NEW YORK

Jake’s Hot in the Fashion District

Breaking into the fashion industry is no easy task, but Jake Labarbera makes it seem effortless.

This newly 21 year old is a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, studying merchandising and jewelry design. He has an interest in photography, and most of all sharing his style with everyone. Jake blogs his personal style, showing the world how to make an outfit ‘pop’ in this competitive world of fashion.

Recently on his blog, www.jakeshotonfashion.com, silver was featured as the up and coming color to incorporate into an outfit. Tested by Jake himself in the fashion district of Manhattan, silver is definitely the way to go. Silver is subtle yet shiny, so your outfit stands out without being overwhelmed by it. This is perfect for those hesitant to go ahead with neon pieces. The easiest way to try silver for an everyday outfit is in jewelry, shoes, or belts- all of which can be found for low prices.

Here is a leather and silver bullet styled bracelet that Jake featured. This piece can be matched with any outfit, and can give theperfect New York rocker tone to an otherwise bland outfit. Again, not an overwhelming piece, but just enough to add the same sparkle as an average bracelet- just with a heck of a lot more attitude.

His other favorite pop of silver is his pair of silver high top sneakers. He blogged this statement about these gleaming kicks: “I’m obsessed with my silver hightop sneakers. And I would totally wear them everyday if I could.” And Jake’s recommendation to everyone is to “pull out your old pieces, dust them off, and put them to good use.” This applies to anything- silver or not- because hey, you never know what will be the next big hit in fashion.

Jake is not only a blogging trendsetter, but he is currently an intern for couture designer, Ralph Rucci, as well as a model. He has been involved in modeling for a few years now, and has quite an array of experience. A few years back Jake modeled for prints for a small boutique in Rhinebeck. Then, he bust onto the Runway in 2013 New York Fashion Week for designer Marlin George. And for 2014, Seduka by Joe Dahan will be featuring Jake in a lookbook and their soon to launch blog.

Young, handsome, and determined, Jake is set to succeed in everything he does. He is still a fresh face in modeling, but a great reputation is certainly building. And let’s not forget he’s a student of jewelry design- we must keep our eyes out for his collections!

Art & Commerce: the Street Art of Jilly Ballistic

by Jordan Mattos

Jilly and bunny buddy. — photo by Roberto Vincitore

Socially oriented themes are vital in keeping today’s art community from obsolescence. Desensitized by post-modern theory, many of today’s artists subscribe to the idea that personal narratives are as equally worthy as history’s. Often, the individual opinions, quirks and tastes of the artist trump objective social matters and form the impulse and focus of the work. As art schools and the needs of the marketplace teach the same, the common issues and conditions faced by large sections of the population go untouched as worthy subject matter in the artistic arena. This is a 21^st century concern.

Artists such as Caravaggio, who worked in service of the Church at first, worked to interpret daily life. His practice of picking up street urchins and prostitutes and using them to create portraits of religious figures offered an edgy commentary on hypocrisy in the religious community. His portraits, rendered in murky chiaroscuro, asked us about the validity of the Church’s claims to moral authority. Without question, we need more artists that consciously choose to interpret and comment on their surroundings and the political goings-on of everyday life.

The Brooklyn-based artist known as Jilly Ballistic chooses to use the advertising seen in New York City as canvas. Ballistic augments subway adverts and movie posters with unique, one-off photo cutouts that comment and question the ad’s initial purpose. By displacing the reason behind the production of a given piece of advertising, she creates her own intent – to question the ad and engage in dialogue with the potential consumer.

A poster for a reality TV show about wealthy Southerners inserts black and white cutouts of Confederate soldiers next to the modern-day socialites; a glass-enclosed subway map is taped up with a fictional police advisory: “if it ain’t broke, break it”; a Sports Illustrated ad featuring an attractive model in bikini is amplified with the sticker “Beauty has been modified from its original version.”

One of my favorite subvertisements is Ballistic’s Would you like to forget this movie ever existed? The question is posed in a pop-up icon on the movie poster for Vampire Academy. You don’t have to dislike the movie to connect with the work. There is an ongoing critique of warfare that runs through the majority of Jilly’s interventions. Cutout soldiers and gas masks are key images that keep popping up in her work. If you catch either of these, you know it’s a Jilly Bomb.

I was able to ask Jilly several questions about her work.

Where were you born?

Born and raised in New York City.

How has NYC influenced your art?

Every piece I put up is inspired by the City, from its architecture to the ads in the subway. They are all site-specific and have a relationship with the environment, a purpose.

What recent changes in the city have affected your creative process?

My process hasn’t been affected in any negative way. Despite the huge influx of cameras and the unjustified number of stop-and-frisks, the work still gets up. You develop a strategy for things like this and adapt. For example, you alter what paste you carry and what containers; can the print go up all in one large piece or in sections? Actually, the number of obstacles makes the process more challenging and even fun to work around.

Ballistic's swimsuit odyssey. — Ballistic’s swimsuit odyssey.

