Nutcracker

Left: The fountain outside Lincoln Center.

Since returning to the US in 2nd grade, I have seen George Balanchine's Nutcracker by the NYCB company every Christmas. That's 14 times. I can pick out the most minute changes they make each year (this year, the little girls at the dinner party got red corsages, all the other years, they've been green with little colored flowers).

Originally a story by Russian author E.T.A. Hoffmann, Nußknacker und Mausekönig (1816), it was turned into a Russian Ballet with score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. How very interesting. Now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense that Russians are good at ballet. They have to spend more of their time indoors b/c of the snow, they have to keep warm b/c of the cold by working out, and they historically are very poor, hence lots of starved ballerinas to choose from.

It is family tradition to go out for dinner and see the ballet, and none of us get truly into the Christmas mood until we've seen a crazed Dr. Drossemier, the pom-pom's quiver on the balenerina's hands in the snow scene, watched the chocolate do their Spanish dance thing, and rated the coffee's abs for the year. Then we're good to go.

This year, I had an especially hard time focusing on the Sugar Plum fairy because her fairyman, or what ever you call male fairies, had a very large erm... package. Honestly, as the music played I was making up naughty & very funny lyrics in my head (some of them even rhymed!), very hard to concentrate. The picture to the right doesn't give him justice.

My favorite was Dewdrop and the Flowers, because I like they're longer tutu's with so many shades of pink. Actually, my fav are the two lead Flowers, because they get to wear purple. Very cool.

Prior to the show, we went to Shun Lee Cafe. We've tried Shun Lee Palace, but seeing that the fam rarely does Dim Sum (never in fact), we thought it'd be fun. It was. Lots of vegi & crab dumplings for me! And those sesame balls are to die for. Every light was a paper mache cast of an animal with whtie xmass lights inside. To the right is a python hanging down into the room.

Please Note: I did not take any of these dance pictures myself, all ripped from ballerina websites. Without sources. My profs would be so disappointed.

Niki, A Tribute

This is what I woke up to this morning. Below is footage of her attempting to leap into the flames last night (wait for my narration):

And yes, one more photo:

Summit NJ:Festive Tour

Brought to you with narration by me and my mom. Yes, I know we're crazy.

Hilarious Photo!

Seen in a photographer's window. Don't the baby and dog have similar eyes? I know I'm a horrible person for making fun of not-so-cute offspring but alas, I really couldn't help this one.

Bum at Regal Cinema

Me and "S" (he's paranoid about being mentioned online, in anything, so this is me respecting his privacy) went to see Juno last night at Regal Cinema, Union Square. Quite possibly the most ghetto theater in NYC. After settling in and previews had started rolling, a man scooted into the roll behind us. And then it smelled REALLY BAD.
When I say REALLY BAD, i mean like a huge waff of uncleaned horse stable. But I figured, if the guy paid for a ticket, you can't complain. Then I looked behind me, the blond to his left was terrified and climbing over the seat in our row. The couple on his right left the theater, b/c there weren't any more seats together.
I thought, "he's probably homeless" but figured it was quite moving that he decided to spend his pan handling money on a film about a knocked up 16 yr old. But then I turned around to notice he was asleep. The whole paying $12 for a movie and instead just enjoying a warm nap didn't add up. So I told "S" to go complain. Always a gentleman, he did.
Regal Cinema staff returned, only to ask to see his ticket. He mummbled to them, never showed a ticket, and ignored their polite asking him to leave. They said they'd have to call the police.
What happened next? NOTHING. He stayed for the entire movie, smelling bad enough to actually have a large effect on mine, and other people's experiences. Stupid ass Regal Cinema didn't have the decency to actually get him out of there. Until after the movie, when an employee with "Security" on the back of his shirt, woke him up and escorted him out.

As you can see, he was a very small man. And moved extremely slowly.


