New York - Life on an Island

Jason Campbell

A few years ago we started witnessing a growth in popularity and then size, of what we have now recognized and redefined as the lounge. There is the classic Lansky which is nowhere the hybrid that has become the lounge. Even though they are now charging at the door some nights, the once hard to get in to Spy Bar has managed a level of respect or at least business. Check it out on Wednesday the new home of Home Cookin’, Bill Spector, Mark Levanthal and set, music by Mark Ronson and Jules. Take a spin through the new Chaos at the old Bank space on East Houston, also happening on Wednesday and Sunday if you get in, life has no guarantees, you know.

Magnum at 357 W. Broadway does a cool Sunday night groove. Hosted and produced by Jacques and Pascal (Crème and Sugar) and Sorin, the party is described as a sing along attitude flavoured with some of those new faces. Music by Shorty, must be fun!

Looking ahead, club impresario Steve Lewis, is again set to do his thing. His latest project, Spa, attempts to inject more fire into the hotbed that is Union Square. Spa, known in the past as The Grand, System and most recently Ki Club might be about to witness its last incarnation. Scheduled to open this spring, we anticipate every square inch. Congratulations to Steve Lewis. If all goes well, we’ll prove that you can’t keep a good man down?

Moving west, Mark Baker and Jeffrey Jah have combined forces with Will and Dave of Union Bar to do a Meat District (downtown’s latest ironic oasis) venue to rival all venues, Lotus.  Still left to be seen who’ll be handling the front and who’ll be handling the back end of things. With all the newness in the air, its too still left to be seen whether or not the Mayor relaxed and decided to bestow the kind people some cabaret licences.

Until such time Centro Fly is a hot destination, the kitchen might be still working out their kinks but the action on the dance floor is on, pick a night…any night. We favor Thursday, Subliminal, industry dance party presented by Rob Fernandez and Eric Morillo, hosted by Kevin Aviance – international roster of rotating house music dj’s. Centro Fly also happens on Friday when Erich Conrad does his thing. Start your night off there and end up at Vinyl where Danny Tenaglia keeps the tempo up till you cant take no more.

Saturdays are good for exploration. Rumor has it that Junior Vasquez has been experiencing moments of “sheer genius” at Twilo. Could it be magic? For something different find the G Train and ride it to Green Point Avenue, Brooklyn. Walk a few doors down to 132 Green Point Avenue and enjoy Splendid Bar. Definitely off the path of the madding crowd, this is a gem of a space. Unaffected and comfortable, it’s the same old concept, well priced drinks and a mix of Polish émigrés and loft living artists. The owners love the idea of using the space to showcase art. Check it out!



Foreground Sascha Lewis and Mark Mangan of Flavorpill



Back on the island…there are all kinds of exciting conversations surrounding the endless possibilities that are imaginable with the advent of Digital Cameras and MP3’s and live broadcasts and behind the scenes access and downloading remixes that you dance to and spending time watching what other people do with their time, hey it worked as T.V. With enviable alliances between new media and public spaces we clue you in to a hot happening. Sponsored by netsetgoods.com, Krispy Cream happens at Parlay, Avenue A just off 12^th. Every Wednesday. Eclectic sounds weaved by Netset vibrationist. Sascha, hosted quite aptly by Miss B.

To be sure your week is taken care of, suffice it to say that we went were at Sway dancing until 4:30 the other Monday after we left Lot 61 and the only reason we stopped was that the police came at which point all we could say was “please officer don’t shoot.”

As if there wasn’t enough to look forward to, word on a virtual merger of downtown personalities. Lesly Bernard, the face that helped make Pravda, proprietor at Clementine and man about town has got into bed with Michele Jean of Circa, Restaurant 147 and the ill-fated Orient. Their first project, a South African themed restaurant is primed to become a jewel in the Meat District crown, coming soon after the much anticipated reopening of Orient. Left to be seen what summer really means in the year 2000, all we can say is buy the clothes, they will throw the parties.

Note: Reproduced with permission of the author. Originally published on Netsetgoods.com. The e-commerce pioneers behind the venture Jason Campbell went to establish the jcreport while Sascha Lewis and Mark Mangan formed Flavorpill. 

An Estranged Woman

I feel partly obligated to write about the Lord Street Production, Miss Miles. There is a recurring observation: the need for more review of creative work in Trinidad and Tobago. Even if the only person who says it is dancer/choreographer Dave Williams, he’s said it enough times that it has attained critical mass in my mind. I can agree critique is critical to the arts.

Having said that, I got to the final night of the second run about twenty minutes late, the scene was of a young Miss Miles; it’s a one-hander, practicing her Catholicism. Her repeated, exaggerated rituals of the church disturb. Her story is testimony to belief in Christ or religion promising no salvation in this life, particularly given that her fate is already known to most of the audience.  She went from toast of the town to being taunted. She returns from the afterlife to tell the story.

In this scene the audience is also introduced to her parents. They interact with her responding to them in a way that lets you know what they said or asked. This “dialogue” gives a sense of the rigid principles inculcated in the young woman who would go on to be a whistle blower, to her demise, as her father was in both regards.

I was, albeit slightly, hesitant about seeing the play. I was unsure about how it would portray the People's National Movement. The legacy of the party is inextricably linked to the story of this country's progress and development as relative or subjective as that is seen. This is acknowledged but overshadowed or underplayed in the production and rightly so as it is believed her career and life were sabotaged by the party, or part thereof or in part.

She was romantically linked to the legendary Mr. O'Halloran, the same one of Rudder's Panama, his scandals some say in the tens of thousands.  To this day Johnny O remains a reference to the corrupt history or some would say element of the party.

