Phantom of the Opera

Realizing that I had not taken advantage of enough of my "Summer Calendar" events, I decided at the last minute on Friday night to go to "Phantom of the Opera" (1925) in Prospect Park, with original live accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra. Somehow I thought this would involve a very small niche audience, like three people, but it was packed. Not as packed as New Pornographers, but still very full. I suppose in addition to silent film buffs there are people who wanted to hear a concert by the Alloy Orchestra (the premiere of this piece, besides), as well as many others who just wanted to sit outside and watch a movie. I went to the movie at Brooklyn Bridge Park the night before and it was packed as well, I think these events are really taking off. Prospect Park Bandshell has the advantages of good acoustics, beer and food for sale, folding chairs, and in this case at least, 35mm projectors. It's so great to have a film in 35 and hear the clack clack clack as it's running. Except when one breaks down and they have to try to fix it for ten minutes and then end up just showing it on one projector, which means 3 minute pauses every 10 minutes or so. I don't know if it's better or worse for me having been a projectionist and knowing exactly what he's going through up there. I am insanely tolerant of what's going on, but at the same time stressed out in this overly empathetic way, having flashbacks to my own projection-room traumas.

The band was great though. They had a really excellent score for the movie and improv-ed their way through all the reel change pauses. The movie was pretty great too, it was a brand-new restored print with hand-tinting and a sequence in primitive Technicolor. I found out today that the first color movie was actually in 1908! (It was silent and only 8 minutes long.) Lon Cheney was excellent and it was quite suspenseful even if the plot was a bit thin.

This coming Friday they will be showing The Sound of Music in full-on Cinemascope, and that's the end of their movie season.

graf pics

I saw these cute items off 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn when I was walking to Lowe's Improving Home Improvement.

Someone named "MIST" has been doing paste-ups, or slap-ups, or whatever they're called, around Smith St. and environs.

hidden treasures

I enjoy looking for graffiti sometimes, it becomes like a treasure hunt. I've always liked things like that, like the hidden pictures in Highlights magazine and so on. Even proofreading at work can be seen as a treasure hunt, every time you find an error you can see it as a little prize! After a while, this makes us proofreaders go a little psychotic.

When I was in Venice, I went to one of the Biennale shows by accident. I had wanted to visit the Palazzo Querini Stampalia to see an 18th-century palace. They also happen to have a bunch of good art. But when I got there I found all these young Biennial-goers all over the place, all excited to see Kiki Smith. A young lady came up to me in the galleries and desperately pleaded, "Kiki Smith??!" And I directed her the wrong way, I had no idea where it was. Moments later I realized that in addition to the top floor gallery installation, there were sculptures insinuated into the decorative arts exhibit, like inside a cabinet, on end tables, in the cubby of a desk. Having seen her sphynxes a few years ago in Central Park, I recognized her stuff immediately. The museum guards were looking at one of them but had passed by one hidden in the previous room, so I tugged at them excitedly going, "Kiki Smith, Kiki Smith!" like I was Lassie or something. I wanted to tell all the young people cluelessly wandering around not noticing them. And also not noticing the amazing art that's over 50 years old that kids today seem to have no patience for. To me it was sort of gross to be in this city with so much great art but all the international art scene people not going near it, just following around the hip and famous art scene artists. I guess I was sort of like that in my early 20's too, I didn't like anything old. But going to Italy has definitely cured me of that.

summer calendar

Tuesday 6/14 Tosca in Central Park
Wednesday 6/15 Samson & Delilah in Central Park
Saturday 6/25 New Pornographers (featuring Neko Case) at Prospect Park Bandshell
Sunday 6/26 Tegan and Sara and Ron Sexsmith at Summerstage, 3 pm
Tuesday 6/28 Richard Thompson at World Financial Center (7 pm)
Thursday 6/30 Del McCoury Band at Prospect Park Bandshell
Monday 7/4 Yo La Tengo and Stephen Malkmus at Battery Park Lawn (3:30 pm)
Thursday July 7 Key Largo at Brooklyn Bridge Park
OR...Clem Snide at Castle Clinton (7 pm)
Sunday 7/10 Blind Boys of Alabama, Citizen Cope, and Royal Wylds at Summerstage, 3 pm
Wednesday 7/13 Chicago at Riverside Park, 70th St. Pier
OR...NY Philharmonic in Central Park

