Tuesday, October 17, 2006

All I learned about Fashion from my dog (walks).

Teddy's trip through Soho; or "Fashion Walks" or "All I learned about Fashion from my dog (walks)."

We take a left out of 40 macDougal Street and immediately are stopped right next door at the French restaurant, Provence. All the waiters and bus boys are standing outside, leaning against the cars parked on the street and smoking a cigarette, enjoying the warm sun on their faces and back before they have to head in for another night of mis-management and boring slow table service.

"Teddy! Teddy!" Come 'ere Teddy!" the chorus of French, Tibetan, Mexican and Kentuckian voices ring out. "Hey dude! How're ya doin,'" Mike, the bartender from Kentucky who doesn't drink and who epouses his left-wing radical points-of-view to anyone who'll sit and listen to his grumbling, asks. He musses up the fur on Teddy's head and picks up his front paws so he's standing like a circus bear. Sometimes Mike will put a big square white napkin over Teddy's head and make up a little political skit. Sometimes he'll ask Teddy if he was down in Washington protesting Bush this past week.

After a few more jokes, jabs and laughs around Mike and his engaging Teddy in his political activism, and after relatively few words even acknowledging Courtney, his owner, she decides it's time to go. Courtney laughing says, "alright…we'll come back later, but Teddy's gotta go have his walk now. We'll be by later, for some steak."

Teddy moves up to the next planter filled with Ivy, sniffs and lifts his leg. Then to the other side of the sidewalk, he approaches the corner of the building. Simon and Anna live here, at this gorgeously large townhome with front windows filled from top to bottom with hanging plants, trees and cacti on the windowsill. It's almost a tourist attraction with young people stopping to show it to their parents as part of their "this is my New York tour." Simon and Anna moved into the building on the corner of MacDougal and Prince in 1970. Today, the market on that house? Well, as Tony Bagandoughnuts would say, "fo-get-abou-it." Teddy lifts his legs and proclaims, "I was here" with his piddle.

We round Prince and Teddy stops at the planter, filled with ivy, on the Prince Street side of Simon and Anna's house. A lift, a piddle and we're on. Teddy criss-crosses down the sidewalk, going from garbage heap on the curb to the corners of buildings and storefronts, lifting his leg, sniffing and marking his spot.

Once we reach Thompson Street, Teddy usually will want to pull and head up North. He stays close to the curb as we get mid-block when, good New Yorker that he is, jay-walks to the other side of the street, and we continue North to the Pet Bar. Of course, there's a little stop for a quick mark, and then we head into the famed Pet Bar.

Teddy immediately banks a left and inspects all the raw-hide chews in the bins close to the floor. After moving down the aisle, sniffing cat food and then heads back up to head to the other side of the store and check out the dog food. Courtney inspects the leashes and toys. "Would Teddy like a cookie?" "Sure." The owner offers a cookie, which Teddy promptly snubs his nose at. He wants a special "dried lamb lung." Courtney takes the cookie and they leave, heading South again and back onto Prince Street to head East and then further South down West Broadway.

The first stop is the Swatch store, where Teddy will mark on the corner. If it's summertime, he likes to go in there and lay flat on the cool granite tile floors. He'll chill out here a little bit and then bounce up and trot on out to the next stop.

A little sniff here. A little sniff there. Lift the leg at this spot, lift the leg at that spot. We make our way down, marking the black-painted concrete stoop where a petite poodle lives and his owner, always in roller blades and in tight black short-shorts and t-shirt, a terry-cloth headband, knee pads, elbow pads.

There's the new mediteranean day spa with large fruit and cake shaped soaps, the adorable French mens' and boys matching swimming trunks store Villebreune and my one of my favorite jewelry stores (NAME) with brightly colored gems and lacquer gold and silver chunky necklaces, earrings, rings, brooches and bracelets.

