – Greatest Hits (Music) Artist:Squeeze Manufacturer:A&M Released:18 September, 2001

I had called a consignment shop that was supposed to have wedding gowns. When I told them my size they said don’t bother coming in. Bridal Garden told me they have a handful in my size.

After brunch at a nearby Le Pain Quotidien. I walked over with a few friends. Gina pointed us to the section that had dresses in my size. We pulled off about ten dresses for me to try on. At the second or third one I tried on my friends heard me say ooooh. It fit perfectly when I put it on. This is the dress I am buying, it will have some slight alterations done to it but I AM DONE!

We also found a veil by Henry Roth. No, I had never heard the name before but the thing is beautiful and also a headpiece by Nelson D’Leon. The dress is Lorry Couture, which I can’t find any information about online….but if fits perfectly so who cares.

The shop sells dresses, veils, tiaras and little flower sculptures you can add to hair arrangements of people in the bridal party. I really like the fact that at least the large chunk of change getting spent for one day is going to help needy children as opposed to just the purchase of something I will wear once in my life.

I called Bill to tell him about my excitement. He got all depressed saying that he had hoped I would be his one female friend who would not lose her mind when it was time to do wedding planning and get really into stupid surrounding hoopla….Button I was sharing shopping excitement with you not wedding excitement and I AM DONE. This was not long, prolonged and miserable as it could have been.

I highly recommend The Bridal Garden if you are shopping for a wedding dress in the NYC area.

I didn’t get there super-early. My mom talked to some folks who had made there way from North Carolina and had been waiting since about 2 AM. Doors opened at 8:00. We got there about 9:30. There were plenty of dresses. Some of them were really gorgeous. Prices ranged from $250 (for dresses that cost about 900-1000) to $699. Some famous designers are in the mix.

Brides come with teams in matching silly hats and t-shirts. Though from what I’ve read about Boston it’s definitely not as crazy. Teams in NYC were happily trading gowns.

Here’s the thing – if you are not a size 10 or under it may not be worth your time. There are tons of amazing dresses for skinny folks…I am generally a size 10-14 (with broad shoulders). In theory bridal gowns should be one size up. I found that I could not close anything under a 16. Was trying on the few 16 and 18s I could find. My mom pointed out the ridiculousness of bridal gown sizes going up in number, at the time when you should feel your most attractive…There were also a couple of size 24s that were kind of ugly.

Also, if you do go take water and maybe snacks with you – wedding dresses are heavy so it is a workout to try them on for a few hours…staying hydrating is probably a good idea to keep you from getting irritated during what should be a happy, fun time.

Looking for any recommendations (NY based preferrable) for affordable wedding gowns that are not backless…in larger sizes.

Update: Wedding Dress Shopping Is Done

Khalifa Natour

Saw In Spitting Distance a one man show written by Taher Najib, performed by Khalifa Natour and directed by Ofira Henig as part of the Israel Non-Stop Festival 2007. Official description: “Winner of the first prize in Israel’s TheaterNetto Festival, this moving and ironic personal drama touches on all the complexities of the Israeli/Palestinian situation. Experience a rare collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian artists in this humorous yet painful story of a Palestinian actor with an Israeli passport trying to travel from Paris to Tel-Aviv to Ramallah on September 11, 2002.”

Winning first prize at the Theaternetto festival is a big deal. It is a really amazing international theater festival in Tel Aviv for one-person shows.

The show itself is funny, in the everyman against spirit-crushing beaurocracy to the point of the absurd where the only reaction you can have is to laugh in the face of it. Reminiscent of this recent story about US immigration officials. I could definitely picture it as a short film (the words and acting were really vivid) and told the actor so after the show.

Ofira Henig the director and Khalifa Natour the actor were on hand for questions after the show.

The first question, more of a comment, related to what big important statement they were making = how wonderful…She said: “I am an artist before I am an Israeli.” This had me wondering how long it takes before you can say that earnestly without a shred of self-doubt. So at this moment I wanted to hate her but I really enjoyed the rest of the comments so good on her. She commented that they did not want to be seen as an example of coexistence – a thing she believes does not exist. This is their story, a personal story, art, no conclusions should be drawn to either side from it and this is the most important political act they could do.

The next question asked if the play wasn’t too kind to the horrors that exist in the region. Her response was that this was a Palestinian’s playwright’s story. She was not directing the story of the Palestinian People, only the story of Taher and Khalifa. She continued to the questioner: You are looking for a demonstration, maybe. But Art shouldn’t be propoganda, it shouldn’t give answers. It should be more complicated than that and should make you ask questions.

Khalifa joins the conversation a bit late. They both relate that in Palestinian theater the question of who is telling whose story is important. They would like to perform the play more but they are both involved in other projects and the play was produced independently, not as part of a theater company’s repertory.

She likens theater that demonstrates its politics to being sick on an audience. She does this less so in her later work even though she feels she is more radical than ever. She feels you have to touch the audience. You can’t punch or browbeat them. You need to make them feel something. I appreciate this sentiment a lot. I hate being at a performance and feeling like I am being hit over the head with a sledgehammer with the MESSAGE. She continues that they both work on works by Oscar Wilde, Chekhov and Shakespeare. Again she views this as the most political act one can do. That there should be issues of aesthetics and sophistication in art not just what you think.

