Art On ChatRoulette

An artist has been surfing the global chat wave and creating instant online portraits of those he encounters.  His name is Paz Bernstein and he's located in Israel.  It's definitely the most creative use of ChatRoulette I've seen.  Stay tuned for his last portrait at the end.....a sleeping beauty.  The perfect subject.

Great GLEE Preview For Tonite's Episode

Last week's Burt Bacharach "Home" episode was one of the best of the season; musically, thematically, story-wise....and it even had a scene in a roller disco.  Cha-ching!  But this little preview of tonite's GLEE looks like it could be seriously funny.  


I love that the brain-dead cheerleader and her bizarre non-sequitur's are becoming such a regular part of the show too.  She is challenging Sue for consistently having all the quotable lines.

Jack In A Box w/Mary Testa

Michael Cyril Creighton is the star/creator of a cute little web series I've been following called "Jack In A Box". It's about the wacky adventures of an NYC theatre gay who works in a box office.  Recently, "Jack" left the box for greener pastures and went home to visit his mom and nutty aunt, played by Mary Testa and Alison Fraser. There are some hilarious bits of Mary and Alison talking pop culture w/Jack.  This is one of my favorite episodes with two of my favorite B-way ladies. Check it out!

St. Vincent's Isn't The Only Place Closing

Today is the last day of operation for St. Vincent's hospital in the Village.  For more than 160 years, the hospital has taken care of the neighborhood.  It has even taken care of me when I had my bike accident a couple years ago and broke my wrist.  But as of tomorrow, it will become merely an "Urgent Care Center" tending to local cuts, scrapes, and minor medical emergencies.  Anyone needing surgery will have to go uptown.


Though the closing is shocking, what I've noticed lately is somewhat more shocking; the number of local businesses shutting down in general.  As the nation's economy supposedly improves, things here have seemingly gotten worse in recent months.  There are countless "closed" or "for sale" signs in storefronts all over the Village.  Some of them are stores that have been around for decades and others just a year.  


I've been taking some photos recently of all these closing....these pics below are just in a few blocks radius of my apartment. Along with the closure of St. Vincent's, they are truly signs of the times.

Molly Ringwald Talks Gays and The Facts Of Life

There's a wide-ranging interview with Molly Ringwald in this week's Advocate.  She has a new lifestyle book out this week which she is promoting called "Getting the Pretty Back".  Our little "Sam" has grown up and now has a husband and three kids.  But she talks about many other subjects in the interview, from the Prop 8 video she did to all her gay friends in NYC (including Justin Bond and Julian Fleisher).  


She also talks about the not-so-secret gay characters in the John Hughes oeuvre and how she thinks Hughes was unaware of their sexuality in the same way gays, in the high school years, sometimes can't figure it out themselves. (Uh, yes...that would be me!)  Here's an excerpt:

But sometimes I wonder if John was even aware of that. I don’t know that he was. What made those movies so interesting and so hard for people to replicate is that for some reason John was still somehow emotionally in the mind-set of those teenagers. Usually you can hear when an adult clearly wrote something for a kid character, but John’s movies don’t sound like that because he was still emotionally in that place. So you know how some kids can be gay and not know it? Or maybe they kind of know it but aren’t facing it? I feel like maybe John was writing those characters like that.

She also talks about her brief stint on "The Facts of Life" when she was cast in the pilot only to be replaced by Nancy McKeon for the series.  She's asked what her thoughts were about the whole lesbian subplot on that pilot.  She was all of 13 at the time and doesn't seem to remember too much about it...probably because it was a job that didn't quite pan out.  Which is probably for the best because if she was stuck on "Facts" she never would have been available to become America's Teen Queen. 

Bryan Greenberg Is Kinda Cute

OK--before you say anything I know that Bryan Greenberg is more than cute.  He's, in fact, pretty damn hot.  


However, I put him in my collection of Kinda Cute guys for a couple reasons.  One, despite an expansive career that includes two network TV shows, a movie opposite Meryl Streep and an HBO series, no one really knows who he is.  Two, in utter contradiction to his serious good looks, Bryan seems to always be stuck playing guys who are only supposed to be Kinda Cute.  He's always being cast as a sensitive novelist (ABC's October Road), or a sensitive painter (PRIME w/Meryl and Umma) or a sensitive fashion designer (HBO's How To Make It In America).  Then there's the regular Joe supporting roles he used to specialize in, like on the CW's One Tree Hill. And even a quasi-nerd in The Perfect Score.  


