NYC seen from Williamsburg

A bit late in the day, but here is the only painting I did during my recent trip to New York. It was a boiling hot 4 July and I spent a bit of time in the park they've created on the waterfront in Williambsurg. The area has changed quite a bit since I lived in New York 4 years ago. It's still great - just different.

Synecdoche, New York

Just went to see Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, and thought it was brilliant. Kind of a crossover between 8 1/2 and a Woody Allen movie. It also reminded me in part of A Bothersome Man, a Norwegian film by Jens Lien which I saw at the Cinémathèque Français in 2006 and which made an impression on me for its strange, wacky kind of black humour and a delight in the grotesque.

Synecdoche, New York is a film about a theatre director who wins a prestigious MacArthur grant, with which he decides to direct a play about his own existence - and recruits an enormous cast of characters to (re)enact his life. However, things get more and more confusing as reality and fiction overlap.

Kaufman's film focuses on the great 'crisis of the artist' but also addresses a wider human fear of loneliness, failure and, ultimately, mortality. But like Fellini, Woody Allen and Lien, Kaufman combines these ponderings with humorous touches highlighting the banal superficiality of everyday modern life. In 8 1/2, Fellini exposes the contradictions of Italian society through his juxtaposition of showbiz, luxury, egotism and night-time decadence with the brisk, clean whiteness of nuns and doctors at a plush, sunny health spa. In Synecdoche, New York, Kaufman creates a running motif of sickness, hospitals and endless visits to a shrink. Ironically, the protagonist, Caden (Philip Seymour Hoffman), doesn't seem to know that much about what he is actually suffering from, and the director doesn't make it clear whether his illness is real or metaphorical. In tandem, his shrink - an attractive, middle-aged blonde who has published a prolific array of self-help books, many of which focus on her own beauty and sexual allure - seems more in need of psychological counselling than any of the other characters.

The emphasis on health - physical or psychological, and the presence and absence of it - also reminds me of another fantastic film starring Seymour Hoffman: The Savages, directed by Tamara Jenkins. This is another film set in the artsy, often pretentious milieu of American East Coast intellectuals, and a film which exposes the ridiculous side of human relationships.

Synecdoche, New York is a funny, disturbing, uplifting and saddening film - perhaps a little too long, but then again if it weren't, then maybe it would be too comfortable, too easy, and ultimately less satisfying.

You can take the girl out of New York...

(Above: Downtown NYC - a striking contrast to leafy Brooklyn)


Whilst my life in the big apple is fading further into the past, certain habits haven't rubbed off yet. I may have just about got used to saying 'toilet' without feeling strangely vulgar whilst doing so. Yet it's strange that, despite two decades' worth of English education compared to only nine months living in America, I still stop for a moment when using an 's' instead of a 'z' in words like 'authorisation', or when writing dates as day/month/year. Maybe the letter 'z' is just more eye-catching than 's'. As for calendar dates, I suppose as Brits we're used to hearing phrases such as 'September 11', so it's very easy to adapt to the format where the day comes after the month.

On the other hand, certain things are happily left behind. These include:

- Strange roommates found on Craigslist who seemed OK when I first met them.

-The 'C' Brooklyn-bound subway line. Especially at weekends when it's known to transform into an 'F' and skip stops. Or, worse still, suddenly switches to the express track at nighttime, skipping my stop and leaving me stranded in the delightfully named Hoyt-Schermerhorn station. Not to be recommended on a dark, rainy night.

- Trying to get a cab back to Brooklyn when it's 3am in Manhattan and raining.

- The near-impossible task of getting a nice espresso, or a macchiatto that isn't the size of a cappuccino.

- Neurotic, depressive New York men (no more tales of 'locationally circumscribed self-loathing' please!)

- The bitter, relentless winter. But then again that's outweighed by the marvellous, long-lasting summer...

Erm... well that's all about all I can muster. The verdict is, New York has more pro's than cons to it. But you didn't need me to tell you that!

