Freebie #5: Hamlet at the WFC

This is a SUPER delayed review of my latest freebie, mostly because it is April, a.k.a. finals, a.k.a. Grad Student Hell. I actually took in this freebie last weekend and truth be told, I even now don't really have time to be writing this little post... shhhh... don't tell my profs!

Thanks to The Village Voice, I found this latest gem of a freebie waiting to be discovered at the World Financial Center. Yes: it sounds odd, I realize -- Shakespeare in the Financial District??? But wait! It gets even odder. This is not just "Sit-Down-and-Veg-Out" Shakespeare (well, like you're gonna veg out watching Hamlet anyway). This is "Sit, Watch, Get up, Walk, and Repeat" Shakespeare. What I mean by this is that every scene of the play is in a different section of the venue -- in this case, the World Financial Center. So, Act 1, Scene 1 was just upstairs above Starbucks, where we sat on the floor, and then we all got up and walked 200 meters to another floor space around the corner for Act 1, Scene 2. And this repeated for the entire play.

What this means is:

• I got a really nice tour of the WFC, which was kind of good considering I had never been there before.
• I often became really confused as to where in the building we were.
• I got some exercise.
• My seat -- and the stage -- changed every scene. Once or twice I was up front, a few other times I was at the back, and most of the time I was somewhere in the middle. 
• My butt and legs were a bit sore by the time I finished.

However, do not let any of these things stop you from going to see the show, which runs until the 18th (see the webpage for details).  It was really an excellent performance. I can say this with some authority because I've seen a LOT of Shakespeare in my 30+ years on this earth; I love Shakespeare. I've taught Shakespeare plays, I've directed them, I've acted in them, I've read them, and I've watched several of them in both stage and film versions. I am quite opinionated when it comes to Shakespeare because I'm passionate about his work. So when I tell you that this was a good show, you can really take my word for it. (And for what it's worth, I'm not a purist, either.)

New York Classical Theatre knows what they are doing. Justin Blanchard takes control of the character of Hamlet -- never an easy role to play, let alone when you're doing it in a dynamic setting like this one, where settings and costumes are simple, and the actor must truly grab the audience. He was marvelous and captivating. Stephen Burdman directs and does well to use the space effectively, again, in a challenging environment. The other highlight for me was the actress Rita Rehn, playing Gertrude. Her role was convincing and engaging.  I have plenty more I would like to say but, honestly, in the interest of time I must wrap up this post.

While it's a bit odd to see Shakespeare in a mall-like setting (at one point there were advertisements on a screen directly behind Polonius), and to move around with every scene (some audience members take this to mean it's the Kentucky derby and you are the horses), it's definitely still enjoyable. One friend who joined me had never seen a Shakespeare play before. I told her she was very brave, starting with Hamlet! But she loved it and found it remarkably accessible, which I think is one of the NY Classical Theatre's goals. Bring a cushion to sit on -- you'll be on the floor -- and some energy and you'll be fine! You may also find it useful to read the company's suggestions [PDF] before attending.

New York Classical Theatre does ask for a donation at the end of the show, but you're under no obligation. They do this very non-obtrusively and it works.

And now... back to paper-writing...

[image respectfully borrowed from The Village Voice event page]

Freebie Alert: Time Out NY is on our side

I've already posted Time Out in The Sources, but this week they've truly outdone themselves.

Pick up a copy of their mag or check out the link to find all sorts of free things to do in the city.

The only thing they left off the list: staring at the Empire State building while writing theory papers.

Free Me, please!

Well, readers, I'm no longer on the West Coast, sadly. But the image above does quite accurately depict how I'm feeling: up to my eyeballs.

Immediately after my last post on the California Academy of Sciences, my aunt passed away and I left sunny San Francisco for cold Calgary. After a funeral and some minor passport befuddlement (note: contrary to popular belief, Canadians do not have magical wizard immunity with the Department of Homeland Security), I have returned to NYC, but I am not free. :(

Oh.
No.

Anything but. I am now behind in all my courses (eek!) which is slightly alarming because, well... the entire reason why I'm broke in this crazy city is these courses: school is kinda what I'm paying all this money for. Well, that and $%@*!! Manhattan rent. But I digress.

My point in this post is to let you know that I've not forgotten about The Quest. I just have to put it on hold while I work my tail off to get caught up, lest my broke-ness be all for naught. Wouldn't that be a shame? I know you understand. And, well, Rule #2 kinda does dictate that I should feel no guilt about this (and I don't).

But in the meantime, you may have noticed that I've posted The Sources, so if you're hankering for something along the lines of NYC: Free 4 U, please goeth forth to exploreth and plunder this fair urban land! (Well, maybe don't take anything... but do soak up the Free-ness!) And report back here on your findings, young broke squire(sses)!

TTFN!

Image cred: The Curious Incident of Darth Tater and the evil Sand Monster by SBishop

SF Freebie: California Academy of Sciences

Soooo... a little bird tipped me off that the wonderful California Academy of Sciences is FREE every third Wednesday of the month. Thank you, little bird! (you know who you are ;-) ) Wednesday the 17th of March -- also known as St. Paddy's Day -- was the third Wednesday of the month and I happened to be in San Francisco and ready to do something FREE! What luck!

