cultural commentary from the desk of Don Shewey
The Bergdorf windows based on Fantastic Mr. Fox have been up for several weeks. But having just seen the movie (and loved it), I went back to marvel at the fanatical detail that characterizes both the movie and the windows. (click to enlarge)(that sounds dirty! if only it were that easy…)
Bliss is a technical term in Buddhism. It does not mean mere happiness or satisfaction. Rather it means fulfillment of who we really are, realization of Buddhahood, accomplishment of the goals that drive us to find meaning in life. To follow our bliss is to disregard all the rules that tell us how we are supposed to behave and to seek our own path.
To follow our bliss is to live in such a way that we can always love our experience. It means to make choices and decisions about our life that we will not regret. It means not giving up our dreams and settling for security or acceptability in other people’s eyes.
— Toby Johnson
January 6 – Ragtime closes on Sunday, having gotten a week’s reprieve because ticket sales picked up. David Zinn invited me to see it with him. We’d both seen the original production at the Ford Center, directed by Frank Galati, and didn’t care for it. (See my review here.) Hope springs eternal. Maybe director-choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge found something thrilling to do with this mediocre adaptation of E. L. Doctorow’s fantastic novel (book by Terrence McNally, score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens)….? Wrong. I can see how it would be perfectly acceptable at the Kennedy Center in Washington, or anyplace accustomed to touring productions of mediocre Broadway musicals with second- or third-tier casts. But there wasn’t enough to hold our interest past intermission.
It did give me an opportunity to wear my vintage handmade three-piece pin-striped wool suit (above), a look that Herr Zinn approvingly dubbed “mean little gangster” (he’s become a big fan of Jersey Shore). We went for a drink at Park Blue, which – sadly – has closed, and ended up down the street at Seasonal, the Viennese wine bar, which was cozy and quiet. I heard all about his post-Christmas trip to Berlin and Thomas Ostermeier’s spectacular production of Hamlet at the Schaubuhne, which I hope Joe Melillo brings to BAM.
iPod shuffle for 1/5/10 (top songs of 2009, mostly but not entirely off-the-beaten-path singer-songwriters)
“Trust Your Heart,” Bernadette Peters
“Cause=Time,” Broken Social Scene
“Adventure.exe,” Final Fantasy
“Idaho,” Inara George
“Flume,” Bon Iver
“Cello Song,” the Books featuring Jose Gonzalez
“Code Monkey,” Kristen Shirts
“Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” Beyonce
“The Giant of Illinois,” Andrew Bird
“Come As You Were,” the Bird and the Bee
“Pony (It’s OK),” Erin McCarthy
“Deep Blue Sea,” Grizzly Bear
“Earthbound Starlight,” Duncan Sheik
“Rough Design,” Inara George
“Easy,” Hercules and Love Affair
“Reaching for the Moon,” Lizz Wright
“When Love Takes Over,” David Guetta (featuring Kelly Rowland)
“Know How,” Kings of Conscience
“When, in Disgrace, Fortune and Men’s Eyes,” Rufus Wainwright
“The Wolves (Act I and II),” Bon Iver
“Invitation,” Boz Scaggs
“Die,” Iron & Wine
“Burn,” Ray LaMontagne
“Code Monkey,” Jonathan Coulton
“Great Houses of New York,” Hem
“What Do I Do With My Heart,” the Eagles
“With or Without You,” Keane
“Disturbia,” Rihanna
“Long Bed from Kenya,” Joan Baez
“Winter Was Warm,” Victoria Clark
“Re: Stacks,” Bon Iver
“Service Bell,” Grizzly Bear & Feist
For exhibit 19-A supporting my forthcoming treatise “Pleasure, Anesthesia, and the Burden of Consciousness,” see Campbell McGrath’s poem “Shopping for Pomegranates at Wal-Mart on New Year’s Day” in this week’s New Yorker. I especially enjoyed his description of television as “pixillated spirit glass.” And the mood he describes as “robed in sweat and melancholy” — been there! Read the whole poem here.
another eye opens 