Archive for October 2012
There have always been women in my life and I have always been grateful for them. I’ve talked of those from my decade with Weight Watchers and Our Weigh. In my teens there were Susan Schwartz, Roselyn Giordano and Gloria Koenig and in my 20s it was Mary May, Durinka, Gonzales and, at the beginning of my 30s, Addie Kaplan and Joan Endel. There were 3 other ladies of the many who are and will always be part of my life.
I won’t talk much about Gene though there is a lot I can say but I don’t think she would want me to and I have a tremendous respect for this smart woman. We have now been friends for over 43 years though I don’t remember the last time we actually saw each other. I don’t see any reference to her in my last 3 New York trips but for some reason I remember we did get together. Gene and I don’t exchange gifts but if we see something we feel the other would like it goes in the mail. At one crucial point she helped me financially for which I will always be grateful and another time she said something to me that started my life to change. I was working in Memphis and had written her that I was working 24/7 for Weight Watchers and I loved it, that it was my life. She simply asked, “And what if there was no Weight Watchers?” It got me thinking so I really wasn’t panicked when a few years later there wasn’t.
Sue Dunne also taught me an important lesson. Her dream in life was to retire from her regular job and open an antique shop on 3rd Avenue. Aside from raising a child as a single mother she put a few dollars away for that dream. At the age of 62 she retired from her job as an accountant and manager for one of New York’s upscale restaurant at One Fifth Avenue, found the store location, got it set up, got her first Social Security check and died of a heart attack 3 days later. Don’t put off doing things you want to do–I see it here where so many old folks bemoan the fact they didn’t travel when they were young and had the energy or their money hadn’t been eaten up by medical expenses.
I just want to quote some things from my diary to give you an example of what kind of woman Sue was.
“September 27, 1983 Sue picked us up at the theatre, after we saw “Torch Song Trilogy”, with a chauffeured limo and we went to the Stage for a bite to eat–then to 1/5th for dessert and afterwards went to the “Boysbar” that Sue’s friend Richard owns and then she sent us to the hotel by the limo–I took a walk around Times Square–VERY SEEDY AND SLEAZY”
“September 28, 1983 Sue really topped off the evening with another limo–I know she is unhappy with her weight and uses limos because unless she could get a checkered cab she wouldn’t be able to fit in it.”
“September 29, 1983 Sue had a limo pick us up at the hotel to meet her at Marchi’s–regarding the check, which I was going to pick up, Sue said she still had a deposit there from her birthday party and that they would apply it to the bill–I paid the difference which didn’t come to that much–after the dinner Sue took the limo up to the Polo where we were going to meet her as we decided to walk from 31st to 52nd after that dinner–Tommy, Chuck, Bill and I continued on our way after Bob took off on 46th street to go back to the hotel. The Polo was a piano bar and Sue’s friend Bob was playing there–I bought everyone a round, cruised the bartender and Sue brought over a good looking, sexy Brazilian she introduced me to–sadly he wasn’t sober and I couldn’t handle drunks anymore now that I wasn’t drinking–even though Sue offered them the limo Tommy and Chuck took a cab back to the hotel.
“September 30, 1893 Sue, knowing that we were spending the day walking around the Village, suggested we stop at the Li-Lac, a chocolate store on Christopher Street–unknown to me another friend of Sue’s owned the place and told him to send a duplicate of whatever I bought and send it to me in Fort Lauderdale.”
“October 1 and 2, 1983 “We, Bill, Tommy, Chuck and I, went to see the first matinee performance of “La Cage Aux Folles” after opening on Broadway and we met Sue at Keane’s for dinner–she picked up the check and the next day we went to 1/5th where Sue insisted there was no check. After brunch Sue offered us a limo to take us to the airport but Chuck and Tommy had already left and with Bill and I having 2 hours before we had to go to the airport we decided to stroll around the Village. I kissed Sue goodbye.”
Sue was generous to all her friends and wanted nothing in return except her little antique shop and her friends. She is still missed by many all these years later.
