New York City Ballet

Yesterday I saw the NYC Ballet (NYCB) and it was incredible! I have never been so moved by dancing before. Every thing they did was beautiful and graceful. I would call it the definition of beauty. They did three half hour pieces each with an intermission in between. First was La Source, then Concerto DSCH and finally N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz. The lighting designer on the last one was Jennifer Tipton, who I have met (and is from my hometown). She is the premiere dance LD in the country, if not the world! That was incredible lighting.

I can not wait to go back to NYCB as soon as I can. Students tickets are only 15 dollars, and my seat was eighth row, center section, unbelievably good! The theatre its self is gorgeous, with a huge chandelier and five balconies, among other decorations. They run in repertory, so they have lots of new stuff to see. I think I will go later this week if I can.

As a side note, this is also where the film "Black Swan" takes place. NYCB is doing Swan Lake starting right after I leave in February, which is sad. I bet its going to be incredible.

-Glenn

"Worst Friends" Screening

Last Thursday I was invited to go to a screening of the film "Worst Friends". It was shot last summer and DP'd by my friend Vince Peone. It was a really great experience. We were in the ball room of a very fancy Manhattan hotel called the Maritime Hotel. There was a literal velvet rope and a bouncer with a list out front. The ballroom had a bar looking over it, and was chinese themed. Paper lanterns and dragon heads.

'Worst Friends' TRAILER from Ralph Arend on Vimeo.


After the screening it was a party! Vince took me around and introduced me to lots of cool people. He introduced me as "a young film maker doing his thing", which I think is my favorite introduction yet. He said he is trying to get me on his set before I leave the city. Can't wait!

It was a fantastic night, if you ever get the chance, I highly recommend see the film!

-Glenn

Weekend in the City with my best friend

Last weekend my best friend came out to NYC for a few days. We did so much, so I will try to break it down shortly. We started his first day by going from the airport straight to the broadway show "Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark". The tech budget of $65 million was incredible and well worth it! The singing and the story however, still need work. It doesn't open until March, so they do have time.

The next day we started by trying to see a movie, but ended up missing the show time, and going to the Empire State Building instead! We bought our tickets, went through a bunch of lines, and eventually ended up on the 86th floor. the views were great, the wind was cold, but we wanted to go higher. Luckily, for another few bucks you can take an elevator up to the every top at the 102nd floor. That view was incredible! Also, the observation deck was completely enclosed and warm. We spent awhile up there, taking pictures.

While on top we could see the whole area, so we decided to check out the landmarks that we could see. We left and went to Herald Square at 34th street, then toured the famous Macy's store (9 floors! all with wooden escalators). After Macy's we walked down to the Flat Iron building (the very first sky scraper). After that we kept walking down to union square at 14th street. We stopped at a couple cool looking stores, and ended up at our destination restaurant called "Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man".

This was an amazing restaurant devoted to chocolate. Almost everything had some sort of chocolate in it. I had a White Chocolate Chai Latte, seasoned fries (with chocolate seasoning), and crispy mac and cheese. Anthony had an awesome alcoholic/chocoholic drink, (we shared the fries) and a meaty pizza (not sure about chocolate on that. For dessert we had "Banana Egg Rolls". Which are basically banana, nuts and chocolate sauce inside of a fried egg role shell, served as fondue. They were amazing! As I bit into my second one it sort of popped and shot chocolate sauce all over my arm! Very funny, and yummy to clean up.

After dinner we walked a ways over to Chelsea and waited in line for tickets to an improve show called "Assscat 3000". We froze waiting for the free tickets, when the line started to move we got all the way to the very very front and they ran out. The intern said we could wait for stand-by seats outside, we would probably get them, but it would be another hour. By this point my hands and toes were already numb. We decided to wait. We talked to the NYU theatre students in line with us, and tried to think warm thoughts. An hour later, we all got in to see the show.

It was hilarious! About one and a half hours of improv with a small cast. Some one from the audience would shout something out, one member of the cast went up and told a story from their past relating to what was shouted, and then the rest of the cast made as many funny improv situations out of it as they could.

After the show we journeyed home on the subway and watched Tosh.O online. It was a great day!

The next day we did slightly less, we got up a little late, went and did the NBC studio tour. We got to see a few diffrent sets that NBC currently uses, including "Dr. Oz" "Late Night with Jimmy Falon" and of course "Saturday Night Live". At the end Anthony and I got to act as news anchor (me) and weather man (Anthony) and produce a little news. It was fun.

After the tour we took the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across both of our favorite landmarks. It was freezing of course, and windy, but I had remembered to bring hand-warmers (the little chemical activated ones) so we stayed warm for awhile. The views were incredible. Eventually we got to the far side and took a wrong turn trying to find the subway. We walked for what seemed like forever, then Finally saw the subway entrance. It was on the other side of the highway... We walked to the end of the sidealk and found a way across. We got into the station (mind you its dark by now) and there is no body there. It was pretty creepy. We could hear the occasional sound or voice in the distance, but I have never been more alone in a subway station before. The first train that came was headed back to Manhattan, instead of into Brooklyn where we needed to go. But we got on it anyway, instead of waiting around. A few subway trips later we were back at home.

The next day we got up at 5:30am to go to the airport. It had snowed and was now freezing rain. We walked around for ten minutes hailing cabs, but no one wanted to go to LaGuardia. Finally a cab picked us up and we got to the airport with plenty of time for breakfast.

