Mommy N' Me

Friday night, here I go drawing a blank again, hold on, I need to look in my planner....oh wait- let me not forget Thursday night because it was real nice. Mom and R. and I went to Battery Park for an outdoor performance by Ballet Hispanico accompanied by the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra who blew a good note, supported by an impeccable sound system and a mature crowd who didn't yak it up during marvelous solos that blasted, not floated, out onto the warm night air. I took my skippies off and we sat on the picnic blanket, which has seen a lot of mileage this summer, and ate sushi, chicken empanadas and banana chip muffins. Everything felt, sounded, looked, tasted, smelled good. The dancers were as excellent as they could be, swathed in gorgeous dresses and character costumes for the males (sailor, waiter, nerd) and there seemed to be a plot that revolved around there always being one girl too many at the nightclub which resulted in a lot of girlfighting and stealing dance partners away from other gals. Also they choreographed the dramatic element of it so that the guy dancers (ballerinos?) were continually swooning over the female dancers, liek fanning themselves and falling over when they sashayed by. After a while it was beginning to offend me that they were trying to put this ruse over on us. The ballerinos were so obviously gay that I kept expecting them to start pairing off and dancing with each other, and honestly kind of really wanted to see that. They should have left EVERY broad standing off to the side! Noone was buying that and I felt the performance was dated in a way, like let's be real, this is New York City, you don't have to pretend with us that these guys are in love with these girls. Shave the beards, ballerinos!
Anyway we next went over to Stone Street, the oldest street in New Amsterdam, and sat at a table outside on the cobblestone street, making nice work of a bottle of petit syrah. I really really like it over there. I went last fall for both an Oysterfest and an Oktoberfest, and I plan on going again this year. You are ALL invited! My mom LOVEDED this street. It reminded her of time spent in France and Holland. Oddly she asked a bunch of her friends who have lived in NY if they'd heard of the street and noone had. I inquired amongst some of my savvy friends as well and they hadn't heard of it either. Stop sleeping. It's beautiful there, very transcendent, and the Oysterfest was a swingin' time. Roll on down to Stone Street!
Friday I asked my mom if she wanted to see El Cantante ans to my shock she said she did! So we went to Times Square (horrors) to see it and went up four thousand escalators to get to teh theater. When we got in there and waited for things to start, I scientifically observed and then postulated that it was going to be a noisy showing. Folks were rattling in Spanish, singing, on the phone, catching up, talking back to other rows, the whole nueve. Well, when the lights went down, this group fell silent. I am going to chalk it up to Marc Anthony's captivating performance. He was REALLY GREAT!! Sexy, skinny, amazing stage presence as Hector Lavoe, beautiful singing voice, outstanding acting, especially the dramatic scenes of drug use and meltdowns...nominate him, those in charge of these things!! Very unfortunately, the movie was eaten alive by JLo. I am not saying she did a bad job, but she dominated every scene. The story was told from her point of view, and we didn't get a rounded take on Hector. Compared to her Marc didn't say a word! I feel I know JLo's character's quirks and motivations, but got very little character devlopment about Lavoe, aside from the usual reasons for fucking up an awesome career, exactly like Johnny Cash and Ray Charles- dead siblings, mean parents, relentless guilt and feelings of unworthiness. Nonetheless rent this pelicula, especially if you are all about Latin music as I am. I also think the Latinos in the theater knew this was their big chance to see their people represented on the big screen so they didn't want to yap through it and instead hung on every delicious word. The second the lights went up there were bursts of singing along with the credits, and dancing took place in the aisles. Alegrias!!!
Saturday I took my sick cat back to the vet and she is now doing worse, not better. I don't want to talk about it here in the annals of good times. You may ask me privately.
Then Mami and I went to the International Center of Photography with her friend Margie to see various exhibits- one was photographs of Amelia Earhart, who was better looking and chicer than I had ever known. Also there were portraits of sundry great African-Americans- politicians, actors, boxers, activists, etc. and some of the pictures captured some truly poignant and important moments and they all showcased some outstanding people. Afterward we went to Bryant Park to drink coffee and have a rootbeer float and watch rather unfashionable people walk by considering it was the top of Fashion Week. However there was one absolute GEM- an old lady, like older than Pat Field, with red hair and red lipstick, wearing purple crocs, a purple miniskirt, sitting with her legs way open, now and then scratching her crotch, with a huge orange Balenciaga bag at her feet, and rocking a graffiti bubble lettered t-shirt that had the nerve to say "Baby Girl" on it!!!!! WHAT!!!!GORGEOUS!! I stealthily took some shots of her on my mom's camera and if she ever sends them to me I will bless this blog with its first ever photo of Baby Girl herself!!
Sunday we had brunch in the very creatively designed back garden at Loulou in Fort Greene with Mom's friend Jacquie. Jacquie has a lot to say. She is an avid traveler and ski instructor in Vermont and she has got to be 65 years old! So brunch was dedicated to how she does it all. Very enlightening. Then Mamacita and I carried on and went to the theater to see a Flamenco show performed by Pilar Rioja. Homegirl is in her 70s and got up on stage and danced better than anyone you or I know can. She was in incredible shape, had long auburn hair, and was draped in incredible dance dresses that were sewn with full skirts to work with the pivoting moves known to Flamenco. It was a very inspiring performance, showing that you can surely do what you love as well as and as long as you want to. It was enough to convince me to take a flamenco dance lesson at the Open Center next Tuesday which is also my birthday.
Then we got home at 9:05, in time for me to miss Britney on the VMA's. I am going to go youtube that shiz right now, thanks for listening!

Nicole