That said, London would fare well in such a test too. Today for example, I swam with a swan at Hampstead Heath Ladies' pond. The pond (which actually resembles a mini-lake) is one of my favourite summertime haunts in the city, set within the beautiful Hampstead Heath. This proximity with nature is one thing missing from New York - central park doesn't count, it's too built up; Brooklyn's Prospect Park, though very pretty, is too small and far from the town centre. One of London's best features is its wealth of well-kept parks.

Job Hunt

So, I've now been back from NY a while. The honeymoon period is over. I've no longer got the excuse of having 'just got back' from the States; it's almost been two months now. And having finished the couple of short-term work placements I had lined up for my return, I've now officially joined the thousands of others in the UK and beyond who are struggling to find full-time employment

A blogger friend of mine in NY (see sidebar on right, below) recounted her own experiences of job hunting in the States earlier this year, and the stigma attached to the notion of being 'unemployed'. Things aren't any better on this side of the pond. For people like me, who graduated within the last two years or so and are looking for a career in the media, arts & heritage or development work, the future is looking increasingly bleak. More and more people I know or have just met are giving up their quest for the job they really wanted, and opting for the guarantee of financial stability that comes with doing a law conversion course.

But what about people who are passionate about the arts, and couldn't bring themselves to go down that route? A large proportion of my contemporaries have done unpaid internship upon unpaid internship, sprinkled with stints behind a bar here and babysitting there, often rounded off with a Masters degree - and they still can't find a full-time job in the field of their choice.

During my internship at the Guggenheim in New York, I worked alongside (mainly European) girls who all have postgraduate degrees from the best universities in the UK, Italy and France, but are still working for free, either full-time or four days per week. One German friend of mine was (and still probably is) working full time at the Guggenheim, unpaid, with a PhD from the Sorbonne under her belt. She's in her early 30s, attractive, highly intelligent and trilingual. Another friend of mine is 27 years old, received a commendation for her Masters from La Sapienza in Rome and speaks 3 languages. She's still serving pizzas at night after working in the Guggenheim curatorial department all day, to make ends meet. The worrying thing is, she and several other Italian girls chose to move to New York because the job market is even worse in their home country.

Funnily enough, London is seen by my French and Italian friends as a place filled with job opportunities. This may have been true a few years ago, but it doesn't seem so now. My peers from Cambridge and other top universities are doing temping work and unpaid placements. I'm not saying internships like these are a bad thing - I gained so much experience, and also made some wonderful friends during my time at the Guggenheim and all the other journalistic placements I've done in Europe. What is bad, however, is the fact that after the work placements are over, there doesn't seem to be a 'next step', except doing another unpaid placement.

The problem is that there just aren't enough jobs to go round. So, for the few jobs that are advertised, the competition is fierce. Most applications these days require tediously long forms which take hours to fill in, and then at the end of it all you may not even be invited for interview. As a result, many excellent candidates are discounted before the employer has even met them.

What can we do about it? Well it seems that the current economic climate isn't going to change for a while. So I'm not sure if there's much we can do, except try and stay positive, keep persevering and in the mean time do some temping work - or become a lawyer. Unfortunately, that's one thing I just couldn't do...

Sex and the City

On Wednesday I went to see the new Sex and the City movie. I was lucky to get a ticket as movie theatres across the country were totally sold out.

Was I impressed? Well, not really, but I didn't expect to be. I knew the film could never live up to the hype, but was curious to see the final dénouement of the Carrie/Big saga.

I've always been a big fan of the series, mainly because of the clothes but also because the story is quite addictive, and there are always some great one-liners. Having lived in New York, I now feel I pick up on details that would have skipped my attention before. References to places such as Bed Bath and Beyond, Bergdorf Goodman, Pastis, City Hall, the Public Library, etc, now have more meaning. I also have to say that, despite not really missing NY since I left (mainly because I've been too busy), the film's Brooklyn Bridge scene did cause me to feel slightly teary-eyed. I used to love walking across that bridge.