Many artists shy away from being political in their work for fear of being “on the nose” or appearing sincere. What are your thoughts on the matter?

You have a right to express or not express your thoughts on any topic. For myself, I’ll approach a political issue or respond to something in our pop culture if the time and location is right. Like I said, all my pieces are inspired by/site-specific, so if the City offers me an opportunity I take it and try to say something meaningful, either in a subtle way or with humor.

By playing with advertising, your pieces subvert the commercial. What is your overall relationship with commerce in NYC?

You can’t escape capitalism in New York. Even if you’re not actively purchasing anything, you’re exposed to the advertisements–they’re next to you in the train car, they’re on your building. We’re all in a relationship with commerce. And I use that as a common denominator; I attempt to say what the public is thinking about a product, be it a new film or Apple product.

What is a less obvious risk of creating street art?

With all the effort you put into a piece, there’s a chance the public puts little effort into understanding it.

The ‘would you like to forget such a film existed?’ piece plays with the public’s expectations of interactivity and being positioned as tastemakers. On one level it critiques media of questionable value (a cheesy, senseless teen movie) while using interactivity to offer the viewer the option to disregard content. What are your feelings on ‘tastemaker culture’ such as the foodie movement and its relationship to city life? Where do you position your art in the consumer/tastemaker culture?

Technology has changed the way we interact with the world around us, specifically allowing us the ability to talk back instantly with submitting comments, “liking,” or “disregarding.” It’s made each of us individual critics, or a “tastemaker” as you put it. This is another one of those common denominators I work with; most of us recognize alerts or error messages because they’re in our lives everyday. It has become a form of communication and a medium artists can use.

Jilly's Southern Comfort, modified. — Jilly’s Southern Comfort, modified.

Your pieces use existing advertising and material as jumping off points. Do you have a “dream ad” or physical space that you’d love to Jilly-bomb?

One of the best parts of doing ad or site interventions is that moment when you’re commuting as you usually do, and the train passes an ad/space you know you have to hit. It’s a gut feeling, an instinct. So I don’t usually sit and dream about spaces, I let the world surprise me.

What is your opinion on a hacking group such as Wikileaks? To you, what is the relationship between art and hacking?

When mainstream media and journalists no longer take risks to uncover what’s truly happening, we have to depend on ourselves. There’s a creative way to do this-like with cinema, graffiti, or visual arts for example-or direct reporting, like revealing official documents.

Social and historical icons figure largely in your pieces. What else do you draw your inspiration from? What does the gas mask mean to you?

2014 marks the hundredth anniversary of chemical warfare and the gas mask has/is currently undergoing an evolution. War is becoming more accurate and the products needed for war are becoming more accessible, to anyone – citizen, soldier, or government. This work is a reminder of such an uncomfortable reality. And this reality isn’t an inspiration, per se, but something I feel needs to be revealed.

Would you like to have forgotten this ad? I would've. — Would you like to have forgotten this ad? I would’ve.

You can see Jilly’s work at http://jillyballistic.tumblr.com/ Her pieces are now featured in Outdoor Gallery, a standout book by Yoav Litvin, collecting pieces from several street artists. Outdoor Gallery is available at the MoMA, Guggenheim, Strand Bookstore and Zakka (BK) next week.

3D Printing: Enter the Void

by Jordan Mattos

As a film student in college, I often viewed my production-oriented classmates as tech-heads and gadget hounds. Tied up by electrical wires, I came up with sportive nicknames for them: the camera buff, the visual FX junkie, the techno-fetishist. To them, content and story were means to an end; it was the rush of copulating with metal that really seemed to agitate their senses.

I preferred theory to being on set. I never managed to obtain that tactile high; the current of electricity that shot through their veins whenever they plugged in a wire or pulled a strip of celluloid through a Steenbeck. With no less fervor, I enjoyed discussing the social implications of the latest film with my friends in the cinema studies department, who eschewed “making stuff” for the loftiness of deconstruction. The general gist was that detachment from the creative process – not sticking your hands in the primordial goo – offered you true objectivity.

The 3D Printshow, an annual four-day consumer-friendly event at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Pavilion, aims to satisfy the urges and convictions of both doers and deconstructionists. Three floors exhibited the various uses of plastic printing machines that ranged from the ornamental (3D printed jewelry) to the potentially life changing (bionic ears), and showed the advantages of the theoretical and the hands-on, with varying degrees of success.

Three-dimensional printing stands in relation, in theory and in practice, to the Maker movement, which has now become a part of international lexicon. Maker Faire, Make Magazine‘s festival, secured a place in the DIY parthenon back in 2006 with the first event in San Francisco. This 3D Printshow in particular was created in the UK by an intrepid Brit. The event has toured Paris and London. Even my boss, a self-identifying Neo Luddite in his 70s, uses the term in casual conversation.

