Cracks In Sidewalks

This time of year becomes my own little film festival, well actually for me and every other member of one of the theatrical guilds.  They used to start a little later as did most of the award shows and I preferred that.  It was a good way to pass the winter in NYC.  It also used to be easier to see any movie you wanted to see as all the theaters would just accept your membership card, but then the guilds got too big and it became an economical decision to tighten the ropes.  But the film companies still needed us to see their movies as they needed our votes for the awards so they started to go out of their way to set up more private screenings then in previous years, and with those screenings came Q&A’s with the actors, writers, and directors and for me this has become the best part of it all.  The only downside is when friends later in the year want to go see a movie or rent one, my response to most their selections is that I’ve seen it.

Last night I went to my first screening of the season.  I was very excited.  I can also bring one guest so that adds to the fun.  The screenings have been going on for several weeks but none until yesterday fit into my schedule.  I went and saw “Last Chance Harvey” with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, who both participated along with writer director Joel Hopkins and a young actress I had not seen before, Liane Balaban, who plays Dustin Hoffman’s daughter in the movie, in a Q&A after the screening.

The Q&A portion of the evening began with Emma Thompson who was hoarse, imitating DeNiro “gangster” lines that Hoffman jokingly fed to her.  She was very funny!  What’s great about these Q&A’s is that they are very loose.  There is a moderator who leads the session and gets it started and then it is open to the room and their fellow actors and writers, etc.  Besides the moderator no press attends and no one is allowed to tape.  The nature of the screenings bring about an honesty that you won’t find elsewhere and you get to know the actors and their process a little better and in each Q&A I’ve attended over the years there are always special unexpected moments that appear like magic.  Two new things I learned last night about the actors were that Emma Thompson started by doing stand up and Dustin Hoffman wanted to be a jazz pianist and used to write music.

Later this week I am also attending a screening of the film “Milk” and Gus Van Saint, Emile Hirsch, and Josh Brolin will attend the Q&A that will follow.  Then soon thereafter is “Vicky Christina Barcelona” with Penelope Cruz, and a few days later “Revolutionary Road” with Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Sam Mendes, and it goes on like this for the next month or two.  It is a definite perk and for me a very special experience.   During this time I appreciate even more the roads in my life that I have chosen because they also led to this place and these adventurers.

I finally joined Facebook this past Friday.  After numerous invitations from friends over many months I began to feel like one of the last holdouts of this social networking phenomenon.  Since Friday I’ve had so many people from different aspects of my life reach out to me.  It’s been great and a little weird at the same time.  All of the sudden I’m seeing unrecognizable faces from High School and hearing from people who I have not thought about in years.  I’m reconnecting with old friends from San Francisco, musician friends from both coasts, and people who saw me on other friend’s homepages and invited me to be their friend too.  I’ve also heard from friends of my nieces and have gotten a few Aunt Audrey letters.  I’m truly honored by those.

I still don’t really know how this all works and I need to look at other people’s home pages and see how they’ve used this tool.  How much information do most people share and what do they keep private?  Where to put things and how?  Kind of like this blog, it can be so much more if I only understood the process and knew how to truly facilitate it.

Besides reconnecting with old friends and friends of friends I’m also hoping it will help promote this site as this is a big part of what I’m doing right now and of course it would be nice to know that what I’m writing is actually being read and of interest and value to some folks.

The history of Facebook, is well-known to most, so what I will do instead of sharing that history is from time to time share with you my experience of participating in its process and ask you for your feedback.

If you haven’t already joined and are interested in doing so, go to: www.facebook.com

For years in my neighborhood whenever I got the craving for pancakes there was always the Bright Food Shop, a little southwestern diner in Chelsea with high quality food and the best cornmeal pecan pancakes I or anyone else I know had ever eaten.  When you got that craving your mouth could water but you knew soon you could be satisfied with the thickest tastiest pancakes on the planet served with organic maple syrup.  Every one in my family was addicted and when they would visit from out of town they would be requesting Bright Food Shop for brunch before their arrival.

When I walked into the restaurant the waiter would know my order before I sat down, because rarely although every thing on their menu was good, did I order anything else.  I always assumed they would be there.  The restaurant had been a neighborhood fixture for many years.  I never dreamed I would need to get their recipe and think of fixing them on my own, they were so successful it didn’t enter my consciousness that they could disappear.  Then one day I was walking by and they were closed, they and their sister restaurant the Mexican take out place called Kitchen, also a neighborhood favorite.  I can’t begin to tell you my disappointment and shock.   To this day probably a year or so later I feel the pain.

