Commze

This was the place where I found the things that I thought were lost forever.  It’s a city that holds many secrets, and in every corner of life, we can also find the lost wishes of the ones who have gone before us.  It’s a place that mixes us up, and the ones who learn to love the complications learn its hidden rhythms.  There is a pulse here that can only be heard by those who once looked for paradise, but instead only found that the gold never did go very deep, and the source had turned bitter from so many years of neglect.  The places I like to stay the most can be found here, because these are the ones that are the shiniest.

It’s an edge that becomes familiar, and there are times when you wake up and realize that you have started to get used to the cuts.  There’s a center that gets buried in lights and sounds, and it’s sometimes hard to find your way back where you came from.  But there’s also a kind of wisdom in making the decision to ignore the cries to go back home, and that’s the place where you start to find your way forward, and something that was hidden and forgotten starts to shine in the dark.

It doesn’t matter that the New York that I once found was not like the New York that I once left.  It’s always changing its face, and its rhythms are constantly shifting to become something indistinguishable from what it was a moment ago, if you leave, or if you blink.  But it’s still the same crucible.  The way it works the soul with fire is always the same, and the way the soul learns to give birth to itself again is also always the same pattern.  The same numbers in the dirt that faced me before still face me, but I understand better now how I will never really understand what they are supposed to mean for me.

Sam Shepard always seemed to be at the front of the stagecoach when it came to writing that was not self-aware, but at the same time utterly mad, and utterly visionary.  This is not un-self-aware, and it’s not a review of Lie of the Mind, but might be a reflection on mortality.  I hope it’s not poignant, nor too self-conscious.  Either way, this is very shaky ground, because I am from a certain generation that came of age when Shepard was already recognized as one of the major writers of the generation that came before us.  The stories we heard about were apocryphal and sometimes apocalyptic, but always interesting, because he had some secrets that he kept secret.
In a field where everyone tells you everything about themselves, to the point where they believe there are no lies or shadows left hidden in their souls, it was refreshing to meet a hero that prescribed hiding out.  It’s ironic and not that www.newyorkbroadwaytickets.net  is offering seats for the revival of his Lie of the Mind, directed by Ethan Hawke.  It’s got a great cast, and all the signs point to a solid work that everyone will probably pan anyway, just because that’s what they do.

But the real irony comes when I think about how we were coming of age right on the heels of Buried Child.  A few of us who liked to escape in libraries would find the copies of his early work, and realize that this was a reckless genius who was telling our stories, about our addictions, our demons, and our families.  There was something of a reluctant shaman about Sam, which later proved to be a mantle he’d throw off like Dylan, one of our other heroes.  Ethan Hawke was just becoming popular in those years.  To see that he’s directing the work, and what was once our present is now called a revival, this suggests that the wheel has truly spun another round, and there’s a generation of kids right now who just might have a sense that there’s something of a liberation in the visionary, along with a number of traps, if they care to ask for advice from the ones who came before.

Recently my neighbor had a major blow out on the throughway. Both the back tires made this grenade explosion and caused him to pirouette his car across three lanes of traffic where it stopped just shy of the ledge where that small strip of cement protects drivers from swerving off the black tar veins that intersect cities throughout the United States. He left cursive lines of where the wheels snaked and squealed on the blacktop . It was kind of beautiful and I was kind of out of my head after that Coney Island Wonder Wheel ride on four tires so I took a bunch of photographs. He told me I was weird, but I think car catastrophes make you weird.

He needed to buy tires after that. We searched a bunch of different places from small independent automotive shops and corporate locations. You know, the Bulk Club places where you can buy a hundred rolls of toilet paper and leave the cash register wondering about your stomach health. There were actually a lot of cool things to photograph in there, but my friend told me not to whip out my camera: he was still recovering from my latest shot at his tire blow out ride. I loved the stacks of tires, the automotive equivalent of huge Roman columns holding up on high places of political and religious importance that were now just crumbs. They were lined up in neat rows. It reminded me of those Chinese statue soldiers guarding that dead empower.

There were really weird stains on the floor too. Gum, oil, rubber had all made their mark throughout the years there. I thought that the marks were like some sort of secret code for the rubber tire soldiers, so started to traipse around them and making up a story from them because my fried had already taken an hour to get tires. He still did not have them in an hour, and I was bored enough to make a story from Bubble Yum and old Castrol oil. I work at a library where I read to children: it just sort of got into me to start telling stories at any hour or minute of the day after working there about a month. My friend likes to listen to them though he does dislike my photos. He says the stories told in the photos are not as good as the stories I make up from tires and other things.

