Recent Readings

New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 homicides this year, by far the lowest number in a 12-month period since reliable Police Department statistics became available in 1963. But within the city’s official crime statistics is a figure that may be even more striking: so far, with roughly half the killings analyzed, only 35 were found to be committed by strangers, a microscopic statistic in a city of more than 8.2 million. If that trend holds up, fewer than 100 homicide victims in New York City this year will have been strangers to their assailants.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/nyregion/23murder.html?ei=5065&en=e317f6d8d8c57dde&ex=1196485200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

vs.

The Impact of Legal Abortions on Crime:
"Evidence that legalized abortion has contributed significantly to recent crime reductions... appears to account for as much as 50 percent of the recent drop in crime"... as opposed to higher incarceration rates, stricter gun control laws, and increased number of police.
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/DonohueLevittTheImpactOfLegalized2001.pdf

Journeys...

On the train headed back from the Hamptons, I watch the landscape slide by... allowing glimpses into minor moments... empty parking lots, deserted cars, industrial wastelands, seas of yellow school buses... slices that touch the railroad tracks. And backyards... with bright blue pools and century old houses with collapsing rooftops... the train slows to its next stop. in slow motion I see a family standing around in their yard - their slice - organizing the rules of family football, getting ready for the huddle. For a moment it is my field of grass where my childhood is flourishing amongst debatable touchdowns and imaginary yardlines. It is my family rolling, throwing, tackling as the train pulls away from the station... My time slips behind. I want it back. I want that moment back. I want the laughter and the stained knees. The leaves that crunch under a run to the goal-line. My mind grasps at the memories of a family now scattered but not shattered that will most likely never be in the same slice of autumn again. The train moves me forward... Life moves me forward... And a new slice of life begins... here it is spring... and there is much to do before autumn arrives for this new family.

April Dupont

Of Boston. Died Oct. 14, 2007. Devoted daughter of Raymond and Margret Schindler-DuPont. Sister of David DuPont. She is also survived by many aunts, uncles, cousins & friends. A memorial service will be held Fri., Oct. 19 at Bank of America, Boston College Club, 100 Federal St, 36th fl, Boston, MA. Relatives & friends are kindly invited to attend. Visitation 4-7PM. In lieu of flowers, send donations to the Animal Rescue League, 55 Annas Pl 238 Pine St, Dedham MA 02026 Published in the Boston Globe on 10/19/2007.

April is on the left in this pic

April was a friend of mine through my years at Carnegie Mellon. We started off in the same freshman dorm together and became roommates through our sophomore and junior years. Both stubborn and fun-loving, we cavorted across campus together, supported each other through good and bad relationships, and ultimately pushed each others boundaries until we figured out where to draw the line that separated us. Our clashes were memorable and inevitable, but our friendship deep. Her funeral is Thursday morning. And I feel I've reached a resolution about her death that excuses my absence from the service beyond my newborn son's young immune system... if there was a time to reflect on the circle of life, and if there's a time to appreciate what we have and hold dearest, and if there will be a time to live each moment to it's fullest, that time is now. Thank you, April.

Articles relaying what happened...
http://www.newstimes.com/ci_7190827
http://www.newstimes.com/ci_7212636

Crime Fighting in the West Village

SEPTEMBER 26--Bill Clinton is threatening legal action against a Manhattan restaurant if it does not immediately yank a photo of the former president's daughter Chelsea from the eatery's front window. In a September 18 letter to Osso Buco, an Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village, the ex-president demands the removal of the five-year-old photo of his daughter and Nino Selimaj, the eatery's owner. The picture, which is in Osso Buco's front window, is among scores of similar photos displayed throughout Selimaj's University Place establishment (as well as several other Manhattan restaurants he operates). The offending Clinton-Selimaj photo can be seen at right. These kinds of a-celebrity-once-ate-here photo are, of course, a staple in the windows of hundreds of Manhattan restaurants. The "Dear Nino" letter, which is on "Office of William Jefferson Clinton" letterhead, was authored by Clinton counsel Douglas Band and contends that restaurant's display of the fading snapshot leaves the impression that the 27-year-old Chelsea, a "private citizen," endorses the restaurant. If Selimaj fails to comply with the removal request, the letter notes, "We reserve the right to exercise any and all options available to us."

-- From The Smoking Gun

As a southern "gentleman" I wonder if he tried using the word PLEASE first?

