Road to Fondwa

Last week I braved some stormy weather and headed to NYU Poly in Brooklyn for an event called Rediscovering Haiti. Not only did it sound interesting, but it was hosted by their student chapter of Engineers Without Borders! I love those guys!

The event started with a historical overview of Haiti. I had no idea they were the first independent black republic, and I never considered what effects that may have on their GDP. Turns out slave ownin folk don't like to do business with a country of free slaves, whoda thunk it.

After some context we watched the excellent documentary Road to Fondwa.





If you haven't seen it I recommend you do. It's only about 30 min long and you can watch it in its entirety here. The film takes place before the earthquake and discusses the many grassroots efforts in the Fondwa region of Haiti that the community developed over the last 20 years. It is really great! As I mentioned before, you can watch it here.

After the screening we Skyped with one of the producers of the film! He was in Miami and had just returned from Haiti and he described the devastation he witnessed in the country. He also reminded us that the rainy season is about to begin, making a horrible situation, horribler. But while the buildings of Fondwa were destroyed, I'm sure the knowledge of the community will enable them to rebound and continue after this tragedy.

Hopefully I'll have the chance to get involved with the work EWB is doing in Haiti and beyond, and I would encourage all of you to find out a way that you can get involved. Additionally, I used the event for networking just like I'm supposed to do! Also, I ate lots of free food :) Now I'm sure you tire of hearing about all the free food so I'll just tell you that it included Cola Champagne!

Oh yeah and go watch the movie and tell me what you think!

Papa Papa Paparazzi

Oh you know, it's New York City so we hang out with famous people on weeknights.

First: Wes Anderson on a Manic Monday
While designing some top secret new handbags, Windnie found some time to cruise the twittelator at work... only to discover there was a screening of Fantastic Mr. Fox at the MoMA followed by a Q&A with Wes Anderson! GASP! (thanks @pulsejfk). This was exciting for 2 reasons: 1) Wes Anderson seems like a kool kat and 2) Movies in NYC usually cost like $12 and we could get into this one for $6! Somehow MoMA thought it would make going to the movies more awesome and then lower the price. They're just so modern.

We sweat it out for awhile in the standby line while Windnie played with her new iPhone and ignored me. Just kidding, she only ignored me a little. So as you may have guessed we did eventually get into the screening! The movie was pretty great! It was both a great family film and a Wes Anderson film. Every good parent should start their kids on Wes Anderson young :) Once the film was over Wes Anderson popped out of the audience and ran up to the stage to talk to us! (Windnie wants to make sure to note that he was wearing a sweet taupe-ish corduroy suit, what a little fashion designer she is!)

Wes seemed like a pretty normal guy and was happy to answer lots of questions from the audience. He said he was surprised to get Meryl Streep to be in the film, but that it was easy to get Jason Schwartzman, Ha. Perhaps the most interesting comment was that George Clooney and Bill Murray became good friends while filming and he believes they have such a good rapport that they should definitely make a movie together. You heard it here first!

If you're in the city be sure to check out the upcoming films in The Contenders series. These films are all less than 12 months old and MoMA thinks they're going to be remembered for a long time. The lineup looks pretty solid to me! And don't forget that student ID! Also the movie ticket price can be applied to the cost of admission to the MoMA within 30 days of purchase! This may be a good option if you don't want to fight the crowds during the free Fridays!

Hello Wes!

Second: Joe Buck and His Stage of Sporting Spectaculars on a Typical Tuesday

So after one celebrity citing on Monday we decided to up the ante on Tuesday. We attended our second freeeee filming of Joe Buck Live. Though our seats were a bit worse than last time (when we had to make sure our heads didn't get clipped by the center stage camera), we still had a good time hanging out with Joe Buck, Brian Westbrook, Brian Urlacher, Pedro Martinez, Floyd Mayweather, and Michael Strahan! After the Brian's talked about how awesome it is being named Brian (Just kidding, we don't need to remind everyone of our awesomeness, they mostly talked about concussions), Pedro talked about how he really loved New York and basically ended up charming the crowd who had booed him on the way in. Last up Floyd Mayweather talked about how amazing he was and Michael Strahan was psyched about it. (You heard it here first: Floyd is going to beat Marquez, he told me so). It was good times :) Both guys were hilarious and charismatic and it's easy to see that they have big futures away from their respective sports. But don't take it from me... take it from surprise guest: "Marky" Mark Wahlburg! Yeah, we just upped the celebrity ante some more. We're cool like that.