When asked about the minimalism of the direction she responded it was a lesson in modesty. Not everything has to be Broadway. A good actor, text, lighting and music – you don’t really need anything else.

When asked about the play’s effect on Israeli and Palestinian audiences (It is performed in both Hebrew and Arabic) the response is that it has a big effect on Israelis because of the questions it raises within them. Is it about them, it makes them smile, theyr elate to it. That enjoyment raises questions and it’s quite strong though usually it is the people who are already convinced who attend.

The Palestinians feel immediate empathy. At the Arabic premier in Acco (Acre) there was a full house and from the very first word the audience was with him, identifying with his character immediately. They laugh really hard and empathize. They are laughing at themselves.

In Switzerland was the first performance they ever had abroad. There was complete silence. There were no Israelis or Palestinians in the crowd – all Swiss. They were panicked. It turns out they were really into it. They remembered every word but they didn’t allow themselves to laugh at the situation and to find the irony and humor in it.

There is a fine tradition of Gallows Humor. While this play is about facing beaurocracy rather than death – it comes from that same place where you can cry (with defeat or rage) or laugh so why not laugh or at least giggle hysterically.

For those who don’t know the One Laptop Per Child project aims to address the growing gap between technological haves and have nots in developing countries.

Below is my summary of his talk. I admit I don’t necessarily understand the more technical aspects of it:

The first thing he pointed out it is a humanitarian effort. It is not getting done for the sake of invention (though they are doing neat stuff) and not for the purpose of selling the machines being developed. He showed an image of an inventory of supplies from a Nigerian school. 1 first aid kit, 1 lever (for science lessons) a handful of items – these are their tools to learn.

The countries they are specifically targetting for now are Nigeria, Brazil and Libya. The project was originally the brainchild of the MIT Media Lab, whos goal 25 years ago was to get laptops into the hands of normal people. Now their goal has shifted slightly – to get laptops into the hands of kids, cheaply. There are technological problems with doing so, the details of which are later in the post. First, a little more about the project itself

OLPC is now a separate organization from the Media Lab and employs 14 people fulltime. (They reside across the street.)

They have some huge partners on the project: UNDP (UN technology group) eBay, Google, AMD, Nortel, News Corp., Quanta Computers (Makers of 1/3 of computers made today which are then rebranded – it is an entire city in Taiwan.), SES Global, Redhat, Brightstar, CNI, MEI, Marvell.

Of special consideration is the environmet the laptop has to be delivered to. Issues include, occasional power, occasional connectivity, physical environment that can be very dusty and hot (hottest recorded temperature in Libya was 58 Celsius = 136.4 Fahrenheit, cost has to be manageable (100$ pricepoint goal).

Unique attributes of the machine related to these issues are that it can be used in direct sunlight, it has low power usage, connectivity is via a mesh – each machine is a router in addition to a client, rugged construction and low cost.

Display is 71/2 inches across. Can be used in color or grayscale, is low cost, is 1200×900 at 200 dpi. He explains that most displays are powered by halogen when backlit – when this goes out the display is gone. Also uses a lot of energy – 20 watts. Here they are using LEDs instead of halogens and can get full brightness at 1 watt. In reflective mode it is a tiny amount.

In terms of power consumption they have a goal of 2 watts during average use. Partly due to the unique display, also the machines suspends “early and often.” In response to a question from the audience he says it takes less than 100 miliseconds to suspend and 50 miliseconds to resume. It can handle different kinds of power where most laptops are sensitive and need to use a specific plug and source. Here you are in places where people may be carting around car batteries as a portable power source. It regulates “dirty” energy well; DC not AC. There will also be human power devices. They will better than the hand crank on earlier models, which Koffee Annan broke it off during a demonstration….oops! It will be something like a yoyo or chord on a lawnmower.

With regard to networking: it uses mesh networking, has an autonomous wireless chip, bunny ears (people underestimate the power of a good antenna) ad-hoc connectivity, UI for networking environment. While in the Australian outback someone got it to work at 1.3 kilometers away from another point, usual would be about 600 meters. In response to a question the network chip is from Marvell, it has a driver and its own OS and when it is off it will still forward packets for others. He is hoping they will release the code at some point.

The machine uses 800 miliwatts in suspend mode, It gets 10 hours per charge at normal usage.

With regard to the rugged construction: it has no moving parts, no fan, very few connectors, internal bumpers, rigid construction and it is sealed (dust issue) also there is a rubber keyboard which is actually more expensive so it can be washed. He hopes that one day they will be able to throw it in a dishwasher – have to solve issues of disipating heat and sealing even moreso.

In response to questions: It will have 802.11 style bandwith, it should be better than cellphones, would like each machine to have an individual ip address, but there is a shortage in ip addresses, there are some universities in India where the whole school shares an ip address. Goal: ipv6 internet.

Currently they have reached an approximate $150 price point for the first generation. It is a different economic model than with most technology. They don’t want to add features. They are happy to use older processers to drop the cost. It weighs about 4.7 pounds – most of which is the batteries.

With regard to issues involved in designing for kids: He admits they are doing something new and it may not work. They have a desktop that is very iconic since text is hard to internationalize. (There are different keyboards being built for different countries.)

