A spectacular reason to layover in Dallas

On my way home for New Year's from Hong Kong to Phoenix, there was a 20-minute window when I thought I wouldn't make my connecting flight at DFW and I started to think of things I would want to do during my forced layover in Dallas. The only thing I came up with was a visit the Kimbell Art Museum, but that's actually in Fort Worth.

This morning, as I was catching up on TED talks, I finally came upon a reason to visit Dallas; a reason as good as the Seattle Public Library -- the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Both buildings were designed by the same architects. Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus' talk contains a lot of food for thought that I hope the master planners (OMA being one of them) and developers of Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District will chew on and digest. More importantly, I hope they aspire to creating an infrastructure and environment that is as innovative, end-user sensitive and nurturing of culture, creativity and community as this:



I checked out the calendar at Wyly Theatre and was amused to see performances of It's Superman slated for this summer. What is it with this current trend for superhero musicals? It just seems like such a hokey concept. I am not a fan of musicals, but with Bono & The Edge writing the music, even I am intrigued to check out the big Broadway production of Spiderman that is slated to open some time soon, hopefully. Apparently, it is way over budget (it will take five years of full house sales each night just to break even) and late (original preview date had been set for 16 January this year). Will it be a superhuman hit or a fatal flop?

Empire State of Mind

Am back in Hong Kong after two weeks in the Big Apple, and the first thing I was grateful for is Hong Kong's super efficient airport. From the gate to the Airport Express took just 15 minutes, including waiting for luggage. Flying to and within the US is just such a drag these days. Having said that, New York City still has a great vibe. As the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys song goes:

New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothing you can’t do
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Hear it for New York, New York, New York

There is plenty of inspiration to be had in New York. While I was in town, I celebrated Hannah Seligson's book launch, was mesmerized by Anish Kapoor's Memory at Guggenheim, saw two hilarious plays (The Understudy and Present Laughter), and got to take a yoga class with Baron Baptiste who will actually be teaching in Hong Kong next weekend at Pure TST.

Baptiste's class did not disappoint. It was a killer. He enjoyed telling us to just "be" as he ran us through a 15-minute series of core exercises and made us hold poses for countless breaths. While I still enjoyed Jules' classes at Jivamukti, I was introduced to Marco's classes at Pure East by JGK with a warning the class would likely piss me off because he likes to have his students hold poses. I ended up going to four classes by Marco. It was not until the last class, when Marco spent the entire class telling us ad nauseum to "inhale into the upper lung, exhale from the mula bandha (pelvic floor) to get rid of what you don't need from the root", did I finally manage to cruise through his class without wanting to curse him.

Noël Coward's Present Laughter, just opened on Broadway last night to rave reviews with Victor Garber (aka ALIAS' Jack Bristow) in the starring role. Coward's play is about a narcissistic actor and the drama he manages to stir up with more than one woman who has "lost/forgotten my latch key". There's plenty of wit to fuel 2.5 hours of jovial laughs, and Dodge's luscious Art Deco set is eye candy (the grain on the wood paneling is all hand-painted!). The play runs until 21 March at the American Airlines Theatre.

As for restaurants, I re-visited many of my usual haunts: Via Quadronno (sadly, the one in HK just does not compare), Candle Cafe, La Esquina. But my favourite meal was probably the post-yoga falafel and baklava lunch at Hummus Kitchen, while the most memorable was evening post-flight nibbles at Rock Center Cafe the day before the tree was to come down. The food and drink were nothing spectacular, but the view of the skating rink made for a very warm, festive welcome to the city.

Mother's Day Conversation with James Mark: Hamlet's Mom Gertrude

I had a Barbara Walters moment today. Not sure if it was because it was Mother's Day, but 73-year-old theatre director James Mark (he's sort of the godfather of the Hong Kong theatre scene) got a bit teary-eyed as he talked about a mother's love as seen in Hamlet. I was interviewing Mark because he has just presented Sword of Vengeance, a Putonghua adaptation of Hamlet set in the Five Kingdoms era of Chinese history in Stratford-upon-Avon to celebrate Shakespeare's 445th birthday last month.

Mark mentioned that he had been a social worker with Caritas for 17 years. So for my last question, I asked him: "What does Hamlet, a play about revenge, have to say about love and compassion?"

Mark started beaming, as if I "got" him. "I don't emphasize revenge in Hamlet. I don't need to stress revenge, because love and passion create enough conflict as it is." Essentially, Mark's take on Hamlet is that the tragedy stems from Gertrude's conflicting love for her husband Claudius and her son Hamlet.

"It's Gertrude's love and passion, concern and consideration that is most moving. Imagine Gertrude is in a loveless marriage to Hamlet's father. And then there's Claudius, the brother-in-law, who has been nothing but kind, gentle, sympathetic and considerate towards her. So when Claudius kills Hamlet's father and becomes King, Gertrude has a choice. Does she give up her life as Queen and her son's future as King to begrudge a man who's been nothing but caring towards her or does he marry him and secure her son's future? But of course, Hamlet does not understand this and only sees his mother as betraying his father and therefore him. Gertrude loves both her husband Claudius and her son. In my production, I make sure Gertrude sees Claudius pouring the poison in the wine, because I want the audience to see that she drinks it to save her son. Hamlet is not about good or evil, right or wrong. It's about all the conflict that is created by love. Without love, there would be no feelings of regret, loss or pain. That's what makes it so tragic." And that's when Mark reached for a napkin to dab his eyes dry.

