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I love this video and thought I would share it here..

I’m not going to write the standard New Years Day post.  It’s not my style.  I’m not always going to write about movies.  But I will again today.  Vacation continues and we are going to the movies a lot this week.  Also, since Congress is not in session, all is quiet on the political front.  It won’t always be quiet and neither will I.

Steve and I spent New Years Eve in our traditional manner.  A double feature and dinner at an Indian Restaurant.  We are blessed with several really good Indian places in Greensboro.  This year we went to Saffron and it’s probably the best.

We also saw two very good films– one of which was really great.  We saw both “An Education” and “Me and Orson Welles.”

“An Education” was first and is one of the best films I’ve seen this year or any year.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.  It was a perfect gem of a film.  Beautifully written, acted and directed.  Perfect art direction as well.  The film is set in 1962 and relates to the “education”, in both school and life, of a 16/17-year-old girl in England.  Carey Mulligan was amazing in the lead.  Peter Sarsgaard was also wonderful, but he is so natural his performances are frequently overlooked.  Great supporting performances also by Alfred Molina, Rosamund Pike and Dominic Cooper.

I won’t spoil the plot, but I will say it did make me think about how things have improved for women over the last 47  years.  In the film, the main questions are “what is the value of education for women?” and “is it worth it?”  The heroine learns the answer in the course of the film through both her “education” in life and in school.  She questions the value of a woman’s education at that time as it was really seen, even by her father, as only useful to get a “Mrs. Degree”.   Even her teachers advised her, outside of marriage, the only options for an Oxford educated woman  were teaching or, perhaps, civil service or a secretarial job.  She questioned whether it was worth all the effort when one could get the “benefits” of a post collegiate life, a good marriage to a man who would take care of her, without the education.  Her question was what is the value of education outside of this context?  Was she just wasting her time?  As someone who graduated from a Liberal Arts college, I’m very happy with her ultimate realization.

The film also took me back to the time and place when I was young and looking trying to figure out how to learn to live the life I wanted.   How do you escape your little world to find the larger world you want to be a part of?  The answer is:  You take chances on new things and new people.  You make mistakes and you learn.  Everything is new and the future appears unlimited.  You are young enough to recover from most of your mistakes.  Please make every effort to see this film.  A lot more happens that I won’t go into.  It really is an amazing multi-layered film with wonderful multi-layered performances.  It is nothing short of perfection.

“Me and Orson Welles” is also a very enjoyable film, however not without its flaws.  The performances by Zac Efron, Claire Danes, Ben Chaplin and most especially Christian McKay, as Orson Welles, were excellent.  The art direction and clothes/hairstyles do not ring true to the period.  The script is flawed.  However, the film captures the period and every theatre buff should see it for the “inside” look at Welles’ famous production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” that launched the Mercury Theatre.

The connection to “An Education” that jumped out at me was, again, how things have, hopefully, changed for women.  In this film, all the women were more or less at the mercy of the men.  The men treated them as second class sex objects.  The only way the women could get ahead was by sleeping with and manipulating the right man.  Sex was either a means for advancement or a recreation- depending on your sex.

The one other thing that amazed me was that in both films the protagonists were 16 and 17 years old.  These kids took big chances.  They made mistakes.  And they learned about life.  With few exceptions, I don’t see kids of that age embracing life and taking the big chances anymore.  They- and society- today seem to still view people this age as children who must be protected.

I’m starting to wonder if puberty now begins at 30.  This is something else I’ll need to think about and write about more in the future….

We just came home from seeing the new movie musical of “Nine” and I have a few thoughts to share…am I becoming an entertainment critic?

Movie musicals are very dear to my heart and I’ll have more to say on them in the future.  I’m excited every time Hollywood tries to take on filming a musical.  For so many years, there were none.  Then came “Chicago” and the genre was seen as financially viable by Hollywood again.  “Rent” and “Dreamgirls” followed and each was successful in its own way.  I hope “Nine” does not slow or stop additional musicals from being made.  I hear it is tanking at the box office after costing $80 million dollars to make.  There were a total of seven people in the theatre tonight when we went to see it.  Two of them left after about a half hour.

Let me say up front that I liked, but didn’t love “Nine”.  I want to see it again sometime now that I’ve figured out what I saw.  I was expecting a big musical, but what I got was an art film.