San Francisco, California is full of amazing cultural attractions, beautiful architecture and of course amazing views. At least two of the bridges that span the Bay, the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge are major city icons and tourists frequently find a thrill in crossing them. There is such a diverse assortment of cultural elements and events that occur year round that the hotels San Francisco are full of people from all over the world and who are frequently there for very different reasons. A couple of the current exciting events taking place in this great American city are the 75th Anniversary Celebration at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Noir City, SF Film Noir Festival.

The SFMOMA Anniversary Celebration will include three days of free special programs. Some of these include seventy five gallery talks and installations by artists Allison Smith and Bill Fontana. There will be a special musical presentation on Saturday night with performances by Matmos, Loop!Station and cellist Zoe Keating. Keating composed some music for two works in the museum’s permanent collection and it will be included in the launching of a multimedia tour of the collection. Sunday a the museum is family day and their will be plenty of entertainment and activities for everyone. There will also be film screenings among other special events. The museum is located at 151 Third St.

The Film Noir Festival will take place at the Castro Theater from January 22 to the 31st. It is intended to celebrate and examine the philosophy of noir in various mediums. The festival proves to be the largest of its kind in the entire United States and celebrates the spirit, attitude and style of noir in books, music and art. The festival will include some very special and as of now secret guests as well as some of the most rare noir films in the world. The theatre is located at 429 Castro Street.

My third day in Sarasota, Florida! Today, I wanted to check out Myakka State Park, which is located out on Longboat Key. I drove out on the causeway and veered left, this Key felt more private than the others I’ve been to so far during my stay here, so I ended up driving a while, because it all looked so very private. I didn’t see public entrance to get to the beach. All I saw were hundreds of condos, vacation rentals and many country clubs with golf courses. So, I drove with what felt like hours until I was outside of Sarasota county and entering Manatee county. I was really wondering if there was no way to see Myakka and was about to turn around, when all of a sudden I was surrounded on both sides with parking lots for the beach. I picked one and got out. I was at Coquina Beach, with beautiful white sand. I only stayed for about an hour because I felt I was too far up the coast.

I headed back towards Sarasota. I ended up driving back into the downtown area and feeling better, because I was in familiar surroundings. I went back to park my car at my hotel, which I found on-line at this site: http://www.westfloridahotels.com when I did a search for West Florida hotels.

The next morning, I checked out and packed up my car and gave it one more try for Myakka State Park. This time I got on Fruitville road and travelled for about 18 miles. I really wanted to see an alligator, I mean after all, I am in Florida! I finally ended up at the entrance to the State Park, but I couldn’t take my car inside, the park is designated for pedestrians and bicyclists. I was told that I could take my car here. When I asked about, someone told me to head down the road for about 45 minutes and I’ll see the main entrance to Myakka. I was thrilled when I passed the Rangers Station and drove at a very slow 15 MPH. This was fine by me, because all the flora I was passing was awesome. I drove passed a bridge and found a place to pull over.

I walked over to a boardwalk that led up a hill to a viewing area, which overlooked a small inlet. I saw plenty of birds and tall grass. I then headed up where there was a bike rental place and stepped onto the grass and looked across the water. That’s when I saw something start to move; it was big, black, very long and had scales on it! When I saw the nostrils that when I knew I’d finally saw my first glimpse of an alligator! Alligators! There were a few more and one of them moved from the sandy beach into the water and began to swim. My goal was complete, so now I can drive out of Florida knowing I got to see a real live alligator.

The Elgin Theatre in New York city, was a popular movie house in the 1940’s.  When the venue located at Eighth Avenue and 38th Street began to change, from the revival movies towards a more questionable list of movies, more “adult” in content and nature, the community closed it down.  In the early 1980’s, this building became home to the Joyce Theatre Foundation.  Two years of renovations were necessary, to create the one of the most premiere and elegant venues for performances of not only more than three hundred dance companies throughout the city, and throughout the world, but one that supports and offers performance spaces to theatre productions and musical performances as well.

With just 472 seats, the theatre is the perfect venue for the smaller, and not quite well known companies.  The mission of the Foundation has been to support and to serve the community of dance, as well as all of the performing arts, and promote the variety and the richness, allowing the companies to fully express themselves artistically, and allowing more opportunity for the people of the community the exposure to this world as never before.  Hugh Hardy was the architect responsible for the building’s transformation.  He expanded on the Art Deco theme of the building, and totally gutted and redesigned the inside of the theatre, from the dressing rooms to the stage to the seats in the auditorium.