I was also going to talk about Eleanor but it would make this post too long so
TO BE CONTINUED
“Keep The Lights on” is a gay love story that seniors watching will remember when they were young, impulsive, in love and the hurt that goes along with that period of time. Young man watching it will not see themselves on screen until they become old men remembering the past.
Erik (Thure Lindhardt) is an over 30 filmmaker who seems spoiled, undisciplined, independent and always on the outlook for a sex partner while Paul (Zachary Booth) has a girlfriend (for a minute or two) and is a serious, responsible lawyer who is dependent on those around him. They connect one evening, have sex, and it turns into a ten year off and on again romance between them. The co-writers of this semi-autobiographical screenplay (Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias) really don’t show why these men would get together for that length of time and the audience may not buy it if they have never been in love with the ‘wrong type’.
Being a gay love story it seems almost mandatory that there be scenes showing anal and felatio sex along with a masturbation one, the latter out in the woods to give it ‘meaning. One of the mistakes the director (Ira Sachs) and director of photography (Thimios Bakatakis) make are too many artistic shots adding nothing to the film but time.
While Lindhardt and Booth don’t give award worthy performances most of the time they do make the two men believable. Paprika Steen as Erik’s sister and Julianne Nicholson as his best friend give good support as do Souleymane Sy Savane, Christopher Lenk and Sebastian La Cause.
Many of the production values don’t have to do with enough money in the budget but with technical mistakes. There are many points where the actors are not audible, the music score is a mess and certain locations–what is that country location doing there?–are too busy.
Though being sold as a love story it succeeds more in showing a relationship where each man changes the other, not necessarily a bad thing, and an ending you may not see coming. At an hour and forty-two minutes it would have been a better, tighter, more meaningful movie if cut by 12 minutes.
“Keep The Lights On” is not one of the best, or honest, romance, gay or nongay, stories put on film but so far, this year, it rates high.
One thing that South Florida has are hibiscus plants, bushes and trees and here at Gateway Terrace apartments there isn’t a corner you turn that you won’t be greeted by one of these flowers in many varied colors. They have no aroma and the flowers last only for a day but they add joy to the eye and to living here.
Oh yes, a single flower, red, tucked behind the ear, is used to indicate the wearer’s availability for marriage–come on over we have plenty of red hibiscus.
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Lester’s is nothing like it was 35 years ago when I first went in there but then what/who is. I don’t go as often as I use so I had sticker shock looking at the menu and even more when I ordered. $1 extra for a slice of tomato and then not even a good slice taste and size wise?
I had a turkey sandwich on rye with that $1 tomato, onion and lettuce ($9.99) and a regular cup of coffee–they are known for over sized cups if you want it–($1.99–don’t know if that is the same price for the larger one.) The sandwich was fine and the coffee weak.
Allen had a chicken salad platter ($11.49) which was a good size and a cola ($1.89) but wasn’t offered bread or crackers with his salad.
Usually we would have one of their huge pieces of carrot cake for me and chocolate cake for him but we were on the theatre in Miami and had to get going.
Again I keep hearing how bad service in restaurants in Fort Lauderdale but I haven’t found it yet. While our server wasn’t 5 star she was good.
The bottom line is that spending $32 (including tax and tip) in a diner is a bit much even if they have redone the place and there is a lot of stainless steel around!.
As yelp says for 2 stars “Meh. I’ve experienced better.” I have–and at Lester’s!
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For the first time Tyler Perry doesn’t produce, direct and/or write the screenplay though he should have. He is a ‘hired gun’ as the title player in the new movie “Alex Cross” possibly looking for a franchise to take it easy every 3 or 4 movies. Compared to other actions pictures is no better, no worse. Compared to other action actors Perry comes across as an able fighter and much smarter, though how he figures out so many things, in spite of a sharp scene with his wife, than most.