Looking at the event as a whole, there is a valid tendency among certain circles to praise the potential of the radical elements and dispense with the more fanciful as the whimsy of business-minded Silicon Valley types with a fetish for fun fur. A recent article in The New Yorker pointedly called out the money crowd for overshadowing the innovators and placed Maker culture in a refreshing economic and social context. The event I attended offered an Elite Business Conference to understand how 3D printing could help corporations, as well as an Investor Session with plenty of opportunities to flash witty business card designs. But it also offered a live runway show of fashion designs that highlighted the conceptual over the commercial, green thumb student thesis projects, and a Medical and Planet Earth section, which focused on teams that use the printing process for ecological and medical innovation.

Permeating the show is a palpable respect for play. One exhibitor, Extreme Flyers, created a tiny remote-controlled helicopter with a built-in HD camera. I watched it glide through the air and weightlessly alight in the palm of my hand. As it hovered above the crowd I wondered what it would be like to make a film shot exclusively by a toy helicopter. For a moment, I found myself joining the crowd, jointly craning my neck in thrall of the beautiful plastic poetically trapped in mid-air.

In this instance, the event successfully married the techie with the conceptual, the politically and socially minded with the thrill of the hands-on. Makers “make” just for the fun of it, but seem all the better for it. It’s in the exciting stages of experimentation, error, and play that their ideas seemed best suited for refinement and further developments in advocacy. Perhaps that’s something we can all stand to benefit from – Neo Luddites and gadget hounds alike.

Patterned Tights To Spice Up Classic New York Style

by Danielle Flocco

Classic New York style is black from head to toe, and in this cold weather black boots, pants, and a jacket definitely seem like a warm choice. And sadly, this time of year our favorite little black dress often gets buried away in the back of the closet, but there’s no reason for that anymore.

Patterned tights are perfect to personalize the classic New York style and give our LBD some attention in the winter months. Stores everywhere sell huge varieties of patterned tights, usually in the $10 to $20 range- which is a small price to pay for an easy and versatile accessory. Depending on your personal preference you can add any edge to your outfit from wild party to simply unique.

Cheetah print, or any asymmetrical print, tights give off a party-ready look, but are appropriate for any time of day. For the office, the printed tights with boots and a simple skirt or dress will show off your personality that can’t always be seen under that 9- 5 suit. Classy, yet personalized, your work wear will be immediately upgraded. For a night out in the winter, when you’re dying to wear your go-to LBD but don’t want to freeze, printed tights will look sexy. Sometimes a little coverage on the legs is all we need to keep warm, so use those opportunities to find your perfect print. Following the classic New York style, an asymmetrical print- in black, of course- will be subtle enough to maintain a classy appearance, but just different enough to set you apart from the crowd. And in this big city, why not stand out a bit.

Many of us wear the same, or painfully similar, outfit more days than we’d like to admit (I plead guilty!). And odds are, if you don’t like to switch up outfits very much, a crazy print won’t be your first choice. Thankfully, patterned tights also come in a wide variety of simple, symmetric patterns for us. Minimalist accents to an outfit instantly boost chicness, both in the workplace and out in the world. Not to mention that minimalist style is highly regarded in modern fashion. Tights with squares, stripes, or dots add just enough of a personalized edge to a simple outfit to let your personality shine through while looking classy. Again, the subtle accent in an all- black outfit will be enough to separate you from the rest of New Yorkers.

Modern fashion is all about adding a personal elements to an outfit, and patterned tights are an easy and inexpensive way to do so. Using subtly accessories like tights instead of chunky jewelry or other large pieces are a much more modern way to draw attention to an outfit. Patterned tights are especially perfect in our city where we are all about simple and classy style in all- black.

Fashion and style aside, patterned tights can also be extremely flattering. Plain black tights will not shorten your legs, but they won’t lengthen them either- and being just barely 5 feet tall, I always try to look a bit taller. Patterned tights with details that are longer than they are wide will have a slimming effect on your legs, and in turn add a few inches. This is really great considering that occasionally we can look a bit short when wearing a skirt or dress with knee high boots. Patterned tights with details that are wider than long will not have the same effect. They will give your legs a bit wider of an appearance, and possibly make you look a bit shorter. However, if you are tall enough that you can spare a few inches, these tights will look great and not take away from your appearance at all. Depending upon what your pattern preference is and the look you are trying to achieve, either pattern type can be used to your advantage.

Whether you’re interested in patterned tights for fashion purposes, to look better, or both, they’re a necessity for the rest of the winter and the upcoming spring. And again, tights are not expensive and what is better than looking great on a small budget.

An “Interactive” Conversation with the “Goldstar” Visionaries Behind TEDxBroadway

by Ryan Leeds

Few people would associate the biological term “ecosystem” with the theater community–unless, of course, one taps into the passionately innovative minds of on-line media gurus Jim McCarthy, CEO of the popular ticket site, Goldstar (https://www.goldstar.com) and Damian Bazadona, founder and CEO of digital marketing advertising agency Situation Interactive Media (http://www.situationinteractive.com.) The two of them, along with Broadway producer Ken Davenport (http://www.davenporttheatrical.com) are joining forces for the third annual TEDxBroadway Conference, which will be held on Monday February 24th, 2014 at New World Stages.