On the way back I took the bus and the subway at rush hour. I was on the train that I took every morning all summer at rush hour. The packed subway cars really brought me back, it was fun. Some of that trip is in the video "NYC Empire Spoof" you can find in the videos tab, as well as much more from our weekend.

-Glenn

Videos Incoming

I just added a 'videos' tab to this blog! Under the title you can now click where it says "videos" and you can watch some edited videos I made, as well as some upcoming vlog posts. Also, please follow the videos back to youtube and follow my account @SeouloftheCities. enjoy!

-Glenn

Philosophical Evening at the Brooklyn Museum

Yesterday I decided to go to the Brooklyn Museum, when I went on their website I saw they were doing the first installment of a conversation series. The topic for the night was to be media philosophy and cultural understanding. Two modern and renowned thinkers would have a conversation.

I purchased my cheap ticket online and took the train over early so I could tour the museum. The speakers were Douglas Rushkoff and Steven Berlin Johnson. The topic were the internet, social networking media, TV and how culture interacts with them. Here is a list of notes I took from the conversation and subsequent thoughts I had and conversations with Doug Rushkoff afterwards:

"
Ideas are part of a network building off of each other aka 'Idea sex'

Technology is everything that was invented after you were born

The net was designed for sharing, when used in other ways (.com) it will eventually bite the user in the ass.

'Let them eat blog' -Doug R.

The access to tools does not equal the efficacy to use them in a productive way. (in response to my question about 'The Cult of the amateur')

A new form of political understanding needs to be created to describe the philosophy of sharing ideas on the internet. Communism has been used to describe net sharing, this is not fully accurate and carries a negative connotation. a new describer is needed.

'You are the fragmented generation' - Doug's response to my question about his feelings towards my generation's (and my own) obsession and need for facebook. I said 'I have used facebook for a quarter of my life, Mcluhan says we fragment our souls and give parts to mediums we use.'   He said 'you are the fragmented generation, there is no way around that.'
"

It was a wonderful evening of thinking. I think that between this experience and COTH 370 philosophy of communication, I would be happy being a social and media philosopher. Thats now my back up plan incase film doesn't work out for some crazy reason.

-Glenn

Backstage Broadway

  I decided to try and see a Broadway show the other night, so I took the train to midtown and got in line at the Wicked lottery line. after an hour of waiting, no luck. I googled shows with student tickets, and found a show called "A Free Man of Color" playing at the Lincoln Center. When I got there, I bought my $20 ticket and found out the show was closing, and I was at the last performance!

  I took my seat (front row loge!) and the show began. It was fantastic! A hilarious, quirky and energetic look at the Americas in 1801 at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. The cast was fantastic, and included Joseph Marcell from "The Fresh Prince of Belair" and Mos Def the rapper from "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". Characters included Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon Bonapart, Merriweather Lewis and Livingston (I presume). As well as a host of other awesome characters.

  At intermission I started talking to the woman next to me, and found out she was there to see her friend who was in the cast. After the show we talked some more (traded business cards) and she invited me backstage to meet her friend! We found the stage door and went in. Whoa! The halls were lined with all of the costumes I had just seen on stage, people were running around doing things and laughing and talking. So many other friends and family members were there. Lots of techies in black were moving things around, getting ready to move out. My new friend, Mariangelica, knew what the director looked like and found him. I introduced myself to George C. Wolfe (a famous Broadway director). We found her friends dressing room and started talking to her. Her name was Rosal Colon and she is a really nice young actress (2 years out of school). While we were standing there talking, Mos Def came out of the dressing room right next to us and started talking to his family! He was standing there in his bathrobe, it was so cool! His dad looks exactly like him too. The writer of the show (John Guare) walked by while we were talking, and I told him how much I liked the play. He thanked me and smiled, then ran off the talk to some other people. It was incredible! After about 20 minutes we left (the cast party was for members only) and headed for coffee. I was vibrating I was so excited!

  At coffee Mariangelica turned out to be an equity actress who moved from Ecuador and has been working in the city for 10 years. She was really cool and energetic. Her cousin in California is a Cinematography MFA student who she promised to introduce me too. We are going to try and see another show together soon. It was a great night!

-Glenn

In NYC

  I made it to city number one! I arrived in New York City three days ago. My apartment in Brooklyn is fantastic! Its huge, and my roommate is cool. Yesterday I took the subway into midtown Manhattan (20 minutes away) and walked around all day. I started at Grand Central, then Times Square, ate some pizza,  walked up 5th avenue to Rockefeller Plaza with the christmas tree and ice skating rink then to the flagship Apple store, strolled the "Children's District" of Central Park, walked back down Broadway to Times Square and tried to get cheap tickets for Wicked (no dice), had some amazing Thai jungle curry, then I took the subway home. It was great! although a tad cold... The hot curry really helped at the end.

(Empire State Building)

(Rockefeller Center)

(Times Square)

  Today I am taking it easy, hanging out, maybe a bit of shopping here in Brooklyn. I really want to get into working, but I have to wait for one of my contacts to email me with a shoot for me to work on. I'm not worried about getting on at least one set, but I'm kind of bored waiting, you know? Every morning I wake up and check my email, its a good motivator to get out of bed. I'll post something as soon as I get a call :)

  Today I woke up to snow falling, and look at that, its still falling. Looks like about an inch so far (of the predicted 4-7). Hopefully it won't hinder any productions I might work on, but then again coming from Colorado, I know how to deal with snow. Maybe that will make me more hirable? I sure hope so.

Happy belated New Years everyone, make 2011 something worth talking about. I know I will!

-Glenn