Get the Skinny

Want to see if you're keeping up with the Joneses? Here's a neat little site to rev up your competitive edge (or ego!):
http://zipskinny.com

The calm before the storm

Sorry for the silence lately... no big news, but I have been putting most of my adventures up in the meantime on Here I Come, the other blog with other big news, especially for the next few weeks of my life... so observations on life have been a bit narrow-minded and single-focused... There are going to be plenty of announcements and celebrations, so make sure that I have your mailing address and contact information! Send it to me already!

Burnt

I haven't been to Burning Man in years, but even over the three years where I religiously trekked to the desert with my gallons of water, I saw things change. Black Rock City was initially a place of exploration. Fantastical artwork, endless activities, loud music, instantaneous friendships... a mythical environment that one can only understand with their own flesh and blood. Branding and money has no place in BRC, but somehow the ego still found its way in the larger the party got. And the thirst that was quenched by a week of selflessness soon left a sour taste in my mouth. Here's what the city, once an empty desert, looks like during the festival from Google Map. Astounding....In the center of the civilization is The Man, who stands with his arms down until the day of the Burn. Not this year. This year some selfish San Franciscian mentalist burnt the man four days before the festival was set to alight the structure. The burning of the man is symbolic of whatever you need it to be symbolic of: a release the past, an enlightenment for the future, a chance to breathe deep and dance wildly. Apparently it was more important for this actor/writer in the San Francisco arts scene, who perhaps took his recently portrayal of Hunter S. Thompson in a play too seriously, to take this away from the 10,000+ citizens of the temporary city of Black Rock City. As much as I'm over the neuvo-hippie fest and it's pseudo-lovey self-importance, I couldn't help but feel sad for the Burners, those who had traveled far and paid considerable money to be in BRC only to have this moment taken from them. I'm sure they'll turn it into yet another anti-establishment statement.

Hot Hot Hot

From The Arizona Republic:
Aug. 29, 2007 12:00 AM Today should be the day that allows us to tell our grandchildren that we were here in the summer of 2007. Sometime late this afternoon, the temperature is expected to hit 110, and we will have set a record for misery: 29 days of at least 110 degrees in a year.

...perhaps it was the right idea not to be filming in Arizona this summer. Time to start ramping up for a spring shoot!

RIAA matrix

click for a larger image...

from boing boing

ATL Ho!

We all know the baggy pants fad is lame. Hey, I was a card-carrying, pant-sagging member for awhile myself. There is something anti-establishment about looking like shit. But illegal? If Atlanta has its way... (insert Snoop-Dogg nasal here) hell yeah.

The amendment, sponsored by city councilman C.T. Martin, states that sagging pants are an "epidemic" that is becoming a "major concern" around the country.

"Little children see it and want to adopt it, thinking it's the in thing," Martin said Wednesday. "I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future."

The proposed ordinance would also bar women from showing the strap of a thong beneath their pants. They would also be prohibited from wearing jogging bras in public or show a bra strap, said Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.

While the government playing the role of Fashion Police is disheartening and ridiculous, what's even more absurd is the ACLU's claim that this bill is "racial profiling".

But Seagraves said any legislation that creates a dress code would not survive a court challenge. She said the law could not be enforced in a nondiscriminatory way because it targets something that came out of the black youth culture.

Nigga please. This fad didn't come from the Black Youth Culture - unless you are guilty of committing racial profiling yourself because this trend came from PRISON where inmates weren't given belts to hold up their one-size-fits-all pants. And let's face it, MC Hammer poof pants "inspired" whites and blacks alike - but all that proved was that fashion retardation is truly color-blind if not completely blind. But let's ignore that. I would like to know: how do you "discriminate" against pants? Either they show crack or they don't. Oops! Was that crack comment racial profiling, too?!?!?

So who is worse?
The government that can't find anything to do with our misappropriated tax money than to pursue fashion trends? The parents who think it's a good idea for the government to police fashion so that they don't have to scold their children into pulling up their pants? Or the ACLU that adamantly screams for the rights of citizens while blatantly racially profiling their own defendants?

Full article at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_on_fe_st/atlanta_sagging_pants

Random Yotta

If human memory was put into computer memory how much would it equal?

The processing power of an average brain turns out to be about 100 million MIPS (Million computer Instructions Per Second), which is theoretically about 100 million yottabytes(10^24 ).... whatever a Yotta is!

Haight-Ashbury, update

I found a pic of what the turret that was in Rolling Stones looked like in 2001, when I lived there. Check this out and compare with the one in the previous entry...

Overheard in New York...

Occasionally, life requires a bit of streamlining - hence wondering if anyone one was out there! I happen to enjoy the little bits of life that emerge on this blog and as long as someone is reading I'll keep sharing. And I should probably remember that there's always someone listening in New York...