So, memo to H'wood: Bryan Greenberg is hot. He has a body like a Greek God.  Someone needs to cast him as a hot dude, like a male supermodel, dangerous spy or a porn star or something really juicy.  No more Mr. Nice Guy for Bryan.  Once he gets that role, I guarantee that everyone will know his name.  In the meantime, I'd recommend checking out PRIME which was a very sweet/goofy love story where he falls for one of his therpaist mom's patients.   And you can see him weekly on the new HBO show How to Make It In America, which is also very good.

The Air Force Memorial

I was down in Washington last weekend and made a trip to the Air Force Memorial, which opened back in 2006. From driving around the DC area, I had seen the three stainless steel spirals arcing up over the Crystal City skyline and, initially, was not so impressed.  In fact, it seemed a little odd and random the way it's spires stuck in the air without any context or real meaning.  The first time I saw it, I thought it was a series of large construction cranes or a radio tower that had never been completed.

An actual visit to the memorial is fortunately a very different experience. Sited on a promontory that provides an expansive view of the entire city of Washington, the memorial's three 200 foot-plus spires seen up close are more impressive and quite dramatic when viewed from the ground looking up.  Each one is a different height and they are arrayed in a triangle on a large granite plaza with the Air Force star embedded in glass and marble at the center.  I took a number of pictures while there which give a sense of the drama of those structures which resemble the contrails of three F-14's in a cloud burst formation.

The only unfortunate thing about the memorial is also it's position: it overlooks the site where American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.  Though the Air Force has a long and impressive history going back to World War II, there is no arguing 9/11 was a day of unique failure for the service branch entrusted with defending America's airspace.  The planning of the memorial began long before 9/11, back in 1994, so it's more of an unfortunate coincidence than an embarrassing planning blunder.  

But still, standing at the edge of the memorial and looking down at the reflective benches of the Pentagon memorial, it's sobering to realize you're standing in the flight path of American 77. In a way, it gives the grandiose and somewhat flashy memorial a totally unintended solemnity. And, in a way, maybe that's for the best....it tempers the glory of the wild blue yonder with the harsh realities of the human costs of war.

The Lower East River Side

Williamsburg is starting to look like Jersey City these days with it's new skyscraper themed waterfront.  Now stage two is being planned on the southern end of the 'Burg, centered around what used to be the Domino Sugar Factory (pictured above).


There is a current exhibit at the American Institute of Architects space on LaGuardia Place showing a potential future for the landmarked site.  Rafael Viñoly Architects has designed a plan to remake the 125-year-old industrial complex into an 11.2 acre, mixed-income residential and mixed-use development.  What's nice is that they've preserved the Domino Factory at the center of it all. What's not so nice is that, other than some street amenities,  it looks just as bland as the Trump West Side Railyard development.


If development continues like this, Williamsburg is soon going to resemble the Upper West Side.  Maybe that's the plan, at least for Bloomberg who likes to turn every unique neighborhood into a generic super-hi-rise, vertical version of suburbia.  But it would be a shame to see the quirkiness of the 'Burg blanded out like this.  

Taiwan's Own Susan Boyle

Earlier this month, a 24 year old Taiwanese shopkeeper with an unfortunate haircut went onstage of the TV show "One Million Star" and came back an instant internet sensation ala Susan Boyle.  He turned out the most improbably soulful and diva-like rendering of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You"...a take on the popular song which honestly rival's Houston's original.  Take a look...or maybe just a listen because you won't believe your eyes.

South Park Creators Receive Death Threats

In a follow-up to yesterday's post, the creators of South Park's, which aired it's 200th epsiode last week in which the Prophet Mohammed appears dressed in a bear costume, have received death threats.  A Muslim website stated that they "probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show" for this depiction of Mohammed in the episode.  Van Gogh was murdered for a doc that showed the treatment of Muslim women.


Last night, episode 201 aired in which Mohammed/Teddy Bear reappeared but was heavily censored by Comedy Central. There were a number of bleeps over speeches and blurred out images and boxes which read "censored" and the Teddy Bear was replaced by Santa Claus somewhat hastily. The question was if all this censoring was intentional by Trey and Matt .  The answer came in a statement they released to their website, saying it was all Comedy Central's doing and not a "meta-joke".  


Another website, Cinematical, pointed out though that South Park has actually depicted Mohammed in the past.  In an episode in 2004, he was portrayed in a somewhat positive light as a bit of a superhero, appearing alongside Jesus and Moses and shooting fire from his palms.  In other episodes, the show has toyed with the controversy of showing the prophet but using clever cutaways or having characters comment on it directly.  


Anyway, it all shows that, even after 200 episodes, the creators of South Park still do not have any sacred cows...or bears for that matter....that they will refuse to tip over.