Then we approach the highpoint of the walk. Jaime Mascaro Shoes with Fanny, the store manager. Fanny has known Teddy since he was about six months old and she's the only one he let's pick her up by his armpits and let dangle facing forward. Teddy's now able to just relax and go for the ride. As soon as Teddy walks through the large all-glass doors into the long spacious store with mirrors and diagonal-poles scattered the length of the store to the back mirror wall and serpentine shelves filled with gorgeously crafted shoes, he pads over to the cashier check-out desk and sit down under the desk waiting for Fanny to finish. Sometimes she'll come around out from behind to greet Teddy and pick him up and kiss him. And, sometimes, she's down in the center or back of the store and Teddy has gotten used to just padding to the back of the store and peak around the wall to see if there's someone there. This is where the magic water bowl is waiting. Well, to be true, it's either on the floor there or on a shelf in the bathroom. Fanny fills up the water bowl and Teddy laps up a good drink of water.

After Teddy's filled up on water, he'll turn around and plop down on the cool concrete floor and just look up and around while Courtney and Fanny chat, smiling at the whole world like the very satisfied pup that he is.

After Courtney's had enough of chatter--usually about her divorce or men or some other woe-of-the-day, she bids adieu, thanks Fanny for the water and she and Teddy head back out onto the street.

Immediately out of Jaime Mascaro, Teddy immediately needs to sniff and usually pee on the wooden column of the shoe store next door. Sometimes Teddy will cut the walk short by heading up the stairs into DKNY

This store Teddy will usually just pretty much head straight through to the other side and exit on the other street--Thompson Street--which will deposit us directly next door to a pet shop with all sorts of froofy and hip toys, clothing, accessories and snacks typical of the posh New York dog owner set.

Teddy's far too "street" for this though, despite his debutante looks.

However, this sidetrip through DKNY doesn't happen too frequently since his first year. Usually Teddy keeps his eye on the prize, or prizes, which are treats at the Origins store on the southwest corner of Spring and West Broadway.

Once or twice, again in his first summer, Teddy decided to have a tour of Giorgio Armani, but he quickly decided it just wasn't his taste. The Diesel store held a lot of interest for a while because of the carpeting and full-length mirrors in the dressing rooms. The first time Teddy headed in there he meandered straight back to the dressing rooms and promptly began barking at himself in the mirrors. Then he'd flop over onto his back, do the squirmy-wormy dance. After a few more barks at himself and after Courtney could compose herself from laughing at her cute little doggy's antics, they'd walk out, thanking the staff for their hospitality.

THEN we'd make it to Origins. All the staff at Origins love Teddy. Fortunately for Teddy. He'd get several cookies and even learned a few tricks as a result. He's learned how to spin around and much of his "down" training was conducted in that very store! Sometimes Courtney would get a hand massage or a few makeup tips. Every now and then she'd get a free makeup sample but usually it was just pleasantries exchanged and most of the conversation focused around Teddy.

After a few treats and significant attention from Origins Teddy and Courtney would either head further south and Courtney would try and show off her amazingly cute doggie to all the Euros and others sitting outside at Cipriani's downtown and perhaps stop into Tommy Hilfiger's three-story store for a walk through. Lately Hilfiger's has been giving treats, so that might become a more frequent stop.

Most of the times though, after Origins, Courtney would swing Teddy around and head West on Spring. A handful of times he'd take her into Intermix, but usually they'd cross at Thompson and either head up Thompson on the Famous Ben's Pizza side, (pee on the resin statue) or on the Vesuvio Park side. Or, sometimes they'd meander up to Sullivan and walk up the StuART jewelry side (which butts up against the other end of the block-wide park) or the quieter, more residential side of the street, past the large, modern apartment buildings with all the bikes in front and the smaller, older brick townhomes.

Teddy would try and prolong the walk back as much as possible and especially linger by the flower beds on the St. Anthony's convent side of the street. But once Courtney mentioned the magic words he'd pick up his pace and get quicker to the big reward at the end of the walk.

