So, I'm sitting here at work listing to my new Christmas cd, Jingle Bell Swing, reminiscing on my Thanksgiving and mentally going over my to-do list for this coming month. Do I have time to section all of this information out for my dear readers? There's always time.
Jingle Bell Swing
-featuring Duke Ellington, Tony Bennett, Glen Miller Orchestra, Louis Prima and Art Carney (groovy daddy-o)
My Thanksgiving
-wine, brunch, mimosas, Mr. Hanky's Christmas Classics, whiskey sours, bunt cake, A Christmas Story, sour mix, miniature-tree trimming
My Christmas to-do's
-buy shipping boxes, unpack and decorate fake Christmas tree, mail out gifts to out of town folks, holiday baking, finishing up school, work, and early or late spring cleaning (depending if you are a glass half empty or full type of person)
11.24.2007
11.14.2007
its the most (______) time of the year
I just re-read my last blog post. Damn it was long and I'm sorry to all who read that rant.
Anyway, it's getting to be that time of the year when the air is getting crisp, and the stores are stocking garland and ornaments, and there are more stupid tourists on New York City streets. Yes, I'm talking about the winter holiday season that includes (amongst others) Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Festivus.
This time, to me, means only a few more weeks of school, hot chocolate, soup and grilled cheese for dinner 4 times a week, and rushing around to get my holiday shopping, card mailing, and baking done. Whew! Part of me badly wants to be a 10th of what Martha Stewart is, but part of me realizes that I'm only one woman without an entire gaggle of production assistants behind me. By the way, click on the Martha link... don't you want to make that too?
Alas... as today's story goes, I asked my boss for her new address so I could mail her out a Christmas card. She said, "that wasn't subtle." I smiled and said that I had the intent of having all of my holiday cards ready for mailing by the weekend after Thanksgiving. With that comment, in her eyes and words (loosely quoted, of course) I went from not-so-subtle to being crazy. By the way, another sign that the holidays are approaching is the ever increasing amount of craziness in the air.
For your holiday enjoyment, I found "Turkey Flibriks" for you to play. Warning: if you are offended by traditional Anglo-carnivor cartoon symbols of Thanksgiving this game is not for you. Turn away now! But if your not so inclined to be offended by a cartoon turkey have fun. It's like playing that memory card game we all played as kids. Good times.
Speaking of offense, what's up with this?
Anyway, it's getting to be that time of the year when the air is getting crisp, and the stores are stocking garland and ornaments, and there are more stupid tourists on New York City streets. Yes, I'm talking about the winter holiday season that includes (amongst others) Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Festivus.
This time, to me, means only a few more weeks of school, hot chocolate, soup and grilled cheese for dinner 4 times a week, and rushing around to get my holiday shopping, card mailing, and baking done. Whew! Part of me badly wants to be a 10th of what Martha Stewart is, but part of me realizes that I'm only one woman without an entire gaggle of production assistants behind me. By the way, click on the Martha link... don't you want to make that too?
Alas... as today's story goes, I asked my boss for her new address so I could mail her out a Christmas card. She said, "that wasn't subtle." I smiled and said that I had the intent of having all of my holiday cards ready for mailing by the weekend after Thanksgiving. With that comment, in her eyes and words (loosely quoted, of course) I went from not-so-subtle to being crazy. By the way, another sign that the holidays are approaching is the ever increasing amount of craziness in the air.
For your holiday enjoyment, I found "Turkey Flibriks" for you to play. Warning: if you are offended by traditional Anglo-carnivor cartoon symbols of Thanksgiving this game is not for you. Turn away now! But if your not so inclined to be offended by a cartoon turkey have fun. It's like playing that memory card game we all played as kids. Good times.
Speaking of offense, what's up with this?
11.12.2007
striking up a soap box
For my entire adult life I have worked in a theater in one capacity or another. As an artist, administrator, scholar, and observer of live performance I am naturally interested about the current stagehands strike that is affecting Broadway. If you don't know much about it please go to www.playbill.com or www.nytimes.com (the theater section of course) to catch up.
Through one of my favorite websites, gothamist, I found this blog : http://onenycstagehand.blogspot.com/. I'll give you a minute to peruse it.
.....
Your back? Okay. Now, today's opinion brought to you by the letter "S". "S" stands for "Suck it money grubbers!"
I have personally known several members of IATSE Local 1 (the stagehands in NYC) and frequently see other members of the local in action, in the theater district, loading in or out shows and doing various tasks. I have never known a stagehand to be interested in the art of "theatre." Who is this stagehand blogger? He's not of the norm I've associated with.
I put stagehands into two categories: Broadway and everyone else. If you ever go to Madison Square Garden and take a tour you often see those stagehands working their butts off. It takes a ton of pros to switch between basketball games, hockey games, and concerts in less than a 24 hour period. I've even seen the guys at the Metropolitan Opera work and those guys are animals. That's a backstage that never sleeps and they are constantly putting in a new opera every night. But it kills me to walk around the theater district and see 1 guy fixing an electrical grid while 3 others are smoking and looking on supervising the guy. That's a constant senario.
I don't support the theater owners and producers either. They are greedy. Plain and simple. I know that Broadway is a commercial business venture rather than an art and that people who financially invest money into a business venture aim for a return on that investment. But I don't agree with the discrepancy between what it financially takes to make theatre and what the owners and producers are charging their audiences for admission. Theatre is expensive. Commercial theatre is uber-expensive. There's not much state funding for art of any size, therefore there is a need for private, corporate, and foundation money to help pay for the art. Famously, a Broadway show is paid for by little old ladies and infamously by corporations like Universal Pictures, Disney, Clear Channel, Fox, and Oprah (she's got so much cha-ching that I consider her a one-woman corporation). I know that having movie, t.v. and concert money invested in a production is not the norm (go to a show, pick up a program and read the bios of the 30 producers it takes to fund a show these days). But the people no one is talking about, the artists and all of the creative personnel, rarely make any sort of living, and they are truly the hardest working people on the Great White Way… in my opinion at least.
