LA TRAVIATA @ THE STATE

Abe and I know very little about opera and have only seen opera twice here in Austin.  This afternoon we had tickets for this live performance from that magnificent opera theater on the harbor in Australia.  We couldn't have been happier to see this performance up close and personal.  We could never afford tickets to the Met back in New York and while we loved the live performance of LA BOHEME at the Bass concert hall last year it wasn't nearly as enjoyable as this performance. I cried, we held hands watching a beautiful love story and it was a terrific way to spend a Sunday afternoon.   And we ran into Juan, our AFS buddy also a film fan of all films in Austin.

But first I auditioned to be an angry mean nun up on campus.  What fun! 

END OF WATCH

Let me first mention that I LOVE cop movies.  I love the working class backgrounds, the lives they live, the machismo/machisma POV they share, their helpfulness to each other in construction of their homes, support of their families and the generous spirit I have seen over and over again as a hospital social worker in crime ridden downtown Brooklyn before it became Yuppie Heaven.  Our Red Hook was a small version of South Central L.A. in the 70 and 80's.  Shaking your heads and thinking "what's up with this?"  I hate violent criminals, crack heads who hurt their babies, gang violence, drug cartels, batterers, pimps, on and on.  And bad cops who are criminals themselves.  And David Ayer does good cop/bad cop films like no one else.  TRAINING DAY had me shivering from Denzell's evil character and Diamonique in the role of Wicked in END OF WATCH is one wicked evil woman who you want to kill yourself!  END OF WATCH is beautifully cast with Jake Gyllenhaal as an intelligent chiseled cop who LOVES getting the bad guy's drugs and weapons.  Michael Pena (with a tilda on the n) is his partner and they share a jousting with each other that's refreshing and intelligent.  The film is shot through Jake's character's video lens as he carries the camera everywhere for a film class he's taking as an elective. These are brave, funny, decent young men and I was relieved to see a film about guys like these two. Guys that would run into a burning building for someone's kid.  I have known men like this and it is obvious that when David Ayer was living on the streets of South Central L.A. as a homeless teen he met a good cop as well!  Don't miss this film!

KUT Volunteer Appreciation Shindig

We got to see the beautiful new KUT space on 26th and Guadalupe at a truly lovely reception they made for the volunteers.  Food from CURRA'S was delicious, music from AUSTIN STEAMERS was foot tappin' good and a pleasure to see the new studios my favorite radio announcers work from.  Always nice to see and chat with Jay Trachtenburg, a former social worker and Bob Branson, the little guy with the big beautiful voice.  Abe joined me and I was so happy to sign up for two more fundraising days in October.  Right before Austin Film Festival begins!  Thank-you Kim and KUT for this lovely shindig!

KOL NIDRE

Tonight begins the observance of Yom Kippur our day of atonement where we review the past year, our ethical choices and promises, evaluate our performance and remember our loved ones who have departed.  We begin a fast after the evening meal.  The matzoh ball soup is on the stove, roasted chicken, sweet potatoes and of course pickles (Jewish veggies!)  Abe and I will attend the beautiful and mournful service up on campus (in a church...I love that!) and tomorrow Liz joins me at Hillel.  The music for tonight's service is absolutely beautiful.  And to all of my friends everywhere I wish you a year filled with good health, fulfilled dreams and world peace!

WHERE DO WE GO NOW

Do not miss this joyous film about women using their creative intelligence to put an end to the religious feuds that have destroyed their sons, fathers and husbands.  The setting is Lebanon and the Christian and Muslim women are determined to put their grieving to an end. The village is removed from the battle place of the larger cities but the word comes back to the men and the women come up with the most ingenious ways to distract them  from killing each other.  The most ingenious plan (my favorite) is when they hire a group of gorgeous, sexy Ukranian strippers to distract their men.  AND get them high to mellow their revengeful souls.  The cooking scenes set to music are luscious and the grieving scene is choreographed like THRILLER (credit to Abe here).