Elements of Sugar (the OS). It has an activity model (there aren’t applications rather activities.) It has a zoom metaphor, presence model, frame and journal.

Zoom: kind of like in a game where you can see the map view or actual view. You can zoom in to your activity. A bit further out you see only you and the options you have. A bit further out you can see your friends. Further still you can see everyone represented on your screen and what activities they are a part of. There is chat built into all activities (uses XMPP chat protocol).

Frame: a rectangle border around the screen. Top has zoom features. Right side has representations of your friends (can hover over their icon and a name and picture will appear). Left has a clipboard. Bottom has activities you can take part in. All icons based.

Responding to audience: OLPC is part of a vision. It is not about one in a classroom or five per school. An entire country or region has to commit to one laptop per child.

Ages 5-6 can begin with it. The goal is to have the activies scale to different skill sets as the kids grow with the machine. For example TamTam is a music player with 3 versions. 1. player 2. track editor 3. synthesizer. It is an important concept having a low barrier for entry but no ceiling.

How hackable is it? Will 7 or 8 yr olds be taking it apart? It is all in Python and is simple to hack and add stuff. Can get at the nodes. Should be able to change the UI over time. It would be the same model as firefox extensions.

Squeek/Small Talk has an etoys distribution for it for drawing. A choice was made to use Python because it was quick to do. Some will be redone in C to make it smoother. Always with an eye to be accessible and open.

Have you considered working with poor communities in developed countries? Not yet. Some talk of working with aboriginal communities in Australia and Canada but it is not the first goal coming out of the gate. In the developed world you have to support everything – AIM, Windows, Office. We can affect millions of kids in the developing world if we stay focused. Libya has 1.2 billion million kids. [source for number] China and India were too large to start with.

The UI is it ASCII or Unicode? Have you considered making it a tablet since people are familiar with using pens? It uses Unicode, there is a different keyboard for each country. There are issues with languages. Spanish, Portugeuse, Arabic. Arabic is hard because of combining characters. Thai is nearly impossible – there are no spaces between words, you need a dictionary for linebreaking. But there is a good team working on the languages end. It has a dual mode touch pad on this demo but it has electrical problems so they are not sure if they are keeping it. 1.5 or 2.0 should have a touchscreen.

Tech support? Kids should be ale to do it themselves or just replace the machine at $150. Designed so it can be fixed but at that pricepoint you may not need to.

How do things like files, moving things, names work? You save things in your journal. It is time-based like a weblog. You cans end items in your journal, make them public, can add metadata so you can describe and search through it. Top of frame also has a search bar. Learning for kids is about creation and exploration. Journal replaces a file system. Visibility of an item helps remind how current it is. There is a 1/2 gig of storage. The model is one of working with a full hard drive at all times where older items naturally fall off. It has 3 USB ports so a USB key (pendrive) may make the journal bigger.

Could you boot another OS off the key? Yes. Has run Eudora Fedora on it in the right configuration.

Zoom metaphor works with the search too.

Activity bundles. They are self-contained programs. Easy to give to someone else. Would contain their own dependency files. (with Debian packages can have dependency issues, needing to download tons of other stuff to get something to work) With limited storage have to consider what you are adding. Model is of a toolbar. You chould be able to drag it and give it. It is free so you wouldn’t have licensing problems.

How do you build Sugar? It is not well-documented yet but there was a recent article in Redhat magazine.

In short it is about learning. Encourages sharing (people work in groups on activities, share their journals, extensions), creation and exploration. It is easy for people who haven’t used computers but can grow with the person.

How to get involved: wiki.laptop.org, Sugar mailing list + HIG (Human Interface Guidelines), read the article in Redhat magazine, write an activity, Development Mailing List, Fedora (it is based on Fedora and constantly trying to fix dependency issues)

Isn’t this ambitious? First thought: Crazy, insane, may be throwing away my career, then Holy crap this is gonna work.

There are about 12-14 fulltime employees with an army of programmers around it. There are 6 Redhat people and 150 Quanta people. We are small, not corporate, focused on this humanitarian nonprofit venture. Vista is for a monopoly in business and entertainment users.

Will it be used by adults too? In Cambodia, Nicholas has seen laptops used as a primary light source! Access to information will be there for adults too.

Can you switch to console mode? Yes, but there should be so many activities so you never get bored.

Has it been tested with kids since 10 or 15 years ago Apple did a test with kids with a mouse and the GUI (graphic user interface) and most couldn’t figure it out. Beginning to do some testing in Brazil. Also, laptops will be dropped off with a person who will train local people for about a month about the mouse, frame, zoom and interaction. Maybe it will work maybe it won’t but trying. It is about the kids and the organization learning.

How many are projected to go out? 3-4 Million in the first year. 50-100 million in the next year. For perspective 40 million laptops were made last year; 1 billion cellphones.

The laptops are darned cute. It was really fun to see all the adults in the room go up to play with them and trying to figure out how to use the camera in it – they have cameras too!

I asked Christopher if he was concerned about laptops being stolen and sold on a black market. He said they are working on implementing solutions such as having the laptops go dead if they are away from the school base for too long.

