New Orleans Zeitgeist

There’s something about New Orleans that feels like the very edges of culture, those unusual underground edges that we reach before we fall. In New Orleans, it’s always a feeling of falling off that very same edge, the edges of the earth, and into the mouths of sea monsters that are waiting just below. There’s also something in the air in New Orleans, where all of this seems like it might actually be a good thing, and the fall is liable to be interesting, and the sea monsters probably have very good taste in music. In New Orleans, it’s the beginning of something interesting, and at also seems like it’s the end of something else.

There are always plenty of ways to negotiate the space between here and there in New Orleans, where the sense of otherness that was so disconcerting in other places is common here. There is a sense of being in a city that’s unique and lively, and also a feeling of entering another world. Great hotels are splendid ways to maintain a kind of contact with a familiar world, or at least one that’s remarkably gracious, and as hospitable as the rest of the city.

There are also plenty of adventures here, ranging from the easily accessible, in body and spirit, to the more local and unusual, like the programming offered at Zeitgeist . This multi-disciplinary arts center is curated by local Rene Broussard , whose tastes are eclectic, innovative, and also rather visionary at times. There are plenty of art forms to experience here, and lots of film, but the roots of the space are in experimental theatre. It started operations in the 80s, and has had a pretty spectacular run, featuring a stunning number of artists and performance from all over the world. There is also always a generous number of artists working locally, and presenting work here. For visitors, this is the perfect opportunity to enjoy something very much rooted in the neighborhoods in New Orleans, and there be sea monsters for sure.

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March 8, 2010 by admin in Travel
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Love San Francisco

If you have been staying at a great hotel like this and you have been to all the crowded attractions like a whole day just to visit Alcatraz and spend time on the Fisherman’s Wharf. Maybe you caught a comedy show and now you want a day to stroll one of San Franciscos unique neighborhoods how about Haight Ashbury district. It is named after the famous intersection it resides on and its nickname is The haight. The Streets were originally named after Henry Haight at pioneer, exchange broker as well as tenth governor of California and Munroe Ashbury who was an early politician of San Francisco who was on the S.F. Board of Supervisors between 1964 and 1870. Munroe Ashbury was Henry Haight’s nephew and they both helped develop the neighborhood.

There are two parts to the neighborhood the upper Haight and lower Haight because of there height on the hill. The lower section was originally an area of African American and Japanese residents. The upper Haight district is the one that is famous for its part in the hippie movement in the sixties. It all started when students and artists couldn’t find affordable housing in most parts of the city so they took over Haight street where there was cheap rent. The neighborhood was actually quiet before they came along.

Today there are many shops and restaurants to visit and thing are a little more main stream than it was back in the sixties but it still holds much of its charm and has many great old buildings to see. Come and see some of the vibe that contributed to another name is  was called by Journalist, Hunter S. Thompson, which was Hashbury because it was. Come see the trail left behind by bands like the Greatful Dead, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company and Jefferson Airplane.

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February 27, 2010 by admin in Music, Travel
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Balto The Wonder Dog in New York

If you stroll through Central Park, you’re sure to come across a number of interesting statues, but one, in particular, may give you reason to pause.  At 67th Street, on the southeast side of the park, just off Central Park East Drive/Park Drive North, there’s a bronze statue of Balto, The Wonder Dog.  You might consider that few enough people in the world have statues created for them  (I’m pretty sure, for instance, that I won’t have one), much less dogs, but this one animal is particularly special for its service to its Alaskan owners in the first half of the Twentieth Century.  The plaque says the statue is dedicated to the spirit of Sled Dogs, but its two dogs that deserve the credit: Balto and Togo, who is the other Wonder Dog.

The town of Nome, Alaska, in 1925, was the epicenter of a diphtheria epidemic.  Isolated, remote, and in the middle of winter, where the world is dark most of the day and bitterly cold.  Dr. Curtis Welch, Nome’s lone physician, put out a radio call for help.  He needed antitoxin serum to save the townspeople.  At this point, several children had died, and more would die, if they couldn’t get the serum.  The closest hospital, though, was seven hundred miles away.  The only way to reach them was to send the medicine by a dog sled relay.  Gunnar Kaasen took up the last leg of the journey with his Siberian huskies, whose lead dog was new.  This was Balto.  The dogs and Kaasen braved temperatures of sixty to seventy degrees below zero for the last fifty-three miles.