I sat down with McCarthy and Bazadona to discuss how the conference is taking form, the importance of technology within the live entertainment community, and what we can expect from an event that aims to make Broadway brighter, better, and more relevant.

RL: This is the 3^rd annual TEDxBroadway Conference. Tell me a bit about the origin.

JM: For a couple of years, there were unaffiliated loose conversations over dinner and drinks with Damian and Ken where we would discuss the need to make sure that the Broadway ecosystem was having conversations that were bigger picture conversations. And this was just by our mutual interest in that sort of thing. At some point, we developed a vague idea that we might do one of these ourselves. I had been involved in the TEDx program early in its inception and after being around that, I decided to do something within that format. The three of us talked and agreed that this was consistent with what we thought the conference should be: bigger picture, longer term, less nuts and bolts and more aspirational. TEDx provided us with some framework for how to do it. So TED gave us a license for TEDx Broadway and we set a date and started working for it. This gives us a chance to think big and think broad and I think we can have a good time with that.

RL: How will this year be different in terms of scope and content? Can you tell me about some of the speakers?

JM: In some ways the same and in others, quite different. The basic structure is quite similar in that we’ll have three sessions again. There are no panelists but just a single presenter for each topic.

DB: The reason I got involved in this from the beginning is because we’ve nailed down the question: “What is the best Broadway can be?” One of things that drove me to get involved with this conference with Jim and Ken is that we all look at the aspirational side of where the industry could go. Too many conferences focus on a) too many “nuts and bolts” and b) less about the longer term- So when you structure the question “What is the best broadway can be”, it makes each speaker look at it in that framework. The key difference this year is that we’ve become much better at the structure. Since this is our 3^rd year, we’ve just become sizeably better and the speakers have a better understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish. The speakers we have lined up are just excited to involved in the process. All of them come to the stage with a certain level of passion and they have a context from speakers over the last two years. If you look at our sponsors which include Google, Jujamcyn Theaters, and Broadway.com, you realize that everyone wants to get involved in this. I mean, who doesn’t want to answer the question “What is the best Broadway can be?”

JM: Plus, we have people who may not be household names, but they’re just gonna go up there and knock people out. I try to encourage the speakers to discuss what people are not likely to hear from them. Having worked with Robert Lopez on his talk, I know that what he’ll talk about will be interesting to the audience, but there are other people in the line-up who are less familiar names, but who I think will be pretty dazzling. Even people outside the Broadway ecosystem will contribute. This year we have Annisa Ramirez, who is a tremendous science educator and one the best people in the world to break down science for the layperson. She’s going to discuss the science that we’re going to live with over the next five to ten years and the emerging aspects of science that are going to impact our daily lives. Certainly Ramirez is prolific in her field, but not as well known among the Broadway community, so we’re really happy to have her on board as well. We also have the amazing singer and actor Lea Delaria, who is now recognized for the series “Orange Is the New Black”.

RL: Can you each give me a brief elevator pitch on the contributions your companies are making to the Broadway community?

JM: Goldstar is basically a seller of tickets to all kinds of live entertainment. We call ourselves “the world’s largest ticket booth.” We have approx.. 5 million registered members, we’re in 30 of the biggest markets in the U.S. and we sell tickets on behalf of any kind of live entertainment and arts you can imagine. Our goal is to connect people who want to go out more to the venues who would love to have them. We become the starting point for matching the two, they buy the tickets from us, and we take very good care of them. NY is our second largest market after LA (where we are based) and the health of Broadway, both here and on the road is extremely important to us. When Broadway is healthy, we benefit. We talk about the Broadway “ecosystem”, which is not just the theater but the tourists ,restaurants, hotels, academic institutions, and residents. One of the beliefs we all share is that this ecosystem rises and falls together, so we want to help make it healthier now and into the future.

DB: Situation Interactive media operates under the basic principle that the world is a better place when people are doing things rather than having things. Therefore, we power the brands that do. We started in arts and culture and worked on over 100 Broadway productions since 2000 and now we have expanded by working with Brooklyn Academy of Music, Metropolitan Opera, the Super Bowl, One World Trade Center, Madison Square Garden and other experiential outlets. Our roots started in Broadway but have expanded. I’m in this primarily because I hope to be here for many years and Broadway is a tremendous part of our business and is where my roots are from.

JM: I think Damian is being a bit modest because Situation Interactive was really the on-ramp for Broadway in terms of internet marketing. Prior to him, it wasn’t even a given that you should be marketing on the internet.

DB: (Humbly) Well, thank you. I think it was just a matter of being at the right place at the right time, but I’ll take it!

RL: How have Broadway marketing strategies changed from the days of relying solely on print to the newer techniques of digital advertising and is one more important than the other?