He was a great speaker and a nice guy. He was happy to answer questions in the middle of the presentation and wasn’t thrown off. It went a little over time. The NYLUG then went to a bar – I went home because I hadn’t really planned on being out. It was really interesting though and I’m glad I went. I was worried that it would be too techy for me to follow. It made me wish I could program…we’ll see how long that lasts – I’ll probably just ask Kevin to do stuff for me and he’ll say no :-) .

One of the words Christopher used to describe working on the project was creepy… I asked if he meant because it was such a large idea that can have an impact? He said not exactly. Maybe it has to do with an earlier comment he made about being a bunch of geeky tech guys who have no notion of the environment these machines will go into on a personal level. [Update: His answer here.]

On a different note it was a geekthrill to be at Google. They provided some nice food and drinks (including alcohol served by people in suits and foody uniforms.). Even the woman who greeted people at the door and showed people where the restrooms are had a big smile on her face. They must be a good employer…

This is an amazing idea. And the technological advances will benefit everyone (I know that’s not the goal) but we all want a screen that would work in direct sunlight and use less power no?

I think it makes sense to do twinning communities or children with the OLPC project. A wealthier community could buy one for the price of two and then those children in the communities would have a connection and ongoing contact. This would be like Jewish Federations twin cities or how in the 80′s people had a bar mitzvah with someone in the USSR who couldn’t have one. Another thought could be getting people to buy an OLPC laptop when they buy a computer for themselves or their kids. Maybe some of the corporate sponsors of the projects could offer credit for doing so.

This is another one of those moments where I think – this is the future – I want it now. :-D

Setlist:

1. Asbury Park
2. Damn Good Times
3. Bee Of The Bird Of The Moth
4. Fingertips
5. We Live In A Dump
6. Birdhouse In Your Soul
7. E Eats Everything
8. Why Did You Grow A Beard?
9. We’re The Replacements
10. Till My Head Falls Off
11. She’s An Angel
12. Experimental Film
13. Robot Parade
15. The Day
16. Spy
17. Older
18. Why Does The Sun Shine?
19. Alphabet Of Nations
20. Dr. Worm
21. Meet James Ensor
22. The Famous Polka
23. Drink!

Encore:

24. Feast Of Lights
25. Santa’s Beard
26. Snail Shell
27. This Damn Band
28. Twisting

Encore:

29. Don’t Let’s Start
30. Turn Around

Have nothing to add to this review which is ridiculously thorough with the banter. The opening act was The Last Car with Chris Anderson, Robin “Goldie” Goldwasser, and Amy Miles. They were good (they sing songs about Mr. T) they had to be – tickets were mislabeled with a Doors time of 8:00. Doors were at 9:00 (and it was cold!) and The Last Car went on at 10:00. TMBG went on at 11:00. We got out at 1:10…no Hanukkah party at Jocelyn’s for me but a great time was had by all.

Lee’at’s mom drove us to the show…Thank you Ann…We are again 15 instead of 30.

A User’s Guide to They Might Be Giants (Music) Artist:They Might Be Giants Manufacturer:Elektra / Wea Released:03 May, 2005

The Beautiful South
Cakeshop
Ludlow Street
New York City, NY
6th November, 2006

01 Especially For You
02 The River
03 Pretty Things
04 Manchester
05 Old Red Eyes Is Back
06 Prettiest Eyes
07 Paul’s Poem
08 Rotterdam
09 One Last Love Song
10 Perfect 10
11 Let Love Speak Up Itself
12 Don’t Marry Her

Performers:
Paul Heaton – vocals
Dave Rotheray – guitar
Dave Hemingway – vocals
Alison Wheeler – vocals
Tony Robinson – trumpet/backing vocals
Gaz Birtles – backing vocals
Kev Brown – backing vocals

The Beautiful South’s new CD is really worth checking out.

Superbi (Music) Artist:The Beautiful South Manufacturer:Sony / Bmg Import Released:20 July, 2006

I’ve gotten a recording of the show at Cake Shop (thank you leohilarious – also for a correction on the last line of the poem.) and have transcribed Paul Heaton’s poem below. If you have any corrections please comment.

Paul Heaton’s Poem

When hip-hop’s selling perfume
And boy band’s selling grief
The blues man’s market life insurance just won’t flip underneath
Jazz just chucks its concrete into transparent handkerchief
Everything is anything to anyone

The butchers sell you pantyhose
The supermarket sells you land
And the news really likes to read the news but he’s also in a band
And feminism’s fast asleep with a cock in either hand
Everything is anything to everyone

Modern, modern man is a man of many lives
So we decorate, we imitate, we duplicate their lives
It’s the sound of octopuses giving infinite high fives
Everybody’s business is show business

And the indoors wants you Oliver
And the outdoors wants you Audi
The bank they want a Tex or Hank
And the mic wants Pavarotti
Kitchen, garden, wardrobe, property in the sun
Everything is anything to everyone

The newsagent sells you holidays
The travel shop sells you sand
The local vicar saves your soul
But he also saves the damned
Nothing’s black and white no more
Just permanently tanned
Everything is everything to everyone

Locate, locate, locate
Locate the victim’s house
Swap their wives
And take their lives
And turn them inside out
Nothing left in closet
Nothing left in doubt
Everything is anything to everyone

Modern, modern woman
Is juggling many lives
Duplicating, decorating, imitating lives
To the sound of a million whistling wolves
From the ground of a thousand building sites
Everybody’s business is show business

And the thin are getting thinner
And the big are getting bigger
Till 5 and 75 year olds worry about their figure
The big are getting bigger
The thin are getting thinner
Till everyone is looking at everyone else’s dinner
And we shave our heads to make us look thin
Till the whole fucking Earth’s of fat bald skin
To the fitness instructors and the owners of the gym
I see piling down from the balcony of the trim
And there’s your space, MySpace, their big mouth
Turns everything and everyone inside out
Your tube, Me tube, everybody spout
Everything is anything and nowt is fucking nowt

Videos found on YouTube below:

His Cd is worth getting and apparently his dad drew the amazing cover below.