The film is written, directed and starred in by the beautiful Nadine Labaki.  This  film  has a women's touch in all of its creation.  Abe said we should get these women to run the world.  No disagreement there.Watch how the film is made when you rent the dvd.  You will want to thank the heavens for this moment of grace.

THE MASTER

The most masterful aspect of this film is clearly the performances delivered by Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.  I cannot comment enough on how breathtaking Joaquin Phoenix is in this role of a mentally tormented soul.  He proves himself to be a physical actor whose body language has a script all of it's own.  His interpretation of his character is shockingly portrayed.  Hoffman delivers as always with incredible power and strength.  Alas, the story line is not one I found as compelling as the performances.  A cult figure, narcissistic, self-centered and pompous finds a following of mostly women (what else is new?) and abuses his power to control.

A funny aside:  In a scene filled with nude females at a party Abe leaned in and said "want a role as an extra?" The only time I laughed.

Conversation at Vulcan

After a fine acting class with Marco Parella I stopped in at Vulcan to get a film for Abe and me this evening.  An elderly actor from BERNIE stopped in and was quite inebriated.  He attempted to flatter and pick up a 90 y.o. woman (that's how old she appeared) who was instructing everyone in the store about what films to see, her experience as a church volunteer with the mentally ill, and an absolute know-it -all.  His attention did not flatter her and she hid with the store personnel.  I loved him!  I want someone to try and pick me up at the local dvd store when I'm 90!  Just don't tell Abe.

Bakin' for Chale

Spent the afternoon baking for Chale Nafus' birthday.  Nothing could be better than baking sweets for a person we both like, admire and find delightfully human and funny.  He's been a great find in our new hometown.  He's a  little bit of New York, adequate amount of rebelliousness, and so filled with a capacity to teach!  And tonight we shared these goodies with Chale, his friends, Gloria and Bob and learned more about people and their lives in Austin. And Abe was funny!  Woody Allen funny!

L'Shana Tovah and SAMSARA

What better way to bring in our new year (Rosh Hashanah) than to see a visually breathtaking film with no dialogue and just shots  from many different cultures and countries all beautiful and mesmerizing?  This film by Ron Fricke will satisfy your soul if it has been longing for some peace from this world we are finding ourselves in.  The film is filled with natural beauty, cultural beauty, cultural reality, and humanity going about its ritual tasks.  This film is glorious.

The chicken with matzoh ball soup is on the stove.  Our family unites tomorrow for the first time in 10 years on Rosh Hashanah.  In NYC and Park Slope everyone knows this is the Jewish new year and it's part of the fabric and acknowledged.  In Austin we're unique I guess.  And to all of my friends everywhere I wish you good health, prosperity and most of all world peace in this new year.

Amanda and the Lockdown

As I'm telling a friend how happy I am that Josh is leaving D.C. with all of the anti-American furor occurring, I get a text and call from a UT RTF student announcing a campus lockdown because of a bomb threat!  WTF??  This family has lived through 911 in NYC (up close and personal) and then when we move to Austin someone drives a plane into a building and now a bomb threat on campus????  These are the kinds of events one cannot escape in this ever increasing world where guns and bombs are the tools of discourse.  That being said I headed up to Amanda's apartment to help with an exercise she was given for her Advanced Narrative class with Kat Candler.  So 4 other students helped Amanda for the next 4 hours (even more after I left) fulfill an assignment for a one minute film. I found being with these young student filmmakers a pleasure.  Their mutual respect for one another and collaborative efforts are so refreshing.  I approached my character with a good deal of thought and purposely made choices that were not easy ones. This was done with no dialogue.  While she was so appreciative for my effort it is I who am appreciative as well to be given a task that makes me think and put to use what I have learned in classes and through my own experiences. 

THAT CAT!!

