Chronicles Continued

In the event… well you know, if I didn’t rise like a phoenix from the table, didn’t want to share with the world, that awaiting me on the 28th was a date with an incredible man.  Didn’t want you all to get the wrong idea.  This incredible man, head of the orthopedic department of Mt Sinai Queens and I had a pre-arranged date, not our first meeting, to have him rearrange the internal furniture on my left hip.  Although I shed 10 pounds to make his job more effective, he added two pounds back in hardware.  The outer software took a bruising, but so far so good. I am now home again. And it was an adventure!  Not without it’s moments of excitement, and totally ‘umbrellad’ in the love and care of so many of you in such surprising ways.  But enough about me. Back to the City.  It is cold and Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  Christmas is already in some of the stores. But as so often, the sun is shinning, there is a slight breeze and this is a wonderful place to be living.

In planning to be ‘away from my desk’ for a few days, another email arrives from my ‘best commercial agent’ could I take an audition tomorrow.  How do they time it and where are they when there is nothing scheduled?!

Today, Sunday, was trick or treat day in the Village.  Not only are the painted faces and costume dressed children fun to see, but the willingness of the stores along the streets to give them treats when they come inside.  Some of the stores. if their doors are closed, will have a sign inviting them to enter.  What an ‘other’ experience for these children compared to what those who live in the suburbs experience.

 

This is Times Square.  And while waiting for a friend, I took a seat on a chair on the street.  The City has made less traffic and more pedestrian friendly areas for blocks and this is one of them.  A rather novel experience; sitting between the curb and traffic.

When I see a drunk person on the street, some emotion very deep inside me is triggered.  Given my upbringing, I have no intimate encounter with drunks so it doesn’t hark back to a memory, but a feeling of deep sadness and imminent tears is triggered. Male or female. Tonight, on the way to the theatre, in a constant rain, a man, late 40’s wearing a business suit, no coat, no umbrella.  He was wet- his hair, his face and shirt and his tie askew. He was being moved along the sidewalk by a younger man, dressed in no way as his peer.  The drunk man was bumping and stumbling and almost not able to stay upright. We were passing in opposite directions so I don’t know what happened, although I watched until they were out of sight.  These moments the drunk is so vulnerable.

In early September, in Charlottesville, Virginia, an apparently very drunk 18 year old girl on a Saturday night was on the pedestrian mall without her earlier-in-the-evening-friends and this University of Virginia student’s body was found this past Sunday.  Makes me feel a kind of sick.

*In the 1920s, Loew’s built five Wonder Theaters: movie palaces that were, quite literally, palaces, bedecked with ornate architecture meant to awe, instill hope, and provide an escape from the depressing world outside. That was the aim of Marcus Loew, of the eponymous chain and the founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. One of these cinemas, the historic Leow’s Valencia Theatre in Queens, exists to this day—it just doesn’t show films anymore. A Pentecostal church, the Tabernacle of Prayer For All People, bought the then-abandoned 3,500-seat theater on Jamaica Avenue. The congregation donated $200,000 (about $758,303 in 2013 dollars) to restore the eclectic Spanish-Mexican-Moroccan interior to its original splendor.

It has used the theater ever since, and continues to maintain elaborate-theater savant John Eberson’s ridiculously detailed ornamentation. Notice the gilded lion carvings scattered throughout the hall? “Because we are Pentecostal, we had all sorts of religious reasons for it,” says Sister Forbes, the church’s pastoral secretary. “It’s just that Eberson was a good employee. What’s the symbol for MGM? A roaring lion.”

See the amazing pictures of the interior here: http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/10/22/see_new_yorks_stunningly_ornate_movie_palaceturnedchurch.php

*Taken word for word from Curbed NY

Those of you who have been with me, when on 5th Avenue we pop into the magnificent St Patricks Cathedral to light a candle, have had to dodge the work-in-progress.  Here is the full story.

 

http://www.saintpatrickscathedral.org/about_restore.php

As I sit at my desk writing, I hear through the double thick brick walls, the wailing and bawling of a dog, punctuated by the occasional bark.  Clearly this is a new addition to the tenant in the next building and the animal has been abandoned for the day time hours of work.  As I usually hear nothing, this has to be a sizable addition to his apartment or do dogs voices just carry?

Last evening, standing outside my front door, was thinking about how I was going to arrive at the theatre, my choice being the bus or the subway.  As I moved to the corner, to walk to the subway, roaring down the street comes one of those black government cars, with sirens and flashing lights, and a big truck behind it that looks like an ambulance on steroids. However, on the side of the big truck were the words: ‘Bomb Squad’.  Decision made, take the bus.