Pictorial: Dogs of New York

Back from a brief hiatus...

Walking through New York I said to myself how difficult a city it must be for dogs.  It's often difficult for people to make their way, dodging other people, stepping over puddles after rain, avoiding the plastic bags of trash on the curbs..... I remembered then how resilient dogs are.....

A few photos of the canines we met.... Some photos we got have identifiable images of people,and I didn't get their blessings to be here...

FILM REVIEW: "New York, I Love You"

A disarming and surprising little gem, "New York, I Love You" unfolds like a book of riveting short stories.  I had heard very little about the film before its limited release this weekend in Chicago, and I had not seen "Paris, je t'aime", another anthology film in an apparent series ("Shanghai, I Love You" is next up in 2011). The producer, Emmanuel Benbihy, deserves much credit for taking ten stories from different writers and directors and blending them seamlessly in style and tone.


Based on what I knew, I expected ten short films, loosely connected, with New York as the major star.  Having just returned from my first trip to New York (see my posts last week), I was conflicted by my hope of recognizing places I had just been, and by my dread of this being simply another travelogue.


Actually, the film eschews panoramas and iconic cliches in favor of intimate human stories about the connections made (often romantic) between unlikely couples.  I was also pleasantly surprised at how many of the stories strongly connect to each other, with characters recurring in delightful ways.  This is not a representation of New York, but an impressionist's view of how the city allows for these connections to occur.


(Even so, I was thrilled to see a scene shot in Central Park's Strawberry Fields....the third occurrence of "Imagine" in my life in three weeks....Synchronicity!)


I won't try to recap all of the various stories here.  In one of my favorites, a mysterious opera diva (the classy Julie Christie) checks into a Park Avenue hotel she may have stayed in once, long ago, and develops a fondness for a crippled young attendant (Shia LaBeouf) who might or might not perform miracles...or who himself may be a fantasy.... It is a sad story, and watching it, one may feel like the tragic hero of one's own lost youth....


On another note completely, James Caan plays a druggist who "saves" a young man who is stood up by his prom date.  Caan's daughter, who agrees to be the young man's new date, has some surprises of her own...one or two more than expected....and the story unfolds sweetly, like a teen film with a wise and benevolent soul.....Edgy and lots of fun! O'Henry would be proud...


The large cast also includes Cloris Leachman and Eli Wallach as a hilariously bickering couple on their 63rd anniversary; Orlando Bloom and Christina Ricci as a musician and a book-lover who fall in love on the phone; Hayden Christiansen and the late Andy Garcia as two thieves with more surprises for each other; Robin Wright and Chris Cooper as a couple who "meet" on the street; Ethan Hawke, who makes a play for a  woman using incredibly sexy schtick...and gets a shocking revelation; and Natalie Portman as an Orthodox Jew on the eve of her wedding, who discovers an abiding love for her Indian jeweler, which is reciprocated in a lovely image of their embrace.....


One might say that New York is loved for its surprises....and the unifying thread, the thing that makes it a prototypically New York experience, is that  life takes these characters, unlikely as they are to be connected like nowhere else but in New York, and moves them in unexpected directions....  In much the same way, I would assert, the process of reinventing one's self requires openness to surprise.
See this film!

The Gay March and My New York Journey: Mystical Connections!

" 'Synchronicity' is the experience of two or more events that are causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner. To count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur together by chance..." (from Wikipedia)

...Reinvention requires inspiration...

I have had two sets of wonderful, unexplained pairs of events occur meaningfully recently!-- connecting our whirling, indelible trip to New York, and this past weekend's Equality March for Gay Rights and the Human Rights Campaign Dinner.

I now feel that I have been a part of something.....  And I can't shake that mysterious "imponderable" that there just might be meaning in the universe....

First:  As I wrote last week (Oct. 7), our attendance at the Broadway revival of Hair was a pinnacle of our visit to New York:
            

"BEST OF ALL: Yours truly and my Mark accepted the invitation to join the cast onstage for the curtain-call, along with dozens of others from the audience..........While we sang, and looked upon the audience fogged by the brilliance of the spotlights in our faces, the crew lifted a banner to promote the National Equality March in Washington DC this Sunday (October 11.)"

Then yesterday, I read an article about Sunday's March in Associated Press:

"Joining the march were 20 cast members from the musical, "Hair." They chose to let a Broadway matinee show go dark to come march and were led by the show's star, Gavin Creel.  "I take him at his word," the 33-year-old Creel said of Obama afterward. "This is just the beginning."

I am so glad we saw the show a week before!  Although I could not be in Washington DC, the fact that we attended this magnificent show a week prior, with a cast that was sympathetic to the cause, deepened the experience for me....as though I had committed an altruistic act by being there...

