↑Larryosan's blog

School will be starting soon again, I am taking two classes this semester, I need statistics and I am taking a video technology class, the latter is not part of my degree program but it is interesting to me and I am working more and more with the video people in my work group. This week I was doing portraits, something I have no background in despite doing lots of picture taking. I am not really a photographer, nor formal training nor real background in the craft. But I am learning what I have been doing wrong. I am good at posing people and loosening them up for better shots, my biggest downfall is of course, light. And from I read lighting is the key to it all right up there with the human touch of poses and all that. So I use photoshop and still came out with better stuff than what was given to us by another department. I am also doing the narration, I am a self slight taught sound engineer. Sigh I wish I really knew what I was doing. Oh well my audience is happy.

Went out for a birthday dinner at a place called Vongs, it is a French Thai fusion and it was wonderful, I had warm asparagus salad and duck ala"orange, done in an Asian style, it was fabulous. Dinner was one of those chocolate cakes with a gooey center. Yummm! But I will say our other favorite dinner place Chanterelle is a bit classier and the service is a notch up from what we had last night.

Tonight off to the theater to see a play about making animal origami and lessons of life. Friends have seen it and have given the play high reviews. We belong to a discount theater ticket group so we try to get out on a semi regular basis and get in some culture.

I have a picture on flickr with the question, what is dangerous art? And does that even exist, can art really be dangerous, or is that wishful thinking on the part of the artist. I know that artists do reflect changes in the society that they live in, but are they in someway a catalyst? I am not sure so I put the question out there and have yet to hear back. Any takers here?

Teejaybee got my traveling man picture, much to my surprise and has been taking him around all over down under. This is mind boggling and so cool to me, plus I sent him some of my art work and he just blew me away with his stand up appreciation and coolness factor of him. So please take a look as he has all sorts of interesting stuff. Thank you teejaybee, you are the bees knees.

ta ta for now

Went to a play, animal from paper, a play with origami in the center with three characters two adults and a teen with interesting emotional entanglements and cross purposes all going on with origami as the connective tissue. The dialogue was very well written but the story arc was a bit rough at the ending. I enjoyed the play a lot and it was a fun night out. One of the interesting elements is the teen bringing in rap rhyming, the actor was a VJ on MTV and a member of a music comedy troupe. All the actors were a pleasure to watch.

We went and saw SpeigelTent, one of the shows here in NYC. Speigel Tent is a special tent originating in Belgium and is the center of entertainment and only a few survive around the world. One is set up here in NYC at the South Street Seaport and has a couple of shows running. The one we went to is called Absinthe and consisted of a kind of MC ringmaster called Gazillionaire with his side kick called Penny who was a type of lewd Lucille Ball. The acts were cirque to Soliel acrobatics, contortionists and gymnasts. But with an erotic overtone. There was two guys both young good looking doing what I call gay acrobatics, in green monster underwear. Then there was a skinny bendy girl, two very attractive trapeze artists doing a very erotic heterosexual act. And a wild roller skate act. There was a very talented singer who also did a humorous act which I ended up involved in by having to help her down from one part of the audience, she ended up draped over my shoulder. Many people told me I should have started spanking her like a nasty boy but I was kind of stunned by the whole thing, and I was told I turned bright beet red. Fun was had by all. It was a very fun night. Best thing I have ever seen at what is usually a tourist trap slash mall.

So the summer has been good if a little hot and humid with lots of summer storms. I hope to go to more fun things before the end of the summer. We did make it to governors island which was lots of fun.

ta ta for now

Went to the Playwrights Horizons Theater to see Three Changes, we won tickets for 5 dollars each. And boy am I glad that was all I paid. This play had Dylan McDermot who used to be on Boston Legal or something like that on TV and was really good and had one of the actors from ER who played the female lead. Act one almost led us to leave at intermission. The writing just didn't make sense, the logic was stilted and the acting was really stiff, wooden and the actors didn't speak to each other instead launched lines into the ether with polish on each delivery, it totally destroyed my suspension of disbelief which is essential for the audience to bridge the gap between them and the actors on stage. I was completely aware that I was watching a play and had no feeling of being drawn into the action whether it be physical or emotional. Not that the play had no good points, one actor a young man who played a young wealthy now street homeless hustler was actually the best of the lot. He had more to work with and his delivery had the level of glee and snarkiness that fit the character. And he did seem to be straining to fill his part as the rest of them did. After act one, at least the level of the intensity grew to raise some greater interest in me, but the story was just too creepy and sad for me to enjoy. What the review called a dark sardonic comedy I guess to me was a creepy twilight zone rip off done on stage. Nothing new was learned about the characters, to me it was hollow upper west side people meet two sociopaths. And the ending was just plain stupid and even creepier. So although we were glad to go out to see something, this something was a real let down. By the way, this theater company has a much better track record than this and my expectations were truly dashed by this production. For better next time.

I am loving the deep reds of the sunsets we are having at the end of this summer, they are wonderful and everyday I just love feeling and appreciating the light, cause it is all about the light.

ta ta for now