Nicolas Cage and The Sorcerer's Apprentice

My friend Dave is in town from Los Angeles on business. He is an exec producer for a very cool multi-media design studio and production company called Blind. They do a lot of good work and I am really happy for his success.

We decided to go for an adventure and leave our respective neighborhoods. (my keyword for me in New York is sadly "provincial.") We went to deepest darkest Chinatown to go to Dim Sum Go Go which was very good. Filled with white people - always a good sign. JOKE. But it was really good. And Chinese people know to not eat dim sum at night anyway.

Afterwards we took a stroll through a neighborhood where if we weren't so long in the tooth we could easily be hooded and thrown into the back of a van and sold in all of 5 seconds. But instead of working in the flesh trade in South America we walked by the movie set of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" starring Nicolas Cage. It was a BEEEE-U-TEE-FUL set full of red Chinese lanterns and lovely bright lights. The way you want your Chinatown served to you. The way it should be!

No flash allowed, "We're shooting."

Dave outside the street scene.

The confetti blower. (a machine, not a person, silly!)


Bright lights. Big City. ...Little China.

Men in Media Mixer

Marc and Jerry and Chris

In another battle of "War on Unemployment" I organized a mixer of guys who work in TV, film, digital, advertising etc. I did not start this event, just resurrected it from a slump and added Evite! We had it at Ate Ave. in Chelsea and it turned out to be a great night.

I met some new people and got reacquainted with old ones and hung with friends and introduced folk (always my fave thing to do!) and it was just fun. Amazing what you can do with a computer, some labels, a bar and a few sharpie pens.

Rick and Eric and Jim
Andy and Sean
Me and my pal Sean

Ranger Pat

Every day I battle on the War on Unemployment. Today was no different. But I tried a different tack. Today I applied to be a Park Ranger. This is for a position in Lower Manhattan giving tours at the African Burial Ground National Monument. How cool would that be? I love to talk to groups, I adore history and I can walk backwards and do like Bonnie Hunt did in that move Dave: "We're walking, we're walking."

But seriously, that uniform. How hot would that be? I mean, especially in the summers, right? That Smokey the Bear hat and those trousers. I would be fighting them off with a stick.

And the material I would get to write a play or novel later. It could be my Elf in my own Santaland Diaries. This could help me really go places. OMG, I want this job.

Of course the application asked for contact numbers and salary figures for all my previous jobs. I did not want to do that so I applied MY way. The government loves individual expression like this. I am certain of it.

But just you wait. I will have been barking up the wrong tree all this time and then SNAP, I am a Park Ranger in New York City strolling through Union Square park tipping my hat and saying "Howdy, Ma'am" and rubbing two sticks together to light the cigarette for a teenager standing outside Port Authority. I will probably chuckle a lot and make some forest fire jokes. I could speak to schools! Too much!

Where there's smoke, there's Ranger Pat.

la Nouvelle York Ville est ma ville, Monsieur

Il a plu aujourd'hui.

It rained today.

Fort even.

French. English. I can do 'em both now because I took 10 weeks of French and a vie-time of English.

I have an exposé due in French class this week. Not like a gossip thing where I say in French who I heard Jennifer Aniston is sleeping with, but just a report on something of my choosing. Like about the dude who redid Paris or Angelina Jolie's humanitarian work. Mostly in present tense. Like covering a game or making a 911 call: "He is breathing but not heavily. He is bleeding and there is a knife in his back. The chemise is soaked in sang.Mon Dieu!"

Maybe I can do this. I have to get up in front of the whole class and speak for 5 minutes on a topic in French. You cannot shut me up for hours in English, but this seems daunting.

For now, I burry ma tête dans l'oreiller. Je ponce. Et ponce. Et ponce.

Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Saw "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" with Bob today at a matinee at the Belasco. How I get to sit where I sit and see what I see and feel what I feel is amazing to me. I am so grateful. Times IS tough and theatre has not made the budget cuts so thank you, Bob, for this.

Bartlett Sher directed this play and adds this to a cap full of amazing feathers: "South Pacific" at Lincoln Center, "Light in the Piazza," "Awake and Sing," "Cymbeline." He is quite a theatre director and, no thanks to me, he went to my high school. He was called Bart then. Perhaps he still is, by his friends.

I loved the play so much. August Wilson seems to be such a lyrical writer and this play really sang about loss, displacement, finding home, and the post-slavery plight of African American's post turn of last century. Great characters and great dialogue.

The sets and staging worked so seemlessly together. I wish there was a YouTube video of the opening when actors effortlessly hit their marks just as a piece of the set comes in or down or up. It was elegant and spiritul, really.

I think if I wrote my own version it would just be whiney. More work ahead...

Green Pastures, Grey Gardens

I've seen the documentary. I've seen the Broadway show. Now I have seen the HBO Special starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange about this odd and sad mother/daughter team living in squalor in the Hamptons.

Just waiting for Disney to release an animated version complete with singing raccoons and dancing cats. I can feel it coming.





Sean and I watched it at his swank West Village pad with the real lights of New York just beyond the flat screen: the city where little Edie Beale dreamt of becoming a singing and dancing star.

It was all really quite good. I have to give the main kudos to a note perfect, multi-faceted performance from Jessica Lange. It was amazing. Drew was good too, but Jessica really hit is out of the park. I enjoyed the whole thing. Quite sad, however.

New York, like Los Angeles, is a city of dreams. It can make you; it can break you. It is no wonder I have lived in both. And I am still waiting for my big moment.

But when I looked at the Beales and I think about my life, I feel very fortunate to live here. And live here as I do.

There is time enough for newspapers piled high and housedresses and loads of cats.

Top of the World

Flowers at the fountain in Madison Square Park

A stunning spring day in NYC. Eileen and I headed for the Flatiron district to meet up with Andy Schiff, Eileen's dear friend from the year abroad program in Padova, Italy. She had not seen him in 15 years or so and I had not seen him in about 23.

Really nice, nice guy. His brother is Dr. Doom who predicted the financial crisis and the video is kind of amazing.




Pat, Eileen and Andy in Madison Square Park

Andy is also licensed tour guide and gave a quick tour of this historic area. It was great to see him and have lunch al fresco just like in the old Italia days.

Afterwards it was up to the top of the Empire State Building right around the corner from where our dad grew up.


The evening was pre-theatre dinner with our friend Nancy on Restaurant Row.
Eileen and Nancy are old friends and Nancy and I are now good NYC pals thanks to my sis.


Eileen and I then dashed to the Manhattan Theatre Club to see David Hyde Pierce in "Accent on Youth." He really is a fantastic actor and he brought this old chestnut to life wonderfully. He is also a friend of friends of mine and we got to go backstage and hang for a bit in his dressing room while he took off his make-up. What a truly nice man. He was so gracious to Eileen and me. Just a capper to a fine visit. But wait.....


We then ascended the new RED STAIRCASE in Times Square and looked out over all the people and the lights and knew that this brother and sister act was big time lucky and still on top of the world.


grazie dio