Our funny (and long) evening with Kevin Smith

In October, I got to see one of my heroes, director and fellow Jersey-boy Kevin Smith.  He achieved a dream of mine (making a movie), and he managed to mostly keep his head & humor through all his success. Probably because he doesn’t really see himself as being successful.

The show was exactly like what it looks like on his DVDs: Kevin standing alone on stage, answering questions from the audience and frequently diverting into stories about his life & experiences in the movie business.  He’s funnier than most stand-up comedians. I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time. My favorite story was about Bruce Willis, who he directed in his next movie (“A Couple of Dicks”).

There were only 2 drawbacks to the show. The main one was that it went on for three hours. Which wouldn’t normally be a bad thing, but with Marta being pregnant she got tired and cranky. During the last hour she was mumbling under her breath “Shut up, shut up! I don’t care about Gretzky.” (The Gretzy story is terrific, but he rambles off the point a few times and turns a 20 minute story into 45 minutes.)

The other drawback were the question-takers. They were lazy and only took questions from people who were sitting on the aisles next to them. I was sitting in the middle of a row and so they wouldn’t even look at me.

So Kevin, if you’re reading this, here it is… “Did you ever get the 6 Million Dollar Man action figure from Universal Studios?” I was working  at Universal at the time, as an assistant to one of their many Vice Presidents of Production, and they wanted impress you to continue writing another draft of the 6 Million Dollar Man. So they asked all of the assistants to find you an original mint-condition Steve Austin action figure to give you as a gift at your next meeting… the next day! No time for Ebay. We scrambled to every collectable store and comic shop in LA to find it. But I never found out if anyone actually found one (I didn’t) and if they presented it to you.  I also wanted to ask how you feel knowing that you can have that kind of impact, to make a bunch of assistants scramble to get you toys.  Snooches!

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Buckingham Palace, Museum and the Royal Mews

They only open up Buckingham Palace for tours for about 2 months of the year, when the Queen is on vacation at one of her other homes.

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Unfortunately, you can’t take any pictures inside so there’s not much I can show. I don’t remember much either. It was nice, but not one of the biggest highlights I’ve seen in London. It’s most impressive feature is that it’s one of the few royal palaces actively in-use and open to the public, and of the sheer number of historical and political figures who have walked down those halls and had dinner in the State room.

It’s a relatively modern building, the original build in 1703 followed by numerous additions and remodels. My favorite room was the music room which had a massive gold guilded ceiling, and the white drawing room. Both are extraordinarily ornate, having been completed before the expensive remodeling project was scaled back. The gallery hallway is a mini art museum, crammed with works by Rembrandt, Rubens, and one of my favorites, Charles I with M. de St Antoine by van Dyck.

Once we got to the back steps, we could take some photos.

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My queen, with her crown (in the gift shop).

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Admission to the palace also gave us access to the Queen’s Gallery and the Royal Mews. The gallery was nice, showing some of the royal china, jewellery, and more paintings. The pieces that we liked best were the Faberge Egg, earrings and brooches made with the smaller cuts of the Cullinan diamond, and Napoleon’s circular table with inlays of famous generals throughout history.

The mews is where the royal vehicles are kept.

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The Gold Coach was most impressive. Massive. Gold. Heavy. And supposedly is one of the most uncomfortable to ride in.

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They also stable some of the coach horses here, too.

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It was a good touristy thing to do. (And unlike most of the tourist sites, this one seemed to attract more English tourists than foreigners.) Not at the top of my list, but worthwhile even if just for the van Dyck.

The London Duathlon – 01:26:01

I finished 287 out of 561, right in he middle of London’s biggest duathlon even of 2009.

5k run #1: 25:30
10k bicycle: 28:36
5k run #2: 28:29

The cycling was hard, but this time it was the 2nd run that really got to me.

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It took place in the beautiful Richmond Park, the same place where we got married earlier this year. There were lots of deer around, including a massive buck.

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Trafalgar Square – the National Gallery (London), giant chess, and the 4th plinth

We did a bit of London touristing last month at Trafalgar Square. It’s a popular place for London to host public art exhibitions, and that weekend there were two.

“The Tournament” by Jamie Hayon, Spain. The centrepiece of the London Design Festival was a giant chess set with ceramic painted chess pieces 2 meters high. The players sat in comfy chairs overlooking the board while others moves the pieces into position. I was on the waiting list to play one of the matches but they never called.

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The next art installation was called “One & Other” by sculptor Antony Gormley, using the empty 4th statue plinth in the square. The plinth was created in 1841 but they ran out of money for the statue to be put on top. Later they couldn’t agree which monarch or military hero to place there, so it’s remained empty ever since except for some temporary art exhibits.

“One & Other” had 2400 people stand on top of the 4th plinth: 1 hour at a time, 24 hours a day for 100 days. It wasn’t really art, it was more like performance theater. Most people used it as a platform for charity or social causes. We saw 2 “artists,” one promoting a snorkeling business and the other doing a exercise routine in support of a cancer forum. Boring.

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We finally made it into the National Gallery and spent the afternoon looking at some truly amazing works of art. I got to see pieces from some of my old favorites (Bosch, Goya, El Greco), and I discovered many new ones.

“The Arnolfini Portrait” by van Eyck, 1434. Incredible detail throughout, especially in the mirror where it feels like you see your own reflection. I also like the old-school graffiti he painted above the mirror: “Jan van Eyck was here, 1434.”

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“Cognoscenti in a Room hung with Pictures.” Unknown, Flemish, around 1620. A classic painting filled with detailed images of other classic paintings. I could spend hours looking at this one.

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The trip confirmed that one of my all-time favorite artists is Anthony Van Dyck. He studied under Peter Paul Rubens and became his chief assistant, then rose to England’s leading court painter and one of the most successful painters of his day. This portrait was my favorite in the National Gallery. The eyes are incredibly detailed and expressive. To me, Van Dyck had the most talent in being able to make you feel the personality of his subjects.

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King Charles I was particularly fond of van Dyck and commissioned numerous works.

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Rembrandt, self portraits. I didn’t realize that Rembrandt painted himself more than any other artist of the 17th century. Each one is an intimate reflection on his life. In “Self-Portrait at the Age of 34″ (1640), he was at the height of his career and so he painted himself in the clothes and style of the old masters from a hundred years before.

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In “Self Portrait at the Age of 63″ (1669) he paints himself without vanity, older and more reflective. This was painted in the last year of his life and his last self-portrait, possibly his final painting.

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“The Ambassadors” b Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533. The distorted image in the bottom centre foreground is an anamorphic special effect — it’s a skull, but you can only see it from an angle if you stand at a special point on the right side of the painting. I don’t know how he did it.

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Of the modern painters, the Monets were nice but they didn’t move me. But there was something about the Van Gogh’s that caught me. I think it was his dramatic use of the color yellow, not a common color to be given such prominence.

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I also liked “Van Gogh’s chair.” It’s one of a pair of paintings depicting his relationship with contemporary and friend Gauguin. This one is Van Gogh’s chair, with his pipe and tobacco pouch, and onions in the background. The other painting is of Gauguin’s chair, an armchair with 2 books and a candle on it (at a different museum, but it would be nice to someday see them side by side)

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1 minute concinero – Bread in 5 minutes a day

1 minute concinero (cook): Empanadillas de bonito (tuna stuffed pastries)

Challah flatbread invented

It started off well. The dough and braiding was perfect.

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But we left it to raise in the kitchen and forgot about it. The next morning it was too bloated. Whoops!

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When we got home to bake it for Shabbat dinner, it was completely deflated. We baked it any. Looked funny, but it still tasted great.

We invented a new dish, Challah Flatbread!

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Aug ‘08: Toledo, and scenes from La Parcela González

In August we spent a summer break in Spain with Marta’s family. We stayed as “La Parcela González” (the González’ parcel of land) a few miles outside of Madrid. It’s a beautiful home (still partially under construction) and has some amazing views.

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We met the new family dog, Sammy.

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And had a delicious family barbecue with home-cooked dishes from different regions of Spain, and fresh food from their garden.

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It was a very relaxing trip.

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We also took a quick trip out to Chinchón to get a few bottles of their special (and quite potent) anisette.

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But the highlight of the vacation was the day trip to Toledo, 70km south of Madrid. Location of “La Convivencia (“the Coexistence”), where Jews lived together in relative peace with Muslims and Catholics for over 750 years (711 to 1492). It was established under the Islamic rule of the Caliphate of Cordoba and ended when the Catholic monarchs issued the Alhambra Decree which ordered the expulsion of Jews from Spain. The skyline is distinguished by the Alcázar on the right, and the peak of the Cathedral in the middle.

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I absolutely loved it. Click the picture below to see the entire photo album with all the details and history that I learned.

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U2 360° Tour – Aug 14 2009 – Wembley Stadium

I saw U2 once before at Giants Stadium in NJ. I was a teenager and my sister was nice enough to take me with her. She was the biggest fan, posters on the wall and everything. I’m sure she wasn’t happy to have little bro tagging along, but I thank her for it. It was my first stadium concert and the one that I’ve compared all others to.

I originally bought seated tickets, but Marta wanted to get closer to the stage so I bought standing tickets to replace them. We didn’t know that Marta would be 5 months pregnant by the time of the show. So in the last week I sold the new standing tickets and we used the seated ones ourselves. We spotted 5 other pregnant women in our section, so we weren’t alone.

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The stage (“the claw”) is huge. It dominates the stadium. And cleverly designed, because it allowed 5,000 more ticket-buyers to see the show, breaking Wembley’s concert attendance record to 88,000.

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It started with a playback of Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and the claw’s smoke machines kicking in, even at the spire on top.

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Out came U2, and what a show. The first 5 songs were all new material, no hits. Well done, but the crowd was getting antsy.

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Then they broke out the big guns: Beautiful Day. Elevation. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.

And the crowd goes wild!

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I was never a fan of the song Elevation. Maybe because it was on the soundtrack to Tomb Raider, a movie that greatly disappointed me. But played live, it was one of the biggest crowd-pleasers of the show. Everyone was jumping up and down to it, you just couldn’t help yourself.

Then the center screen above opens up and stretches down toward the stage like a funnel. Very cool. The bridges move around the stage and the band goes out toward the audience. Front, back, left, right, playing on the outer ring of the stage. Everyone got a great view.

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Of course there was a political moment. They dedicated Walk On to Aung San Suu Kyi, the woman who won the 1990 presidential election of Burma but who has been under house arrest ever since. A group of volunteers joined the band on stage as part of the protest.

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Then the spire revealed a disco ball which lit up the stadium.

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The best song of the night: “Where the Streets Have No Name.” One of the best stadium concert rock songs ever made. As good as Bono was, I thought it was the Edge who stole the show. His guitar work was awesome.

Bono told everyone turn on their cell phones and then he turned out the lights, making the stadium look like the Milky Way.

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They finished the set with “Mysterious Ways” which I thought was the weakest song of the night. It was slow and awkward and sounded off-key to me. Maybe they were tired after rocking all night long. I know I was.

After the band left the stage, they played Elton John’s “Rocketman” on the loudspeakers, a fitting end to an out-of-this-world show.

Still, compared to my first U2 concert, I was a little disappointed. They didn’t play my favorite songs from their earlier albums, like “I Will Follow” or “Bad” or “40.” Those songs rocked Giants Stadium when I was a teenager. I guess the only way I’ll hear them like that again is in my memory.

SET LIST:
Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, London Calling (snippet) / , London Bridge Is Falling Down (snippet) / , Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet), Elevation, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Movin’ On Up (snippet), Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of, Unknown Caller, The Unforgettable Fire, City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo / Acquiesce (snippet), I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight / Two Tribes (snippet) / Reverend Black Grape (snippet), Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet), Pride (In The Name Of Love), MLK, Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet), Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love (snippet) / Acquiesce (snippet), One, Mysterious Ways / Norwegian Wood (snippet)
encores: Ultra Violet (Light My Way), With Or Without You, Moment of Surrender
comment: Mysterious Ways closes a main set for the first time ever. 500th live performance of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For; 666th live performance of Where The Streets Have No Name.

Us & the Bump at South Bank

There was a free photo booth at South Bank. This was just after Le Cirque Invisible. You’re supposed to draw a picture on a white board and hold it up.

I drew stick figures of us with an arrow pointing toward the stick-figure bump. Sadly the camera washed most of the picture out. Like my new shades?

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