I will now try to drink good, clean New York City tap water rather than convenient, but Earth-destroying and money-devouring bottled water.

Why? Because bottled water companies use more than 47 billion fossil fuels annually to deliver their product. And according to Jane Houlihan, an environmental engineer who co-authored a recent study on bottled water, “in some cases, it appears bottled water is no less polluted than tap water and, at 1,900 times the cost, consumers should expect better.”

And to get better water, perhaps we New Yorkers should look no farther than our faucets! In 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said New York City has some of the finest drinking water not just in the United States but anywhere in the world.

So, I’m gonna try passing on the dirty water in the polluting plastic. Instead, I’ll get fresh, clean, life-affirming agua pumped from upstate New York to my kitchen sink.

(Info direct from Metropolitan Blogs. There’s also an excellent article in Fast Company about bottled water.)

Well … I could not help but notice the ages of the actors did not match up. There were a few too many crows’ feet by that woman’s eyes for me to imagine her going out with that baby-faced guy.

And I brought this up to my fellow movie-goers who pointed out that this movie was taped before a Broadway audience whose distance from the stage allowed them to suspend disbelief in a way that high definition simply did not.

Which proves that some illusions are best left intact …

God bless you.

Tourists, even in a good economy, you are vital. In an economy such as this, you may just be the arms that pull New York out of financial hell.

Please, treat yourself and a busload of your best buddies to Four Seasons. Pay full price for Broadway shows. Buy a Coach bag or ten (on 5th Avenue, not the Chinatown variety).

We New Yorkers are thankful. So, ask your directions. Give us natives your cameras and we will capture your memories so you can visually spread the word about our fair city. Walk as S-L-OW-L-Y as you please.
***
(When you New Yorkers get all impatient with the slow walkers, just remember: tourists cannot SPEND if they speedwalk with their head down!)

You’ll see these ads in subways now that you know about ‘em. Fabulous: very positive, catchy, they totally pop out at you and make you feel warm ‘n fuzzy all over.

The ads make me want to chew Dentyne Gum, so that when I meet people in person, I’m sure I have great breath.

And the theme of the campaign is one that is close to my heart: as Organizer of Culture for the Non-Cultured Meetup, I use the computer to help people interact with each other and take advantage of the off-line, real-life activities New York City has to offer.

I salute Dentyne!

‘Twas the Michael Jackson of the later years — Remember the Time, Heal the World.  It was not his greatest material, but it was still delightful to listen to.   I could not help but think about the enormous talent that man/woman/child possesses.  

Yes, he sticks his 10-month old over a balcony.  Yes, he probably committed scandalous acts against innocent children whose parents essentially sold them to a 40-year old man who happened to like sleepovers.

But, holy surgical weirdness, Batman, that guy can sing!

The movie centers around Midway, a plantation in North Carolina built in the 1800s.  In recent times, the land immediately surrounding the large home had been developed into strip malls, fast-food joints, and roaring highways.  So, the eldest son who had inherited the mansion that formed the center of the plantation decided to preserve the integrity of the home by purchasing a large plot of land nearby, picking up the entire house on steel beams, and moving it by truck to the new land.

As word about the plantation’s move gets out, previously unknown family members make themselves known — African American family members who were descendants of both Midways slaveowners and slaves. In this way, the movie is a thoughtful meditation on race at a micro-level through a look at this one family’s history.  

It also offers a macro-level analysis of racial stereotypes with a history of the slave trade and American attitude towards race as reflected in movies and literature.  

There’s humor here, too, and warmth and hope for the future.  There’s a serious discussion of Midway’s matriarch haunting Midway and throwing plates when angered, and a grandmother who, upon hearing that a new quilt was 100 years old and bought from Pennsylvania, declares “damn Yankee quilt.”

And there’s hope for the future when the descendants of the slaveowners and the descendants of slaves embrace and joke and throw a party together on the newly preserved, newly renovated Midway plantation.  

Once upon a time, about 6 or 7 years ago, I was walking across the street in midtown, with two women behind me.  All of a sudden I hear one of them sing, “Old McDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o.”

And there was something about that voice … something that made me turn around.

The woman singing had short gray hair that stood up on her head in a crew-cut.  She wore sweatpants and no make-up.  She had a child of about 2 or 3 years old on her shoulders, and she was singing in a voice I knew, but couldn’t place.

The woman walking next to her said, “Are you …?”

And the woman with the child raised her finger to her lips and said, “Yes, but … shhhhh.”

And then I recognized her ..

Cyndi Lauper.

The needs are verified by Modest Needs, a nonprofit organization.  The money goes directly to the hospital, the landlord, or the bank.

There are so many fascinating things about Modest Needs:

– It was begun by Keith Taylor, an English teacher making $33k/year, who gave away small amounts of his own salary to people with short-term needs by setting up a website telling people to send him requests

– Seven out of every ten recipients log back into the site as donors (think about that a minute)

– Only 10% of recipients ask again, proving that a little bit of money can do a lot of good.

The article also has really interesting statistics about the giving habits of various classes, including the fact that households making less than $20,000 a year gave away 4.6% of their income, a higher percentage than any other group.

There was James Turrell’s Meeting, a serene room with benches all around it and a perfect square cut through the ceiling. I was there on a Saturday night, so the square was opened; I lay on the floor and stared straight through to the sky.

There were also several exhibits by Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, who is now one of my favorite artists. One of his exhibits was Beauty, a misty waterfall you could jump through, which was quite exciting. I also saw Take Your Time, where you lay on a floor surrounded by other people doing the same thing and look up at a large, slowly rotating mirrored ceiling. This gave me ample opportunity to engage in people-watching, one of my all-time favorite activities, without fear that anyone would catch me. People are cute when they’re looking at themselves: lots of childish laughter, poking each other, wiggling, staring.

I didn’t have my camera :(, but I will try to describe what I saw out the window overlooking the courtyard of P.S.1. On Saturday night, there’s music outdoors. So, there were these undulating bodies all crowded together. Behind and above them, there was P.F.1 (Public Farm 1), a fully-functioning, 30 feet high “urban farm,” made of plants, vegetables, and flowers. People were dancing with fervor in the aisle of the urban farm. And, in the distance, rising behind the dancers and the farm, 5 Pointz, the Institute of Higher Burnin’, a wall of legal graffiti art.

And behind that, a storage facility. This is, after all, New York, and not everything can be artsy fartsy.

P.S.1 is also one of the most interesting buildings ever. It used to be a school, and there’s all kinds of art in all kinds of nooks and crannies: stairwells, elevators, bathrooms.

So, you should make a visit there. It’s really easy to get to in Long Island City …

Whenever I go to museums, I try to leave with at least 2 or 3 facts that I didn’t know before that I try to never forget. (If you attended MoMA and have another 3, feel free to chime in with a reply.)

1. I never knew Dali was so into movies. He created dream sequences for Hitchcock’s Spellbound, and collaborated with Walt Disney on an animated movie called Destino. (Destino was not made into a movie until 2003, when Walt Disney studios took storyboards created by Disney and Dali and created animation magic). A trailer for Destino is at the end of this post — just click in the center to play it.

2. Museum of Modern Art has 6 floors, and they are designed to be seen from the top floor down.

3. We are slowly moving from an age of mass production to mass customization. Instead of the same car, for instance, being made an infinite number of times in the same style, an infinite number of cars are being made catering to people’s individual style and preferences.

Culture for the Non-Cultured’s next event is Theater! Life in a Marital Institution. Check it out at the Culture for the Non-Cultured website