Tag: Latin / Ballroom

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Christmas is Coming…

 

…and it’s getting cold! Which I hate. Cold makes me think of death. Although, I was just skimming my newish Complete New Yorker (which I won by taking one of those New Yorker marketing surveys — people actually do win those!) and I ran across a review from 1988 by Arlene Croce of Edward Villella and Miami City Ballet, which I read with interest since it’s kind of timely (the company will be coming to City Center in January for the first time in a while). Anyway, in explaining why Villella had a bit of a hard time getting his company off the ground, Croce noticed that ballet seems to thrive in cold climates where people wear heavy coats, like Russia and northern Europe and New York. Too much sun, too much natural beauty, and no indoor culture. Anyway, will try to think of winter that way: it’s because I’m freezing my tush off that I have ballet in my life…

 

 

So, I had my class — first in I don’t know how long, but over a year at least. It was advanced Cha Cha at Stepping Out, with Jules Helm (above, in jeans and black shirt), a very nice, patient, and thorough teacher (we began with 20 minutes of stretching, working just about every part of the body, including the foot, which not many teachers spend time with and which I need because my feet tend to cramp. So I didn’t need my set of ridiculously shallow warm-up plies that I did at home, during which I nearly twisted my hip out of its socket… I am really prone to hurting myself…)

I was sent to the studio to write a review of the class by Explore Dance. It was a very comfy, homey, social atmosphere, not at all threatening, which was good because I’d intended to take the intermediate class, but, long story short, ended up in advanced. The routine Jules taught us was fun and challenging without being too crazy hard and I managed to get the steps down, though my technique was heinous and I’ve once again forgotten how to balance in heels (not that I ever knew). At one point I nearly flew over sideways after a double spiral (two spins in which you put one foot in front of the other and turn a full rotation without picking your feet off the ground) and took my partner down with me. The male students were thankfully very nice though — which was a welcome change from some of the other studios I’ve been to. Anyway, will post to the (serious) Explore Dance review when it’s up.

Oh and my old teacher Luis was there (teaching now at three studios); so fun to run into him!

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Dance Times Square Showcase, Etc.

 

I meant to write about this yesterday but took the day off from writing when I got a pleasantly unexpected invitation from Lucky Broadway Girl to see a play! Imagine that: words, actual words spoken on a stage! Hehe, I used to go to plays all the time but kind of stopped when I got so into dance — had no time. Anyway, we went to see Love Child, off-Broadway, at the 59East59 theater, which I’d never been to before.

 

Nice space, for lots of small theaters — kind of like some of those buildings on far west 42nd street. The play was good and the actors (Daniel Jenkins and Robert Stanton) excellent — these two men played several different characters and they had to change from one to another in a split nano-second. No time for line flubs! And there was a little choreographed movement — sometimes they had to do a little series of turns to show they were going from one character to another. So there was some dance after all 🙂 Anyway, so great to finally meet Lucky Bway Girl!

The Dance Times Square showcase I won’t say much about because I’m writing a review for Explore Dance which I’ll link to as soon as it’s up, but just briefly: wow, their best showcase yet, or at least one of their best. Sabra and Neil from SYTYCD were there, each danced two solos apiece. Excellent solos, obviously. Neil’s were both kind of Movin’ Out style, white t-shirt and jeans, the first more beautifully balletic with lots of whipping fouettes and multiple pirouettes and big leaping jetes. He has a really beautiful line. Somehow I’d kind of overlooked that on the show. His second solo was more gymnastic with a few fun tumbling passes, which I guess is what he’s known for (not only on the TV show but he was also in Tharp’s acrobatic Times Are A’ Changin’). I personally prefer the ballet, but the crowd went nuts when he went flying 🙂

And Sabra danced gorgeously. Her first was this kind of cutely sexy Bjork-esque number in a pink and white baby doll dress, and her second a more passionate contemporary of the style you’d see on the show, danced in a vibrant purple unitard. She moves so well, and she dances with such passion and emotion and her form is so perfect; she has perfect ballet turn-out. This was the most up-close I’ve seen her and she really is a miraculous dancer; I can clearly see how she won the crown.

Still, to me Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova stole the show with their three Latin combo routines. They are such a splendid partnership — they’re both very good dancers, both quick, sharp, and precise, and neither tries to outshine the other; they actually work as a team, which is unfortunately becoming increasingly rare in ballroom…

And Michael Choi (a DTS teacher) and his professional partner Becky Melton did a luxuriant ballroom combo to Andrea Bocelli’s rich, luscious Con Te Partiro, one of my favorite musical pieces period, but particularly for ballroom dance.