Friday, October 13, 2006

A Look Over the Horizon: Google, Microsoft, New Yorkers talk

The room could've been set for a wedding. Short, elegant white hydrangea and orchid arrangements centered on each table, elegant martini glasses at each place setting and a beautiful sunny day all contributed to the excitement in the room. There was a man and a woman at the center, on a dais, and a third man officiating, and an expectant audience. Yet, the stage and room was set for the Syracuse University's Newhouse School in NY discussion at the Bryant Park Grill. The woman was Google consumer web products director Marissa Mayer and the man was Intellectual Ventures founder & CEO Nathan Myhrvold. The "officiant?" The author and writer of "The New Yorker's Annals of Communications" Ken Auletta.

These weren't the only powerhouses in the house though. CBS Digital Media president Larry Kramer, UBS Investment Banks MD and Joint Head of Tech Brian Webber and The New Yorker editor David Remnick also each had a chance for their shout-out.

Here are the meat-n-potatoes (synopsized):
KA: Does Google think it's getting revenue from its massive YouTube purchase?
NM: Google's purchasing a popularity entity, not a profitable venture. Soon these videos will be seen on HD quality.
MM: We will honor copyright requests of content creators on YouTube and remove videos when asked.

KA: Is Google going after Microsoft?
NM: Yes! Case in point, "Google's word processing application online is like a thumb in the eye to Microsoft" and MS will respond to that for sure.
MM: "It's hard to play offense when the competition has $150 mm in cash." "We try to focus on the end-user."

KA: How is Google affecting the traditional content generators (publishing, books, Hollywood)
MM: Books are not going to go away. Publishers don't need to work. People will always want to bring a book to the beach, not read it on their computer.
NM: "I'm on the board of Dreamworks, so I'm Shrek's boss's boss." The software is so much better from a technology standpoint so the ability to tell a story is much better. "The challenge is what happened to music is now happening to movies. Hollywood is driving toward the cliff, just like Thelma and Louise." I have two twin 17-year old boys and I told them as long as they live under my roof (with copyrights have paid for) then they will be paying for their music. Of course their teenage friends think they (and thus I) am stupid.
MM: We are working with publishers and have 10 years before we get all books online.
NM: The biggest issue is that there's no Digital Rights Management (DRM). There's no standard way to buy digital content, so people will steal it. It's like when you pay for something with a Mastercard or Visa, the machine that reads the stripe on the back is standardized.
MM: We initially had resistance when we first launched News. You didn't want to be in my Inbox that morning! But by the afternoon, things were better... We had success with the New York Times with the "1st-click free" experiment. We convinced them that there would be more registrants and loyal readers if they let them read the first page of the article they're trying to get at for free. It worked.
NM: In 1989 there was an article saying that it's not about the 3lbs of pulp delivered to your doorstep on Sunday mornings. Newspapers don't need the paper. It's about the content and now these content players can expand their offerings to other mediums. TV News killed "Look" and "Life" magazine because those publications were photojournalism. In the same way there will be some transitions and filtering of older properties as these newer mediums emerge and fine-tune.

KA: A lot of companies have a big lead and then stumble--AOL, Yahoo--How's it going to be for Google?
MM: We don't consider ourselves on a big perch. Yes, search is good but we'd like it to be even better! And we're not the leader in Asia. I always tell my product developers, "look! There's another leader! Follow them!" Sometimes it's easier to see what others are doing and follow their lead than to always have to be the one to come up with the font leading on a site. (oh! Woh is me!)
NM: It's important for companies to not rest on their laurels. The way you do well in life is to fix the mistakes when you're not perfect, because none of us are perfect.

Question from the audience:
Larry Aidem, President and CEO, Sundance Channel: Question regarding a quality filter. Their tagline is, "we watch bad movies, so you don't have to."
MM: Good videos get rated higher and when you see one you like you share it with your friends. For instance, she loved the OK GO treadmill dance and sent that to all her friends. There's a guy at Google who watches videos all day and rates them. Lucky guy. People love his ratings, and this is the beginning of their "quality filter."