Well it seems that adorable little orange tabby who comes by periodically (and whom I was considering having spayed at one of those kind mobile vet clinics at 5 a.m.) belongs to our neighbors.  She's 15y.o., her name is Molly Brown, she's fed twice a day, clamors up a storm to all of our neighbors and is therefore fed by everyone.  Our neighbor Sebastian says "she has a tapeworm,"  Abe says "this cat is sick" and I say she's been traumatized at some point in her development.  Whatever the truth is, man did she have me fooled!  You can all stop laughing.

THE GROCER'S SON/Austin Film Society

I approached this evening's Essential Cinema film enthusiastically because I am the daughter of a grocer.  And for me that brought back wonderful memories of my father's grocery store in the Bronx where he was the warm and personable center of a neighborhood where people came to shop, chat and share their woes.  I remember being parked out in front of that store in a stroller with everyone stopping to play with me before entering.  This evening, in such contrast, we see a young man return home to his provincial French village to help his Mom run a store and drive a grocery delivery van after his Dad suffers a heart attack.  The son and the father are brooding, unhappy, disappointed men.  A brother is clinically depressed and the household is riddled with tension when the Dad returns from the hospital.  The mother is a strong, no frills woman trying to hold it together.  Thank goodness for a young woman who brings color into their lives and warmth into the son's heart.  She teaches him how to sell, how to relate, how to make the gig appealing.  And then she leaves and he's on his own.  He learns eventually how to compromise, how to be generous, flexible and begins to find his own identity as this traveling grocer. The movie ends well.  The cinematography is beautiful, frequently reminding me of a Cezanne painting.  The film is in French made by Eric Guirado, a documentary filmmaker,  in 2007.  Abe and I loved it. Thank-you to AFS and Freestyle Language Center for bringing this film to Austin.

PORTRAIT OF WALLY and RED HOOK SUMMER

Two New York films this week-end with native New York directors.  Let me begin with a loud round of applause for Andrew Shea's documentary of a Nazi looted oil painting and one family's determined efforts to reclaim it.  And correct a mistaken notion that  an Austrian powerful collector of art could hold on to what does not belong to him.  And please....Austrian art from this period of time?  In the private apartment  of a Jewish woman who owned an art gallery?  One need not be a historian of the fine tuned relationship between Austrians and Nazis to determine who would be rightfully awarded ownership.  But 13 years in correcting this!  With New York's powerful Art Museums and their Board of Directors fighting this.  Bless Robert Morgantheau...a bull dog with a bone. Professor Shea is a former New Yorker, lawyer and now a filmmaker and RTF teacher.  I've had the good fortune to act in one of his classes and was delighted to see him once again at the Q&A.  Packed house at the Violet Crown.  Do not miss this!

Alas, Spike Lee's film about a notorious housing project where so many of my clients in Brooklyn lived was a major disappointment.  The casting was terribly flawed with actors delivering sermons (even the kids), an undeveloped story line, amateurish photography and where was he going with all of these sermons?  I went to this film to be reminded of a slice of Brooklyn I worked with so closely.  The address on Lorraine Street had some of the most disenfranchised and impoverished families I have ever engaged.  And instead I saw bright lights, bright colors, kids moving in and out of stairwells with no graffiti on the walls. Help!  Clear to me Spike was out of touch on this one.  His Fort Greene private school background shined through.

Liz Turns 25

What can I say?  I remember distinctly being checked into Beth Israel Hospital (Manhattan) on Labor Day (no pun intended) for a scheduled c-section the next day.  A 2 y.o. Josh in a yellow raincoat and Abe accompanied me and then left. I'd never been a night away from Josh before and was tearful.  I read THE GOOD MOTHER from cover to cover, didn't sleep a wink and was up and ready for Dr. Berk at 6 a.m.  Abe arrived.  A resident performed the surgery being instructed by Dr. Berk. I liked her.  When Dr. Berk announced "you have a daughter" my first thoughts were, "this is for my grandma Bess," and though she'd left us  a number of years before, we were able to reclaim her loveliness by naming our very lovely daughter "Elizabeth."  Happy Birthday Liz. 

