Olive and the Bitter Herbs

Caught Charles Busch's latest work last night...

Olive and the Bitter Herbs... at Primary Stages.

Busch's light comedy hits the comic palette as a tasty little rugelach more than a full bodied babka... Bearing that in mind, you will enjoy this sweet treat!

Julie Halston takes the cake as gentile caretaker Wendy...

Dan Butler, David Garrison were perfect as a longtime spicy gay couple... and Richard Masur, as bachelor Senior, was perfectly soothing as a farfalle comfort dish...

Olive, played by Marcia Jean Kurtz was our half-sour pickle of the night served center stage of this New York comedy reminiscent of early Neil Simon's slice of life works, with added Busch driven fanciful plot stretches and outrageous surprises, of course...

Audience at 59 E 59 seemed to thoroughly enjoy the show, and especially the references to American Jewish culture...

Theater-goers especially reacted to the delicious work of Ms Halston. On her final scene exit, Halston got the most hearty hand of the night and the most fulfilling laughs...

This well sold run proves there is clearly a mainstream audience for new Busch works.

This Final Full Week of Summer 2011

All is fine here in Hell's Kitchen the mornings after the Hurricane Irene weekend...

It will take all the city systems another a day or two to get fully up to speed after last weekend's precautionary shutdowns...

And the full speed of the city, in the last days of August, are typically lazy and slow motion kinds of days anyway...

Labor Day, next Monday, looms large. Especially for students and teachers who must wrap up their summer vacations over this next week...

I plan to enjoy and maximize each vacation day fully til there aren't any more vacation days... A day at a time...

Set the Tone: The Prophet of Your Future

"Your present attitude is the prophet of your future".
– Joyce

Stormy Weather in Hell's Kitchen

Be safe, people...

Site of the Week: Times Square Cam

Want a interesting viewpoint of Hurricane Irene in New York City?

Check out the Times Square Cam...

There a few different cams you can access...

It's certainly more comfortable than standing out there with an umbrella yourself...

LOL

Be Safe Out There

Hope if you are along the East Coast you are safe.

Nothing extreme going on around here yet from Hurricane Irene...

But we're being well assured it's on it's way...

Here Comes Hurricane Irene

Here is a very cool Hurricane Tracker...

You can follow along at least until your power gets knocked out!...

My beloved Grandmother was named Irene.

Very sweet woman...

But, she had a pretty rough life while here on earth...

So be warned!...

(If you happen to be a stray cat, you will be fine!)

MoMA: Figures in the Garden

Twas a beautiful day yesterday to spend some time in the MoMA Sculpture Garden...

Seems the last couple of times I was at MoMA, the weather wasn't so good for a proper Sculpture Garden visit...

Below is some text from their press release on what treasures are currently on display out there...

This summer’s Sculpture Garden installation brings together figurative works from the late 19th century to the present day. Making its debut in the Sculpture Garden is Figurengruppe/Group of Figures, by contemporary German artist Katharina Fritsch (b. 1956). Conceived in 2006–08, the work features nine life-size sculptures of, among other figures, St. Michael, a Madonna, a giant, and a snake, all rendered in precise detail and finished in bold colors. Religious symbolism and references to mythology abound, yet any fixed meaning remains open and elusive.


Group of Figures is joined by earlier works such as Auguste Rodin’s heroic St. John the Baptist Preaching (1878–80) and Aristide Maillol’s pensive Mediterranean (1902–05). Striking a casual pose in his derby hat is Elie Nadelman’s Man in the Open Air (c. 1915), and perched atop a tall pedestal is Gaston Lachaise’s open-armed, voluptuous Floating Figure (1927). Perennial favorites like Picasso’s She-Goat (1950) and Miró’s Moonbird (1966) are on view as well, in addition to works by Renée Sintenis, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Henry Moore, and Tom Otterness.

All photos by me. And are viewable in more detail on the Todd Hellskitchen Flickr Page.

