It's been a busy month - trying to fit in some stuff before summer's gone, which is definitely is now. It seems to have happened so suddenly here. You don't get those midnight-sun kind of nights here that you get in the Northwest. Dusk descends with alarming speed.
Some catch-up stuff: I met up with Melissa and Sophie on Governor's Island the weekend before last, on a glorious summer evening. The 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's landing in the vicinity came with all sorts of Dutch events, as well as these lovely reproduction ships that mimicked the ones on which Hudson and crew came here.
Hudson's exploration prompted the Dutch to come check it out, thus explaining all those "kills" upstate in lieu of rivers. And of course, Brooklyn is named after the Dutch town of Breukelen, where Melissa's Mom, Angela, was born. (She said to me once that she never imagined growing up in Breukelen that she'd have a daughter who would one day live in Brooklyn.)
Back to Governor's Island, where one of the booths for the Dutch festival offered the opportunity to make poffertjes, little Dutch pancakes that puff up like balls and are then sprinkled with powdered sugar and eaten. Yum!
This past weekend, I spent half of (a rainy) Sunday volunteering at the Showtime Showhouse, which is a designer showcase that benefits a charity here called Housing Works. HW runs a bunch of really fabulous thrift stores, which, as you all know, are my favorite sort of store. Various rooms in the house were based on Showtime shows like Dexter (about a forensic scientist/serial killer with a heart of gold - sort of), Californication (screenwriter/sex addict), Weeds (mom grows pot to support her family after her husband dies), and The Tudors (Henry VIII et al).
The rooms were all very different - you can get sort of an idea here, as were the people who strolled through. My job was to explain things (by consulting a brochure), answer questions, and keep people from pawing the merch. The highlight was when a skinny, scruffy guy of 70-plus whirled in, wearing a crumpled raincoat, reeking of smoke, and bursting with questions. He even had a messy shopping bag filled with papers to set off the eccentric look. His questions were interesting, though, and he was clearly a designer or architect (he had great horn rim glasses, always a sure sign of a design professional).
He said he wanted to create a cross-shaped light sculpture using LED lights but he didn't know anything about the technology. One of the art pieces in the showhouse (actually two penthouses in Tribeca - $14 million or so each) was a giant LED eye. My entreaties not to touch it didn't make any difference to him - he was lifting and shifting and trying to discern the secrets of its construction.
After about 20 minutes of cross-examining me (I felt like I was in grad school) about the lighted eye and other art pieces in the Dexter rooms, he said, "Have you ever heard of Knoll furniture?" I said sure. He said, "I'm Peter Knoll" and then swirled out just as quickly as he had come in.
I checked around the web and couldn't find anything specifically about Peter Knoll - a rarity these days - but I think he was who he said he was. Hope I get to see his LED cross one of these days.
Last Thursday night I went to see the new production of Othello with Philip Seymour Hoffman. It got a crappy review in the Times this week, and with some good cause. The acting was incredible - I don't think I've ever seen anything like it on the stage (not that I've seen that much theater, and never a production of Othello). But four hours is a bit long for most audiences, and the ultra-modern touches (some characters never appear - lines are spoken to them over cell phones) were a little too-too.
Still, a great cast, and it's fun to see something in previews, before the reviews come out.
One last thing: Did you know there was a term for people like Sophie and me who are here from the NW? We're ex-PACs, and last week the new Ace Hotel at 29th and B-way had a party for us. Lotsa flannel in the crowd but nothing really all that PAC about it, frankly. But Sophie and I had fun anyway. (The Ace is a spinoff of the ones in Seattle and Portland, BTW.)
More later from the ex-PACs. Hope you're all well and happy and enjoying fall.
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