Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Happy Birthday, Sunil !!!
Here's Sunil Saturday at my party, celebrating our birthdays wearing a charming little birthday hat! Sunil & Fernando are among my best friends and the sweetest people I know...
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Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Happy Birthday To Me
47 years exactly. How time flies when you're having fun : - )
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Monday, January 29, 2007
I Think I Can, I Think I Can
Congrats to the little indie comedy that could, Little Miss Sunshine, for winning the Screen Actors' Guild's Ensemble award - their equivalent of 'Best Picture.' I saw this last summer with Christi, and laughed until my stomach hurt. You'll remember I said at the time that their vehicle merited its own award. Apparently, co-star Greg Kinnear agreed...From today's NYT:
''Little Miss Sunshine'' co-star Greg Kinnear thanked the German automaker that designed the rickety minibus the film's horribly dysfunctional family drives to their little girl's beauty pageant.
''I'd like to thank the engineers at Volkswagen for making a beautiful vehicle back in 1969 that is so comfortable, so safe,'' Kinnear said.
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Sunday, January 28, 2007
What Hill?
Aaron had a very happy birthday party... Here I am in my silly birthday hat, looking like a Hassid with tinsel hair : - )
Not one birthday cake but several. My friend Sunil's birthday is Wednesday Jan 31, the day after mine, so we have double celebration - Sunil is hitting the three-decade mark, as is another close friend, David, who marks his milestone next Saturday... I'll dribble out more birthday pictures during the week...
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Saturday, January 27, 2007
That's Me On The Left
Tonight I'm hosting my Big Fat Birthday Party - I must scurry. It's slightly warmer out after two days in the mid-teens. Here's a classic photo opp from my India trip in late Summer 2001, just before 9/11...
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Friday, January 26, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Desperate Dancing
Is the Geneva Convention silent on the subject of dancing? Last night I watched "They Shoot Horses, Don't They," the devastating 1969 film about a depression-era dance marathon contest and the terrible toll exacted on the participants. With millions out of work and many going hungry, it wasn't hard to find couples willing to submit themselves to a grueling months-long endurance test in exchange for food, shelter, and the dim hope of winning $1,500 - a small fortune in 1930s dollars. This film is based on the 1935 book by Horace McCoy, the publication of which raised consciousness of this cruel practice and led to its being banned in many places.The film itself, an ensemble masterpiece and a triumph of good directing, launched Jane Fonda as a serious actress and was nominated for 9 Oscars, of which it won Best Supporting Actor for Gig Young's portrayal of the venal, heartless emcee of the contest.
As a child, when I heard this film's title, I always thought it was a comedy. I wonder if today's young people can conceive that Americans lived in such wretched desperation not so long ago, as the Depression's last survivors pass into history. One recent film which evokes this era vividly is "Cinderella Man."
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Sno' Angel Like You
Not a flurry or a flake on our fair streets, but last year was a (snow) horse of another color...
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Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Letters From Iwo Ntadayoff
It sure ain't. Avalanche of work is crimping my blogging style. : - )
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Monday, January 22, 2007
Wow, I'm swamped - the most challenging January of my long career. Looking forward to my birthday party Saturday and hoping I can clear the decks for the weekend.
Here are some images I pulled on the theme of 'half-hearted':
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Here are some images I pulled on the theme of 'half-hearted':
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Sunday, January 21, 2007
Last night was lovely, but this morning my throat is slightly sore. It's cold out there. Today I will huddle inside with DVDs, books, and music, including the new Air album, which comes wrapped in this groovy artwork:
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Saturday, January 20, 2007
Just saw "The Voysey Inheritance" with Bart at Atlantic Theater Company a few blocks away. This play is an Edwardian drama with Enron overtones. It's about a man who discovers that his dying father was a fraudulent money manager who'd robbed his clients and was deep in debt. Moral dilemmas, wall-to-wall paintings, and great hairdos. Also, excellent acting and dialogue. Highly recommended.
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Friday, January 19, 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
My name is Mud, and I am funky... Creative photography from my cousin Rich, taken near the Dead Sea during our recent trip to Israel..
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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Monday, January 15, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
The Approach
I'm having a relaxing day, learning more about my Mac, hoping I can soon give away my PC. Here are some photographs taken by my nephew, Danny, from the airplane as we approached San Francisco. We spent a couple of days there right before New Year's, and I basically surrendered the camera to his budding photography skills, mostly with great results.
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Saturday, January 13, 2007
Peace Shack
It's been an intense work week, and it continues today, I need to rehearse a visiting Latin company - happily I have tomorrow and Monday off, and I'm starting to catch up on my sleep. Here are some pictures from sunny Glacier National Park in Northwestern Montana, on the Canadian border - there's a Canadian national park, Waterton, across the border, and together they are an 'international peace park.' Every Saturday the rangers conduct a 'peace hike' nine miles long and cross the border - the 'border control' is a little ranger shack on hiking path.