As you look at this statue, whether its winter, spring, or summer, consider those fifty-three miles with Balto.  It certainly makes me grateful for living in a city and the chance to go back to a warm, comfortable room.  The actual Balto was stuffed and may be seen at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.  Most of the fame goes to Balto, as he was the lead dog in the last relay; however, another lead dog, Togo, who led musher Leonhard Seppala, brought the medicine across another arduous part of the trip, over Norton Sound.  Togo’s team actually traveled hundreds of miles there and back.  If the governor of Alaska had not added another relay to the team, the statue in Central Park would belong to Togo.  He’d be at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History too, instead of in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Museum in Wasilla, Alaska.  Fortune and fame sometimes lends itself to odd quirks of fate; all food for thought while wandering Central Park.

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February 25, 2010 by admin in Travel
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Do Lawyers Automatically Make a Lot of Money?

There is a funny misconception these days that going to law school means that you will automatically make a lot of money. This could not be farther from the truth. If someone becomes a small time lawyer, taking on cases in a small town settling civil disputes you may never even see $60,000 a year. This is for several reasons. How much a lawyer gets paid is generally determined by how much he can charge per hour on a case. If the case is mostly civil disputes you can not charge very much money. If the case is a high profile celebrity murder case and you are a team of Orange County lawyers, you have to charge a lot more money, as well as deliver at a higher rate. This is because of what is expected out of you. These expectations come from a number of things including what law school you went to, how well you did, and what cases you have won in the last few years. Location plays a small role, but it can be a noticeable one. Although Phoenix is a larger city it does not compare with New York city. Top notch lawyers in New York make a lot more money than top notch Phoenix lawyers .

Lawyers do generally get paid more with time and this is partially due to the fact that they have more connections with time as well as having a better record. These connections can often be used to settle a case out of court before it becomes embarrassing for the client. Private sector jobs also pay a lot more than public sector jobs. A public defender will make a lot less money per year than a private one. This is partially due to the fact that public defenders are paid out of the tax dollars, but also because bonuses are a large part of how a private sector lawyer gets paid while bonuses are mostly not an option for a public defender. The thing to know when looking at how much a lawyer gets paid if you are thinking of becoming one, is to remember that your salary all starts with how well you do in school, and what sort of job you take. Playing your cards right you can make a lot of money, but there is no guarantee.

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February 23, 2010 by admin in Business, Education
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A Wonderful Relaxing Time in Burbank

Day one in Burbank, California: took a VIP Warner Brothers Studio tour. It was one of the best studio tours we’ve been on. The groups are small, around 12 people at a time, and we were taken right past working sets. We rode through the back-lots on a small tram vehicle and we were allowed to get off and peek inside the sets. We were then taken to the front lot, this is where all the current TV shows are filmed. We were really lucky to see some actors rehearsing their lines. At the end of the tour, we got to see the Warner Bros. museum, which houses memorabilia from the entire 70 years of their history.

The next day, after having a wonderful breakfast at our hotel, which, by-the-way, gave us a great deal because we booked online. For more information: this site was the best we’ve found. We went to the Civic Center in Los Angeles, we just hung around in case anything exciting happened, nothing did, so we went to Little Tokyo not far from the Civic Center and had lunch. At lunch we marvelled at having a two week vacation, made us feel more relaxed about what we wanted to do, if we wanted to we could just switch our activities to another day.

Day three, we headed back into Los Angeles and visited the famous Farmers Market and the new outdoor mall called the Grove, which is now attached to the Farmers Market. The Farmers Market was fantastic. There was so much to eat, so many wonderful smells and we just fell in love with the relaxed atmosphere. We then walked over to the Grove, what a great outdoor mall, there’s even a streetcar and a fountain that’s timed to music. Most of the major anchor stores are there. We were hoping to spot a celebrity, we here they come here all the time, but no such luck.

