songbird's crazy world

Today is Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year.  It is a day of prayer and private contemplation.   The holiday has put me in a nostalgic mood.  So today’s blog hop theme is bringing back sweet memories. This week's theme: First Grade Songs – songs that were popular the year you were in first grade (or when you were 6 yrs old) Oooohh  .... 1966.... (yes, I'm old...) But it was a great year for music. The Beach Boys were surfing. The Mamas and Papas were California Dreamin' While Simon and Garfunkel were Homeward Bound Tommy James gave us the Hanky Panky And we will close it out with the Supremes

Before I talk about the book I'm reading, you need to know a little bit about me. I was 14 years old when Richard Nixon resigned the presidency.  Just three days before the resignation, my family and I spent a day as tourists in Washington, DC.  I think that's when my interest in politics began.  I started college in the fall of 1978 expecting to major in political science.  Loved the subject, hated the professors, so I wound up switching my major to History and my minor to English. In the spring of my senior year I had a full time internship in the New York State Assembly.  And then I went to law school. You can see where this is going. I'm still reading this: I am nowhere near finished with this book.  Problem is, with the history being made around us right now, the exploits of a fictional president aren't holding my attention the way the Washington Post and the New York Times are captivating me. And there are only so many hours in a day. ...

Looks like the Caribbean Princess is back in town. (Yes, that's the Verrazano Bridge in the background.) The usual helicopter traffic: (Those folks are boarding a ferry.) Interesting cloud patterns as you look up at the tall buildings:  (Yes, that's the FDR Drive in the foreground.) And then we all saw this sailing up the river towards the Brooklyn Bridge: Look at the stern  -- is that Ireland's flag? Well, the UN is in session this week, so visits by foreign dignitaries aren't unexpected.... #skywatchfriday

I have a framed print hanging over my bed... Saw the real deal a few years ago at MOMA .

An iconic musical, beloved on stage and screen. Yesterday my friend Maribeth  blogged about playing Gretl in a community theater production of The Sound of Music.  I am sure it was a wonderful experience for her. My daughter Becca took an acting class when she was four years old.  A talent agent was invited to the end-of-year recital, and asked if I wanted Becca to be a professional actress.  For the next two years, Becca auditioned for a lot of TV commercials and for two Broadway musicals -- Annie and The Sound of Music .She came thisclose to being cast as Gretl, but alas...she came close to being cast in a lot of things, we stopped trying because she wasn't actually getting any roles... I think the girl who got the part was cute, but....well, not as cute as my Becca.

Lots of traffic near my office yesterday morning, lots of closed streets.  It really gets backed up whenever a VIP with a Secret Service detail is invited to ring the opening bell of the stock market. At least I don't have to go to the Upper East side this week --traffic is a nightmare because of the UN General Assembly. I feel bad for my daughter, though.   Becca lives in the East 50's, and walks to work, and she's voicing her displeasure all over Twitter.... Last week you couldn't drive anywhere near Little Italy, street closures because of the Feast of San Gennaro.  Best street fair in NYC.  I haven't been in awhile, but it's a  lot of fun. I wrote about it  here. So it's officially fall now.  Hard to think of it as fall when the temperature is in the 80's.Long term forecast says we should be getting cooler weather in about two weeks. Funny how I was so anxious to hold on to summer, but now I'm more than ready to let it go.... A news...

Another free choice week. My choice this week is BROADWAY. but I am not going to bore you with songs you many not have heard before. In the 1940's and 1950's, Broadway show tunes routinely hit the pop charts. Starting in the 1960's, however, the two worlds grew apart.  yet sometimes a Broadway show tune made it to the top of the pop charts. let's start with one from The Music Man . Let's move on to  A Little Night Music . Promises, Promise s gave us this tune. From Jesus Christ Superstar : You simply must include Chess .  Bad show, great song. Of course I need to mention Cats .  And Hair . You cannot forget Hello, Dolly! And we will close it out with Barbra Streisand's signature song, from Funny Girl , here is "People":

