The Bowery

The name comes from the Dutch for farm.  It is the oldest thoroughfare on Manhattan Island, initially a footpath for the native Lenape.  As the city grew the Bowery was an early suburb for the affluent.  Visit the Merchant House Museum on 4th Street just west of the Bowery.
But by the time of the Civil war it was known for entertainment halls, German beer Gardens, brothels and flop houses.  Among the first gangs of New York were the Bowery Boys and it got so notorious that the area was one of the first to attract social reformers.  The Bowery Mission opened in 1873  is still in operation.  
In the "Gay  Nineties" the Bowery became the place for numerous Gay and Lesbian Bars.  Between the 1940's and the 1970's it was New York's "Skid Row" and the home to a new class of men labeled "The Bowery Bum".
Berenice Abbott took photos of that time.  She worked for the Federal Art Project between 1935 and1938. The photos are available on line through the New York Public Library, thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts.  There is also a great movie about the guys living on the Bowery called "On the Bowery".  Made in 1957 it stars the men and women who lived there. 

That is the Bowery I knew.  I worked at the Men's Shelter from 1973 until 1976 as a caseworker and  group worker.  The organization was called the Manhattan Bowery Project.  At that time people who were publicly intoxicated were sent to jail to "sleep it off".  MBP was set up to be a more humane form of intervention.  At MBP we had a van that went out on the street each day and if a man needed a doctor or wanted to get sober they were brought back to our facility. The men knew the van and our program by the time I was working there, and the guys in really bad shape would be brought by their buddies to the van.  Most of the men lived in flop houses but some lived on the street.
It was my job along with  other caseworkers, nurses, a doctor and a psychiatrist to intervene during their four day stay, and encourage some form of long term treatment.  We had some resources that we could offer.  They, of course, weren't Betty Ford clinics, but some guys took the opportunity and got off the Bowery.  Years later you might see them again but most of the time you never knew if it took.
Two men I remember particularly because of their medical condition and their frequent admissions.  One had a hernia the size of a football and the other had part of his skull removed.  Neither one could stay sober long enough to get the treatment they needed.  The street was a killer.
I learned while working there that wet brain is called Wernicker-Korsakoff syndrome.  It causes memory loss and ataxia, a wide gait also known as "drunken sailor's gait".  I learned not to take the elevator because lice can get on your clothes; watch your back climbing the four flights of stairs because you could get two black eyes as one of the nurses did; or get jumped from behind and mugged as I was. 

                                     I also worked at the Kenton Hotel, a men's shelter on the Bowery.  It is also known as the Kenton flop house.  The big building next to it is The Bowery Hotel , very much the new Bowery.  A flop house was an open space like a loft that had plywood partitions to make a 10 foot by 6 foot "living space".  Then they put chicken wire over the top as a roof and for access to fresh air; what there was of it.  I think we had 160 cots on 3 floors.  The men had to check out every day so the place could be cleaned and then we had to check them in every night.  I'd report the number of empty beds to the main office and they would fill them up with guys who needed a bed and shower.  The bathrooms and showers were communal and that was where the fights took place.  Sometimes lovers quarrels.  Sometimes they'd be "letting off steam", "collecting payment", etc..  While I was at the Kenton the city courts found New York City in violation of the law  because of over crowding at Riker's Island prison.  They released many from Rikers Island and sent them to the flop houses.  It says something about flop houses that some didn't show up and the ones that did were known to us.
I also learned that I could find an affordable apartment in the East Village and I did.  It was on Mott Street between Bleecker and Houston, $200 a month about a week's pay.  Then it was called Little Italy; now it's called Nolita.  My first apartment in Manhattan a five flight walk up, 2 rooms, bars on the windows and only broken into twice.  An affordable apartment in NYC had other costs.
The Bowery today has multi-million dollar condos, a new art museum, and "fine dining" by world renowned chefs like Daniel Boulud.  The NY Times and the East Villager note that when Avalon Bay Communities opened their first luxury apartment complex in 2006 with a Whole Foods Market on the Bowery gentrification had arrived.  I thought it happened earlier, but it was definitely after the 1970's when I moved here.

