Singing at the Met

Not that Met, the other one.

We were sitting on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when these guys set up shop and began singing old R&B. They sounded better in real life than this tinny reproduction from my camera. Still, it's a musical genre that's hard to resist.

Rashomon Trailer (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)

Today I celebrate the 100th birthday of Japanese filmmaker Kurosawa Akira. My favorite Kurosawa film is Rashomon, a masterpiece of storytelling and cinematography that, even 60 years later, is considered one of the best movies ever made. Add it to your Netflix or, better yet, see it in a real theatre. Brilliant!

Duh.

Whose bright idea was it that I leave NYC twenty years ago? Oh, right. Mine.

I was an idiot.


From the New Yorker Magazine online:


CORELLA BALLET CASTILLA Y LEÓN

The much loved Spanish ballet star Ángel Corella brings his fledgling troupe to New York for its début. In 2008, distressed at Spain’s lack of ballet companies, Corella founded his own with his sister Carmen, also a gifted dancer. Based in Segovia, the ensemble has forty-five dancers from around the world, including, as a guest artist, Carmen’s husband, the Argentine virtuoso Herman Cornejo. At City Center, the company will perform Corella’s first foray into choreography, “String Sextet,” set to Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir of Florence.” Also on the program: a ballet by Russell Ducker, a young company member; “Walpurgisnacht,” by Leonid Lavrovsky; and Christopher Wheeldon’s “DGV (Danse à Grande Vitesse),” a tour de force of speed and power. In what is sure to be a showstopper, Corella will perform a pas de deux with his sister, created for them by the flamenco diva María Pagés. (131 W. 55th St. 212-581-1212. March 17 at 7:30, March 19 at 8, and March 20 at 2 and 8.)

March into Spring

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day. I took a stroll in the gorgeous fresh air. By the cemetery.

Presently I came upon this:

On closer inspection, I saw it was this:

A motorized, bipedal...thing. Two spindly aluminum legs attached to a sort of mechanical pelvis, apparently powered by an electric drill. This robotic hind-end was strapped to a pivoting, horizontal flagpole so that when it's turned on it walks in a circle, like maybe a steampunk horse mill.

It was then I realized I was in the backyard of the Institute of Human and Machine Cognition and I thought, jeez, with such a spiffy name you'd think they could build a better robot than this half-assed model.

Still, for something without a head I think it has personality.

Directly beyond sat this quonset hut.

I love the shabby, rusty, tropicality of it. It puts me in mind of some WWII film set in the South Pacific. Cue Patty, Maxine, and LaVerne.

I can also see the potential of quonset as loft-type dwelling space.


On my way home, I pulled over to take a phone call. In a tree by the parking lot I spied this pair of bluebirds engaged in a feathery flurry of activity. Sorry for the quality of the photo. They were far away and in the shade. I was shooting blindly and had to crop a lot and over-tweak to make them show up at all.

Weatherwise, things are looking up.

They're Playing My Song

Or: Yet Another Reason to Miss NYC

Video: "Hey Jude" Subway Sing-a-long - Gothamist

Hey Jude sing-a-long in Time Square Subway Station. 10:30 pm. March 7, 2010.

First seen on Gothamist.com

First Signs

Something is blooming in Pensacola, but what? Can you identify this tree?

Click to make it bigger.

Good Medicine: Traditional Dress

I bought these t-shirts today. The colors are so lush and sumptuous, I'm tempted to cut them up and make something else out of them -- a wall hanging or a crocheted rag rug or a quilt for the bed. They seem too beautiful to wear and wear out.

Click on the photo to lose yourself in the colors!