Snake in the Radio (Music) Artist:Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands Manufacturer:Bloodshot Records Released:09 May, 2006

Video of Mark Pickerel performing Forest Fire:

For a great look at Sun Records – originally saw it at a midnight showing at Doc Aviv:

Good Rockin’ Tonight – The Legacy of Sun Records (DVD) Manufacturer:Image Entertainment Released:08 October, 2002

PBS site here
Reviews here and here.
ITVS page with discussion guide
Film Credits
DVD for Sale
DVD for Sale

Robyn Hitchcock was in excellent form…during his banter he brought up the recent excellent story that has come out about elephants going crazy.

Mark Pickerel : Forest Fire

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Robyn Hitchcock : Snippet of Madonna of the Wasps
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Snake in the Radio (Music) Artist:Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands Manufacturer:Bloodshot Records Released:09 May, 2006

Olé! Tarantula (Music) Artist:Robyn Hitchcock, The Venus 3 Manufacturer:Yep Roc Records Released:03 October, 2006

Good Rockin’ Tonight – The Legacy of Sun Records (DVD) Manufacturer:Image Entertainment Released:08 October, 2002

Media and the Politics of Food

When it comes to food, what you don’t know can hurt you, and it can be hard to keep up with each new healthy way to eat. Join the experts in a discussion of new trends and old facts, what to believe and why. With Nina Planck (creator and manager of farmers markets; author, Real Food), Mary Cleaver (Chef, the Green Table) Jay Weinstein, (chef; author, The Ethical Gourmet) Peter Pringle (author, Food, Inc.) and Ed Levine (author, New York Eats; New York Eats (More); co-author, Pizza: A slice of Heaven).” From the Housing Works Used Book Cafe Website

This really is not how it went but some interesting issues were raised during the evening. Each person started by explaining a bit about what they write about.

Journalist, author Peter Pringle began by explaining he tries to take a middle path – take everything with a grain of salt whether it is Monsanto or Greenpeace. His book is Food, Inc.: Mendel to Monsanto — The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest. Some people call them genetically modified foods and some people call them Frankenfoods. Do research like a journalist. He mentions the 355 Promoter Gene gotten from Cauliflower Mosaic Virus as an example. Anti-gm foods sites list this as very scary – he calls this a myth of green people. It is used in many gm-foods. [Site claiming it's scary, PDF claiming it's not scary, Falling in the middle - it's probably not scary.]

Nina Planck has written a book called Real Food. Real Food are old foods, traditional foods like wild salmon, raw milk, eggs, butter (she mentions butter a lot – must be a favorite). These are foods prepared in the same way they were many years ago and are not tampered with in some industrial fashion. She posed a question – why are people on seemingly healthy diets (according to the media) getting sick? What is responsible for obesity, diabetes, heart disease? Her conclusion is that it is industrial foods as opposed to real foods that are responsible for these ills. Nutritional advice given is politically correct but not nutritionally correct. The Food Pyramid is fattening America.

Mary Cleaver is a caterer known for using local food. She begins the evening mentioning how in 1977 you could not buy local produce if you wanted to. It is about that time that Green Markets started – making it a lot easier.

Jay Weinstein has written The Ethical Gourmet. He talks about how everyday choices we make about food have an impact. Fish can be endangered by fertilizer run-off – choose a non-endangered fish over an endangered one. Coffee and chocolate bought can be fair trade or produced by slaves in Africa. Social and environmental ills are connected to food. Everyday choices like should you buy an organic apple from New Zealand or a regular one that is local (from NY). [He would vote for the local one because of the environmental cost of transporting the organic apple. At the same time he would choose organic milk because the animals are treated better. Ideally, you should get local, organic products.] It is about environmentally sound choices for him.

Ed Levine the moderator at this point raises the question of price as some of these choices are more expensive. Jay Weinstein’s response is that you should do what you can. Nina Planck responds too that price is but one attribute of food. There is also nutrition, flavor, provenance. Jay Weinstein brings up the problem of petroleum in transport. This made me think of ecological footprint calculators.]

Peter Pringle mentions Texmati rice at this point as an example where you should look a second time. The genes for the rice crop were taken from Indian Basmati Rice Farmers and recreated in the U.S. This has destroyed the economy of the farmers from far away. Again a question of impact.

Nina Planck adds that one should use their dollars to affect change in a capitalist marketplace. And Peter’s comment relates to Regional Foods as a subsection of Real Foods.

Back to Jay Weinstein who talks about bottled water. In a place where it is unecessary (NY and other major U.S. cities have good tap water) it is the fastest growing beverage industry. Mentions a ridiculous example of bottled water being shipped to Arkansas from Minnesota and also from Minnesota to Arkansas – all the while causing air pollution along the route and pollution runoff from shipping is polluting water, destroying waterways.