Lemons into lemonade

Today the plan was to take the express bus to the Bronx and meet my friend Marion and have lunch at a favorite spot of hers in Bronxville.  Got there at 7:50 for the 8:15 bus.  A sign said because of the Sikh Festival on Madison Avenue the buses where on Park Avenue.  There were no signs for buses on Park Avenue   I knew, deep inside, from experience, that there would be no bus on Park Avenue.  Did I mention my 16 years of Catholic school and my Irish catholic immigrant parents.  I love them; may they rest in peace;  we did what we were told.  So I waited until 8:45 for a bus that I knew wasn't coming.
So I went to the festival and had a great time.  It is the Sikh tradition, once a year, to feed others, and that's what the festival was: tables of free food.  Lovely, pleasant, happy people sharing what the have.
                                     
                                                        In Madison Square Park
                                                                 

                                                                                         

And lastly this:  a lovingly remembered N.Y. street presence.  It takes me back to all the times my Mom and I would go downtown to buy my school clothes.  We'd walk and walk, maybe have a bite at the automat, but we'd always keep our eye on the "big clock".  So we'd get home in time for dinner.  Not a lot of working class people had wristwatches in the 1940's and early 50's and there were big clocks all around the city.
.

History Lesson

Saw "The Conspirator" last night.  Directed by Robert Redford with a great cast:
James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Klein, Tom Wilkinson and one of my favorites
Colm Meaney.  Colm Meany is the star of two great Stephen Frears movies "The Van" and "The Snapper".
Last night the movie house had about ten people.  I don't know why it's not getting an audience; I enjoyed it.  It's well done and has some suspense.  The scenes of  an imagined 1865 Washington, D.C. were excellent.  Although, I don't know how accurate the scenes of Washington are, nor how accurate the story.  My strongest feeling after viewing the movie was regret and anger at the edited/proscribed American History I was taught.
As I remember it, I had eight years of American History in grade school, and two in High School.  I do not recall hearing, reading or being taught any of what I saw in this movie about the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination.   I was taught that John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln; then jumped onto the stage at the Ford Theater injuring his leg.  We were even taught the name of the play.   This movie is about Mary Surratt, who I had never heard about.  According to the movie she ran a boarding house that Wilkes visited.  The film shows that her son conspired with Booth to kidnap Lincoln and when that failed he may have joined in the assassination plot.  The son was acquitted by a jury of his peers, both northerners and southerners.  He didn't have a military trial.  Mary Surratt did and was convicted and hanged.
Mary Surratt was the first woman hanged by the United States.

From the Tao:
When a country is in harmony with the Tao,
the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to the Tao,
warheads are stockpiled outside the cities.

There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.

Whoever can see through all fear
will always be safe.

Angels on East Third Street

There is a building on East 3rd Street with a lot of history that starts with Dorothy Day.
Dorothy Day, 11/8/1897 - 11/29/1980, was born in Brooklyn.  She was a college graduate who read and was influenced by Upton Sinclair, Jack London, William Haywood, Mother Jones, Elizabeth Gurly Flynn, and Carlo Tresca.  Her father had been a journalist and after she graduated from the University of Illinois she went to work for the "New York Call" and then "The Masses", both socialist newspapers.  In 1916 she interviewed Leon Trotsky who was living in exile in the east village.  Where else would he stay?
"The Masses" supported  pacifism during the first world war and because of that they lost their mailing privileges and went out of business.  Day supported and worked for Woman's Suffrage, the unionization of workers and non-violence.  When her job at "The Masses" ended she started to attend Catholic services: "the church of the poor".  She has written a number of books that tell what brought her to Socialism and Catholicism.  There are many things to motivate people.  It might be greed, fame, power, or sex.  But to sustain a commitment to the poor throughout her life of service seems superhuman.  She says it came from her political influences.
Her family was from Tennessee and her father was a product of the Jim Crow South.
Her friends were socialists and anarchists.  The father of her out of wedlock child Tamar was the anarchist Foster Batterham who left her when she had Tamar baptized.  Then in the 1930s she met Peter Maurin, a Christian Brother.  Together on 5/1/ 1933 they began "The Catholic Worker" in order to publicize Catholic social teaching.  In 1936 there were 33 Houses - today there are 130 in 32 States and 92 Foreign Countries.
Just a few doors east of MARYHOUSE:
Is the New York City Headquarters of The Hell's Angels.  The east village is diverse.  One interesting note about this building which the Hell's Angels owns.  The Naked Civil Servant, Quentin Crisp, rented an apartment there.  If you don't know who Quentin Crisp is you can rent the movie.  He's worth knowing and the movie, starring John Hurt is terrific.
Crisp said they, The "Angels", were always very nice and gentlemanly toward him.    

