In the past four days Roxie Hart (Penny Worth) bought me guacamole and chenin blanc. Velma Kelly (Carolyn Kirsh) gave me a rose. I heard a letter sent by Julie Andrews. Chita Rivera (star of too many broadway shows to name but notably West Side Story, Sweet Charity, and Chicago) bought me tea. I met the broadway producer and lighting designer Jules Fisher. AND...I've held Tony Walton's Oscar for Lifetime Achievement!
All this came to pass because of an email I received on February 27th. The mesage was from Geraldine, a french doctoral student, who was looking for some help with interviews she planned to conduct in New York. She didn't feel comfortable enough with English and wanted someone to serve as an interpreter. I agreed, unaware of her topic, just wanting the opportunity to speak French and perhaps add interpreting experience as a line on my resume. She later told me that her work was on the choreography of Bob Fosse. I love dance so I was interested in the topic but I assumed she would just interview other academics who study dance.
After nearly a month of communicating over email, Geraldine arrived in New York and we set a meeting time. The night before, I stayed up lated watching clips of Fosse choreography on YouTube. I had a basic familiarity with his work but I hadn't thought much about it. Having studied different forms of social dance and having a budding interest in more formal dance, I found myself with a deeper appreciation for Fosse's choregraphy.
So, I met with Geraldine for the lunch the next day to talk over how I could help before the first interview. It was then that learned that she intended to interview the people who worked with Fosse, people like Chita Rivera and Tony Walton! I was amazed but at the time the only names I really knew were Chita Rivera, Gwen Verdon, and of course Fosse. And I also learned was a sweet person Geraldine is. She brought me a bottle of Madame by Jean Paul Gaultier as a thank you gift and I hadn't even done anything yet! (She is really lovely, she brought gifts for every person she interviewed AND their assistants!)
After our meeting we had the first interview with Penny Worth, the dancer/actress who played Roxie Hart in the touring version of Chicago (she was also in Annie, Damn Yankees and host of other performances). She was extremely warm and friendly and told us wonderful stories about working with Bob Fosse. After the interview, she invited us to an event hosted by the organization Dancers over 40. The event was a tribute to choreographer Michael Kidd [Lil Abner, Guys and Dolls, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Bandwagon]. It was mesmerizing to hear the stories of dancers that worked with Kidd and how they see the dance/broadway world has changed over the years. After the tribute, Penny introduced Geraldine to Carolyn Kirsch who co-starred with her as Velma Kelly in Chicago we also met another man (whose name I've forgotten...so sorry!) that was a broadway dancer and worked with Fosse in Pippin.
As unbelievable as that day was, the following interviews kept getting better! We met with Chita Rivera who was so warm and open and full of energy. The interview was just a short hour long and I felt to disappointed when it ended. Her everyday speech is a performance, and she's a great storyteller. Just hearing her speak makes me want to start a broadway career (ha, yeah right, like that's even possible for me!) And after the interview she and her lovely assistant Rosie both gave us huge hugs.
Tony Walton was the most friendly and inviting person that we've met with the far. I, unfortunately, arrived slightly late for this interview. We were meeting in Mr. Walton's home (probably the most beautiful apartment I've ever been in) and when I had arrived there Geraldine had already taken a host of silly photos with Mr. Walton's Oscar! When I entered, he immediately offered me coffee and set off to make it himself. He was so gracious and engaged with both Geraldine
I was so impressed by the fact that these people, who have achieve so much and left a lasting mark on their profession, can be so humble and accessible. Every person we met was warm and really engaged. One thing I have learned in accompanying Geraldine on these interviews is how much heart, dedication, and passion it takes to be truly great at something. The people that she's interviewed are truly the greatest at what they do and the spirit, pain, and sacrifice that has gone into their work is so visible but even more than that is the love and passion for
I'd love to tell you all some of the great anecdotes I heard but you'll just have to wait and read them when Geraldine publishes her book!
Imagine...thousands of people duking it out with down-filled weaponry in space about as larger as a your high school auditorium. Feathers fly, cameras flash and you just try to keep you balance you are relentlessly assaulted with pillows.
And that my friends was the NYC Pillow Fight, an amazing event that happened down on wall street today. A group called newmindspace organizes the event each year. This year it was moved from its regular spot in Union Square down to shaded sheets of the Financial District. I could go on about how great the event was but I'll let the the photos speak for themselves.
Last weekend, I headed over to Greenpoint Brooklyn for a fantastic new event...four bars compete in a sort of pub crawl (or better yet Mac crawl) to see which serves up the bestest mac n' cheese. As mac n' chesse is my absolute favorite food, my friend Rosalyn and I trekked over to the neighborhood to weigh in. While there, we got to explore this great neighborhood.
The Mac-Off
The competitors were Red Star, TBD, The Mark Bar, and Habitat. Red Star was up first. After fighting my way through the croweded bar, I finally got my first taste. I am a mac purest so when I tasted bacon (and perhaps chives) in my dish was I turned off. But that's a personal preference and I have to say that from a more neutral perspective it wasn't that bad.
Our second stop was TBD, whose creamy, dreamy connoction stole my heart. I also adored TBD's space. In contrast to Red Star's dank atmosphere, TBD was open and modern...an inviting mixture of concrete and glass that allowed in lots of the Sunday afternoon light. Nooks lining the perimeter featured the work of local artists.
Next up...The Mark Bar. Well, I don't have much to say about them because they seemed to think their mac n' cheese was so special they could make folks wait around for an hour and a half for it. Seriously, they didn't want to start serving people until 7pm. We got in line there around 5:30. Big mistake, as soon as that announcement was made the crowd dispersed. I'm sure they regretted it, the mac off was more about drawing business to these four bars than it was about the mac n' cheese. At any rate, they were an automatic fail.