Overall, I think the film delivered what the audience wanted - a happy ending but not sugary-sweet. However, I do feel that the overall cinematic experience was marred due to the high level of product placement. In fact, it seemed like the whole script was guided by different endorsements, from Christie's (one of the first scenes takes place at an auction there) to Pret a Manger (Carrie and Miranda delicately unwrap some very un-atkins sarnies, obviously to indicate that that the no-carbs diet is so 5 years ago, and also to hint at the presence of the British lunch joint in NY) to a list of the most exlcusive wedding dress designers (Vera Wang, Vivienne Westwood, etc), and of course: the Vuitton bag.

As one guy I spoke to after the show put it, the film encapsulates 'utter American captialism'. I'm not claiming to be against shopping culture, but I must admit that the lavish excesses of the film did make me feel a bit queasy.

Nevertheless, there were, as usual, some delightful comic lines, delivered mostly by Samantha of course.

Teacups

In New York, you don't just go to a bar. The thing to do is find that secret, Prohibition-style Speakeasy where you drink Cosmopolitans out of teacups. Or the Japanese style bar where the rules state that you can't talk loudly, and where you'll find elegant New Yorkers sipping on iced cocktails infused with shiso leaf, in a Haruki Murakami-style setting.
The question is, will London nightlife seem tame after this?

African Cinema in New York

I've been interested in African cinema for about three years now. Recently, I've managed to catch a couple of new African films in New York. There's an African film festival going on here, based at the Lincoln Center, BAM and the Alliance Française at separate times. I managed to catch the thought-provoking Africa Paradis at the Lincoln Center a couple of weeks ago. (I will review that in a later blog). Here, I want to talk about a film I saw on Saturday at BAM (The Brooklyn Academy of Music, for those of you who don't know it).

It's a documentary entitled FESPACO (2007). Made by Kevin Arkadie, an African American who has worked for years on commercial TV, it takes the format of an 'insider's' view of FESPACO, the only pan-African film festival that has been taking place annually in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, for twenty years. The festival has existed for longer than that though - it first took place in 1969 and became an institution by governmental decree on 7 January 1972.

Arkadie first discovered FESPACO when he went there a few years ago, and wanted to share his experience with fellow (African) Americans who haven't heard of the festival. As it happens, my father went there in 1994 when he was working for Reuters in Nairobi. I still remember the themed notebook he brought back for me, with the space-age architecture of Burkina Faso's capital city on the front. (I am now aware that the photo depicts the aptly named Place des Cinéastes, a central focus of this cinema-loving city). Perhaps it was all those years ago, looking at that image aged ten, that my fascination with African cinema really began.

So, back to the film. The first thing that struck me was the over-use of photo montage and old-fashioned graphics, which distracted from the interesting subject matter. The documentary is also spoiled by the poor sound quality of the voiceover. However, I think Arkadie's film does provide a good insight into the festival, its history and the way it is developing now. Having never been before, I did feel I gained an insight into the atmosphere of the event, and the way it attracts the participation of the general public. The filmmaker's particular slant, following some African Americans who, nominated for the 'Paul Robeson' award (geared specifically towards African American filmmakers), went there for the first time. One of these directors actually won the award, which was a coup for the director.

I met the Arkadie before the screening. I found out his film has already been presented in California and in Denver, and it will travel to Atlanta later this summer. It hasn't yet made it to the UK, but I'm hoping it will soon. Not enough people know about the vibrant, exciting film scene in West Africa, and it's time to change this.

Images: Senegalese director Ben Diogaye Beye; Ousmane Sembene's Moolaade (2004); Haroun's Abouna (2002); Place des Cinéastes, Ouagadouou

Guggenheim Farewell

Tomorrow I'll be having my farewell party (at Pink Pony, in case you're curious). I'll be leaving NY in mid-May to start my 'new life' in Europe.

I've been thinking lately how much I'll miss all my New York friends. Here are some snapshots of my time at the Guggenheim.