Candida, a minister's wife

Saw "A Minister's Wife" at Lincoln Center.  It's a musical adaptation of Shaw's "Candida".  I had seen "Candida" many years ago with Edward Herrmann, Austin Pendelton and Blythe Danner and enjoyed it immensely.  This adaptation did not have the wit and lightness of the production I saw.  So I was not impressed
Tao Te Ching.     
" People are born soft and supple;
dead, they are stiff and hard.
Plants are tender and pliant;
dead, they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail."

The New Yorker in "Holy Matrimony" writes about the royal wedding.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of the monarchy or aristocrats.  However, many people all around the world will be watching the ceremony this Friday, and they'll dream that they're a part of it all.  The New Yorker mentions that the Queen this past Christmas canceled the staff Christmas party because of "the difficult economic circumstances facing this country".  She is the head of the Church of England but Jesus will have to fore go his birthday party.  Well, actually, just the staff.  According to The New Yorker the royal wedding "will cost British taxpayers an estimated twenty million pounds."  About $30,000,000.  I wonder what that staff Christmas party would have cost.  Oh, oh my back is stiffening.  Tao, Jim, Tao.

The Inteligent Homosexual's Guide

Saw "The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide To Capitalism And Socialism With A key To The Scriptures" by Tony Kushner, directed by Michael Greif, with Michael Cristofer, Stephen Spinella, Linda Emond, Steven Pasquale, Brenda Wehle, K. Todd Freeman, Danielle Skraastad, Matt Servitto, Hettienne Park, Michael Esper, and Molly Price, at Joseph Papp's Public Theater.  It started at 1PM and ended around 5PM.  I loved it.  Michael Cristofer's monologue about the worker in the second act made me want to rise to my feet and yell "strike".  I felt I was at the Group Theater's production of  Clifford Odets' "Waiting for Lefty".

But first I want to talk about the Jonathan Franzen's piece in the 4/18/2011 New Yorker: "Farther Away".  He is a National Book Award winner for "The Corrections" and recently wrote "Freedom" which some reviewers have called a masterpiece.  He starts this piece talking about Robinson Crusoe and an island in the South pacific that he has decided to visit because "of a need of being farther away".  The need comes from having  promoted a novel non-stop for 4 months and the fact that his friend David Foster Wallace, author of "Infinite Jest" and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, had hanged himself.  Mr. Franzen grew up with an autodidact loving father who read two books aloud to him, "Les Miserables"  and "Robinson Crusoe".  Mr. Franzen also wrote a collection of essays: "How to Be Alone".
This is what he wrote in the New Yorker:
"Robinson is able to survive his solitude because he's lucky; he makes peace with his condition because he's ordinary and his island is concrete.  David, who was extraordinary, and whose island was virtual, finally had nothing but his own interesting self to survive on, and the problem with making a virtual world of oneself is akin to the problem with projecting ourselves onto the cyberworld: there's no end of virtual spaces in which to seek stimulation, but their very endlessness, the perpetual stimulation without satisfaction, becomes imprisoning".
That appears to be the argument of the father in "The Intelligent Homosexual".  He's not depressed.  He's not bored.  It's the lack of satisfaction that makes him feel imprisoned in life.
My thinking is different.  No one's island is concrete.  Reality is not fixed; time changes everything. Survival is what's extraordinary.  Acceptance is the hardest work we will do.

Now to get back to the intelligent homosexual.  The attempted suicide by their father is what brings this family together in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.  There's a lot going on in everyone's life.  I love the second act.  It begins with one son reuniting with his prostitute lover, while he has a boyfriend for the last 26 years.  The extraordinary K. Todd Freeman plays the boyfriend and his monologue in the first act is breathtaking.   The three of them living happily ever after, Mr. Freeman makes perfectly clear, will never happen.  They're on the stoop, talking this out.  While in the dining room the meeting is going on about Dad.  Sister, who has just slept with her ex-husband whose girlfriend is pregnant with Brother's sperm is threatening to call 911.  Dad wants a consensus that the family will not call 911 and will let him finish the deed.  The others come in from the stoop.  There are 9 of them in the dining room and at one point they are all talking at the same time and for quite awhile.
I have to stop.  I can't do it justice.
One negative about the play.  The father's choice to kill himself is never fully rounded out.  At the end, after a long third act where he gives his reasons to his daughter, it seemed to be repetitious of what he had said earlier, which hadn't convinced anyone in the family.
In the Jonathan Franzen piece he mentions that David Foster Wallace had been clinically depressed for some time and had stopped his medications. 
Life is filled with contradictions, paradoxes and art.    