The major objection to this film, even from people not familiar with Tyler Perry’s pictures, is the violence. The screenwriters, Mark Moss and Kerry Williamson, plus the director, Rob Cohen, push the movie over the PG-13 rating though that’s what it gets. It starts with our villain in one of those no bars hold cage fights followed by a woman being murdered, having her fingers sliced off. Matthew Fox is Picasso, or the Butcher of Sligo, who gets off torturing people and our psychiatrist police detective sees right through and ahead of him. As the villain Fox is scary and physically impressive.
Cross’s partner and best friend since childhood, Thomas Kane, played by Edward Burns, is charismatic and more than believable. Maria Cross, Alex’s wife, played by Carmen Ejog, is a beauty and is responsible for the one touching scene in the movie as is Janelle, played by Yara Shahidi, as their daughter. Cicely Tyson, as Alex’s mother who lives with the family, would probably have had a better role and certainly better lines if Perry had written the screenplay. John C. McGinl, as the police chief, has one of the most ridiculous lines heard in a movie in a long time.
The biggest mistake the director and the director of photography, Ricardo Della Rosa, both must take the blame for is the climax is hard to see, let alone know who is doing what to whom and we are dealing with a Black man and White man in the scene.
Tyler Perry certainly doesn’t disgrace himself as the hero, psychiatrist and detective but the script does let him down. Maybe in the sequel, and there should be one if action and Tyler fans come out to support him in this first for his career, he will write the screenplay.
1) Once again some blogger mentioned ‘gay lifestyle’–will someone tell me what a ‘gay lifestyle’ is? How does it differ from a ‘nongay lifestyle’? Oh yes, also what is my gay agenda?
2) It’s sort of scary when I fill out a form on the Internet and they ask you to click on the year you were born and they don’t start at 1900 anymore!!!
3) Am I the only one going crazy with abbreviations for everything? Does it seem to be getting worse? Do you know all they stand for? It is ridiculous.
4) Washington University study http://www.belljarnews.com/2012/10/13/study-free-birth-control-reduces-rate-of-abortion/
Massive study of 9,000 women and the effects of making more widely available. They made birth control available by giving it away free–one of the findings was that it reduced the teen birth rate by more than 80% and reduced the number of abortions by 62-78% And the church wants to stop making birth control available?!?!?!
5) I definitely must be old school–I find that women are a lot ruder and cruder on blogs than most men to the point of being cringe worthy—wonder what’s behind that? Can’t be ‘freedom of speech’ which many use.
6) I was accused, and put down for, of being ‘too sensitive’–in the world today with so many insensitive people I took that as a compliment–in the dictionary it is defined as ” very keenly susceptible to stimuli’–and that’s wrong to be why?
7) People who say “I have gay friends”, “My nephew is gay”, “My brother is gay” “I have nothing against gay people” are the ones NOT helping gay people in the voting booth. It’s those who stand up to anti gay jokes, remarks, laws who are helping the gay kids of tomorrow.
8) I love it–one blogger called me too sensitive while another one says I am the biggest self inflicted victim–and that’s because I won’t let people put down Gays–and because I am proud of being Gay–WOW! Like after 64 years as an out Gay activist I’m a victim on one blog site? And I am too sensitive because I deleted a person’s needless negative comments in a salute to Matthew Shepard–and this won’t surprise you–they are both Republicans!! LOL
9) Just to inform you–October is National Cookie and Dessert month (I’m doing my share to celebrate) plus National Pasta month and November is National Peanut Butter Lover’s Month!!!
10) It is hard to believe I have been blogging for 8 years at one site and soon will be 7 years at another site. At least my closet isn’t getting filled with anymore diary notebooks!
11) For those who asked regarding my “7 Decades” series–there will be an X-rated version where I will get into all the sex scenes but that might be the sequel or the published book!
12) Something they don’t tell you about getting old–you get clumsy!! It is like all of a sudden you are bumping into things, tripping over other things, carrying band-aids with you, hitting doors, getting knife cuts–don’t know if it started at 60 or when I had congestive heart failure but folks watch out!