I didn't have time (I was already 45 minutes late to brunch!), but I would have argued that the conflict, rather than being created by love, was created by Hamlet's inability to have compassion for his mother. And I would have loved to ask Mark about his mother.

New York Faves

1. Enid's, Brooklyn -- I spent an afternoon in Brooklyn after a lunch at DB Bistro. The steak sandwich was more memorable than the signature DB burger stuffed with foie gras and braised ribs. And it was only 1/8th the price! Next time, I'm going to have to have the pulled pork sandwich. Their banana rum cake is also delish.
2. A yoga class by Jules Febre @ Jivamukti -- a student:teacher ratio of 4:3!
3. Shopping for cold weather running gear -- Running Company (their latest shop on 63rd & 3rd, having taken over the shop that used to be Really Cool Foods). They let you try their running shoes on a treadmill that also videos your stride.
4. Equus -- An intriguing take on the struggle to find meaning in life. Daniel Radcliffe bares all, but it's Richard Griffiths who gets under your skin.

I heart New York

I always thought that if I could wake up every morning, go for a run, swim or yoga and then sit down to a big bowl of cappuccino, freshly-squeezed juice and crispy, brown waffles and sausages at a wonderful neighborhood street-side cafe with a copy of the New York Times and watch the world wake up, then that would be the ultimate Little Cream
Life. Well, this morning saw a slight variation. I woke up in HB's Hamptons house, went for a run down to the windy, pebbly beach in Noyack. Got back to a house that was still sound asleep, went and soaked away any aches in my knees in the salt water hot tub. Only thing missing is the breakfast and NY Times. I could try and make myself a coffee, but the Miele machine looks just a little too complicated.

Arrived in New York on Wednesday afternoon. [ooh! BM just woke up and offered to make coffee, yeah!] Fortunately, jet lag hasn't been too bad. Might be because I didn't sleep the night before getting on the 1015 flight or the morning Central Park run I did Thursday morning. Whatever it was, I've managed to stay awake and alert throughout the day since arriving.

Saw Iphigenia 2.0 (showing at Signature Theatre until 30 September) with AD & CS. I was interested because it's a modern adaptation of a Euripedes tragedy I had never heard of. AD told me afterwards that it was the second project he had to design for at Yale. He explained that it's actually quite an important play because it explains why Clytemnestra is such a bitch (she kills her husband) later on (because Agamemnon sacrifices their daughter to appease the gods so that the army can set sail for war with Troy). This version placed the story in the context of the current Iraq war. A good production, but took a bit too much liberty by changing the story to have the soldiers demand Agamemnon's sacrifice rather than the gods.

Breakfast is being served up now, so better get going...

- Sent from my iPhone

New York City Update

The highlight of my New York trip was seeing Voyage, part one of Tom Stoppard's Coast of Utopia trilogy with Ethan Hawke playing Michael Bukanin and Billy Crudup playing Vissarion Belinsky, just two of the lead characters. Tom Stoppard is by far my favourite playwright. His plays are brilliant not just because he manages to entertain, but also because he manages to dilute the mosts complicated of subject matters to a something easily digested by the average audience member with the utmost wit and humour (a great example is Hapgood where quantum physics is made entertaining when set in the context of an entertaining spy comedy). In the Coast of Utopia, the heady subject matter is Russian literature, philosophy and politics (or rather, the people behind them) during 19th century Tsarist Russia. As with most of Stoppard's plays, the topics are presented with a light touch and trademark quirky sense of humour. Can't wait to see Shipwreck and Salvage.

Aside from the play, I also had a lovely dinner at MH's neighborhood restaurant, Daniel (the lounge is much more casual and laid-back than the main dining room with the food being just as delicious), a meeting in Philadelphia with Anthropologie's home buyer and a breakfast meeting with an editor at Knopf at Four Seasons Hotel (love their breakfasts). And here I'd like to dispel the myth that editor's don't have the time of day for mere plebes like me. SW, who is the editor for such luminaries as Joan Didion, is one of the most generous people I've met in any industry. She's been a great person to chat to and gain a deeper understanding of the publishing industry. I had a pretty packed schedule, but I still managed to squeeze in a morning yoga class at Some Like It Hot, where I ran into the soon-to-be wed JK. Had wanted to check out the new Bowery Hotel (Eric Goode and Sean MacPherson's new hotel since Maritime) and Waverly Inn (Goode and MacPherson own that this too along with Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter), but didn't have time since I was staying with MH uptown. There's always next time!

I also had a surprisingly quick and pleasant visit to dermatologist Dr Marc Grossman. I highly recommended him (actually he had been highly-recommended to me from PT's aunt). I'm one of these people who dreads seeing any kind of doctor or dentist and Dr Grossman had a manner that put me at ease from the get-go. The wait in his office actually created more anxiety than the actual examination. It took him all of 3 minutes (perhaps even less) to evaporate all my melanoma fears. The rest of the time was just spent chatting and taking my medical history since it was my first visit. I suppose I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, but with so many friends diagnosed with some form of cancer over the past couple of years, one can never be too cautious.

Well, now I'm back in Hong Kong with piles of work ahead of me, which means I'm staying put until Easter.