Houses of Worship

It's Palm Sunday and people are celebrating Christ's entry into Jerusalem.  Many in the East Village are walking around with their palm branches.

This is the 6th Street Community Synagogue, between 2nd and 1st Avenues.  From 1857 to 1940 it was The St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church, and served the residents of what was known as "Kleindeutschland", little Germany.  On 6/15/1904 the church congregation went on an outing.  They boarded the General Slocum ship and proceeded to sail up the East River.  Near Hell Gate the ship caught fire.  1021 of 1350 passengers, mostly woman and children, were lost.  Until 9/11 it was the single worse fire in New York History.  The survivors of the congregation moved to Yorkville and Astoria.
Today, the synagogue's spiritual leader is Rabbi Greg Wall, also known as "the Jazz Rabbi".  He has performed around the world, and at the same time has built a congregation that appears to be thriving.

This was Congregation Adas Yisroel Anshe Meseritz Synagogue on East 6th Street between 1st Ave and Avenue A.  It has been slated for demolition many times, but the Historical Preservation Society keeps fighting to preserve it.  It is the only still standing "tenement Synagogue".  They were called that because the buildings fit with the size of local tenements and their members for the most part lived in those tenements .  It opened in 1892 and served the Polish Orthodox Community.  When they moved out of the area the synagogue fell on hard times. 

Mosaic Man

The former home of Bill Graham's Fillmore East is on Second Avenue 6th Street.
Bill Graham, 1/8/31-10/25/91, was born Wolodia Grajonca in Berlin, Germany.  His father died 2 days after his birth so his mother sent him to an orphanage in  France.  She died at Auschwitz, and he was sent to America.  Why don't we say murdered.  Yeah, she was murdered at Auschwitz.  Raised in a foster home in the Bronx, he graduated from De Witt Clinton H.S. and City College.  He served in Korea and received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.  Thanks to him I saw some great Rock and Roll shows at Fillmore East.  It had such great acoustics that over 30 live recordings were made there.  Among them were: The Allman Brothers, Miles Davis, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Laura Nyro, Taj Mahal, Neil Young and Frank Zappa.
The building had been built as a Yiddish Theater when 2nd. Ave. was known as the Jewish Rialto. 

The mosaic designs on light poles in the East Village are the work of "Mosaic Man" Jim Power and he has been building the Mosaic Trail in the east Village for 25 years.  Some are decorative and some are made to landmark a site like this one in front of the old Fillmore East.  He's planning on doing one in front of the old CBGB's.  But mostly he has been busy repairing and restoring the ones damaged during the Giuliani administration.  He survives on donations, and if you like what he does, you'll find his address on line, google Jim Power, the Mosaic Man.

City resurrected

From Houston Street to Union Square & all along the Bowery the trees, the city parks and the markets are filled with spring colors.  The city has come alive after a long cold and stormy winter.  The trees are singing hallelujah.

Reviews

Both the N.Y. Times, Ben Brantley and the Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout, liked "The Motherf**ker with the Hat" and agreed pretty much my assessment of the performers, the writing, the staging, etc.
But boy did we differ on "Catch Me If You Can".
Both reviewers panned the show.  The reviews of "Catch Me" could be characterized as tough and very negative in regards to the choreography, music, lyrics, book, and direction.  That's pretty much the show isn't it.  Then they each praised a couple of the performers.  They mentioned Butz's " Don't Break the Rules", Kerry Butler's "Fly Fly Away", Linda Hart's singing and acting, and Rachel De Benedet's dancing.   