OVERHEARD IN NEW YORK (from Gawker):

Guy #1: Man, I don't know what to do! I can't get rid of my crazy ex! We've been broken up for almost a year now and I told her, 'I don't want to see you or speak to you any more,' and she said, 'I'm going to make your life miserable.' Then she had the audacity to send my current girlfriend a message on Facebook saying, 'We need to talk' and asked my current girlfriend to call her. Then, a few weeks later, she shows up at my office. And just this week she send me a text saying, 'I know we're not speaking, but do you want to come out to dinner with me and meet my mom?' What do I do?!
Guy #2: Oh my god, restraining order?!
Guy #1: And the sad part is that she has a dating column!
Guy #2: You mean she is giving other people dating advice?
Guy #1: Yup.

????????

Does anyone read this anymore??

Twice

This is a fun one for those of you who have been with me through the years... check out this month's issue of Rolling Stone - it's the 40 year Anniversary edition. On page 36 you'll see the following picture:

Do you recognize anything? Ok, BESIDES the Grateful Dead!
Look above the sign post...
just to the right of it...
is my old apartment at 545 Ashbury!

We spent several afternoons in that turret, often climbing out the window that lead to the next door neighbor's rooftop. An excellent view for various neighborhood street fairs and late night contemplations and cocktails.

That corner certainly looked different in 1967. By 2001 the hippies had been replaced by teenage bums and their pathetic puppy dogs... hmmm... maybe things hadn't changed too much. But where Jerry is standing in this picture would have been directly in front of a Ben & Jerry's... two guys who made hippie ice cream and even sainted Jerry Garcia with the flavor "Cherry Garcia" (we actually have a pint in our freezer right now) But the writing was on the wall I suppose and even those hippie guys couldn't hold out, eventually selling out to Unilever. Funny to read their mission statement now:

"Capitalism and the wealth it produces do not create opportunity for everyone equally. We recognize that the gap between the rich and the poor is wider than at anytime since the 1920's."

How much did you guys make when you sold out? Even better, Originally, the some of the sales from Cherry Garcia ice cream were donated to the Rex Foundation, which Jerry Garcia founded. NOW, royalties from the Cherry Garcia ice cream and frozen yogurt and pop now go directly to Jerry Garcia's estate. Don't think twice, it's all right...

It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe,
It don't matter, anyhow,
An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe,
If you don't know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn,
Look out your window and Ill be gone,
You're the reason I'm travelin' on,
Don't think twice, it's all right.

...

Where I'm bound I can't tell,
But goodbye's too good a word, gal,
So I'll just say fare thee well.
I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind,
You could have done better but I don't mind,
You just kinda wasted my precious time,
But don't think twice, It's all right.

Prison on Paradise Island

1,500 plus inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines reenact "Thriller"!! What could be more frightening?!





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o

Special Fixin's

This special is available at the Drive Thru, whereas the "Bill Special" was dine-in only...

"Thought" of the Day

"Thoughts determine what you want.
Action determines what you get."

The Universal Donor

Apparently in Japan, it's a popular belief that one's blood type is predictive of their personality type as well as their relationship compatibility. Obviously it's as scientific as astrology but how much would I love that the next time I'm at a bar to hear "Hey baby, what's your blood type?" whispered in my ear rather than "So. What's your sign?"

TYPE A
Gentle, creative, sensitive.
Earnest, fastidious.
TYPE B
Wild, a doer, cheerful.
Selfish, irresponsible.
TYPE AB
Cool, controlled, rational.
Aloof, critical, indecisive.
TYPE O
Agreeable, sociable, an optimist.
Vain, careless.

This seems to be the exact opposite of how your blood can be used in transfusions...
From the Red Cross, if your blood type is:

Type	You Can Give Blood To	You Can Receive Blood From
A+	A+ AB+	A+ A- O+ O-
O+	O+ A+ B+ AB+	O+ O-
B+	B+ AB+	B+ B- O+ O-
AB+	AB+	Everyone
A-	A+ A- AB+ AB-	A- O-
O-	Everyone	O-
B-	B+ B- AB+ AB-	B- O-
AB-	AB+ AB-	AB- A- B- O-

I am Type O.
I am what is known as the "universal donor".
Type A, B, and AB can all take type O in an emergency.
Type positive can take type negative.
But O can only take O and negative can only take negative.
Only 6% of the world has O- blood.

And that I'm beginning to think that my blood type reflects much more about my life than just my personality...

