A Hawkeye View Of Gotham

Kyle Froman - Ballet Photographer Extraordinare

Kyle Froman is a long-time member of the New York City Ballet's Corps de Ballet, and has recently started taking some of the most breathtaking photographs of his fellow dancers you will ever see. Some of his best photos are now available for veiwing on his website.  Check it out and see ballet as you have never seen it before!  

Turkey Day!

Greetings faithful readers!  I am getting ready to embark on a mini-vacation to Liz/Scott/Muffin's house for Thanksgiving and I can't wait!  Any trip outside of the city is a vacation to me and I truly enjoy the calm splendor of the Twin Cities.  I depart on Wednesday morning and will arrive back in NYC Sunday evening.  It is a long time to be gone but I booked the trip when I was training for the marathon, and at the time, a nice, long stay at the luxurious resort of Chez Cowan/Wright sounded yummy.  It's going to be a lot of fun; perhaps I can convince Liz to play a game or two of Scrabble with me!   Also present will be Mom, Margaret, Owen, and Mark. 

I hope everybody has a safe holiday and I will post again upon my return! 

And in closing, see below a lovely photo taken 4-5 years ago of Nermal and me.  Isn't she cute?!

 

Build-A-Kitty!

I had a blast a the Build-A-Bear store on 5th Avenue today!  Let me tell you, the woman who started this franchise is a genius.  I had so much fun and wanted to buy everything in the store!  And I am not even a kid!

I met Sally and her adorable son Harry (age 6) at Noon.

First you choose the animal you want to stuff.  Options include bears, kitties, wolves, dinosaurs, and a few others I cannot remember.  I chose a kitty and Harry chose a wolf.

 

 

Next is the Stuffing Station.  This is a very important part.  You must take a heart from the bin and kiss it for good luck.  Then you put the heart in your animal and make a wish.  Then you press your foot on the lever to initiate the stuffing process.  Only when you are satisfied that your animal has been stuffed to the optimal fluffyness level do you stop.  You then hug your animal and give it kisses to ensure it is perfect.

And here is the end result!  A purrfectly stuffed pink kitty cat.

 

Next:  CLOTHES.

 

 

Then a birth certificate and naming process.  Harry suggested the lovely name Kitty Bitty for my new toy, which I thought was perfect.  He named his wolf Scruff.

 

 

End result: Kitty Bitty in a pink hoodie (with holes for the ears!) and a mini Kitty Bitty dressed in a Mrs. Clause outfit.

Have a great week everybody!

Build-A-Bear

Greetings faithful readers!  Tomorrow I am going to the Build-A-Bear store on 5th Avenue with my coworker Sally and her delightful son Harry.  Sally and Harry have been to the store several times; Harry has built one dinosaur and several bears; Sally has built her own Mr. Bear, as seen below.  Mr. Bear is a Vegan and therefore does not eat Chinese food.  I am excited to go because you get to pick out your animal (kitties are an option!), decide how much stuffing you want, give it a name and a heart, and dress it.  Who knows what I will end up with!  Some of the bears remind me of the Paddington Bears that June made for us when we were little!

Mr. Bear's hoodie has little holes cut out for his ears!

In other news, I am cleaning the apartment in anticipation of the holidays!  Out with the Halloween decorations and in with the Christmas ones!  And no, it is NOT too early!

Nutcracker!

New York City Ballet's annual run of "George Balanchine's The Nutcracker" begins next week and I will be volunteering yet again this season for the Information Committee.  I only have 7 performances this year, which may seem like a lot, but The Nutcracker runs for almost 50 shows, I believe, and frankly, even I can only watch it so many times.  Actually, I could watch the 2nd Act over and over, as it is all dancing, but the first act is a bit boring, what with the little kids running around and all.  Still, that moment when the music swells and the Christmas Tree grows and grows and grows....I get tears every time! 

The first shows are generally cast with the most senior-level dancers, and as such, Maria Kowroski will dance the Sugar Plum Fairy and Ashley Bouder will dance Dew Drop on opening night.  Nobody is a better Dew Drop than Ashley Bouder, so I was not surprised to see her cast in the first performance.  She goes for crystal clarity, and generally achieves it, with time to spare!  Daniel Ulbricht is delightful as Tea and Tess Reichlen is a cool and mysterious Arabian.  My first performance voluteering is December 6, so it will be a few days before we know who is cast, but rest assured I am watching the website like a hawk!  As the season progresses we may see some exciting debuts.  Last year we saw Katie Morgan debut as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Erica Pereira as Dew Drop; both are still young dancers in the Corps.  I am looking forward to seeing what happens this year!