The neighborhood

What's gone:

For 61 years Anthony and Sally Amato created and ran the Amato Opera Company.  It was located on the Bowery just where Bleecker Street begins. It was there when I first moved to the area, but it had many homes.  The first was at Our Lady Of Pompeii church in the west village.  Anthony was the Director, and his wife Sally sang.  The theater had 107 seats and a 20 foot stage.  Seats cost about $30.  It closed 5/31/09.  Sally had passed away and Tony had other things he wanted to do.  He also worked as the Director of The Opera Workshop at the American Theater Wing, where he got a lot of his singers.  He's 90.
Still here but changing:

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art:
This is the main building at the Bowery and Astor Place.  Founded by Peter Cooper in 1859, it was created by him to reflect his belief that the highest quality of education should be "free as air and water".  All students are admitted on merit alone and are provided with a full scholarship.  It is estimated that the scholarship is worth $140,000.  The university is comprised of Art, Engineering and Architecture schools.  It is consistently ranked among the best schools in the country.  Newsweek in 2010 ranked it #1 as the most desirable small school and # 7 as most desirable overall.  The Great Hall in the basement of the building is famous for hosting Abraham Lincoln's speech opposing the extension of slavery into the new territories.  Presidents continue to come to the Great Hall to speak on important topics.  President Obama was there on 4/22/2010 to give a speech on economic policy.  The economic policy at Cooper Union may change.  They are thinking of charging tuition.
John Steinbeck said  America will never be a socialist country.  The people don't consider themselves oppressed.  They see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

House of Worship

I love history and the repository of much history in New York City is in it's Houses of Worship.  

     This house of worship is Old St. Patrick's Cathedral, which as of 3/17/10 by order of the Pope became a Basilica.  It is also on the National Register for Historic sites.  It was built in 1809 and designed by Joseph Francois Margin.  The city's first Cathedral, is located on Prince and Mott Streets.  The church and parishioners were so often subjected to violence by anti-catholic "nativists" that  a wall was built around the church.  The "nativists" burned the church in 1866.  The most famous parishioner, who is also buried there, is Pierre Toussaint.  Born a slave in Haiti; he is now called "Blessed" because he is being considered for sainthood.  He founded and supported the first school for black children.  It was  located on Canal St.  Most famous Pastor: Archbishop John Hughes.  He invited the Sisters of Charity to New York and together they began Catholic Social Services, and built 30 free parochial schools, 14 academies, 3 orphanages, 2 shelters and St. Vincent's Hospital.  It was needed because of the influx of 1.1 million Irish immigrants.  Saint Patrick's Grammar School on Prince Street is the oldest in America and still operating.

Drinking

The thirsty earth soaks up the rain,
And drinks and gapes for drink again;
The plants suck in the earth, and are
With constant drinking fresh and fair;
The sea itself [which one would think
Should have little need of drink]
Drink twice ten thousand rivers up,
So fill'd that they o'er fill the cup.
The busy sun [and one would guess
By's drunken fiery face no less]
Drinks up the sea, and when he's done,
The Moon and Stars drink up the Sun:
They drink and dance by their own light
They drink and revel all the night.
Nothing in Nature's sober found,
But an eternal health goes round.
Fill up the bowl, then, fill it high
Fill all the glasses there - for why
Should every creature drink but I?
Why, man of morals, tell me why?
                          Abraham Cowley[1618-1667]
He was a royalist during England's civil war.  Obviously not a fan of Cromwell and the Puritans.