It's a nice perk of MoMA Membership with the added benefit of   MoMA's proximity to Hell's Kitchen... That dropping by the MoMA Sculpture Garden for a morning read, some quiet time, or a session to just sit and catch up on Smartphone emails is so easily doable!

It's all good...

Here's an article on Katharina Fritsch, written by Eleonore Hugendubel and posted on the MoMA blog.

What Earthquake?

At the time of the East Coast earthquake... According to my Twitter feed I was strolling around the streets of West Greenwich Village seeing both the things that have changed versus those that stayed the same... (The former won!)

Some guy told me about it later at The Center...

And then, as I was walking homeward to Hell's Kitchen, entire buildings had been evacuated and people were standing around on the streets of midtown chit chatting about it, making cel calls and reading video screens news tickers in various store windows...

Hours later while having a diner omelet... There was Wolf Blitzer on CNN going on and on and on about it...

With "man on the street" witness accounts of people who had really had nothing to say and Wolf was desperately devising all kinds of grand statistics to state like he was a great investigative journalist or something...

See, this is what the news media does...

I'm so glad I picked this week for my news embargo...

I was sorry they had the tv on in the diner...

Next time, I'll try for a seat on the far side of the place.

The feta and spinach omelet was good, though...

Casey Rubber Stamps

Always love to stumble upon these old fashioned small businesses thriving in New York City...

Check out Casey's Rubber Stamps in the East Village...

Casey Rubber Stamps
322 East 11th Street
(Between First & Second Avenues)
New York, NY 10003

Mon-Tue: 4-8PM Wed-Sat-: 1-8PM
Open late on weekends and on Sundays during the Holidays

(917) 669-4-one-5-one or squirrelcasey AT yahoo.com

No surprise that Yelp has rave reviews for Casey Rubber Stamps

Starting My Media Fast Today

Decided to follow the advice of author Timothy Ferriss in his The 4 Hour Work Week and to institute a self-imposed Media Fast starting today...

Remembering the first law of consciousness: whatever you focus upon expands...

I'm choosing to not to be manipulated my the media and to become immersed in all the bad news in the world... By its nature, the media accentuates the negative.

So I'll just turn the whole thing off... One week... (Maybe more).

Marianne Williamson, one of my favorite authors and spiritualists has always maintained that starting ones day by listening to the news was not the most positive and uplifting way to start a new day... She instead recommended something more spiritual like meditation...

Even the Serenity Prayer seems to be saying Turn off the damned TV: "God: Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference".

I find that television news, in particular, usually just makes me angry...

I love The New York Times, but I want to eek out the the most from these last remaining weeks of summer vacation and starting each day with a lost hour of reading about all the things in the world that I have absolutely no control over is perhaps not the best use of my remaining vacation time...

But, at lunch time every day,  I will allow ten minutes to catch up on the news around the world... Ten minutes only... (Ferriss recommends only five minutes!)

What will I do with the newfound time and head space??


We'll see...

"It is not length of life, but depth of life".
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sunday Morning Catch-Up

Catch-up. Not Ketchup. And certainly not Catsup...

Dark Shadows 45th Anniversary Festival wraps up today today in Brooklyn... I may swing by to say hello to Barnabas, Angelique, Maggie, Quentin and the gang...

Wolfed down some raw veggies and spicy hummus as a quickie lunch...

Had a nice morning visit to the Hudson Hotel outdoor atrium today today to read the Sunday NYTimes and enjoy my iced Starbucks... But all the Euro tourist smokers wafting my way were a pain...

Had a great Breakfast Brunch yesterday in honor of the 50th Birthday of Danny. He's much loved... That was most apparent! Congrats to Postal Lady on much of the party's success... And kudos to all the brilliant presentations, and participants...

Ack... I hear thunder... Perfect for trying to get somewhere... Oy! Gotta run...

Quote of the Week: Don't Let Yesterday...

