There are times when I really hate technology and this is one of them. I'm stuck at home waiting for DHL to deliver a cell phone. "Why?" you may be asking. OK. My cell phone literally broke in half in August. One of the great things about car life in the burbs is that you can get in the car, go, park, do your thing, and head back. No cabs, subways or long treks. Anyway, I went to the Verizon store and being that I have insurance, I was able to get a new phone delivered the next day. So Wednesday late afternoon, only 6 weeks later, the new phone starts acting silly with a reverse screen, shutting off etc, then dying. I schlep to the Verizon store in Soho, ordered a replacement (no $50 fee this time, woohoo!) and am waiting for DHL to deliver it, and I am sure that my buzzer won't work and they'll leave a note on the door. Then I have to go back to the Soho Verizon store so they can download (or upload??) the #'s from the old phone to the new. Uggh. Bad timing, as this Sunday is the 25th Annual Hoboken Studio Tour, and I was planning on doing the annual studio vacuuming today. Plus a dozen other things. Plus I may be opening a coffee bar/art gallery in Asbury Park, but that's a whole other entry.
I want my modern technology - cell phone, computer -- to be like my refrigerator. I want to plug it in, have it work, and only have to deal with repairs/maintenace every 10 years or so.
OK, occasionally I have to change the baking soda and do a cleaning if I forget about food in there and it mutates into a science experiment, but that's much easier to deal with than DHL deliveries, updates, modems, and all the bizarre mind of its own bullshit that computers love to do.
I had a cartoon on my cubicle wall at Arthur Andersen that was great - 3 guys were pulling an enraged fellow office worker away from his desk as he gave the finger to the computer, and the computer screen read "F**k you, too!"
I have AOL (which is another blog entry!) and Explorer. When I go to explorer it says I need to update Mozilla or Safari (I have a Mac). So I download Safari, and it says the same thing!! Why? Anyone know?? Help a brother out.
Well, I used most of my time this morning to print labels, price lists, etc for the Studio Tour. I'm very happy because Mom is setting up tables outside my studio to sell her handmade quilts and pillows. For someone who never took an art class in her life, she has an amazing sense of color. I have alot of small pieces, someold some new, on the wall in my studio at low prices. I always do well at the Studio Tour which equals extra moola and extra space. If you're reading this, it's at 720 Monroe Street betw 7th and 8th in Hoboken, NJ on Sun Oct 15th from noon-6pm. Below are some pics.
I used some of my time surfing the net, and did my guilty pleasure perusal of Craigslist. I wrote a note to a woman who's going to be in town and has an extra ticket for Madama Butterfly at the Met! She replied and I think I'm in, I'll know when she calls tonight - if my damn phone ever gets here. I've never been to the opera, isn't that lame for an artist?? My end of the deal is I have to find a nice place for dinner, which is cool as I love fine dining and I rarely have an excuse to wear a suit.
A free ticket to the opera with a cute woman from out of town via the internet - OK OK, I don't COMPLETELY hate technology.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Friday, October 6, 2006
My NY "Free" Day!
Yesterday morning the cell rings and it's Martin, a friend I've known since we met the very first day of college in 1981. Martin just left his job of 15+ years to pursue the freelance life, and lucky for him (and me) we make our schedules because a friend of his gave him 2 tickets to the Yankees/Tigers game!! FREE!! Game 2 had been rained out the night before and this was an afternoon makeup game. "Hells yeah!" I replied when he asked me if Iwanted to join him. It was gorgeous and sunny, but cold, and luckily I layered the clothes - it felt like a 20 degree difference between sitting in the sun and sitting in the shade where we were. I never sat in the bleachers before, and it's a different breed of fan there. For starters, there's no alcohol allowed in the bleachers. Everyone seems to know eachother. Lots of cops. And lots of abuse to the opposing team's outfielders. But hey, the best part of being at a live game is the crowd, and these bleacher bums really get into it. The funniest was when they'd play the fanfare to yell "Charge!", this guy would yell in a raspy, deep, New York accent-ed voice, "Chahahahahahge!"
We were right behind Bobby Abreu, and unfortunately the Yanks lost 4-3. But I love going to Yankee Stadium, and I have mixed feelings about the new stadium. When I go to Yankee Stadium, it's the history that gets you. You sit and realize that the field you're looking at was played upon by the Babe, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mickey, Yogi, Reggie, Thurman, Murcer, Mattingly and the amazing rosters of the past 10+ years. OK, the new stadium will be "nicer" and have more luxury boxes and maybe more food and family oriented stuff, but dammit, I like the grittiness! Oh well, you can't stop "progress". One more Yankee note: I think the most overlooked player on this team is Jorge Posada, my favorite. A-Rod gets the press and the big bucks, Jeter has the skills and the looks, and so many others get more media attention, but Posada is Mr. Consistent. I'm not enough of a sports fan to be able to rattle off stats, but Posada always gets the clutch hit or homer, never causes waves - he'd be a huge star on another team but this team has so many stars he gets a bit lost in the shuffle.
