Sponsor My A** Off

May 16 is the next annual Write Your A** Off, a day dedicated to writing to raise money for the NYC Writers Coalition. 

They're an amazing group who bring writing classes and workshops to the underserved, including homeless, disadvantaged kids, elderly and more. 

We spend an entire Saturday writing and talking about writing. Here's my experience from last May if you want a taste of it. We raised $37,000 in one day.

This year, I am trying to raise at least $400 as my part, which is modest but these are tough times for people. At the event, unless I'm deep into a storyline, I plan on twittering as well or perhaps doing a closed status update to the people who sponsor me.  

It's easy to put in $5, $15, $25, $50 or more. Please, please sponsor me here.

Timely Bulls and Bears

This is a painting I've always heard about but finally saw last month with my friend Suzanne. "The Bulls and the Bears" is an allegorical painting from 1879 about the turbulent market by William Beard. Setting is Broad Street, where the current NYSE is on the left. See it for yourself at the New York Historical Society on the upper west side. It doesn't have the wall space and drama it deserves but it's really exciting. 

Customer service and flow: A good experience in NYC

A friend from Paris was visiting this week, and since we both were on vacation and had long lists of clothes shopping to do, we had plenty of time to discuss shopping patterns and customer service, a favorite topic of mine.

Bloomingdale's flagship Men's Store on 59th Street used to quite unpleasant to visit -- dark, creepy, crowded and disorganized labyrinth in the basement. The utterly revamped and redesigned Men's Store, however, is much better, starting right at the subway door and moving up three levels from jeans to designer collections, suits and beyond. Lighting is improved, there is more space between collections, better grouping of collections, better signage and a more comfortable flow to move one self through. On the weekday morning of our visit, it was also semi-empty which was depressing for them but convenient for us. 

Our first sales guy in jeans proactively told my friend about a perk neither of us knew about and from which he could benefit: Bloomingdale's 11% discount for out of country visitors. 

This is really terrific and Macy's might have it as well.

Meanwhile, I was using my tax return money to get a new suit with a 30% discount as part of a pre-sale the following week (I can get the discount now but won't be charged or can't pick it up until then).  The sales are confusing but at least the staff tried to help me figure out which one was best for me to use. 

Over lunch — after visits to Calvin Klein and the required pilgrimage to Barney's — we discussed service experiences between the US and France; my friend noted that in Paris, one would never have "pre-sales" event like that; it's an American invention.  In Paris, the sales person would simply tell you to come back next week.  Pre-sales, though, seem great for businesses getting you to buy stuff ahead of time and perhaps more of it.

Calvin Klein's flagship store on Madison Avenue, in comparison, was clean and sparse but the tomb-like design and sterile feel was uncomfortable and life-less. Staff were friendly enough, but followed you around like you were going to steal something. Clothes were displayed on hooks hanging from the ceiling. Men's underwear were the only thing on sale and were displayed coldly in recessed shelves, leaving little reason to buy them here when you can get them on sale nearly everywhere else from Bloomingdale's to Century 21 (suggestion to CK: hire models for the flagship store. Now there's a reason).  Leaving, unimpressed and hungry for the real world of emotion, we took the elevator too far down and found women in the Home department who seemed like they were in prison. We didn't spring them free, though; we simply left and with our many bags, went downtown to SoHo for more stores and a lovely lunch. 

Street Parking in NYC

We pulled our Mini from the garage two months ago to try out street parking. 

Spaces on the weekend in our neighborhood aren't difficult to find, often right in front of our house. The week, however, is much trickier both because our street is blocked off during school days and street cleaning requires alternate side parking.  Each street from south to north has a no parking window, like "No Parking Monday & Thursday 9-10.30AM." Then the next street north would have "No Parking Monday & Thursday 9.30-11AM." The opposite side of the street has "No Parking Tuesday & Friday 9-10.30AM."

Bryan has how and when and where to move the car down to an elegant effortless science, but when he goes out of town and I have to move the car, it becomes an inelegant effort — with the car ending back up in a paid lot.

Yesterday morning at 10AM, I take our car out of the paid lot where it had been for 24 hours (I gave up on Thurs), to move it. My plan was brilliant — find a spot that will be legal in 30 minutes and just sit in and wait. I put on NPR and start to circle blocks but am finding nothing. Suddenly, there's a great little spot my Mini can fit in in back of the school. After I smartly and snugly park, I get out to realize that it's available only because one cannot park there because of the school. I get back in, continue to circle, listening to NPR's analysis of the the governor's Senate pick, and circle and circle. 

This goes on for more than an hour before I give up. There's still time to make this experience worse, and I do. I drive the car with me to mid-town to work and only find no spots and a more expensive garage for the day.

Brilliance fades — I am novice.

Ethnography-wise , it is fascinating.

