Cool Spaces: The Ziegfeld Theater

Went to the historic Ziegfeld on 54th and 6th Ave. for the first time on Friday night to join the adventure-seeking hordes for the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull first Friday premiere (technically, the movie opened the night before). That's one grand space. Old school single screen Broadway theater with multiple tiers of seating and red velvet walls. Supposedly seats over a thousand. All that's missing is the tuxedo-clad organ player. I don't know if the Indy film was really as good as it seemed, or if being in a fancy-pants theater helped, but by end credits, the audience was clapping with glee. Reminds you that people once took their movie watching seriously.

Happenings: Tribeca Film Festival

The Tribeca Film Festival began yesterday--yet another example of a New York institution I've consistently avoided. I guess I always figured I wouldn't be able to get tix to the good stuff and would be stuck watching some lame movie, just to be able to say I went. And the film guide, with it's mucho offerings always scared me a bit.

But, today, inspired by a couple true blue film buff friends, I finally managed to wade through the hundreds of films in the Festival's Film Guide and found that tix were still available to a number of interesting movies...well, weekday matinee tix, at least.

So I'm going to watch "Playing (Jogo de Cena)," a documentary by Brazillian filmmaker that plays with the question of what's true and what's fiction by interspersing interviews with real life women with actresses "playing" these women.

I'm also watching "Sita Sings the Blues," an animated version of the Indian legend, Ramayana, interlaced with a modern love-on-the-rocks tale. It's by comic strip artist, Nina Paley. Isn't the animation fun?