DB: Digital marketing is the best trend that has happened to Broadway and live events because they benefit from digital a lot more than other folks and industries. Primarily, it is all about content. The product we offer is literally our market. A majority of my brands are in the story telling business and they sell stories that people get to connect with. Digital is the greatest way to connect people. I wouldn’t say that there is no need for traditional media because it all fits into the puzzle, but the new channel into the mix is obviously all of the digital pieces. You can connect all the people in the world this way.

JM: If you only had traditional means of marketing the product, those means are slow, static, and expensive. It takes a long time to launch them, you can’t change them, and they cost a lot of money, so you had better get it right on the first try. The thing about digital is that we have a product (those of us in the live entertainment business) that is like bread. So the notion of slow, static, and expensive are the last things you want for a product that is here today gone tomorrow.

DB: Another thing is that great ideas come from everywhere. I know everyone says that but in a world where content is becoming king, we work differently. Now you can ask the cast for ideas of marketing the show, which wasn’t previously thought of in the theater. Now they say, “We want to promote the show like this” and we respond with, “Great! Here’s a channel by which we can do that.” It’s the most fun time to be in the industry on the marketing side since I’ve been doing this.

RL: With regards to the productions themselves how has technology changed the face of theater? What trends are currently implemented and is there anything new that theater goers can expect ?

JM: We actually have two speakers talking on that topic this year.

DB: It depends on how you’re defining it. We think of Broadway as the place, not just the industry so the growth I’ve seen over the past 5 years is in alternative models. The business models which are starting to pop up is that live theater and the experiential piece are playing out in all different ways. I feel like you’re going to see more shows along the lines of Sleep No More and Fuerza Bruta. From a pure technology perspective, I’m working on a show right now that is primarily all projections. So we’re starting to get to a place where projections are working themselves into productions, which changes the whole game for scenic design and set design-not necessarily as replacements but as enhancements. The business side really is going to dictate some of the creative decisions over time. What are the cost structures to put these shows on? Because they are going up and to make money on Broadway is not easy, so you must have cost controls put in. Where does theater live beyond the four walls?

JM: Exactly. And that is another area we’ll hit in this incarnation of TEDxBroadway. How do you take the thing that is happening in the theater and leverage it elsewhere?

DB: Right. Right now, that conversation is being led by marketers and it needs to be led by creatives since creatives can take the content and apply it specifically to each platform. That is why places like National Theater (who was at TEDx last year) are fantastic because they create for the platform. When they shot Curious Incident of the Dog in Nightime , they shot one version for National Theater Live, so when you watched it in the movie theater, it looks like it was shot exclusively for the movie screen. We’re just at the beginning of that. You have to believe that there is a lot more value in the content. We have an amazing talent pool of people who create for the stage every night

RL: Who is your target audience, both for advertising and show attendance.

DB: If you’re looking NY theater ticket buyers today, the average demographic is 40+ women. I would argue that the bigger issue is cultivating talent over time. One of the reasons I’m involved in the TEDx conference is because we’re looking at the question, “What are we doing today to build the audience of 20 years from now?” the topic of target audience, I think. is a huge conversation for the industry. The easy, short term answer is definable: 40, wealthy, in-bound tourists but it is clearly not aligned with the longer term demographics of this country, which is why I like conferences like this- so we can discuss that.

JM: Now that you’ve taken us down this path, there are 3 programs I’d like to mention which we’ll also be discussing at the conference. One that Damian has driven with kids in the Bronx at a high performing middle school who have been sort of the toehold for a program that has broadened out since then. A) It gives them some exposure so they know that there is a thing called Broadway and theater and B) it helps to build the connection in the other direction too. Damian was instrumental in getting the cast of Spider Man to go to their school in the Bronx. The result is that these kids from a high achieving, low-income area are now thinking “Maybe I can have a career in the area of the arts.” Our perspective is that Broadway needs those kids as much or more as those kids need Broadway. Think about the talent you can find in areas like this and that is where the future is often built. If this program has the result of just one brilliant writer or director emerging in twenty years, then this will have made everything worth it. On another level, we’ve subsidized some college students to attend, so they’ve made this part of the curriculum of the class. These students are able to go to the conference without costs being so prohibitive. We also had an open call for anyone 30 and under affiliated with the Broadway ecosystem to apply for free admission to the event by writing a brief description about why they wanted to attend. So a nice chunk of our audience this year will consist of those decision makers of the future. We’ve talked about that in the past, but this year we made a commitment to making sure they are there.

RL: What are some of the take-away you want to give attendees to the TEDx Conference or do you see this more as forum for open thought and creativity?

JM: I’d say more the latter than the former.

DB: The sign of success for me every year when I get emails and messages back from people telling me that it was a great day and they left feeling inspired. That is all I care about. I think if we go into the territory of “what is the take-away”, it’s dangerous because you’re trying to script something and the idea is that we’re trying to bring open ideas to the table from other people. I see myself as much a participant as an organizer.