Two great shows

Saw "The Motherf**ker with the Hat" and "Catch Me If You Can".  I wanted to see MF because of Bobby Cannavale, and Chris Rock; it's Chris Rock's Broadway debut.  I was totally surprised by how much fun and solid drama were in this play by Stephen Adly Guirgis.  It's not surprising that Chris Rock and Annabella Sciorra decided to make their Broadway debut with this.  Mr. Guirgis is with the LAByrinth Theater Company and has had about a dozen plays done there directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.  I haven't seen any of them but I am familiar with the title, "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train".  He has written for "N.Y.P.D. Blue", and the "Sopranos" and this is also his Broadway debut.
    The play as the poster says involves two hearts, 12 steps and 1 hat.  The hat is presumed to have been left by someone sharing Veronica [Elizabeth Rodriguez] and Jackie's [Bobby Cannavale] bed.  They've known each other and loved each other since the 8th grade.  Veronica opens the play snorting cocaine and talking to her mother on the phone about getting rehab.  That is, her mother getting rehab; Veronica says she's fine.   Bobby is just out of prison for selling drugs and is trying hard to work the 12 steps.  His sponsor, Ralph  [Chris Rock] is a charmer with women, which has his wife Victoria , Annabella Sciorra, packed and ready to leave.  Lastly, is Bobby's cousin Julio, the wonderful Yul Vazquez, who grew up nicknamed mariconito, little faggot.  The play takes place in three NYC apartments.  The show runs 100 minutes with no intermission.  Not what I like but at this show I didn't mind.  The scenery changes in dim lighting; walls drop, slide and rotate.  Couches move so quickly, over and down to the basement, I thought the actors were still sitting on them.  This is very much in tune with the play.  It is raucous, fast, screwball, fun.
 I still want to write about "Catch Me If You Can".  A musical I wanted to see because it has a book by Terrance McNally, based on the movie of the same name with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, directed by Jack O'Brien and starring Norbert Leo Butz, Aaron Tveit and Tom Wopat.  Their credits are two great to list.  These are among the living masters of the great American Art Form called Musical Comedy.  Right now I want to tell you that I had my own Catch me if you can experience.  I assumed an identity, I think.
 I do theater on my small budget through discounted tickets.  These 2 shows would have cost me about 3x each then what I actually paid for them.  That's a great deal, BUT, sometimes you end up in the last row, "nose bleed territory" & in the middle seat that might be a comfortable fit for a 12 year old.  Let's just say I'm not 12.  Last night's ticket for "Catch" was the last row, far right, in the middle.  I asked before they opened if I could stand in the back, which I did for the 'MFer' and that was fine.  My knees are not 12 years old, either.  They said:  "OK, if it's not crowded."  I waited until the audience was almost completely seated and asked the usherette if I could stand in the back.  She said "The stairs?".  I said "and the knees".  She asked me to wait; then talked to "the boss".  He looked at me.  She looked at me.  They talked some more.  She came back to me and said: " Orchestra, third row."  Wow, people are so nice.  There I was face to face with the performers.  I was smiling; they were smiling.  I think Norbert Leo Butz winked at me.
There were 2 empty seats by me during the first act.  At intermission, 2 young men asked me if anyone was sitting there, and if they could have them.  The guy behind me interjected: " those seats are reserved for the press."  oh.  OH.  My "The New Yorker" bag had been hanging from my shoulder.  Would they think I was John Lahr?  Nah.  But they may be expecting a Talk of the Town piece.

Mediterranean diet and Hazlitt

Catching up on my reading and podcasts.
The New York Times had a fun piece on the Mediterranean Diet in the Magazine section.  The diet was "discovered" by a Scandinavian couple who were looking for heart healthy foods.  They found, and this was right after the second world war, that Mediterraneans had a very low incidence of heart disease.  So they credited the diet: olive oil, wine, fish, etc.  In fact, most people could not afford those foods after the war; they were lucky if they had some lentils.  Poverty prevented any heart disease.  Today, the fattest population on the Mediterranean is in Beirut, Lebanon.  Their favorite restaurant is a chain of  American style diners.  Their favorite dish is cheese fries with a malted.  I'm thinking, maybe the terrorists are hungry.  Let's give them cheese fries and malteds with an after dinner smoke.  They'd never climb back up those mountains.  More McDonald's and Marlboro's for export.

The podcasts I've been listening to are from the BBC:  Classic poetry aloud,  Curiosity aroused and In Our Time with Melvin Bragg.   I particularly liked Melvin Bragg's pieces.  They are each about 50 minutes long. 
I especially liked the conversation dated "08.04.2010".  It's about William  Hazlitt, 1778-1830.  Bragg and three academics discuss Hazlitt's life, philosophy and criticism.  It is an extraordinary  life comprising painting, theology, philosophy and literary criticism.  When Hazlitt was working on a local paper, the theater critic took sick and Hazlitt was sent to review 'The Merchant of Venice" starring Edmund Kean.  They were both now about 20 years old.  Shakespeare at this time, 1798 was not well respected because his plays had been abridged and plagiarized and the real work was generally unknown.  Hazlitt was blown away by what he called the "gusto" of the work and the acting.  "Gusto" is his phase for a protean genius that is ego free.  Shakespeare and Kean have gusto because they can inhabit multiple characters, sympathetically.  He also reviewed Kean in Coriolanus.  Hazlitt believed Wordsworth was simply genius because there is ego in his work.   Hazlitt wrote so wonderfully of the show that interest in Shakespeare was revived.  Jane Austen wrote a friend that she was heartsick because she could not get a ticket.
Naturally, I went looking for a book, perhaps a collection of Hazlitt's essays.  They say he wrote on everything and his piece on boxing is the best piece on boxing ever written.  Nothing at the Strand, Shakespeare and Co. nor the N.Y.U. bookstore.  Amazon?  a $10 book with $7 in shipping fees and $5 in handling fees and probably $10 in billing fees.  You have to pay for them to post and add the fees.