This beautiful renovation inspired other projects of renewal in the neighborhood, such as the redesigning and rebuilding of many of the restaurants, apartment buildings, and some of the finest boutique hotels in Manhattan.   The theatre brings together the cultural mix of the neighborhood, as well as the mix and the appreciation of that diversity through the various and different companies that have performed there over the last thirty years.  Classical performances celebrating tradition, and more cutting edge performances celebrating this new and modern age are some of the shows you can expect to find.  Should you be traveling through the city in 2010, some of the works you will have the chance to see are those by Bill T. Jones, Pacific Northwest Ballet Company, the John Jasperse Company, and the Lyon Opera Ballet.  And true to many of the arts foundations in the city, The Joyce Theatre hosts forums and many educational programs.  Stop by the Joyce this year,  and enjoy the dance!

After traveling 2 days, Beth and I finally made it New York City. We arrived early in the morning and we made our way via bus from the airport. We booked our accommodations when we were in Brazil, but unfortunately, in our whirlwind packing frenzy, we forgot to write down the address. We had the bus just drop us off around 94th street, and finally figured out we should have been on 73rd street to try and find one of the New York Luxury hotels that had our reservations. We eventually found our hotel by mid-morning and our room was ready and waiting for us! We really needed a hot shower, but decided to make most of the little time we have here and took advantage of the hotels hair salon. I’ll just say this, it was heaven, especially after 3 months of traveling in dusty Africa and humid Brazil.

It was supposed to be extremely cold while we were here, but we’ve been pleasantly treated to a warm spell. So, we decided it was a perfect time to see Central Park for lunch. We weren’t alone in our thinking, it seemed all of New York was out at the park. The trees were beginning to turn, so it made our stroll through the park magical. We noticed that almost everyone in the park had a dog. We had a hard time imagining how these dogs live in those small flats or apartments with no yards. Later, is when we noticed why there are tons of doggy day care centers and doggy walkers.

It was a treat for us to order a cup of coffee and a cheap bagel near the park. We’ve also noticed it’s hard to stay on a budget in New York, there’s just so much to see and do in this vastly diverse city. The bagel only managed to wet our appetite, so we went in search of a Vietnamese restaurant, but not before we headed back to our hotel and changed into our newly made Vietnamese dresses. We knew we might seem silly, wearing a Vietnamese dress to a Vietnamese restaurant, but when we arrived at the restaurant, we were greeted with warm smiles and attentive service.

We went over budget by splurging on tickets to see ‘The Lion King’ on Broadway. We couldn’t help but want to experience a little bit more of Africa, but this time without the dust. We were so happy we busted our budget, the musical was absolutely awesome. The performances were outstanding and we were enthralled with every moment. We highly recommend seeing this musical if your in New York.

That’s all we had time for really, because it was time to catch our flight back home to Georgia. I personally feel, after being abroad, that there’s no place like America, it truly is a wonderful country, and now that I’ve experienced it, there’s nothing like New York City. It’s a fantastic place.

Serena Williams has been known to wear the same pair of socks throughout an entire tennis tournament.  Will she do this alleged habit/superstition of her for the Australian Open Tennis Championship this year?  Probably, as all players have kooky little pre game and post game rituals that they indulge in.  They will no doubt be fashionable since she has her clothing line now that she designs for.

In fact, fashion (she used to have a line with Puma but switched over to Mike with whom she is currently with) among other things (she has had brief acting stints on shows like Law and Order and in music videos too), such as the money from copious advertisements and fame, were said to be at the root cause of her failure in her match against Madison Keys.  Though it was simply an exhibition game, in addition to her John McEnroe meltdown at the U.S. Open in 2009 over a foot fault in which she physically threatened a judge, some of her former fans have become less enamored of her lately.

However, she is still the number one women’s player in tennis.  She also has two gold medals to put on her credentials, and has won more money than current female players till active in the game.  Perhaps most importantly is that she is a role model for African American girls and the kind of success they can have through focus and hard work.

She plays a high-risk game, staying close to the baseline, and has great volleys, the kind of which her opponents cannot duplicate.  Her sister, Venus, has provided her with a great kind of rivalry that has pushed her onto the higher accomplishments and greater feats.  Perhaps her saavy business sense for fashion and copious deals with companies for advertising is not necessarily a fault showing that she is stretched too things, but a strength showing how far a woman can go and be a success—and in several different ventures.  However, she better show better behavior this year at the Australian Open if she wants to coninue to be a good role model and popular with the crowds.