My mother 71 and 5 days later ...

You never know who you might run into when you least expect it ...

As you can see, mother is still on a tear in NYC. Her visit to 'the center of the universe' is drawing to a close and she will soon return to her 15 year post at Sydney's premier stufforama to the stars, Peter's of Kensington. Not only is she the oldest staff member there, she knows how to sell Alessi accoutrements like a deeeeemaaaan ...



 MOMIX: Herbal tonic for eyes!

Last night we scored $19 frontish-row tickets to the most amazing, trippy, surreal, illusionist dance performance I've seen since Philippe Genty - MOMIX's 'Botanica' at the Joyce Theater. OK, I saw PG a looooong time ago. Perhaps this stuff is now mainstream ...

"It's like Circ du Soleil before the latter went all commercial," said mother. Google MOMIX and you'll see it's commandeered by a truly Dali-esque character-choreographer, Moses Pendleton.

This show opened with a stunning multimedia closeup of a rose that recedes slowly into deep space. Then this ghostly 30' (40?) tall plant costume wafts on stage, opening and closing like a giant jellyfish on a stalk. Three maidens in white virginal dresses rise from the billowing sheeted floor to frolic with its fuzzy tentacles.

Then there's an eye-popping blackout scene where only the bobbing and twisting lace-covered arms and shins of dances are illuminated in glowing green light, resembling caffeinated glowworms going troppo in a dark cave.

A gal did this amazing spinning thing with a hoop of floor-length beaded strands on her head. Mum dryly remarked "now if we tried that spinning beaded lampshade trick we'd end up with it wrapped around our necks." The music for this act, Moola Mantra by Dev Premal, made me immediately go out and buy the CD.

Her favorite was the gal who did a conceptually simple but stunning piece where she writhed in a skincolored bodysuit on a tinted, tilted mirror surface - a 'hall of mirrors' idea pushed to the max.

A jaw dropper was this enormous, rubbery and anatomically-correct Triceratops skeleton ridden slo-mo-rodeo style by a semi-naked goddess, while in the background a bunch of rock-like creatures engulfed and cavorted with naked bodies. The museum of Natural History oughta get this act into their lobby to jazz up their dinosaur bones exhibit ... in short, A MUST SEE. Our cheapseats were quite acceptable, as some of the scenes best viewed from further back appeared on video simulcast on a giant screen at the back.

You weren't supposed to take shots so the above are borrowed from Guardian photographer Tim A Clary, more of his shots at http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/gallery/2009/may/15/momix-botanica

Mum meets Trends Guru Faith Popcorn

I applied for a gig with Faith Popcorn's company BrainReserve, www.faithpopcorn.com and got a fair way along in the process, meeting both the guru herself and renowned marketing writer Ira Matathia.  At the 3rd interview, my mother tagged along. Since Faith has 2 adopted daughters from China, I thought she'd be fascinated to see some Chino-Aussie faces in her office. She chided both of us for never learning to speak our ethnic tongue. I say, it's a bit hard when you grow up tossing shrimp on the barbie, mate!

Even more fun, Faith's HR person Michele hails from Cuba, so I loaned her my book which she says she read to her mother.

Mother meets Faith Popcorn, consumer trends guru.

Mum also popped into the Museum of Sex (see the cool video I shot playing in the window) and watched humans, Walt Disney characters and Bonobo monkeys doing it before concluding that she'd 'seen it all before'. She did buy a pair of the $3.99 back massagers which are probably the most useful thing in the gift shop - certainly moreso than that cone-shaped pointy thing we were afraid to ask about.


We stopped by Rickshaw dumpling, the only tweet I follow - not that I've ever managed to be in the same place as their truck, but for some reason I just like to know where they're dispensing their incomparable Peking Duck dumplings.

We had grand plans to go to Coney Island and tour the lower east side today, but only made it as far as the 6th Avenue street fair and then, I am ashamed to say, yet another long perusal of Filene's Basement and TJ Maxx. We are, after all, women, first and foremost.

A bit later: Well, according to my mother, the highlight was a visit to the cavernous high fashion discount store, Century21 in Bayside, Brooklyn. NOT the insanely popular downtown Manhattan location, which is always sheer bedlam and picked over like a carcass by armed and dangerous fashionistas. The Brooklyn store is massive, with everything nicely organized and plenty of browsing space. Like I said, women ...

Greenscreens 

A proud moment for my mother was the screening of one of my little flicks at the Film Society of Lincoln Center GreenScreens event. Read about it at that link.  Imagine that, coming to NY to see her daughter on stage off off off off Broadway ...

Mother sports my employer's slogan and my Pocket Rocket Pro Petite