Yoko Ono

     Dressed all in black, except for the  red flower at the tip of her men’s fedora, Yoko Ono claimed the stage last night on the eve of her 77th birthday with a primal scream that seemed to contain all at once, grief, rage and intense, existential joy. Her journey that night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music began with a poignant series of home movies from her childhood in pre-war Japan and moved from there to  her provocative life as a performance artist in the early 1960’s — and then — to her epic romance with John Lennon.
      Her comrades that night included her son, Sean Lennon — as well as members of the We Are Plastic Ono Band, Justin  Bond,  The Scissor Sisters — as well as members of the original Plastic Ono Band.   That band was launched in 1969 with the hit single “Give Peace a Chance,” and that’s how Yoko ended the evening. W ith everyone singing about peace and love.
     “Love everyone,” she implored. ”Hug everyone, she smiled. “Give peace a chance.”
     

Gregg Breinberg

      Teacher Gregg Breinberg is  The Whiz Kid behind the Whiz Kids otherwise known as the PS22 Choir.  Made up of 4^th and 5^th graders from PS22 on Staten Island, they’ve  performed at Madison Square Garden, sung for movie stars and politicians and melted hearts  all over the world.
      But for their fearless leader –  what’s most important is helping students find the heart and soul of a song — and of themselves.
      In an interview with OpenEducation.Net, Breinberg told writer Thomas Hanson the key to their successful collaboration is having High Hopes, Great Expectations and Kindness. And it doesn’t hurt to be a Bit of A Clown yourself. ‘Kindness and patience are #1 with me,” Breinberg said in the interview. “I also think it’s important to be willing to try things, step outside your comfort zone, embarrass yourself, make mistakes — because you can never forget that’s basically what you’re asking from all of your students at some point or another.
     The kids have taught him as well, Breinberg said.
    As Joey, one of the kids in the choir told MSNBC:   ‘Mr. B, he’s a handful — he teaches us but we teach him — he’s not just a regular teacher — he is un-ordinary.’   Check out the  whole interview with the ‘Un-Ordinary’ Breinberg  and his Extraordinary work with the PS22 Choir here.     

William Blake

         Along with her husband and artistic collaborator Christo, she helped wrap the Pont Neuf  in Paris, the Reichstag in Berlin;  swathed the Biscayne Bay Islands near Miami in a luscious  Pink,  and in 2005, she filled  Central Park with 7,503 Saffron Colored Gates .  Those gates transformed a barren winter landscape into something amazing and alive and created a new relationship to a  familiar terrain. 
      French artist Jeanne-Claude – of the  vibrant red hair and even redder lips  – didn’t mind,  she once said, in an interview, that the monumental projects that she and Christo devoted themselves and that took years to complete and cost millions —  were just transient – ephemeral works.  What it was all about – she said – was creating joy.  Their works expressed “the quality of love and tenderness that we human beings have for what does not last.”
       Jeanne-Claude died this week, at the age of 74.

  Finding Magic

        Binoche, who has had a spectacular career, working with directors as varied as Kieslowski, Godard,  never thought about being a dancer. But at age 43, after answering her masseuse’s question: Do you Want to Dance? — she embarked on this project.
      But stretching boundaries is what she is all about.
      In an interview with writer  Faith Salie for  Double X,  she said she tries to stay away from labels. “I  try not to call myself [anything], because otherwise you get stuck into ideas.  Getting into other fields, worlds—it gives me certain freedom, and at the same time it shows me my limits, my pain.
       ”We have a tendency because of fear or of a lack of imagination to be out of tune with the truthful, magical side [of our bodies,” she told Salie.  And I have to say that if I didn’t get through that experience, I wouldn’t have discovered my energy—what the Chinese people call qi, you know the tai chi, the qi gong. I would say it is a sign of what the body has, which is the energy that you can’t see but you can feel.”
Finding Dreams
       Fearless  would be one word that would describe her.
       She posed naked for Playboy at the age of 43 and  while she doesn’t think she will keep dancing, she told Double X, she hs been transformed by having had the experience.  ” Dancing taught me to go for my dreams. And not to judge my dreams from outside, just to do it.”
    “In-I” will run through Sept. 26 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and is paired with a retrospective of her films at BAMCinematek: “Rendez-Vous With Juliette Binoche” through Sept. 30. Her paintings will be on display at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy at 972 5th Avenue through Oct. 9.