Writing this, I got sidetracked and the one I found that I think is cool, is this one: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6061551977859737596
(and here: http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/6/slip_of_the_tongue/)

A UBS guy asked about the scalability of the hardware.
NM: This is the disease that computer geeks since the 60s keep getting--thinking that you're going to get a computer that's scalable. The computer isn't scalable, the interface is. Basically, Google itself is a giant supercomputer using lots of computers around the world.
MM: Google wants to make more content partnerships. Her friends and family are exasperated by Google's interface. They're like, "You've been there 7 years and it still looks the same!" Advertising is the area where there's the most room for innovations.

Question from Joe @ The New York Times about when will we be able to just type a question into a search and get an answer?
MM: We need to do a better job of blending technology so you could get a picture, or a video or a snippet as an answer. Written instructions on how to build a snowman isn't as effective as a video. Soon she'd like to see ability to get search results for voice requests, like when you're in your car and you're looking for a Chinese food restaurant.

John Sykes from MTV Networks asked a question before there were closing remarks and the captive audience sipped some more coffee, exchanged a few business cards and then headed out into the bustling busy city of New York. Media, Technology, Art, Fashion, Film, Culture and Food--it's all here and it's all excellent!

Disclaimer: The martini glasses were filled to the rim with.... yogurt, honey and granola!

What's the next (creative) idea?!

Looking to bring some more creativity into your life? Try Judy and Andre's "The Next Idea Creativity Weekend," where you can explore the Art, Science and Spirit of Creativity. Held the weekend of October 27th, in the idyllic Lebanon, NY, flush with trees bursting with color at a Sufi retreat and compound, this weekend will have diverse workshops given by over 20 top leaders in the field of creativity. Structured as a "Micro-University" with 3 concurrent sessions every hour and a half, you can select from a wide range of topics in Business, Personal and Professional Creativity. More info:

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Psychedelics, poetry and technology. What more could a girl ask for?!

What kind of world will it be when psychedelic medicines and sacraments are fully integrated into society? Well, on October 12th, "Poetry Science Talks" featured Tom Roberts, professor, scholar, author, chrestomathematician, organizer and quiet activist spoke on a psychedelic future. Whoa dude. I actually couldn't make this trippy happening, but I'll be checking out others, so stay tuned for more!

Kim Roy is not a Korean man!

The first two years of my college life I spent in idyllic Saratoga Springs, NY at Skidmore. This small liberal arts college manages to continue to produce smart people with smart ideas so I was more than interested in attending their first of a monthly series at the Triomphe restaurant on 44th Street. Bright and early on Thursday, October 12th (7:15 AM!) I heard Ralph Lauren-Women president Kim Roy (Class of 1980) speak on her career path to this high-profile job. She spoke of the companies and department stores she worked for and how she's equally blessed with a wonderful family (including a daughter who's a Skidmore freshman now). Kim spent the majority of her brief talk focusing on what Ralph Lauren's business was like and how it's changing. We can read that in the news, I would've preferred to hear more of the personal journey as well. Like the time she was 23 and first sent to Asia. Everyone kept expecting a Korean man to show up because Kim is a common surname!

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Livin' Large: 4 Chapters of Teddy's Book

Livin' Large: Operation Teddy

CHAPTER ONE: "Movin' On Up"

It was a bright, warm, sunny morning on the morning Teddy was to begin his journey abroad. I'd been preparing myself mentally for a few days, admiring him with loving looks as he sat on the window-bench nibbling on his paw or a dental treat. Peter rang and we headed downstairs and up MacDougal Street to meet him on Houston. We climbed up into Peter's big Chevy Tahoe and sat on the plush leather seats in the roomy front seat. Teddy was his usual whiny self, unsure of where this adventure would end up and where he was going. I did my best to assure him all would be fine. And I rolled down the electric window to let him perch there and check out what was going on.