The Dance

I can't remember the last time I woke up to a cloudy morning in New York. After days and weeks of brilliant sunshine and infinite horizons, today began with a sepia-toned skyline through a pointillist window... You have to look twice to see the architecture jutting through a hazy downtown mist behind a rain-spattered window. Ah, to look twice. So seldom do we ever look at all. We take our route, collect our items, do our bidding. Life becomes a series of movements. And rather than struggle to become dancers, we slip too easily into familiar machinations. Until the thunder rolls across the landscape and suddenly you have a reason to look twice. But then again, it's not like we've never seen the rain. Maybe today can just contribute to a long series of things I did before I died: perfected monotony.

Lists. Lists. Lists. Things to do. Things to get. Things to read. Because otherwise, I will forget. Still, today requires a different way of doing things. A way that allows for quick glances to watch the lightning crack across the sky and time to listen to the rain drum against the windows... that allows for today to be different. And perhaps a dance to be dreamt.

Goodreads

There was Friendster. Then MySpace. And LinkedIn. Now Facebook. Maybe it's a way of weeding out the old fogies - just pass them by with another online "i have more friends than you have" quasi-networking site that requires you to build yet another member profile and check back on a daily basis as to who has asked to be your friend. Mindless brainsucks if you ask me. But fun. So when a friend of mine recently sent me an email to join another networking site, I almost deleted it. But this one had an edge, and it was an old friend I haven't spoken to in years. So I clicked through and signed up. And this is networking of a different kind: It's not about setting up a profile; it's not about wasting hours of time trying to find as many friends as possible. It is a site you go to when you want to - where you can see what other people think about the books they've read. GoodReads. I rated a few of books I've read and will go back and throw some more thoughtful reviews up. More than "My favorite tv shows are..." these contributions are read by others and give you a chance, as a reader, to reflect on what you've just experienced. And there's nothing more soothing than a good book...

http://www.goodreads.com

Tea Time!

This is one that I really really want to believe! The BBC reports on a new study finding that...

"Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water. Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so it's got two things going for it."

A whole new world

Only 7%!!

...from www.travbuddy.com

Literary Languishings

Recently I've been seeking nourishment from my surroundings... books, films, theater... reading endlessly and searching between the lines for inspiration and rejuvenation... I find today's literary offerings ridiculously unsatisfying.

I Am Charlotte Simmons - Tom Wolfe's exploration into adolescence and loss of innocence. Charlotte is a prude who goes to college only to succumb to peer pressure. Do I care? The most engaging part of this journey was on Wolfe's behalf: his representation of slang language and vernacular are fantastic - he spells non-words just like you hear in passing. A beautiful translation from the spoken to the written. However, his woefully lame descriptions of college life and horribly trite observations on integral parts of the college scene such as music and athletes accompanied by his fragmented understanding of the culture and characters that exist in the world he is trying to create accent the massive rift between himself and his story that make the writing stifled, bland, and almost laughably bad.

Into the Wild - A journalist follows his curiosity into Alaska's wild to determine just how and why young McCandless perished in the wilderness. A true story recently picked up by Sean Penn for production. Somehow this guy turned a riveting journey into a boring over-extended magazine article. I get the feeling the film will turn out very much the same.

Shanghai Baby - Banned and burned in China. And read cover-to-cover in one evening. Simplistic language and almost painfully generic observations on life ("The joys and sorrows of any one person mean nothing, because the trains massive steel wheels never stop spinning. This is the secret that terrifies everyone in the cities in this fucking material age.") make it easy to take this novel lightly. But there were a few times when the simple "Confucius say" sentences actually hit home and you wonder if Occam's Razor can adequately be applied to literary principles. If only life were as simple and clean as Wei Hui's writing, it might be as easy to get through.

In a Dark Dark House - Neil LaBute's latest play, closing this week off-Broadway. Rave reviews and well-known actors do their best to hold together this transparent piece of theater. Frederick Weller was the lone solider in this battle to keep an obvious plot from revealing itself too early, and despite his delicious performance, the writing of this established playwright refused to allow me to engage. I wanted to be challenged, thrilled, curious. I found myself watching two guys talking around and around in circles. This seemed more like a university level dialogue-writing exercise than the work of a well-known author.

Live Free or Die Hard - I must say, one of the few encounters I've had that I actually enjoyed. Granted it's not sophisticated. But it doesn't try to be. it gives its one-liners with pizazz and its explosions with creativity. Face value fun.

That was frightening: Did I just say I preferred Die Hard over Neil LaBute or Tom Wolfe?!? Can it be true? Why?!? What suffices as literary greatness? The ungraceful exploration of worlds authors can not embrace is hardly greatness. Perhaps Greatness lies in the Truth of the matter. The Truth of the work. The Truth of the story. And the Truth to Die Hard is that it's just an action flick with a bunch of explosions. And the Truth of Wei Hui shines only when she is being true to her simplistic self. But Today requires ingenuity and umph. Literary sensuality, a teasing and exploitation of the senses... and books are starting to feel like theater in their burdensome treks through well-tread psychological landscapes.