So slowly, I have trouble figuring out how the ticket collector (pictured below) didn't notice him crawling by. Yes, he really is wearing a G-Unit sweatshirt. It's nice to know Regal Cinemas is "down" like that, letting employees express their personal style, especially when it involves celebrating gun culture, pushing drugs, and objectifying women.

I complained, and the manager did give me a free ticket. I honestly thought of trying to milk him for two, but I didn't. When I asked why this happened, the guy said they were understaffed at the ticket collecting point. This guy was collecting tickets from 9:30 to about 11:45 when I left, perhaps never having a break. Apparently, they were also too understaffed to get the paper towels into the dispensers, they just lay them on the counter. Cause that makes so much more sense when they get knocked over on the wet counter.

In short, don't go to Regal Cinemas unless you want a bad experience. And to wait about 20 minutes for popcorn because only two people work the entire concession stand.

Pay the Poor for Good Behavior

Bloomberg's plan has apparently been a hit this semester in certain NYC public schools, where families get paid for ensuring their kids go to school, have Dr checkups, and partake in standardized tests. I can't find the NY Times article I read a couple days ago (Sunday?), but here is some other info on it program:

NY Post's breakdown of paying the poor.
New York Times article from March 2007.

I think it's great that Bloomberg is revamping NYC public schools, supporting pay bonuses for teachers who's students kick ass on standardized tests, and for firing bad ones (shout out to my HS sophomore history teacher). But paying people to do things that are a priviledges we reveive as American citizens (education, free library)? I'm not so convinced.

"The Poor" (which I think is a very negative/unspecific term for who recieves these benefits receive:
-$50 for signing up for a FREE library card
-$150 for having a full time job. If you're a parent, shouldn't that be expected for the sake of your kids?

I have friends with mountains of student debt who work about 30 hours a week to pay their own rent. Why don't private funds delivered via Bloomberg answer their calls? They don't have full time jobs and those student loans can cost a ton more than a kid does for a year. They could end up as prostitutes on the street if the government doesn't come to rescue them!

In short, as long as my tax dollars aren't going towards paying people to do things that I believe to be basic parenting responsibilities, rock on Bloomberg. But it's not my job to pay parents to raise their kids.

My Boyfriend

My boyfriend is extremely romantic. He sends me flowers, cute cards, and wishes me luck before every big test, meeting, whatever. I am so very fortunate.Here is his xmass card. Complete with little westie dogs. I have a little obsession with westies, and poodles, so it was crazy that yesterday while searching the internet I found this:

Behold, the Westie Poo. Half westie, half poodle, the best of both worlds.

Hipsters & Humbolt St

Saturday night I headed out to Brooklyn's Graham stop via L Train, otherwise known as the hipster school bus. I swear, I've never seen as many skinny scarves, over sized hats, black leggings, and scrunched down boots in a 51 ft by 8 ft area. This is Humbolt St on my way home around midnight (I returned to keep studying for my math final on Monday).

My purpose was Lisa's holiday party to which my roommate wouldn't let me wear a red and green ensamble because it was too cheesy. And definitely not cool enough. I met some nice guys from sunny side and her old co-worker from Orens Daily Roast.

I truly appreciated Lisa's snacks; especially her little vegan ginger snaps. Very yummy.

I Took A Walk

First I went to Andrew's Diner for some pancakes and enjoyed the NY Times.

Then I walked along Pearl Street and found this old bit of brick building, being held up by a huge steel wall behind it. And a garage entrance under it. The surrounding lot is currently vacant.

Then I spent some quality time feeling festive on Wall St.

Followed by an uplifting moment in Trinity Church, where Wall St meets B'way.

Then I strolled over to a sunny Ground Zero, via Century 21's Cordlandt, and walked home via Maiden with a stop in Borders.

Xmass Lights in NJ

Mom shows off her handy work with the lights and garland. Isn't it beautiful?

