On My Mind: What Makes a Home?

In light of the stated mission of this blog, I was wondering. Is there a checklist of things that make a city feel like home? I thought about other cities I've called home and what made them so and came up with this little list. What do you think?

• Knowing where to find what you need--whatever it is--a good massage, a great formal gown, low-priced cheeses, vintage records, party favors... [great finds]
  
• An intimate knowledge of your neighborhood and a working knowledge of other parts of the city [street-by-street, cool spaces]
  
• Knowing how to get around most efficiently. In LA, this meant knowing what freeways got you from point A to B most quickly; in NYC, it's knowing what subway lines get you from point A to B most quickly, with the fewest transfers, or avoiding crowds. [stuff i've learned]
  
• Food--a handful of places where the staff recognize you when you show up; a few gems no one knows about but you (or so it seems) [great finds]
  
• Friendly faces, friends and a sense of community...b/c if no one in the entire city cares if you live or die, you're no better off than the woman who dies and gets eaten by her cats [people]
  
• A house or apartment you like living in. Can you really feel at home in a city if you're living in digs you can't stand? If you dread going home, the city can't feel like home. [cool spaces]
  
• Having coping strategies--how to minimize your exposure to bad weather, how to avoid crowds, how to avoid traffic, when to show up to X theater to get good seats for movie opening this weekend, when and where to buy tix for Y festival before all seats are sold out. [stuff i've learned]
• An appreciation of the quirky, unique facets of the city's culture [have you noticed...?, only in new york, gotta love it]
  

I figure now that I have a list, I can systematically work towards making this city feel like home. You'll notice I'm using subheaders to introduce some of my posts. I'll use them so you know when I'm covering these various "home requirements"--like Street-by-Street (a detailed walking exploration of neighborhoods), Great Find, People, Cool Spaces (architecture, real estate, urban landscape), Nature in the City, Happenings...I fully expect my definition of "home" will evolve with time, experience and your input, but I'm excited to see where this little experiment takes us. Until next time...

Happenings: Tribeca Film Festival - Part 2

I watched my second film at the Tribeca Film Festival today--"Sita Sings the Blues." A gorgeous, smart, layered, romantic, tragic, funny modern animated version of the Indian legend of Rama and Sita and their complicated romance (at least from Sita's POV).

The filmmaker, Nina Paley, is one of those humble artistic geniuses that you love and envy all at once. She's a one woman production team, and it took her 5 years to do this film with multiple animation styles from comic strip to Mughal art to cut out animation to shadow puppetry. When Sita "sings" the blues, we are actually hearing little-known blues singer Annette Henshaw's 1920's recordings. The music is just lovely and I wish I could buy the soundtrack. Hell, I wish I could buy the entire movie.

It was a Friday matinée and much more crowded than yesterday when the theater was half filled with elderly couples, elderly mothers with their film geek sons, and loners with their backpacks. Today's film was shown in a much larger theater and filled almost seat for seat with a great cross-section of people (Indians were well-represented, of course) at 3 pm.

Nina Paley and her cast and crew graciously answered questions afterwards. "The Internet's been good to me," she said at one point. Paley helped fund the project from anonymous donations from people who read her blog.The film does not yet have distribution, and apparently people always ask Nina if she plans to show the movie in India, but it's a tricky thing b/c Hindu's might be offended by the portrayal of the god Rama.

Happenings: Tribeca Film Festival - Part 1

I'm a day late with this post, but my love and enthusiasm for Eduoardo Coutinho's "Playing (Jogo de Cena)" is unabated. I know it's a cliche, but the film did make me both laugh and cry, and I think that's a difficult thing for a film to do. More importantly, the film is so deeply human, and you walk away feeling more connected the beauty of the prosaic, especially in your own life.

You sit there and listen to a series of real women tell Coutinho their stories of love, losing children, unwanted pregnancies, bad marriages, complicated relationships with their children, the pursuit of their dreams, and you are reminded of what amazing stories every human being has. But then, the director challenges you even more by editing in footage of actresses "mimicking"(though that word suggests parody, and these actresses actually stay brutally faithful to the real woman she's playing) the same words the real women used in a kind of "staging" of the real woman's interview, and because sometimes Coutinho has the actress telling the story first, and then the real woman, and sometimes vice versa, it's a strange effect - very often it's sometimes impossible to tell who's the real woman and who's the actress.

What's the point, you ask? For me, I think it was a reminder of how real life can have the magic of fiction and how fiction can carry the weight of reality, a thread of humanity--either way, we're moved. I'm grateful for the Tribeca Film Festival for bringing films like this into my life.

One other thing: before the screening, I loved watching the clever, beautiful, striking animations done by the School of Visual Arts students (see photo).

Great Find: Ibiza Kids

A friend of mine had a baby last month, and I've been putting off buying a baby gift b/c I didn't want to do the easy and generic thing and just go to Baby Gap or Babies R Us. I've always known there are a number of these beautiful little baby gift boutiques around NYC, but never really took note. Yesterday, I found Ibiza Kids on 4th Ave, betweeen 10th and 11th st.

You could easily pass this place by, as it's on a less trafficked part of the Astor Place area, but it's a great source for lovely, unique baby clothes, shoes, toys. They sell fairy wings for girls and the most stylish little shoes and of course, sassy little onesies, like the one I purchased. Isn't this a riot? It's very 2008, don't you think? When my friend's son gets older, if they keep this onesie around, it can be something they can laugh about.

Great Find: East Village Cheese

Yesterday, while killing time before the screening of "Playing" at the Tribeca Film Festival, I wandered into East Village Cheese on 3rd Ave, just south of 10th for the first time. I found to my delight a small, unpretentious store (they advertise their specials on butcher paper stuck to the storefront window, as seen here) stocked full of inexpensive, high quality cheeses, first and foremost, but also olives, baguettes, imported cookies, drinks, crackers. Just to give you an idea of how good their prices are, a pound of brie cost me $1.50, whereas it's $3.50 at Zeytuna, and $4.00 for a pound of mozerella (vs. $9+ at Whole Foods). I guess I've found a new favorite gourmet food store.