Special Features

Many DVDs now include commentary about the movie.  Last night I saw the movie "The House on Telegraph Hill".  A 1950's film noir directed by Robert Wise, produced by Zanuck with cinematography by Lucien Ballard.  It won an academy award for Best Art Direction by Lyle Wheeler, John De Cuir, Thomas Little, and Paul S. Fox, probably because of the great outdoor shots of 1950's San Francisco.  The movie is OK.  But I enjoyed the commentary most.  It was done by a film noir historian who talked about the three leads, Richard Basehart,William Lundigan and Valentina Cortese, and the art direction.   Ms. Cortese's story is the most interesting.  She was brought from Italy by Zanuck to become an "international" star.  However she had the same reaction to Hollywood that Jean Gabin had; too much "mickey mouse" business, he famously said.  She made two films and went back to Europe where she had a long, successful career.  She was a great beauty and when she left America, Richard Basehart went with her.  They were married for about 10 years and then divorced.  She is now 86 and still making movies and was nominated for a supporting Oscar for Truffaut's "Day for Night".
According to Wikipedia there are 179 films made in San Francisco.  New York City has 856.  What would be a favorite San Francisco movie, Maltese Falcon, Vertigo, San Francisco?   A favorite NYC movie, "On the Town", maybe but "Naked City"  has a special place in my heart.  I remember when they made it.  We were living in the Bronx and they filmed some it in our neighborhood. The Bronx of the 1950s is lost except in that movie and my memory.

Music

     Saw Michel Legrand at the Blue Note and a "meet-up" to the pillow fight at Union Square.  Took some photos of the pillow fight and will try to get them on the blog.  Still learning how to do this.  I took the camera to the Blue Note but they don't want you to take pictures with a flash.  Another thing to add to my "to learn" list.  Michel was terrific.  He started with some jazz improv and ended by trying to "kill off" the theme from "Umbrellas of Cherbourg", because, he said, "it is so old, from 1832".  The killing was a 20 minute piano instrumental that was something really special.  His second piece was the first he ever wrote, "What are you doing the rest of your life", which he sang.  He did a classical fugue and  also sang in french "The windmills of your mind".  He has worked with all the Jazz greats.  One of them, Miles Davis, had "disappeared" for years.  Then one day he called him up and said: "froggy", Miles called him froggy, get your f'''ing A'hole over here.  He went, of course.
Michel's father was a composer and conductor and is most famous for composing the musical Irma La Douce.  Michel studied with Nadia Boulanger who also taught Aaron Copland and Philip Glass.  He has won three Academy Awards and a Tony for "Amour".
"I'll awaken what's asleep in your life" he sang and he did.

Opera

 The Met premiere of Rossini's "Le Comte Ory", directed by Barlett Sher was last night.  It is an opera buffa.  Juan Diego Florez sang Count Ory, a Don Juan type, who pretends to be a holy man in the first act and a nun in the second.   As the Renaissance Italians intended to copy Greek theater by adding music to their dramas, the opera buffa would be an attempt to copy Aristophanes.   In "Le Comte Ory", most of the men  have gone off to the crusades.  Except Ory who is free to try to seduce the beautiful Adele.  She is sung by Diana Damrau.   Adele is in love with Ory's aide Isolier, sung by Joyce DiDonato.  Isolier is played by a woman which gets to be fun in the second act when Ory tricks his way into Adele's bed and with the lights out doesn't realize Adele and Isolier are both in bed with him.  In the end the crusaders return. Ory escapes without achieving his goal, and Adele and Isolier live happily ever after.
Great music and singing.  The chorus of over 30 woman  is very powerful.  Diana Damrau is absolute bliss, her singing of "En proie a' la tristesse" was wonderful.  She was most definitely my favorite of the night.  Second favorite would be the end of Act One, a vocal septet unaccompanied by instruments.  As always at the Met the staging, set design, costume design, lighting, and orchestra are the best that you will see and hear anywhere.
The Met does four shows a week.  One show rehearses during the day with scenery, props, costumes, cast and orchestra and a second opera performs that night. It is a 24/7 operation with the largest number of unions and stagehands of any theater.  Since they have begun showing the operas in high definition at movie houses 250,000 people in 47 countries have seen the Met productions.  The Met is doing 209 performances of 28 operas.  I just renewed my subscription for next year for six more operas.       
Giacchino Rossini, 1792-1868, composer of "The Barber of Seville" & "Otello" and about 40 other operas. He is also famous for the William tell overture, which is the Lone Ranger theme.  He was born in Pesaro on the Adriatic coast which at that time was under the French and then the Austrians.  His father was the "town" trumpeter and his mother was a singer.  Rossini played the pianoforte, trumpet, and cello.  He also sang and performed at the age of 10 in Paer's "Camilla".  His first opera was produced in Venice when he was 18.  He was always very popular with the public and worked for the French King, The English King and the Hapsburg Emperors.  In 1829 he stopped writing operas, "officially" retiring in 1832 at the age of 40.  No reason was given; some say he suffered from poor health.  However, he continued to socialize and his home was a well known gathering place for artists.  He died at his country home in France and is buried at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Ayurveda, Liz and the Nazis

