Monster

I am working on this monster to decorate the house on Saturday.

Some of the books half read or waiting to be read by my bed, on the left side

The Working Poor, Invisible in America by David K. Shipler (you can have a good chuckle reading this guy's opinion on the book);

Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion by Pema Chodron;

The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, M.D.;

Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman;

Leap! What Will We Do with the Rest of Our Lives? by Sara Davidson;

Train Your Mind Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley;

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout, Ph.D.;

How Language Works by David Crystal;

The Mole People by Jennifer Toth.

Catching up

Finishing dinner with Vivian at Sol y Sombra Tapas Bar.

Piece of fiction

This is one imaginative bullshitter. I just went to Geneva and back for one night. I obviously never considered the possibility of not going out so I met old and new friends at a bar and restaurant in the Old Town. The place was lively enough when we got there, although the crowd looked a bit like UN interns. The mojitos were good and desserts were great. I was having a grand time and then, at precisely midnight, we were asked to leave because they were closing. The walk to the cars was straight out of a sci-fi movie. Thursday night, absolutely nobody out. Dark. Quiet. Dead.

More on the trip later, now I have to get back into a NY state of mind. Brunch. Then getting ready for the play tonight. Then drinks. Then the play. Then more drinks at Dawn's later on.

The masterpiece!

Middle of the night musings

There is not much on TV these days. It seems every time I turn it on there's a new ridiculous reality show. They sure seem to chose, in the best of cases, the most uninteresting, self-centered and emotionally retarded people, leaving dull, vapid lives. First it was the spectacularly depressing gated-community blondes from the Real Housewives of Orange County. Then the sad wanna bes from the New York season. Now there's the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Grown women in petty fights, flaunting their terrible taste and god awful table manners. Depressing. There's I love money, Rock of Love, Charm School, The Girls Next Door. Basically a bunch of seriously dysfunctional train wrecks, most of them absolutely illiterate. It's not that I only want to see fascinating social documentaries, it's that I would welcome more compelling characters. I am a voyeuse, always have been, and I used to love reality shows. I was a big fan of MTV's Real World, back when it was something more than just the token perfectionist Asian, the token gay, the token angry black man or woman, the token stupid middle American, all pumped, all naked in a hot tub. Now it's so predictable, so boring. And I won't even go into The Pick Up Artist. I don't know who decided this imbecile had something worth teaching, but whoever it was needs to have his/her head examined.

I am also tired of the celebrity blogs. There is only so much I can handle of David Duchovny's sexual addiction, Brit Brit Cheeto addiction, SamRo and HoHan's escapades, etc. etc. etc. etc. For the record, I think Vadje looks like a mean old junkie and I couldn't care less about her divorce. Who in their right mind could have married her in the first place?

So after all this crap, I find it extremely refreshing to stumble upon a well written, inspiring blog from an genuine human being. Here it is. Enjoy it.

Anyway, now that I pronounced my deep statement for the week, let me tell you that ... OMG!!!! OMG!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! I saw Tom Cruise on Friday!!!!!! Live!!!!! And he is GORGEOUS!!!!!

I was at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, already comfortably seated, ready for my Arthur Miller cry fest, when I looked to my left and saw somebody who looked like Oprah walking to her seat, more or less on my row, but in the middle of the orchestra. I looked really hard and saw Gayle, so I knew it was Oprah. And then TA DAN!!! Tommy Boy himself! Flashing his trademark grin. I did my best to play it cool. Not like those tourists from NJ or Ohio, all dressed up like they were going to a funeral (it's very easy to tell who's not from NY on Broadway), who were hanging from the mezzanine straining to see them.

I could marry that man! I don't give a damn if he believes in little green monsters. I don't find his faith any more or any less far-fetched than the more mainstream ones and if he does everything with the same intensity he puts in that dazzling smile, Katie must be a very satisfied woman.

And now I gotta go back to my text (thankfully, I should be done in an hour or so).