It's the last full day of summer.  Autumn arrives at 3:50 AM tomorrow morning.  The sun will rise at 6:44 and set at 6:51, giving us 12 hours and 7 minutes of daylight.  The moon is in the last quarter, the full Harvest Moon having made its appearance on September 13. I think the fall foliage might peak early this year.  I am already seeing some color in my yard.  Usually the leaves don't start to change until early October.  I live in a heavily-wooded area, so when the foliage peaks, the view is magnificent. The city was all abuzz Friday, the march to protest climate change...it's good ot see young people getting involved with the cause.  Yesterday Drew and I took a defensive driving class.  You know, the 6 hour class that lets you lower your insurance premiums.  I've taken the class before. but this time...well, this time the class was sponsored by AARP, so the focus was on older drivers.  Now I feel ancient. I signed up for th...

A rerun from 2009  (edited for typos,  spelling, etc.) He was always one of my favorite players on the Mets, one of my heroes during the Subway Series in 2000 -- who could forget the "bat  incident" with Roger Clemens? but what earned him that special place in my heart... September 21, 2001.  The first major sporting event in NYC after 9-11.  A game at Shea  involving solemn ceremony and players wearing the caps of NYPD and FDNY. It wasn't very good baseball that night, neither the Mets nor the Braves played particularly well that night.... Until Piazza hit a 2-run homer that gave the Mets a 3-2 lead, and which ultimately won the game. As we watched that ball sail over Shea we knew... we knew  ...that no matter how much we were hurting, no matter how awful we all felt (you could still smell the burning at Ground Zero, after all)...that even though  life would never be the same...somehow we'd go on, somehow everything would be ok...

I've never read any of Patterson's books until this one came along.  The criticism against Patterson is that he's more interested in making money than in perfecting his craft. I don't know whether that's true, but none of his books ever caught my attention. Until now. When you write a political thriller with a former President of the United States...well, I was intrigued. I've read about 1/4 of the book so far.   Our protagonist is President Jonathan Duncan, who is dealing with the threat of a potentially devastating terrorist attack and who is facing impeachment from a hostile Congress. i'll write a complete review when I finish the book.

Beautiful sunset in a not-so-beautiful train station: #skywatchfriday

A lot of interesting revivals are coming to Broadway this season.  Matthew Broderick and Sara Jessica Parker are bringing back Plaza Suite .  Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster will appear in The Music Man -- Drew is dying to see that one, it's his favorite musical (though the cost of the tickets is insane). And then, there's West Side Story . I've seen the movie a dozen times, I saw the Broadway revival in the 1980's, and yes, that was me in the back row of the chorus in our high school production... The producers are promising us a show "unlike anything America has seen before" . We have our tickets and will be seeing the show in April. And anyone who doubts the relevance or authenticity of West Side Story  need only pick up a copy of a local newspaper ... Earlier this week there was a brawl at a Long Island strip mall involving young men, still in  high school, apparently over a girl...And when it was over, one young man was dead, and another was in t...

So I found myself on the corner of Front Street and Old Slip, and discovered a temporary display of sculpture. Gillie and Marc's Statutes for Equality .   From the website: Gillie and Marc’s Statues for Equality aim to balance gender representation in public art, and honor women’s contributions to society.  Gender inequality is among the most critical issues facing the world today. ​ In New York City, less than 3% of statues are female, with Sydney and London following suit with 4% and 3% respectively. In fact, there are more statues called John in the UK than there are of historical women. Gillie and Marc are on a mission to even out these statistics, starting by creating 10 larger than life statues of inspirational women which were unveiled at RXR Realty’s 1285 Avenue of the Americas, NYC on  Women’s Equality Day: August 26th, 2019, in New York City . These powerful women were voted for by the public and include; Oprah Winfrey, P!nk, Nicole Kidman,...

