hey, anonymous commenter?

Cat got ya tongue? You drew a personality profile for me that was a total zero. And now you clammed up? Hoisted on your own petard? Get back. I miss ya. Ya see, that old tired and stale 'c' word doesn't daunt ME. I am an old battleax. But, get back and try harder. Ya never know what comment you might make that could send me running for the smelling salts. Freak.

hey, anonymous commenter?

I opened comments. Where'd ya go? Oh, wait! You saw the "digest" and realized your script and personality profile you created for me was not correct? LMAO...
I probably do more in a week than you do in months. AND I probably have triple more friends. AND I had the same job for almost 35 years. Bite me! Get back! Wanna be interviewed? LOL

Happy Birthday, Nelson Mandela!

Big Brother 11

Big Brother has to be the biggest and most asinine show ever aired on network television. It'a a game of human dominoes. "He goes, then she goes, then he goes, then you may go." That is what the show has morphed into after season 1, when the viewers decided who was evicted. When the viewers made that decision, it was about the interactions of people living in a house without this unending discussion of game and alliance strategy. I said it before, and I will say it again: Bill Paley would be spinning in is grave if he knew how his once named "Tiffany" network had deterioriated.

And over at TWoP, members are discussing the show as if they were on the Warren Commission. No, that analogy is not right. But, I wil leave it in because I think it is sort of funny.

And the moderator, TWoP Mars, is putting big black bars through what I assume is egregious commentary. Well, I will give him/her? this. He/she seems a bit less angry and nasty than that Miss Alli. She really had a bitter edge. She thrived on her dopey power at TWoP. She was always scolding me for putting a comment in the wrong thread. Whatever happened to her?

All those mods must have discussed my banning. I know they did. How do I know? Barnes once made a comment at my blog and revealed my TWoP login name. She could only know that if they all had been well aware of my TWoP ban rants and researched my TWoP history. So let me wave to any of them who may still read this blog. I hope they read the "digest." Any mods want to be interviewed for that blog? LMAO.

Three Shorts

(Atlantic City boardwalk)

"Rube and Mandy at Coney Island" (1903)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WComm4hr6gg

"What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City" (1901)
with A.C. Abadie and Florence Georgie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1DKrHN10zc

"Luna Park" (1903)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygOO0i1_jR4&feature=related

Oh, what times they were!

Good-bye, Diesel Wall

This was the Diesel Wall as it was painted in the spring of 2008.



This is what was going on at that wall this afternoon. They are painting over it... buh-bye pretty wall.

Third Cemetery of the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue, Shearith Israel

Third Cemetery of the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue, Shearith Israel, is located on 21st Street in Manhattan, right off 6th Avenue. In it are graves which date back to 1829. I had to stick my camera through the iron gate to get a few photos.

I sometimes pass this cemetary at night. Sometimes, long after darkness has fallen, I wait... almost expecting some apparition to appear in the moonlight.

July 4, 2009

I watched the Macy's fireworks high up on the 44th floor of a Manhattan building. As the crowd gathered, the sun set and revealed a technicolor sunset, rich with deep orange tones. Then, all of a sudden the fireworks began and we were so high up, they were eye level and seemed close enough to touch. The night was perfect... as the full moon created just the right touch in the evening sky.

manhattan phone booths

check out this great site:

Scouting NY

then read this article in today's NY Post: CITY'S OLDEN 'RINGS', LAST PHONE BOOTHS

TWoP and me

I am back at TWoP and posting there like an energizer bunny. BTW, check out marjorie-digest, please. It brings new meaning to my life, which prior to the launch was empty and pathetic. Now, it is rich and full.

"Stunning," my review

SPOILER ALERT
I went to see this play with great anticipation after reading the glowing review by David Cote, in "Time Out New York."

"Stunning" is about a married couple who lives on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. The protagonists are a 40ish Ike who is married to a 16 year-old Lily, who is a Syrian Jew. And there are a few other assorted characters who are supporting players in Ike and Lily's sterile and immaculate home. They exist in an attempt to bring high drama and comedy, thereby complicating the marriage.

My first reaction was that the actors seem to be playing stereotypical caricatures of their roles. Now, this may be the problem of the direction, but I do know that an actor in both drama and comedy must come from a place of truth. There was never any moment that I believed Cristen Milioti as Lily. She is working so hard at "being 16," that she seems silly and false in her efforts. And she uses a cloying whiny voice as a device to appear young. On stage, she appears absurd. She makes wide-eyed facial expressions to the point where she seemed like Sarah Silverman doing a character as part of some comedy club stage shtik. And the voice she uses is almost offensive. I did not believe for a minute that Lily's husband would be with her.

And when the play sharply turns direction and expects the audience to believe Lily would have the confidence to fall in love with Blanche, I was surprised. Blanche would never have wasted her time with such a foolish Lily.

Charlayne Woodard, as Blanche, is an amazing actor. She did bring nuances of believable emotion to the stage. So did Danny Mastrogiorgio, who played Ike. His performance was chilling in parts and he has a very strong stage presence. He reminded me at times of a menacing Eric Roberts.

Jeanine Serrales, as Shelly, also seems a caricature of a personna. She is so mean and nasty and loud that she chews up the scenery. She is trying too hard to "be funny"... and in comedy, that is a mistake.

The end was dramatic... but again not believable. And also at the end, the character of Lily just seems to have gone totally insane.

Well, it is what it is. It is "satisfactory" if you do not analyze it and watch it like it is comprised of performances in a scene study class. And the first scene? Get a grip, ladies. You are on stage, not on Mad TV.

please visit marjorie-digest

thank-you

where are they now?

This was my fourth grade class at PS 33 in 1986. The next year, when they were in the fifth grade, these students were chosen by Eugene M. Lang for his "I Have a Dream" college scholarship program.

Over twenty years later... I am wondering: "Where are they now?"