I saw the revival of “Nine” on Broadway with Antonio Banderas a few years ago.  It’s not a great show to begin with, but can be engaging.  The right lead is the key and I think, good as he was, Daniel Day-Lewis was miscast.  He was good, but I always saw the cerebral British actor working very hard to be the lusty, emotional, sexually driven Italian director.  “Nine” is  about this man’s internal journey and the roles various women have played in his life and how they impact his art.  Each woman is a key to his character.

This is a difficult concept to “open up” and make into a film.  The result is very much a musical art film– not a gangbuster Hollywood Musical.  I wish Rob Marshall,  the director had recognized this earlier in the film.  It was difficult to become engaged with the character of Guido Contini with the erratic “Chicago” style camera work employed at the beginning of the film.  I know this was intended to convey the energy of Rome in the 1960’s when Italian cinema was all the rage. But I found it impeded the initial attempts to establish the character of Guido Contini.  It did not draw me in, but rather distanced me from the film.

All the women were marvelous.  Marion Cotillard, who was so amazing in “Piaf” a couple of years ago, is luminous as Luisa, Guido’s wife.  Penelope Cruz is wonderful as his mistress.  Judy Dench stops the show with her big number.  Fergie is an earthy revelation.  Sophia Loren is Sophia Loren-what more can you want?

My only complaint is Kate Hudson.  She is beautiful  She sings and dances the hell out of a very mediocre song.  However, her character is out-of-place in the film.  In a film about the important women in one man’s life, her newly added part is basically a potential one night stand of no importance to the plot.  If it were up to me, good as she is, I would leave her part and her song on the cutting room floor.  Inserting the song and the character into the film doesn’t work–it’s clearly an attempt for the composer to get in a new song to qualify for Oscar consideration for “Best Song”.  It isn’t…

Just a few thoughts I thought I would share.  I’ll be interested to hear other opinions.  More movies to come this week!

We began our unexpected fifth day in New York with a trip to the Gap on Broadway at 86th Street to buy a few things to tide us over.  We’ve managed to get our packing under control over the years, so we didn’t have enough clothes to cover our extended stay.  Of course, I would travel with a steamer trunk if the airlines would let you and someone else would carry it, but neither of those conditions is likely to be met in the near future.

We then caught the M86 bus through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum on Fifth Avenue.  I have been to the Met countless times and I never get tired of it.  We go almost every time we are in the City.  They had a wonderful exhibit called “American Stories:  Paintings of Everyday Life 1765-1915” that I thoroughly enjoyed.  They also had an excellent photography exhibit, “The Americans” showing the work of Robert Frank.  Of course, we also got to see the Christmas Tree.  I think the tree at the Met is the best one in New York every year.

A quick stop by the Hotel Newton and a great Thai dinner at “Long Grain” next door, then off to the night’s Broadway show, “Fela, the Musical”.

I’m still trying to process this show.  Fela was an entertainer/musician and political activist in Nigeria in the 1970’s.  The show was an event, more a Happening than a traditional Broadway show.  It was multi-media and something that I don’t think can tour or be seen outside of New York in any similar way.  I think the Afro beat music, which has a similar melodic undertone/through line for all songs, kept me from enjoying the show as much as I would have liked to.  There wasn’t an arch to the score that went along with the arch of the book.  Instead, the music was too similar all the way through for me to really love it or for me to connect emotionally.  Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the show and learned a lot in the process, but I would not consider this, in any sense, a traditional musical which is more to my taste.  The dancing and visual effects were fabulous.  You felt you were part of a big party, which was the intent of the somewhat flawed book.   I think the visuals, the party atmosphere and the dancing hide a lot of these flaws.  As I said, it was an event, a Happening and something one can only see in New York on Broadway.

We had an early evening as we had a 7:00 am flight, so we had to be up at 4:00 to leave for La Guardia by 5:00 am.  We were not going to miss this plane!  All went smoothly.  We took the shuttle to DC National, then caught a connection on to Greensboro and finally got home at about 10:30 am.  Two days late, but still we made it home in time to get ready for Christmas.

The unexpected extra two days in New York and Manhattan in the Snow were great Holiday gifts.  We won’t be forgetting this trip any time soon and I somehow think, this is the trip that all future visits to the City will be compared to….

I’ve had my affairs with London and Paris, but there is still no city I love more than New York–especially during the Holidays!

We began our day on Monday getting ready to head home–or so we thought!