JM: The idea of the TED format is to spread ideas. So our job is less to have a pointed view than it is to ask, “Who are some people who have interesting ideas that are relevant to this community”, and then give those people the opportunity to say interesting things in this setting. Often times, maybe a side point that you’ll hear from a speaker or a conversation you had in the lobby during a break will take you down a trail and open something up in your head as a huge idea and then can be an amazing thing we’ll all benefit from in some way.

DB: We didn’t want to take a bunch of speakers, put them up there, and then talk about all the things you can’t do. That is probably one of the biggest traps in conferences I attend in any industry. But when you frame the question: “What is the best Broadway can be?”, You can isolate a problem and that aligns with the question of “Is this something that inspires you?” and then it gives you a runway to make that possible.

JM: Look- every industry has deficiencies. But we’re not asking , “How do we fix a broken thing?” Instead, with an active imagination we are asking, “What is the best possible thing- and then let’s re-set the trajectory towards that. In the course of doing that, maybe we fix a broken thing or two along the way.” And ultimately, it’s supposed to be a fun! If it’s not fun, we’re not doing it.

RL: You’ve talked an awful lot about this “Broadway ecosystem.” What do you think is the greatest challenge, economics aside, facing this ecosystem?

JM: What is the audience years from now and more to the point, will this be a vital place in 10 or 20 years? The answer to that is going to come from whether or not there’s a connection made to the people who will need to be the ones showing up in order for it to work. The audience of today will have sort of moved on in its’ relevance. The demographics are kind of set. So if we know who is going to be here and who is going to have dollars to spend, then the question is ‘Will they be interested in this neighborhood as theater goers and as restaurant goers.’? We don’t need to go back that far in history to a time when they weren’t interested. The biggest macro question is that the neighborhood has gotten much much healthier in the last couple of decades, but what if it doesn’t sustain? What if, as a whole, that ecosystem doesn’t hit the mark in quite the way of where it was in the 80s until now? It’s not a guarantee, so there’s an audience question in there, there’s a relevance question in there and there are even bigger financial questions there as well. Those are all threats.

DB: A lot of people I’ve talked to from restaurants and hotels and are of the “now” thinking. They are wondering, “Is the show across the street from my restaurant going to stay open because when that show is open, my restaurant is full.” So they are hoping that Broadway remains strong. Everyone I talk to in this ecosystem has a different angle, but it all connects back to the same thing, which is the overall health of the region. Even though they live on a block to block basis, they are all connected by the idea of Broadway and Times Square. This week, for example, the blizzard and the super bowl changed the entire eco-system of that neighborhood dramatically. So you have these extraordinarily different businesses that are completely inter-dependent on each other

JM: We use this word “ecosystem”, which is borrowed from nature. The animals and plants in a certain part of the natural world don’t live there in isolation. The deer and grass and squirrels and grass, etc. do depend on each on each other. At a certain point, when the ecosystem degrades, everyone suffers. So this is very real and very complex, and we’re looking forward to having the conversation.

What: 3rd annual TEDxBroadway Conference

When: Monday February 24th 2014, 11am -6pm

Where: New World Stages, 340 W. 50th Street between 8th and 9th ave.

Tickets and more information: http://www.tedxbroadway.com

Damian Bazadona, Founder and CEO, Situation Interactive Media (Left) and Jim McCarthy, founder and CEO of Goldstar (Right). Photo courtesy of O&M. — Damian Bazadona, Founder and CEO, Situation Interactive Media (Left) and Jim McCarthy, founder and CEO of Goldstar (Right).
Photo courtesy of O&M.

Turning our eyes blind to LGBTI inequality.

by Brian Connolly

hr-human-resources — Turning our eyes blind to inequality.

If at work you were exposed to a flippant potential act of inequality…… would you turn your eyes blind to LGBTI inequality? I at the time merely raised a chuckled eyebrow and let it pass. During my day I got angry as if I let the “cause” down……. beating myself up with the stonewall for not standing up against it. Now if I raised the issue there and then chances are the unwittingly innocent party would say “I am sorry I did not realize your were gay”. Am I trying to find homophobia where none exists, are we consumed with “fighting for our rights” that we forget that not every scenario is a direct attack on the LGBTI community, but more a matter of perception and communication. So did a simple act such as not disclosing information about a gay group in my work place be grounds for homophobia, not wearing a pink badge or inexperience at communicating LGBTI information?

A little background, the aforementioned potential LGBTI offender was a member of Human Resources, and its this fact that incited me to write this. Surely Human Resources should be the most inclusive, equality led proponents in our work places?

Do we expect too much from people these days in our march to equality, lets face it we still struggle to communicate with each other on a neutral level as a species. Can we really expect slip ups like this to go unnoticed or unchallenged and just mark them as another ‘whoopsie’ in communication as we fumble our way through speech with a stranger. Suffice to say I was annoyed there was an omission of “gay” in my meeting with HR and by right could report or raise it an issue. Though the question I ask myself, does it ruin my life and others? Whatever I decide I will continue living my life as an open gay man in and outside of my professional life uninhibited by others.