It was a tribute to the Helen Sawaya Fund — a group supporting breast cancer survivors, and they (the member survivors) did a little Broadway-esque / ballroom number, all dressed in dazzling bright red gowns, with the male pros at DTS, all in dapper black tuxes. Mercedes Ellington presented them, and opera star Aprile Millo sang. Gorgeous voice — and she sang without accompaniment. Philip told me some interesting stories about her — she has a cult following and there are even some exhibits in the Met opera house dedicated to her! No wonder it was so packed in the house — opera divas with cult followings, TV stars, stars of the Latin ballroom world… And this was the most diverse it’s ever been — a lot of the numbers were kind of Broadway dance or contemporary dance combined with Latin and ballroom. They weren’t one specific style. So, the studio is branching out!

All in all, it was a fabulous night. As always, the students are loads of fun to watch, and to cheer on — both advanced and beginner. Elaine (full disclosure: my friend), who often steals the student portion of the show, ended it (with teacher Michael Choi) with a disco tribute to Donna Summer, and had the crowd roaring to its feet. This biannual showcase is always such a blast. It’s not ABT, you know, but it’s just a huge blast!

Tonight and tomorrow night I have law events, so may be little late with my DWTS posts, but will definitely tape, watch, and blog! I’m excited — I think — to see the contestants dance with each other. That’s what they’re doing tonight, right?…

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Slavik Must Dance!

 

Yesterday I went to see a play about choreographer George Balanchine (which I’ll post about as soon as I have time; I have about 10,000 things to write about and that’s really not much of an exaggeration). My ballroom friend, Mika, came with me, which was wonderful because I hadn’t seen her in a while and needed to get caught up on all the ballroom gossip 🙂 She’s just returned from Internationals, held at Royal Albert Hall in London — so jealous; I really wanted to go to that this year. Anyway, we were chatting about the Latin results and she noted that Slavik Kryklyvyy (one of my two favorite Latin dancers; the other, Sergey Surkov, was unfortunately injured and couldn’t compete), was there watching but still didn’t compete with his newish partner, Hanna Karttunen. Word had it that he got cold feet; didn’t feel up to it. He did the same in May at Blackpool, though. He wandered through the crowd, watching, with a forlorn expression that nearly made me cry, live competitions and videos vendors were showing of past competitions that included him and Karina Smirnoff. Funny, my friend even saw him stretching at one point, before competitors were called onto the floor. As if he were competing. People kept coming up to him and asking for photos, asking him if he would be dancing, and he just kept repeating, “Not this year, sorry,” sounding sadder each time.

Last year when he and Elena Khvorova (who’s now dancing with Andrej Skufca — the couple placed third at Albert Hall — for people who are interested) were a new couple, he did the same thing. But that year, they came to US Nationals and tried out their new partnership in the open to the world category. So, I thought he and Hanna might do the same this year, but they didn’t.

I hope he gets up the nerve to compete soon because people, for one thing, MISS HIM (unless google analytics is lying to me, he’s consistently been the way most new readers have found this blog. And, to my knowledge he’s never been on any of the TV shows, so his fame comes just from his spectacular work on the ballroom floor) and, for another, are getting worried judges are going to start being dismissive, forgetting about him, making a comeback harder. And real-life ballroom judges, lord knows, unlike their TV counterparts, are completely immune from public opinion.

Anyway, happily, he doesn’t seem to have an issue with showdancing. Here‘s a video of him and Hanna — video quality is not the best, but if you know ballroom, and if you know him, you can tell they look in great form. Also, commenter Shim alerted me that they are to dance at Columbia University’s Big Apple Dancesport Challenge, on December 6th! I just hope that’s not restricted to Columbia students…

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Go Rocco, Please!

 

I don’t know why but I really don’t want him to get the boot! Probably because I’m a pig and want to see what tasty-looking concoctions he’ll come up with each week to feed (the uninterested; she’s a dancer after all) Karina.

Susan and Tony’s Jive: cute, but she looked very stiff up there. She tried hard to get the footwork right but she did miss some steps and had a hard time keeping up and it was obvious. Music was a bit too fast. She had a problem getting into the sailor shuffles for some reason — I don’t know if she forgot the step, and they were separated, so he wasn’t leading her at that point; she could only follow his example, or if she just had a hard time getting into the quick jumpy shuffling rhythm of it, but it was noticeable. Judges were WAY the heck too nice. She’s cute though and I sympathize with her difficulty learning, with her difficulty learning to “think” with your body not your brain.