Bits and pieces

Going to see All My Sons tonight. Gotta check out Katie Holmes.

Last week (was it last week?) I saw The Atheist and stayed over for the chat with the director and the actor. Loved everything about the play except for the ending and I was not alone in my thinking.

Other than that, I've been working nights (4 to 12.30 but really 2 or 3 AM), and putting in a lot of hours a day editing the video clip for the exhibit. It will be launched on Monday and I am invited (free booze, free food).

The big news (well, one of the big news anyways) of the week was that we finally got completely fed up of the Italian theater group director and just told him to shove it. We are now rehearsing independently. I'll have to expand on that eventually.

So tomorrow it's rehearsals at 1 PM and then work work work. Gotta do 30 pages for Monday, but at least I don't have to come to the office. Monday will be a little hectic, finishing this text and probably doing last minute editing on the video. And then ... big news number 2 .... I am taking Tuesday day off to prepare for my super quick trip to Geneva. Leaving on Wednesday, arriving on Thursday, coming back on Friday. Susan, if you are reading this, maybe we could meet at some bar in the Old Town on Thursday evening?

My cell won't work in Europe, but I will be bringing my MacBook for Skype, Twitter and Facebook, among other things.

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1008080001.jpg, originally uploaded by Rosarionyc.

Getting ready for the debate

Spur of the moment kinda thing, I invited a few people over for the debate drinking game. I bought a bottle of Stoli, 4 bottles of wine (2 red, 2 rosé) and I have a few beers (guests will contribute). I also bought some finger food and juice for the pregnant one. A quick shower and I will start connecting the laptop to the larger screen and the speakers. I will also turn on an additional TV and start preparing the food. Must not forget to charge my cell for the twitters.

I have no idea who is coming. We might be two or three, we might be a whole bunch.

Getting ready ...

for the great Palin comedy act tonight. I am working nights this week so I will have to follow it on the Web. I will probably watch it at Current, and I will be twittering (or is it tweeting, maybe twitting?) away. I will also be following the scrolling twits (tweeters,witters?) at Election 2008. Unfortunately I cannot play the Palin bingo, nor can I join one of the Palin drinking games.

By the way, as much as I dislike McCain, his mom rocks. With a mother like that, how could he ever go marry that creepy creature?

Even his taste is vile

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0927080002.jpg, originally uploaded by Rosarionyc.

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0927080001.jpg, originally uploaded by Rosarionyc.

Rolling my eyes

I do like the idea




but it's hard not to barf at the explanation:

After graduated B.A. Fine Art at Byam Shaw School and a Master at Middlesex University she was widely shown at Sprovieri Gallery in London, Auditorium e Temple Gallery in Rome, guest at Locarno Festival in 2007 and in Wrap! For the International Festival Cinema in Rome. The notion of restoration is central to the work of Guendalina Salini. However restoration here is not to be understood as historical reconstruction, rather it serves to disclose the internal dynamic which is at the genesis of the image. The work brings into play images belonging to the history of art and recontextualise them. By "redrawing" the image the artist intends to open it to a spatial-temporal suspension, a suspension that places the emphasis on the process of art itself.

Oh, and I forgot ...

the evening when we saw Celebrity Autobiography (for the second time in my case). You can see my head right there, in the first row!!!! The writer was probably thinking of me when he wrote about the martini. I was indeed sipping martinis and I was laughing so hard the actress smiled at me on her way out and mouthed something that hopefully was not "Fuck you!".

Great weeks, even better weekends. Little time to blog.

There was the party on the roof deck in Roosevelt Island, attended by quite a crowd of cancer researchers. Most of them smokers. Some of them not limited to tobacco. I spent most of the evening debating with a couple of students of philosophy. At the end of the lively conversation we exchanged our Second Life avatars.