Who are today's literary greats?
Where are we to seek refuge against reality?
What book can I pick up next to be engrossed in its characters, its language, its Truth.
Suggestions?

Thought

A flower has to go through a lot of dirt before it can bloom. ~Unknown

Harmony. British-style.

Too funny not to pass on...



I'm not usually this politically focused. However, I do live in a Brit-American household with the 4th of July rapidly approaching. The weapons are being loaded: "The Evil Empire" has been pulled out and the Bush-bashing ramps up. The call to battle has echoed through the land: inanimate household items are being claimed as having "British" or "American" persuasion. Only the fireworks are left... and we all know which side wins!!!

Notes from the Empire:
In Britain, when a man buys a new car... his neighbours sneer saying, 'Wonder where he got the money from' and they start to denigrate him. In America, the neighbours say 'hmm nice car, I'm going to get one myself'.

I don't care if you sleep with elephants as long as you don't cover the circus.

For those of you who claim that the Right controls the media...
The pattern of donations, with nearly nine out of 10 giving to Democratic candidates and causes, appears to confirm a leftward tilt in newsrooms

Giving to candidates is allowed at Fox, Forbes, Time, The New Yorker, Reuters and Bloomberg News. Donations and other political activity are strictly forbidden at The Washington Post, ABC, CBS, CNN and NPR... now you know where to get your news no matter which party you're in bed with...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/1911348

Upcoming Screening...

My most recent directing venture "New York Blind" will be screening as part of the Quickflicks Annual Summer Screening! This is a group I've been working with over the past year. Each month every member produces one film based on a set of criteria and then we gather to screen and comment on the works. This screening is the culmination of many months of work and is Free to attend, so come on down!

Quote of the Day

"Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity."
--G.K. Chesterton

For those who actually keep up with the Tonys...

No, not Tony Soprano, whose HBO reign ended Sunday night... I will miss The Sopranos. Great characters, beautiful acting, fun plot twists and random acts of violence...

Rather, the simultaneously doomed Tony Awards... the best of Broadway... legit theater and all... does anybody watch or care about this anymore? (sigh)

Well, Atlanta's Alliance Theater was awarded the Regional Theatre Tony Award. According to their site, the Alliance is only the second theater in the South to receive the Regional Theatre Tony Award. Anyone who is still down in the Southeast should stop by and see what they're missing... when their season starts back up... in SEPTEMBER. Riiiiiiiiiiiight. That's ridiculous. Or if you have just been by the Alliance, did you happen to catch "Cuttin' Up"? Yet ANOTHER black-man-in-a-barbershop show. Please. Don't even get me started on what's wrong with American Theatre these days...

Other than that, probably all you need to know is that "Spring Awakening" conquered the musicals and Tom Stoppard dominated the straight play categories. About as many surprises there as in the ending of The Sopranos...

What were they thinking?!?

The logo for the 2012 Olympics in London...


...reminds me of bad graffiti, childish scribbling, and unimaginative sculptures.

A New View on June

It's June... the month where we all look at the calendar and say "what happened to the last five months / am I really halfway through the year already?!?" And if you're anything like me, it's always followed by "what have i gotten accomplished so far this year?"

This year, The List is very different from last. Business developments have been hijacked by baby developments. The known traded in for the unknown. The self gave way to the self-less (well, almost). It is a very different approach to life: replacing my checklists with compromises. And allowing myself to be okay with "trying to figure things out" rather than "get it f*&%ing done". It's a luxury that's been generously given to me, and that I struggle with on most days... our goals, our achievements, our actions define us - not only to ourselves but to the society surrounding us. A List creates an Outline, an Answer to that question "what have I done?" And somehow, if your List hasn't overwhelmed your friends or competitors or bank account then you're just not doing enough. You're not worth enough.

How do you define Self Worth? How do you redefine Self Worth when you've spent your entire life perfecting the answer to that question? Would you be able to take everything you are and everything you want and try a different approach to life? Would you be able to look at un-accomplishments and find something worth more?

On Board

Feels good to be back in the city... so good that rather than jet out to the Hamptons for Memorial Day weekend, I'm going to stay. right. here.

Went to a surprise party for a friend of mine here who is has just turned 30. Another night, another party?... everything has the potential to be just Another in a Long Line. And how many times do we let that happen rather than... Enjoying marking the milestones. Looking around the curve ahead of us to see where the road leads. I find myself reflecting more - the telltale sign of old age - what you do, when you can't DO.