Lance and Lacey’s Viennese Waltz: aw, sweet, well acted, nice, fluid movement, decent rise and fall but he really didn’t roll through the foot, so it looked a bit forced. Very traditional choreographically, though; Len can’t fault them on that this week. Sometimes his lines were awkward — he kind of threw his arms a bit over-far when they split and opened out to the audience, and toes were pointed oddly inward at points. But everyone does that — at least every man. Everyone needs a beginning ballet class!

Maurice and Cheryl’s Jive: so much fun. He is so rhythmic, great swivels, great jive kicks, perfect mood and musicality. And excellent tricks – -the jumping over her at the beginning, the back and forth through the legs. Cheryl can only get away with that with a real athlete.

Rocco and Karina’s Viennese Waltz: first of all, best practice trick so far: blindfolding him. He was so much better, so much more musical blindfolded. Took away his self-consciousness and his (completely normal) tendency to think with mind over body, to think the steps rather than feel them. The routine: adorable “Pussycat” song — who’d have ever thought of it but Karina? Great footwork on the basics — his basics — the one-two-three forward-side-close-backward-side-crosses were actually really splendid. Good reverse turn, as Len noted. Those aren’t easy. Lovely rise and fall action. And he’s a very strong partner, the way he swung her around on the floor sweep was masterly. In general, he wasn’t really polished and I can see Bruno’s “lump of mashed potatoes” remark, but he’s not a professional dancer for cry-eye! Give him a break. But but but, where was the food?…

Warren and Kym’s Viennese Waltz: ah, so romantic! And who knew the big guy could move so elegantly! I love how he grabbed her skirt at the beginning, pulled her toward him. And so smooth — he was beautiful in all of the partnering, all of the basics. When they split and he moved on his own, he sped it up a little, did a little skip, and overdid it a bit, but on the partnering, in closed position, it was just beautiful. And loved the little R&Bish arm wave at that one point.

Cody and Julianne’s Jive: well, not a whole lot of actual dancing. Mostly cute stylistics (playing the guitar on her leg, twice) and tricks (moving her around the floor in spins and slides, supporting her in cartwheel, etc.). But when he did dance, he was pretty good. He kept up speed-wise and got the footwork all right, though it wasn’t tremendously precise, but it was there. Cute western theme. And he did a lot better than I would have thought from that hilariously bad practice.

Toni and Alec’s Viennese Waltz: Ooh, costumes! Probably controversial, but I loved them. Wow, I didn’t want that to end. Loved the heavy metal-esque “Fur Elise.” No one could have pulled that off but her in that crazy gown, that music. And love his blousy shirt. He kind of looked Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. I was honestly looking at her though — and I always have a hard time focusing on the amateur. Her arms — that free arm on the steps in shadow position, was just like a feathery-tipped little quill pen, a flickering flame. Seriously, perfect line. And that spin was gorgeous. Perfect leg in attitude! Like a ballerina. She is such a pro — I’d never know she wasn’t an experienced dancer. And yet I really believe she isn’t. Thank you Carrie Ann — someone has a sense of humor on that judging panel. The V.W. was scandalous in its day, deliciously so!

Cloris and Corky’s Jive: Okay, so basically the youngest and the oldest contestants didn’t do much dancing. Although in Cloris’s case, it was understandable. I wondered how she was going to keep up to speed on Jive. So, a lot of running around the floor, and some basics, but in single Swing steps not triple, which is fine with Swing, and fine really, just not … Jive. But, you know… She’s cute. And they really had some fun and surprisingly well-executed tricks — when she managed to spin him around on one leg, and those ending crab-crawl things? Very good! I think I missed what happened with the wig though…

Brooke and Derek’s Viennese Waltz: Wow, bad fight in practice. I’ve so been there. Younger male dancer (male or female actually) who’s been dancing from age two and doesn’t understand how you can’t remember something he thinks simple so he basically calls you stupid. Not good, and I think I’ve lost some respect for Derek. I know he’s under pressure but that’s no excuse for saying she has a “lazy mind.” Anyway, very nice dance. She’s a natural in everything so far. She was so fluid, so lyrical. I love the close, almost Argentine-tango-like hand-hold at the beginning. I haven’t seen that with the Waltz. Splendid levity, rise and fall, she was really nearly perfect. At some points I think she rushed it a slight bit, with the openings out, and her lines didn’t have quite the clarity of Toni’s, but it was almost unnoticeable. She didn’t look as happy as before — there was something missing on her face, a spark was gone, likely from that nasty fight. But she held in there like a pro and was really just luminous.