13) And one more time–yes I am gay and proud of it—I’ve had over 70 years of nongays putting their sex life (babies, marriages, engagements, ads, TV, movies, magazines, newspapers, fiction, non fiction, etc.) in my face wherever I turned so if I go ‘overboard’ on being gay or going on about being gay, very honestly, put up with it or ignore it but don’t think of putting me down–or any gay person down–and my not responding in different ways? End of rant. LOL
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YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN, SO SAID THOMAS WOLFE, BUT CAN YOU?
a lifetime ago
“Monday, September 26, 1988 I don’t think I have been up to the Bronx and Bogart Avenue since, at least, 1961, 1962. My mother still lived in what was called a ‘private house’ though it was one of 14 attached houses. By this time my mother had died and, I believe, left the house to my brother’s kids and it was sold with them splitting the proceeds.
I left the hotel, walked down to 42nd Street and took the shuttle over to Grand Central station where, after thinking about it and remembering, I took the White Plains 241 street IRT express. I, also, remembered to sit in the car at the end as that would put me closer to the stairs at the stop to go downstairs. It was strange riding up to the Bronx from downtown after all these years, especially when you go from underground to the elevated rails. I must admit I was shocked at what I saw of the Bronx on first coming out of the tunnel and I hoped Pelham Parkway had fared better.
The first thing I looked for were the 2 movie houses I use to spend a lot of time in. The first was The Globe which according to the marquee was now a porn theatre. A very long city block, across the street, was the RKO Pelham which now was a supermarket! Things certainly do change in 20 years.
(An aside—my memory of the old neighborhood isn’t that good so I went on facebook where there is a page devoted to people who were raised in Pelham Parkway and and a member there, Sharon Alpern Schultz, was kind enough to help me with street and store names.)
I may be wrong in the exact layout but starting from White Plains Road there was Cruger, Wallace, Holland, Barnes, Mullner and then Bogart. At one corner of Holland and Lydig (the main avenue through the section) was a candy/fountain store and across the street the Zion Deli–which I went to a lot. Across the street was Helen’s Bakery which I walked (what seemed like) miles to every Sunday to get fresh hot sliced seeded bread and a dozen assorted bagels. As I would walk home I would eat the heels of the bread. Down the street from the deli and candy store was P.S. 105 and I lived across the street for the first 2 years of my life. After that we moved to Barnes Avenue (2184?) for 2 years finally landing on Bogart Avenue where I would live until I left the Bronx to go into the Marines. I definitely remember another candy store on the corner of Barnes and Lydig that served the best tuna fish sandwiches!
Walking from the IRT subway to Bogart avenue when I was a kid seemed like at least 20 miles but, having looked it up just now on bing, it seems 20 north and south blocks in NYC equal 1 mile!!!! Now in 1988 I passed what use to be Ben’s Hardware on Cruegar and Lydig and in a few minutes was standing on Bogart Avenue looking at the Dyre Avenue shuttle stop which was up the hill. On snowy, nasty days or if you were just lazy and didn’t want to walk the ’20 miles’ you took the Dyre train to 180th Street station and walked over to the downtown side and connected with the express or local going into Manhattan.
I walked over to 2157 Bogart which was one of 14 attached homes, brand new back in 1940. There had been an empty lot filled with trees, bushes and weeds across the street but now there was an apartment building. It was so big I couldn’t see Roslyn Giordano’s house which was on the other side of the lot. I didnt’ know if it was still there.
The Pelham Parkway/Lydig Avenue area was a middle class area and after you passed Barnes Avenue you were mainly entering upper middle class with private homes instead of apartment buildings. It had been 60 years since I lived there and 24 years since I had been in the neighborhood. There were new ‘attached’ homes that had been built on either side of the 14 I knew. Each had a basement which some families used for storage and others made playrooms for their kids. There was a bathroom and a small kitchen of the big square room. Some, like my mother did when we all left her, made a studio apartment out of it, renting it out.