"Don't let yesterday take up too much of today" 

~ Will Rogers

Site of the Week: New York Like You've Never Seen Before

Some pretty magnificent photography from Viral Blender.

City of New York Like You've Never Seen Before.

Actually... This particular dramatic shot (at right) overlooks Northern Hell's Kitchen... Larger version is available on the Viral Blender link above and provides much more detail...

Those are the two Death Stars (Time Warner Center) and the Christopher Columbus statue of Columbus Circle, and the MAD museum.

Also, a glimpse of the Hearst Tower .

And there's some great downtown view into Hell's Kitchen...

Sweet...

Favorite John Waters Quotes

“I always say it’s really great to be mad when you’re 20, but if you’re 60 and mad you’re an asshole. You can bitch about your parents until you’re 30; after that, shut up.”

"Life is nothing if you're not obsessed."

"True success is figuring out your life and career so you never have to be around jerks."

“As far as socially redeeming value, I hope I don’t have any.”

"There is right and there is wrong, I have NEVER been wrong."

“No matter what your sexual preference or gender, no one likes a man who is fussy about his looks. You can spend as much time as you want looking good. But don`t do it in public.”

"I've had it with being nice, understanding, fair and hopeful. I feel like being negative all day. The chip on my shoulder could sink the QE2. I've got an attitude problem and nobody better get in my way...I'm in a bad mood and the whole stupid little world is gonna pay!

"You should never read just for "enjoyment." Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friends' insane behavior, or better yet, your own. Pick "hard books." Ones you have to concentrate on while reading. And for god's sake, don't let me ever hear you say, "I can't read fiction. I only have time for the truth." Fiction is the truth, fool! Ever hear of "literature"? That means fiction, too, stupid."

"I respect everything I make fun of."

About the art work: “The Pope of Trash” by Kelly Hutchison (aka “Dark Vomit” on etsy.com). Original oil painting… Gesso…Painted… Then varnished on wood panel. Measures 26 inches by 31 inches with the gold frame (frame comes with purchase) Ready to hang on the wall as is. Signed and dated by artist.

Follies: It's Like I'm Losing My Mind...

I saw the new revival of Follies on Broadway yesterday...

Oh... My ... God...!

The whole production is chilling and magical...

Bernadette Peters is absolutely brilliant...

You can't keep your eyes off her... She's sooo fragile and plays this part to the hilt...

She is spellbinding...

I wept through most of the damned thing... Soooo moving...

Stephen Sondheim's brilliant(-most) score is given top treatment here. Never upstaged or lost for a minute...

When I first heard of this show in 1975 or so and listened to the original cast recording, I was a high school kid myself... Now that I'm actually older than some of the characters played on the stage... And had my own show business career in my own youth, it's compelling...

I sat in the front row... So I saw every sequin and feather on every fabulous costume, and every well acted bead of sweat on every brow...

Poignant to the bone...

You MUST see this... They say it's a limited run... But what a waste to not be able to get Tony's for SO many in this cast and production because it closes too early in the season to be remembered...!

Also: Read this lovely interview of Bernadette Peters by Jesse Green in New York Magazine...

(Bottom image by Pari Dukovic for New York Magazine.)

Sign Bill Clinton's Birthday Card

President Bill Clinton’s 65th birthday is August 19, 2011.

Celebrate his dedication to improving lives around the world through the Clinton Foundation.

You can send President Clinton a birthday message, and let him know of your commitment to help him build a better world.

“We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs.”
- President William J. Clinton

Re-Casting Mary Poppins

300,000

300,000 Visitors...

Thanks for stopping by...!

How to Say Oy in Chinese?

Today, Sunday, is a bit of a washout... Torrential rain. Flash floods. You know the routine...

But I do like days like this from time to time... Perfectly good reason to stay in and do indoors stuff.