Miss Miles takes great pains to inform the viewer that the P.N.M. was founded on principles of integrity and a vow to end corruption in public office. She did this in wondering how she could be possibly vilified by this very party, to the audience given her life long adherence to ethics, path of virtue and the party’s ethos.

What it may have failed to do was give insight into why this conscientious, dedicated public servant was the one left unprotected, all things considered. In this sense it reinforces a political view that either reflected a lack of research, a preference for the salacious or a subconscious bias, benefit of the doubt given. This is not to question the veracity of what can be seen as a legend akin to the likes of Marilyn Munroe.

Did Miss Miles betray Mr. O’Halloran using pillow talk to bring him down? Was she unfaithful to him? More than once? There are moments when the very proper, respecter of no persons, as she refers to herself,  writhes and wines on the stage floor giving a glimpse of her inner jamette.  Was her demise really orchestrated or the burden of her conscience?

The play gets more merit for its theatrical devices than it does for its script which failed to provide new information or insight that would have added dimension to already well known characters.

It’s in some sense an adaptation of Anthony De Verteuil's The Story of Gene Smile and the Gas Station Racket but augmented and stylized effectively with an original sensibility and miles of appeal.

Some have said the play was too long, a common criticism when the Producer is the Writer and in this case, too, the Director. Some have described it as a “tour de force” for the very experienced multiple Cacique Award winning actor/actress, Cecilia Salazar.

If you, like me, are tickled by a convent girl accent, Miss Miles does not disappoint.

If you want to know the story, I humbly suggest you catch it if it’s ever mounted at a theater near you.



Does Rani make it sadder?

So the ad for the new product from Coehlo’s is on heavy rotation. Every time I hear the jingle, which I think borrows melodically from a popular chutney song one line sticks out, “no more an' tawah”. My initial reaction to the line was anger. This is because I like tradition. Buisness, however, is about innovation and increasingly more so. The new best practices for businesses are found in the world of technology.

I think, though, we can all agree that the line from the ad leaves us divided as we consider that yes, store bought sada roti is convenient and an innovation but at what point do we start to value tradition over those things?

We all but lost public phones. Which came first the chicken or the egg? Is it that TSTT wanted us to buy cellular so they stopped maintaining those now relics of the past? Or did they foresee the market going cellular and so diverted resources to the development of that area of business? What about the person who lose they phone but still can’t wait to get to a land line as we used to? If I don’t have a cell should I not be able to make a call unless I’m at home or somewhere that would allow me to as they did back in the day given it had to constitute an emergency? Or maybe we were nicer then and generally less concerned about money and so you could have been allowed a call that wasn’t a matter of life and death. And no, I haven’t forgotten that some places allowed strangers to make calls for in some cases as much as two dollars if memory serves me right.

So now we have sada on the shelf. Did the writers of that ad think that saying “no more bilna an' tawah” is a desirable state of affairs? Maybe they did a focus group and nanis and Ranis across the country say they tired sweating over the hot stone jus so the family go have fresh home made roti. I hear the product in no way compares to the real thing. So now we have what is being called by some a sub-standard product and if all goes well for Coehlo, a day to come with no bilna and tawah.

We have long known that the price of progress is high but it raises a difficult question, does Rani make it sadder?

Disclaimer: The writer of this blog enjoys whole wheat sada, a hot shower, a cup of hot water in 60 seconds and other modern conveniences.

Segue - Joni Jackson

many flowers have met untimely
deaths at the hand of the lovelorn
during attempts to ascertain
in a most unscientific way whether
he loves or he does not
the thread of thought curves round
income statements and balance sheets
to a poem about the rain in Ireland
that due to a clever line break takes you, in
a word, from illicit images to the mundane
walking home from grocery shopping
with someone you love in the rain...

Taken from So Much Things to Say - 100 Calabash Poets

Choices - Edward Baugh

You chose to leave; that's fine by me.
"One's country," John Milton said, "is wherever
it is well with one." You're still my friend.
Is true, poor people catching hell
and the middle class sleeping
with panic button under their pillow;
but when you fly down to visit
and enjoying the old veranda lime
after dinner, don't spend the time
trying so hard to get me to say
you did right, only a loser would stay.
I wouldn't say I would never leave,
but if that's what they call ambition,
then right now I sticking with love.
River mullet still running in Grandy water,
and the busu soup simmering, keeping warm till you come.

Friday Night - Sally Henzell

love
why don't you come to me
gently
persistently
as calculated as the regulated ticking
of a clock
the love of a quiet man
a weekday man
a man that brings me roses
but not orchids
a kind man with friendly eyes
and regimental habits
but I have been seduced
by Friday Night
neon lights
and muted jazz seeping up
from dingy doorways
car horns
and lovers quarreling
loud and unashamed
a streetbulb reflected in a puddle
garbage cans
and yesterday's newspapers
and love
given widely
chance meetings
and flirtations of the night
asking nothing more
than that Friday night may end
as Friday night began
taking with her
all she gave
and leaving nothing
for tomorrow

Taken from So Much Things to Say - 100 Calabash Poets

Breakfast - Makesha Evans

With you I'm over easy
sliding down
spreading sunshine
for sticks of toast
golden then gooey
on a protracted Sunday morning.
You are chef and connoisseur
preparing and consuming
because you can
because I let you
because I want you to.
See, I was scrambled before
adulterated by other than
what I am,
confused by complex recipes
for what-should be
on rye
drawn to exotic and farwaway flavors
that dont quite fit
with eggs.
But you
break me open
see me as I am
and love with me
a little heat
so that I can simply be myself
over easy
and with you.

Taken from So Much Things to Say - 100 Calabash Poets