Pre-Macy's Thanksgiving parade Balloons 2008

Outside the Mus. of Natural History amongst thousands of people the balloons are inflated and displayed to the general public




That's Ronald McDonald




That's a Keith Harring float





That's Pikachu

The Visitor (2008)

The Visitor is a smart, educated film that should not be overlooked. The movie year has been slim on good movies to say the least. This is by far an exception.

It tells a story of a professor who is listlessly living out the last years of his life alone. He puts on a façade to the nothingness of his life. Forced to present a paper that he didn’t write at NYU or face losing face he leaves Connecticut to goes to his unused apartment in on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He finds a couple living there. He let’s them stay and befriends the dude Tarek who is a Syrian musician. Tarek teachers Walter, the professor, to play the African drum. Tarek plays the drum in a jazz band. The friendship, music and life of the couple staying with him renews his own life. During that time, the NYPD picks up Tarek and he is held in detention for his immigration status.

The movie is filled with spectacular performances by Richard Jenkins, Walter. Jenkins would be my vote for the Best Actor for this year. Haaz Sleiman plays the charismatic Tarak, and Danai Jekesia Guira plays his girlfriend. All three of them give a very realistic performance, and the audience is intrigued by their character development.

I like the themes in this movie. In the movie the characters have realistic challenges and are often powerless in their own struggle. Life in New York and America can be overwhelming, but the theme of life coming through and is heartwarming. Tarak is put into the criminal justice system which leads to immigration detention. The movie does a good job at conveying the process, and the hopelessness of it.

There is a little business where Walter goes out with Tarak’s mom, which is a little weird, but not as weird as You don’t mess with the Zohan; if you saw that movie then you know what I mean.

Another thing I like about this film was the character of New York City. The locations are some of the best of the city. There are many shots of the Village in the NYU area. It captures the life of it well.

There are no happy endings in The Visitor, but the essence of the characters stay with you and the image of a 60 year old man carrying around an African drum is endearing.

Sex and the City in Time Warner Center

Kim Cattrall was promoting the new movie by the Time Warner Center the other day, and I was there by chance : )

The Know-It-All: One Man’s humble quest to be the smartest person in the world by A.J. Jacobs

This is another book by a neighbor of sorts. A.J. Jacobs, I saw him speak at a J.C.C. of Manhattan talk on the Upper West Side. From how he seems to describe every nuance of his life, I gather he live somewhere in the West 80’s. I rarely make it up there.

Jacobs takes the reader through his adventure of reading the encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z.

He describes why. It is not really to be the smartest person in the world even though it is what he tells people. It is to regain his perceived lost sense of being the smartest boy in the world. Today, he finds his mind rotting in a perfect storm of pop-culture, which he works, lives and breathes. He is often surrounded by other know-it-alls, such as his father and brother-in-law.

Most of the time he reads , if you will, to us sections of the Britannica that he finds interesting; shares his thoughts, and kvetches about life. He endless describes his wife Julie, so much that you feel that she is the greatest woman who ever lived. I guess he loves his wife. They are trying to have a baby in the book, so I guess the book as sex appeal. Just to give it away. They do succeed eventually.

The book is peppered with vignettes about the relationships with his boss, his father, his brother-in-law, and his appearance in ‘Who’s wants to be a Millionaire’ TV game show.
Not to mention joining Mensa, meeting so-called smart people including Alex Trabrek; whom he mistakes for a Mexican gardener and who’s personal contact excludes him from getting on Jeopardy, which is the New York Times of games shows apparently.

The author does sound like your whinny little friend who spends a lot of time in doors and has share every little thought with you; like a less neurotic Woody Allen. He does write so conversationally that the book reads like a very long conversational letter.

You learn interesting things and not-so interesting while following A.J.’s adventure in reading. For instance, the average of a person in Roman times lived to be 29 years and that there is no entry for Tom Cruise, which is slight to Julie.