Salita Vs.Munoz, May 24, 2009 - Photo by Mary Ann Owen

     When you ask Dmitriy Salita how he is doing, he answers with a fervent: ”Fine, Thank God.”   It’s not just an expression of speech. For Boxing champion Dmitriy “Star of David” Salita is a believer. 
      His whole life is one of devotion — from the Judaism he embraced after he came to this country from the Ukraine to Boxing — the sweet science that has catapulted him to fame  in the United States.  Soft-spoken and gentlemanly, the 27-year-old Junior Welterweight — who is undefeated this year with a record of 30-0 — sees no contradiction in being a devout Jew and his obsession with a sport that turns him into a predator in the ring.  
       “Religion is integrated with everything you do,” Salita said during a recent telephone interview. “It’s a very false idea that it is only practiced in a synagogue. Religion is practiced in every field that you’re in. You take what you learn in the synagogue into the street.
      “It’s a step by step process. It helps develop and improve you as a human being.”
      It hasn’t been an easy path. Because of increasing anti-semitism, his family left Odessa when he was 9 and settled in Brooklyn. They struggled — with the culture — and lack of money. Someone gave him a boxing glove when he was 13 — and the rest — as they say is History.

         Finding a Dream

         But the seeds of that passion were planted earlier — in Odessa. He told an interviewer he remembers running through the snow  pretending to be Rocky. In Brooklyn, he discovered the Starrett City Boxing Club and Jimmy O’Pharrow,  the African-American coach who famously said: “Salita looks Russian, prays Jewish and fights black.”
      “I came to Starrett City and I met O’Pharrow when I was 13,” says Salita.  He didn’t immediately become a mentor. It happened step-by-step. Jimmy recognized my abilities and my hard work…  He saw something in me and developed it,” Salita says.  He moved through the ranks quickly, winning a Bronze medal at the Junior Olympics when he was 16 and a Golden Gloves title 3 years later.
      When he was a teenager, Salita’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Before she died, his mother asked O’Pharrow to look after him. O’Pharrow did that, watching over his protégé with a gruff tenderness.  Salita, who also trains with Francisco Guzman, remains extremely close with O’Pharrow.  ”Jimmy is like my grandfather,” says Salita.  “He will always be in my life. He’s someone that I love. He taught me a lot about life. Jimmy is a great person — someone I continue to learn from.”
      It was in his mother’s hospital room which she shared with a Chabad Lubavitch woman that Salita connected with his Judaism in a profound way.
        He goes to services every day now at the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn and refuses to fight on the Sabbath.  “The Chabad Lubavitch outlook — they are very orthodox. They know the value of every person — they don’t judge.”
 
        Still Hungry                
                          
      A Salita boxing match draws more than just the usual suspects.   Much of his fan base comes from the orthodox community. Kids dressed in yeshiva garb and grey bearded rabbis mingle with Brooklyn hip hoppers and boxing aficionados. When he is introduced, an Israeli flag comes out and Israeli music is played. His fans call him ‘Dima’ and ‘Kid Kosher’ and of course Dmitriy, ‘Star of David’ Salita.
     He’s the subject of a documentary “Orthodox Stance,” and an HBO special. But he’s still hungry. He still wants more. He wants, he says, a shot at the Title.  He wants to be World Champion.
    That opportunity may come soon — later this year in London — when he will fight Amir Khan, the current Junior Welterweight world champion. “I look forward to my title shot,” says Salita.  “That should be the most exciting night — as it has been my dream my whole life.”

      The King of Pop is Dead. The Artist Remains.

Dino Delos

       For his whole life, Dino Delos has had one big dream and he has carried it with him from his childhood in Greece, to the sometimes Mean, sometimes Magical streets of this city. He wants to be an actor.
       He has come close to the Big Time, meeting some Major Players, but so far, he hasn’t gone over that mountain yet himself.   He almost had a role  in “America, America,” Elia Kazan’s epic film about immigrants. “I met Kazan,” Delos said. “I was in his office. He noticed me. He wanted me for a part.”  That one didn’t happen. But still, he forged on, getting small background roles when he could.
         His calling card says he’s been a double for Charles Bronson and that he’s a Saddam Hussein Look-a-Like.   He played a scary guy in “American Gangster” with Denzel Washington and another criminal type in “The Taking of Pelham, One, Two, Three,” which opens this week.  He often plays vigilantes — he’s got that kind of face — but a gentleness and generosity also shine through.
         In “The Interpreter,” with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, he played an Iraqi diplomat. “It was the first movie the U.N. ever allowed to be filmed on location,” he said proudly.  He’s also played a Greek gangster, a Cab Driver,  and a Soccer Coach.   While the Big One has eluded him up until now, he’s not discouraged. He says he has never lost hope.
           His hero, he says, is Zorba the Greek, the big, life-loving character from the Nikos Kazantzakis novel that was made into a film in 1964 with Anthony Quinn.  For as Zorba says in the movie: ”Me, I got up and danced. They said ‘Zorba is Mad.’ But it was the dancing – only the dancing that stopped the pain.”
        Dino Delos is a believer.
        ”You’ve got to fight for your dreams, he says. That’s all you’ve got.”