Least we not forget the audiences who support these shows. It breaks my heart to see any one miss out on experiencing live theatre.
I've been trying to do some research on this topic and it's been interesting and predictable. The League of American Theaters and Producers (the organization negotiating on behalf of the Broadway theater owners) has press releases on their website but they are of course one sided and attack the union. It's been near impossible to find official information from the stagehands union, which makes them less endearing to me. Sorry guys. Boo-hoo on both sides.
I don’t want to see anyone lose a job out of all of this either. I understand negotiations are hard, but both sides need to communicate in good faith for everyone sake.
Okay, now I'm done.
Through one of my favorite websites, gothamist, I found this blog : http://onenycstagehand.blogspot.com/. I'll give you a minute to peruse it.
.....
Your back? Okay. Now, today's opinion brought to you by the letter "S". "S" stands for "Suck it money grubbers!"
I have personally known several members of IATSE Local 1 (the stagehands in NYC) and frequently see other members of the local in action, in the theater district, loading in or out shows and doing various tasks. I have never known a stagehand to be interested in the art of "theatre." Who is this stagehand blogger? He's not of the norm I've associated with.
I put stagehands into two categories: Broadway and everyone else. If you ever go to Madison Square Garden and take a tour you often see those stagehands working their butts off. It takes a ton of pros to switch between basketball games, hockey games, and concerts in less than a 24 hour period. I've even seen the guys at the Metropolitan Opera work and those guys are animals. That's a backstage that never sleeps and they are constantly putting in a new opera every night. But it kills me to walk around the theater district and see 1 guy fixing an electrical grid while 3 others are smoking and looking on supervising the guy. That's a constant senario.
I don't support the theater owners and producers either. They are greedy. Plain and simple. I know that Broadway is a commercial business venture rather than an art and that people who financially invest money into a business venture aim for a return on that investment. But I don't agree with the discrepancy between what it financially takes to make theatre and what the owners and producers are charging their audiences for admission. Theatre is expensive. Commercial theatre is uber-expensive. There's not much state funding for art of any size, therefore there is a need for private, corporate, and foundation money to help pay for the art. Famously, a Broadway show is paid for by little old ladies and infamously by corporations like Universal Pictures, Disney, Clear Channel, Fox, and Oprah (she's got so much cha-ching that I consider her a one-woman corporation). I know that having movie, t.v. and concert money invested in a production is not the norm (go to a show, pick up a program and read the bios of the 30 producers it takes to fund a show these days). But the people no one is talking about, the artists and all of the creative personnel, rarely make any sort of living, and they are truly the hardest working people on the Great White Way… in my opinion at least.
Least we not forget the audiences who support these shows. It breaks my heart to see any one miss out on experiencing live theatre.
I've been trying to do some research on this topic and it's been interesting and predictable. The League of American Theaters and Producers (the organization negotiating on behalf of the Broadway theater owners) has press releases on their website but they are of course one sided and attack the union. It's been near impossible to find official information from the stagehands union, which makes them less endearing to me. Sorry guys. Boo-hoo on both sides.
I don’t want to see anyone lose a job out of all of this either. I understand negotiations are hard, but both sides need to communicate in good faith for everyone sake.
Okay, now I'm done.
11.07.2007
rousing succsss
This evening, at one of my theater's of employment, I walked up the staircase of the building and was greeted to a rousing applause from the house management staff. I was so flabbergasted. How flattering! I happen to turn around and see that the applause was meant for the late arriving usher who was 2 steps behind me.
Well, I was hoping that my boss in the box office didn't know who the applause was for. So I walked by his window acting as if the accolade was for me. He was so impressed.
Well, I was hoping that my boss in the box office didn't know who the applause was for. So I walked by his window acting as if the accolade was for me. He was so impressed.
11.04.2007
11.02.2007
and on this episode of "art talk"...
I recently saw The Farnsworth Invention on Broadway (btw...go see it, it's great!). Everything was going well during the 1st act; no shushing, minimal candy wrapper opening, and not a cough to be hear in the entire theater. Then, as the lights went up to signal intermission, and as people began to stand up to stretch their legs or bolt to the restrooms, the comments started to come out of people's mouths and my tolerance for stupid shit disappeared. "I don't think I like it when the characters talk to me." "Is this a new play? I think I've seen it before, like two years ago." "This show is not in previews. I never see a show in previews." For the record, a character speaking to an audience is a literary and character devise that progresses the plot and characterization (when it's done well), the show had it's world premier at La Jolla in February of this year, and the show opens November 14th.
Now, I know that it is me who thinks that these comments are stupid. And you can see from former posts that I'm all about free speech, no matter how ignorant. But when people are misinformed about the art they are seeing, do I have a right to be turned off? I want to enjoy art. I want art out in the world for all to see. But I hate that art (specifically theatre in NY) is a tourist activity or that some New Yorkers go to the theater only when someone famous is in the show.
This brings up the question, who should art be for; for the people making the art or for those who are viewing and financially support the art? What are your thoughts?
Now, I know that it is me who thinks that these comments are stupid. And you can see from former posts that I'm all about free speech, no matter how ignorant. But when people are misinformed about the art they are seeing, do I have a right to be turned off? I want to enjoy art. I want art out in the world for all to see. But I hate that art (specifically theatre in NY) is a tourist activity or that some New Yorkers go to the theater only when someone famous is in the show.
This brings up the question, who should art be for; for the people making the art or for those who are viewing and financially support the art? What are your thoughts?
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