Spending time reading my books and listening to my pod-casts on Ayurveda.  Ayurveda is the oldest and still practiced medical science.  It's thousands of years old with roots in Hinduism and Buddhism.   There are a number of things I like about it.  Primarily, that we are each of us our own physician.
The basics:    
There are 5 great elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space.
Those 5 condense to 3 doshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.   
We are either one of the three doshas or a combination of them.
There are 6 tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent.
I am primarily Kapha, a combination of earth and water.
Some indications that you are Kapha: body frame in balance is medium to broad.  Off balance it is obese.  Personality in balance is calm, quiet, and steady.  Off balance it is passive, possessive, and greedy.
Kapha people need motivation and stimulation. 
Disease is imbalance of your doshas.  There are 4 components to being healthy: yoga, meditation, exercise, and diet.  
Diet is an important but a complicated factor in Ayurvedic medicine.  You need one of their cookbooks to do it justice.
Some day my Kapha self will get around to it.
Today's NY Times had an photo of Liz Taylor's shrine at the Abbey.  It was right beneath the plaque that read "the Abbey is my Pub".  You probably thought it was that other kind of Abbey, not for Ms. Liz.  The Abbey is a Gay bar in West Hollywood.  "She was a once-a-week regular in recent years" [after the brain tumor?] "sipping tequila shots, downing watermelon and apple martinis or simply waving merrily from her wheelchair".  Hey guys if you're looking for a replacement, I'm available, and if I'm going to be drinking like Liz and Dick drank don't throw away that wheelchair!
"Ugly Betty" by Ruth Brandon is reviewed this week by Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker.  The book is about Helena Rubinstein and Eugene Schueller who founded L'Oreal.  The interesting story is what happened during the Second World War.
After the Nazi invasion of France, Schueller was one of the biggest financial supporters of the fascist anti-Semitic M.S.R.  In October, 1941 they blew up 7 synagogues in Paris.  The argument of the book is that Schueller wasn't a Nazi or anti-Semite.  He was a pragmatist.  Collaboration insured delivery of raw materials.  An obsessive entrepreneur like Schueller "is too much of an opportunist to risk engaging himself absolutely in favor of anyone."
Oscar Schindler was a very different entrepreneur.  He made a lot of money "taking over" a Jewish owned factory.  When the Nazi's decided to close the factory and ship his workers to gas chambers he used that money as bribes to save as many as he could.  He spent his entire personal fortune saving lives. 
When Rubinstein died, the chairman of L'Oreal in the U.S., Jacques Correze acquired it.  Who is Jacques Correze?  He was the former chief lieutenant in M. S. R.
"The uncomfortable lesson of the triumph of Eugene Schueller over Helena Rubinstein is that sometimes it's just business."
Meditation, yoga and tequila shots.

apartment living

I don't own a snow shovel.  I don't own a lawn mower.  I have lovely flowers in the garden that I never tend.
A leak, I call the office; they send someone.  It's all good, most of the time.
I'm on the 18th floor.  On another floor are 2 pit bulls.  I've shared the elevator with them and their 'handler', a seven year old girl.  Sometimes the elevator doesn't work.  Sometimes, after coming home from the gym, late, and needing to get ready for the theater, I may not have water.
My neighbors had a leak.  They called the office, and it was fixed.  Leak over.  So was "Macbeth" and my night at the theater.  Now I'm sitting at this computer smelling my neighbors marijuana, which is not my thing.  I like a martini.  This is apartment living.
But the view is nice: