Archive for December, 2009

“The civility of which money will purchase, is
Rarely extended to those who have none”
Charles Dickens

     Homeless waifs, overflowing poor houses, people living on the street – the London that Charles Dickens chronicled in his 19^th century novels doesn’t sound all that different from the New York City of 2009.  With  a record number of families in homeless shelters, unemployment at all time highs and a recession that doesn’t want to let go – there are a lot of people struggling.  And for those in need — it may get even harder.
       A Draconian law the city is intent on implementing would require those living in shelters to pay rent  — nearly half of any income they manage to scrounge up – all while  trying to find a permanent place to live – and work that pays a liveable wage – a daunting prospect in even the best of times.
      There are now nearly 40,000 people using New York’s homeless shelters — 13,000 of them are children, according to the Coalition for the Homeless  — and that number keeps growing.
        ” Asking the poorest and most desperate New Yorkers to pay money they cannot spare is cruel and petty, ” said Piper Hoffman, Director of Advocacy at the Partnership for the Homeless.  ” Every human being has a right to a roof over their heads.”
    There are two bills pending that would make it illegal for shelters to charge rent — but they seem to be currently stalled in the Rules Committee of the State Assembly (Bill A8353-D) and another in the State Senate (S5605-A).
     Linda Contes and her husband Manuel told  The Indypendent  they were asked to pay $1,475 last May to live in a homeless shelter even though Contes was unemployed and Manuel was working part-time. Although the policy was suspended 3 weeks later, the City’s Dept. of Homeless Services says it plans to implement the rule.
       Concerned citizens should write to their State representative asking them to co-sponsor this legislation — and if they are on the relevant committee, to work to send the bill to the floor for a full vote.     The Coalition for the Homeless also has a form letter to write to Governor Paterson — just go to the site and hit  the link that says Action.
      It’s Christmas –  But there’s still No Room at the Inn…..

     The members of the Senate Finance Committee are:

Chair: Sen. Carl Kruger
Sen. Eric Adams
Sen. Neil D. Breslin
Sen. John A. DeFrancisco
Sen. Ruben Diaz
Sen. Martin Malavé Dilan
Sen. Thomas K. Duane
Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr., Majority Leader
Sen. Hugh T. Farley
Sen. Kemp Hannon
Sen. Owen H. Johnson
Sen. Jeffrey D. Klein
Sen. Liz Krueger
Sen. William J. Larkin Jr.
Sen. Kenneth P. LaValle
Sen. Vincent L. Leibell
Sen. Carl L Marcellino
Sen. George D. Maziarz
Sen. Velmanette Montgomery
Sen. Michael F. Nozzolio
Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer
Sen. Frank Padavan
Sen. Kevin S. Parker
Sen. Bill Perkins
Sen. Stephen M. Saland
Sen. John L. Sampson
Sen. James L. Seward
Sen. William T. Stachowski
Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky
Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Sen. Antoine M Thompson
Sen. David J. Valesky
Sen. Dale M. Volker

The members of the Assembly Rules Committee are:
Sheldon Silver
Jeffrion L. Aubry
Daniel J. Burling
Ron Canestrari
Ann-Margaret Carrozza
Vivian E. Cook
Clifford W. Crouch
Herman D. Farrell, Jr.
David F. Gantt
Deborah J. Glick
Richard N. Gottfried
Stephen Hawley
Jim Hayes
Earlene Hooper
Rhoda Jacobs
Brian M. Kolb
Joseph R. Lentol
Vito J. Lopez
Joel M. Miller
Joseph D. Morelle
Catherine Nolan
Bob Oaks
Felix Ortiz
J. Gary Pretlow
Peter M. Rivera
Dede Scozzafava
Mike Spano
Robert K. Sweeney
Helene E. Weinstein

Liv Ullman

      A rumpled bed, brightly lit and placed stage right, seems to dominate the stage in Liv Ullman’s haunting production of  ‘Streetcar Named Desire,’ now playing at Brooklyn Academy of Music .  It’s the place  where  the climatic confrontation between Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski takes place, and where at night — as Stella says — ‘things happen between a man and a woman that make everything else seem unimportant.’   Desire — for sex and Desire  for life — infuse this production that stars Cate Blanchett, in a heartrending performance as Blanche.
    “I think we need Tennessee Williams now more than ever,” Ullman said during a recent interview at the Harvey Theatre, where the play will run until Dec, 20. “In a twitter world – we need his poetry.”
      “The way I see it,” Ullman wrote in the accompanying program. “Tennessee Williams wished to pull us out of our own angry darkness, by allowing us to see, to recognize the hurt and vulnerability and the fear disguised as violence or rudeness or carelessness or what may look like madness.”
     At the end of the play, Blanche moves off to stage right, bathed in light.
    Ullman said she may not be doomed – but has embraced her own solitude, accepted the untenability of her situation… “Maybe now she will be alone., Ullman said.  “Sometimes being alone is what a person may need.”

Orson Welles, 1937

    In 1937, a mad  genius stood poised, ready to unleash his vision on the world. The Crazy Genius was Orson Welles — and his production of  Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’  at his newly created Mercury Theatre in New York City would bring him infamy and opportunity.  Filmmaker Richard Linklater brings the period — and the genius  to life in his new film ‘‘Me and Orson Welles.’
    Based on the coming -of -age novel by Robert Kaplow,  Linklater  shows us all the fun, craziness, treachery and heartbreak that came under the rubric: A Life in the Theatre  — especially if it involved the Boy Wonder who was Orson Welles in 1937.
      We get the backstage intrigue, the romances and Welles as a kind of sometimes benign, sometimes cruel dictator/director. He wanted results and adoration — didn’t hesitate to cut anyone who didn’t give him enough of either.  British actor Christian McCay, who stars as Welles, nails the director’s brilliance — as well as his ability to manipulate and seduce.
       Zac Efron is touchingly vulnerable as Richard Samuels,  the high school kid who stumbles on a rehearsal at the Mercury and gets a small part in the production.  At the end, after Samuels has tasted some success, some betrayal, and some joy, he tells his friend, Gretta, who has dreams of being a writer: “It feels like we have everything before us…..” The camera pulls back in a gesture of joy and acknowledgement.   That everything would eventually come to mean World War  II — and for Welles — more masterpieces, fame, financial ruin — and a haunting memory of a sled called Rosebud.  But in that moment, for those characters — the world was alive  — with possibility and with hope.