A little bit of old New York in Red Hook

The BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) is a multi lane mass of ever moving vehicular traffic. It divides our leafy, brownstone neighborhood of Carrol Gardens from the waterfront area of Red Hook, a tough, no-nonsense, semi industrial pocket of true New York, where until quite recently it would have been ill advised to loiter, unless of course you were loitering with dubious intent. Red Hook was home to Long Shoremen (Brando in On The Waterfront), mob bosses: Capone was born in the area and married at a local church; and 'Crazy Joe Gallo' whose headquarters were draped in inch thick iron - a remedy against machine gun attacks. Then in the eighties gangs came and Red Hook was dubbed by Time magazine as the worst neighborhood in America. Businesses closed down. A bar, one of my favorites, simply shuttered up, leaving full bottles of alcohol and glasses, everything behind. Then a decade and a half later re-opened for business when the city during Gulianis time, cleaned up. Red Hook is one of my favourute areas. It's still run down in many parts and there are pockets which after dark I wouldn't go but it's also changing. Artists moved into loft warehouse spaces paying little or no rent and then as happens over time the area became re-discovered. There are small galleries, terrific restaurants, cafes and a couple of wine bars. One of which has opened up within a hop, skip and jump over the BQE (via footbridge) and where a couple of nights ago I was perched with a mate having a glass of wine when an American guy approached the bar with all the swagger of Tony Soprano, his frame too of similar stature. The barman ran through the choices of wine listing with a certain flamboyance the characteristics of each variety and finishing by offering the final choice of Pinot Noir..."and we also have a lovely Pinot Noir which is soft and subtle, which you might prefer..." were his exact words. After a pause of several seconds in which not a word was uttered the burly American finally spoke up. His eyes boring down at the young bar keep, the sound from his throat rumbling like an iron cannonball rolling through cement pipes way underground. "Do I look soft and subtle?" he asked. The bar man poured him a whiskey. Red Hook might have undergone some cosmetic changes lately, but it's heart is still very much the same.

...the gateway.....

Those of you that know me might be aware that for some time I have been working on a screenplay, based on one of my plays from the olden days.....anyway, having recently finished the second draft of the screenplay, a full and detailed treatment and a pretty tight one page outline, I decided it's time to start getting the work out there. An Aussie actor living/working in Hollywood has been sniffing around the story for some time and as recently as the first week of Sept, 2011 responded to my update about the progress of the work with an email stating that 'I still like this project, where are you at with financing...' the truth is that I'm at the bottom of a very large and ominous hill. An incline so great that the summit is barely glimpsed through dense cloud cover...
So, I told him as much but asked that if he provide a letter of intent then perhaps investors will throw in some coin. Naturally, as is his wont, a response has not been forthcoming. No money - no honey. So, I'm starting now to try and contact people, calibre artists/producers/directors that at the very least I can send the One Page Outline to....It's proving impossible to do so. Any contacts I have who are connected to the people that I am trying to contact simply won't assist in orchestrating even an online meeting. And I have to say I feel a bit let down by this. I'd like to imagine that should I ever be in a position to offer help, I would do so. And it's not like I haven't had work produced in the past. Even if much of it is in theatre and some tv, I do have some professional credits. Today I phoned an agency in LA as I'm trying to get to an Aussie director. I'd love him to at the very least, read the One Pager. I knew I wouldn't get past the receptionist but at least I could ask how I could go about trying to get the Outline into his hands. I was told that '...the gateway needs to be opened by a referral...' It sounds like I'm entering a portal into another universe and perhaps I am. But as of late like Dr Who I'm just tumbling through space, trying to find the way...

A reason to celebrate!

Last night, Tuesday May 17th, an Australian friend of mine working these days in Mexico City came to NY for business. We met in Soho for dinner and soon found a terrific seafood restaurant which I could endorse from previous visits. It was just the two of us and the restaurant was busy, packed with larger tables, people having a good time. Only some feet from us there was one such table. A bunch of good-looking men and women ranging in age, we guessed, from early to mid twenties. My friend and I started to contemplate if they were celebrating a birthday or some kind of graduation. Certainly, the ladies were dressed to the nines. Long, designer, back-less gowns, they looked terrific. And the gents scrubbed up as well. I felt they could perhaps be an adult class, graduating from University in a course that may have taken them several years...this made sense to me considering their diverse age range. By the end of the meal we found we were still hungry to learn what the root of the celebration was and so I asked our waiter if he knew. He told us that they had all just purchased a number of horrendously expensive photographs from a gallery nearby and so were celebrating their acquisitions. Our waiter rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, 'trustafarians...trust fund kids.'

NY Removalists! Get the job done!

sometimes i dream on the subway