The challenge, of course, is not get waylay-ed by Twitter and Facebook and Blogs and other social media...I'm not so good at that focus part... LOL

But it gives me a chance to leave comments all over on friend's posts and updates... A way to be kind, I figure

Got up early on yesterday,  Saturday, (A sample of the mandatory early awake schedule that looms after Labor Day)  for a glorious ride on a traffic-free Park Avenue from 72nd Street down to the Brooklyn Bridge and back... Starts at 7am and that's the best time to avoid the swerving young family crowd yet to come... (Summer Streets happens again next weekend...)

Another Hell's Kitchen landmark bites the dust in these turbulent financial times... Michael Musto reported the demise of the venerable Film Center Cafe'. Lady Donothing and I would lunch there during her cat-sitting days at the Manhattan Plaza. The cast and crew of Broadway Beat would have team celebrations there and Nicomar would dine there fifty years ago with another famous puppetry mogul. Rest in Peace Film Center Cafe'...

On the way back from the grocery store yesterday, I spotted a Chinese kid, in his teens, wearing a "The Man, The Legend" T-Shirt  (at right) I'm quite sure that neither he, nor his accompanying parents, spoke enough English to know what he was wearing and the message it conveyed...

How do you say "Oy!" in Chinese?

jay brannan gets it right

"sometimes on the surface, im a really bad person. but under that i'm actually a really good person. but under that lies someone truly terrible. and then underneath that is someone who is, essentially, really good".
- jay brannan, in an update on facebook, 8/14/2011

Henson's Museum Pieces

Went to see Jim Henson's Fantastic World over at the Museum of the Moving Image this past week...

What struck me was how truly archaic these hand stitched Muppets under glass look today...

I'm reminded how the restless Jim Henson that I knew, was always one to embrace the newest technologies...

No sooner was he done The Muppet Movie... And he was onto The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth fantasy films. Even Fraggle Rock had its robotics, and mechanics, and computer driven machinery...

My hunch is that today, if Henson were still alive, he would be soooo far away from Muppets and the art of puppetry performance.

He'd have surely been far more into the technologies that brought us Pixar's Toy Story and The Rise of the Planet of the Apes... And who knows what new direction he would have explored or invented? He was a businessman with a curiosity and the drive to see new visions through...

The foam pig and the hand puppet frog??? Probably, not so much...

These lifeless puppets entombed in glass showcases are merely historic museum pieces today...

Makes one wonder what would have been Henson's fantastic world of today?

Sadly, we'll never know...

See Time Out New York piece on Henson Exhibit including a slide show.

Update: The New York Times' And a Frog Shall Lead Them: Henson's Legacy

A Blue Sky Friday

This is the kind of day we're having today...

Perfect...

Thought I might run around.

Then decided to take it easy...

A stroll with a bag lunch picnic to Hudson River park for some rays...

A chat with a wild old lady with a parasol... And to watch the grazing Canada Geese...

Still letting the afternoon unfold...

How about you?? How's your Friday?

Have a great weekend, wherever you are...

Word of the Week: Humblebrag

humblebrag, verb and noun

1. To bring up one's accomplishments in conversation and contextualize them as a harrowing burden or the product of an accident or fluke. 2. Subtly letting others now about how fantastic your life is while undercutting it with a bit of self-effacing humor or "woe is me" accessory. 3. N. A brag shrouded in a transparent form of humility.

Example: Uggggh just ate about 15 pcs of chocolate. Gotta learn to control myself when flying 1st class all the time, or they'll cancel my multi-million $$ modelling contract! OMG! #humblebrag

Adapted from: Urban Dictionary

On My Mind

Hot Humid Day = Stay In and Get Stuff Done! It's ALL good.

I swear when I find out what app, tab, website, or widget is causing my computer to stutter and stammer so frequently lately... I will rip it off my hard drive by hand! I thought it was Shockwave in Chrome. But, it's still happening...

This woman slays me: "There is no such thing as inner peace. There is only nervousness and death". ~ Fran Lebowitz

Was boiling fresh beets this morning in my kitchen on this humid day... I should have invited all my friends over, handed out towels, and called it a schvitz!... Tips appreciated.

