fauxklore

After my April trip to New York, I mentioned that I needed to go back up to see a couple of things. That trip happened last week.

Oh, Deer! I took the Acela up on Sunday afternoon. I usually just take the Northeast Regional, but this time the Acela turned out to be a little cheaper. What it did not end up being was actually faster. Things were going quite well until somewhere in New Jersey (between Trenton and Metro Park) when there was a bump and the train stopped. Amtrak was not particularly forthcoming with information. Their website just indicated a delay. There was an eventual announcement about a mechanical problem, claiming they were trying to figure out what was wrong. I was in the front car and it was fairly obvious what happened, as people pointed out the deer we had hit. (I suppose it is more correct to say that the deer hit us.) Something broke off as a result. Eventually, they decided they couldn’t fix it and they transferred everyone to another train. This was an interesting process - we all had to walk to the cafe car, where they had a bridge set up to the cafe car of another train. There went the Acela luxury as we took whatever seats we could find on a regional train, which also had everyone facing backwards going to New York. I think this was much worse for the passengers going on to Boston as the rescue train ended in New York.

In the end, we were about 2 hours late. The interesting thing is that this was the second time I was on an Amtrak train that had a deer collision. The previous time was a shorter delay as they pretty much just had to remove the dead body. I have had other deer issues in my life - notably, the deer which ate my map in Nara, Japan. I think I need to eat more venison.

Mets Game: Most theaters are dark on Sunday nights. So I had opted to get tickets to the Mets vs. Phillies at CitiField. I scurried over to my hotel and headed to the ballpark. I ended up missing the first inning, which was disappointing because the Mets had scored 3 runs. But I did get to see most of the game, including the eventual Mets victory in the 10th inning. I should mention that the tying run was Nick Plummer’s homer in the 9th inning, which was his first major league hit. (Eduardo Escobar’s walk-off hit in the 10th was the game winning one.)

By the way, I thought this sign was ironic in light of my delay getting there:





One other note. They apparently no longer have a sing-along of “Meet the Mets” in the 8th inning, which they still did the previous time I’d been to CitiField. Still, I had a good time.


Memorial Day Concert: I hadn’t really made any plans for Monday during the day and asked on Facebook if anyone wanted to do anything. A puzzle friend mentioned she was volunteering at the Memorial Day concert at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn and we arranged to met for lunch before that. I had some time to walk around the cemetery, but it was very hot out, so after tracking down a couple of famous graves (DeWitt Clinton and Leonard Bernstein), I listened to the rehearsal, while she worked set-up. The concert was very nice. The ISO Symphonic Band @ Third Street is affiliated with the Third Street Music School Settlement and played a wide range of American anthems and some show music. There was also an excellent singer named Ezekiel Andrew. I particularly liked his performance of “The House I Live In” by Earl Robinson. (Robinson also wrote "Ballad for Americans", which was a favorite piece of my mother’s, from her high school glee club days.)

Hangmen: Monday night, I went to see Hangmen, which had been one of the major reasons for the trip. The play starts out with a rather shocking scene involving one of the last hangings in England. Even then, there’s a certain amount of dark humor as the prisoner complains (in response to bring told that if he’d cooperate, he could have been dead already), “I am about to be hung by a nincompoop” only to have his grammar corrected to “No, you are about to be hanged by a nincompoop.”

The rest of the play is set after hanging was abolished in England and takes place mostly in the pub owned by the former hangman and his wife. He insists he won’t talk about his opinions on the death penalty, but he does give a detailed interview to a newspaperman who shows up at the pub. There’s another stranger there, who talks about renting a room at the pub, but whose behavior turns menacing. A former assistant to the hangman shows up. And then the hangman’s daughter disappears.