American Greetings Marketing2Race

It's a smart idea, and I never noticed it before visiting Duane Reade today, but apparently American Greetings has been marketing cards toward specific ethnic groups for years (I found corporate news from 2001 as earliest documentation). This line is called "In Rhythm," and celebrates Black History Month which I just learned is January.

American Greetings has another line geared towards African Americans called Baobab Tree. A Baobab is what Raffiki lived in in The Lion King, I think; from Madagascar, it has a really fat trunk (swollen with water) with disproportionately smaller branches. Before 1995, the line was called was called Black Impressions (source).

They also have many lines in Spanish, obviously geared towards hispanics called Spanish Soft Touch, Momentos de Inspiracion, intuiciones, Karlitos Koala, and Design Studio ... En Espano.

Now on some level, I must admit I'm a bit jealous. I checked many of the cards, and most of them have cartoons or images, although I'd estimate about 1.5/10 have a white person. So if I'm looking for a card and want a person in it that looks somewhat like me, I have to shuffle through all the cards because there isn't a designated section for Caucasian cards. Perhaps it the line could be called "Fantasy Suburbia" or "English Oak."

That being said, I applaud AG on working their overpriced pieces of paper into niche markets. (Did you know cards can cost like $5?!). But why have they lost so much steam online? Their website has no spanish speaking option; their are no In Rhythm oriented e-cards, and when I searched for "Baobob" tree it asked me if i meant "boob."

Does this mean AG thinks the minorities they are courting in stores don't have enough weight to justify an online presence among what feels like hundreds (thousands?) of e cards?

People With Aids Plaza

Last night I was walking home from the 6 train at Brooklyn Bridge and look what I found. It's located between Beekman Street and Spruce Street on Park Row's park side.

NYC Birds Are STD Free

Good to know Petco on Union Square is protecting me from STD's! Oh sorry, I mean "STI" (I=Infection).

Matilda is Sexually Active!

Matilda saying goodbye via slobber kiss to a Cliff Street resident after spending the night. Then heading out for the Fulton Street subway.




These have been many sightings at NYU's Cliff Street dorm of Mara Wilson, or "Matilda" from the movie based off of Roald Dahl's book. She got into my elevator with a scrawny looking sophomore guy, but I didn't even know it was her because she wore a hood. In the elevator.

Even weirder, my opening elevator door interrupted their make out session, then they stood on opposite sides of the elevator. She got signed out by the guard, and followed by another sloppy kiss outside before she trundled away.

Perhaps what's oddest about her, is how un-pretty she is. As me and Steeners walked outside, she told me it was the Matilda girl, and my response was "she was kind of not good looking!" to which Steeners responded "that's what everyone is saying!"

50 Things to Know About Film Production

The following list was created by Tisch School of the Arts (NYU) Professor Maureen Ryan. You can find her email here.

