In My Own Words

The Lament of a Yankees Fan

2008-09-19T12:28:00.015-05:00

Hello Friends,

I am gearing up to post my Japan Blog. As yakyu (the Japanese word for baseball) season is upon us and has become such an important part of the Japanese cultural fabric (And why not? It's the greatest game in the world!),I was inspired to post an e-mail from my friend Jimmy. For those of you who don't know Jimmy, I met Jimmy through two close friends who ended up attending Muhlenburg College in Allentown, PA during the late 80's. My two friends had one thing in common - me. Once they firgured that out - and the fact that the two of them are huge trouble makers - they became fast friends... and to put it in the most cliched way possible - the rest is history. Through John and Brian I was introduced to a cast of characters, including Jimmy, that I have had the pleasure to keep in touch with the rest of my adult years. Jimmy and I don't always see eye to eye with politics or our choice of religion (you guys know what I think about that), but two things unite us in a deeply strong bond: food...and yakyu! (Yeah, I know, baseball.)

As many of you know, they are sacking Yankee Stadium. I, like Jimmy, will also miss it terribly. I'll miss the crummy subway ride, the stinky bathrooms, the original curses an epithets uttered by Yankees fans in a way that only someone who's been raised in the tri-boroughs can ejaculate and I will miss the energy of the House that Ruth built. I hope that whatever gets developed on that space once the stadium get sacked, will have to endure the hauntings of The Babe and Lou Gehrig and all the great Yankees who have passed. May they have a field of dreams interrupting their conference calls, their board meetings and their moments in the can throughout eternity! And with that statement now... below... and unadulterated...is Jimmy's lament. Enjoy! Add your comments! Play ball! - T

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Who cares about the election….it’s business as usual anyhow. The real issue is that there are only five more games to be played in the history of Yankee Stadium. I will be in front of my TV on Sunday night crying my eyes out. This was the ballpark I grew up with and in.

I would love to spend a day with Lon Trost, who is the CFO of the Yankees. I want to see all the numbers & dollars that are going into this new place because I don’t think it’s needed. The Red Sox play in a park that was built in 1912. So do the Cubs. And they’re doing just fine financially. Yankee Stadium seats 56,000. Fenway Park holds 37,000.

Why is history going to be torn asunder and disposed? Why? How much is enough? You are drawing 4,000,000 fans per year, and you have done so for the past 6 years in a row. You own your own tv station and it’s the most lucrative team-owned network in pro sports. Your organization is the only sports organization to be worth more than one billion dollars. Your merchandise is sold all over the world, and unlike the NFL, each team keeps whatever their logo sells. The NFL takes all the merchandise sales and divides them up equally. There are 32 teams so you get 1/32 of the pot. But not baseball.

Practically every game for the past few years has been sold out. No team can even come close. You are also getting a hefty paycheck from the parking and the percentage of concessions. The Yankees don’t get all $6 for a hot dog but I’ll bet they get half.

Yes it’s cramped and doesn’t have restaurants, etc. But this is Yankee Stadium. It’s supposed to be about the baseball. If you want fine dining, go to Morton’s.

The House That Ruth Built is coming to an end all in the name of corporate luxury boxes, which is what the Yankees have been bitching about for 15 years. Yankee Stadium, renovated between 1973-1975, is still a 1920’s design. Room for skyboxes wasn’t figured in back then.

I’ll take my cramped hallways and the smell of stale beer. I also take the memories of all the games I attended and all the greats I have seen.

To tear this place down is sacrilegious and to me, compares to tearing down the Vatican.

An Elf's Adventure in Poland

2007-10-18T14:03:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone,

Finally I am getting around to posting our exploits in Poland this past July at the Tolk Folk Festival in Bielawa, Poland. Adam and I were the guests of honor there at this week long festival which included, Hobbit Races, performances of Tolkien based music and a massive re-enactment of The Fall of Gondolin complete with Balrogs on stilts a fire breathing dragon and original music underscoring narration by the organizer of the festival.

For those of you who didn't know, part 1 of Adam's opera Leithian, based on the short story of Beren and Luthien from Tolkien's Silmarillion was premiered at the Liederkranz Foundation NY, NY in July of 2006. It's fame took off in the Tolkien fan circles via their websites. Part 2 was premiered in NY this past April and now Adam is waiting in limbo to see if Tolkien's publisher will extend the agreement so we can take the next steps to promote his opera. Adam was Beren, I was Luthien and we had a host of great artists working with us. More information on the opera can be found at Adam's website: http://www.adamcjklein.us.

Poland has an amazing group of serious fans, a kin to those represented at Sci-Fi conventions that I have attended in the distant and recent past. In brief I can summarize my festival experience as part Pennsic, part Star Trek Convention and part pastoral-vacation-in-the-Polish-countryside. Wow! The Tolkfolk Festival site can be found here. It's all in Polish, but I think Google would be happy to translate the page for you. We were treated like stars and interviewed by the media for the event. A TV interview can be found here.

Adam has written an amazing blog pretty much summarizing our thoughts on this adventure. You can find his blog here.