Celery from the locally grown Greenmarket tastes like real celery. That whitish stuff for sale in the grocery stores tastes like absolutely nothing... I also got fresh string beans, new potatoes, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, and corn from Joe the Produce Guy and his hardworking family.

I really don't like that Labor Day and the return to work is approaching so fast!

And the rich get richer... as city construction permits see uptick.

New York Times reports on one such project well underway that will surely cast a shadow over Hell's Kitchen and vicinity... 54th and Broadway

Why do Conservatives go after Teachers and Not Police??  Ask Lawrence O'Donnell.

Meanwhile this was on Facebook:

Salary of retired US Presidents .............$180,000 FOR LIFE
Salary of House/Senate .......................$174,00​0 FOR LIFE
Salary of Speaker of the House ............$223,500 FOR LIFE
Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders ...... $193,400 FOR LIFE
Average Salary of a teacher ................ $40,065
Average Salary of Soldier DEPLOYED IN AFGHANISTAN $38,000

More Facebook wisdom: There are 3 types of Republicans: 1. Billionaires 2. Millionaires 3. Suckers dumb enuf to think policies for nos 1 & 2 will benefit them.

Thomas L Friedman's column in today's New York Times The Day Our Leaders Got Unstuck provides the perfect solution to all the Washington financial problems...

I think time management guru Tim Ferris is hot. Not convinced? Looky here... Anyway, I'm reading the latest edition of his bestselling book... The 4- Hour Workweek over summer break... Lots of good stuff!

Support striking Verizon workers! Sign this petition.

I had two winning lottery tickets the other day! TWO! Total winnings? $4. Damn! I was hoping for $4 Million!

Why isn't New York in the Top 5 of America's Kinkiest Cities? Blame Bloomberg! Look at all the tourism revenue lost! And then there is no legal gambling in NY either... So NY'ers go to surrounding states to give away their money...

As I hit Publish Post... Hell's Kitchen Temperature at Noon... Is 80°F under partly sunny skies with 60% humidity, and expected to climb to 88 this afternoon...

Like I said... I plan to stay in...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I caught a matinee of Rise of the Planet of the Apes yesterday.

I remember seeing the original film at the Edmondson Drive-In Theatre in Baltimore, with my family as a ten year old...

I had to ask my parents to explain the part about the discovery of the wrecked Statue of Liberty at the end of that movie, and what that all meant...

The ape stars in this 2011 prequel far exceed the realism of the rubber masks worn by Roddy McDowall and other cast in the 1968 original Planet of the Apes mo-pic. And these computer generated creatures do indeed successfully manage to capture the audience's emotions and attention...

Here's a trailer that also reveals of some of the technological magic that brings these 2011 apes to life...



See the film in a theater if you can... It's one of those movies best appreciated on the big screen...

Guest Blogger Keith: on Mushy Peas

Today's Guest Blog Post is written by Keith...

Here's his enlightening explanation for readers of Postcards from Hell's Kitchen:

Mushy peas are basically processed peas which are cooked for a long time with a little sugar and bicarb to make them go mushy.

A processed pea (I only discovered recently) is a pea once dried and reconstituted. They sell over here in cans and it's all we ate in my plebby working class upbringing.

They do have a different flavour to ordinary canned peas and they are bigger.

For years, mushy peas have been available in fish and chip shops and usually the nicest ones come from there.

Cashing in on this, is the brand of canned ones is Harry Ramsden's the brand I tried yesterday. Ramsden's is a famous fish and chip shop in Yorkshire which became so well known all over the UK, they now have a "brand" which is used under license on fish, chip and now pea related products.

I've been past the place but the line to eat there was so big, we didn't go in. Tried branded fish and it wasn't much to write home about and neither were the peas.

I took 2 cans of Batchelor's mushy peas over to Susan in either 98 or 03 and she never ventured to even open the cans. I tease her that when they demolished House of Chan in Chinatown, those cans are still there in the debris / foundations of the new building on that site.

I checked the calories and they aren't that much higher 100 gms gives 87 cals and frozen peas are about 65.

The extra does come from the sugar.

A lot of these old dishes are out of fashion and in some ways modern times has overtaken them.

When these things were common fodder for ornery folk, they would put a big batch of the dried peas on to cook for maybe 4 hours on a low heat and a stew in a pot on another.

Now, the cost of the energy to cook all this stuff makes something cheap and basic too damned expensive, the power to cook them costs more than the ingredients. Something I found amusing when the credit crunch hit, because TV was full of these ideas of using a cheaper cut of meat, but all cheaper cuts are cheap because they take a long time to prepare or cook or are (like liver) not to people's taste.

So now you know...

Editor's Note: You can read more of Keith's blogging goodness from across the pond on The Sturdy Soapbox. He calls attention to the following Wikipedia reference on Mushy Peas.

Quote of the Week: Republican Speaker John Boehner

"... I got 98% of what I wanted. I'm pretty happy."
- House Speaker John Boehner (Republican-Ohio) with the Debt Ceiling Agreement that spawned huge financial losses and the loss of America's AAA credit rating and world standing.

How to Exercise Control in Your Life!

When Americans are being killed overseas, the credit rating of your country is downgraded, when Republicans create chaos and you feel like you have little control over the world...

What can you do??

You can go through your Facebook and hide ALL the Friend's feeds of tiresome and annoying friends... Hide, hide, hide....

And you can savagely remove all the damned Facebook Apps you can find... Click, click, click!

See, There IS psychological stress-relieving benefits to be had in Facebook!!!

I Call Your Attention...

I call your attention to the following all from the Sunday New York Times:...

Learning to cope with a mind's taunting voices... by Benedict Carey addresses the controversial changing focus of mental health care to a model of self-treatment and discipline.

The New York Times' Sunday Dialogue: How to Fix Government. Bruce Neuman proposes:

We need to get some of the tricks and gimmicks out of government. The Senate should constrain the use of the filibuster. We should also consider lengthening the terms of House members from two to four years to reduce re-election pressures in the face of important policy decisions. The Electoral College should be abandoned, leaving the president to be elected by a simple majority. And further work must be done to reform the financing of elections and the influence of lobbying by special interests.


Peter Sims on Daring to Stumble on the Road to Discovery in today's New York Times:

New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman said that when he graduated from college, he was able to go find a job, but that our children were going to have to invent a job... The same often holds true in the workplace. Perfection is rewarded, while making mistakes is penalized. It’s no wonder that “failure” has taken on a deeply personal meaning, something to be avoided at nearly all cost... The skills we’re taught work well for familiar situations, yet we’re trained to perfect our ideas and use the past to predict the future with linear plans in a nonlinear world. As such, we need a completely new mind-set. Linear thinking is a death knell for creativity... Even the most successful stand-up comedians, like Chris Rock, try thousands of new ideas in front of small club audiences in order to develop a one-hour act... The same holds true for leaders, managers and collaborators. They must to be willing to learn from mistakes. Affordable risks should be encouraged, and small failures celebrated — these are the mark of learning organizations. Otherwise, risk aversion will lead to stagnation and decline... In a time when valued skills and occupations shift constantly, we must be able to discover interests, opportunities and careers by experimenting. Or by reinventing ourselves altogether.


Maureen Dowd's column today Downgrade Blues:

Barack Obama blazed like Luke Skywalker in 2008, but he never learned to channel the Force. And now the Tea Party has run off with his light saber... The dissonance of his promise and his reality is jarring... When he had power, he didn’t use it. He wanted to be a “transformational” president like Ronald Reagan, but failed to understand that Reagan’s strategic shows of strength allowed him to keep the whip hand without raising his voice... And now, just when the high school principal in the Oval has been browbeating Congress to help create jobs, he is once more distracted from that task as he tries to save his own... He goes to fund-raisers to tell people to stick with him, but he seems to be trying to reassure himself... “I have to admit,” the president said in Chicago, “I didn’t know how steep the climb was going to be.”

And Drew Westen writes in What Happened to Obama?:

"There was a story the American people were waiting to hear — and needed to hear — but he didn’t tell it"... He failed to grab the narrative, to take his place at an important historic moment...We are afflicted with a president who does not seem to know what he believes."

Captain America: The First Avenger

Took another summertime journey into the Marvel Universe ( the shared fictional universe where most comic book titles published by Marvel Comics take place) with Captain America: The First Avenger.

What's not to love about this guy??

Haven't quite figured out all the chronology of how this story fits in with all the others to make up The Avengers...

But am certain, Marvel will continue to happily provide future motion picture explanations... $$$!

I am definitely a sucker for these things...

The Other Gorgeous Day in Tweets...

Just now catching up with a a few days ago... Using Twitter's microblog as my template. Adding a few words and hyperlinks... But do read these in reverse order to get the chronology of it all...

Cold Stone Creamery's Peanut Butter Cup Perfection with dark chocolate ice cream in a waffle cup... Soooo gooood.

Outdoor public space at Worldwide Plaza was pretty damned jammed at 2pm on this gorgeous afternoon... And why not?

Olive Garden five cheese penne was good. Rich and filling. Salad too, of course with dressing on the side... (Hold the breadsticks!)

Lion King takes the stage at Broadway in Bryant Park... "Circle of Life"...

Bryant park lawn is pretty crowded. Not a chair at a table to be found at the back. People circling w/ bagged lunches looking for a chair.

Awesome weather for "Broadway in Bryant Park" today. Jersey Boy's cast asks "Who Loves You?" as I tweet...

NYPL main branch has a good Centennial Exhibit. Nicomar would like this. So would the Queens Librarian Lady. Worth checking out...

Watching Jersey Boys singing Big Girls Don't Cry at Bryant Park...

Saw more Aug Art: Nancy Grossman: Combustion Scapes (PS1) at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery and more Elliott Erwitt @ Edwynn Houk where famed New York 1974 chihuahua signed print can be had for $5,500...

Beautiful morning in Midtown East.

Art Gallery day for me. Saw Lever House's sexy David LaChapelle exhibit From Darkness to Light

Also saw Pace-MacGill's Diane Arbus, Robert Rauchenberg, Garry Winnogrand, Duanne Michals, Robert Frank, and Lee Friedlander... Want to See My Portfolio?

Hell's Kitchen at 11AM: Scattered Clouds, Temperature 73 °F, Humidity 86%... Partly sunny. Highs in the lower 80s. East winds 5 to 10 mph.

Male Bonding at Manhattan Mini-Golf

Played some Miniature Golf, yesterday, for the first time in 40 years...

Actually, I tried to convince my Father to join me for a round on his 80th Birthday when we were on the boardwalk in Ocean City in June. He wanted none of it. Probably, because he could beat me when I was ten and he could sense I wanted to get even... LOL!

There is a fun Mini Golf Course in the Hudson River Park at Chambers Street... At Pier 25. Who knew?? Only $5 per round.

Course has it's fair share of fun challenges: ramps, hills, sand pits, bridges, tunnels, flowing rivers and  slopes!

Many surprising lessons on the (miniature) golf course... Good fellowship... Stiff breezes off the water... Great views...

And, you learn so much about your opponents while you play:

...Ex-Detective Jimmy Mc (can't keep score worth a damn! LOL), Dan the Man (Libertarian! Yikes!), Jonathan (the Triathelete! Impressive!), and Ben (who always figured I was straight like the rest of the players today! Preposterous!)...

Now if more Washington Democrats and Republicans played (mini) golf more often, they might learn more things about their opponents, too...

