Listen & Be Heard Network Arts News

And so back in Vallejo after a most-of-August vacation in New York City.  My thoughts remained close to home on some levels, particularly regarding the tragic mid-month fire at Casa de Vallejo and the premiere of the Listen and Be Heard Poetry Café’s on-line version.  Here are a few additional thoughts on East Coast matters.    

THE MTA SUBWAY SYSTEM: Forget about the fact that New York’s subways connect its five boroughs in ways that BART still does not match – locations, efficiency, and a two-dollar cost to ride anywhere – the big selling point for the subways is the unscheduled entertainment provided by individuals or groups who board a car for the specific purpose of performing for riders’ donations.  In less than an hour, for example, I saw three junior high school-aged boys do some gymnastic-based breakdancing, complete with back flips, followed by a leading candidate for Manhattan’s worst drummer, who played a beat-to-hell snare drum stuffed with clothing when she wasn’t hitting the nearby pole in the middle of the car for riders to hold, and – my personal favorite – a woman who sang the spiritual “Victory Is Mine” and was spontaneously accompanied by a pair of Church Ladies in the car who threw their arms in the air and sang it like it was their last chance to sing.  All of these moments were prefaced by the performer entering the car and saying, “Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, I don’t mean to interrupt you but I’m trying to make a living,” followed by their act.  I suspect that Ed Sullivan would have approved of the format, if not the performances; regardless, I liked all of them better than Topo Gigio.  (Ask your mother.)

BROADWAY: My wife Dariece and I walked through Times Square while waiting to rendezvous with her aunt and cousin.  We passed the Hilton Theater, saw “Young Frankenstein” on the marquee, and immediately purchased two tickets.  My two-word review: see it!  Hilarious.  At the end of the performance, after the bows and applause, the full cast sang a “Thanks for coming out, we had a great time”farewell tune, which included the line, “And maybe next year, ‘Blazing Saddles.’”  It was met with wild applause.  Obviously there is a hunger for Broadway musicals involving cowboys and a well-known campfire scene.  Perhaps it explains why the man sitting next to me opened a box of Raisinettes while waiting for the play to begin.  (If you haven’t seen “Blazing Saddles,” there’s a scene with Harvey Korman and Raisinettes.  I can not look at that snack product anymore without laughing, which was probably why the man next to me looked so confused.  Or frightened.)

A THREE-HOUR TOUR: Dariece and I took a harbor cruise covering all five of New Yrok’s boroughs, narrated by Malachy Murray, author of “Malachy Murray’s Unique New York.”  The tour was both entertaining and informative.  Since it WAS for three hours, I made sure that the ship was not named “S.S. Minnow”; one must be careful regarding nautical matters, as the sea is always unforgiving regarding human error.  On a related note, Bob Dylan had performed in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park two days before we arrived and one of the local newspapers compared his choice of clothing to something from the wardrobe of Thurston Howell III.  Lovey minus zero?

PUBLIC-ACCESS TV: My personal favorite program on a Brooklyn-based public-access station was “Super Mamma,” basically a homage/rip-off of “Undercover Brother” from a Pam Grier-ish point of view.  Very silly. City University of New York broadcast CUNY-TV, which was similar to Vallejo’s VCAT station and appeared to have a larger budget, judging by production values and the wider variety in its programming schedule.  Then there was that funny show with the lady in the orange pantsuit who…no, wait, that was the CBS one-hour-per-night coverage of the Democratic National Convention.  Never mind.

FOOD: We stayed in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene district, a great neighborhood with a wide variety of great food available within walking distance.  Thai, vegan pastries, pan-Asian, Cuban, Austrian, Indian, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.  One place that stands out was Govinda’s Restaurant, a vegetarian restaurant that served a delicious, filling, and very healthy lunch for seven dollars.  It was located in the Hare Krishna Temple; Dariece and I were allowed to visit the main room where the services take place.  We were asked to observe the fact that “the Deities are asleep right now” and to remove our shoes.  I saw two harmoniums and various percussion instruments in one corner of the room. and assumed that the Deities do not stay asleep for long once the music starts.

BARGEMUSIC: Located at Fulton Ferry Landing near the Brooklyn Bridge, Bargemusic presents chamber music on an actual floating barge.  The barge is anchored but sways per other boats’ wakes or weather factors.  Along with a spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline, Bargemusic is an experience not to be missed.  Dariece and I went to see the Zukovsky Quartet perform two string quartets – one by Schubert – and, with the addition of cellist Katherine Cherbas, a quintet.  Despite our arriving twenty minutes late – my bad! – it was a great show and a perfect place to get in touch with one’s inner Frasier Crane. 

FELIX AND OSCAR: We stayed in a four-story brownstone for al but two days of our visit.  The house’s owners, Jason and Eliza Factor, have a five-year-old son named Felix.  Felix is autistic.  The Factors also have a six-string ukulele (or very small guitar, I was never really sure) and, since Felix loves music, asked me to play a few tunes.  Halfway through my brief set of Rolling Stones and John Lee Hooker songs, Felix was laughing and climbing on me like the little boy in the Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House” video.  (Ask your mother.)  We’re pals now, he and I.  As for Oscar, he was the main reason Dariece and I stayed at the house – to walk and feed him while the family took a vacation – and he had us at first tail wag.  The ukulele, incidentally, became as much a part of the day for me as the morning coffee.  I applied a D-modal tuning to it and put together a songlist of tunes by Jimi Hendrix, the Sex Pistols, Duke Ellington, Nirvana, Deep Purple, T. Rex, Beethoven, and, of course, a Keith Richards-in-Hawaii arrangement of “Victory Is Mine.”

MAN ON WIRE: We saw one of this year’s best films at the BAM Rose Cinemas, a ten-minute walk from the Factors’ brownstone, during our stay.  “Man on Wire” is a documentary of French tightrope walker Philippe Petit’s 1974 walk on a wire stretched between the tops of the Twin Towers of Manhattan’s World Trade Center.  One hundred four stories high, eight times across the wire, and without the city’s permission.  Breathtaking, witty, heartfelt, mischievous, and surprisingly emotional, this film might be the best one to be seen in 2008.  It also provides an unstated message applicable for everyone: pursue your dreams without hesitation, because they may not be around forever.