Little Bird also advised me to get there early. Little Bird clearly does not know me very well: I don't do Early. But I am capable of Early Enough.

And so, on a bright and sunny morning I did emerge and managed to make it to the Academy of Sciences within minutes of noon-o'-clock. Seeing that I'm not a morning person at all, I was quite pleased with myself, especially given that I had walked all the way there, through gorgeous Golden Gate Park. I did have to stand in a very long line -- apparently I was not the only one with such a bright idea on a beautiful day -- but I didn't mind at all because the temps were warm and the sun was friendly. In 35 minutes I was at the front of the line and in the doors of this magnificent building.

Dear Free 4 Me Fans -- if you are ever in San Francisco, you MUST GO to this space. You MUST MUST GO. It is phenomenal and inspiring and beautiful all at once. I spent nearly my entire day there, and suffered from exhibit fatigue at one point, but what a pleasurable fatigue it was. Here were the highlights for me:

• I loved the 4-story Rainforest, and probably spent most of my time here, hanging out with the birds, lizards, frogs, and butterflies. I think, actually, I could have spent the entire day here! I loved it. Not only was it beautifully green and lush, but it was so educational. I learned a lot about the different levels and layers of the rainforest. 

 

• The Steinhart Aquarium was also very cool. I will admit that I didn't really explore all of it, as I was beginning to get tired at this point, but I did enjoy the jellyfish and the huge water tanks with all sorts of fishy creatures. I wanted to just sit and relax and hang out underwater all afternoon. It really made me miss scuba diving, something I wish I could do more often!

 

• The Natural History Museum, with its exhibits all over the space of the building. I love especially how the focus is on conservation and climate change. A particular highlight for me was the section on carbon footprint and how it is connected to food choices. I think not enough people are aware of this connection, so I was happy to see a very low-tech but highly interactive exhibit demonstrating the relationship. 

 

• The Living Roof -- full of gadgets and small creatures! Solar panels, insects, butterflies, and flora are all over this roof. Text panels explain how it all works and is connected to keeping the building sustainable. Very cool!

 

• A series of Andy Warhol silkscreen prints: Endangered Species. What a lovely surprise, finding this here! I only wish the gift shop had T-shirts or postcards of these works of art (sadly, they did not).

I'm disappointed I didn't get to the planetarium or to explore more of the aquarium, but I was just overwhelmed with so much to look at, see, and do. I was very impressed by how the Academy catered to so many different age groups -- in every exhibit, there really was something for everyone. Interactive displays, high-tech and low-tech, were at different height levels on the wall. Visitors could go into as much detail as possible and there were hundreds of permutations and combinations, making it obvious that the visitor should return at some point. At several different times, I heard visitors around me saying things like, "Oh, that's new. They didn't have that last time," which indicates that the Academy rotates exhibits and keeps things fresh.

Kudos to the Cal Academy of Sciences -- a fabulous job that left me wanting to come back again and again. If you're not in the Bay Area and won't have access to visit any time soon, I highly recommend you check out their website. It is very interactive, educational, and engaging, and I think you'll find you could spend some time exploring there, too!

Note: All photos here are my own. See the entire set at my Flickr page here.

NYC goes West Coast

That's right, folks. It's officially Spring Break.

No not that kind of Spring Break. I'm in grad school, for crying out loud.

I'm in San Francisco: land of cable cars, fresh air, composting bins, and Peet's Coffee. It's also the land of some good friends and a free bed, which is why I'm here for my entire Spring Break.

So, this week, Free 4 Me will be looking for a free event in this fine Bay city. Post suggestions on the Facebook page or leave them in comments here. Or, Tweet me.

It's even possible that I may squeeze in TWO free events this week, to make up for last week when I was crazybusy. Yep, that's how we roll over here in grad-school-BrokeLand.

In the meantime, I'm gonna go for an up-and-down walk in the sunshine to see the flowers blooming (always free). I can already feel my San Francisco legs coming back!


Image Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Freebie Post #3: Oscar Night in NYC

Freebie Tip #2: Listen to your friends.

So, last week's event was a gift of the Village Voice. This week's event came my way without me having to look for it. Why? I have awesome friends who are broke like me and also wanna find cool stuff to do. And sometimes, these awesome broke friends have more time on their hands than me, and so they find things before I do.

Excellent! :)

In this case, kudos go to my friend K., who found a FREE Oscar viewing party at Comix on W.14th St.¹ I knew as soon as she told me that I was in like Flynn. And so, we made reservations and off we went!

I will emphasize here that Comix had no cover and no drink minimum for the event, so this was a truly free event. The only thing required was an RSVP in advance; a person could have walked in, sat, and watched the entire event for free. However, I knew I would likely be ordering both food and drink after the week I have had (midterms, anyone?), and I can quite confidently say that if I had not gone to this Comix event, I more than likely would have been at home in my pajamas ordering take-out costing about the same amount as I was going to spend on food at Comix. So, to eat and drink and be with friends and mildly entertaining strangers while watching the Oscars -- while perhaps not as comfortable as being in my pajamas -- was definitely an attraction for me. This was especially the case when I discovered that other events around town were charging anywhere from $8 to $225 for an Oscar-ish par-tay. (Sheesh! Sometimes New Yorkers take themselves too seriously... but I digress.)

