Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Godmother Weekend or Why Don't Dogs Like Barry Manilow?


Labor day weekend and the long anticipated Godmother weekend arrives. The baby and girls show up around midnight, but that doesn't keep us from staying up till 3 in the morning. As children our all nighters were executed under the guise of sleepovers. We'd whisper about our latest crushes, who said so and so, the latest antics of the Hambleton brothers. But we're adults now and we drink Cosmopolitans, snack on chicken salad and yell about our latests crushes.

To honor the baby's Latin heritage we dine at La Estrella Del Caribe a Puerto Rican themed restaurant. Radha devours Chuleta Frita - seasoned pork chops fried on the bone. Polly sighs over shrimp fajitas, sweetly sizzling and fragrant with non a traditional Mexican marinade. Patty savors the classic Arroz con Pollo and I happily crunch on Pernil - marbled with indecent amounts of pork butt fat. The baby tries all of it but prefers flirting with the male waiters to food. Hmmmm. Must come from her father's side of the family, since nothing takes precedence over food to a Ched female.

Given the Latin theme for the evening we come home and dance on the deck. Sophia takes turns in our arms as we attempt to Salsa and Merengue. The night serenades us.The 17 year cicadas make whirring Predator noises. A bird simpers in a tree sounding like an injured dog. The motorcycle boys whiz past on their way to Newark. Then the music starts, decently enough with Stan Getz's Brazilian jazz. Ella, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Night. Then it gets weird. Somehow Andrea Bocelli is followed by Meatloaf. And LL Cool J by Barry Manilow. Thy neighbor dog voices his displeasure at a weekend in New England. Then comes the Carpenters. We sing every song word for word of a 2 CD Carpenter complilation. Don't roll your eyes at me, you know the words to Top of the World. Sing it!

A chill enters the evening so we light a fire in the outdoor fireplace. In middle of the immolation of fallen tree branches and a tarot reading Sophia exlaims "Hi Mommy!" This being landmark as her only intelligible words thus far have been "Puppy?"

By noon Monday the girls have already left. No juice bobbies, milk bobbies. No manipulative toddling baby girl flopping around in her pink crocs with a stealthy dog eager to devour bits of bacon falling from bacon, avocado and tomato sandwiches. Just a very tired little white dog, sparkling sangria glasses and an empty house still throbbing with love.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Bollywood Challenge

Ok, I'll admit I'm hooked. I'll give Randy Jackson props for creating the best reality TV series since, well Julia Child's The French Chef. And yes, that was REAL television. Enjoying it's 4th season on MTV America's Best Dance Crew pits street dancers against each other utilizing reality tactics like judge scoring, audience voting and elimination rounds.

Since the first season when the masked menacingly acrobatic JabbaWockeeZ won the title, each season delivers insanely talented dancers. This week I was riveted (twice!) by the episode titled the Bollywood Challenge. Each crew is assigned a particular Indian dance style like well known Bangra & Bharatanatyam as well as lesser known Kathak, Giddha & Garba. Having a mother who used to dance bharatanatyam I was hugely entertained by talented street dancers incorporating hip hop, lifts & acrobatics to classical Indian dances. I also appreciated the difficulty of my native dance artisty. Hustle this!

My favorite by far has to be AfroBorike doing Kathak. But I gotta admit I was blown away by all the performances. Made me wanna jump up, paste on a bindi, hook up my ankle bracelets and shake some ass! Also staggering were the dance mixes fusing Indian riffs with contemporary Latin and Hip Hop. If somebody knows where I can find the playlist, please tell!

Catch the episode it's entirety.