It does get it boring in the middle as he goes on and on with the , , and ‘who cares’ . However, after putting the book to do something else, anything else, it picks up again, and in the end there is wisdom.

This is where this project/effort by the author and the reader of the The Know-It-All becomes a success. Because all involved puts a lot of information in their mind, information that will soon be forgotten, and comes out of with wisdom.

Jacobs learns to appreciate life in modern times. He learns that intelligence and knowledge might not be the same but live in the same neighborhood, which might be a quote from the book. He learns to appreciate his father, brother-in-law, and feels more prepared to raise his soon to be new born baby.

For the reader, the reader gets some knowledge at Jacob’s expense, some wisdom at Jacob’s expense, and not laughs also at Jacob’s expense. Get the book from the Library and there will be no expense to you.

A Three Dog Life, A Memoir, By Abigail Thomas (2007)

This work by Abigail Thomas is a true story; her story of a chapter in her life. Maybe it is summation of a life of experience. These kinds of stories are not hard to find. I am sure they are not as well received as this one, with its awesome lauds from everything newspaper to author Stephen King. However, for me, it’s a little different. It turns out that Thomas lived about three blocks away from me at the time of this book. We shared the same streets, and shopped at the same Market in the Columbia University area of Manhattan. Although, I have no memory of this woman, I am sure that I must have past her on the street or even waited in line with in the Westside Market.

OK, so this book seems a little more real to me. Got it?

The story focuses around one event and its aftermath. Thomas’ husband was hit by a car returning home after taking their beagle Harry for a walk. Rich sustained massive brain damage. He lost short term memory and control of much of his mental functionality. He was emotionally all over the place sometimes going into unexplainable rages and paranoia.

Abigail’s life changes immediately. She has to handle what happened to her husband while handling what happened to her. The book in many ways is a story of adaptation, which seems to be a strength of the author. If you ever had to adapt to a sudden and traumatic change in life, you can easily relate. What she is does best and what is best about the book is her ability to document the process honestly and with great sympathy.

At the start of the book, she starts out with one dog, Harry. By the end she has three. I think her favorite is Harry the beagle, but I am biased. I am sure that I have seen this beagle as I noticed every beagle on the street, so I am sure that I must have noticed a neighborhood beagle on Broadway or Riverside Drive.

The title of book is taken from an aboriginal saying that during especially cold nights the more dogs sleep with you. Anyone who has an indoor dog know that on cold night dogs will get in bed with you, roll into a ball, and lean right up against you. If you have a beagle, you know that the beagle will do the same but take up most of the bed or couch.

I liked that Thomas is a true dog person. She gets them. This is evident in all of her little insights about the personalities and skill sets of her dogs.

In some ways, her book it is quite frightening and lonely. It frightening what her husbands goes through, and what she goes through with her husband. Rich is healthy individual who had a terrible thing happened to him and lost everything except his wife. You sort of know that he is going to die soon. It hangs over everything. It is a lonely experience to go through her loneliness, until you realize that she seems excel in loneliness.

In many ways, she is a happier and stronger person after this tragedy; one because she learns how to rely on herself and she learns to find comfort where she can find it. She, of course, finds comfort in her dogs. Who wouldn’t? She finds comfort in her Husband in his new life. She moves to Woodstock to be near the facility that he now lives in.

Although as I fell deeper into the book, more annoyed I got with Abigail. I found that the book lacked insight and wisdom. In sometimes, I wondered if she liked her husband better after the accident, whom she related to more as dog than as a human being. She is definitely woman who prefers solitude; more immersed in her own thoughts than with other people. She seems to come to terms with after a life time of fighting, and feeling bad about it. It’s not uncommon, I have met people like this, and I think she is one of them.

My favorite passage is when she describes how she used feel unnerved that there was something else going on and she wasn’t there, and now she hopes they are having a good and don’t call her.

Maybe it’s a story of depression and loss. There are hints of sweetness and strength which are certainly not mutually exclusive. It is certainly a powerful story, well written, and very touching.