Thursday July 14 Gidget at Brooklyn Bridge Park
OR...Son Volt at South Street Seaport, 7:30 pm
OR...Calexico at Castle Clinton, 7:30
Saturday 7/16 Siren Music Festival at Coney Island, all day, Spoon and Mates of State are the headliners.Brooklyn Philharmonic at Prospect Park Bandshell, 8pm
Sunday 7/17 Femi Kuti at Summerstage, 3 pm
Tuesday 7/19 NY Philharmonic in Central Park
Wednesday 7/20 Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at 70th St. Pier
Thursday July 21 A Fish Called Wanda at Brooklyn Bridge Park
OR... M. Ward at Castle Clinton (7 pm)
OR...Pier 54, 7pm The Donnas , Ok Go & Rock & Roll Soldier, DJ Ayers
OR...Movie: Gotham Fish Tales at Stuyvesant Cove Park, 22nd st and East River
Friday 7/22 (Lon Chaney's) Phantom of the Opera with live score by Alloy Orchestra at Prospect Park
Wednesday July 27The Fiery Furnaces Daniel Lanois at Rockefeller Park (west end of Chambers St. -- 7 pm)
OR...Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at 70th St. Pier
Thursday July 28 Dr. No at Brooklyn Bridge Park
OR...Mana: Beyond Belief at Stuyvesant Cove Park, West end of 22nd st.
Saturday 7/30 MC5 (surviving members), Sun Ra Arkestra (surviving members +extraterrestrial forces) and DJ Spooky at Summerstage, 3 pm. Ok, what!?!?
Wednesday 8/3 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at 70th St. Pier
OR...Ronnie Spector at Rockefeller Park, 7 pm
OR...Clerks at West End of 14th st.
OR...Knife in the Water at Socrates Sculpture Park
Thursday August 4 Mermaids at Brooklyn Bridge Park
OR...Patti Smith at Summerstage, 7:30
Friday 8/5 Found Footage Film Fest on roof of 50 Bedford Ave, the High School in McCarren Park
Wednesday 8/10 Little Women (Winona version) at 70th St. Pier
OR...Animal House at 14th St. pier
Thursday August 11 Chinatown at Brooklyn Bridge Park
Wednesday 8/17 Sweet Charity at 70th St. Pier
Wednesday 8/24 Pather Panchali at Socrates Sculpture Park
Saturday 9/3 Doc Watson at the park in Lincoln Center, 9pm (with openers)

Everything on the list is free, though Prospect Park would prefer that you donate $3. The start time of the movies is always "dusk," or sometimes even "dark," a time that changes as the Earth goes through its orbit.
This list is totally arbitrary and selective. Except the movies...all the movies are listed. Except Bryant Park, that is a mob scene. For more concerts, information, and directions, look into the links below:

Central Park Summerstage
Central Park Classical Music Stuff
Downtown River to River Festival
World Financial Center Events Calendar
South Street Seaport Music Festival
Prospect Park BandshellEast River Music Project
Lincoln Center Outdoor Free Festival
Hudson River Park Events
Brooklyn Bridge Park Movies
Riverside Park Movies at 70th St. Pier
Socrates Sculpture Park Movies
Bryant Park Movies

"hard news"

