New Years in Sydney

Just had a wonderful week, full of sun and beach and friends and family. Really, who could ask for more.

And tonight, for new years, we are going to go dancing on Bondi Beach. A few years ago I went dancing on Bondi when Fatboy Slim dj'd and it was one of the best dance nights of my life. So the bar is high... but my mood is good. I'm looking forward to it.

Before we bow out this year, I went to Gertrude and Alice, the perfect store - used books and great coffee - with my sister and at the till, waiting for me, was a book of Rumi's poetry. I love his stuff. And here is one I've chosen to enter the new year with:

Show Me Your Face

I crave
flowers and gardens

open your lips
i crave
the taste of honey

come out from
behind the clouds
i desire a sunny face

your voice echoed
saying "leave me alone"
i wish to hear your voice
again saying "leave me alone"

I swear this city without you
is a prison
I am dying to get out
to roam in deserts and mountains

i am tired of
flimsy friends and
submissive companions
i die to walk with the brave

i am blue hearing
nagging voices and meek cries
i desire loud music
drunken parties and
wild dances

one hand holding
a cup of wine
one hand caressing your hair
then dancing in orbital circle
that is what i yearn for

i can sing better than any nightingale
but because of
this city's freaks
i seal my lips
while my heart weeps

yesterday the wisest man
holding a lit lantern
in daylight
was searching around town saying

i am tired of
all these beasts and brutes
i seek
a true human

we have all looked
for one but
no one could be found
they said

yes he replied
but my search is
for the one
who cannot be found.

So for this new year - have loud music and drunken parties and wild dances, and I wish for us all be to be the true humans that others search for, and that our search for true humans is met - and much love and laughter ensues...

Happy New Year

30 days till he's gone...

Presidential quote of the week:
“Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods.”

Why was that man ever voted in? Can't we get rid of him sooner?
It's not even funny. He's so stupid it offends me. And even if he isn't stupid, even if it is some 'everyman' act, as certain people have assured me, well that offends me too. I want my president to be smarter than me, to speak about difficult things intelligently, to explain complex issues so that we can get to know and understand them. I never wanted the 'guy you can have a beer with' and I don't want this buffoon!

Piven bows out

Just as I was saying that tv stars don't have the stamina for Broadway, Jeremy Piven has bowed out of Speed the Plow due to health reasons. He looked tired on the night we saw him, and frankly, both William Macy and Norbert Butz are bigger Broadway names, I would be interested to see how either one does it.

But it speaks to my argument, that Broadway acting is an entirely different animal from tv acting (which may be a different animal again from film acting, that I don't feel qualified to speculate upon) But I can see, because I've seen enough of them, that marquee movie names don't necessarily make good stage actors at all. They can be, of course, but it isn't mandatory.

And now Jeremy Piven agrees with me too. :)

Play Reviews

I've seen 3 plays recently and discussed none of them - so here they are (what can I say, it's December, somehow we always go out far more in December...)

Speed the Plow
Written by Mamet twenty or so years ago, the text stands up reasonably well, being the standard art vs commerce in Hollywood with sub themes of eco disaster and economic/emotional bankruptcy. My problem with it is that the life changing book that is described, just sounds like gibberish. There are life changing books out there, but the one about radioactivity and decay read out loud in the play is not one of them!

One of my main observations about it, is actually about Broadway in general - there is this trend in Broadway to get famous names to sell tix. Many of those famous names don't come from Broadway, but from film and tv. The problem for is that theatrical acting and film/tv acting are actually very different skill sets. I see it time and again, the film/tv star just doesn't have the stamina for the 8 shows a week. There's no cut, let's take a break, no saving it from the close up, and also, you've done it once, perfectly, great. Now do it again, 8 times this week, and next, and for the next 6 months.

Speed the Plow is a 3 hander. Two actors were from tv - Jeremy Piven, who we love in Entourage, and Elizabeth Moss from Madmen. I know Mamet is like watching the Olympics, first you think, they have to remember all those words? in the right order? and cut across and interrupt each other with timing and act as well? But Elizabeth Moss definitely struggled with it. She was the weakest of the three. The one who walked in and chewed up all the scenery, was the one with the most Broadway experience - Raul Espraza. He made that show work, he was just amazing in his rage and greed and lust and his just wanting, wanting, wanting it. Not art, fuck art, wanting success and money and power. He was dazzling in his venality.

And Mamet would have been please with us, because afterwards we talked about life changing books and how art mattered in our lives...