Days four, five and six were spent at the beach in Santa Monica. That place is a total blast, there’s so much to do there, like eating and shopping and then eating. We decided to check out of our hotel and drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. We haven’t made reservations with any other hotels, but we figured with that online site we mentioned above, we’d have no problems with booking online when we are at a coffee shop with free wi-fi.

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February 20, 2010 by admin in Travel
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Great Cheese Steak in South Philadelphia

With most of the major cities in this country there are certain aspects that are specifically associated with them. New York is known for having great theatre, Chicago is not only the windy city but also known for its incredible jazz scene. One of the things Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is most known for is also one of its citizen’s favorites. It is home of the best cheese steak sandwiches in the nation and probably even the world. Tourists who visit a Philadelphia area hotel are likely not there specifically to have a cheese steak sandwich, though you can certainly bet that they will enjoy at least one of them during their stay.

Different people will have their own opinion on where the best sandwiches are actually served and how to create the perfect cheese steak. However, there are certain institutions that are acknowledged as having some of the best sandwiches and these are generally the places that tourists are most likely to migrate to. However, there are always those who are willing to explore all options to find what they themselves consider to be the best, which is what ultimately many of the residents of Philadelphia have done.

For individuals looking for a guaranteed and accepted as great cheese steak sandwich, Geno’s in South Philadelphia is a great option. One of the great things, in addition to their food, about Geno’s is the fact that they are open twenty four hours a day, which makes accessing a great sandwich whenever the craving or need strikes is possible. The restaurant was established in 1966 by Joe Vento who learned the art of making cheese steak from his father who had previously owned and operated Jim’s Steaks in the 1940s. Traditions and recipes that are passed down through the generations are usually guaranteed to be of high quality or obviously they would have been weeded out through the years. And when dealing with food, longevity of an establishment is always an indication of quality.

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February 18, 2010 by admin in Travel, culture
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The Western Frontier in Lubbock

Want to understand what it was like to live on the Western frontier?  If so, then you might want to check out the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas.  This interesting museum has a number of exhibits that display how the chuck wagon was used, how Native Americans dressed, and how frontiersmen even furnished their ranch homes.  More impressively, perhaps, is the display of ranch homes and structures vital to the ranching life (you’ll see a school house, a barn, and even a complete rural train station, and that includes an entire train, from the locomotive steam engine to cattle cars to caboose; there’s also livestock pens.  Inside, you’ll find the buildings with authentic furnishings of that frontier time period.  This educational center is well operated and maintained, and just about anyone from young children to adults can enjoy a visit.  Note, too, that the amount of walking you’ll have to do is small and that over mostly level paths.  Everyone in the family might find something he or she will enjoy, and you might find yourself even wanting to come back.  Figure on spending about three hours here.

The center’s latest acquisition is a 1923 Ford Model T touring car.  But the exhibit of most interest to me is one on toys in the Old West.  Here, you’ll see toys which reflect the world in which children lived down through the years.  Your kids will be able to work with gigantic Lincoln Logs, a large jigsaw puzzle and ride a “barrel bronc.”  It’s fascinating to compare the toys then with the videogames and  interactive video “toys” we have now.  There’s also a section about America’s mid-twentieth century fascination with the late 19th Century (that is, the 1880s and the Old West), and how toys, such as cap pistols and holsters and sheriff badges, and so on, were so popular during the same time period as such television programs as Davy Crockett and The Rifleman.

If you’re planning to stay overnight, take a look here a great place.  While in town, youi’ll also want to check out the Buddy Holly Center and the Silent Wings Museum, where you can check out the history of rock and roll and World War II, respectively.  But if you’re into the Old West, the National Ranching Heritage Center is the place to be.

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February 16, 2010 by admin in Travel
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Sam Shepard New Play Ages of the Moon in New York

Seeing a Broadway show is generally at the top of the list of things to do for people who visit New York. And fortunately the city never disappoints as it as some of the best theatre not only in the nation but also in the world. It is the premiere location for opening new plays and revising old ones. The adage of making there means you can make it anywhere holds true and theatre lovers and practitioners alike love and dream of New York. And while theatre goers frequently love to see their favorite stage and film stars in the lights they also enjoy seeing plays and musicals written and composed by their favorite writers and composers. In addition, some of the best and frequently edgy new theatre is not seen on the Broadway stage but in one of the Off Broadway, Off-Off, or further off venues. There are some fabulous combined accommodation and theatre packages at many of the hotels. Sam Shepard’s new play Ages of the Moon has many of the above-mentioned elements that should attract and captivate the attentions of large numbers of theatre audiences.