Peter drove leisurely up 6th Avenue in the middle lane, and I thought how different this was from my frantic and agressive morning commute bike rides. Teddy got more excited as we entered Central Park, remembering early Sunday mornings and thinking perhaps this massive blue chariot was to carry him to his favorite play place. But no! We continue on, up through and around the park, exiting at 72nd Street. The blue whale continued across town and then up Madison. As we got more North, we broke out into the Jefferson's theme song.

Teddy's "moving on up! To the East Side! To a Deluxe apartment, in the sky-eye! Ohhh, he's moving on up!" And movin' on up he was. Teddy was to spend the weekend with the O'Neills. Sheila has been begging to have a dog and, since Luke is wildly allergic, Peter wanted to do a more extended play date to create as realistic a scenario of owning a dog for his children. And so, I, generous woman that I am, agreed to donate Teddy to the cause. Or, shall I say, pimp him out!

We pulled into the garage and Teddy, always relieved to get out of a vehicle, was ready to see about relieving himself. He sniffed and marked as we rounded the corner of the Upper East Side street onto Tony Fifth Avenue.

We were introduced to the doorman, who was very curious as to who I was, as in "what's her connection, not her name." Nevermind that anyway, "Mr. O'Neill as a reminder, you know you have to use the service elevator with the dog."

"Look Teddy! You get your very own elevator! You're such a special little doggie, you get your own elevator."

Teddy's sniffing and sniffing all the corners and Peter begins his observations of how a little dog operates.

Operation Teddy is going into full swing as we enter the spacious 3-bedroom, 4-bath 15th-floor apartment. We toured the apartment, showing Teddy the den, living room and the kitchen--via a ball toss in that direction. I walked him down the hall and we inspected Luke's room, Sheila's room (picking up little knick-knacks along the way). Peter opened the door to the master bedroom where we saw the spacious bathroom and large room, now with just a large mattress in it and none of the accoutrements that had been there during the Reign of Caroline (the soon-to-be ex-wife).

Teddy obviously recognized this as the master's bedroom because after I left Peter called to say he left him "a steamer." Atta-boy Teddy! That's showing him who's master.

CHAPTER TWO: "Family Life"

Teddy enjoyed a morning of chasing the ball for about 1/2 hour when Hilde, the housekeeper showed up and promptly took the Tedster for a walk.

Peter came into work to report more. The report: "he pees everywhere" and "2 more doogies." And, "how much can that little dog store in his bladder? He must be all bladder! It's phenominal how much pee that little guy has in him! But he's a dogs-dog. He goes ballistic from the other side of the door when Baxter the sheephound goes in and out of his apartment. And he pees everywhere. He definitely likes to mark his territory."

I'm just glad he didn't mark all over the apartment.

Leaving after a couple of hours in the office, Peter goes to pick up Sheila and then, avec Teddy, Luke at the school where he's practicing in their play. They took him to Central Park and walked him all around. Despite his hesitations on "filling up the tank again," Peter let him drink some water from a fountain.

The next report came in a couple of hours later, "how much do you let him sniff other dog's butts? Is it alright if he sniffs every butt?" They also began learning that fine line between walking-the-dog and the dog-walking-you. Apparently Sheila and Luke had a philisophical difference where Luke wanted to bring him along and Sheila was going at Teddy's pace. I assured them these were all issues that can be dealt with when you get a puppy and train him to walk better.

After dinner, I got a call regarding Teddy's ability to sit bolt upright and manage to look completely indignant at not having a place-setting at the table as well. Ah yes, the dinner antics. Teddy is quite the dramatist. He successfully begged and got a couple of carrots for his first meal. I tell ya, that dog is very successful in getting what he wants. Those big round brown eyes that are so expressive. They'll getcha every time.

Saturday I got a call that they've taken Teddy to the Park several times and "he loves chasing that ball!" No kidding. They'd taken him to Petco and got him a bunch of new toys.