Jay Weinstein again brings up non-endangered vs. endangered fish such as eating non-endangered Arctic char vs. salmon. Cream Cheese and Arctic Char Lox anyone?

At this point I commented to Jocelyn that the evening wasn’t what I thought it would be…

Next Nina Planck asserts that journalists are not doing their jobs when it comes to these issues. And that there are issues for family farmers regarding organic certification. (Her background is that growing up her family ran a farm.) Many family farmers can’t afford certification. She talks about the importance of farmers at farmer’s markets making positive statements about their food – explaining what they do and don’t do to the customers directly.

The conversation goes back to genetically modified foods and biotechnology. Genetic modification of foods can be about environmental, health, human goals. Some crops require fewer pesticides because of GM at the same time these solutions are tied to big companies. Sometimes useful research is shelved for lack of profit in using it. Biotech is not all bad – especially if you have ever used vegetable rennet (in cheeses) or insulin.

At this point Nina Planck mentions that she is taliban on truth in advertising – here in the context of what is in food and whether it is GM or not. But it seems to me like a strange metaphor to use ever.

At this point the audience asks questions:

The first question is about Raw Milk and the link to TB addressed to Nina since she is a proponent of drinking raw milk.

She responds that is a complex answer (check her website for a more complete answer) but in short pasteurization was a response to unhealthy cows and unhygenic dairys historically. There is now testing and better conditions.

Someone asks about vegetarianism as an ethical choice.

Jay Weinstein fields this question by stating it can be an ethical choice and also you should source your meat. If you can, find out where it is coming from, how is the animal treated, how far away is it coming from. Nina Planck mentions http://www.paleodiet.com/ Jay Weinstein continues with the point that we are overfed in the U.S…We can eat less and pay the same (making ethical choices.) The percentage we spend as Americans on our food out of our total budgets is much smaller than Europeans or Chinese. Maybe we should be spending a higher percentage making ethical choices. (YEs, not really related to the question but vaguely on the ethical choice part.)

The next question is about soy and the controversy over plant estrogen, thyroid disruption, how it is banned in some places – that it has anti-nutrients that don’t allow you to take in calcium and Magnesium – how it is not a good source of protein

Nina Planck responds that the amino acids are not in the right ratio. It is not a first class protein like meat, dairy, eggs, fish. She recommends reading The Whole Soy Story and looking up information from the Weston Price Foundation.This question is a big deal to me – I will have to do the research – I definitely use soy as a protein source as a vegetarian.

The conversation then turned to the importance of patent reform. This includes issues like biotheft from the third world (like with the rice strain.) Foods can be stolen and patented and then the original communities cannot sell their own products. An example given at this point is canary beans. Greed can be a problem. Interesting how this returns to the issue of free culture too. Around the time of this panel discussion blogs were commenting on Yahoo!’s application for a patent for Flickr’s interestingness feature. (boingboing, technorati search)

The panel talks about Hunger is an issue of politics and distribution not an issue of production. Some of the solutions to food scarcity have come from genetic modification of food. At the same time it raises some dilemmas. At one point African nations with starving populations refused GM crops from the U.S. [My comment on media coverage at the time: To begin with it seemed like an unsophisticated choice and that they were refusing it because of a GM Food bogeyman they were afraid of.] Peter Pringle points out that they did not want to accept the crops because their main exports of their crops are to the EU. The EU refuses to import GM foods. They were actually afraid of contaminating their crops so that they could no longer provide exports to the EU. They were weighing future costs of accepting the food. [Some cynically accused the U.S. of offering these crops to them as a way of getting GM foods in to the EU on the backs of starving nations.]

Nina Planck goes on to talk about how important it is to demand labeling of food. For example the current labeling of trans-fat in foods. This is important as the National Academy of Sciences has declared there is no safe level of trans-fat. [Saturated fat is also bad for you so don't get too excited if a food you're looking at has no trans-fat but tons of saturated fat.] New York City has become the first U.S. city to ban trans-fat in restaurants. Restaurants won’t be able to use most frying oils with artificial trans fats by July, and will have to get rid of the artificial trans fats from all foods by July, 2008.

Jay Weinstein then explains the differences in the UPC numbers on fruit stickers. A four-digit number means it is conventional fruit. A five-digit number starting in 9 means it is organic fruit. A five-digit number starting in 8 means it is genetically modified. He points out it is a great way to check if your local stores are labeling/pricing their fruit correctly. This was cool – I never knew this.

An audience member asks for the panel to recommend sources of information:

They don’t really answer the question. They tell the crowd to do a lot of research – to check studies to see who is funding them. They explain that most newspapers do not have staff dedicated to food issues. Even the NY Times only has three people on staff – which may explain the dearth of useful information. Someone recommend food writer “Pete Wells,” a google search reveals he is a Brooklyn -based writer who has written for Food & Wine, New York, Time Out NY and Salon.com.

Jay Weinstein brings up Wallet Cards put out by the Blue Ocean Institute, The Audobon Society and Monterey Bay Aquarium that advise on sustainable seafood eating choices.