1. Feed your crew every 6 hours.
2. Never assume anything.
3. Always hire the best crew you can afford.
4. Everone wants to be a part of something. This is often more important than money to the right person.
5. Leave the Attitude at home.
6. If you don't know something, ask.
7. There are only so many hours of daylight in a given day. PLan accordingly.
8. Delegate to competent people.
9. Work hard on set. Work harder off the set to create a balanced life.
10. When everone is doing their job and working towards the same goal, anything is possible.
11. Love what you do, it's too hard otherwise.
12. Explaining what you have planned to all the crew members. They'll buy into it at the beginning of the day adn everything will be easier, better, smoother.
13. Be curious. You can't know everything, so ask for advice/help.
14. Treat your crews well and they'll recommend you for jobs.
15. Talk to your crew if you might have to delay lunch, or else face meal penalties.
16. Gaffer's tape can repain anything. (cars, appliances, rental equipment, but not a broken heart)
17. Negotiation is a conversation. Everyone needs to keep their self-respect and feel they are being considered.
18. Always record 60 seconds of Room Tone before moving to the next set.
19. Pre-production is everything.
20. No yelling! Ever!
21. Mutual respect is the only way.
22. Decency trumps talent every time.
23. Return phone calls within 24 hours.
24. Email whenever possible or you don't need an answer immediately.
25. No animals or children on set - if at all possible.
26. It always takes longer than you think. Schedule accordingly.
27. Craft service is the last bastion of civility.
28. Every action has a consequence that affects so many others.
29. The Golden Rule rules!
30. If you get behind in teh schedule, figure out what you can lose, or find more money for overtime.
31. Figure out teh director's "throughline" - it will make your life a lot easier.
32. Pad your budget.
33. Never say "no" to the director or a crew person. Always say "let's see"; this way, they know they've been heard and never feel shut down.
34. Listen AND look.
35. Build it all up. Wait for it to fall apart. Then build it all up again.
36. Do what's best for the project, not your wgo or some other agenda. It keeps it all simple and "clean".
37. Don't put the chocolate out on the craft service table until after lunch.
38. Hang out at the back of the Grip Truck if you want to know what really is happening on set.
39. Casting is 90% of the work.
40. Change your shoes after lunch. Your feet will thank you.
41. Figure otu your own strengths and weaknesses and then hire others to fill out your areas of weakness.
42. Always watch and listen to audio playback a few takes into the shoot.
43. If there is one bad apple, get rid of it.
44. There are no problems, only solutions.
45. Always actualize the budget after ti's compelte. It gives you a wealth of information.
46. Pay all outstanding invoices in less than 30 days.
47. Don't always go with the lower price - there's more than just money to consider.
48. Get a good caterer. it makes for a happy and productive crew.
49. Inspire others to join the cause by your own example.
50. You can only have 2 out of the 3, pick which ones you need: FAST, CHEAP, or GOOD.

Linkbait

Linkbait is content you make for your webpage in the hopes that other people will link to it. This will create link juice and boost your website’s organic rank. This content can be video, images, blog posts, newspaper articles, anything that catches people’s eye and creates traffic to the designated webpage.

Web communities including Stumble Upon, Reddit, Digg, and Del.icio.us are dedicated to sharing quality content with other members via user submissions, followed by voting. Content with the most votes gets the most attention and voilà! Your link bait has gone viral.

Another option for creating link bait is submitting relevant content to popular blogs. For example, last week Avi snapped a couple low resolution images on his iPhone of a new public toilet being constructed in Madison Square Park. Nothing special, just a couple of guys placing finishing touches on a little hut to pee in. The commuter then submitted the images to curbed.com, a popular blog about real estate in NYC. Curbed posted it, with a link to Avi’s website promediacorp.com. Then New York Magazine caught wind of it, and also posted it on their site too. Now, promediacorp.com is basking in the glory of inlinks & a high CTR, all from a couple toilet pictures.

Another strong example of link bait is myheritage.com, a sleepy site that created a fun celebrity look a-like tool. They made the tool into a facebook application and myspace add on, creating a lots of links back to them.

Some tips for creating viral content:
1. Write a “Tops” list. Everyone loves a tops list. Some interesting ones I’ve seen today include “Top 10 Worst Fast Food Advertising Campaigns” or “10 Great Gaming Inventions in 2008.”
2. Network your web community connections, don’t abuse them. As you gain a rap for submitting exciting content, you can add more “big time” friends who will actually remember you for quality, people who are top Diggers or Stumblers, etc; they will further spread the word.
3. If it’s just clicks you’re after, you don’t necessarily need content related to your original webpage. Toilets and SEO won’t sleep together, but they got the job done for promediacorp.com's clicks.
4. SE Roundtable reminds us to rock the RSS feed, “all sites should sport a little organce button if they want to spread the word” says Debra Mastaler.

Interview with the Janitor

Last night my prof said he had a special guest for our final class. It was the guy who keeps the 6th floor clean, and it was a life changing experience. I will never forget Eric's talk, for as long as I live. Stay tuned, b/c i'll write about it tonight.

