Sunny Day in Astoria Park
N Train to Ditmars...
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Suba
Haven't written in a while... a lot going on.
Just making a pit stop to tell you about a great place I found called Suba.
One of the many great things about this city is reading about some unique, new little hot spot, then calling up a few friends to go check it out. There are literally thousands of them - especially in the restaurant and lounge category.
My friend Joy, who I know from work, and Tammy, who I know from Joy - and I - have been doing this whole exploration thing once a month.
Actually, we've done it twice but we said we're going to do it every month.
Our first outing was Bikram Yoga. Joy picked the spot.
The Bikram class was interesting because Joy forgot to mention that 90% of the moves we would be doing required that one have razor thin hips or better yet, no hips at all. As a well developed Cuban woman, I was at a disadvantage.
As the moves got progressively harder, I was at a loss. The instructor would call out a position, which I didn't even quite comprehend; I would attempt to do it, see how pathetic I looked in the mirror and cry inside. Some of the manuevers she called literally made me stop and laugh. Others made me pissed. Why would anyone ever want to wrap one leg around the other and put their right foot on their left shin? What the hell is that? Don't forget about the mirror. Sheer masochism.
Tammy and I were the two newbies in the class so the teacher asked our names at the beginning. You know how these instructors like to say your name every so often to make you feel included? Well, she gave us a shout out alright. She kept repeating the same sentence over and iver again the entire class: "Great job Tammy, hang in there Damaris." It was pathetic. A few people came up to me at the end to offer condolences. "At least you stayed in the room the whole time," they said. That's how bad it was.
The room by the way, was kept at a steamy 101 degrees the entire 90 minutes. That's the thing about Bikram. I wish I would have known this too. Not only was this only my second ever Yoga class - was a 90 minute class, another detail Joy forgot to mention. I think she wanted to bring me down a notch or something.
Did I mention that Joy was a ballet dancer for 15 years so she has not ONE ounce of body fat and can do every single Yoga pose PERFECTLY? Another person came up to me after class and said - "Your friend is really good."
Are you getting the picture of what this was like for me?
We were supposed to go out to dinner after the class but Tammy and I were so sweaty and soar that we went straight home. My perfect hair day turned into a sweaty tribute to Chaka Kahn...
The following month Tammy wanted to do Pilates. That was better.
The best part of it was that Joy couldn't do many of the moves because of her ballet training. It was so much fun watching her squirm. I say much of this in jest because I adore her - but it really was kind of satisfying when the teacher praised me for doing the moves well. Apparently hips were a good thing in Pilates.
After the class we went to a place called Pure Food & Wine near Gramercy Park. It was a cute restaurant where every dish served was raw. They didn't even have an oven. The food was excellent... a bit microscopic, but excellent.
ANYWAY -- you've probably forgotten all about Suba by now because I went on a major tangent. Let me tell you about Suba!
After Bikram and Pilates, it was my turn to choose an adventurous outing.
I contemplated doing something really heinous like making Joy and Tammy go to a writing workshop to do in class writing but then I thought better of it.
I would show them how cool I was by planning a spectacular outing that did not involve humilitation for anyone.
I decided to nix the exercise crap altogether and just do straight up dinner.
I needed a place that offered something exotic and that's when I found SUBA.
According to their website Suba is a Latin Restaurant and Lounge like no other. I would have to agree.
It's a dimly light, trendy little spot in the East Village off of Delancey Street that offers a unique dining experience, even for Manhattan.
The moment I walked in the Latin music grabbed me. It was upbeat and modern with more of a latin techno feel. The decor was chic, subtle and very cool.
I could see that the restaurant had several levels so although I was already pleased, I was in for more.
Suba had a Tapas Lounge, a Skylight Room and a Grotto. Don't worry, I didn't exactly know what a Grotto was either. It was this amazing dining island sitting in the center of a pool of rippling water illuminated by 50 submerged lights. I took this description from their website because I would have called it a deck sitting on top of a bright pond thing.
I had never dined in a grotto before. It was spectacular.
The exact definition of grotto is an artificial structure made to resemble a cave (for any neurotics who think I was saying that a grotto is a pond).
Anyway, the place was amazing.
We enjoyed some tasty Mojitos, then ate poached shrimp with manchego rice & crayfish and apple ravioli. So good. After that we shared a plate of 12 hour braised short ribs for dinner. All I could say was wow. Next time I make short ribs I'm definitely going to make sure I braise them for 12 hours. Yeah.
I may be bankrupt but the experience was worth it.
Actually, considering what we ate and drank the bill was pretty reasonable. I spent 60 bucks.
Suba is a definite must-see and I'm sure I'll go back.
In addition to the great food and the grotto, they have weekly events - there's Dinner and a Movie on Monday Nights, Latin Fridays and Live Flamenco Sundays.