Second: I watched Mr. Obama's speech to the Human Rights Campaign, and read more later.  He amused the crowd by stating that he was there only as an opening act to performer Lady Gaga.  I found a video of her performance that evening, in which she sang a special version of John Lennon's "Imagine"...(click here for video)

Just a week before, on our last morning in New York, we strolled through a sunny Central park, and stopped at Strawberry Fields......John Lennon's Peace Park......and Mark took this photo of your correspondent in reflection................................

Coincidence?  I prefer to think it as "mystic crystal revelation...."!

Naive? Sure, probably....but that innocent feeling is as close to childlike inspiration as I have felt in a while..

Be well everyone....

Journal October 9: New York Stories--Wealth, The Met, and Robert Frank

                                 
A more philosophical musing on my travels to New York..... A darker view, perhaps, which I have since reconciled, to leave me with a more realistic love for the city.....

On Saturday just before noon, we emerged from Central Park on the east side, after a photogenic stroll under low gray skies, and walked ten blocks north to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (or, The Met for short).

I was reminded of a phrase I created after experiencing Times Square, (the world's biggest commercial, I think) the night before:
"NEW YORK SHOUTS AT YOU"

I was feeling ambiguous...not unusual, as I was in a process of LEARNING, about the city, how it works, and whether there was a place for someone like me in it....Here's an excerpt from my journal...and it is important to note that I penned this BEFORE our afternoon at the Museum and my encounter with the photographs of Robert Frank:

"Everything about New York is big and ostentatious--the business of New York seems to be self-promotion.  New York yells at you for attention, or begs you for it in more subtle ways.  As we walk up Park Avenue, I see never-ending rows of high-end stone apartment buildings; some are very old and stately, and are festooned with intricate carvings, gargoyles, and facades; these contrast with minimalist structures with contemporary windows.  This concentration of wealth went on and on.....One image spoke to me:  I noticed that many residents of these buildings use their window sills to display what appear to be fine artifacts.  In one window I saw a row of sculpted busts (marble, perhaps) that were situated with their backs to the street, yet the curtains were drawn over their faces, so no one had the opportunity to enjoy them as they were intended to be.  It was as if the occupant's thought was, 'I am so surrounded by art that I can afford to ignore some of it, and while no one else is allowed to enjoy it, either, yet I want the world to know that I am in possession of it.'

Later that afternoon in the Museum, after a really fun and informative examination of the Impressionist and post-Impressionist gallery (Jillian knew a lot about these artists...Mark liked the Rembrandt portraits,  especially the masterful rendering of human eyes and expression) we entered the exhibit from Robert Frank's book of black-and-white photographs taken in the late 1950's, "The Americans", with a forward by Jack Kerouac.

The book and its photos contrasted the lives of a cross section of Americans of every conceivable social stratum, and juxtaposed  the disparity between the powerful and the dispossessed, the wealthy and the broken.  The posted text next to the pictures unsettled me, and gave me pause to ponder with my earlier struggle, on Park Avenue, to understand the city itself....here are a couple brief samples of that text:

"...the dress, demeanor, and environment...a sense of insecurity and despair that results from a lack of wealth as well as the insensitivity--even arrogance--that can stem from excess...."

"The American political system drowns out the voices of average citizens...Americans worship false icons (cowboys, movie stars)...American work is restrictive and unsatisfactory...The rich are arrogant...the poor, meek....and the middle class is lulled into quiet submission by consumer culture..."

Journal, October 8: New York Stories--Travel Anecdotes

Tomorrow I will have more about the Metropolitan museum of Art, and some strong impressions it made on me which I recorded in my journal..  For now, something lighter.....
(And check out the following post, below, about Americans wanting to write books...)

Our trip was filled with small anecdotes and incidents that I will never forget:

--For example, after Mark and I checked in to the hotel (across from Madison Square Garden) we had not eaten for hours, and looked for a cafe or other non-chain eatery. We headed toward Times Square and Broadway, and finally found Juniors, in the heart of the theater district after walking for about an hour. I knew it was the right spot when, over the loudspeakers on the patio, I heard---you guessed it---Joni Mitchell, my musical idol, singing her hit, "Help Me". [Outstanding sandwiches, too.]

--The Naked Cowboy...what's his story? He entertained the crowds on Friday night, in Times Square...

--The Chelsea Market, with wonderful creative foods, pastries, and Jillian's passion, cupcakes.

--A Rice Pudding shop in Little Italy, where Max regaled us with stories about his work in theater and film

--All the GERMANS! Even for an international city, I encountered a surprisingly large number of individuals or small groups from Germany (I even delighted one woman by saying something in her language)... and especially Dominic, a student visiting his sister on holiday, who offered to take our group photo, and engaged us in conversation for agood 20 minutes..