And I literally can't. There's no 4am finishes or all-nighters with a baby on board. I'm not out tearing it up. And I sleep for 8 hours a night. And I eat three healthy meals a day. And I willingly do all those things that people have been trying to get me to do for years... without anyone succeeding.

Life on Board.

Which reminds me, it's Fleet Week here in New York City. An annual event where white uniforms and googly-eyed boys flood the streets by the thousands and bring dozens of military demonstrations, park gatherings, memorial services, and on-board exhibitions. Will have to go see some of these boys in action - if I don't sneak off to the beach anyway!

Striking

Day 11 in Arizona. Days out here are longer than anywhere else in the world and I still can't seem to get everything completed. But, truth be told, I could say that about any location where I'm in production. The days start earlier, end later, and invade your dreams... how can I fix that? what am I missing? where will I get those? who can I call? who haven't I called? It's 24/7 problem solving, strategizing, evaluating, and executing. We're now down to the last 48 hours or so... behind us: hours of interviews, miles of road, pages of diagrams and sketches, more pages of research and phone numbers. A good start... a long way still to go.
Meanwhile, back on the homefront...

Another picture of the Madhatter Party...

A great pic compliments of one of the London boys who is in the middle of his year's journey around the world... don't we all wish we could do that? Appropriately named blogsite: www.getjealous.com/sid

Happy Mother's Day

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.
-Rajneesh

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
- Elizabeth Stone

"The story of a mother's life: Trapped between a scream and a hug."
- Cathy Guisewite

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
- Mark Twain

Always be nice to your children because they are the ones who will choose your rest home.
- Phyllis Diller

What you teach your own children is what you really believe in.
- Cathy Warner Weatherford

Facial Culture...

A new study showing that in Japan people tend to look to the eyes for emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to the mouth:

When Yuki entered graduate school and began communicating with American scholars over e-mail, he was often confused by their use of emoticons such as smiley faces :) and sad faces, or :(.

'It took some time before I finally understood that they were faces,' he wrote in an e-mail. In Japan, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;). 'After seeing the difference between American and Japanese emoticons, it dawned on me that the faces looked exactly like typical American and Japanese smiles,' he said.

Link

A week in Arizona…

There is a release, an easing of tension when you step off the plane and into the Arizona desert. Something about the warmth radiating from the sun above and bouncing off the pavement below you… Something stretching as far and wide as the unobscured horizon… That allows you loosen up a little bit more than anywhere else in the world. A humbling form of vastness. A static form of beauty. An understated understanding between you and nature.

Nothing has changed since I was last here. In fact you can look at the pictures from my first trip on this project and it is exactly the same. We’ve ventured farther to the north this time – up to Flagstaff, Arizona. Travelling from Phoenix to Flagstaff you go from 2000 feet above sea level to about 6000+ feet above sea level, passing heaving trucks and sputtering Kias in 100 miles of incline. Slowly, the cacti are replaced by lonely trees as you climb in altitude. And almost without knowing it, shrubbery has filled in the desert floor and red mesas loom in the distance, but directly around you are forests of pine and juniper trees.

We spent the morning in a guided roaming tour of Flagstaff, visiting isolated places that are now used by locals as shooting grounds or simple convenience stores. Thirty years ago, however, this was the path of a gang of murderers trying desperately to cover their tracks to avoid capture until they made it safely to Mexico… I look up at the sun through their eyes: it is vicious and unforgiving, beating down on hundreds of miles of merciless terrain. Where would I go next?

The Next Episode...

Steph the I-don't-want-to-get-hitched-and-definitely-don't-want-a-diamond is on the rocks... CAN IT GET MORE BIZARRE?

YES!
http://hereicome.squarespace.com/

Cinco de Mayo weekend!

Tis the season for skirts and sunscreen! As the streets of New York become flooded by those out from winter hibernation and tourists eager to stand smack in the middle of the sidewalk jamming up the crosswalks, we had our own guests and adventures... but while the London Boys brought chaos to the streets, it was a girls night out!

We started Cinco de Mayo at a proper Mexican bar in midtown... no idea what the name was, but young men in tall hats lined the edges of the dance floor, speakers crackled tubas tunes, and hips swayed as furiously as the drinks were poured... not a single song had English in it and the latinas were more than happy to teach us and twirl us around.

Randy and Alena shake it salsa style!

Kathy and Steph go gangsta Espanol

and then it was off to...
Danny Tenaglia's Mad Hatter Ball at Pacha... one of the best house DJs that's been on the scene for years at a see-and-be-seen club that thumps til dawn... and listed on Danny's guestlist were:

Steph and James

Alena gives the crowd a steamy show!

