Don’t Be Your Own Worst Enemy by Kara Kinney Cartwright, book excerpt, Just Don’t Be An Asshole

1. The goal of school is to get the heck out of school, preferably by graduating, so you can get a job that pays money, move out, wash your own underwear, and get a sex life.*
2. The best way to graduate is to not fail.

3. The best way to not fail is to do the work.

Granted, there are more fun things to do than schoolwork. It’s easier to play video games than to write a paper. Is it, though?

If you choose gaming instead of writing a paper, or if you choose mostly gaming but squeak out a shitty paper, you’ll have to deal with the consequences: anxiety about procrastinating and/or doing poorly, dealing with your disappointed teacher and screaming parents, working harder to bring up your grade, begging for extra credit, etc. So maybe doing your schoolwork is easier than gaming?

Do you need a moment to recuperate from that mind-blowing realization?

Now that you’ve decided to do the work, you’re going to need some discipline. Not the familiar screaming-parent “You’re grounded” kind of discipline. Self-discipline. You being the self in question.

* Or even just a second date.

The bad news on this one is that the cards … Continue reading..

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40 & Fabulous in Frames

One day, you’re 39 years and 364 days old, blissfully basing your fashion choices on tried and tested brands and stores that you’ve relied upon for years. The next day, you’re 40, and something strange and sinister and wholly unexpected happens: you start to question whether certain high street brands and styles are really meant for someone who remembers things like the Millennium Bug and dial-up internet (and how annoying it was to have to close your MySpace account and switch everything over to Facebook when “this one probably won’t last either!”).

The best advice is to take stock. If you’re happy with your look and you feel that 40 is just a number and absolutely nothing needs to change in your life to give you a sense of fulfillment, that’s great news. You’re ready to step out in confidence and get on with things as per usual. However, if you think your fashion choices could use something of a mini revamp that leans more towards how you feel as you enter your fourth decade, there’s one quick and easy place to start that’s going to ignite your passion for creating the new you: your eyeglasses. Yes, in this blog, … Continue reading..

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Women on Fire: Stories from the Frontlines: Show Review by Robin Gorman Newman

Fired up with emotion, 12 women took to a cool, industrial-looking space, each to deliver a short monologue with fervor….some with humor, others with passion.

From Louis CK to Bill Cosby to Roman Polanski to President Clinton to President Trump, an array of subjects were taken on.  Written and Directed by Chris Henry and also directed by Lorna Ventura, who is the Choreographer, it is a thought-provoking, somewhat of a call to arms production.  The material/subjects didn’t feel particularly fresh, but a fired-up reminder of ongoing issues and concerns that women continue to face.

The choreography featuring a crew of four young, athletic female dancers, including Samantha Butts, Emily Anne Davis, Erica Misilo, and Mariah Reive, was strong and stirring….and for me…the highlight of the production.

The home of Royal Family Productions is a 100 year old church (they are currently celebrating that milestone anniversary) on 46th Street between 6-7 Avenues, and despite all my avid theatre going over the years, I had yet to visit this space.  It is a 2.5 flight walk-up to the theatre (no elevator), but it’s got a special, historic vibe.

Kathleen Chalfant valiantly led a rotating all-star cast including Andréa Burns, Gina Naomi Baez, … Continue reading..

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First Relationships by Dr. Amy Alamar, author, The Parenting Project (Book Excerpt)

Heart-based conversations are crucial in defining and maintaining relationships. The relationship you have with your child is the foundation for all other relationships in his life. According to attachment theory, as postulated by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, a child’s ability to securely attach to an adult begins within the first year of life. Patterns of consistent love, attention, and caring create this secure bond or attachment.

According to attachment theory, parents who are inconsistent in their care of their child create anxious-resistant bonds. These parents may sometimes be attuned to their child’s needs and at other times neglectful of their child’s needs. Children raised in this type of environment are typically not trusting of their parents, which can lead them to demonstrate clingy and/or insecure behavior as they look for attention and comfort. Sometimes, children with anxious-resistant bonds avoid seeking contact with their parents and, later, tend to avoid people in general.

Attachment theorists claim that these very early patterns of behavior and bonds carry over to adult romantic relationships and that this relationship pattern becomes a “working model” that each person utilizes in all relationships throughout their lifetime. Therefore, it is essential that we take the time to … Continue reading..