Check out Manhattan Mini-Golf here.

Obama’s and Bush’s True Contributions to the Deficit

Despite Republican squawking... the fact of the matter is that the Deficit is to be blamed SOLELY on the lap of horrific Republican policy...

When will America learn to stop electing Republicans?

Source: The Washington Post.

What’s also important, but not evident, on this chart is that Obama’s major expenses were temporary — the stimulus is over now — while Bush’s were, effectively, recurring. The Bush tax cuts didn’t just lower revenue for 10 years. It’s clear now that they lowered it indefinitely, which means this chart is understating their true cost. Similarly, the Medicare drug benefit is costing money on perpetuity, not just for two or three years. And Boehner, Ryan and others voted for these laws and, in some cases, helped to craft and pass them.

To relate this specifically to the debt-ceiling debate, we’re not raising the debt ceiling because of the new policies passed in the past two years. We’re raising the debt ceiling because of the accumulated effect of policies passed in recent decades, many of them under Republicans. It’s convenient for whichever side isn’t in power, or wasn’t recently in power, to blame the debt ceiling on the other party. But it isn’t true.

By Ezra Klein.

Happy Saturday

Woke up to the news that the Credit Rating for the United States has been downgraded for the first time in history.

This isn't good.

NYC from a Skateboard's Perspective

If you were a skateboard... And you lived in NYC... This could be your life...!

Mind the volume on the soundtrack...

Skateboards like it loud, apparently...

By Joshmaready

Quote of the Week: The Number One Sign...

"Google will tell you that the No. 1 sign of alcoholism is drinking alone. I feel that the No. 1 sign of alcoholism is having to google “No. 1 sign of alcoholism.”
-- Dan Frigolette, Time Out New York's Joke of the Week

DNA Knowledge is Power

I had my DNA typed by 23andMe over a year ago...

It's fascinating to learn all the diseases and conditions that I have a genetic predisposition to develope...

Personally, it empowered me to make the best lifestyle choices to avoid getting the awful predisposed diseases and conditions...

Also, it puts you in touch with distant cousins if you want... And it tells you where your gene pool originated... Fascinating stuff!

Soooo...

If this is something that YOU think you would be interested in, look at the 23andMe website and I have a code for $50 off for my friends. Expires August 9, 2011.

Lemme know...

For me, knowledge is power... If you don't wanna know... Then, this wouldn't be your thing!

Lemme know in the comments if you want the discount code and I'll get it to you!

X-Men: First Class

While this film is expected to be the first downloadable flick for Android, there's something about big screens and super heroes...

So, I saw X-Men: First Class at the Empire 25 today on 42nd Street.

I love this kinda movie...

A little super hero. A little sci-fi...

They tied the story into the real live history of the Cuban Missile Crisis...

Here's the Wikipedia entry on X-Men: First Class...

I know I'm late to the game... A movie that came out in the beginning of June is practically an antique by now... LOL

Art Meets Reality : MoMA's Talk to Me

Went to a Member preview of Talk to Me at MoMA over the weekend...

Here's MoMA's press release:

Whether openly and actively or in subtle, subliminal ways, things talk to us. Tangible and intangible, and at all scales—from the spoon to the city, the government, and the Web, and from buildings to communities, social networks, systems, and artificial worlds—things communicate. They do not all speak up: some use text, diagrams, visual interfaces, or even scent and temperature: others just keep us company in eloquent silence.

Talk to Me at MoMATalk to Me explores this new terrain, featuring a variety of designs that enhance communicative possibilities and embody a new balance between technology and people, bringing technological breakthroughs up or down to a comfortable, understandable human scale. Designers are using the whole world to communicate, transforming it into a live stage for an information parkour and enriching our lives with emotion, motion, direction, depth, and freedom.

And I also refilled my Metrocard at a real working Metrocard machine on exhibit at MoMA without a line...

Art met my reality...

More photos on My Flickr page.