Kathy, Steph, and Alena sporting their MAD Hats

Weekend images...

What's up with the hustlin' T? In SoHo Billiards, blurring the afternoon away...









Mark and Hannah - recent arrivals to the New York scene from across the pond...










Danielle in from Los Angeles with hugs from the boys - James and Randy...









Making the scene happen until the early hours, despite a painful DJ...

Out past Curfew

Everything went amazingly well.
The playwright was pleased
and the audience was captivated...
and i was reminded why theater is so difficult to do... 
But I do love it and had a wonderful weekend -
especially with the boys!

LtoR: Tom, Dad, James

Central Park in April...

Almost Sold Out!

SAY WHAT??!!?? (yes...)

To the casual reader, the previous posts may have been mere fodder for the masses... whoo-hoo, Steph and James are on holiday!

However, the more keen observer may have noticed something very, very different...

Look again:
"What??" You say... "It's just Stephanie playing with fire again."

Perhaps.

Look again.

Closer...

Even Closer:
Is anything out of place?

Do you see something that doesn't belong?

No that's not a new tattoo...

YES, I AM GETTING HITCHED.

I never thought (and I'm sure most of you never thought either) that I'd see a ring on that finger, but in truth, it fits, James fits, and I am the happiest woman alive right now... and it feels something like this:

a goofy kiss across the stickshift in a convertible that's going
120 km/h through the twisty roads of Europe.

Yeah... something like that.

A Nice Easter Weekend

Coming up the drive to James' family home in South France after a grueling 12 hours of delayed flights, missed connections, and knee-knocking airplane rides invites you to breath a little deeper and walk quite a bit slower. The house is in Gattiere, a secluded town north of Nice where every shop closes for an hour at lunch and you can walk from one side of town to the other in minutes. A beautiful change from the hectic New York concrete skyline.

Lunch was everyday on the patio, over looking various French towns. On a clear day, you can see the Mediterranean just beyond the hills in the distance. Here the family gathers - having just woken up or been working in the gardens since dawn - and the day commences...















Afterwards, the afternoon is yours... to catch some sleep like James' brother Simon here, or catch some sun instead and contribute to the gardening facelift that the grounds around the house are undergoing... everyone here saved at least one tree from the ivy or built one section of a pathway wall...














Outside the house is an open-stove fireplace. The quinessential pizza oven! I have never had a pizza anything like what came out of this oven... fresh ingredients, wood-burning stove, cooked to perfection!














Easter lunch was a more forman occassion... we all gathered with friends of the family for a delicious meal after attending mass service at a tiny church in the center of the town.

Landscape Artists?

So much has already been done to bring thirty years of overgrowth under control... The walls and levels, which were once covered in ivy, are now blank canvases for lawns, gardens, swimming pools... reality does indeed leave much room for imagination!















Off we go! James' brothers Tim (the youngest) and Nico (second youngest) and I to hack and chop our way through the landscape!

Veni Vidi Vici Venice!

Before leaving for Nice, I had made plans with an old friend of mine, Brian, to meet him in Venice for dinner one night. Seeing as how he had no cellphone or internet connection during his tour of Italy, I couldn't very well cancel... so we took a quick drive along the coastline of southern France and Italy and across the mainland, which looks astonishingly similar to rolling grassy hills of Tennessee - only that the buildings are made of stone. And have been in existance longer than the United States.
















well, maybe not so quick... never did figure out why the entire motorway came to a complete stop in the middle of the afternoon. We translated the Italian truck driver's description into somthing along the lines of "fire-breathing dragons are ravishing the countryside!!"

But we did eventually make it in time for dinner, and to see the lights come on across the buildings in St. Marks Square. One of the most stunningly beautiful twilights I have seen in my life... Here the sky grows dark over The Basilica:















I honestly had not been feeling 100%, probably all the travel and time adjustments... but when you're in Venice, this face doesn't last too long!















The next morning we were up early and headed back to the Square to go inside the Basilica (more pics soon) and roam the Square with Brian and his brother Michael before they headed off to Munich... Brian is on the left here and looks EXACTLY like when I knew him 16 years ago. Will try to find evidence of this!














And then James and I were off to meander the quiet, narrow passageways of Venice ourselves... I desparately wanted to get lost for days, but we were due back in Nice in time for the evening Chelsea football (read: soccer) match.

(I'll post more Venice pics later - Blogger only allows 5 per post)

Book your tickets now!