Tammy who has lived in New York for a very long time, was impressed. Score! Joy backed out at the last minute because she was feeling sick so she missed it. We almost cancelled the whole evening, but then Tammy and I decided to go ahead and I'm so glad we did.
The lesson of the evening, which seems to be a recurring one for me lately, is to go with the flow. Great things can happen when you do - and they did.
To experience SUBA for yourself - just click here: http://subanyc.com
Our next adventure will be a cooking class at Pure Food & Wine, the restaurant Tammy took us to last month.
We're going to learn how to cook raw food, or something like that...
Just making a pit stop to tell you about a great place I found called Suba.
One of the many great things about this city is reading about some unique, new little hot spot, then calling up a few friends to go check it out. There are literally thousands of them - especially in the restaurant and lounge category.
My friend Joy, who I know from work, and Tammy, who I know from Joy - and I - have been doing this whole exploration thing once a month.
Actually, we've done it twice but we said we're going to do it every month.
Our first outing was Bikram Yoga. Joy picked the spot.
The Bikram class was interesting because Joy forgot to mention that 90% of the moves we would be doing required that one have razor thin hips or better yet, no hips at all. As a well developed Cuban woman, I was at a disadvantage.
As the moves got progressively harder, I was at a loss. The instructor would call out a position, which I didn't even quite comprehend; I would attempt to do it, see how pathetic I looked in the mirror and cry inside. Some of the manuevers she called literally made me stop and laugh. Others made me pissed. Why would anyone ever want to wrap one leg around the other and put their right foot on their left shin? What the hell is that? Don't forget about the mirror. Sheer masochism.
Tammy and I were the two newbies in the class so the teacher asked our names at the beginning. You know how these instructors like to say your name every so often to make you feel included? Well, she gave us a shout out alright. She kept repeating the same sentence over and iver again the entire class: "Great job Tammy, hang in there Damaris." It was pathetic. A few people came up to me at the end to offer condolences. "At least you stayed in the room the whole time," they said. That's how bad it was.
The room by the way, was kept at a steamy 101 degrees the entire 90 minutes. That's the thing about Bikram. I wish I would have known this too. Not only was this only my second ever Yoga class - was a 90 minute class, another detail Joy forgot to mention. I think she wanted to bring me down a notch or something.
Did I mention that Joy was a ballet dancer for 15 years so she has not ONE ounce of body fat and can do every single Yoga pose PERFECTLY? Another person came up to me after class and said - "Your friend is really good."
Are you getting the picture of what this was like for me?
We were supposed to go out to dinner after the class but Tammy and I were so sweaty and soar that we went straight home. My perfect hair day turned into a sweaty tribute to Chaka Kahn...
The following month Tammy wanted to do Pilates. That was better.
The best part of it was that Joy couldn't do many of the moves because of her ballet training. It was so much fun watching her squirm. I say much of this in jest because I adore her - but it really was kind of satisfying when the teacher praised me for doing the moves well. Apparently hips were a good thing in Pilates.
After the class we went to a place called Pure Food & Wine near Gramercy Park. It was a cute restaurant where every dish served was raw. They didn't even have an oven. The food was excellent... a bit microscopic, but excellent.
ANYWAY -- you've probably forgotten all about Suba by now because I went on a major tangent. Let me tell you about Suba!
After Bikram and Pilates, it was my turn to choose an adventurous outing.
I contemplated doing something really heinous like making Joy and Tammy go to a writing workshop to do in class writing but then I thought better of it.
I would show them how cool I was by planning a spectacular outing that did not involve humilitation for anyone.
I decided to nix the exercise crap altogether and just do straight up dinner.
I needed a place that offered something exotic and that's when I found SUBA.
According to their website Suba is a Latin Restaurant and Lounge like no other. I would have to agree.
It's a dimly light, trendy little spot in the East Village off of Delancey Street that offers a unique dining experience, even for Manhattan.
The moment I walked in the Latin music grabbed me. It was upbeat and modern with more of a latin techno feel. The decor was chic, subtle and very cool.
I could see that the restaurant had several levels so although I was already pleased, I was in for more.
Suba had a Tapas Lounge, a Skylight Room and a Grotto. Don't worry, I didn't exactly know what a Grotto was either. It was this amazing dining island sitting in the center of a pool of rippling water illuminated by 50 submerged lights. I took this description from their website because I would have called it a deck sitting on top of a bright pond thing.
I had never dined in a grotto before. It was spectacular.
The exact definition of grotto is an artificial structure made to resemble a cave (for any neurotics who think I was saying that a grotto is a pond).
Anyway, the place was amazing.
We enjoyed some tasty Mojitos, then ate poached shrimp with manchego rice & crayfish and apple ravioli. So good. After that we shared a plate of 12 hour braised short ribs for dinner. All I could say was wow. Next time I make short ribs I'm definitely going to make sure I braise them for 12 hours. Yeah.