Boy-oh-boy this story really is turning into one of those Fresh Air Fund kid stories. Peter and I spent the next few calls, several hours apart, figuring out when to do the return drop-off. I agreed to let them take him out of the city, to the old-world moneied Oyster Bay. Now Teddy really was going to be rubbing shoulders with the Rockefellers! Go Teddy!

So Teddy was packed up and carted out of Manhattan, little inner-city doggie that he is (NOT!) to the idyllic, wealthy, priviledged countryside. As soon as they arrived at The Yellow House Luke took Teddy by the leash as he and Sheila Teddy-proofed it for him. Let loose in the backyard, Teddy was swooped up at the last moment by Peter before the neighboring, stalking, cat had her chance to take a swipe with her paw, claws extended, across his little snout. Peter joked that he didn't want to have to say, "pay no attention to that marble eye, Courtney, it's nothing. Teddy's fine!" Yeah, uh huh. Marble eye. Right.

Teddy's reprieve came when Caroline called in to reclaim her children for the night and Peter headed out for four hours to Uncle Henry's 80th birthday party. A four hour rest, and then a full night's sleep was just what he needed before another active day in the country.

CHAPTER 3:

It's true that animals gravitate towards those people who don't necessarily even like them. And Mrs. O'Neill, who's the Rockefeller in this story [she was born where the MOMA now stands] was grumbling as Teddy walked all over her petunias and promptly sat under her chair. Her feet propped on another chair, to rest her ankles after a surgery, she was good-hearted and laughing about the situation as Peter lovingly joked with her.

[insert pic of mrs. o'neill, teddy, peter and sheila]

After a respite, Peter threw Teddy's green squeky ball in the yard. "His eyesight is really bad!" "Well Peter," replied Courtney, "he's only used to having to go about 20 feet in a small New York City apartment! He's not used to having a ball thrown 100 yards out." We joked over the size of Meriwether, the O'Neill's Long Island residence.

picture-book:
Teddy walked in Central Park, claiming each landmark.
Teddy inspected Peter's entire back yard, almost getting swiped at by a neighboring cat.
Teddy chased the ball at Meriwether, the O'Neill's Long Island residence. [image: Peter shouting, "Go Long!"]

CHAPTER FOUR: Coming Home

The kids had Monday, Columbus Day, off, so Peter called and asked if they could keep him out on the island one more night. "Sure, no problem." Courtney slept in on Sunday and Monday so her morning routine was miraculously short considering there was no dressing for the dog-walk, making coffee to go walk the dog and then the walking of the dog, to take up anywhere from half and hour to 45 minutes. She even got to take care of a few errands after work without having to worry about getting home in time for his after-work-walk.

Monday night, around 7:30 PM Peter drove up to 40 MacDougal with Luke and Sheila holding Teddy across the front seat bench. Teddy was perched on Sheila's lap, facing out the window, recognizing his street but still not seeing "mommy," as he was facing the other side.

Peter opened the driver side door and as everyone said "Hello Courtney," Teddy turned around and saw he was truly going home. Peter opened the passenger door and he set Teddy down, who prompty came running around the back of the car and onto the sidewalk. Mommy scooped him up and he clung to her like a little baby, nuzzling his head close to her neck on her shoulder. Peter opened the back door of the massive SUV and placed Teddy's crate, filled with old and new toys and his food bowl, onto the sidewalk. After getting back into his seat, starting the truck and rolling down the window, they stood there for a few moments while there were general comments on how valuable the weekend was, how much they appreciated it and how much fun they all had. "Kids, what do you say?" and they all three chimed together, "Thank you, Courtney."

Courtney, holding Teddy to see them, waved and waved Teddy's paw. She turned around and set him down, and carried his crate upstairs. After a moderage walk around the neighborhood they settled in for an evening of hugs, snuggling and playing.