At the entry level on the left when you walked in was the living room. My parents had covered a complete wall with a mirror, bought a very tufted light blue couch and 2 heavy chairs. There was a round table in the window with a crystal lamp in the center. On each side of the couch was an expensive mahogany table- Next to the living room was the main dining room with a big rectangular obviously expensive mahogany table with 8 chairs for special ‘occassions’. Against the wall, floor to ceiling, side wall to side wall was a beautiful piece of furniture for the ‘best’ dishes and sterling silverware p;us Steuben ware glasses. Off the dining room was a small balcony overlooking the back driveways. To the right of the dining room was the kitchen with a small area for a table and chairs for every day eating. Just before the hallway that lead to the up stairs was a flight of stairs going down to the playroom.
Before I continue I must add that the couch and chairs were covered with plastic and there was a fancy gate that you could lock at the entrance to the living room. Our mother said it was there to keep the dog out but in all the years I lived there I can remember, maybe, 4-5 times being allowed to go in and sit. On that same note I can only remember one special occasion that we ate at the big dining room table and that was for a Jewish holiday when my mother had 2 of her sisters and my father’s sister, Flo, for dinner.
Upstairs consisted of a bathroom, the master bedroom, another bedroom for my brother and me and a guest bedroom. We never did have a guest staying in that room and as much as we pleaded they wouldn’t give either me or my brother separate rooms.
I don’t remember if the huge Fir Tree was still in the garden and I sort of cursed myself for not bringing a camera as I knew I would never go back. I was tempted to knock on the door but decided against it.
I walked back to White Plains Road to catch the IRT back to Manhattan going up Pelham Parkway. I saw the synagogue I had my bar mitzvah on the corner of PP and Mulliner. Then I passed the courtyard where I use to baby sit the 2 boys of one of my mother’s acquaintances and a little further were the steps leading up to my doctor of yore and then I was walking up the train stairs. Oh yes I remember having an egg creme at the candy store and buying a paper. After paying my fare I checked out the men’s room and I just knew that kid in there was doing the same thing I did in 1949-1950. It was time to leave Pelham Parkway one more time but this time forever.
Can you go home again? You can visit, you can remember, you can see life as you thought it was but the final answer is no.
“September 21, 1985 Went to San Gennaro’s festival and pigged out. I had, al least what I remembered I had, was a cannoli, zeppoli, sausage and pepper pizza, a salami and cheese hero, etc. The streets, as always, were packed and everywhere you turned was food. Even with all that I had to stop at Ferrara’s for some pastries.”
“September 24, 1988 Andy and I went to the Festival of San Gennaro’s–he had never been to it and looked like a kid at the circus.Afetrwards we went to work the AIDS table at Christopher Street and 6th Avenue. Don’t know how much we ate but there was no question of having sex!!!”
“September 19, 1983 I think, because I didn’t make notes til later that Chuck, Bill and I or it could have been Bob, Bill and I–somebody has to remember!–went to San Gennero’s feast in Little Italy. I find it hard to believe that we ate at the Stage after the show that night. Good thing Sue picked us up in a limo!!”
The History of the Feast of San Gennaro
The Annual Feast of San Gennaro is a celebration of the Patron Saint of Naples. First celebrated in New York City on September 19, 1926 by newly arrived immigrants from Naples, the Feast of San Gennaro was a traditional celebration in Naples for Saint Gennaro who was martyred for the faith in 305 A.D. Immigrants who had settled along Mulberry Street in the Little Italy section of New York City continued their traditional celebration with an eleven day Feast. September 19th is the most religious day of the Festival of San Gennaro, and features a Religious Procession followed by Celebratory Mass at the Most Precious Blood Church on Mulberry Street, the National Shrine of San Gennaro
Things to Do at the Feast of San Gennaro
- Have lunch or dinner at one of Little Italy’s restaurants
- Watch one of the Processions
- Listen to the musical performances
- Try your luck at the many carnival games
- Eat traditional San Gennaro Festival foods from street vendor along Mulberry Street
- For more about the feast go to http://tinyurl.com/2f7p6gn
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NEXT: SUE, LIMO SERVICE AND FINDING OUT IF YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN!