2. Shrek

Well, this is a different world from Speed the Plow. No cynicism here! this is a lush children's musical, full of optimism and embracing our inner freak and how being beautiful doesn't necessarily mean being pretty. The songs are serviceable, the script had a few lovely call outs to previous Broadway shows (a hint of chorus line here, of Gypsy there) which I really appreciate and could have done with more of.

My problem is that like the Disney productions, somehow the cartoon versions are more sly and sophisticated. The musicals are much simpler, though there is no real reason for that to happen, the stories loose some of their complexity. Shrek is less imposing here (he's life size) the donkey is less scintillating. Lord Farquar, played by Christopher Seiber, steals every scene he's in, and gives it all he's got. He's a great villain! the stage lights up when he's on. But Shrek isn't menacing enough, he's softness is all there to see, and he's not physically imposing enough and so he doesn't quite work. The love scene/fart song where he and Fiona fall in love actually works very well. The kids laugh and laugh when the characters fart and burp, but you can see how the connection is formed. I actually believed the love story. But I went out humming Gypsy and talking about the costumes (amazing!) rather than the story. A good one for the kids, but that's about it...

3. And finally, we went and saw Black Watch, which is an off Broadway show, playing in St Anne's warehouse theatre in Brooklyn. I'll review that later, but it's very adult, and absolutely fantastic. All you could want from art and theatre. We go with a few soldiers from the Scottish Black Watch brigade to Iraq and see what happens... But more of that later.

fuck you cute animals

100 things to do, and even more to write up here, but this is what I find myself doing - going to this site and laughing at the text and cute animal photos.

Back soon with the real stuff...

Speed of Life

We went and saw Speed the Plow last night, and a review of it will follow but for this moment I want to focus on the conversation we had afterwards - which is, have any of us read anything that changed our lives.

I said change your life is a big statement. I've certainly read things that affected me, but changed me, changed my thinking, made me look at the world differently from when before I read it. (we extended the discussion to any art form - film, tv, art etc... Was there anything we saw or witnessed that was not part of 'real' life, that changed our lives.)

I've been thinking about it ever since. My immediate answer, last night, of something that I had read which changed my perspective, was the writing of Donald Winnocott. Perhaps it's because I didn't know very much about therapy when I read his thoughts, but his work on the 'good enough mother' and the idea that boredom is the sea from which creativity is borne are things I think about often and in depth.

And then 3 (out of 4 of us!) agreed that Ayn Rand had had a huge impact with her books. So a secret cult of Randists were dining together! I left Ayn Rand, needing something with more compassion, but when I was 17, I really loved her ideas.

And now I'm trying to think about it some more.. what have I read or seen, or observed that changed my perspective... Of course so many things have a drip, drip, drip affect. Which is why certain tv shows are not permitted in the house or why we don't let our 11 yo play certain computer games - things that have a negative effect are easy to find.

I really loved the works of Rumi, a Sufi poet. For a while, when reading him, I could enter his world of overwhelming love. I like poetry in general. There was a time where every so often I would email everyone a poem that had really spoken to me. And anyone who reads this blog will find songs that I remember and lyrics that I keep whispering in my mind. And I often read books who have a phrase, an image, an incident, which lingers and returns to me.

We all agreed that we had found these life changing texts when in college, where thinking about life and philosophy and who and what we are was the accepted thing to do.

And then I bumped into a friend in the school yard this morning and we discussed Jewish education and I said that I hoped/planned that our son would continue with his after his 13th birthday, that some of the best and most memorable school lessons I ever had were in my Jewish studies classes in years 9 - 12.

It's amazing that that jolt of cocaine that is Speed the Plow can give rise to such contemplation. Mamet would be pleased...

Liza from the past...

this is such a sweet song, and she sells it so well... Ring 'em bells indeed..

It starts like this: about a year ago - I heard this truly terrific, absolutely true story
And it just so happens that I told a couple of friends of mine this truly terrific, absolutely true story
And it just so happens that these friends of mine are song writers
And guess what happened, right, truly terrific, absolutely true song...

Maybe this time...

We saw a living legend the other night.

You know how there are just some people that you love, irrationally. You hear the gossip and get a whiff of the tabloid rumors and you just don't care. That's how I feel about Liza Minnelli. It doesn't matter what goes on in her private life, what show is a shambles, next time she's out, I'll be there again, with hope in my heart and love in my eyes. I just love her. And when it works, I remember why...

We went and saw the final dress rehearsal for her new show at the Palace theatre last week. And in the beginning, she was so nervous and oddly breathless, that I was worried. My friend, sitting next to me, snarkily said, 'you know she's only 62, she moves like an 80 year old.' And I said, '62 in Liza years, is more than 82 of anyone else's years!' - she's put her body through a lot of punishment, she's had 2 hip replacements and several knee operations and frankly, she moves like it. She moves hesitantly and painfully.

