The Luna Park Gazette

Just got in from L.A. after spending 10 fabulous days with my Uncle Joe and Aunt Sara. I'm exhausted, hungry, and ready for another vacation, but I guess I'd better show up for work tomorrow morning. I had such a blast this time out. We spend three days in San Diego, which I had never seen before, and I managed to see not one, but two dolphins swimming in the water as I did my morning walk. That may be no big deal for the locals, but for a guy from Brooklyn it was something to see. I surely did love those morning walks in San Diego. I could hear sea lions off in the distance and watch the pelicans swoop in low over the water for the breakfast. And I enjoyed walking straight toward the beautiful morning sun--I could feel the rays of light shining right through me. On they way down to San Diego, we stopped at the Mission at San Juan Capistrano , which I was so-so about--until I actually saw the place. It's such a beautiful location and I got a chance to meet the rec...

At some point while screening my scenes at the final film directing class on Wednesday night, I heard a tremendous boom coming from the outside world. Oh, great, I thought as I sat in the dark with my classmates, that’s God telling me how much He hates my movie! Naturally, it was thunder making all that racket, but I have tendency to overreact. After 8 weeks we finally got to show our work at the School of Visual Arts. I can’t believe how fast the time went by. I met a bunch of great, talented people, had a lot of fun, and I learned so much about filmmaking. I’d say I got a great return on my investment. Wednesday was rather hectic and to top it off, it was my mother’s birthday, which happens to be Assumption Day, when the Virgin Mary was taken up to Heaven. My mother’s middle name was “Assumpta.” I thought of my mom a lot during the day and, as I wrote on my Facebook page, my mother gave us her heart and soul, but the toughest thing she ever asked us to do was to go on l...

One of the best lessons my father ever taught me was to take care of tough jobs as soon as possible. “Better behind you than in front of you,” he used to say. Just eight simple words but they can often mean the difference between joy and all sorts of procrastinated misery. I haven’t always followed my Dad’s advice, but I recently applied this golden rule and I was very glad I did. I gave up my Friday night to edit the two scenes I shot in my film director’s class. It was quite challenging, since editing—like directing—is new to me. But the editing is an important part of the class. Todd, our instructor, told us that when you look at the raw footage, you’ll see what you have, and, more importantly, what you don’t have. Now I have to say that the finished work will never be mistaken for a Hollywood production, but at least I got the job done and I have something to show in class. And I was able to enjoy the rest of my weekend. We had all downloaded our scenes on to flash dr...

On Friday afternoon I joined the congregation at Trinity Church to sing about realms beyond the clouds and a few hours later I was climbing into one. The hymn, “Lamp of Our Feet Whereby We Trace,” was a fitting preface for my trip in and around Cloud City, a structure by Argentine artist Tomas Saraceno currently on view at--or on--the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rooftop garden . The garden is one of my favorite New York locations, even though I haven’t been there in a few years. There are great views of Central Park and the New York City skyline. You feel like you’re far away from the city, even though you’re right in the middle of it. The Met describes Cloud City as “a constellation of large, interconnected modules constructed with transparent and reflective materials” and I’m certainly not going to argue, though the phrase “giant Plexiglass tarantula” did run through my mind upon first viewing. This… thing is cool, especially since you can actually climb inside of it. Th...