Monkey Rum –The New York City Launch Party

 

On one of those sultry summer evenings that’s typical for mid-July in New York City, I happened to spend a rather drunk night attending the official launch party for Monkey Rum.  I blame Zane Lamprey and Steve McKenna for this. 

The party was held at an appropriately-named venue -- The Three Monkeys Bar in midtown Manhattan (near The Ed Sullivan Theater where David Letterman tapes his talk show).  Not only did I get a chance to taste the rum – both on its own and in cocktails – I also got to meet Zane and Steve. 

First, some background on my history with Zane.  Some years ago, I started watching “Three Sheets” on what was then The Mojo network and became fascinated at how much I learned about the spirits and the drinking culture worldwide. After Mojo went off the air, there were several unsuccessful attempts to revive the show across multiple networks.  During the time when the show was off the air, Zane was planning his next television venture, “Drinking Made Easy” on Mark Cuban’s HDNet (now AXS-TV).  At this time, Zane set up a Web site of the same name as the new television show and was looking for contributors to the blog portion of that site; as a fan of Zane’s, I submitted a writing sample and was asked to be a regular contributor. That was in 2010 and I continue to be proudly contributing to that blog to this day. 

Although I’ve attended other New York City-based events Zane has held here, this was the first time I’ve had an opportunity to attend one since becoming a blogger for his Web site.  As Zane sauntered amidst the crowd socializing with the revelers, he eventually made his way over to me, at which point I introduced myself and informed him that I was one of the bloggers on his Drinking Made Easy Web site.  Since I can’t immediately think of a word better than “underwhelmed” in order to describe Zane’s reaction, I’ll simply use that one.  After about 15 or 16 years of staring at me after introducing myself (although in reality, it may have been a bit less than that), Zane countered with, “So what do you write about?”. 

“Spirits and cocktails”, I replied, now no longer able to disguise the fact that neither one of us was interested in continuing this conversation. 

“What did you think of the rum?”, he asked, apparently fishing for a compliment. 

“Well, to be honest, I haven’t tasted it on its own yet – only in cocktails”, I answered, trying desperately to extricate myself from an awkward situation that was only getting worse. 

“I’ll get you some, then!”, Zane responded, immediately disappearing. 

Eventually, one of the hostesses for the evening delivered a pair of shot glasses – one containing the spiced version of Monkey Rum and the other being the coconut flavored Monkey Rum. 

I tried the coconut rum first.  Both the aroma and taste of the rum are very strong with the coconut, to the point where I found it overwhelming.  By contrast, the spiced rum is considerably more subtle; it doesn’t have a very noticeable scent and the spice is mostly detected on the back of the palate.  While I have to admit that I’m not that much of a rum drinker, I probably would’ve preferred it the other way around – make the coconut more understated and the spiced version more aggressive.  Possibly the reason for the distinction here was for marketing purposes – grab the male market with the spiced rum while the women would prefer the coconut rum. 

Initially, I had only tried the rum in cocktails that were being passed around; it wasn’t until Zane offered me the shot glasses that I tasted it on its own.  There were two Monkey Rum-based cocktails that were being prepared that evening:  The Monkey Punch and The Orangutan.   

The Monkey Punch was served over ice.  I found it to be quite refreshing on this humid night.  The mixture of both rums appeared to balance out each other. 

While The Orangutan was not quite as tasty as The Monkey Punch, the orange juice ingredient didn’t add much besides color (and, presumably, a basis for the cocktail’s name).  Perhaps just the spiced rum with the ginger ale would have been better – a variation on The Highball (The Monkey Ball?). 

For additional photos from this evening, please refer to the album on Facebook or Google+.

Film Society Of Lincoln Center Honors Rob Reiner

 

This week, I attended The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s honoring of filmmaker Rob Reiner at the 41st Annual Chaplin Award Gala.

The star-studded evening included tributes by James Caan, Carol Kane, Michael Douglas, Meg Ryan & Billy Crystal; at the end, the award was presented to Reiner by Martin Scorsese, who directed Reiner in “Wolf Of Wall Street”. There were also previously recorded video tributes by Morgan Freeman, Tom Cruise, Mandy Patinkin and Reiner’s father, Carl.

Presenters gave speeches in praise of Reiner, then introduced film clips from various movies Reiner was involved with, either as director or actor. Although references were made to Reiner’s years playing “Meathead” on the old television sit-com “All In The Family”, the evening contained no film clips from that show.