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Recognizing a Mistake and Learning From It by Dr. Amy Alamar, author, Parenting for the Genius (Book Excerpt)

With reflection on your decisions, you can make opportunities to learn from your mistakes. By now you should realize that learning from your mistakes is one of the mantras in this book. It’s ok to make that mistake so long as you – come on, you know what I’m going to say – learn from it! Before this, comes recognizing the mistake. It’s your job to call your child out on mistakes and you will earn your child’s respect if you do the same with yourself. We’re human – we’re imperfect. That’s ok – and your child will learn to move forward by watching you have the confidence to do the same.

So your 15-year old daughter’s grades dropped and you decided to punish her with no television, hoping that would motivate her to do better. A few weeks in to the punishment you realize that she’s still over-enjoying down time (sans television) and she does not seem to be studying any differently. You realize you’ve made a mistake and it’s not the punishment she needed, and she still needs help with her time management. You need to fess up. You need to acknowledge that in fact you made a … Continue reading..

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A Sign of the Times: Show Review by Jo Mispel

Time. How does our relationship to it change our understanding of, and ability to process, loss? How do we find agency for meaningful action when collective forces seem to hold us in an overwhelmed inertia? Can a philosophizing ex Physics teacher, standing on a crossroad directing traffic with his handheld slow/stop paddle, work through the limbo that grief, both personal and collective, has caught him in?

The wonderful Javier Munoz (Hamilton, In the Heights) plays the unnamed ‘man’ in a skillful 95 minute monologue exploring these ideas and feelings in the new play A Sign of the Times, directed by Stephen Lloyd Helper, and now showing at Theater 511.

Javier Munoz, as the ‘Man’, will take us through a daydreaming odyssey during which he will share his eclectic learnings, experiences and contemplations in an attempt to find meaning after his inexplicable loss. He tells us early that he has deliberately simplified his life for this reason. He takes a job as a traffic controller at a remote development site. He knows he needs to slow down, look for answers and ask new questions. He quotes poetry and refers to physics, mythology and history. He considers fate, faith, and … Continue reading..

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A Tango-Dancing Cinderella (Cenicienta Tanguera): Musical Review by Hannah Singer

I had no idea what to expect when I was invited to review this musical. But I am adventurous with eclectic tastes, so the answer was affirmative, yes I would love to experience this show.

Our destination was the Lower East Side, a hip area with cool shops and boutiques, a popular place for a fun night out. But you can still see and feel the history in the older buildings and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum where you can learn about the Jewish history in this neighborhood.

We drove over the Williamsburg Bridge from Brooklyn. The theater was conveniently a few blocks from there, and we found parking easily as it was a weekend and downtown.

Teatro Sea stands for Society of the Educational Arts. Inc. It was established in 1985 in Puerto Rico by Dr. Manuel A Morán as the first Bilingual Arts-in-Education organization and Latino Theatre in the US. They produce socially conscious and educational theatre productions and have art programs for both children and adults.

We entered a beautiful old building, the Clemente Building, that was once a school and now houses a few theatres and art galleries as well as offices and classrooms. (We … Continue reading..

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Chasing the River: Show Review by Debby Gray Bloom

Entering the bustling building on West 36th Street that houses several theater companies was an exciting introduction to the Off Broadway Chain Theatre.

Performed in the intimate theater on the 4th floor, the space was comfortable and inviting. Perfectly suited for this personal story written by Jean Dobie Giebel. “Chasing the River”, directed by Ella Jane New, is a finalist for the ATHE Excellence in Playwriting Award and has been optioned for television.

The play opens with its heroine, Kat, returning to her childhood home filled with difficult memories. Layers are slowly peeled back as the horrors of her childhood are revealed. Though sometimes only hinted at, it becomes clear that she has  endured and survived terror at the hands of her father and oblivious mother.
Flashing back and forth between the past and the present, the story is told with  snippets of information priming the audience to want to learn more. Numerous lighting changes help define the changes in time, as do the actors, as they skillfully portray their characters at different ages.  As a more experienced theater goer, I was able to recognize the lighting cues as an aid to decipher the current action from the memory.  While … Continue reading..

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