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Friday, January 12, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Technical Difficulties
With my switch to Mac comes a steep learning curve, and my blog photos of yesterday fell victim to it, much to my chagrin. But I'll get the hang of it...Earlier this week I treated my work-addled brain to a home-DVD viewing of "Butterflies Are Free" an endearing 1972 film based on a stage play about a (very attractive and sweet) young blind man (Edward Albert, pictured left) trying to strike out on his own and his relationships with a free-spirited hippie (Goldie Hawn) and his domineering but well-meaning mother (Eileen Heckart in an Oscar-winning supporting performance).
The film is a great 70s-rific period piece. Everyone's dressed in paisley, psychedelic hippie fashions (when they're dressed). It's both serious and romantic, both crowd-pleasing and insightful.
Albert and Hawn spend a chunk of the movie in their underwear, providing eye candy to nearly everyone in the audience. Well, I guess not to Blind-Americans, but even Edward Albert's voice is eye candy.
As in the film, in real life Albert turned out to be beautiful on the inside, too. He retired from acting 8 years to take care of his ailing father (Eddie Albert of 'Green Acres' fame) and then sadly died of lung cancer himself a year later (three months ago). Knowing this makes it sad to watch then 22-year-old Albert's character smoke during the film.
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Wednesday, January 10, 2007
A Greek Myth? Nope, just Brian's trick photography. Here he is with his loyal Canine-American, Fiedel.
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Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Punta Pointing
Way down in Uruguay, where giant fresh-water mouth of Rio de la Plata meets the salty Atlantic Ocean, sits Punta del Este (pictured), vacation haunt of the Latin American elite. There's a great NYT travel article about how to do Punta on the cheap.
I just worked another 15 hour day - I'm really crunching away on deals here and fielding surprise developments. As the Argentines and Uruguyans would say, I am 'hecho puré' - reduced to mashed potato consistency.
How I would love to see a movie! How I would love to lie in the sun! "I don't want to work / I just want to bang on the drum all day," as Todd Rundgren once sang...
Here's a lovely gem of a cartoon from late last summer, more relevant than ever in this warmest of New York Januarys....
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Monday, January 08, 2007
Taj-Mahal Sanchez & Darwin Lenin Jimenez
Articles I enjoyed: "Diapering Little Stalin" in Sunday's NYT discusses Venezuelan society's penchant for giving their children colorful and bizarre names, including Taj-Mahal Sanchez, Yusmairobis, and English-based Yesaidú (Yes, I do) and Juan Jondre (one hundred). Elsewhere, a possible record overdue library book: a Michigan man was 47 years late returning a library book he took out in ninth grade, and paid $171.32 in overdue fees.
Thomas' blog has some awesome urban Brazil photos - he spent the holidays in São Paulo.
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Burning The (Weekend) Midnight Oil
With a presentation due tomorrow, I've spent eight hours on a Sunday working without a break. It's midnight and I'm still not finished. Alas, Saturday I spent 12 hours getting by brand new Mac computer up and running, so this weekend did not provide much relaxation. But I see a three-day weekend out in the distance, and it sure looks good to me....
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Sunday, January 07, 2007
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Mac Day
Today I spent staring at a screen, despite the 71F New York weather (that will drop to a chilly 47F tonight and stay there) - Today I made the switch from Windows to Mac, first with a four hour Mac class at the Apple Store in Soho, then at home doing a plethora of installments and operations, and figuring things out with the aid of Brian via videoconference (a Mac feature)!
Brian sent me the following old picture from late 2000 of me on his dad's exercise bike in Arcadia, California...
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Friday, January 05, 2007
1 - Pecan Chicken (568)
I'm so tired and groggy that I when I transferred my holiday photos to my computer I accidentally renamed all 568 pictures '1 - Pecan Chicken (xxx),' something I'll have to live with since it would take an hour of drudgery to undo. Oh, well... Anyway, here's my sister Deena's delicious Pecan Chicken, Rice Pilaf, and String Beans from our family Christmas Eve dinner....
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Thursday, January 04, 2007
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Hey again. These pictures were taken at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial near Jerusalem, a very moving experience. Today I fly home to NY, arriving around midnight.
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Monday, January 01, 2007
Kul 'am wa Antum Bikhair
That's Happy New Year in Arabic!
Below are some photos from the Arab quarter of Jersualem. Tomorrow marks the end of a long break, I fly home and resume work on Wednesday.
This house sign indicates that the dweller has completed a Haj, a pilgrimage to Mecca.
I think this is just a poultry shop.
Through the Arab and Christian quarters winds the Via Dolorosa, the steps Christians believe that Jesus traveled from his judgment to his crucifixion. Here's a trilingual signpost:
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