As you know, getting going in New York isn’t always easy. But moments like this make it worth it!
PROUDLY ANNOUNCING….
Stephanie’s New York theatrical directing debut!

And this is not just a random play in a forgotten black box theater. I am directing CURFEW, written by Academy-award winning writer Arthur Jolly, as part of the acclaimed American Globe Festival, with two incredibly talented actresses: Susan Stout and Casey Geraghty. This promises to be a riveting performance you do not want to miss!

Mark your Calendars and Get your Tickets! The show is just off Times Square on Friday, April 27th at 8:00pm. At this performance, the audience will participate in selecting the best play of the evening, so your support at this performance is much needed!

THE DETAILS:

~~~~~~~~~~~
Date:
Friday April 27th at 8:00pm. Run-time is approximately 1 1/2 hours.

Venue:
AMERICAN GLOBE THEATER, Times Square's longest-running Off-Off-Broadway theatre, located at 145 W. 46th Street. As part of the American Globe Festival - Offoffonline.com called the Festival the highlight of the Off-off Broadway season (May 2004).

Cost:
$15. This festival sells-out every year and tickets are already on sale! Best not to wait. Purchase your seats by either calling American Globe Theatre at 212-869-9809 OR going to www.theatermania.com to purchase them online. Only pre-paid (not reserved) seats will be held once it sells out. And seriously, where else can you spend $15 on a night-out in New York?!

Afterparty:
Drinks nearby directly afterwards!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO!

May all the presents you open either
look like This
or
bring this Look to your face!

Oh YEAH!

NSEW in Full Effect

Having
flown West for the completion of "New York Blind",
driven South to see my brother and friends in "The Greatest City in America",
and having no intention of going any further North until the weather starts cooperating
- it's time to head EAST... all the way over the Atlantic, down to the south coast of France to find a little sunshine, lots of space to breathe, and a few games of chess between hours and hours of eating.

Back next weekend...

Heading south for the winter weekend!

I've been waiting to put this post up for a while... not sure why though.

After a full 12 hours of non-stop snow in New York City, James and I trudged our way to the rental car shop wondering if we were actually going to make it out of the City... the highway speed was dictated by signs all the way down to D.C. "35 MPH". And not a drop of snow on the road. Even the cops knew that speed limit was ridiculous. As I was driving down the New Jersey Turnpike I thought to myself "hmmmm, that dark Crown Victoria with tinted windows, that just pulled on to the road is probably an undercover cop"... and proceeded to continue at a steady 85 MPH. Sure enough he pulled in front of me, put his lights on... and slowed me down to 35. And when I was going mind-numbingly slow enough, he took off. Punishment enough even without a ticket.

Eventually we made it down to DC, where Tom now lives... saw his awesome apartment and took a stroll around the original Great Mall of America. Of course, it was freezing so we found the optimal place to spend a few hours:















In the IMAX movie theater at the Air and Space Museum.
Somehow that wasn't "American" enough. And here we are hosting a Brit to the nucleus of our country... the center of what makes everything run... Capital Hill, Washington Monument, Smithsonian... but let's get real here.

Let's go to Baltimore! It's claim to fame, after all, is written all over the benches...











(Disclaimer: This was the only bench we could find that hadn't been set on fire or been claimed by a homeless person)

This is where my girlfriend Kat and her husband live... both working at Johns Hopkins, which is probably the only reason that this boarded-up, dying-while-standing-up, frighteningly-forgotten town is still on the map. Well, that and Duckpin Bowling.















"What is Duckpin Bowling?" Kat asks as Justin and James check out the scene... well just look here to find more... It's the Sport of a Lifetime! And we went to the #1 rated Duckpin Bowling Lanes in Baltimore...




















But I'm not going to spoil it for you! This sport is sweeping the nation! Find out for yourself how "Duckpin bowling combines the elements of fun, excitement, challenge, competition and sociability into one fantastic activity!"

And after that wild ride, how could we possibly bear leaving America's Greatest City for... New York City? At least there were no speed limit reductions on the way back. Not that they would have slowed me down anyways.

Just in time for Summer

No more hiding the booze bottles from the cops patrolling the sand... No more awkward bottles to carry along with your beach volleyball gear... No more getting so lit you can't remember where you left the liquor!


A flip-flop that doubles as as flask!!! Now, the only thing I want to know is why they only come as menswear?

http://www.reef.com/productdetail/guys/footwear/sandals/2597

Chips N Sips

Poker at ours last Tuesday... maybe the guys thought that the suits and ties were going to be intimidating??? I don't think so, boys! Look at where the chips are stacked... Not even this pair of pocket rockets could help Good Ol' Randy...