My Wish for Viral Videos

Lots of youtube videos have little websites printed on, as the material plays (see "darejunkies.com" in Club N video below). but wouldn't it be great if those little web addresses could actually link to the pages? I have very little idea how this would actually be done, but i would like to make it.

Pole Dancers at "Club N"

A couple of NYU graduates just trying to get by, these girls wanted to win darejunkies.com's dare for best public pole dance for $10,000. Needless to say, they did. Aren't NYU graduates talented? And so resourceful.



And this is the article Daily News published today.

Sex, Money, Pets

"Sex, Money, Pets, these are the reasons people move" - I will xplain later.

Review: The Namesake

Herald & Kumar's Kal Penn gets serious as Gogol Ganguli, a 1st generation Indian American, dancing between his parent's Bengali roots and assimilating into a north east American lifestyle.

Some may say it's a bit of a drag, but I actually found it fast paced for narrating the life story of two generations of a family. His name, Gogol, is his family's pet name for him, and as Gogol spends more time with his white friends, at Yale, and as an architect in Soho, he assumes his formal name Nikhil. Even his uber yuppy girlfriends calls him "Nik." But after some dramatic family events, he ends up with a nice Bengali intellectual; they marry, but just because she's indian doesn't mean she's going to be a perfect house wife, and they split.

In my mind, his mother is the other significant character. She moves to Queens after meeting her husband for a few days; she yearns for her warm homeland, finding the people here cold. Luckily, her husband is very supportive as she struggles to adapt to her new life. As the family grows, she continues to be the voice of "well back in India..."; but with good reason, and instead of rolling eyes, I ended up sympathizing with her.

In short: 4/5 Stars.

Review: Moonstruck

Me & Steeners knew not what to expect from this movie, both recalling only ever seeing Cher in that film where she has the ugly faced kid. Moonstruck is about a widow in Little Italy/Brooklyn engaged to a pathetic but sweet hearted man; he asks her to invite his family outcasted brother to the wedding while he is gone to Italy, she falls in love with the little brother.

Things I learned: before all her plastic surgery, Cher was actually quite beautiful. Nicolas Cage, even with a wooden hand, is extremely hot.

The plot seemed to us like an play, there was plenty of symbolism about the moon, a small cast, and other family members also struggeling with their romantic relationships. Cher and & mother, Olympia Dukakis, were so believable Steeners wondered if maybe that is her real mom. My favorite part was that Nicolas Cage loved the opera, personally I've never been and don't really care (although ballet is a different story), but it was extremely romantic.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

My Dad is NOT My Date

It's always happened, but sometimes I feel more acutely aware of the situation. Normal circumstances are:

1. Nice restaurant
2. Dinner table of only one sex
3. Polite waiters who don't say anything

My sister had a squash tournament on Friday at L.A. Fitness. While she finished up reffing a match, Dad and I ran out in search of a place for dinner.

Down the block we found East River Cafe, a great mellow spot with a piano player and older 35 to 65 crowed. As I followed my dad to a table, I looked up to see an older woman staring me down as she spoke. Her eyebrows raised a tad, and she kept speaking to her dinner companion. We crosser her line of vision and her companion then had the view of us. The younger woman eyed me as I sat, then responded to the older woman.

Then there was the office dinner party happening next to our table, with all the men at the back end of the long table. As I sat at a table (for four people! My sister and mom weren't even there yet), all of the men's eyes looked to Dad, and then to each other, and then muttered a little something before continuing to chug their beverages.

I'm sure someone reading this is thinking, you're paranoid as heck and then add some odd bit about Freud. But in NY, there really are 50 year olds courting women in their 20's, and it freaks me out that people think that about me! I would never go over 10ish years, and I certainly have never gone under 5yrs older. Personally, I think 5 to 7 yrs is the perfect different, but that's a whole other post.