This is all very dark - but it is also very funny. Which is exactly what I expected from a Martin McDonagh play. Whether or not you’d enjoy seeing this depends a lot on how you feel about his work. I am a big fan and thought it was well worth seeing. My one issue is that some of the characters spoke with rather thick Lancashire accents, which I had trouble understanding, so I missed some of the jokes. I also want to note Alfie Allen’s performance as the menacing stranger. He’s been nominated for a best supporting actor Tony, which I’d be happy to see him win.

Faith Ringgold Exhibit: The other major reason for the trip was seeing the Faith Ringgold exhibition at the New Museum. She’s an artist I’ve liked a great deal since I first saw her story quilt “Tar Beach” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts some years ago. I saw a retrospective of her work at Glenstone back in October, but I am fairly sure this exhibit had a lot more of her art than that one had. In particular, they had all 12 of the story quilts in the French Collection. They also had a website that you could access via a QR code that brought up the text of the stories (which are otherwise hard to read on the quilts). These take the form of letters written by Ringgold’s fictional alter ego (Willa Marie) to her family. Here, for example, Willa Marie writes to her aunt Melissa about her friend Marcia and Marcia’s three daughters taking her dancing at the Louvre:



My favorite of these story quilts was The Sunflowers Quilting Bee of Arles. In this one, the National Sunflowers Quilting Society of America puts on quilting bees around the world to spread the cause of freedom and Aunt Melissa has asked Willa Marie to accompany them to the sunflower fields in Arles. Vincent Van Gogh comes to see this group of black women (Madame Walker, Sojourner Truth, Ida Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Ella Baker) sewing in the sunflower fields. They explain that their real work is is “making the world piece up right.”



Of course, there were lots of other pieces, including Tar Beach, both in quilt form and as a picture book. The title refers to a rooftop in Harlem.




But Ringgold’s most powerful work is politically focused. That includes a series of pieces about slaves being raped. And this painting done in response to the Attica uprising:



And then there are some pieces that are just jaw-dropping. This says pretty much everything that needs to be said about the history of black people in America:




There is so much more in the three floors of the exhibit - including more quilts, soft sculptures, and paintings. Ringgold is still working (at the age of 91). I was astonished to learn that this was the first retrospective of her work in New York City. It’s a wonderful and powerful exhibit and I am really glad I got to see it.


Staten Island Ferry Hawks: I would normally have spent Tuesday afternoon walking around lower Manhattan, but the temperature was in the high 90’s, so I went back to my hotel and basked in air conditioning for a couple of hours. (Plus, I needed to finish reading my book club book.) In the late afternoon, I headed back downtown and took the Staten Island Ferry so I could go to another baseball game. The Staten Island Ferry Hawks were playing the Lancaster Barnstormers in the (independent) Atlantic League. I think the last time I took the ferry had been some time in high school, when I went to a picnic on Staten Island, possibly related to Dror, the socialist Zionist group that ran the summer camp I went to for a couple of summers. It’s still a nice ride - and it’s still free!



The ballpark is a short walk from the ferry terminal and has a good view over the bay. I was amused to see container ships going by as the game went on.



The ballpark was amazingly empty, by the way. They gave out rally towels, which they called Hawk Hankies. And the concessions are incredibly unimpressive. Still, it was a pleasant evening and worth checking off another ballpark. But I would probably recommend the Brooklyn Cyclones if you wanted to go to a Minor League game in New York City.

POTUS: When I was looking at what else was playing on Broadway that I might want to see, I read a review of a play called POTUS: or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive. With a title like that, how could I resist? I caught the Wednesday matinee. The basic premise is that the president (who is never really seen during the play) has created an international incident by saying that his wife was “in a cunty mood” to explain her absence from an international meeting. His schedule is full and he has an embarrassing medical condition to deal with. His chief of staff and press secretary are trying to handle things. The situation is made more complicated by a meek secretary, a reporter, the President’s pregnant mistress, and his sister (a convicted drug dealer), as well as the FLOTUS (who tries to soften her image by wearing high-heeled crocs!). I’m not usually particularly fond of farce, but I was able to ignore how little of this makes sense because it was just so outrageously funny. You do have to have a high tolerance for foul language, but the very talented cast made up for that in my opinion. My overall reaction was “I am woman, hear me roar … with laughter.”