I was in Vermont in October enjoying the fall foliage, but one can’t think of Vermont or go there without indulging in pure maple syrup.  This morning I was thinking of that weekend away and woke up knowing I had to have something with pure maple syrup.  I wanted to go to Bright, for it to still be there and for me to be able to taste my beloved pancakes once again. I wanted the opportunity to turn new friends on to their pancakes and see their faces after that first bite, when they would be transfixed and in heaven.  Ultimately I went to the Half King and had a delicious waffle with pure maple syrup.  It was very good and I love Half King, but still it was not the Bright Food Shop.

It is my understanding that they lost their lease or decided not to renew their lease as the landlord was asking for a ridiculous increase in rent.  I don’t know if it is true but that’s the rumor that’s been floating around and given the transformation and high costs of everything now in Chelsea, it would not surprise me.  So I’m asking all of you out there, does anyone know the pancake recipe they used?  Did anyone get it before they closed?  Does anyone who worked at Bright want to share it with us or does anyone have a pancake recipe they think could rival the cornmeal pecan cakes from Bright Food Shop?  I’m calling out to all of you.  You can help.  If anyone knows the true story of what happened to this neighborhood favorite and it’s sister next door, or if you know and are willing to divulge their wonderful pancake recipe you would be doing a community service and I’m certain it would assure you a good place in heaven and most definitely in this life.  The maple syrup gods and all your new friends would look upon you most kindly and I’m certain you would be highly rewarded.

Trust me when I say this is a puzzle worth solving.  Has Bright opened some place else, and more importantly where can we get their cornmeal pecan pancakes or ones of equivalent taste and quality?  If you have an answer, please respond with your recipes and thoughts for myself and other readers of this blog.  All of our Saturday and Sunday mornings could then be truly Bright.

There’s nothing like your own bed.  Mine is an old cat carrier turned upside down.  It’s my favorite spot!

So far this fall season I’d have to say my favorite brand new show has been Steven Bochco’s “Raising The Bar.”  The creator of such hits as “LA Law,” “Hill Street Blues,” and “NYPD Blue,” has in my estimation struck gold again with his newest series “Raising The Bar,” that premiered this fall on the TNT network following one of TNT’s other hits, “The Closer.”

Pitting young Public Defenders against their young District Attorney counterparts all of whom are friends, the show brings up the legal moral battles and questions they each face.  It showcases their ambitions, what they will do to win, and how far they will go to achieve their win.  It touches on their lusts and loves and in some cases lack of love, how their professions affect their persons, the type of lives they lead, and the personal issues they deal with both at work and at home.  Taking place in NYC the show demonstrates a bit of the grit that one would think would come with jobs like theirs in an urban environment of that proportion.  It also displays the unexpected goodness and humanity that can sometimes be found in that same large urban environment.

The series starts with a difficult Judge named Trudy Kessler, an aspiring but closet gay law clerk with whom she’s having an affair and obviously doesn’t know he’s gay, an antagonistic tough District Attorney, and aspiring young Assistant DA’s.  Then on the other side is the Public Defender’s Office with their head played by actress Gloria Reuben, and several younger idealistic attorney’s who work for her, most notably the handsome I will do whatever it takes lawyer, Jerry Kellerman, played by actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar who I hadn’t seen before this series but will soon surely be well-known to many.

Gosselaar and Reubin play the moral compass roles in the show and the others seem to be the reflections of that always do right code playing off these two characters and discovering where they stand, at times shocking and disappointing one another with the favors they ask.  Whichever side of the fence they land, they each do “their” job as best they can, given their own priorities.  Many times on the other end their friends cannot comprehend how one of their own can take the stand that they have taken, especially given their personal backgrounds.  These obstacles surface through their friendships and often over drinks at the bar where the young lawyers gather weekly.

The moral dilemmas the shows characters face and dynamics are juxtaposed in such a way to create weekly interesting and compelling friction amongst the different attorney’s and Judge Kessler, while at the same time showing the humanity of each.  Having recently finished their first rounds of episodes you can go to the link below to find out more about the show and to watch full episodes so you can be up to date when the next season begins.  I think you’ll enjoy “Raising The Bar.”  It is much more than a courtroom drama.  When you have some time check it out for yourself and tell me what you think.  And if you’ve already been watching the show, feel free to leave a comment below expressing your opinion.  I’d love to know how others are viewing Bochco’s new drama.

To access the link below, simply cut and paste it and put it into your browser.

http://www.tnt.tv/series/raisingthebar/