New Booties

As you can tell, I have new ski booties from the experts at Sure Foot at 69th St and 3rd Ave. No better boot makers exist, I do believe.

The process of selecting and making my boots took 2 hours in total; it began with multiple foot scans, analysis of my ski level/style and what shell I should use, moved into building my pads, then they put me on a ramp and shot foam through the boot's pads via tubes to make it meld to my feet, and ended with shaving off 2mm at my left toe b/c it was a bit close.

Needless to say, they are a beautiful baby blue (or maybe periwinkle, i haven't decided), and fit like a glove. I am SO excited to try them out. An east coast ski weekend is now desperately needed!
Below: a picture of a cute boot for the little skiers hitting up the slopes.

Drugs & Utah University

Learn about drugs from mice, without hurting any real mice! Credit for finding this site goes to Scott in the office.

Dressage Riding at it's Best

This amazing & beautiful & I highly doubt any of my readers (aka 10 to 20 close friends) will have the patience to watch the entire thing but it's great:



Reminds me of the Lipizzan horses I first saw perform as a little girl when on a family holiday in Spain. Last fall 2006 I was fortunate enough to see them again at Wemberly Park's mini stadium for a second time, with my mom in tow. Even the Queen came, and we all had to stand up when she entered, which I found rather silly.

Not that I'm tooting my country's horn but...Americans did rescue the Lipizzan horses from Hitler & Co. in World War II. I've read they even had special stable bunkers for when bombs were dropped.

$20

Two very interesting facts about $20:

First, there's a conspiracy theory which I believe someone with way too much time made up.

Secondly, there used to be a $20 coin! Minted from 1838 to 1933, these one ounce gold coins were finally recalled in 1933 to be melted down. Now they go for about $100 on eBay. But I haven't figured out why the government melted them in the first place.

My Class's Critque

I just had my website critiqued in class. I don't want to post a link here b/c it's got a bit too much personal info for right now, but let me say: one of my classmate is an ass hole. A couple guys had suggestions and they were nice about them, but there's this one guy who tells everyone how their site "doesn't work" for him. He said my site:

1) looks like a template I got from yahoo (I made it all myself, thank you very much)
2) the flowers create a springtime theme which is very stereotypical
3) my selected fonts stink and don't coordinate
4) my rollover states, which were shade below the fonted button, were boring

What a little ___ (you know what). I can't wait to critique his page. I'm all up for critique, but at least say one nice thing before ripping a person's entire work apart.

Vegan Reviews

I've tried tempeh tonight, according to the package it's Indonesian. According to me, it taste like yuckyness. Gross. I chopped it up to fry (2nd image) with some soy sauce and nothing can help the bark like taste tempeh exudes.
Below, on the plus side, is Trader Joe's microwavable Pad Thai. It's so good, I can't believe it only costs $2.99, because I could order the same thing from Lemon Grass Grill for $9.00 and it wouldn't taste any differently. I love Trader Joe's, so must cheaper than shitty Jubilee down town here in the financial district.

My Daemon!

This is my daemon, Aenad, and he's a tiger! I'm happy because last time I took this quiz over the summer I had this ugly little monkey thing. Cal got this cute little sexy looking kitty, I was a bit jealous. But now I have a big, fluffy, lovable tiger with stripes, who can run really fast (or "pad" along), and has very sharp teeth. But still very huggable, look at those gentle eyes. My only problem is that my profile says I'm "shy" and "outgoing", I would have to agree with only the latter.

You all should take the quiz, let me know what you get! And of course, you should all also read the book The Golden Compass/Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (the first in the His Dark Materials series).

XMASS!

It's officially Christmas time because:
1) I'm feeling more broke than usual.
2) I have tons of final assignments/tests due.
2) There's snow on the ground!
3) My lobby has a christmass tree & menorah. And the Japanese maples outside has lights too!