I'm wishing you all Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas for whatever holiday you celebrate. Stay warm, make sure to cozy up near the fireplace with a good book. Since we all have easy access to NYC, I encourage you to take full advantage of the events or places available during the next few months. There's quite a few holidays coming up, such as, New Year's, Martin Luther King Day, Valentine's Day...you know what I mean. Cheers to a fulfilling new year with many surprises and revelations in store.
Peace!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Upcoming venues to attend in 2012
I've made a list of places and events I plan to attend in the upcoming year. I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it!
- Opera New Jersey's production of Puccini's Tosca at NJPAC in February
- The Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center
- Dicapo Opera's production of Menotti's The Consul in NY
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Zoo America at Hershey Park in Hershey, PA
- Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company at SOPAC in South Orange, NJ
Friday, December 23, 2011
A Taste of Cuba by Beatriz Llamas
Here's another good book I spotted at the library. It was shelved under cookbooks even though it's more than that. It's a travelogue, a picturebook and a cookbook rolled into one. After a quick flip through, I decided to give it a whirl. The book was written by a Spanish national who resides in Cuba and another Spanish national, Ximena Maier did the wonderful illustrations. She, unlike Llamas does not reside in Cuba, but took two sketching trips there and collaborated with the author for this joint effort. Here are some of the many enticing recipes listed.
Mojito
To prepare a mojito: quarter fill a tall glass with the prepared liquid, add 3 ice cubes and fill the glass with sparkling water. Add a sprig of mint, stir, and serve.
- Cassava Pasties
- Black-eyed bean fritters
- Creole fried chicken
- Cod fritters
- Corn Ice Cream
- Mojito
Mojito
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup fresh lime juice
- a bunch of mint
- 1 bottle 3-year old rum
To prepare a mojito: quarter fill a tall glass with the prepared liquid, add 3 ice cubes and fill the glass with sparkling water. Add a sprig of mint, stir, and serve.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Intimate Apparel at the Zella Fry Theatre
Here's my review of Lynn Nottage's play Intimate Apparel that was performed October 20-22 at Vaughn-Eames Zella Fry Theatre. Don't worry, I took careful notes during the play so I'm looking from them for help. First of all, I didn't know the Vaughn-Eames building had a theatre, much less an art gallery. Vaughn-Eames has both. The gallery is on the first floor and so is the Zella Fry Theatre, an L-shaped studio off to the side of the building near the rear entrance. It was a cold fall night and the theater was cold as well. It's a small theatre like the University Center's Little Theatre, but doesn't seat nearly as much people. My guess that there were 100 seats available for the sold-out show. The stage was so close to the audience that at times it appeared the players were conversing with the people seated nearest them.
Anyway, on to the play, the most important part. Until this point, I had never heard of Lynn Nottage before--I don't follow the playwright circuit religiously, so I didn't know what to expect. I was already pissed at my professor from another English class that she made us attend this play. The student discount of $10 was better used elsewhere, not seeing a play in a cold theatre on a windy autumn night. The play was divided into two acts. There was an intermission after the first act where people went to the vending machines across the hall to buy snacks and drinks.
The play is set in 1905 New York City where the main character Esther Mills, played sympathetically by Rachelle Dorce. She portrayed the thirty-something unmarried African American seamstress with such sensitivity and vulnerability, there were so many instances where I wanted to go up and give her a hug. This is a woman who has lucked out in the love department and finds a thinly veiled appearance of George Armstrong, a West Indian worker who turns out to be a good-for-nothing con man and an illerate. She's friends with Mayme, an African American piano-playing prostitute who drowns her sorrows in booze and ragtime music. Mayme, played brilliantly by Brigette Stiegman, gave Dorce a run for her money. She stole every scene she was in and garnered many laughs from the audience. She provided comic relief when necessary, but definitely explored her dark side adequately--included her backstory of the father beating her as a child for studying piano and her displeasure at the brutality of the clients who come to her apartment.
Rounding out the cast is Walmbegan N'Dure as George Armstrong, Anne Ackhart as Mrs. Van Buren and Daniel Pellicano as Mr. Marks. N'Dure, who is originally African, put on a very effective West Indian accent during his "letters" to Esther that he dictated to the audience and his wedding night with Esther illicited a strong female response from the audience--especially during their awkward kissing and him stripping down to just his underpants. Ackhart as the wealthy white socialite stuck in an unhappy marriage gave the play continuity, even though she didn't strike a chord with me as some of the other players did. I should give special mention to Pellicano portraying Mr. Marks, the Jewish immigrant cloth merchant who secretly loves Esther, but doesn't know how to tell Esther how he feels about her. I feel Nottage did this deliberately. Esther, I presume, feel sthe same way about him, but due to the fact that they come from two different worlds and the social mores at the time will not permit them to be together. That doesn't stop Dorce and Pellicano from openly flirting with each other throughout the play and the gentle modesty of Mr. Marks.
