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esday november 25 2009 music everywhere passing by a school playground full of children at recess in the east village today the din of a car horn in panic mode droned on and on in a monotone as they played just as i began to feel sorry for city kids who have to endure the urban noise around them from within their 12 foot chain link fence enclosed playground i heard four or five boys stop what they were doing and start to build a chord based on the note from the car horn they matched the rhythm creating the third and the fifth with one of the boys providing an off beat and another improvising a counterpoint melody one boy began to conduct with his right arm while the ball he had just been playing with was tucked under his left i stopped on the sidewalk to wonder at the spectacle touched and amused at their ability to make music out of a car horn i rounded the corner and realized that this was no ordinary playground i stumbled on to this was the playground of grace church school a beautiful gothic revival style edifice set back from the street at 820 broadway grace church boasts one of the finest musical programs in the city their open door policy and daily organ meditations are famous in the neighborhood in fact the school at grace church began as a boys choir boarding school in 1894 eventually the school expanded into a regular elementary school and became co educational but obviously they have maintained their strong music program including a chorister training program for kids good thing too because these kids probably would have been beaten to a pulp on any other new york city playground keep singing boys labels only in new york posted by michael 8 07 am 3 comments friday november 20 2009 i need a little christmas i won t lie the last couple of months being back in new york have been a big adjustment after such an incredible year at school it was bound to be a let down getting back to the city grind i miss the friends i made and the constant creative stimuli on top of that i had to finish up my final paper which is done and i m still living in a temporary housing situation the reason because the tenant i chose with such care last year to rent out my apartment while i was at school won t get out i won t go into all the details but it has been a constant source of frustration and anxiety the last six weeks so when my friend jimmy suggested i join him to attend the unicef snowflake lighting at 57th and 5th avenue i jumped at the chance somehow the beauty of 5th avenue as the holidays approach never fails to lift my spirits as these holiday lightings go the snowflake is a bit of a dog and pony show it s short and sweet a kids choir singing some holiday tunes some remarks from the unicef mucky mucks and a beautiful celebrity like unicef ambasador lucy liu to flip the switch et voila merry christmas just what i needed but the best part was probably going out for burgers afterwards with jimmy who loves a good greasy spoon diner as much as i do bacon cheeseburger deluxe please ah la parisienne diner c est magnifique labels christmas ny restaurants only in new york posted by michael 2 35 pm 3 comments tuesday november 17 2009 hunka munka chunka i don t care how stupid he is levi johnston is hawt labels pop culture posted by michael 5 17 pm 2 comments saturday october 31 2009 o solo mio an interesting bit of news about new york was released yesterday it seems that more than 50 of manhattanites live alone as in single no spouse no family this doesn t surprise me considering that the housing stock in manhattan is made up of more studio and one bedroom apartments than anything else but what i m waiting for is some kind of acknowledgement that this is the case soapbox please i have lived alone for the past 9 years that s not to say i m single i ve been in committed relationships for most of that time but that s the way we do things in manhattan no one wants to give up their apartment it s a classically eccentric new york tradition in one of the most famous examples woody allen and mia farrow maintained separate apartments for years okay maybe that s not the best illustration the point is this is nothing new to us and yet we single households are constantly discriminated against by society and in the media coming off an election year and still with the health care debate all anyone cares about representing or protecting or benefiting is families as if these are the only people worthy of going to political bat for have you noticed listen carefully no one ever talks about single people it s families families families the message is loud and clear that the only acceptable choice in our society is to live as a family this attitude probably a result of a right leaning socio political trend driven by the religious right even fuels the lgbt fight for marriage equality we ve gotten the message that in order to be legitimized by the mainstream we have to imitate their lifestyle i m convinced it s the reason the fight for marriage equality is far more visible and passionate than enda but shouldn t we make sure we re able to support our families by protecting our job security first but i digress manhattan was built for single people literally like i said look at the housing stock now the numbers even support that and yet new york continues this family friendly theme park approach to development and zoning that frankly most of us don t need or as in my case want i remember a friend who lived in chelsea telling me that he and his partner wanted to get out because every new building going up was selling 3 and 4 bedroom apartments what comes with all those bedrooms kids there goes the neighborhood now don t get me wrong i don t hate kids on the contrary i just don t want to raise yours and i don t want to live in a childproof world i ve made another choice a legitimate individual american as apple pie free choice to live alone just like the majority of manhattanites and there s nothing wrong with that we re americans too now wish me luck on explaining this post to scott who s moving in with me in a couple of weeks labels only in new york posted by michael 10 07 am 6 comments wednesday october 28 2009 we ve got a long way to go baby this week president obama will sign a federal hate crimes bill into law hallelujah 11 years after matthew shepherd s death no one will ever be able to commit such a heinous act without being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law as a hate crime it s about time but obviously we still have a long way to go to to educate people and eradicate homophobia sadly i suspect like racism it will always be an element in our society and permeate the way people think and act toward gay people yesterday having read the news that obama would sign the matthew shepherd bill into law i felt pretty good i ventured out the door to buy a cup of coffee as i stood waiting in line at the dunkin donuts my eyes fell on a stack of that day s new york post on the cover was shane victorino of the philadelphia phillies his torso was photoshopped onto a woman s body wearing a cheer leading skirt the caption read only in the city of brotherly love would victorino be considered a slugger whack homophobia slaps you in the face way to stay classy post sure it was a slam against philadelphia as a second rate city but with strong homophobic overtones just a few days ago scott was saying to me remember those scholastic book orders from elementary school you d