And final competitor...Habitat. Now Habitat has the single, worst mac n' cheese I have ever tasted. Now I'm included years of high school watered down mac n' cheese, the stuff that comes out of the box that has powder instead of cheese, and any and all attempts at mac n' cheese using soy products. The main problem? A complete and total lack of cheese. Who makes mac n' cheese with no discernible cheese taste? All I tasted was mushy macaroni, butter, and impossibly salty bread crumbs.
Having tasted the best Greenpoint had to offer, we headed back to TBD to cast our vote for the obvious winner...TBD!
After casting our votes, Rosalyn and I walked around Greenpoint a little bit. It a great neighborhood, a mix of Polish immigrants, and 20-30 something white, cool kids. Some of our finds? A great thrift shop called junk that had great used furniture in great condition for reasonable prices. We also happened upon a great jazz lounge/bar that has a thursday night salsa band with a Joe Cuba tribute Band....I can't find the name of it now but I'll post it when I do. So, I'll leave you will a slide show of photo highlights from the excursion.
I'm starting a new series (one I hope to keep up with this time) the "stuff I'm diggin"segment, just about things that catch my eye as of late. And the feature of the first installment is.....
The Pinky Show!!
The pinky show is a short, online, animated talk show hosted by cartoon kittens. But don't let the cute and fluffy factor fool you, these kittens get into some serious stuff. Check out the site at www.thepinkyshow.org
Or watch Pinky Show videos on You Tube here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=pinkyshow&view=videos
Here's a taste for you...
I just finished looking over my old posts here and relived some truly wonderful memories. Some much has changed since I made the bulk of those posts. I've quit graduate school and moved on to New York. My good friends who have been my rock of support for the past few years are spread across the globe. My world seems completely turned upside down, at once frightening and wonderful.
As I set out to make my world anew in New York, I want to hold on to the best parts of the world I left behind. I hope that my vox friends are still using their accounts. I resolve to start posting here again, I hope my good friends will join me. I miss your insights, laughter, and cynical optimism (or is it optimistic cynicism?). Let's continue to dream together. After all, if dreams and friendship can't overtake borders then nothing can.
Here are a few photos from today's in Paris in support of Palestine and condeming recent actions in Gaza. The march saw thousands (possibly tens of thousands) of particpants. The route began near the Place de la Bastille and ended in Place de la Nation. I was roaming the streets of the 11eme when heard chants of 'Israel...Assassin' and 'Europe, Sarkozy, Complice'. I could see coming around the corner dozens of armed police and behind them the hundreds of protesters.
Among the protesters were so many different organizations. I talked with woman who was an organizer with MRAP (might be familiar to you if you know anything about Mumia Abu Jamal.) The event was peaceful but I could sense tensions within the march. I was handed a banner by the MRAP organizer and soon after another woman began to question angrily if I were a member of the organizations. She called MRAP Zionist and repeated it was bad. The MRAP organizer then began a little diplomatic work and calmed the woman down. I was also told that there were some tensions with the Partie Communist Francais which served as security. Apparently, some of the party members are Jewish and strong supporters of Israel and the participation in the protest was divisive for the organization. However, these tensions did not interfere with the sentiment of solidarity in the march. In a multicultural France--Palestinians, Jews, Magrebins, Sub-Saharan Africans, and Europeans all were present in a strong showing of solidarity.
I observe that, the far right in the US often viewed the people of the third world as backward, stupid and even barbarian, whose development depends on the help from the West; but the far left think of the people of the third world as innocent, peaceful, and free from all the materialist desires of capitalism. I just think both views are far from reality.
Reality is of course complicated. I have my own simplistic view though, I think the people of the third world are as bad as those in the first world, they are just as prone to prejudice, violence or greed. Yes I'm pretty cynical. So it's amazing that I met quite many nice and noble friends! I doubt my experience can be generalized into an assertion that there are many good people in the world though. I am probably just lucky.
Most of my friends are leftists by American definition, and I admire their commitment to equality and freedom for all people. But two of them always chastise me whenever I suggest there are threats to people in the world other than American imperialism and capitalism. Today I casually suggested that the gunmen who did the killing in Mumbai are probably Islamic terrorists, and the two immediately start criticizing me for being almost a racist.
I tried to make clear that I'm not indicating that all muslims are terrorists, and that I'm aware the muslims suffered injustice in that region and part of the problem is American foreign policy. Then I asked my two friends if they felt the crimes of these terrorists are justifiable because of the injustice they felt. My two friends avoided the question, but went on to say the US military killed no less civilians in the irag war than these terrorists. But why can't we criticize islamic extremism and US foreign policy at the same time, one does not justify the other.
These two friends are particularly angry at me for putting Islam and Terrorist in the same word, but I have muslim friends who call these gunmen the same name as they represent an extreme fraction of the religion. What's wrong with possible links between religious fundamentalism and violence? We are worried about the feelings of muslims, who are supposedly the weak and repressed. But what about the feelings of those who are repressed in muslim regimes? What about the feelings of young girls who are stoned to death for adultery who were often just victims of rapes (I knew two real cases, one under taliban regime and one in Somalia)?
In my two friends' view, people in the third world were just living a happy and peaceful life until western imperialists and capitalists came. I cannot agree with that, the people in the third world were never that innocent. You can even take Tibet for example, the peaceful and spirtual shangarila in western imagination had one of the cruelest theocracy, with previous Dalai Lamas using bowls made of virgins' skulls.
To conclude, I'm not entirely intimidated by my two friends' iron fists of political correctness, I don't want to give up thinking about any human cultures critically, whether it's capitalism or socialism, western or eastern, the powerful or the powerless...