THIS REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR BROADWAYSHOWBIZ.COM ON OCTOBER 9, 2012
Sit back, relax and get ready to clap your hands, wave your arms, laugh and enjoy yourself. Just don’t sing along too loudly while the cast does the rock hits of the 1980s in this take off of Broadway musicals along with ‘boy meets girl, loses girl and gets the girl for the final clinch’. At times this ‘jukebox musical’ makes absolutely no sense but that’s when you will laugh the hardest. How can you explain an audience going wild over, “I’m not gay. I’m German.” said by the most effeminate man on stage?
“Rock of Ages” started in Los Angeles in 2005 moved to off Broadway in 2008 then to Broadway in 2009 and is still playing there. Not only are the baby boomers keeping it going with such songs as “Anyway You Want It”, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and 27 other songs, but their kids and grandparents are filling the seats. The front rows of the orchestra last night, at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, were the ‘kids’ from the 80s wearing the clothes, and hairstyles, they must have saved all these years and were a show unto themselves.
The cast is so hyper and exuberant that their energy dancing, singing and running around the stage make your head shake in wonder how 2 and a half hours later they are giving their all singing “Don’t Stop Believin” as if they just stepped on stage. Though their stage credits are mainly regional and a few with touring companies you know everyone of them are ready to knock Broadway off their feet!
Shannon Mullen and Dominique Scott are well matched as the young lovers with Scott having a dominant voice. There are a lot of women in the cast singing and shaking their booty but 3 men still the stage each time they are on it which is for most of the show. Stephen Michael Kane just appears and he has the audience laughing out loud and what he can do with his body will make your jaw drop. Justin Colombo, as the narrator, breaks the 4th wall and instantly becomes friends with everyone in the audience. He is a very talented performer as is Matt Ban as the owner of the Bourbon Room club on the Sunset Strip where most of the action takes place. Not neglecting the women there are really only 2 that have a major in the show besides Mullen. Megan McHugh has a tough role and delivers in most spots but is off here and then which is, probably, due to how the role was written. Amma Osei does whatshecan with a stereotypical role but belts out the songs when given the chance. Last, and certainly not least, are the Arsenal, the band that backs the cast up and even has bits to do within the show.
Chris D’Arienzo who wrote the book tells the story with tongue in cheek while the rest of the production team does a first rate job. The show, including the intermission, comes in under two hours and twenty-five minutes.
Warnings: strobe lights and this is heavy rock and roll with speakers reaching from the floor to the ceiling.
Coming next to the Arsht Center is “Mary Poppins” and the opening show at the Broward Center is “Million Dollar Quartet”.
“Seven Psychopaths” is not the worst movie of the year but comes pretty close. When the best things about a movie are a 1971 red Cadillac convertible and Colin Farrell’s eyebrows you know you are in trouble. Martin McDonagh, the writer and director of “In Bruges”, an entertaining film, also wrote and directed this film which is suppose to be a movie within a movie or is it? It appears to be a comedy about criminals, crimes, murderers and, yes, psychopaths. How are you suppose to laugh when men are shot directly in the head, women in the stomach, one person slits another person’s neck and then a man commits suicide slitting his neck, all shown on screen? Is it funny watching people being cruel to each other and more blood being splattered than in an action movie?
When a movie has the word ‘psychopaths’ in the title you know high on a witer/director’s list will be Christopher Walken and Woody Harrelson and here they are, not overplaying their roles which is a plus. Sam Rockwell as one of the seven, though not listed as such, does get a little hammy but, to get back to them, not as scenery chewing as Ferrell’s eyebrows–they deserve a credit of their own for entertainment.
The women have very small and demeaning roles in the film and I am still trying to figure out why Gabourey Sidibe. even took her role.
This is a very violent movie that is played for laughs but isn’t funny!
greatmartin 