Breakfast at the Washington Square Hotel, then on to see the film “A Single Man” directed by Tom Ford based on the Christopher Isherwood novel.  Colin Firth gave a very fine, restrained, complex Oscar caliber performance.  The scene where he gets a phone call with the news of his longtime partner’s death and is told the services are “family only” and that he can’t attend is an amazing piece of acting.  Julianne Moore was also quite good in a small part that may net her another Oscar nomination as a supporting player.  The set direction and cinematography are also amazing.

The film is set in 1962 and can’t help but make us think of “Mad Men”.  It is quietly devastating in its portrayal of how invisible gay people were, and had to be, at that time and how society-and even friends-did not recognize the validity of their relationships.  It also is very clear how these relationships were an oasis in a hostile world.  People forget what it was like for gay people before Stonewall and “Will and Grace.”  Some of us never will…I hope this film comes to Greensboro.

We then had a quick lunch before checking out of the Hotel and hoping in a cab to the airport.

About 10 minutes into the trip, my cell phone went off in the cab with a recorded message from USAirways telling us our flight was canceled due to weather.  With clear skies from Greensboro to New York two hours before the flight?  Words do not exist to describe how much I hate USAirways.

As much as I complain about cell phones, this was one scenario where I don’t know what we would have done without them.  We were in the back of the cab with Steve on his phone trying to get us a hotel room while I was on mine trying to get through to USAirways, to a real person, to arrange alternate travel arrangements.  All while heading toward La Guardia.

After 20 minutes or so, they finally told us the best they could do was to get us back on Wednesday, the 23rd at 10:0o at night on one of the little planes that gets canceled all the time.  I took it, but called them later, turned on the Southern charm, and got better arrangements.  We are supposed to leave in the morning at 7:00 on the Shuttle to DC, which is almost never canceled, then on to Greensboro arriving by 11:00 am.  Amtrak was booked through Christmas also, so this was the best we could do.  Please keep your fingers crossed for us!

We returned to the city after a wasted $75 cab ride and checked into the Hotel Newton on the upper West Side.  I love the Hotel Newton.  We’ve stayed here many times.  It’s on Broadway between 94th and 95th Street.  The subway is almost at the front door, so you can be in mid-town at the theatres in about 15 minutes.  The Hotel is hardly the Plaza, but it is clean, safe, comfortable and very reasonable.  I cannot recommend them highly enough.  Due to the circumstances, they even gave us a special rate of $150 a night–which is unheard of in Manhattan.  I love New York and New Yorkers!

After we were settled, we decided to make the best of it and head out to see a show.  We got great seats for “Hair” at 40% off at TKTS.  Orchestra, aisle seats about half way back.

“Hair” was truly a tribal musical and it was just what we needed to end a stressful day.  It was just phenomenal.  Beautifully directed and performed with so much youth and positive energy.  It was the replacement cast, but they were just great.

However, while sitting there watching this show about youth in the 1960’s, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would take to rile up today’s young people to take to the streets to protest unnecessary war and social injustice.  I can’t imagine anything that would pull them away from the TV and the Internet.  They seem so passive and disengaged to me.  I hope it is a misperception.

Of course, in the 60’s you had the draft forcing people, who did not have rich daddies, to go to war against their will.  Now, it is “voluntary” even if the army is the only way some  poor kids can get out to get a job and an education.

Enough politics…I’ll save the soapbox for later.

More to come…

We awoke Sunday morning to a  Holiday Winter Wonderland in New York.  It was both snowy beautiful and functioning-a rare combination for this southern boy!

Nothing stops New York or New Yorkers and 12 inches of snow was, at most, a minor inconvenience.   Road crews had cleared the roads, sidewalks had been scraped, trains were running and all was right with the world.

We walked up to the Riviera, a restaurant that has been in Greenwich Village since the Dutch ruled New York.  Or so it seems.  Still, we love the Riviera–especially for their Sunday Brunch where you can get Eggs Benedict or other choices plus hot tea/coffee AND a Mimosa or Bloody Mary all for $11.95.

We left there and took the train uptown to see midtown after the snow.  We wandered around Rockefeller Center, 5th Avenue and Times Square before heading down to 48th Street and the Walter Kerr Theatre to see “A Little Night Music.”

I loved “A Little Night Music”.  Period.  It was exquisite.  A mature character driven musical, where the songs both moved the story and revealed character.  The score is all in a waltz tempo and that proves waltzes can be ironic, haunting, sharp and many more things than one associates with Strauss.