Aw, poor Misty. She sounded like she was going to cry. Imagine being an Olympic gold-winning athlete, never seriously hurting yourself, only to shatter your achilles tendon doing the Lindy Hop. See, ballroom dancing is most definitely a serious sport!

So, overall, my favorite of the night: Toni and Alec’s VW.

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Dance Times Square Showcase to Star SYTYCD’s Sabra and Neil and Honor Breast Cancer Survivors

Dance Times Square (my former studio) is having their biannual professional / student showcase on October 25 at the Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. This one will feature and honor a group of breast cancer survivors from the Helen Sawaya Compassionate Care Fund. The show begins at 7:30, and from 6-7 in the Kaye theater lobby there will be a reception and pre-show silent auction to raise money for the Fund. Part of the ticket proceeds will also be donated to it.

Pro dancers this year will include Sabra Johnson and Neil Haskell, former SYTYCD winner and finalist respectively, along with Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova, a pair of excellent Latin dancers who usually place in the finals in the national competitions. Additionally, Aprile Millo, a star with the Met Opera, will perform (singing I suppose!). Hmmm, it’s usually only Latin / Ballroom dancers who’ve performed in the professional portion of the show, so this should be very exciting. As usual, there’s an after-party as well at the studio.
Tickets range from $25 to $75 and can be purchased here.

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New National Latin, Standard & Smooth Champs

 

So, the results of the USDC are as I expected: Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko new Latin champions, Arunas Bizokas and Katusha Demidova new Ballroom. Jonathan Roberts and Valentina Kostenko beat J.T. Thomas and Tomas Mielnicki in Smooth, so we have new winners there as well. And Jose DeCamps and Joanna Zacharewicz remained Rhythm champs.

It looks like Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kruschkova (prior Latin champions) didn’t compete this year; I didn’t see their names in results. Nor did Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine and Julia Gorchakova in Rhythm. In the Open to the World category, it looks like the only major non-US dancer to compete was Dmitri Timokhin from Russia (who used to dance with Karina Smirnoff before she became a Dancer W/ Stars) and his new partner Natalie Petrova. So, no Slavik (and whoever he’s dancing with these days), no Sergey and Melia.

It looks like Pavlo Barsuk and Anna Trebunskaya placed in third Latin, and my favorite Vaidotas Skimelis and Jurga Pupelyte in fourth. Yes!

Here is DanceBeat’s full coverage of the championship. And here are the full event results lists.

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Don’t Forget Fall For Dance

 

Just wanted to remind New Yorkers (and anyone traveling to NY in the near future) that Fall For Dance tickets go on sale this Sunday, 9/7, at 11 a.m. Tickets are $10 if you choose to stand in line at the City Center box office (which I don’t recommend), or $15 (with $5 surcharge) if you book online. Tickets sell out very quickly, usually within a day or two. Here’s the schedule and lineup of artists.

Also, this weekend is the Evening Stars series of free performances at Battery Park. Tonight is Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, tomorrow night Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys of Dance, and Sunday night Los Vivancos flamenco group. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Go here for more info.

Outside of New York, this weekend is the United States National Dance Championships (most important Latin Ballroom event in the country) in Florida, which for the first time in a couple of years, I am not attending. Sad day. I will definitely keep my eyes peeled for results. I expect Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko to take tops in Latin, and Arunas Bizokas and Katusha Demidova in Standard but am always happy for a surprise. If anyone is there, please let me know what’s going on, and who all’s there for the World events! If I miss Slavik or Sergey I am not going to be happy.

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"We Just Want to Do A Good Job to Represent Ballroom Dancing"

 

The Ballroom Dance Channel (a social networking site for ballroom enthusiasts founded by Dancing With the Stars’ Maks Chmerkovskiy and Tony Dovolani) is doing a series of podcasts. In their upcoming one, they’re going to be interviewing Melanie LaPatin and Tony Meredith, who choreograph for So You Think You Can Dance. Here’s a little preview, where they talk a bit about what it’s like to work on the show.

