Town Hall and OWS

 
Town Hall in NYC is a broadway theater.  Not the kind of town hall in some cities where they actually have town meetings.  Last night our town hall had a show: 'Broadway Unplugged'.  Great voices singing without the use of amplification.  It was excellent, especially the duet 'All the Things You Are'.  The program did not list the performers but I know Terri White from 'Follies' and Bill Daugherty and Nancy Anderson from other shows.  The artists who did the duet I do not know.  I am sure I will be seeing them again, soon.

Today's walk took me to Chinatown.  Then across the Brooklyn Bridge to my pension office.  I went to change banks for my direct deposit.  On the way back I decided to walk by Occupy Wall Street.  I heard the police had emptied it and arrested a couple of hundred people.  There were a lot of TV News people hanging around, waiting.  Maybe, because a number of OWS demonstrators were talking about taking back the park.  Does OWS mean to stay until every goal is met?  I support their goals of accountability for the fiscal collapse, but the odds are against it.  Getting the park emptied was a lot easier. 

Iphigenia in Tauris

A production under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs is playing at the Lion Theater on Theater Row.
The good news:  they have cut Euripides 4 hour play down to 1 hour.  My seat was on the aisle with lots of leg room. It costs $20.  Iphigenia and Orestes have a moment of reunion that is moving.
But, the acting is over the top which is OK for something that is the inspiration for Opera but the actors aren't consistent.  The actor playing Orestes does it as though he had Turret's Syndrome.  Being pursued and driven from every town by the Furies would cause some physical and psychic reaction but how he has chosen to play it is too distracting.  I'm glad that I went because it brought me back to my Freshman Lit. class with Mr. Christ.  He was an exceptional teacher and the best I've ever had.  It was a great course and reading classic literature with Mr. Christ is still one of my most cherished memories.

The Bridge

We called it the 59th Street bridge but it was actually the Queensboro Bridge, which has since been named the Ed Koch bridge.  But everyone calls it the 59th Street bridge.  When I and my friends in Queens were teenagers this was our bridge.  We, who rushed with adolescent excitement into the "city" called it the 59th Street bridge because that's where it left us off.  The 'City" was Manhattan and specifically downtown.  The village, Greenwich Village.  This was the early 1960's.  You could get served as a  17 y/o  in bars.  The beats were reading their poetry that spoke of sex, straight and gay.  The music was just as free form, be bopping  off cafe walls all for the price of a cup of coffee.  Streisand, Dylan, and Peter, Paul and Mary might be in a club performing .  Tomorrow's star might be in Washington Square Park strumming and singing for spare change.  Maybe Lanford Wilson's new one act would be at a club or we could go see Jason Robards, directed by Jose Quintero, in 'The Iceman Cometh'.  So what part of that great art did I get to.  We went to whatever bar would serve us.  Hey, I was 17, but I'm making up for it now.