There's a beautiful and revelatory scene near the end of the play that displays where Esther's feelings truly lie--and they're not with George. I don't want to spoil it for any newcomers to the play. This play has won several awards in drama and rightly so. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing other productions of this wonderful play by Lynn Nottage and she's definitely a playwright worth seeking out. She won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Ruined, which is next on my list of must-see plays.
Anyway, on to the play, the most important part. Until this point, I had never heard of Lynn Nottage before--I don't follow the playwright circuit religiously, so I didn't know what to expect. I was already pissed at my professor from another English class that she made us attend this play. The student discount of $10 was better used elsewhere, not seeing a play in a cold theatre on a windy autumn night. The play was divided into two acts. There was an intermission after the first act where people went to the vending machines across the hall to buy snacks and drinks.
The play is set in 1905 New York City where the main character Esther Mills, played sympathetically by Rachelle Dorce. She portrayed the thirty-something unmarried African American seamstress with such sensitivity and vulnerability, there were so many instances where I wanted to go up and give her a hug. This is a woman who has lucked out in the love department and finds a thinly veiled appearance of George Armstrong, a West Indian worker who turns out to be a good-for-nothing con man and an illerate. She's friends with Mayme, an African American piano-playing prostitute who drowns her sorrows in booze and ragtime music. Mayme, played brilliantly by Brigette Stiegman, gave Dorce a run for her money. She stole every scene she was in and garnered many laughs from the audience. She provided comic relief when necessary, but definitely explored her dark side adequately--included her backstory of the father beating her as a child for studying piano and her displeasure at the brutality of the clients who come to her apartment.
Rounding out the cast is Walmbegan N'Dure as George Armstrong, Anne Ackhart as Mrs. Van Buren and Daniel Pellicano as Mr. Marks. N'Dure, who is originally African, put on a very effective West Indian accent during his "letters" to Esther that he dictated to the audience and his wedding night with Esther illicited a strong female response from the audience--especially during their awkward kissing and him stripping down to just his underpants. Ackhart as the wealthy white socialite stuck in an unhappy marriage gave the play continuity, even though she didn't strike a chord with me as some of the other players did. I should give special mention to Pellicano portraying Mr. Marks, the Jewish immigrant cloth merchant who secretly loves Esther, but doesn't know how to tell Esther how he feels about her. I feel Nottage did this deliberately. Esther, I presume, feel sthe same way about him, but due to the fact that they come from two different worlds and the social mores at the time will not permit them to be together. That doesn't stop Dorce and Pellicano from openly flirting with each other throughout the play and the gentle modesty of Mr. Marks.
There's a beautiful and revelatory scene near the end of the play that displays where Esther's feelings truly lie--and they're not with George. I don't want to spoil it for any newcomers to the play. This play has won several awards in drama and rightly so. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing other productions of this wonderful play by Lynn Nottage and she's definitely a playwright worth seeking out. She won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Ruined, which is next on my list of must-see plays.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
La Bella Lingua by Dianne Hales
For all you Italophiles and Italians out there, here's a book that you all should read. The book is titled La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, The World's Most Enchanting Language by Dianne Hales. I don't know about Italian being the world's most enchanting languages, but it is the world's most beautiful and one of the easiest to learn. Unlike German and Dutch, which use mostly consonants and harsh, gutteral sounds (English, unfortunately, being derived from the two) Italian flows freely on the tongue and awakens the senses. Dianne, being a WASP married to a fellow WASP and living in the most WASP-y part of the US (New England) clearly loves Italy and everything Italian. Here are some interesting occurrences mentioned in the book.
- she kissed an older Italian man under the moonlight when she travelled to Italy for the first time
- she claims to speak Italian fluently and has many Italian friends
- she met Italian director Marcello Mastroianni during a screening of one of his films
- she bantered with internationally acclaimed Italian actor Roberto Begnini
- she spent a great deal of time studying the famed Italian poets, painters and composers such as Dante, Petrarch, Michelangelo and Puccini
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Here's another book I read recently. To be honest, I discovered it by accident at my local library. I was searching for another book in the YA section of the library near the back and came upon this book. The cover was dark with an extinguished candle on the cover. The words Looking For Alaska jumped out at me. I thought would be an interesting book on the state of Alaska. Man, was I wrong! The female lead in the book name is Alaska Young. This story is narrated by a typical high school loser--no friends, no girlfriend, no social life whatsoever. Miles Halter, nicknamed Pudge, lives in Florida where he has a fascination with the dying words of famous people. He goes off "to seek the Great Perhaps," in the words of Francois Rabelais, the French philosopher. In other words, he wants to try his luck in a new school in a new state. He has a going-away party--only two people show up, but he's soon off to a small boarding school in Alabama. There, he becomes fast friends with Chip Martin, a.k.a. The Colonel and a Japanese exchange student named Takumi.