--Saw the Statue of Liberty in the distance off one of the renovated piers at Hudson River Park; then walked on the High Line, a new park constructed on an old freight-train platform....awesome atmosphere, and views.


--Walked by the Stonewall Inn, and in the window was the first issue of the Advocate magazine, with a cover photo of a naked Jon Voight from "Midnight Cowboy".

--The Tick Tock Cafe...Bourbon Street.....Fresco... Places we found and liked a lot...


--Laughing, exhausted, on the subway with Mark.....

Journal Oct. 7: New York Stories--Broadway!

Attending theater was a focus of our trip....Mark and I both love performing arts.... the following are some notes about my very first visit to Broadway (actually, 45th street!!)


Mark and I decided as soon as we arrived to try to secure tickets for a show that very night, and invite our friends Jillian and Max. We managed to get excellent Orchestra seats, 4 together, for Tracy Letts' "Superior Donuts" at the Music Box.   An ironic choice, since it was written by a Chicagoan, and first produced at Steppenwolf... the play takes place in a run-down donut shop in a Chicago neighborhood. I am sure that Mark and Jillian and I understood the subtle Chicago references, in the set design and manner of speech, more than some in the audience....


It's all about lost dreams, and youthful enthusiasm, men who live in the past, and kids trying to escape their present...about writers and poets, cops, loan sharks, the resignation of the Midwesterner in wintertime, and a protagonist who was an ex-hippie, a man who could have been one of the idealists from the cast of "Hair" 41-odd years ago. It was unexpectedly moving; I really became fond of that donut shop! A fitting first Broadway experience, which I enjoyed very much.


Saturday we got in the TKTS line on Times Square and Jillian treated us to "39 Steps", a 4-actor play with about a dozen different characters. Using much physical humor, voices, costume changes, and sly musical cues, this show pleased everyone, even those who were not familiar with the original film with Robert Donat, or with Hitchcock's oeuvre. Performed at the Helen Hayes, a charming little theater, next to Sardi's where we stopped afterward for dessert, and to look at the caricatures.....


Sunday afternoon...the explosive high of our trip.... "Hair"   "Hair" was a definite high point; the show was brilliantly staged, with effective use of the entire theater to bring the audience into the play.......characters mingled with the audience....a young theatergoer, about 8 years old, was lifted and twirled by the protagonist, unforgettable for the boy, and delightful for the rest of us.....
BEST OF ALL: Yours truly and my Mark accepted the invitation to join the cast onstage for the curtain-call, along with dozens of others from the audience. It was the pinnacle of the event, and I was overcome, by the joy of the play, and by its tragedy, and by the beauty and playfulness of the music, and by the rarity of that moment..........
While we sang, and looked upon the audience fogged by the brilliance of the spotlights in our faces, the crew lifted a banner to promote the National Equality March in Washington DC this Sunday (October 11.)
I know some will want to chide me a little....but I stand by my love for the show, its naivete, its energy, its incredible music a reminder of the tangible enthusiasm that helped lots of people through a sick and uncertain period of time...and gave boys like me the inspiration to pursue life in unconventional ways.

Daily Journal October 6: New York Stories, Prologue

                                                                      

I just returned from my very first trip to New York City with Mark.  As some of our friends say, what better place is there to reinvent yourself?
We arrived Friday afternoon, and left Monday afternoon.
While there, we joined up with our friend Jillian, who loves the city and who traveled there especially to spend time with us; and her friend and resident New Yorker, Max.
What a time we had! ...Decidedly un-tourist-y, but not nearly long enough for more than a faint taste, akin to dipping a finger in a mile-long buffet table, and discerning the quality of the whole banquet by one lick....
Nevertheless, strong impressions, opinions, and connections were formed....and I am completing a lengthy journal of the days and nights' activities.....I have written freely and at great length, to capture what I could....and explore my attitudes, and outlook for the future..... by the time its finished I may well have filled over 70 pages....
For the next few days I will include some photos and excerpts from the journal.
I can tell you that we managed 3 shows.....spent some hours at the Metropolitan Art Museum.... Had rain Friday and Saturday, but pleasant skies Sunday, and yesterday...explored a respectable portion of Central Park....had iconic moments in the Village, and Chelsea, and Hudson River park.... experienced Times Square....Little Italy....and mastered the subway...mostly we walked.....
I encountered a few dogs along the way...
Ate well but not to excess....
...and, as promised, I will provide an accountof the highlight of our trip...the Broadway musical revival, "Hair".....magical, explosive!
Travel, even very short and local trips, can be inspiring.......