This week's theme? Farm Aid was founded Sept 22, 1985. In honor of Farm Aid, build a playlist featuring artists that have performed at the annual event.  The variety of artists over the years is impressive. Bonnie Raitt is a regular at the festival. Roy Orbison put in an appearance Tom Petty lent his voice to the cause Let's hear from the Beach Boys Neil Young is a festival regular We have to include Fogerty But the driving force of the event is Willie Nelson

So it's the middle of September.  Summer is definitely over, and it's time to transition to autumn.  I'm looking forward to the cooler weather, the fall foliage, the apples and pumpkins at every farm stand... It's time to think about the High Holy Days.  The first night of Rosh HaShanah is September 29, which means the dinner extravaganza at my mother's house.  Drew is making dinner for his family the second night.  Apples and honey, a round challah, matzo ball soup, sweet wine... But first we had to celebrate a birthday.  Drew's uncle is turning 85,  so last night we got agroup of friends together to celebrate.  Dinner at an Italian restaurant, cannoli cake from our favorite bakery... We had a much quieter celebration for my mom's 87th last week -- just the family, takeout Italian food and a chocolate mousse cake. I've got a milestone birthday coming up in February, and I don't know how I want to celebrate it... Drew wants to go to a ha...

Just finished reading this book. It was a powerful experience.  I think the themes of fundamentalism, autocracy, deprivation of human rights and subjugation of women, explored in both The Handmaid's Tale and T he Testaments ,  are more relevant now than they were when Atwood published Handmaid in 1985. Yes, you do need a working knowledge of The Handmaid's Tale before you read The Testaments, though (with one notable exception) the central characters of that story do not appear in the sequel.   But no, you don't have to be a fan of the Hulu series -- though I am fairly certain Atwood has been watching the series. (And yes, Hulu is already planning an adaptation of the new book, which I will most certainly watch.) (If you don't want spoilers, stop right here.) The Handmaid's Tale,  as you will recall, introduced us to Gilead, a country run by right-wing fundamentalists known as the Sons of Jacob, who have overthrown the United States government and ins...

Just pre-ordered a book which will be published on September 24: Renia Spiegel was a Polish Jew, shot and killed at age 18 in 1942.  A friend was able to save her diary, and eventually gave it to Renia's mother and sister, who survived the Holocaust.  Renia's family kept her journal locked away in a bank vault for 70 years, but now it is being published. They are calling Renia "the Polish Anne Frank", and while those are very big shoes to fill, I am sure this will be an interesting read.  

So yes, we are definitely fans of the Long Island Ducks . They are unaffiliated with Major League Baseball.  They play in the independent Atlantic League .  There is, however,  a real connection between the Ducks and the New York Mets -- Bud Harrelson (Mets '69) is a part owner of the team, and Wally Backman (Mets '86) is the current manager. We spend a lot of time at Bethpage Ballpark, a 6,000 seat venue, rooting for our team. We had tickets for the game on Saturday, September 7. The Sugarland Skeeters would be in town.  6:30 start time, with a fireworks show after the game. And then on Friday, what was left of Hurricane Dorian hit the East End of Long Island, causing the Ducks to cancel their game that evening. The Saturday game became a single-admission doubleheader, both games reduced to 7 innings, with the first game to start at 4:30 and the second game to start 30 minutes after the end of the first game. The Second game actually started around 7 PM....

Today is a rerun from a post I wrote in 2009 .  I no longer travel of the PATH to New Jersey, but the LIRR and the NYC have not improved.  People don't read newspapers anymore, they stare at their phones now, and their phones have replaced iPods.  If I were writing this post now, I'd add "manspreading" to the list of sins, but otherwise, nothing has changed.... Here's the list. 1. LIRR riders are SLOBS. Ever get on a train and have to move someone else's trash in order to sit down? Ewwwwww.... 2. The rats in the NYC subway system laugh at the rat poison signs. I don't mind seeing rodents on the tracks every once in awhile, but when the crawl up onto the platform....eek! 3. People are just plain rude. They'll knock you over in order to get to an empty seat. 4. Any time there are two drops of rain, expect major delays on the railroad. 5. Don't you just love it when the conductor using the public address system sounds like an adult...