I may be bankrupt but the experience was worth it.
Actually, considering what we ate and drank the bill was pretty reasonable. I spent 60 bucks.
Suba is a definite must-see and I'm sure I'll go back.
In addition to the great food and the grotto, they have weekly events - there's Dinner and a Movie on Monday Nights, Latin Fridays and Live Flamenco Sundays.
Tammy who has lived in New York for a very long time, was impressed. Score! Joy backed out at the last minute because she was feeling sick so she missed it. We almost cancelled the whole evening, but then Tammy and I decided to go ahead and I'm so glad we did.
The lesson of the evening, which seems to be a recurring one for me lately, is to go with the flow. Great things can happen when you do - and they did.
To experience SUBA for yourself - just click here: http://subanyc.com
Our next adventure will be a cooking class at Pure Food & Wine, the restaurant Tammy took us to last month.
We're going to learn how to cook raw food, or something like that...
Sunday, April 03, 2005
West Side Story
I spent the day at a screenwriting workshop on the Upper West Side today.
It was an all day class put on by the Gotham Writer's Workshop and it was excellent.
The instructor Doug Katz, started out by talking about the story.
Humans have always had a fascination with stories.
Cavemen told stories using carved drawings. The Greeks acted stories out on stage. Throughout all of history, every civilization has in some way or another passed on, recorded or acted out their stories.
The fact that so many people are willing to leave their lives for hours at a time and pay money to watch something that is not real speaks to our innate love of a good story.
That is what screenwriting is - telling a story.
The beautiful and artistic part about it is that the stories must be told in images. Thoughts and feelings can not be photographed so the writer has to create images that will evoke the feelings.
You can't tell the audience that your character is angry, you have to show them. This challenges the writer to come up with gestures and movements and dialogue that will help viewers to make connections in their minds. It is challenging and exciting and some writers are masters of the art.
The instructor simplified things for us and that helped me a lot.
Simply stated, a story is a journey with conflict.
It has a beginning, middle and end and at the end the main character's character has been tested and he has gone from one point to another.
If the character is better off at the end of the movie, that is a comedy. If he is worse off, that is a tragedy.
All stories are either comedies or tragedies and sometimes it isn't very clear as in the case of Saving Private Ryan.
In Saving Private Ryan the main character played by Tom Hanks dies. Is he better off or worse off? At first glance one might say he is worse off but this is not the case.
This character chooses to die for his mission. Throughout the movie he is portrayed as someone who is burned out and feels his life has become meaningless. He chooses to die for his cause and death gives hi life meaning. The character would say he is better off at the end of this journey and that makes this movie a comedy - even though everyone dies. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Another important thing is that a story can only have one main character or hero. These terms are interchangeable.
One person drives most of the action. One person is doing more heroic action. One person is on a journey and all of the other characters are peripheral to that (unless there are multiple stories going on at one time like in Magnolia and Traffic).
The instructor gave us 4 Questions to answer before writing a script:
Who is the main character?
What does s/he want?
What event changes everything?
Is it a comedy or tragedy?
This may seem really easy but it isn't always clear.
Here's a good example that was used in class.
The main character in The Titanic?
I thought it was Leo DiCaprio's character but I was wrong.
The main character was Rose.
Rose had the most heroic action. She walked away from an arranged marriage, she risked loving someone outside of her class, she saved Leo's life, she went on to live a happy and full life and she was better off at the end.
Although the story of the Titanic was a tragedy, James Cameron brilliantly chose to focus on Rose's story which was a comedy.
This was a great class.
Now let me get back to writing my story...
It was an all day class put on by the Gotham Writer's Workshop and it was excellent.
The instructor Doug Katz, started out by talking about the story.
Humans have always had a fascination with stories.
Cavemen told stories using carved drawings. The Greeks acted stories out on stage. Throughout all of history, every civilization has in some way or another passed on, recorded or acted out their stories.
The fact that so many people are willing to leave their lives for hours at a time and pay money to watch something that is not real speaks to our innate love of a good story.
That is what screenwriting is - telling a story.
The beautiful and artistic part about it is that the stories must be told in images. Thoughts and feelings can not be photographed so the writer has to create images that will evoke the feelings.
You can't tell the audience that your character is angry, you have to show them. This challenges the writer to come up with gestures and movements and dialogue that will help viewers to make connections in their minds. It is challenging and exciting and some writers are masters of the art.
The instructor simplified things for us and that helped me a lot.
Simply stated, a story is a journey with conflict.
It has a beginning, middle and end and at the end the main character's character has been tested and he has gone from one point to another.
If the character is better off at the end of the movie, that is a comedy. If he is worse off, that is a tragedy.
All stories are either comedies or tragedies and sometimes it isn't very clear as in the case of Saving Private Ryan.