Shepard is an exceptionally talented playwright, actor and director. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Buried Child and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff. He was involved in the New York theatre scene from a very early age and the stage seems like it has always been his preferred medium. He spent three years living in England and when he returned he found a home in San Francisco, California. He was selected as the playwright in residence for the Magic Theatre there. This is the theatre where many of his plays receive their premiere performance. Some of his most well known scripts include True West, A Lie of the Mind, Curse of the Starving Class and Fool For Love. He appeared in the film Frances with Jessica Lange, with whom he was also married for a period of time.

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February 13, 2010 by admin in Travel
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NY & The Space Inside

New York is a place where many various threads come together.  Threads of culture, ideas, innovations, tastes, and sentiments run the spectrum, and often invent new spectrums, and find a place to express themselves here.  It’s a place of unique combinations.  Because of the proximity of ideas and people, things blend together here, and the history of human intelligence here suggests that mixing elements is often surprisingly interesting, and usually great fun as well.  New York casino hotels are one demonstration of how things can be mixed, where the idea of the casino, based on the models in the desert in the southwest, takes root here to become its own thing.  Like everything else in New York, it then becomes extremely local, and all of the uniques histories of New York come to bear on the idea of the casino.

A good deal of the most interesting art these days also follows this kind of model.  Interdisciplinary forms are finally becoming a norm.  Where the money has pretty much run out, and we’ve all run out of ideas of a purely entertaining performing arts, visionary artists are coming to make new work based on the necessity of doing something with the inspiration.  Inspiration doesn’t stop, even if the funding does run out.  This is not good news for artists, but it is for the rest, because there’s a tremendous variety of new things out there.  This will demonstrated in early February with a performance of The Space Inside. 

Directed by Bonnie Eckard and performed by Maria Porter, this new work at Theatre Row Studio Theatre is an exploration of alternative medicine in relation to the body at the end of life.  It was developed in part at the Across the Threshold Conference, and is part of an ongoing trend toward blending different disciplines in scholarship as well as performative traditions.  Eckard’s substantial and very impressive body of work has been moving more toward integrating science with performance.  The idea that she can make such splendid works as these, while also maintaining a sharp and effective spiritual wedge into the viewer’s consciousness is a testament to a major talent.

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February 1, 2010 by admin in Art
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Myopia in NYC

Traveling business class can be one of the most elegant ways to go.  You don’t necessarily have to be in business to do it, either, although it certainly helps.  But there are times when you can decide to perform another version of yourself and travel the way the upper crust travels.  Flying is, of course, more expensive, but you get more leg room, and you can talk to the people that other people usually make fun of on their way to coach.  You can also stay in very nice business hotels in New York, and they have all the comfort and luxury of other hotels, and even step it up a bit.  You don’t have to make any contacts or network at all, but can just enjoy the amenities.

And while you’re impersonating a version of yourself, this might be the time to go and see David Greenspan perform versions of himself, or talking about the possibility of performing in the middle of a performance.  According to sources that we cannot necessarily vouch for, Greenspan has never been better, and that does actually mean something for the actor who won an obie for his brilliant work in the revival of Boys in the Band a decade ago.

His play, The Myopia, is a fantastical story told by one person, and after seeing him work an audience, no one else could tell it.  It would, in fact, be like Hollywood sending out someone to speak for Gertrude Stein because she wasn’t authentic as herself.  This is a performance within a performance, about performing, where the story involves multiple characters and multiple realities.  This is all told from a chair on an empty stage, and the effect is stunning.  The storytelling is top notch, and the conceit never gets old, but only more fascinating as it goes on.  It’s almost as dizzying as writing a blog about a performance about a performance which pretends to write about impersonating yourself, but maybe this is much more clever.  Time will tell.

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January 28, 2010 by admin in Travel
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