The next audience member goes on for a long time about how she is a documentary filmmaker, anthropologist, foreigner about knowing your body about quality of food as a false issue about how snacks are an American concept about Community Supported Agriculture about going to the Amazon in Brazil and talking to indigenous people about the effects of the soy industry about (soy?) corporations clearing land and infiltrating communities. She went on for a long time and made it sound like evil corporate farmers were murdering indigenous community farmer babies in their sleep….

The end note of the panel was that you don’t need to sacrifice pleasure, choices you make have an impact and do as much research as you can.

Mary Cleaver didn’t say very much throughtout the whole evening.

Peter Pringle was definitely a character who threw in random comments when he felt like it – maybe I just like him because he’s British.

Nina Planck had a lot of opinions that seemed informed – I definitely would want to read her stuff on her website. It seemed like she had a lot to say – and she tried to get a lot out. But, it was a bit grim – though she did just give birth (mom was holding the baby in the back of the crowd) maybe it wasn’t grim just tiredness.

Jay Weinstein raised some interesting points about choices we make. Specifically enjoyed the comment about mine al water, the trick with fruit UPC codes and the resource of seafood lists (though they’re not relevant in my life). It was funny he seemed to have preconceived notions of what the members of the panel would support so at some point when he was trying to raise positive points about GM foods he turned to Peter for back-up. Nina was right next to him and saying how she had actually worked as a spokesperson for GM foods and did not have an issue with them on principle. He didn’t hear her and was physically turning away to get support from one of the men. She was literally in the spot right next to him it was a bit weird.

Ed Levine was a bit worthless as a moderator. He made random comments on somewhat food-related subjects and didn’t do much moderating. At times it seemed like the Nina and Jay Show with a sprinkling of Peter Pringle.

Conclusion: Would invite Peter to a dinner party. Would invite Mary and seat her next to someone extroverted or have her cater yum! Probably would not invite the rest.

Spoiler Alert: Midway through the film the title gets changed to “Home for Thanksgiving” An audience member asked if this was based on events that had happened to the panel. Response from Christopher Guest: These things have happened in Hollywood. Not many people know that “Star Wars” started out as “Home for Purim.” Yoda was a Mohel. There’s also a snippet in the film where they make fun of Charlie Rose‘s interview style. Christopher Guest is asked if he is worried about being on the show. His response is a deadpan “I’ve been on Charlie Rose…I’ve been on Charlie Rose.” The group also commented on the talent of fellow actor Fred Willard – let him do his thing and stand back. Parker Posey commented on the difference between working wiith Christopher Guest as opposed to a clueless director who asks you to throw in some random improv into a scene. The actors in the film came in their own costume and character development choices within the framework of the film and on occasion surprised their costars who had to work with, react, improv with what was brought. Another story about the evening here.

After that went with Nick to get 99 Cent Pizza on 41st and Ninth Ave. It is across from a homeless center and a homeless gentleman asked us for some spare change to get a slice. Nick gave him enough for a slice and a half or two. He then suggested I should marry Nick – a good catch. Nick is great and I hope he finds his special someone.

The Darien Dilemma

Then I went to see a great documentary, The Darien Dilemma, at Makor as part of their Reel Jews festival. A father and his filmmaker son explore the previously untold story of 1,000 Viennese Jews stranded on the frozen Danube River in 1941 as they awaited their would-be rescuer, Ruth Klieger, an agent of the newly created Mossad.

Erez Laufer weaves together interviews with the survivors, archival film, dramatic re-enactments (including scenes of the actors’ preparation – it seems like they stand in for the audience while they get inside the characters’ heads.) and footage of his father the screenwriter.

The director Erez Laufer was at the screening. He notes that the footage of a ship in the film is actually from a ship that set sail a few months prior to the Darien that was shot by a Hungarian sailor, but photos (of youth groups and a massacre) are original and directly linked to the story. Both in the film and in person he explains that his father started looking at archives to find out more about his own history and how his mother escaped Europe with him as a small child.

His father then became intrigued by this story of Ruth Klieger and partially with her reported beauty and alleged affair with David Ben-Gurion. She remained in Israel, worked as a PR person for shipping company ZIM and died in Tel Aviv in 1979.

The film is about her, and not less so about the filmmaker’s father. Through this film many survivors who were interviewed learned a fuller story of what happened when they were brought to Palestine.

It is worth seeing – it is made in an interesting way and tells a compelling and little-known story. Note to documentary filmmakers: Include your notes, interviews, arguments with your father the screenwriter…realize how much central characters may not know about what happened to them….You can buy tickets for December screenings on Makor’s website.

After the film I met Jocelyn and Lee at Bistro 60 for dessert. We had Tarte Tatin – Apple tart with crème fraîche. This is an amazing dessert. We devoured it – moaning all the way. Learned that Hebrew for “to moan” is גניחה – Geniha. Lee was shocked we didn’t know this word. Jocelyn’s response – I’m more of a screamer.

my flickr: The Beautiful South at Cake Shop

After the freemeet saw Flushed Away, the new animated film from Aardman Animation (Creature Comforts, Wallace & Gromit) and Dreamworks with Nick and Vincent. It is is a fun story about rats in England (much better than it sounds – if you are a fan of early Guy Ritchie work – there are some scenes you will love; the French frogs are fantastic) and has amazing actors doing the voices (Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslett, Ian McKellan, Jean Reno, Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis…). It’s not stop-motion animation but it still has some of the feel of Aardman work – there’s no mistaking the teeth. Not least of the fun is walking around Midtown pretending to be animated slugs – Eeeeeeeee!