In Saving Private Ryan the main character played by Tom Hanks dies. Is he better off or worse off? At first glance one might say he is worse off but this is not the case.
This character chooses to die for his mission. Throughout the movie he is portrayed as someone who is burned out and feels his life has become meaningless. He chooses to die for his cause and death gives hi life meaning. The character would say he is better off at the end of this journey and that makes this movie a comedy - even though everyone dies. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Another important thing is that a story can only have one main character or hero. These terms are interchangeable.
One person drives most of the action. One person is doing more heroic action. One person is on a journey and all of the other characters are peripheral to that (unless there are multiple stories going on at one time like in Magnolia and Traffic).
The instructor gave us 4 Questions to answer before writing a script:
Who is the main character?
What does s/he want?
What event changes everything?
Is it a comedy or tragedy?
This may seem really easy but it isn't always clear.
Here's a good example that was used in class.
The main character in The Titanic?
I thought it was Leo DiCaprio's character but I was wrong.
The main character was Rose.
Rose had the most heroic action. She walked away from an arranged marriage, she risked loving someone outside of her class, she saved Leo's life, she went on to live a happy and full life and she was better off at the end.
Although the story of the Titanic was a tragedy, James Cameron brilliantly chose to focus on Rose's story which was a comedy.
This was a great class.
Now let me get back to writing my story...
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Extreme Mom
I just spoke to mom from the airport. She's on her way to Colombia for an extreme makeover. My mom is one brave woman. Came from Cuba at 12, married 4 times, fought through breast cancer and she's still kicking. You go mom!
*This is us at my brother Alex's wedding 3 years ago.
Friday, April 01, 2005
Les Camarades
In case you haven't made the connection, the titles of my posts refer to movies.
I thought it was a nice way to link my stories to other stories while expanding my knowledge of films, since screenwriting is the latest career change I want to pursue this month.
Les Camarades is the French title for an Italian film, I Compagni or The Organizer. It is Mario Monicelli's portrait of an early workers' strike at a Turino textile factory circa 1890.
Why didn't I just use the Italian title you ask?
Because the place I went to last night was called CAMARADAS.
Jorge, Christine and I went to hear a nuyorican band in Spanish Harlem. The location couldn't have been better.
To quote the website, "Camaradas el barrio is a worker's public house where camaraderie is built atop of a fine selection of wine, great beers from around the world, excellent music and an innovative blend of the tapas tradition with Puerto Rican cuisine."
In other words, Camaradas is where local nuyoricans grub and throw down.
The place was cozy, the food was tasty and the music was amazing.
We heard a group called Yerbabuena. They describe their performances as a cross between a jam in the park, a spiritual ceremony and a family reunion.
Their moves were not choreographed and their outifts didn't match but still they conveyed a wholeness and harmony in their music that was moving.
Whether bomba, plena or música jíbara, the jam was definitely interactive. They encouraged the audience to get involved and although some were shy at first, the depth of feeling in the performance gave viewers no choice but to dance for the drums.
Even I found myself unable to stay in my seat. After two songs I was making my way through the crowd so I could stand front and center swirling my hips. Suddenly I was Puerto Rican too.
There's something about the deep afro-caribbean beating of a drum that penetrates the soul.
For info about future performances or to get more information about Camaradas, el barrio click on Les Camarades above.
I thought it was a nice way to link my stories to other stories while expanding my knowledge of films, since screenwriting is the latest career change I want to pursue this month.
Les Camarades is the French title for an Italian film, I Compagni or The Organizer. It is Mario Monicelli's portrait of an early workers' strike at a Turino textile factory circa 1890.
Why didn't I just use the Italian title you ask?
Because the place I went to last night was called CAMARADAS.
Jorge, Christine and I went to hear a nuyorican band in Spanish Harlem. The location couldn't have been better.
To quote the website, "Camaradas el barrio is a worker's public house where camaraderie is built atop of a fine selection of wine, great beers from around the world, excellent music and an innovative blend of the tapas tradition with Puerto Rican cuisine."
In other words, Camaradas is where local nuyoricans grub and throw down.
The place was cozy, the food was tasty and the music was amazing.
We heard a group called Yerbabuena. They describe their performances as a cross between a jam in the park, a spiritual ceremony and a family reunion.
Their moves were not choreographed and their outifts didn't match but still they conveyed a wholeness and harmony in their music that was moving.
Whether bomba, plena or música jíbara, the jam was definitely interactive. They encouraged the audience to get involved and although some were shy at first, the depth of feeling in the performance gave viewers no choice but to dance for the drums.
Even I found myself unable to stay in my seat. After two songs I was making my way through the crowd so I could stand front and center swirling my hips. Suddenly I was Puerto Rican too.
There's something about the deep afro-caribbean beating of a drum that penetrates the soul.
For info about future performances or to get more information about Camaradas, el barrio click on Les Camarades above.
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