Theater Review: “Antigone”

by Ryan Leeds

Welcome to Thebes, 440 BC. King Oedipus is dead. His remaining sons, Eteocles and Polynices could have succeeded the throne but Etecoles said (theoretically), “ Hands off! I get the Kingdom! me! Me! ME!” Polynices said (once again, theoretically), “No! I get the Kingdom! It’s mine! ME! ME! ME!” Clearly, equilateral ownership was a foreign concept to them, so they did what any jealous Greek siblings would do: they killed each other. Consequently, Oedipus’ brother, Creon reluctantly nabbed the crown. He is not at all thrilled about being a leader. He is tired and would rather spend his days relaxing and doing whatever the 440 BC’s version of Candy Crush is. Eteocles has received a state funeral , while younger brother Polynices is provided the opportunity to lie dead in the street for a month because Creon refuses a burial for him. As far as Creon is concerned, “the vultures and dogs are to bloat themselves on his carcass.” This, in an age long before Febreeze!

Enter Antigone and Ismene, dead King Oedipus’ daughters and sisters to the bozos who just slaughtered each other. Antigone wants a proper burial for Polynices, the love of her cousin Haemon (yes..you read that correctly-cousin) , and a chance to irritate Creon, who is planning to bury her alive in a cave if she defies his laws. Dark, right? Haemon defends Antigone by claiming that the city mourns for her, but Creon doesn’t want to hear it. Does love prevail in the end? SPOILER ALERT: No! Ultimately, everyone dies. This is Greek drama after all. You didn’t expect a big song and dance number, did you?

What you can expect is a solid staging of Sophocles’ Greek tragedy Antigone, translated by Jean Anouilh. It is currently being staged in an efficient black box space at the theatre of the Church of Notre Dame. Director Peter Dobbins has assembled a group of competent actors who have fully grasped their purpose and understand the moral issues at stake. Kick Kennedy (of the famed Kennedy dynasty), gives us a defiant and apathetic Antigone. Yet in her youthfulness, she maintains a pained vulnerability and frailty that evokes empathy and understanding. I mean–all she wants to do is bury her dead brother. Give the poor girl a break! Michael Early’s Creon is commanding and authoritative. With pages of dialogue between Antigone and Creon, both handle it with seemingly effortless ease. Jose Sanchez’s First Guard offers much needed comic relief. The moments are sparse, but he manages to capitalize on them.

Anoulilh’s interpretation rings true. First performed in 1944, his script lends itself to human reflection. “It is easy to say no [to life], Creon instructs Antigone. “ To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows. It is easy to say no, even if saying no means death.” Thousands of years later, Sophocles’ words remain timeless and relevant.

Antigone now through Feb. 15 at The Storm Theater. 405 West 114 Street on the corner of Morninside Drive. For tickets, https://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=ANT22 or http://www.stormtheatre.com/

Theater Review: “Loot”

by Ryan Leeds

When a sharp-witted, clever script meets a fully competent cast who knows how to handle its’ subtleties, theatrical bliss occurs. Currently at the Lucille Lortel theater, fifty percent of this equation is intact in a revival of Joe Orton’s Loot. The script is well preserved and bitingly cynical; the delivery could be improved. Written in 1966, the British playwright’s black comedy cleverly manages to take jabs at authority by representing them as complete buffoons-equally as dumb as they as dishonorable. This was Orton’s crafty way of raging against a corrupt police society which at the time, had banned and criminalized homosexuality in England. Orton himself was gay and was a victim of this oppressive regime.

Loot opens in the living room of McLeavy (Jarlath Conroy), who is mourning the loss of his recently deceased wife. He is conversing with his wife’s nurse and caretaker, Fay (Rebecca Brooksher) a sexy bombshell jockeying to take the new widow’s hand in marriage. Meanwhile, McLeavy’s son, Hal (Nick Westrate) and his friend Dennis (Ryan Garbayo) have just robbed a bank and are seeking a place to hide the cash. Their conceal is foiled when the imposing, but dim detective Truscott (Rocco Sisto) appears at the door to incite an investigation for the missing “loot.”

What could be an impeccably timed, hilarious madcap is instead a muted attempt at farce. Most of the players in Red Bull theater’s production fall short of fulfilling the nuances and execution required for such a deft piece. One exception here is Conroy, who is remarkable as the stupefied, patriarchal lackey—mostly oblivious to the corruption around him until it is too late. He seems to be the only one asserting a British accent with any authenticity.

This reputable and well respected theater company, which specializes in classical theater, has staged a well-intended, but basically unfulfilling production. Orton’s usually provocative words are instead conveyed with simply adequate proficiency and finesse under the direction of founding artistic director Jesse Berger. It is with eager anticipation and hopefulness that their spring production of Charles Ludlam’s campy spoof The Mystery of Irma Vep is mounted with finer acuity.

Red Bull Theater’s Loot, now playing off-Broadway through February 9^th at the Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street (between Bleecker and Hudson). Tickets available by phone: 212.352.3101, online: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/2722 or at the box office.