Latest book

Going to see Bill Bryson tonight at Symphony Space. He will read from his new book about growing up in 1950s America. There is a great video for it at VidLit. I’ve been a huge fan ever since I read and listened to “A Walk in the Woods” about hiking the Appalachian Trail.

I may also just like that he is an American in England.

Sadly, it means I can’t go to tonight’s Forgotten-NY book signing and walking tour.

UPDATE: She’s got a website now: http://www.linallagunociani.com

The Treatment

Went to see the treatment by Eve Ensler at The Culture Project tonight. Dylan McDermott (Eve Ensler’s adopted stepson) is a soldier with post-traumatic stress over torture he committed in the line of duty. Portia is the psychologist and soldier tasked with the job of getting the goods on his superiors and treating his disorder.

It had some interesting ideas [about psychological trauma, treatment and torture, transferrence, duty and military life] but didn’t go deep enough with these ideas instead just bludgeoned the audience with a simple message in flat-out exposition about the rules having changed, rules are good, we need them blah blah blah. At some point he says something about not wanting to talk about his mother and then spilling out his guts about his mother. Isn’t that a tired trope at this point?

The playwright should be given credit for using her work to protest something she finds unjust. We don’t seem very involved with this war like Vietnam…maybe it’s because we have cable now – it is not the only thing going on in your living room. The cynical part of me sees it also as an attempt to be relevant – The Vagina Monologues came out in 1996.

It’s like Colombian artist Fernando Botero‘s new paintings based on Abu Ghraib now on exhibit at the Marlborough Gallery. He is a talented artist, known for his pleasant figures with exaggerated proportions (ok they’re fat). Someone may want to tell him prisoners don’t usually look like that. On the one hand, good for him for protesting something ugly with his work. On the other hand according to a recent New York Magazine piece: “The buzz, helped Botero pieces break records at auction this year, two selling for over $2 million each.”

Chris Thile

Chris Thile – How to Grow a Woman from the Ground Fantastic mandolin playing and a southern voice make for some good music. Check out the videos below for Chris Thile in action. The second song is from this CD and was written by Jack White of The White Stripes

Hilary Hahn

Hilary Hahn – Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1 / Spohr: Violin Concerto No. 8 – Gesangsszene She performs Paganini and Spohr with virtuosity. If you enjoy the thunder and calm a violin can inspire get this CD.

Below are 4 videos from Chris Thile’s start to the evening – he likens himself to the “musical corndog” of the evening compared to Hilary’s elegance and what a mighty fine corndog was he. I wish I had more memory cards to record more of this evening. The venue was packed and people were on their feet and cheering. More classical shows should have this unstuffy, rocking vibe to them. Guess they should keep combining with bluegrass.

Video 1/4: Untitled

Setlist

01 Everyone’s Rooting For You
02 Minor Detail
03 Dead Passengers
04 Dead End Mystery
05 Across The Land Intro
06 Across The Land
07 Across The Land Outro
08 Don’t Be Shallow
09 Once In A While
10 Days That Are Over
11 The Duper Sessions and Diaries Are For Girls
12 Phantom Punch and Stupid Mammories
13 (You Knocked Me) Off Of My Feet
14 Human Hands (Elvis Costello Cover)
15 After All (from Phantom Punch)
16 My Hair’s So Long Apology
17 Modern Nature (with Audience)
18 Till You Let Me Know (NEW SONG – not on Phantom Punch)
19 (I Wanna) Call It Love
20 Distortion Pedals
21 You Know So Well
22 Wet Ground (Phantom Punch)
23 Living Lounge
24 No One’s Gonna Come
25 Two Way Monologue
26 Encore – Tragic Mirror (Phantom Punch)

my flickr: NYC Photo Set

Jason Mraz and Toca Rivera at Housing Works Used Book Cafe.

All proceeds for all performances at this venue benefit Housing Works an advocacy and aid organization for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS.

The venue was so packed and sweaty it should have been group sex…it was my first real exposure to Jason Mraz – he was a cross between the laidbackness of John Mayer/Jack Johnson, the wackiness of early Barenaked Ladies mixed with random innocuous boybandness though most of his fans would probably kill me for saying so…

Another version of the audio here.

Great fansite here.

Other Videos here.

Posting 14 videos from that night below – sadly fullscreen on googlevideo doesn’t give you the true quality – don’t recommend looking at them at larger size.

1 Wordplay; Dramatica Mujer

2 Geek In The Pink

3 Mr. Curiosity (up tempo version)

4 Ghetto Blaster; Rocket Man; Tonight, Not Again

5 Plane

6 On Love, in Sadness

7 On Love, in Sadness (con’t.)

8 Talk (On working w/ Rachel Yamagata; on new guitarist); Unfold

9 Burning Bridges

10 Toca Joke

11 Please Don’t Tell Her

12 Talk (signs special edition with notebook of new cd for fan and poses for photo)

13 I’ll Do Anything (One Love); 0% Interest <-> Where Is The Love?

14 I’m Yours (incomplete)