Here are the Snowflakes (danced by 16 of the newest Corps members) who close out the First Act.  All photos courtesy of Paul Kolnik.

 

The Dew Drop Fairy - my favorite part of the whole ballet!  Below is Sofiane Sylve who is no longer with the Company.

 

The Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier - the lovely Sterling Hyltin and Andrew Veyette.

 

And one more interesting tidbit.  I attended a seminar at New York State Theatre on Tuesday night, and presenting were 4 current dancers from New York City Ballet.  One of them, Jenifer Ringer, has been with the Company for many years, and a Principal Dancer since 2000.  She said in her first year as a Corps dancer, she was required to perform 4 parts in The Nutcracker (not suprising) and learned them all only 3 DAYS before the first show!  Can you imagine?  She kept wondering when they were going to rehearse Nutcracker....and wondering...and wondering....and finally when casting was posted she discovered she needed to learn 4 parts in 3 days!  I guess everything is faster in New York, just like they say... 

Tests 4-6: Before You Have Kids...

Test 4 - Dressing Small Children

1. Buy a live octopus and a string bag.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that no arms hang out.

Time Allowed: 5 minutes.

Test 5 - Cars

1. Forget the BMW. Buy a practical 5-door wagon.
2. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
3. Get a coin. Insert it into the CD player.
4. Take a box of chocolate biscuits; mash them into the back seat.
5. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Test 6 - Going For a Walk

Wait
Go out the front door
Come back in again
Go out
Come back in again
Go out again
Walk down the front path
Walk back up it
Walk down it again
Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes.
Stop, inspect minutely and ask at least 6 questions about every piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue and dead insect along the way.
Retrace your steps
Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbours come out and stare at you.
Give up and go back into the house.

You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.

Before you have kids...

One of my friends wrote the most hysterical notes about what to do "before you have kids" and I am posting some of them here.   All you Moms out there, let me know if this is accurate!  There are 14 tests total. 

Test 1 - Preparation

Women: To prepare for pregnancy:

1. Put on a dressing gown and stick a beanbag down the front.
2. Leave it there.
3. After 9 months remove 5% of the beans.

Men: To prepare for children:

1. Go to a local chemist, tip the contents of your wallet onto the counter and tell the pharmacist to help himself.

2. Go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.

3. Go home. Pick up the newspaper and read it for the last time.

Test 2 - Knowledge

Find a couple who are already parents and berate them about their methods of discipline, lack of patience, appallingly low tolerance levels and how they have allowed their children to run wild. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners and overall behavior.

Enjoy it. It will be the last time in your life that you will have all the answers.

Test 3 - Nights

To discover how the nights will feel:

1. Walk around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 4 - 6kg, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
2. At 10pm, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 11pm and walk the bag around the living room until 1am.
4. Set the alarm for 3am.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2am and make a cup of tea.
6. Go to bed at 2.45am.
7. Get up again at 3am when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs in the dark until 4am.
9. Put the alarm on for 5am. Get up when it goes off.
10. Make breakfast.

Keep this up for 5 years. LOOK CHEERFUL.

 

Tests 4-6 coming tomorrow! 

Clever Cat

Nermal is a very clever kitty and therefore knows just how to use her Clever Cat Litter Box!  Isn't she cute?!

   

   

Chicago - Text

Hello faithful readers!  So now that I have posted some pix of Chicago I'll give you the run-down of what we did there.  Three years ago I proposed that the four Sistah's take an annual vacation together - nothing fancy or expensive, just a few short days in the same city, sleeping in the same hotel room, using the same bathroom....you know, your general sisterly bonding experience.  Vacations 1 and 2 were take in Las Vegas, which is a lovely place to visit, even if you are not into gambling and strippers.  There is a lot to do in Vegas, including shopping, sitting by the pool, and seeing shows.  But we did that for two years and this year decided we wanted a change.  We chose Chicago because it was cheap and easy for us all to get there, and there are a lot of interesting, cultural things to do and see.  As such, we stayed downtown at the Renaissance Hotel (selected by Liz) and visited the Planetarium, Field Museum, and Aquarium.  We also went to the Cubby Bear bar for drinks, as this is Alex's namesake, being born in Chicago and all.  We did one night of room service, as is tradition, and splashed around in the pool and hottub.  We ate 2 giant bags of M&M's over the course of 3 days.  We rode the subway and took cabs and ate Indian food.  We also had drinks at the Signature Bar, high atop the glitterly lights of the city.  All in all it was a successful endeavor and we look forward to planning Sistah's Vacation #4. 

   

Chicago, Part III