Audio: The Port Authority Guide

January 27, 2011

About a month ago I was in the maze that is Port Authority, looking for a bus to take me to the Newark Airport. A guy in a black windbreaker asked me where I needed to go. He walked me to the bus, meanwhile telling me that his name is Mike, he doesn’t have a job, and his only source of income is the tips he makes from assisting travelers. When we got to the bus I thanked him, gave him a couple of bucks, and looked forward to seeing my family.

After I came back to New York, I stopped by Port Authority to find Mike–I wanted to ask him more questions. I didn’t find him, but I found another man, Peter, who does the same thing. In fact, there are several guys who do this. It gives them a place to make a few bucks and stay out of the cold, but it’s certainly no way to live, as I learned from Peter when took some time to talk to me.

“I may be homeless tomorrow, but I can’t just sit down.”

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Audio: Miss Harvest Moon

December 7, 2010

I recently put together an audio piece in the style of Studio 360’s “Aha moment,” where subjects talk about a work of art that has influenced their own artistic lives in some way or another.

* * *

Since the mid-nineties, 35-year-old Miss Harvest Moon has dazzled audiences with her aggressive, acrobatic burlesque performances. She grew up in California, where she learned her craft through dance training and circus school. She then formed a burlesque dance troupe called the Cantankerous Lollies, before moving to New York. But as a child, she wasn’t exactly outgoing…

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Stranger on a Train, part 2

October 8, 2010

I sat down on a half-filled subway car heading north from Kings Highway in the boonies of Brooklyn. Some guys were standing around shouting to each other, punctuating their speech with raucous, obnoxiously loud laughter. I thought about going into another car. Diagonally across from me was a Hispanic guy with short, gelled-down hair, diamond earrings, hulking shoulders and biceps bulging out of a black shirt with OLD NAVY across the chest in white capital letters, black sweatpants, and tennis shoes. About two seconds had passed when he leaned forward and asked me—practically yelling—”Can I ask you a question? How old are you?”

I told him 25, though I was immediately suspicious.

“Can I ask you another question? I’m just curious, this is for my own personal reason.”

In my head I thought it was going to be an ethnicity question, because that comes up a lot and I find it annoying and tactless, but out of my inability to not be nice, I leaned forward and said, “Sure.”

“Okay, so I just broke up with my girlfriend, right?”

Uh-oh.

“We were in a serious relationship, but I just broke up with her because she was hanging out with this guy who I knew wanted to have sex with her. He was always hanging around her even though he knew she had a serious boyfriend. And once, I walked her to class, and this guy, he said to her in front of me, ‘What, this guy is taking you to class now?’ He spit on our relationship. Right in front of me. So later, I’m telling my girlfriend, ‘Don’t sit next to that guy in that class. He spit on our relationship.’ And you know, I went to her class to see her after that, and she’s sitting right next to him. And you know what? There are like eight empty seats around the room.”

Buff Dude was calm as he spoke, but clearly irritated. And sometime during his story he’d gotten up to sit next to me. “So I broke up with her. What do you think? Did I do the right thing?”

I was entirely unprepared to digest the situation. She didn’t do anything wrong, I thought. But she was deliberately disrespectful. I made a thinking face and said nothing. “Put yourself in my shoes,” he prompted.

So I did. I imagined my boyfriend hanging out with a floozy that I didn’t like. I imagined him doing it even after I’d asked him not to. I felt angry. Maybe Buff Dude did do the right thing. But I wanted to see it from both sides, which is what I told him.

“I love her, you know? And I still think she’s the best.” My eyebrows rose. “It’s hard to explain,” he continued, “but she disobeyed me. So I had to break up with her.”

We began to talk back and forth about trust and respect, about how girls like attention, and how sometimes people can be ignorant of the intentions of others. As we talked, I felt mild pangs of guilt about once being an ignorant, dumb girl who made many bad decisions.

“I just needed to know if I’m crazy,” he said later, after moving back to his original side of the subway car.

“You’re not,” I said. I was sure of that. But I wasn’t sure if he did the right thing.

Vox Pop: Subway Hate

October 1, 2010

For a recent school assignment, I went out and interviewed random people on what they hate most about riding the New York City subway. Hear their thoughts:

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Q&A with Clara Cupcakes

September 22, 2010

Elly Squire, also known as Clara Cupcakes, is one of a few Australian burlesque performers making the long trip to the New York Burlesque Festival, which kicks off at the end of this month. In the past Clara has taught hula-hoop classes, and this year she won the title of Miss Burlesque Western Australia. She graciously took time to answer a few questions.

Clara Cupcakes How did you get into burlesque? Was there any particular in your life that encouraged you to go in this direction?

Well I had been lindy hopping for a few years so I was already really into vintage culture. Mel and Sharon, fellow lindy hoppers, started Sugar Blue Burlesque after going to Sweden and seeing a burlesque show there. They thought they could do a better job.

When they came back to Perth they started putting things into motion and became A’dora Derriere and Miss Bonnie Fox respectively. I just happened to be around at this time and declared to Mel after a few wines at a party that I was going to learn how to hula hoop and join. I had been looking for a new creative outlet for quite some time, as I used to do a lot of theater in my home town but stopped when I moved to the city. Burlesque was perfect for me. It combined my love of acting, dancing, comedy and vintage fabulousness. So I learned to hula hoop off YouTube and joined. The rest is history, really.

What’s the burlesque scene like in Australia, and does it differ from other parts of the world? Where else have you done shows?

I love the Australian burlesque scene. It’s really diverse. If anything, I think it leans a little more toward vaudevillian antics than classic burlesque. There are some really great burly-q ladies with a fabulous comedic streak such as Miss Becky Lou, Ginger LaMinge and Mia Bella. I find the whole scene to be very friendly and supportive of everything and everyone. I personally have only toured within Australia so far, doing a big show in Melbourne but other members of the troupe have done shows in London, Belgium, Paris and Sweden.

Do you think that your audiences understand burlesque as an art form, or do they consider it just another strip tease? Do you try to sell the “artsier” side of it in your performances?

I think our audiences come along to be entertained. I think they see it more as a legitimate form of entertainment, like going to see a play or a concert, and I think unconsciously in turn they understand it as an art form. This is what I set out to do with my performances. Entertain and have a good time doing it. I don’t really need to sell burlesque as anything but a whole lot of fun.

I draw inspiration from everywhere. Sometimes I will hear a song and just need to do an act to it. Sometimes I will see an old clip or a picture and that’s what inspires me. Even reading books I get ideas! It is a little easier to be inspired visually because you already have the concept but being inspired by music can sometimes take you to places you never expected!

Last question: if you were forced to quit the burlesque world, what kind of vocation would you pursue?

Ideally I would like to start my own cupcake bakery or retro diner. In reality, I would probably end up back in an office job, in the short term at least.

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