In addition to Adam's blog the only other comment I would like to make is about what I observed with the people of Poland and their culture. Without Lek Walesa's efforts there very well may never have been a Tolk Folk Festival or even J.R.R. Tolkien literature in Poland. Mr. Walesa was instrumental in banishing the Soviet backed communist government and through his efforts the people of Poland were allowed the freedoms of expression that come along with being a democracy. The age group that attended this festval was mostly in their 20's with a few 30's-60's smattered amongst them. They were intelligent, worldly, non-prejudiced and forward thinking. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them and have made friends with a few of them. There is a bright future for this country. I can't wait until I go back next year! (I am readying my Elf wardrobe as I write this...)

Hawai'i

2007-05-23T00:41:00.000-05:00

Ah friends,

I just got back from Hawai'i today and it seems like a dream. I was there celebrating one of my oldest friend's 40th birthday. How do these things happen? She looks amazing. I am calling 40 the new 25! Truly it is just a silly number.

The trip out was a bit rough with mechanical problems that delayed my flight twice, but it all evaporated once I was actually in the air. I love to fly. It's the closest thing to being a bird next to hang gliding...something else I want to try before I transition on to the next great adventure.

Yes, the magic started happening when I looked out the window around 3 PM Hawai'i time (or UTC-10 if you really want to be fancy). The plane was right on the edge of two weather fronts. It was not so much of a dramatic clash as it was a gentle divide between the subtropic and tropical climates. I wish I had used my camera. I have never seen anything like it. The clouds to the left were the feathery kind that you expect to see on the mainland and the clouds on the right were those billowy smoke-stacked, cotton candy clouds that puff straight up into the air, seeming to defy gravity and perspective. I got lost in that scene, thinking for a moment that I could hover in between the two fronts, suspended in the air like some great raptor gliding on the wind currents.

The water was so blue that when you looked down you weren't sure if the plane had floated upside down and you were looking at the sky instead. The sun changed, too, from a pale gold to a rich, yellow brightness that warmed without blinding the eyes. Then I saw the islands - first Molokai, then O'ahu - the final stop.

Time flew by and remained in the moment simultaneously. Whether I was camping on the beach with friends, running along the Ala Wai, drinking a lovely Oregon Pinot watching the rainbows and the sunsets, snorkeling with sea turtles or reveling in the rich local cuisine (so evocative of the multiple asian cultures that thrive there) - there was always a feeling of belonging, of being grounded. In the whirlwind of activity there was a centered calm.

What is it about these islands that inspires me? I feel an ancient energy there, combined with the lush Pacific ocean that acts as a channel for that energy thereby giving me limitless energy when I am there. I will probably go there to live someday and start my 4th or 5th career somehow contributing meaningfully to the magic of the place. I haven't quite figured out what it is that I will do, but I will. I feel on this trip I have opened a conduit between myself and the islands. Whenever I feel the ache of being away from my island home, I can now seemingly for a moment transport myself there feeling the warmth of the place and calming myself just a bit more than any meditation could do.

This is my bliss. I hope you all are finding yours or have found yours and are reveling in the warmth that it brings you.

Peace - Ren

REALLY Decadent Split Pea Soup with Pancetta

2007-04-09T05:51:00.000-05:00

Hio Folks,

Many of you have been asking about when I am going to post a new blog. Well, here it is! I thought I would pass on a yummy recipe I created when I was freezing my butt off last month. Oh, it's pretty good for you, too!

REALLY Decadent Split Pea Soup with Pancetta

Ingredients:

2-3 shallots - sliced
1/2 bag baby carrots - sliced
1 carton chicken stock (I like organic, low sodium)
2-3 cups of water
1/4 to 1/3 pound of Pancetta - chopped (In my opinion, Prosciutto is just a bit too much - "pricewise" and "flavorwise")
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 bunch fresh thyme
2 tablespoons dried Herbs de Provence
1 cup dried red lentils
1/2 cup dried green split peas
salt and pepper to taste

Place soup pot on element and heat the pot at medium heat. Add the olive oil and toast the thyme and Herbs de Provence for a moment. The add the shallots. Sauté until soft and then add the garlic. Then add the carrots coating them with the oil, herb and shallot/garlic mixture and sauté them a bit. Finally add the stock, water, lentils, split peas and salt and pepper to taste. Cover pot and bring to a boil. After boiling reduce the soup to a simmer. The soup will be done when the lentils and split peas have lost their shape. This usually takes 1 to 1/2 hours.

Bon appetite!

Ren

World Sound Healing Day

2007-02-09T22:57:00.000-05:00

My very first blog is rather brief, but I hope poignant. I got this notice in an e-mail a couple of days ago via a contact at the Meta Center in NYC. It's about World Sound Healing Day which is being held on Valentine's Day 2007 all day long.

The web address is:

http://www.healingsounds.com/sounds/worlddayinfo.asp

The concept is that by chanting the healing tone "AH" for five minutes during that day either by yourself or in a group, you will be projecting the energy of light & love throughout the planet and in turn generating a field of transformational energy that can be felt by all. Pretty cool, eh?

Namaste - Renaissance (or Ren for short...)

Welcome

2007-02-06T22:10:00.000-05:00

Hello All,

Finally I have a blog to share my musings, opinions, philosophies, poetry and perhaps even a few recipes. There is absolutely no underlying theme to my posts, except to say that I have diverse interests and truly believe in the philosophy of "The Renaissance Man" - or in this case...woman...hence my moniker.

I post these blogs with all good intentions. If I contribute to your day in a positive way, then my goal has been accomplished. Stay tuned for the latest in a series of what I hope to be entertaining contributions to the blog multiverse.

Cheers - Renaissance Soprano