There was the evening of Pedro's surprise birthday party, where all this third husband thing started and were I discovered some kind of little Brazilian bonbons I could kill my mother for (well, actually I could kill my mother for so many reasons this might not be the best way to convey my fondness for those thingies).

There was the Saturday at Park Slope. I had never been there, except once, for a party. I liked it, really like it. The houses are beautiful, the shops are not all Gaps.

There was the Sunday a bunch of us met at the fake beach near the Coney Island boardwalk for the social/cultural/political tour given by Juan (if you could see me, I am giving him a standing ovation). Some of us (Andrea, Pedro, Andrea II, Jimena, Jose and yours truly) ended up having a late dinner at Tatiana in Brighton Beach, which is like what I imagine it must have been like in Odessa in the 50s.

And the other Sunday, yesterday, when we had dinner and I-need-two-hands-to-count caipirinhas (I am using "we" in a very broad sense, I am afraid most people were basically eating, while I was managing to eat like a pig, drink like a sailor and talk non-stop, too) at Esperanto. One of the guys in our party is somebody with whom I work but had never socialized with. Yesterday I discovered he's a kick-ass photographer whom I have mentally hired for my next year birthday bash, although he does not know it yet. The main purpose of dinner (to me, but then again, it's my blog so I am the only one that matters) was for me to meet my future third husband. I had seen a picture of him on the wall at Pedro's birthday and it was love at first sight. I finally met him yesterday. Well, maybe "met" is a little stretch. Let's say I got to say hello. A very meaningful hello, evidently, one that will alter the course of his life, but still only a hello. In person he is actually handsomer than in pictures, and his command of the triangle is impressive. His hip movements ain't bad either. Then again, and I know how this sounds, he might be too handsome. Not as in "too handsome for me" because, as you might know, I have had my share of devastatingly beautiful men. Just maybe a tad too pretty. Maybe I have just outgrown prettiness. I known I have outgrown my phase of "there's never too much muscles" and I now prefer a slightly more natural built. I must admit though that I still get a little overexcited when I am surrounded by bodyguards and secret service. A guy from work used to say that earpieces are sex toys to me. He is right. A humongous guy in black with a cable coming out of his ear and an air of murderous purpose makes me weak at the knees. But I digress. After dinner yesterday we went to La Esquina, neat little place I wasn't aware of. To get there you start at a dingy diner looking taquería, walk through the "Employees only" door and down to the kitchen and through it.

And last but not least, the Ramadan dinner with Meriem's parents. They are very interesting people, just like their daughter, but they are also sweet and kind and you can't help but wonder what went wrong! Even more amazingly, her father is an optimist!

Something to read ...

while I update posts.


Pictures from the Paralympic Games.

and

The Brave New World of Digital Intimacy.

Just another day at the office

Yesterday I was having lunch at the cafeteria with Elena when she started coughing. Then making strange sounds. Then pointing at her throat and turning a nice shade of purple. Having received extensive training for such cases, it did not take me long to recognize the international sign language for "I am fucking choking". I immediately took action and proceeded to punch her in the stomach, in a modified Heimlich maneuver. By then she was bent over on her chair, wheezing. She was doing everything by the book. Very exciting. Then some party pooper from a nearby table totally stole my show and started an annoying mantra of "Harder, harder, harder". He really pissed me. If you're so much better at this, you jerk, why don't you do it yourself? So he did. It worked.

So the guy helped. Big deal. I'd like to take credit for saving her life, even though she's one step ahead of me on the corporate ladder and her demise might facilitate my unstoppable ascension. I think my response to the situation was nothing short of heroically selfless.

We spent the afternoon in the ER killing time trying to figure out what was wrong with our fellow patients. Having watched many an episode of House, it's surprising we did not come up with several diagnosis of Lupus.

I hope the world is still here tomorrow morning

Gloom and doom.
Yes, I know, they think nothing is going to happen. They are wrong so often it's really scary.

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0907080003.jpg, originally uploaded by Rosarionyc.