He also meets the beautiful and enigmatic Alaska Young and with his new pack of friends he starts smoking, plots elaborate pranks and gets his first kiss from Alaska. It's all good fun and Miles feels that he's living life to the fullest for the first time ever. However, everything is not so cut and dry and the source of Alaska's deep unhappiness is revealed during a drunken charade. Her mother passed away from a brain aneurysm when Alaska was eight. She was so stunned at the time that she didn't call for help fast enough--by the time her mother reached the hospital, she passed away. Alaska's father eventually forgave his daughter, but the damage was done. Alaska was emotionally scarred from then on, she always blamed herself for her mother's death. She has since used booze and sex to fill in the void her mother left. The chapters begin with the "before," as in, one hundred days before, until it gets down to zero. Once the reader gets to the "after," they are shocked to discover Alaska's sudden and tragic death, most likely a suicide, from the details given. Each character copes with her suicide in different ways. For Miles, who had an unrequited love for Alaska, the loss is devastating. He returns to Florida, his old school and life as he knows it before Alaska with a new appreciation for life and the possibilities that await him as a new man.
While this book is readable, it does have its faults. Some characters are simply cliches, ex. Japanese exchange student who raps, the Russian Lolita, high school boys who only drink and have sex. Alaska herself, is the most intriguing character, even though she doesn't get as many pages dedicated to her as The Colonel. The book leaves many questions unanswered and some subplots could have been removed to make the book flow better. All in all, I'm glad I read it, but it's not a book I'm willing to read again. I'll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions once you've read the book.
He also meets the beautiful and enigmatic Alaska Young and with his new pack of friends he starts smoking, plots elaborate pranks and gets his first kiss from Alaska. It's all good fun and Miles feels that he's living life to the fullest for the first time ever. However, everything is not so cut and dry and the source of Alaska's deep unhappiness is revealed during a drunken charade. Her mother passed away from a brain aneurysm when Alaska was eight. She was so stunned at the time that she didn't call for help fast enough--by the time her mother reached the hospital, she passed away. Alaska's father eventually forgave his daughter, but the damage was done. Alaska was emotionally scarred from then on, she always blamed herself for her mother's death. She has since used booze and sex to fill in the void her mother left. The chapters begin with the "before," as in, one hundred days before, until it gets down to zero. Once the reader gets to the "after," they are shocked to discover Alaska's sudden and tragic death, most likely a suicide, from the details given. Each character copes with her suicide in different ways. For Miles, who had an unrequited love for Alaska, the loss is devastating. He returns to Florida, his old school and life as he knows it before Alaska with a new appreciation for life and the possibilities that await him as a new man.
While this book is readable, it does have its faults. Some characters are simply cliches, ex. Japanese exchange student who raps, the Russian Lolita, high school boys who only drink and have sex. Alaska herself, is the most intriguing character, even though she doesn't get as many pages dedicated to her as The Colonel. The book leaves many questions unanswered and some subplots could have been removed to make the book flow better. All in all, I'm glad I read it, but it's not a book I'm willing to read again. I'll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions once you've read the book.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Writing Past Dark
Here's another good book that was required reading for my senior seminar class. the book is called Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and other Dilemmas in the Writer's Life by Bonnie Friedman. This along with the aforementioned book The Right to Write by Julia Cameron are two books on every English-Writing student's MUST-HAVE list. The book runs along the same vein of Cameron's book, however, the book is a lot shorter. In any case, less is more.
In this insightful and soulful book, Friedman takes the reader on a literary journey. To show you what I mean, the book is divided into eight chapters. They are as follows:
1. From Chapter 3, "The best stories I know I must not tell." (Friedman, 19)
2. From Chapter 3, "The force of the forbidden draws us. We want its power. We want to use it for our work. (Friedman, 24)
3. From Chapter 4," Stories are machines inhabited by a god." (Friedman, 54)
Friedman at one point describes silence as a young woman in a white dress with long hair and a blank stare. You see what I mean? If you find this enticing, then what are you waiting for? Get to your local library or the nearest bookstore and pick up a copy ASAP. This book will keep you entertained for hours. You'll also learn something new along the way.
In this insightful and soulful book, Friedman takes the reader on a literary journey. To show you what I mean, the book is divided into eight chapters. They are as follows:
- Envy, the writer's disease
- Message from a cloud of flies: On Distraction
- Your Mother's Passions, your sister's woes: Writing about the living
- The Paraffin Density of wax wings: Writing School
- The Wild Yellow Circling Beast: Writing from the inside
- The Story's Body: How to get the meaning in
- Anorexia of language: Why we can't write
- Glittering icons, lush orchards: On Success
1. From Chapter 3, "The best stories I know I must not tell." (Friedman, 19)
2. From Chapter 3, "The force of the forbidden draws us. We want its power. We want to use it for our work. (Friedman, 24)
3. From Chapter 4," Stories are machines inhabited by a god." (Friedman, 54)
Friedman at one point describes silence as a young woman in a white dress with long hair and a blank stare. You see what I mean? If you find this enticing, then what are you waiting for? Get to your local library or the nearest bookstore and pick up a copy ASAP. This book will keep you entertained for hours. You'll also learn something new along the way.
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