Loot at the Lucille Lortel Theater presented by Red Bull Theater on 1/7/14Photo Credit ; Rahav Segev / Photopass.comMcLeavy - Jarlath ConroyFay- Rebecca BrooksherHal - Nick WestrateDennis - Ryan GarbayoTruscott - Rocco SistoMeadows - Eric Martin Brown — Loot at the Lucille Lortel Theater presented by Red Bull Theater on 1/7/14Photo Credit ; Rahav Segev / Photopass.comMcLeavy – Jarlath ConroyFay- Rebecca BrooksherHal – Nick WestrateDennis – Ryan GarbayoTruscott – Rocco SistoMeadows – Eric Martin Brown

New York’s First Lady Will Have Major Influence in Manhattan Politics

by Jeff Myhre

Chirlane McCray, the wife of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, is going to have a major role in Manhattan Politics and this new administration. While the mayor has declined to define her role with any precision, she’s going to be more like Hilary Clinton or Michelle Obama as the wife of the chief executive than Laura Bush or Rosalyn Carter.

That isn’t to say that Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Carter had no influence but rather that they operated behind the scenes. Any married man will tell you that a wife doesn’t need an office and a chief of staff to have influence. The question is how overt that influence will be. Mrs. McCray’s role is not going to be backstage.

Manhattan Politics NYC First Lady — Credit: Kelly Weill

McCray has just appointed Rachel Noerdlinger as her chief of staff – a woman who has been near the top of Al Sharpton’s operation. Her $170,000 annual salary is less than the $205,180 that city commissioners in charge of agencies get. Still, it’s hefty.

The mayor said “We utilized the model from the last person who had a similar role, which was Donna Hanover, who obviously was very active as chief of staff. So we looked at how her staffing was done and we’ve tried to base it on that model,” de Blasio said. Hanover, for those who don’t recall, was Mrs. Giuliani – who had a chief of staff, a press officer and two assistants.

Another signal that McCray is not going to operate behind the scenes came on Dr. King’s Birthday, when she spoke at Sharpton’s celebratory event. Speaking roles there are almost exclusively reserved for elected politicians.

However, the real reason to expect the mayor’s wife to be front and center on certain issues is her professional background. She entered politics in 1991 as a speechwriter for then-mayoy David Dinkins, a role she also held for state comptroller Carl McCall and city comptroller Bill Thompson. While Clinton was in office, she was a public affairs specialist at the New York Foreign Press Center. She also has private sector experience with 5 years with Maimonides Medical Center, and a six month stint at Citigroup’s PR department, which she herself said was “not a good fit.”

In an interview with Elle magazine, candidate de Blasio said “Chirlane’s been part of every major strategic decision in this campaign from day one. Literally. We started with an idea, and then we had to choose the core of our personnel, and then we had to choose our core ideas and message. Every part of it, every meeting that mattered.”

Her personality predisposes her to an active role, her experience and talents prove she has contributions to make, and the mayor has learned to rely on her. Her role in city government is going to be significant.

Theater Review: “Mercy Killers”

by Ryan Leeds

As residents of the “land of the free and home of the brave”, we are indoctrinated from an early age that the American dream is obtainable with just a bit of hard work and determination. For most, it is achievable. By proverbially “rolling up our sleeves” and “putting a little elbow grease into it”, we can reap the benefits of our labor by acquiring basic necessities and even enjoying luxuries as a self-reward. Alternatively, there remains a majority of people who have played by these rules–muddling through the every day grind with mettle and handling adversity with fortitude—and yet they still manage to come up short. Joe is in that majority.

Michael’s Milligan’s blistering one man drama, Mercy Killers, explores the frustrations and inequalities of a failed healthcare system through the eyes of this average “Joe”. This hour-long, literal examination is effectively staged in a black box, bare bones theater, where our protagonist is defending himself in an interrogation room for a “crime” that blurs the lines of convention.

Milligan, who both wrote and performs the show, paints a comprehensive and challenging portrait of a wounded man exhausted by a circle of despair and grief. His arsenal of rationale is depleted. Milligan’s everyman language resonates and pierces and although we can relate to elements of his plight, we hope never to fully confront its’ level of severity.

After reaching for our coats and trudging through the somber audience, my guest and I engaged in a conversation about Milligan’s exceptional work. Questions were posed and even more left unanswered about the lengths at which our leading player could have gone to have prevented his outcome . Each of us had differing opinions, but we created a dialogue about this crucial crisis. In our ever-present day of political discourse, finger-pointing, and profitable racket over healthcare, Milligan manages to strip down the arguments by humanizing them to a frustrating, but immensely profound degree.

Mercy Killers, now playing off-Broadway now through February 2^nd at the Stella Adler Studio Theater, 31 W. 27^th street between Broadway and 6^th ave. Playing Feb. 5^th through Feb. 16^th in the NYC Metropolitan Area. For more information and tickets, http://www.theworkingtheater.org/

NEW YORK

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