Not like I consider myself a news source or anything, but one thing I found really interesting in the news about the London bombing investigations is that they found the suspects after one of their moms called the police to report him missing. "He went down to London with three of his mates, and I 'aven't 'eard from him," she reported. (See AP story.) They looked for someone matching his description among the dead and found he had died in the bus explosion and had been very close to the bomb itself. Then they looked at surveillance from King's Cross station, since he had come from Leeds via Luton and I guess that's where you end up(?) And found him and three other dudes on a surveillance tape and they were seen going four different ways: north, south, east, and west, as it says in the terrorist's statement of responsibility. The guy going south didn't get very far, as you see from the maps, maybe his train was stalled. The guy going north had an even rougher time, since the subway line was out due to a train malfunction in the line. Perhaps frustrated that there was no train, he got on a bus that runs parallel to the tube route, but he seems to have gone in the wrong direction AND the bus was being rerouted that day. This was the kid who was only 18, whose mom reported him missing. Perhaps he'd hoped to get back on the Tube at some point and that's why he didn't detonate his bomb until nearly an hour after he was supposed to. At first people thought the bus bomb was calculated to cause the maximum damage because people would be crowding buses after the tube closure, but it sounds to me like it was just an accident of circumstance. Here are more new details.

feh

Feh, I know I said I was nearly ready to start internet dating again, and everyone is ready for some vicarious thrills, but then I read this unpublished play about a series of first internet dates and I'm talked out of it again. There's something so truly terrible about it all, about all the "getting to know you." It's almost worse than a job interview. The play was so accurate, like how the daters give each other the third degree about everything: "Are you interested in this? I am interested in this. You should become interested in it, I know what's best for you. You used to be interested in it? Well what happened to you? What is your problem? Do you have that problem a lot? I'm sure I could not be around someone with that problem. That is unacceptable. Bye." All these snap judgments are made, and I don't know how it can be avoided. Both parties are desperate to make their case for why they are so great and at the same time to root out any potential problems with the other party so that their precious time will not be wasted. It's not like chatting at a party with a group where you can just see how the person interacts with people and talk about subjects of general interest. The topics have to come around to things about the personality of you and your date the whole time. It's not like getting to know and like someone gradually. It's like: catch sight of them, make comparison to their personals photo, evaluate appearance, experience skepticism, form rating, evaluate body language, evaluate clothing, talk about yourselves at length as if in a sales meeting, and then yea or nay. There's not really a chance for someone to "grow on you." Unless for some reason one party likes the other enthusiastically, beyond what should be happening after reading their ad and meeting them for one or even three hours. Then that person convinces the other that they must go out again. Then the liker might "grow on" the likee after a longer exposure, but meanwhile the liker is only really in like with a fantasy of the likee and the thing is doomed anyway. It's fucked, I'm telling you!

Meanwhile, keep inviting me to your parties and instead of reading about my dates why not tune in to "Hooking Up" on ABC, premiering this Thursday at 9 pm. A bunch of women will be going through internet dating hell on national television. I'll be watching!

travel photos

On Friday I sent some snapfish photo albums to people I thought would be able to tolerate my lengthy shaggy dog slide shows. If you were left out and don't wish to have been, please email me. Specify "highlights" "Berlin" and/or "Venice."

WWII

I watched the movie "Stalag 17" last night, it was great. But because of that and the bombings in London I find I can't do my work (reading advertisements) without framing everything in terms of wartime. Read this sentence from a "branding binder":
"Our focus on execution and collaboration ensures that we keep our promises to each other and to those we serve."
Doesn't that just reek of Nazism, or is it just me? Now I can no longer read this very long document at all. "Deviation from the principles of branding is a big risk..." Devianz ist verboten! Och! Can we just calm down a little? I guess the problem with the whole piece is that it's written in such a melodramatic and severe tone about such a pedestrian issue. Twenty pages to say: "These are the logos and colors for the product, you should use them in all the ads." I wish I could just cross it all out and say that.

German Dogs

In Berlin, they are so freedom-loving that dogs of any size can go on the subway. They even ride for free.

dating?

A young lady mentioned to me that she had made something of a mid-year's resolution to try her hand at online dating. Whether she's doing it or the first time, or after a long absence, I didn't manage to ask, because this time it was not my first instinct to tell her why she should stay far away. My first instinct was instead "well if she can do it, maybe I can too." Today the guy who sits next to me at work uncharacteristically left his desk for more than five minutes, so I decided to have a peek at the online menfolk. Happily, I was able to tolerate them without immediately retching, which I consider great progress. It took a full 15 minutes for the retching to commence. What an enormous step forward.