I've never seen such a warm and idiosyncratic audience. There were women with their faces stretched into kabuki masks of youth, and gay men in their 60's squealing like teenage girls. The audience was more than warm, it was a bunch of theatre moms in the room, all wishing their little egg on. They wanted her to succeed so much, they clapped every time she opened her mouth and gave a standing ovation at the end of the each song.

About the 3rd song in, she sang Charles Aznavour's What makes a man a man... and I thought, so many drag queens dress up and sing as Liza, and here's Liza, pretending to get up and be one of them, a lovely note of solidarity.

After that she got more comfortable, her panting reduced, and her voice opened. Her hand motions are so familiar, those 'jazz hands' that only she could pull them off. And yet she does, because they don't feel 'actory' they feel natural and innate. This is how she moves when she sings. She did tease us about her movements, acknowledging that she is older now 'you know how I used to sit in the second act, well now I sit in the first' as she pulls out a tall directors chair. But sit is scarcely the word as she writhes and moves, creating one perfect visual moment after another. I actually liked her better on the stool, she seemed more comfortable.

And when she sang 'maybe this time' (which was not in the original production but rather had been on her album first, I didn't' know that) I got goose bumps. She just sells it. She believes it and so do you, maybe this time she'll be lucky, as if she's had no luck in her life yet.

And that is Liza's astonishing gift, that she goes on stage is totally vulnerable, all raw nerves and that astonishing voice. So much talent, so little confidence, so much experience and yet no bedrock of knowledge, just that painful, wistful optimism, that maybe this time... for the first time...

Oh, it was a magic night.

I loved the second half less - it was all about Kay Thompson, her godmother and songs that she sang in the 40's which are not known now, and when you hear them, you know why... I kind of lost it for about 20 mins, getting restless but happy people watching (it's that kind of audience, they're part of the show). But when she sang New York, New York, the chills came back. To hear that iconic song, by that living legend, in New York. It doesn't get better than that. (ps it's not me shouting in the clip, (I was a good girl and didn't film anything) but it could have been!)

By the end of the show her hair was matted, she was sweating and panting again, and you were swept up in the moment. Liza gives and gives and gives (even in a dress rehearsal!) and you just have to love her for it.

I'm so happy this show is a success - for the audience and their enjoyment, but also for Liza, who I just love...

Most primitive sense

They say scent is one of the most primitive senses, liked straight back to the lizard part of your brain. And it's evocative, smell your grandmother's cake, and there you are, transported back in time.

For many years I wore Ma Griffe, and then, all of a sudden it disappeared from the shelves. In the age of the internet, I suddenly thought, I wonder if they make it still? And here I found it, at this wonderful site (great prices!) and I've ordered myself a new bottle, so the scent of my 20's can return...

Happy find!

Nice care...

I was reading an article in the nyt about the 6 habits of hightly respectful physicians and came across this posting in the comments afterwards (I love the comments, they are often more interesting than the articles, one of the benefits of the internet, that the article becomes the starting point and a conversation grows...)

During my residency we had a speaker from our professional society discuss some current state of the field topic. Somewhere in his talk he said something that has stuck with me. Nearly all patients don't know the difference between good care and not good care. What they do know, however, is the difference between "nice care" and "not nice care."

While being nice may not actually improve overall health outcomes it does improve the patient's experience and subsequently their view of our profession. There is zero downside to taking the time to introduce yourself, shake hands, and make them feel that their needs are going to be addressed.

And I thought, that’s so true of so many things. We often don't know the expertise required or the effort expended behind so many things, but we know when we are treated nicely or respectfully or not.

We are having a problem with one of our teachers at school, and the issue was that we didn’t know if she was teaching the curriculum correctly or not, but we did know that she wasn’t explaining herself clearly to the parents and this was giving her a host of problems that had nothing to do with her expertise.

And that’s where American customer service can excel or fail – if someone reads a screed from a computer screen with no feeling or humanity, the care might be ‘good’ but it’s definitely not ‘nice’ and you don’t feel looked after. It’s only when the other person makes a connection with you that you remember the service as good, even if they couldn’t do what you asked (at least they could explain – ‘the computer says no…’ to quote Little Britain…)

And that’s what I’ve been thinking about today…

More on Liza tomorrow (she was wonderful!)

more about coupons

see I was just ahead of the curve - check out this nyt article, basically I could have written it :)