Walk along a street 30-60 minutes before the deadline and you see people smarter and earlier than I was, sitting in their cars, waiting and waiting. It becomes a cultural habit, and if you look closely, you can see that they're listening to the radio, doing their nails, talking on the phone, drinking coffee, reading a magazine. 

I want to knock on their windows to solicit advice, curious if I'll be warmly welcomed into this brotherhood of street parking or if the secrets are kept because the competition is so fierce.

Yoga : Just breathe

I started my beginner's course in Yoga, and it's not a stretch to say it's good for me.

Bryan's been into it for awhile, and he suggested I try it at the Joschi Body Bodega, which offers a four-week beginner's course. I did this on the one condition that no one expects me to become a vegetarian (my unspoken fear is the movement is a cult to vanquish cheeseburgers).

First breaths, first stretches

The first lesson, this past week, was really stimulating, and despite a challenging stuffy nose, I arrived on time with my own mat (mat on the mat, i know) and a class of about 8. 

The instructor is friendly, clear and helpful. She reminded us to do what feels right to us, not try to do everything right. The first class was warm-up exercises and you could feel your whole body work into it, stretching dormant muscles as you figured out to breathe in and out with the right moves. 

We introduce ourselves and she probes any injuries of which she should be aware (I ask if she means "emotional or physical?"). Several people in the group are not really beginners but luckily the guy to my right is not only a beginner, but he is incredibly inflexible, sent here by his daughter. 

Even after just one hour and half lesson, I have a favorite pose — the one where you thread your arm under the other and lie down fetally on your side. It pulls on your shoulder but if you focus a bit, you could really rest (i.e. nap). The famous downward dog is no problem, though I utterly lack grace getting into it and out of it. The plank position is brutal and it gets me very close to flashbacks to pushups from brutal varsity tennis training. I am looking forward to when I can smoothly move from pose to pose; it must be very gratifying.

While I am not particularly athletic, I like to think I am. 

For one, I can wear an 'athletic fit' Hugo Boss suit. I also played tennis a lot throughout childhood and middle and high school. What most people do not know is that I did gymanstics as a kid. In fact, the only reason I really stopped was because my favorite exercise was the mat exercise (another mat on mat joke goes there) and I was furious to learn that boys weren't supposed to do their floor routines to music the way girls did. It's utter discrimination, no? I mean, how can you have a theme song if you have no where to play it publicly?!?! (I think there's a piece of blog journalism in this alone.)

I'm trying to figure out if yoga is more of a fitness or spiritual thing. I asked this in class, and I got a "whatever you want it to be" answer. Yoga is like that. Anything goes, suggestions, but no direction. Everything's just terrific and everyone's wonderful. But do this. Try this. Touch your toes.  Even trying to figure out where you stand in the class is a big no-no.  Competition is antithetical to yoga. 

I try not to think of where I rank out of the eight... as I do the sun pose.

2008: Year of Culture in Review

Each year, I like to track what I've seen, read and experienced. 

It's a great way to share ideas with others, not to mention capture the year that was.  Especially if you don't have a great memory like me. (It's more of a list than commentary, but a few things have ** were just terrific. Things with a ^ were awful.) I also put in some links to some I have on my Amazon store if you wanna buy them directly.

BOOKS

Fiction:
Family and Other Accidents, Shari Goldhagen

Mergers & Acquisitions, Dana Vachon, silly novel
Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahihi's new book of stories**
I Just Want My Pants Back, David Rosen
Music Through the Floor, short stories, Eric Puchner**
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers: Stories, Yiyun Li**
The Secret Servant, Daniel DiSilva** (now I'm into this genre)

Big Slick, Eric Luper*
The City of Your Final Destination, Peter Cameron
The Indian Clerk, David Leavitt^

Exiles in America, Christopher Bram

NonFiction:
Fair Game, Valerie Plame Wilson

Hot, Flat & Crowded, Thomas Friedman**
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, Tony Judt**
When You Are Engulfed In Flames, David Sedaris**
Have You No Shame? essays, Rachel Shukert**
I Was Told There'd Be Cake, essays, Sloane Crosley*

Things In My Life I Have Learned So Far, Stephen Sagemeister
If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland
No Plot? No Problem, Chris Baty
What's That Job and How the Hell Do I Get It?, David Rosen
Pay It Down, Jean Chatzy* (for one of these type of bks, it's pretty darn good)
Camp Camp: Where Fantasy Meets Lord of the Flies
Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business
Radical Careering: 100 Truths to Jumpstart Your Job, Your Career, and Your Life, Sally Hogshead**

FILM
Sweeney Todd (better on bway)

Iron Man

The Savages (weird to watch on a plane)