Upon arriving, we were told we could not be seated unless half our party was there. Fine. This involved a bit of a(n impatient) wait and a change in our reservation, and finally, a table -- squeezed into the corner of the room. Apparently, when Comix says "arrive at 6:30," they mean "arrive at 6:15." The place was packed! We all fit (there were 6 of us), but we had to negotiate. The first seats we were shown to involved splitting up our party and it was not until one of us noticed a table in the corner where we could all sit together that we moved. Sloppy service on the part of the hostess meant this was more of a debacle than it needed to be.

But alas, we were finally seated, and to our delight we discovered free popcorn at each table! Mmm Mmm good! We gobbled that down while we ogled and commented on the red carpet dresses. The atmosphere was active, noisy, and generally convivial, helped in part by the "hosts" Danny Leary and Kambri Crews. I put that word in quotation marks because I'm not really 100% sure that they were true hosts. Rather, they played the role of being only marginally more entertaining than the advertisements on television, which was when they generally appeared on stage.

Kudos to Comix for the inventive names on the menu -- I particularly liked the Alec Baldwings and Calarmarlee Matlin -- and our party actually sampled both. While all food and drink we ordered were fine, nothing was great. And service left much to be desired. I think if Comix had had twice the number of servers working on Sunday night, they would have been better prepared, and may have had slightly less surly customers. We waited around 45 min for our food, which, while decent, was really nothing special. Not to mention that we got our pitcher of beer before we got glasses to drink it from. Classy.

Sadly, we arrived too late to partake in the contests of the evening, but we did find it rather special that Mo'nique's family was in the audience there with us at Comix, making her acceptance speech particularly memorable for all there. Actually, in general, I would say that being there with this giant group of people made the entire experience memorable for me² -- poor service aside. The reason? With so many people there, we really felt all the "ooooh"s and "ahhhhh"s of every moment (including the dresses on the red carpet), and the laughs at Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin seemed even bigger and funnier. One of my friends who joined us, E., put it best when he said,

I almost felt like I was there -- but I wasn't.

Yep, and that's what made it a memorable evening. Thanks to K., E., and other members of our party (you know who you are!) for a memorable and enjoyable Oscar night!

Freebie Post #2: Village Voice B-Sides Show

Freebie Tip #1: Enter Contests

Why do I say this? Because so far -- even before I began this blog -- I have won tickets to free shows all around town. How? By entering contests, my friends. And, it seems that no one really enters these contests, because this weekend's exploit marks the 3rd set of tickets I've won and been able to use (out of a total of 7 wins - yes, folks, it's true). These tickets to a Saturday night show came courtesy of the good people at the Village Voice, and more specifically, their Voice Street Twitter people. Tweet on, I say!

So, with my name on the list and a guest by my side (one who was willing to follow The Rules), I made my way over to the Gramercy Theater, not really knowing what to expect. But hey - free show, right? If it sucks, we can leave!

But sucketh it did not.

The show was actually excellent! We took in three bands -- each of which I've covered briefly below, with a video clip of each, for your further exploration.

1. Robert Poe - I would describe him as bluesy rock -- the kind of music I'd expect to hear in Houston or Dallas, maybe even Tennessee. He has a nice voice and a groovin' band. While I liked his original music, I also liked the Johnny Cash cover (I'm a sucker for nostalgia).
2. The Scarlet Ending - What an unusual sound! Firstly, I must say that the fashion lover in me appreciated the coordinated red highlights in the band's attire. Nice work, kids. Secondly, I will say that my friend and I exchanged gasps and giggles of disbelief when one of the lead singers said in between songs, "Yeah, so we've been together 10 years... blahblahblah" -- say WHAT?! So, did you, like start your band when you were 3? Seriously, these guys look young young young. But they rocked the house with their unique sound, I will give them that much. I wanna say they sounded a bit like early No Doubt, but with Tori Amos on vocals. A nice blend. They'll do well, I predict. 
3. Kara Suzanne - the headliner of the show and definitely the highlight for me. Why did I like her so much? For starters, she's got a killer set of pipes. Secondly, she has a tight band -- they are seriously good musicians. Third, I love her song lyrics. They are sincere, honest, and a bit earthy. She reminded me a bit of Bonnie Raitt and a grittier version of Feist, and at other times I thought of Tracy Chapman. I wanted to be drinking red wine or whiskey while listening to her music, or dancing in a hall stinking of stale beer. I loved her, and immediately went home and bought her recent album, Parlor Walls. My friend didn't like her quite as much as I did, but I think part of that is because I've grown up with music like Kara Suzanne's, so it's comfort food for me (and, as a Canadian, I find it highly amusing that her genre is labeled as "Americana" on her MySpace page, as it seems so... exclusive).

All in all, we left the event highly entertained and pleased. Both of us commented on how much we liked the venue -- really a cool, intimate spot, and one in which I hope I have the pleasure of seeing future shows!