The Hebrew language traditionally used letters to represent numbers.  The letters used to represent the number "18" also spell the word " chai "  (the "ch" is pronounced with the same gutteral sound as in the German word "ach"), which translates to "life".  It is traditional to think of 18 as a lucky number, e.g., monetary gifts are usually given in multiples of 18. Many Jews wear pendants with the symbol  for chai . Our whole world changed 18 years ago today.   18  years ago an ordinary Tuesday turned into a nightmare, a day of horrors, a day that showed our strength to unite in the face of adversity. 9/11 happened to all of us, in NYC and California and everywhere in between.  But someone standing on the corner of Vesey Street and Church Street experienced 9/11 in a very different way than someone watching the events on TV.  And I will be forever grateful that I had an "on the outside looking in" experi...

So now I've finished two more Pern books.  That means I've read three books towards the challenge. and Dolphins o verlaps the time period of All the Weyrs of Pern , in which the citizens of Pern have discovered the landing site of  the original colonists, and the Artificial Intelligence known as AIVAS.  In Weyrs , AIVAS assumes the role of teacher and planner, updating the technological skills of Pern's people so as to enable them to rid the planet of Thread forever. Dolphins begins with an incident  described in the previous novel, in which Masterfisher Alemi and and young Readis are rescued by "shipfish" when their boat overturns in a squall.   We come to learn that dolphins came from Earth with the original colonists, but they have been bio-engineered to enhance their communication skills and their memory of history.  We see men reestablishing a partnership with the dolphins.  Our main character, Readis, wants to become a dolphineer,...

No use trying to hide it.  I guess I'll have to admit it. Let me take a deep breath.  Getting myself ready. OK, here goes. I am a fanilow. Yes, I like Barry Manilow, and yes,  I've actually seen Barry Manilow perform live, once at Radio City, and then at his one-man show on Broadway. He's been on my mind recently; he was back on Broadway this summer for another one-man show. So today I am presenting some of my favorite Manilow songs. His first big hit, "Mandy", was actually a cover of a Scott English tune; English called the song "Brandy", but Manilow changed the name to avoid confusion with a song by The Looking Glass. And then there was "Could It Be Magic".  He'll often sing this one and "Mandy" as a medley. He paints quite a romantic picture: And then there is his ability to tell a story through song: Then there was his "Very Strange Medley", songs he wrote or per...

OMG, I completely forgot about Margaret Atwood! Guess what book is being released on Tuesday? I read The Handmaid's Tal e a long time ago.  It was a book that stayed with me...I've seen seasons 1 and 2 of the Hulu series -- I don't subscribe to Hulu, so I'll watch season 3 when it comes out on DVD. While watching the show I'll remember specific incidents from the book. But the show has gone beyond the original story line. The Handmaid's Tal e is free with my subscription to Kindle:Unlimited, so I've downloaded it and pre-ordered the sequel. Should I reread  The Handmaid's Tal e first?   Or just go ahead with the sequel? In any event, as soon as I finish my current read, it's time to take a break from Pern.

Meet Marty : I encountered him last week in Stop & Shop.  His job is to announce spills in the aisles, so that the store employees can quickly respond to a messy situation. You can hear Marty's voice all over the store:  "Cleanup in aisle 7!  Cleanup in aisle 2!" He looks so friendly: Or does he?  they added the googly eyes because...well...imagine seeing this.... A bit ...spookier...without the eyes....

There was a thunderstorm in progress when I got off the train one night.  torrential rain, thunder, lightning...Glad I had my umbrella.  I raced to the parking garage to get my car.  As I pulled out of the garage, headed east, i saw this: I looked northward and saw this: I guess the storm was very localized. I drove around the building, so that I was facing west: I guess that explains the rainbow. As I continued to drive westward, I watched the ever-changing sky: (I do  so love to see planes in the sky). #skywatchfriday

I was in the Atlantic Avenue subway station one morning, on my way to work.  I looked across the tracks to the next platform and saw this: And no one standing on that platform took any notice of him; the homeless are relatively invisible. But that is truly an odd pace to bed down ... I am fairly certain someone notified the transit workers and/or the police.   I was eating lunch on the river walk, near the South Street seaport, when I saw this: That's a fairly expensive camera he's holding.  they were shooting some sort of video,, they took at least 3 or 4 takes.  I'm not sure what it was all about, they were speaking in Russian, or some similar language. NYC may be many things, but "boring" isn't one of them.