Persepolis*

Sicko
No Country for Old Men**
The Other Boleyn Girl
Sex and the City
John Adams miniseries on HBO**
Helvetica
La Vie En Rose**
Mama Mia!^
Religulous* (Bill Mahr's piece de resistence)
W (James Brolin vehicle)
Quantam of Solace (not as good as Casino Royale)
Milk (Yes, Sean is great; narrative a bit halting)
Slumlord Millionaire** (utterly stunning)

Gosford Park (again, Maggie's great)

Casablanca (again)

It's a Wonderful Life (again, oddly timely)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*

Lust, Caution (Ang Lee)

ART & ARCHITECTURE
What I Would Rather Be Doing Exhibit, One Club (January)

Murakambi, Brooklyn Museum

DaDa at the MoMA

Brooklyn Designs exhibit, DUMBO (April)

Interesting New York (Bryan spoke)*

Musee Quai de Branly, Paris

Musee Orangerie, Paris (Monet Waterlilies)**

Foundation Cartier, Paris (Migrants exhibition)

American Cemetary, Normandy** *(Nov)

Gilbert & George Exhibit, Brooklyn Museum (November)

THEATRE/MUSIC
August: Osage County** *(probably the best theatre I've seen in a decade)

South Pacific**

James Blunt, The Beacon (February)**

Rufus Wainright, Radio City Music Hall (February)

James Taylor, Tanglewood (July)

Paul Simon with appearance by David Byrne, BAM

Charlie & Chocolate Factory (Sam's musical)**

NYC Gay Men's Chorus Christmas Concert at Carnegie Hall (bit of a downer this year)

David Sedaris, Avery Fisher Hall**

New Angle of Paris

Returned from our Paris annual trip. 

Usually, we go towards the end of the week for our traditional Thanksgiving, with our friends Alain and Ann and 15-20 of their friends. 

Bryan has a lot of great pictures from this past week, which I'll link to where appropriate. He's become quite a good photographer.

This year, we rented an apt in the 3rd right near them and had a full week in Paris instead. We started with a weekend in Normandy to see the D-Day beaches, American Cemetery and museum and stayed at an inn in Bayeaux. 

Then, during the week, we organized each day around lunch, of course, and found new things to see and do that we haven't done or seen. New restaurants, museums and walks in the city we've gotten to know so well.

Monday evening, we went back to our favorite English-speaking bookstore, Shakespeare & Company, which is in the 5th, though this time for their Monday night reading upstairs by a Shakespearean expert with a new book out. We also finally found The Village Voice, another good bookshop, in the 6th on Rue Princesse.

Tuesday evening, we met a childhood neighbor and her boyfriend who live in Paris for dinner, and a few other nights we just brought in dinner at our friends. All breakfasts started at charming and beautiful Cafe Charlot on Rue de Bretagne in the 3rd, where we became quite regulars, some days visiting 2 or 3x. Friday night at Alain and Ann's was the 5th annual Thanksgiving feast, Le Retour V. Each year we add a new dish or decoration (last year Pilgrim hats, previous year sweet potato pie). This year we revised the toast and speech ("le discours"), to the delight of the crowd, to include the Hugenot story in St Augustine FL.

Some more highlights of specific spots if you're lucky enough to go to Paris soon:

New neighborhood explored: Canal St-Martin. Even after 15+ trips to Paris, never realized there was a working canal running through the city just to the east of Republique.

Best meal: Lunch at Le Cave Gourmande du Marc Singer (10 rue du General Brunet) out in the 19th. Not usual place most people go but worth it out there. 

Other Best Meal: Le Timbre, 6th. British chef, French fare. 

Most disappointing meal: Chez L'Ami Jean in the 7th. Great soup (emulsion) but crappy service and overpriced.

Best new sight: Foundation Cartier, 14th. Jean-Nouvel designed exhibition building, currently showing footage and studies of migrants. Compelling.

Best old sight: Waterlillies at L'Orangerie, 1st. Seeing them especially in this space is pretty incredible in the oval room, just as Monet wanted, with no end or beginning.

Best outside, worst inside: Musée du Quai Branly. Another Jean-Nouvel building is the enormous and dramatic Branly on the Quai Branly, just east of the Eiffel Tower in the 7th. Walking up to it is really exciting since it's glass and grass design and landscaping are so cool and innovative. Inside is a huge collection of artifacts from Pacific Rim, Africa, Asia and North America. The thing is, it's so overdesigned that it's really dark and not to be an old person complaining, but I could barely read the descriptions.   

Worth seeing though crumbling a bit: Musée Rodin, 7th. Bryan had never seen the Rodin so we went to see The Thinker and see the other great sculpture in this big place. It's in crummy shape though.

Neighborhood not worth walking around: The 1st, near Place de la Madeline and Opéra. We tried to do a walking tour but got really bored fast. 

Favorite new wine I have to find here: Brully. Light, white, quite delicious.