OK, so this is about my NY Free Day. I get home from the game and checked email and got a free screening pass for the movie "Infamous" about Truman Capote. It's exactly like the last movie about him starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote". This stars Toby Jones and directed by Douglas McGrath. Apparently this film was in the works for some time and sat on the shelf for a bit. Perry Smith was originally to be played by Mark Wahlberg, then replaced by Mark Ruffalo in 04 and finally by Daniel Craig who did a great job. Michelle Pfeiffer was originally to play Slim Keith but was replaced in 05 by Hope Davis. Get this cast: Jeff Daniels, Sigourney Weaver, Isabella Rossolini, Peter Bogdonovich, and Sandra Bullock. Much different in tone from the brooding, sometimes plodding "Capote", Jones' Capote is much more flamboyant than Hoffman's, from what I remember of Truman Capote on talk shows and such, more true. "Infamous" had plenty of humorous moments and focused alot on his gossipy relationships with NY high society. There was an awful lot of liberty taken here and the film had a disclaimer at the end. McGrath employed the use of fake talking head interviews with the other characters, and I don't know how much was scripted and how much was taken from actual statements. Interesting, because the film talks about how Capote was developing a new style of reportage, that being using the techniques of a novel to report non-fiction, and here we have a film that is doing the same thing. Daniel Craig's Perry Smith was deeper and explored more here than in Capote. In that film the stance is that Perry wasn't very bright and Capote simply used him for the book. "Infamous" delves more into their relationship, including a kiss and confession of mutual feelings which may or may not have happened - - did Capote ever admit they kissed or is this supposition based on the rumor that they had developed real feelings for eachother? I'll be curious to see the reviews and to learn more about what was "real" and what wasnt in this movie. If you're not annoyed by the Greek chorus faux interviews, it is an entertaining movie with a very fine performance by Toby Jones. How odd would it be to have 2 actors win Best Actor for portraying the same character? My pick, though, is Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland", which I highly recommend! Watching Jones as Capote preening in long scarves and fur coats in rural Kansas at that time was a riot, and the supporting cast make this movie worth seeing.
Even better, I saw it (and a Yankees play-off game) for FREE - all in one great New York day!
We were right behind Bobby Abreu, and unfortunately the Yanks lost 4-3. But I love going to Yankee Stadium, and I have mixed feelings about the new stadium. When I go to Yankee Stadium, it's the history that gets you. You sit and realize that the field you're looking at was played upon by the Babe, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mickey, Yogi, Reggie, Thurman, Murcer, Mattingly and the amazing rosters of the past 10+ years. OK, the new stadium will be "nicer" and have more luxury boxes and maybe more food and family oriented stuff, but dammit, I like the grittiness! Oh well, you can't stop "progress". One more Yankee note: I think the most overlooked player on this team is Jorge Posada, my favorite. A-Rod gets the press and the big bucks, Jeter has the skills and the looks, and so many others get more media attention, but Posada is Mr. Consistent. I'm not enough of a sports fan to be able to rattle off stats, but Posada always gets the clutch hit or homer, never causes waves - he'd be a huge star on another team but this team has so many stars he gets a bit lost in the shuffle.
OK, so this is about my NY Free Day. I get home from the game and checked email and got a free screening pass for the movie "Infamous" about Truman Capote. It's exactly like the last movie about him starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote". This stars Toby Jones and directed by Douglas McGrath. Apparently this film was in the works for some time and sat on the shelf for a bit. Perry Smith was originally to be played by Mark Wahlberg, then replaced by Mark Ruffalo in 04 and finally by Daniel Craig who did a great job. Michelle Pfeiffer was originally to play Slim Keith but was replaced in 05 by Hope Davis. Get this cast: Jeff Daniels, Sigourney Weaver, Isabella Rossolini, Peter Bogdonovich, and Sandra Bullock. Much different in tone from the brooding, sometimes plodding "Capote", Jones' Capote is much more flamboyant than Hoffman's, from what I remember of Truman Capote on talk shows and such, more true. "Infamous" had plenty of humorous moments and focused alot on his gossipy relationships with NY high society. There was an awful lot of liberty taken here and the film had a disclaimer at the end. McGrath employed the use of fake talking head interviews with the other characters, and I don't know how much was scripted and how much was taken from actual statements. Interesting, because the film talks about how Capote was developing a new style of reportage, that being using the techniques of a novel to report non-fiction, and here we have a film that is doing the same thing. Daniel Craig's Perry Smith was deeper and explored more here than in Capote. In that film the stance is that Perry wasn't very bright and Capote simply used him for the book. "Infamous" delves more into their relationship, including a kiss and confession of mutual feelings which may or may not have happened - - did Capote ever admit they kissed or is this supposition based on the rumor that they had developed real feelings for eachother? I'll be curious to see the reviews and to learn more about what was "real" and what wasnt in this movie. If you're not annoyed by the Greek chorus faux interviews, it is an entertaining movie with a very fine performance by Toby Jones. How odd would it be to have 2 actors win Best Actor for portraying the same character? My pick, though, is Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland", which I highly recommend! Watching Jones as Capote preening in long scarves and fur coats in rural Kansas at that time was a riot, and the supporting cast make this movie worth seeing.
Even better, I saw it (and a Yankees play-off game) for FREE - all in one great New York day!
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