So I embarked on a miniature trip to New York City this weekend. I left Friday morning at 8:30 from McPherson Square in Washington and arrived around 1 o’clock in the afternoon at Penn Station in New York City. I took the bus, which may not seem glamorous, but it had Wifi which made the trip so easy. I could work on the bus. When we got to New York we rode the subway lost, so lost for about an hour and a half. My purpose for going to the city was to get my headshots done at the Drama Book Shop’s headshot marathon. This was perhaps one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. I was so nervous. Headshots are expensive and I wanted to walk away with some use-able shots. I was also terrified of making myself look like a hick from out of town in front of this New York photographer. It took me a while to loosen up in my session with him. We found a method that worked for me. He would sing a phrase and would make me repeat it back to him. It sounds corny and slightly crazy, but it made me feel so much more comfortable. He was very abrasive at first, but I could tell he was just searching for the tactic that would work on me. We finally got quite a few really, good shots. A smile, a thought, a model-ish thing. I should be getting my contact sheets this week from him, which will be awesome.
After finishing up at the bookshop, we headed to the Jacobs Theatre with our TKTS-acquired tickets to see Rock ‘n Roll by Tom Stoppard. I am not going to lie, I did not really understand this play. I thought that it was a beautiful performance, but some of the subject matter went right over my head. The best thing I can come up with is that it illustrates how we seem to just be letting our freedom get away from us. We allow people to daily take it away little by little and most of us never do anything about it. The play shifts between a newly Soviet-occupied Prague where a group of citizens are fighting for human rights and Cambridge where a Marxist is trying to keep up the faith in the face of a world full of no’s. I hope that with time I will begin to understand the play more fully. I am glad I took the chance and went to see it. It challenged me. It made me think, which I think is something that marks a good performance.
On Saturday, we had a leisurely breakfast at a diner around the corner from my friend Jenna’s apartment, and then we strolled down to the Seaport to check out BODIES…The Exhibition. This exhibit was a little overwhelming. It features real dissected bodies and parts of bodies preserved for display. It gives you a perfect visual of all the systems of the body. Once you get over the initial nerves of seeing these things you really just lock into learning as much as you possibly can. It was fascinating. Jenna was a little less fond of the experience, but she made it through and I think we all felt that we had spent our time in a worthy manner.
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