Hello annoying camera contraption!
(we forgot to take pictures while people were actually on stage...)

So if you want to be cool like us, you should come along next time! We're on the mailing list now so we find out as soon as tickets become available! And let us know if you've got ideas for more free/cheap events, or have topics you want us to explore! We'd also love to join you in your freevents and vice versa!

Until next time,
Later days!

Book Store Bums

A great place to find free entertainment in New York City (and maybe learn something too) is the bookstore! You could be sneaky and just go read the books at a book store but I don't know if they really condone that sort of thing. For a more encouraged free event, keep an eye out for readings, signings and discussions. These events usually coincide with the release of a new book and in a city like New York you never know who will show up!

Since I arrived in the city I've been to 3 such events (Windnie joined for the last two!):


9/25: My first try at free book signing was a discussion with Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, prolific PBS film makers, at Barnes and Noble on the Upper East Side. I love PBS documentaries and have actually been watching a lot of Ken Burns on Netflix. It helps fill the void of not having school after 19 years of continuous education. These guys were promoting their new film The National Parks: America's Best Idea which was debuting on TV the week after their visit and also includes a companion book.

Burns and Duncan told stories from their travels through the National Parks and then answered questions about their processes and techniques in making films. Many people in the audience apparently thought that the 2 were now experts on all things national parks and asked questions about their vacation plans. The film makers then signed their books which I didn't buy because they were expensive and I am cheap. Overall it was really interesting and enjoyable and wet my appetite for more free events. (As a side note Ken Burns is almost creepily pleasant, like he came out of the Truman Show or something.)



11/9: The Teacha, KRS-One, stopped by the Barnes and Noble in Tribeca last night to discuss and sign his book the Gospel of Hip Hop. Click the picture above to read an article all about this interesting project by a hip hop pioneer. KRS gave a rambling, yet thought provoking, lecture about hip hop, Martin Luther King, globalism and the creation of an authentic American religion. Heading into the event I figured the Gospel of Hip Hop was just a history of Hip Hop culture, boy was I wrong. KRS believes that in the future hip hop will be recognized as it's own religion. From what he said it follows the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but is rooted in the American urban experience. KRS often paused while he spoke to make sure we understood the weight of his words, often reinforcing this by telling us how controversial his last comment was. It was interesting to say the least. Also in the audience was Charlie Ahearn, director of Wild Style, which KRS called the "First Gospel of Hip Hop" because it taught the world what hip hop was and gave them a common language. I'll have to check it out! Interesting night... Oh I also didn't buy his book to have signed.



11/10: Tonight was Chuck Klosterman at Border's in Columbus Circle. I've never read anything by Klosterman but I'd heard of him and his books before. I actually kind of confused him with Chuck Palahnuik because I mean, how many contemporary writers could be named Chuck??? Well anyways, this began as an actual book reading. He read a story directly from the book. (As opposed to KRS who obtusely talked about his book). The story was amusing and Klosterman has an amusing voice so it was a good time. Klosterman also answered a wide variety of questions from the audience, from the life expectancy of magazines to his thoughts on Ritchie Blackmore from Rainbow going classical. He also answered some questions about his actual writings, go figure! The event ended with a book signing! Which we did not attend.


These events have certainly been varied and engaging and we plan on going to many more! Almost everyday someone is reading the book they wrote somewhere in the city. Keep an eye out for when your favorite author, hip hop legend, or documentarian are coming through town.

Of course interesting talks are not limited to bookstores, sounds like a blog post for another day...