Some of the criticism of this production was that the set was not elaborate.  That did not bother me.  On stage, I’ve seen falling chandeliers, helicopters  on stage, barricades and jeeps.  Sometimes these sets were very effective.  Sometimes it becomes all about using the set to hide flaws in the production or show.  In this case, I think the set worked perfectly and helped keep the focus on the characters.

I’m not always fond of Sondheim, but I’ve been intrigued by “A Little Night Music” since reading about the original Broadway production 30 some years ago when I was a small child in that horrible little town in Virginia where I grew up.  This show is from the Sondheim period of “Company” and “Follies” and is the period of his work I enjoy– before he became too esoteric and experimental- and some would say pretentious.

Catherine Zeta Jones was wonderful.  You could tell she had been a London stage actress prior to making her name in films.  She was incredibly beautiful, had great stage presence and gave a performance that was earthy, ironic, comic, sad, hopeful and simply wonderful.  Her delivery of “Send in the Clowns” is perfection- sung as a character song, not as a showstopper.

What can you say about Angela Lansbury?  She was delicious as Madame Armfeldt.  I see Tony number six come May.

Alexander Hanson and the rest of the cast was equally superb.  If you are looking for a melodic, mature musical for adults, I can’t recommend this show more highly.

After the show we headed back to the hotel at Washington Square.  It was too bloody cold for anything else.

We thought we would get up on Monday to catch a film, lunch and fly home.  Little did we know…

More to come….

When we went out on Saturday morning, it had not yet begun to snow, but it was in the air.  And we had three shows to attend!

We began our day by taking the subway up to Chelsea to see “Ernest in Love” at the Irish Rep Theatre.  This is a musical version of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Ernest”.  It was a delightful show and great fun to see Noah Racy and Beth Fowler on stage again.  However, the book and the music seemed to perhaps be each designed for different shows.  Delightful, fun, but not great musical theatre.

By the time we got out, it was snowing in earnest.  We took the subway up to 42nd Street station then walked up to one of our old mid-t0wn stand-bys, “Pergola Des Artistes” next to the Imperial Theatre on 46th Street.  This is one of the few remaining old New York Restaurants- in business since 1963 and still run by the same family.  Good, hearty French country food.

Leaving the restaurant, it was clear we had reached blizzard time.  We were going to see “Zero Hour” just a couple of blocks up 46th Street.  It was a very long and frigid walk.  It was performed in a converted Church hall as is the case for so many off-Broadway houses in New York.  I have seen at least 3 different off-Broadway shows in former Churches.  This is a good thing.  In my mind, we definitely need fewer churches and more theatres.

“Zero Hour” is a one man show about Zero Mostel, the original Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” and the original Max in the movie “The Producers”.  It focuses on the his life and the Blacklist and the impact on artist of the 1950’s.  It was a wonderful show and a wonderful performance.  Seeing shows like this always make me fear we are forgetting our history–and those that forget or ignore history are often condemned to repeat it.

By the time we got out of “Zero Hour”, it was really nasty out.  Luckily, we got a cab right in front of the theatre to take us to the Algonquin Hotel to see Andrea Marcovicci at the Oak Room.

I love the Algonquin and the Oak Room.  They are among the increasing rare parts of “old” New York that I love.  So much of the New York I dreamed about as a child and saw when I first started coming here has disappeared and been replaced by Starbucks, McDonald’s and Olive Gardens.  I don’t understand why people travel and eat at the same chain restaurants they could go to at home.  I’ll never get over the loss of “Barrymore’s” a great little after theatre place where the casts of the shows mingled with the after theatre crowd over cheap wine and commentary and reminiscences from true theatre people and theatre lovers.  I almost miss the bad old days when you never saw teenagers on 42nd Street unless they were hustling.  But I digress…

The Oak Room is very Olde New York.  I was tastefully attired in a Brooks Brothers shirt, black cashmere sweater, grey wool pants and LL Bean Maine Hunting shoes.  It seemed to be the look of the night in NYC.  Prior to the show, we met Matilda, the cat who lives in the lobby of the Algonquin and sat to enjoy the atmosphere and the people.  A group of drunken Brits dragged the Maitre’d out into the street to make him take their picture in the middle of 44th Street in the snow.

Andrea Marcovicci is the Queen of Cabaret.  She is a true song stylist and chantuese.  This is the 4th or 5th time we’ve seen her show at the Algonquin.  She always has a different focus and act.  This year it was Johnny Mercer, the composer of “Moon River” and about 17,000 other songs.  She not only entertains, but educates.  I think she plays a vital role in keeping both Cabaret performances and the American Popular Song alive for new generations.  It was a delight to see her and chat with her after the show.