Motherese:The Universal Language of Mothers

I was with a middle aged Vietnamese woman yesterday when my cell phone rang. Ann speaks adequate and broken English.  Ours is a new relationship so we didn't know much about each other.  I asked her if it was OK if I took the call as I don't like answering cell phones in small public places.  The call was from Josh who is in the midst of moving to Austin and his calls are usually important these days.  Ann gave me the OK, I answered his questions and when I got off the phone Ann asked me if that was my son.  I was surprised and said it was..."how did you know?"  She answered "because you were so loving in the way you spoke."  She then went on to tell me she is the mother of 4 adolescents (I commiserated) and she showed me photos of her 17y.o. beautiful daughter.

The night before Michelle Obama delivered a speech at the DNC that spoke to mothers.  So many people commented on that.  Thank goodness for Motherese.  Where would the world be without it?

EAST OF EDEN at the Paramount

We pulled into home stretch for the Summer Classic Series with this powerful film directed by Elia Kazan.  James Dean provides an emotional and riveting performance that had me grieving his early passing throughout the film (with tears).  He is beautiful to watch as he shares his soul to the audience as the unloved brother.  His ability and willingness to portray his pain is art at it's finest.  Julie Harris as  the woman who loves him and reads him so well is beautiful to watch as well.  Burl Ives, Raymond Massey and Jo Van Fleet made me so happy to be part of an older generation that elevated dramatic acting to a high plane.  We left the theater moved and grateful to once again see this story of Cain and Abel, misled fathers, troubled sons, and family secrets at the beautiful Paramount.  A highly recommended classic.

The Cat Came Back

Haven't seen my young orange tabby friend in a couple of weeks.  He or she walked up to me while I watered the garden, talked up a storm and waited patiently while I went in to get her  (I'll call her "she") some tuna.  And water.  Really nice having this young cat come visit periodically.  She's not pregnant so maybe she's someone's cat.  Or a "he."

Yesterday was my first experience on THE LYING GAME as "background" and as always a learning experience and eye opener.  About 7 hours on an un airconditioned set in pants suits with blouses and even jewelry they provided!  I never ever wear jewelry.  Enormous amounts of crew and technology,  the cameras reminded me of STAR WARS.  Director re shot a bazillion times.  An experience I'd do again being better prepared.  Some serious characters work as "background."

This morning I received a message from an RTF student asking if I'd be in a short exercise film she was making for an Advanced Narrative class.  Now that made my day begin with a smile.  Of course.  So much more creative I think than yesterday's TV work.  And what's so interesting is TV roles are the only ones who have ever paid me.  But helping to make  films has broadened my life's experience and taught me so much.

THE LYING GAME

I've never responded to any of the casting calls for this abc family series shot at Austin Studios as I am so un-quintessential Texas.   For me  it was just like Christmas...beautiful, but not mine.   But yesterday there was a casting call for  extra school teachers so I thought "what the hell?"  A school teacher can be any age and I don't have to talk so they won't know I'm a native New Yorker.  And early this a.m. I was booked as an extra detective in a police station for 9/4.  To be booked on Labor Day and get paid?  How cool is that? Highly grateful!

Out Of Bounds Comedy Festival

For one week Austin is home to hundreds of improv performers and troupes and stand up comics. Very affordable entertainment which I always like.   Tonight we headed down to the Velveeta Room where we heard 6 comics perform.  Two hailed from New York, one of them was really funny and incredibly smart.  Reminded Abe of John Erler.  Yes, it was really hot waiting outside on line but once we were in and the audience was laughing and responsive to these performers I realized how much respect and admiration I have for men and women putting their stuff out there.  Another fine and very affordable night in Austin.

A bright prelude to the day was taking Abe to Josh's new apartment and bringing over kitchen and bathroom stuff.  He's not here yet but it was a good reminder that we will no longer see our son so very rarely. Oh Happy Day!