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Angel Gets Better Every Year

 

I don’t mean to make him sound like fine wine or something, but it’s just unbelievable how he gets better and better each time I see him perform this role. I linked to this before, but here’s a YouTube of him doing the first of Ali’s solos. During the second intermission, after the solos, two older women in the cocktail line were saying he’s no different than Baryshnikov. “He’s every bit as good; it’s just like seeing him again,” one declared. Unfortunately, I missed the era of Baryshnikov here, but I can’t possibly imagine anyone better than Angel. I love all three of the solos, but I love the jetes and the fouette sequence of the second two most. I love hearing all the screams emanating from the balcony when he bends his knee and snakes his body up and down mid-pirouette. I only wish he would have done his flying leap of a curtain call. He only came out once, not giving people enough time to pelt him with bouquets! I guess it was Wednesday and the crowd wasn’t as wild as normal, or maybe he was feeling under the weather… you can never tell it from his dancing of course. Oh, and he looks exactly the same as before — same straight charming boyish hair, no longish, wavy Julio-esque perm like in his new headshot 🙂 Anyway, he made the night, obviously!

Along with Jose of course. Jose danced Lankendem, owner of the harem. For those who don’t know this ballet, Le Corsaire, originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1856 but shortly thereafter re-choregraphed by Petipa for the Kirov / Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg, is cutely corny. It’s about a pirate, Conrad, who falls in love with a slave girl, Medora, and his quest to help her escape and be with him. It’s a favorite among balletomanes because of all its bravura dancing from the two leads, Ali (Conrad’s slave), Gulnare (Medora’s friend), and Lankendem. Jose somehow manages to make his Lankendem so lovable. He’s a bad slave-driver who will stop at nothing to keep Medora in his clutches, and you just want to cry out “noooo,” when Conrad’s pirates surround him on the ground, spears in hand. Poor little Jose! He did brilliantly too with his bravura solo (which is actually my favorite because of the barrel turns 🙂 )

So, Marcelo and Paloma, who were supposed to dance Conrad and Medora, were replaced by Irina Dvorovenko and Cory Stearns, a member of the corps, who I think was dancing his first big part. I always love Irina, and I never see her much since she doesn’t often dance with Marcelo. I guess sometimes it’s good that Marcelo’s out (though I’m not sure why they were replaced last night), because it gives me a chance to see other dancers once in a while 🙂 Irina is probably the most dramatic, the best actress of all of ABT’s ballerinas and I love her for it — she projects to the entire audience, including people up in the nosebleeds, she makes it obvious through facial expressions what her character wants without relying too much on pantomime (with which many newcomers to ballet are unfamiliar), and she’s so expressive with her body, so clear in her intentions. If you’re bringing someone new who’s never seen that ballet before, you want her in the lead; she makes the most sense of everything and brings her character’s dramatic conflict most to life. Well Julie Kent does too, as does Veronika Part (who, horribly sadly, is leaving ABT at the end of this season), but people like to dump on Irina, and there’s no reason to, dammit!

So, Cory. He was good. His dancing was excellent — perfect, grand jetes, great height, great lines, very energetic (though I think he got a little tired by the end). He is a tall man with long legs, kind of David Hallberg-esque, though not as high-waisted. If this was his first time in a big role, I think he did a very good job. My only thing was that I felt his Conrad was a little too severe. He scared me at points, getting a little too aggressive in trying to get Medora away from Lankendem. At times he seemed more like a villain than a hero. But he’ll definitely grow artistically.

Oh and another thing that blew me away — one of the Odalisques was breathtaking. She did a crazy series of chaine turns and pirouettes and really blew me away (as well as my next-seat neighbor who clapped like nuts!) I’m not completely sure whether it was Simone Messmer or Renata Pavam, but one of them knocked me out.

Oh, I’m sad; this is my only Corsaire since I’m leaving tonight. It continues through the rest of the week, the Swan Lake is next week (breaks my heart that I’m going to have to miss Veronika Part‘s Swan; I’ll still be in England — someone tell me how it is!), and the following week is the new Twyla Tharp, which I’ll be back for and about which I’m very excited. If you’re in New York, go here for more info / tickets.

Okay, gotta go finish packing! I definitely plan to mobile-blog from Blackpool, and may computer-blog as well if I can find a secure wireless connection. I’ll post all the pictures when I return!

