Welcome to my world or why is a senior citizen blogging?

the narcissist in me would respond 'why not' or 'because i can', someone could also say because i have too much time on my hands ( so not true!). the truth is i am an unapologetic arts slut (although a friend said 'ho was more like it), TDF is one of my best friends and even though i have lived in the Big Apple since high school, i still love it and wish everyone could share my enthusiasm and joy of what this city has to offer. In the interest of full disclosure I am totally unschooled in the art of criticism (theater, art, or cinema) but after all these years i know what i like and don't like and am not afraid of stating my opinion. One of the joys of getting old is that you can say (and do) what you like and not care about anybody's reaction because most people don't pay attention to you anyway!

I have my biases and there will be shows/people I never write about - life is too short and there are too many wonderful things going on to spend (ie waste) my time going to see things I'm not interested in just because they are the next hot thing, or profound or whatever. I also am curmudgeonly enough to firmly believe in not rewarding bad behavior with more press. I will not give people who behave abominably a pass just because they are artistes - you're still a part of the human family, so behave accordingly or be an adult and accept the consequences (God, I sound like an old school marm).

My criteria for the theater is either I'm interested in the story being told or I'm a fan of someone in the cast. Most of my theater going is off-Broadway because with very few exceptions what's on Broadway is geared toward the lowest denominator of creativity and the prices they charge are criminal. Don't even get me started on the current trend of 'movie stars' cluttering the boards to earn some artistic credibility and then having the TONY committee rewards them with nominations - its a travesty!

This is not the most auspicious time to start an arts blog because going into summer there is not a whole lot happening BUT, in NYC there is always something going on! So, to start, a sampling of what this blog will be about here's this weekend's activities:

FRIDAY - thanks to the generosity of the Bloomberg Corporation, the Neue Gallerie on 86th Street, a fabulous, if somewhat self-important museum specializing in German and Austrian art, is free on the first Friday of each month (http://www.neuegallerie.org/) . Their current exhibit is the first ever retrospective in the US of the quintessential Weimar era painter Otto Dix. His work will not be every one's cup of tea. Much of it is quite disturbing, particularly woodcuts based on his war experiences and quite a bit of it borders on pornographic, but then quite frankly would you expect anything less from that era? While there make sure you visit ' Adele' on the second floor that Ron Lauder paid $135M when she came on the market after a protracted legal battle between the Austrian government and the original owners. And of course, no visit to Neue Gallerie is compete without a visit to the Cafe Sabarsky for coffee and pastries. Channeling any multitude of Viennese coffee houses, with replicas of Hans Hoffman furniture and textiles, it as an oasis of old world gemuetlichkeit.

When the museum closed, there was a mad dash downtown to the Bowery Electric, one of the numerous new small venues that have opened in recent years on the LES to catch of show of Joe McGinty and Ward White. I can do a whole blog on impresario Joe McGinty and his project The Losers Lounge (http://www.loserslounge.com/) but tor this evening it was just Joe and Ward White backed by a string quartet and percussion performing their CD "McGinty and White Sing from the McGinty-White Songbook" in its entirety (http://www.mcgintyandwhite.com/). The jury is still out on whether I like the CD or not, many of the tunes sound similar and the depressing or angry lyrics are wrapped in lush string arrangements. This is the second time I've seen the show, and I still couldn't bring myself to buy the CD. It may have to germinate some more.

Saturday night it was off to Kenny's Castaway (talk about a blast from the past) on Bleeker Street in the West Village to see Randy Burns (http://www.randyburns.net/) a friend from 40+ years back play a folk set at this venerable West Village landmark. After being away from the business for many years, Randy is working to revive his career one coffee house/folk festival at a time. Monday night he'll be part of the incredible line-up at the 50th anniversary reunion of Gerde's Folk City - 130 West 3rd Street - 7PM/ (www.folkcityatfifity.blogspot.com) - more to come on that.

Sunday will round out the weekend with a gallery performance in Williamsburg. Randall Harris, owner of Figureworks (http://www.figureworks.com/) will be presenting OperaonTap at the closing party of his 10th anniversary gallery show. There will be more on this fun gallery specializing in the human form as Randall is already mounting his final show of the season which will open next Friday the 11th!

So that's the weekend, since this is my first attempt at this stuff I'll stop. In the future I'll post upcoming events that I think are of interest before they happen so others can take advantage of this incredible playground!