Other Travel Notes: I would normally have tried to squeeze in one more show on Wednesday night, but my book club was meeting over zoom that night. It was good to have an earlyish night anyway, since I was taking a morning train back on Thursday. That train ride went more smoothly than my trip up. No deer!

I should also mention that I stayed at the Fairfield Inn on 37th St. near Fifth Avenue, which was a lot cheaper than the one across from Moynihan Train Hall that I usually stay at. The location was good enough, but it is definitely not as nice. In particular, the breakfast was really mediocre. My biggest complaint was the lack of a toaster, so no bread, though they did have plastic-wrapped muffins and a few croissants. And the room did not have a refrigerator and microwave. I am unlikely to stay there again.

Good Jobs for Women: There was a piece in Forbes several weeks ago listing the 10 best jobs for women. Aerospace engineer came in 10th. For the record, many jobs on the list had some science / math orientation, e.g. oceanographer (3), geoscientist (8), surveyor (6). Supreme galactic empress was not on the list, alas, but I still aspire to that one.

Odd Advertising: I get a number of circulars in the mail with discounts for local businesses. Restaurant ads usually have pictures of food. I understand most of these, e.g. kebabs for the Persian place and stir fried something or other for the Chinese restaurant. But why on earth is a restaurant whose tag line is "Get to know our homemade food" advertising itself with a photo of a plate of toast?

Customer Service: I have cooled off from my bad experiences with several companies, but I will note that it is very annoying when either clicking on a discount or logging into your account (which has the link for getting a discount in it) makes the price of an Amtrak ticket go up by 20 bucks. I know how to circumvent this (which sometimes requires buying two one-way tickets instead of a round trip one) but they have known about this for a couple of years and show no interest in fixing it.

Do I Want to Read This? Mark Leyner has a new novel out. I will admit to having liked My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist but could he possibly have more to say?

Celebrity Death Watch: King George Tupou V of Tonga died recently. The interesting part is that he died in a hospital in Hong Kong. As you may recall, the Tongan treasury was greatly increased by the sale of Tongan citizenship to people from Hong Kong who were concerned about China's intention, but much of that money was embezzled by their court jester. That was under the previous king but it is still such a good story that I can't resist repeating it.

Non-celebrity Death Watch: Mara Chibnik lost her battle to pancreatic cancer. She was a calm and intelligent presence back in the good old days of Usenet (and a few mailing lists we were on). She influenced my thinking on a range of subjects, including gender, sexuality, aging, and books. I will miss her.

Speaking of Sexuality: I saw the documentary Trembling Before G-d Saturday night as part of the Northern Virginia International Jewish Film Festival. Homosexuality in the Orthodox Jewish world is more talked about now than it was when this film was made over a decade ago, but it is still (obviously) a controversial subject. I found the movie interesting and moving, especially a scene in which an older man talks about his estrangement from his family, saying "I'm 68 years old and I want my daddy" before singing "Shalom Aleichem."

Brother Russia: As I've mentioned before, I subscribe to Signature Theatre largely in order to support their productions of new musicals. This is their latest and was, in my opinion, an interesting failure. I didn't have problems with using the life of Rasputin as the subject of a musical, but I didn't see the need to place it in the "play within a play" mode involving a theatre troupe. I may also know too much about Russian history to have been able to get past the (admitted) fabrications, which do get called out by one actor later on. The music was just okay, with the only particularly memorable song being a lively celebration of vodka. (My experience, however, is that Russians of the class frequenting that tavern would actually be more likely to drink beer or kvass.) The performances were fine (especially Nastascia Diaz as Anastasia). The choreography was remarkably dull and the whole thing was too long. Overall, this might have been better off with a year or three of workshops to figure out what it is supposed to be and edit it into a more satisfying show.