Teddy nuzzled in on his window bench. "I'm home," Courtney could almost hear him say. Milkdud, the cat, was also relieved. "He's home! Yah! Finally my little furry playmate is back! Yippee!" He quicky tagged Teddy and they had a brief chase and wrestle.

Courtney scooped up Teddy and plopped him on her bed. This night, Teddy, you're sleeping with me! He padded up the bed to the pillow and flopped over. Head on the pillow, facing the wall, she spooned him. It was the first night he ever spent the whole night in the bed, sleeping at the head, with his mistress.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Slacking flacks need not apply

Media Bistro is kicking up its heels and hosting more soirees, like their parh-teh in New York City on October 11th at the R Bar and an upcoming one in DC on the 25th. More info: mediabistro.com

Green Drinks? It's not even St. Patty's Day!

Green Drinks NYC hosted their monthly cocktail party for New Yorkers interested in exploring all things green and sustainable. This past Tuesday, October 10th, they schmoozed at Ear to the Earth at 3LD Gallery/Art Center, 80 Greenwich Street, in the Three Legged Dog space. Three Legged Dog is another fascinating and very important theater (and tech-y) group you should check out.
http://www.3leggeddog.org/3LD/find.htm

If you haven't heard of "Ear to the Earth," then get thee feet to it! It goes till Saturday October 14 and is a festival of environmental sound and image with installations, panels and concerts. Conceived and organized by Electronic Music Foundation, the aim of the festival is to inspire sensitivity to our natural and human environments through sound and foster engagement in environmental issues. See website: http://www.eartotheearth.org/about.html

Ignite your Snapses ~ Stories from Iraq

Renaissance man Jim Sosnicky was in town, from DC, to read excepts of his stories from the book "Operation Homecoming" on Monday, October 9th at the Astor Place Barnes & Noble and then again on Tuesday, October 10th at the Ignite Café. Ignite Café is part of the amazingly provoking Synapse Productions month-long movie series, designed to get those synapses firing. Synapse Productions' artistic director Ginerva Bull, Jim and I discussed how to get people to care about the issues in our world. Are we all so busy? Are we all that apathetic? What would make you want to go downtown to an amazingly authentic, gritty theater and get informed and entertained with films about the controversial topics our nation (and world) are facing? Let us know! courtney@pulitzer.com or ginevra@synapseproductions.org

Jim's stories were graphic and real. They told the story of one man who's informed and experienced and who had the incredible opportunity perform in a theater about his experiences in the theater of war. I have decided this is how I prefer to get my news. Yes, there's usually a liberal POV, but I'd prefer to get informed this way, than through the major news enterprises (who also have agendas).

Get the book

NYU treats to a healthy shake!

The crisp fall air brings out memories of returning to school and this week I reconnected with both of my colleges. I had a lovely lunch on Tuesday, October 10th (okay, a health shake at the healthy Pulse Café with NYU's Office of University Development and Alumni Relations Senior Development Associate Eric Riley. Always one for an audience (there's that acting training!) I was happy to recount my life's experiences for his reconnecting with alumnae project. Of course, I also couldn't resist getting involved helping with Reunion activities and the mentoring programs.

Some of you may recall I mentor with Futures For Children, which is a wonderful mentoring program where, mostly via letters (you remember those, don't you) you instill the importance of education to a Native American child.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

New York Is Open to the Public

We're in a world where the public has access to so much and yet more access is being denied in other areas. Once a year this fabulous city opens its doors to some secret spaces. The 4th Annual openhousenewyork Weekend (presented by Target) was the weekend of October 6-7th. There were 180 sites and 120 programs such as opendialogue, sustainablenewyork, an architecturemoves performance and kids workshops and tours in all five boroughs on the city's architecture, design, cultural heritage and history. I biked up the Hudson River's esplanade to hop inside the Solders and Sailors Monument on 82nd and Riverside and then through Central Park to the Ukrainian Institute House, build by Mr. Fletcher for Mr. Sinclair's family. It was a great workout for my legs and mind. Ah New York! Can't beat it! :)