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Tonight

I’m gonna be a little late in posting on “Dancing With the Stars” tonight since I will have to tape it and wait to watch until after I return from seeing …

 

perform (along with my fellow amateur friends!) at Dance Times Square‘s biannual professional / student showcase. Always makes me sad I’m not up there with them, but it’s something I look forward to watching every six months anyway. At least it’s a lot less stressful in the audience…

Also, tonight is opening night for my favorite dancers on earth. I can’t be there, obviously, but will be later this week for a crazy Corsaire starring

 

Too much going on! Too much!

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Dance At Tribeca Film Festival, and Pasha & Anya Perform in New York!

 

Crazy day yesterday. I waited in line for nearly two hours to buy my Tribeca Film Festival tickets. The festival takes place April 23-May 4. Tickets went on sale to American Express cardholders yesterday, they’ll go on sale to downtown residents on April 18, and on the 19th to the general public.

I always love this festival. My dad is a big film buff, a would-be filmmaker really, and he’s gone to practically every film festival in existence. But I feel like this one is kind of my own; I feel a special fondness for it since DeNiro established it in the aftermath of 9/11 in order to re-charge the lower Manhattan economy. I worked two blocks from the World Trade Center and frequently hung out in Tribeca, and it took me a long time to get over 9/11. I remember sobbing while waiting in line to see a festival movie the first year, standing on an upper floor of the Regal Battery Park Cinemas, standing by a window overlooking Ground Zero.

 

Anyway, this year there are two movies related to dance — I mean, there are lots of great-looking movies, but two involve dance: “Whatever Lola Wants“, a narrative about a struggling NYC dancer who follows an intriguing man to Morocco, where she becomes enthralled with belly dance; and “Gotta Dance“, a documentary about the first ever cheerleading team for seniors.

Funny, but while I was waiting in line at the festival’s new Village box office for tickets, I ran into an old friend, Claire, from my former studio, Dance Times Square. She and her friend were waiting in line to buy tickets for all of their friends and family to “Gotta Dance,” which it turns out, they are in! She also told me she’s performing in the upcoming Dance Times Square student showcase, on May 19th, and that Pasha Kovalev and Anya Garnis are scheduled to dance a number or two as well 😀 It’s so wonderful of them to keep performing in these student showcases and local things, since now, they obviously don’t have to.

Another movie that I’m psyched about is “Elite Squad” by a Brazilian documentarian I really like, Jose Padilha. I’d really liked his “Bus 174” about a young man from the Rio ghetto who held a busload of passengers hostage. Like the best true crime literary journalists, his films have a way of finding the larger significance of a story, bringing out the human element without resort to sensationalism, and making you feel for all people involved. This one’s about police force corruption in Rio. Padilha co-wrote with Braulio Mantovani, writer of the famous “City of God.”, I walked around the corner to the Strand bookstore, and bought these three books. I’d gone for the new Pulitzer prize winner (the first for a Dominican author), The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz, which I can’t wait to read, but ended up not wanting to spend so much money, and these, being older, were on sale. I’ve been scouring NYC bookstores for anything written by Pauline Kael for some time now, and ridiculously haven’t been able to find a thing. She’s only just about the most famous art critic ever, right?! It’s been only seven years since her death and now bookstores are no longer bothering to stock her; horrible. Anyway, at least the Strand came through. And, I also got this book by Dominick Dunne, since apparently I’m into true crime lately, and Norman Mailer’s advice to writers. I guess I’ll wait for a 30% discount Borders coupon for the Diaz.

Last, I was so famished and with all that standing in line for the movie tickets, I knew I couldn’t make it home without passing out, so I ended up at “Buono Sera” on University Place. They don’t seem to have their own website, but here’s the New York review. The maitre d looks and talks just like Vincent D’Onofrio, which was fun, and they had a great small band playing in the back, near a little screen showing filmed aerial views of various parts of Italy — very interesting idea for a restaurant, showing video clips of the homeland like that. Service was excellent; I don’t think I ever had a water glass that wasn’t filled to the brim, and when I noticed the films projected on the back wall and turned around to watch, ‘Vincent’ apparently thought I was looking for the waiter and came over, apologized, and told me he’d take my order instead! I only wish their food had been as good as their entertainment and service. Actually, I shouldn’t say that. The wine was excellent as was the panna cotta dessert. The only thing I wasn’t in love with was my main dish — the gnocchi. It was fine and everything I’d expect from a plate of potato dumplings covered with marinara sauce, but there nothing extra special about it; it was just there, unlike the panna cotta. Also the foccaccia was hard on the edges and I wasn’t in love with the dipping sauce — just a basic marinara.

Anyway, okay enough blabbering. I have to go read my books.