Then, out into the blizzard again.  Once again, we were lucky enough to get a cab right in front of the Algonquin to take us down to the Washington Square Hotel.

The snow in New York was simply magical.  There is nothing like New York at the Holidays and a New York with snow at the Holidays is just incredible.

More to come…

I’m going to try to give a quick summary of our trip to New York during the Blizzard of  ’09.

So far, it has been a great trip, even if we did get off to a rocky start…Joe Lieberman was on our flight from DC to NY.  I had fears that was an omen for a bad trip, but luckily, it seems to be just an aberration.  See, I view Lieberman as the current holder of the title as the most morally corrupt, self-centered person in the US Senate.  The crown is frequently passed among other members of the Senate, but this week, Joe is definitely the winner.  His actions on the plane only reinforced my perception that it’s “all about Joe.”  No “Miss Congeniality” Crown for him.

We had a safe flight in and a hairier than usual cab ride in from La Guardia.  New York cabbies never scare me, but this one was an exception.  Out of the hundreds of cab rides I’ve taken, this on was the worst.  Fast and reckless is not a good combination.

However, once we were safely ensconced at the lovely Washington Square Hotel, everything immediately turned around and we began the magic of New York at the Holidays.

First stop was an excellent little Italian Restaurant, “Foccaceria”  in the village.  We always find great food on MacDougal street in the Village.

Next stop was to see “Our Town” at the Barrow Street Theatre just a couple of blocks from our hotel.  Steve really wanted to see this, but I was lukewarm.  I’ve never been a big fan of “Our Town”– until now.  This new production, now the longest running production of “Our Town” ever, was a revelation.  I felt like I was watching a new, contemporary play, not some old chestnut.  The new staging, inventive direction, proximity to the audience and use of the space really made this seem new and exciting.  Tony nominated Broadway star Michael Cumpsty was also in the audience.

We heard the snow was hitting Greensboro pretty hard, so we called our neighbor Brooke to check in on our cats in case our friend Madonna couldn’t get there….Many thanks to them both for letting us have such a carefree Holiday in New York without having to worry about the home front.

That was the end of Friday, day 1.  The snow was on its way to New York…More to come….

One of the things you will probably discover, as this journey continues, is just how eccentric I am.  I am fine with that.  I’ve reached the age where rather than try to hide my eccentricities, I am starting to revel in them.  In trying to decide what to write about next, I thought I might have to try to tap into popular culture a little more.  The price may be too heavy.

See, I don’t really watch television.

I also do not understand “Reality TV.”  From what I can tell, most of the people on these shows are desperate for fame at any price–even if they don’t have any talent to earn it.  Why would anyone invite Jon and Kate, much less eight,  into their homes?   “Desperate Real Life Housewives” in any city should get a life and a job– not a TV Show.

A few years ago people at work did a take off on “Survivor”.  I didn’t understand it at all as I had no clue what “Survivor” was all about.  I went to the “American Idol” concert this year with my partner and had never seen the show.

To be honest, I do watch some television.  Usually I watch shows I hear good things about from people’s whose opinions I respect once the shows are on DVD.  Therefore,  I’m usually a season or two behind.  That’s fine.  I’ll trade off timeliness for no commercials any day.

I do try to watch “Glee” and “True Blood” real time.  They are too good to wait.  I discovered “Slings and Arrows” on DVD and watched whole seasons over a couple of weekends.  I love “Mad Men” and, yes I will admit it, “Gossip Girl”, but I have to watch them on DVD so I can see several episodes at a time.

I used to be a news junkie, until I got so disgusted with how the Democrats have  failed to use our majority to drive change and the Republicans all became self parodies.  I want to hear an informed discussion, not people trying to talk over each other presenting falsified facts that no one bothers to challenge or disprove.  Now I just get mad, so I avoid my friends Rachel and Keith most of the time also.  I still love Jon Stewart and think he may be the last person around who thinks like I do, but I can’t stay up late enough for the “Daily Show”.  And all this is getting too painful to treat as comedy.

When it comes to entertainment, to quote Tennessee Williams vastly out of context, “I don’t want realism, I want magic”.

“Glee”, “True Blood”, “Mad Men” and even “Gossip Girl” each have their own kind of magic.  Some stronger than others.  I’ll keep looking for other shows like these …You can have the “reality” series and I’ll keep looking for more magic– of any kind.

Currently under construction, but opening soon!