go home and ask you mom for money and then weeks later the books would arrive and you forgot all about them it was so exciting it was like getting a present i have the same memories then scott sent me this article that appeared in the stranger it seems the powers that be at scholastic books are exercising homophobic censorship go to the link to read the full story but apparently they asked an author who featured a set of same sex parents in her book to edit them out in favor of a heterosexual couple thankfully she refused i had the opportunity to educate someone this weekend about homophobia but i unfortunately i failed i was hosting a garage sale out at my parent s house in new jersey a woman came by with a couple of kids one of whom was in a boy scout uniform he was about 12 or 13 he was selling christmas wreaths to benefit the boy scouts first he approached scott who told the boy he didn t live there and passed him off to me i stalled passing him off to my mother as the lady of the house she didn t want to order any wreath from the boy scouts either but gave the kid a small donation instead mostly to spare us all any more awkward moments after that the kid went to ring other doorbells on the block while his mother stayed behind and browsed among the garage sale items now i didn t want to burst the kid s bubble by telling him i think the boy scouts are a bunch of homophobic bigots but i did have the opportunity to say to his mother after he left you know i didn t want to order anything that would support the scouts because they discriminate against people like me i wanted to tell her that the only men i ever knew who made it to eagle scout are gay i wanted to tell her that municipalities across the country including the city of brotherly love are doing the right thing and not allowing a discriminatory organization to hold meetings in municipal buildings but i didn t i thought she might buy something so i didn t want to offend her i sold out my civil rights for a potential 5 garage sale transaction way to stay classy michael ps she didn t buy anything please do better than i did speak up when you have the opportunity updates the lapd has cut ties with a spin off group of the boy scouts as the group s discriminatory policy against lgbt youth and leaders is at odds with the city s non discrimination policy as is the case in more and more cities and municipalities across the country it s hard to be happy about it though scouting could be such a wonderfully positive organization for boys and it s the kids who lose in the name of protecting them also scholastic books has released a somewhat confusing statement regarding the luv ya bunches controversy they insist they do not censor but rather review books for inclusion in their clubs and fairs the lgbt thing aside isn t asking an author to clean up language a form of censorship also they say that luv ya bunches eventually passed review for their middle school book fairs this is an interesting distinction since the book is about 4 elementary school girls and according to amazon com is recommended for a 9 to 12 year old reading level pre middle school age labels current events homophobia posted by michael 9 41 am 2 comments monday october 12 2009 fortunate harlem two female cashiers at the duane read on 125 street woman 1 yeah he tol me that when obama talked to the school kids it would be good for my son cause he s unfortunate woman 2 he s not unfortunate he got two working parents that s fortunate amen labels only in new york posted by michael 1 20 pm 0 comments tuesday september 29 2009 who do you think you are hugh jackman has received a great deal of press over the last 24 hours for stopping a preview performance of his new broadway play a steady rain while an audience member s cell phone rang for almost a full minute i think reports of mr jackman s reaction have been greatly exaggerated one report i heard said that jackman ripped into the audience member in question actually i think he was fairly patient you can watch the clip yourself this made me recall a similar episode during the penultimate performance of patti lupone s gypsy during which some hapless audience member dared to take a picture patti s response was deliciously classic lupone watch and listen as an actor i admit i feel a certain degree of satisfaction when i watch these clips having had to perform through picture taking and cell phone ringing and some even more distracting behavior however i never stopped the show i can t i m not a star really the only actors who can get away with these sorts or responses are the ones whose names appear above the title in the case of jackman and lupone both have worked hard to get where they are and in my opinion are deserving of their success and whether it s fair or not their celebrity and fame gives them a certain amount of leadership within a company of actors but for example if the picture taking had happened during little lamb the girl playing louise would have been expected to just soldier on through the song every actor knows the oldest rule in show business is the show must go on as actors part of our job is to have the technique and concentration to continue in the moment despite whatever distractions may happen in the audience you owe it to everyone in the audience who is not behaving badly and the rest of the actors on stage who are working collaboratively to create the reality of the play one actor deciding to abandon that collaboration is arguably more distracting than any cell phone ring or camera flash also in our community of the theatre as miss lupone so eloquently puts it we onstage know that there is a staff of ushers and a house manager out there whose job it is to deal with offending audience members you can t see it in the hugh jackman clip but i promise you there was an exasperated house manager or usher standing in the aisle arms waving wildly trying to communicate to the cell phone ringer to get the heck out of the theatre someone from the stage jumping in to do this job makes the entire episode more humiliating and disruptive than it really needs to be now i admit this is the ideal philosophy i d like to adhere to in the best of all possible worlds but these reactions though i don t condone them are kinda fabulous in an actor s ultimate revenge fantasy sort of way the great irony here is that while recording these reactions may not be distracting it is illegal can you imagine what patti would have done if she d known labels pop culture theatre posted by michael 10 05 am 3 comments life in the big city about me name michael location new york ny united states a new york resident for 17 years actor singer florist you fill in the blanks view my complete profile previous posts music everywhere i need a little christmas hunka munka chunka o solo mio we ve got a long way to go baby fortunate who do you think you are status update shakespeare in the parking space city snapshot little league in the big city archives july 2006 august 2006 september 2006 october 2006 november 2006 december 2006 january 2007 february 2007 march 2007 april 2007 may 2007 june 2007 july 2007 august 2007 september 2007 october 2007 november 2007 december 2007 january 2008 february 2008 march 2008 april 2008 may 2008 june 2008 july 2008 august 2008 september 2008 october 2008 november 2008 september 2009 october 2009 november 2009 blog roll acid reflux bigassbelle bigezbear bitter cup of joe cote d 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