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...