songbird's crazy world

Tonight we will be ringing in the New Year at a local Italian restaurant.   They plan to have live music.  Maybe we'll hear some of these songs: Happy New Year. May 2019 bring peace and prosperity to all of us.

Seen in the Wall Street station at about 5:15 on a recent Monday afternoon. I’m sure there is an interesting story to tell ...

Amid all the holiday celebrations we had some sadness.  We were on our way home from Benihana Christmas Eve when I checked my Facebook and found out that M had died.  Drew and his sister used to be part of a community theater group and still have many friends from the group. Over the years we've seen many of the group's productions.  M was one of the most active members of the group, working tirelessly behind the scenes as well as appearing as a lead or featured role in most of the productions.  I didn't really know him, but I enjoyed all of his performances. He was diagnosed with cancer last spring.  He was only 54. He leaves behind a wife and three children, the youngest of which is 17 years old.   This was the same group that introduced me to  Lily   Hard to believe it's been 7 months since she passed away.  

News report last night. Transformer explosion/fire at a Con Ed power plant in Astoria, Queens wreaked chaos at LaGuardia Airport, the NYC subway, etc. And caused the night sky to turn turquoise blue. It could be seen in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and even parts of Nassau County. Weird. Seriously, people thought extraterrestrials were invading. Pity I wasn’t in the city, I would have loved a photo of it for Skywatch Friday.

  70 Pine Street was once the tallest building in lower Manhattan.  Built in 1931, it rivaled the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building.  Until recently it was the home of insurance giant AIG, but has now been converted to luxury apartments. Even today, it towers over some of its neighbors. It has a very interesting profile up top. The detailing on the facade is beautiful. And look at the entrance, there's a model of the building! #skywatchfriday

So it  was 1964, and I was 4 years old, and my daddy took us to see Mary Poppins . It was the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater.  I had the soundtrack album and played it over and over, until I knew every word to every song.  Back then there was no such thing as a VCR or a DVD player, or even cable TV, so you had to wait forever until a network decided to broadcast the movie if you wanted to see it again.   Last week two people went to see Mary Poppins Returns -- my current grown-up self, and my inner child who still remembers being 4 years old. My adult self admired the craftsmanship of the movie:  Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman took great pains to have their songs sound like songs the Sherman Brothers wrote for the original; the animation sequences were done by hand, again in the style of the original; the exquisite costuming, both in Depression-era London and in the fantasy scenes.   Adult criticisms:  to put it bluntly, Emi...

So ... my Christmas. Christmas Eve dinner was at Benihana .  I think by now everyone knows how I feel about teppanyaki.  Set me down near the hibachi, let me watch the chef prepare my meal, hand me a pair of chopsticks, and I will gleefully dine on steak, shrimp, fried rice... Christmas Day found me with another pair of chopsticks in my hand, enjoying  the pu pu platter, Grand Marnier shrimp, Szechuan beef and chicken with candied walnuts at Orchid . And of course there was a movie: Mary Queen of Scots. My college major was history, with a concentration in the history of Europe.  I was especially fascinated by English history from the War of the Roses through the Elizabethan era.    I wrote a term paper on Mary of Scotland once.  That was many years ago and I've forgotten a lot of what I learned in my research, but  my knowledge of Mary of Scotland and Elizabeth of England is much more detailed than the average movie viewer. (What piqued...