Among the highlights of the evening was when Billy Crystal joined Meg Ryan on stage as co-presenters to talk about making “When Harry Met Sally”; Crystal was his usual funny self and said that this was about as close to a sequel to “When Harry Met Sally” as we were going to get.

One of the funnier stories from the evening had to do with the infamous fake orgasm scene from “When Harry Met Sally”. Meg Ryan’s first few takes weren’t exactly what Reiner was looking for, so he sat at the table with Billy Crystal to demonstrate more of what he wanted (“I felt like I was on a date with Sebastian Cabot”, Crystal joked). In the end, Reiner was dying of embarrassment because his fake orgasm was witnessed by his mother, who was on the set for that scene (you may recall she was one of the restaurant customers who witnessed Ryan’s fake orgasm and reacted by saying the line, “I’ll have what she’s having!”).

Reiner’s career in show business was only part of the evening’s tribute. Also discussed was Reiner’s political activism throughout the years; he has a reputation for being quite sympathetic to liberal causes in the Hollywood community and has often contributed his own time and money to causes particularly meaningful to him – one of the more recent ones being marriage equality.

Michael McKean spoke about working with Reiner on “Spinal Tap” (the scene with the amps set to 11 was shown) while Carol Kane discussed her scenes with Billy Crystal in “Princess Bride” (she said that Reiner ruined the takes because he laughed so much at Crystal’s improvised jokes).

Michael Douglas talked about not only working on the Reiner-directed “American President”, but also acting with Reiner early in his career in a little known movie (“Summertree”, from which a clip was shown).

At the end, Martin Scorsese made a speech before presenting Reiner with his award. He revealed that he always secretly thought that Reiner was spoofing him when he appeared as the documentary director in “Spinal Tap”; basically, he believed Reiner was sending up Scorsese’s work on “The Last Waltz”, a documentary about the rock group The Band.

Finally, one negative note about the evening was the fact that Lincoln Center had abruptly changed the time of the event and I was almost late for the beginning; although the ticket showed a time of 8PM, they apparently had switched the start to 7PM. Fortunately, I got there early, but had just taken my seat about a minute after the ceremonies began.

Cate Blanchett – A New York Film Festival 2013 Tribute

 

As the 2013 New York Film Festival continues, I was able to attend The Film Society Of Lincoln Center’s Tribute to actress Cate Blanchett.

The format of the evening began with showing a short film that was an extended montage of Blanchett’s many films throughout the years. This was followed by an interview of Blanchett conducted by a member of The Film Society’s board, which included a brief question and answer session with members of the audience. The evening concluded with a screening of the Woody Allen film “Blue Jasmine” , in which Blanchett stars.

One of the more remarkable things about the montage of the actress’ film roles is that it really forced you to focus on Blanchett’s exceptionally wide range, including playing an elf in “Lord Of The Rings”, portraying a man – specifically, Bob Dylan in “I’m Not There” – and a scene in Jim Jarmusch’s “Coffee And Cigarettes” in which she played opposite herself in the “Cousins” segment. Although Blanchett very likely will have many more compelling roles for quite a number of years, it is truly astounding at how varied her résumé is; she has had a total of five Academy Award nominations, including winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator”, where she portrayed Katherine Hepburn opposite Leonardo DiCaprio’s Howard Hughes.

 

During the interview, Blanchett recalled her more challenging roles and how differently she worked with various directors. When asked about her dual role in “Coffee And Cigarettes”, she said that director Jim Jarmusch had heard she owned a brunette wig and got the idea to cast her in a scene where she played opposite herself based on that (“He heard I work cheap”, she quipped). With Woody Allen, she said she believed he only liked to do one take and was a little cautious about that, but found that when she worked with him on “Blue Jasmine”, he was always quite willing to shoot multiple takes; Blanchett observed that while Allen doesn’t always know what he wants – he instead prefers to be surprised by his cast – he does know what he doesn’t want and if he sees that, he’ll step in to provide direction. Regarding that role, Blanchett said she became interested in it because she had recently played Blanche DuBois in a stage production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” and felt that the part of Jasmine was so close to Blanche that it would be a natural choice; in fact, she initially thought that she had been contacted about the role because either Allen or his casting director had seen her in the “Streetcar” production, but later discovered that this was not the case.

Enjoyable as it may have been to hear Blanchett describe her experiences in her own words, I ultimately found the evening rather unsatisfying, in large part due to its length – lasting only approximately an hour (not including the screening of “Blue Jasmine” at the conclusion), it did not feel as substantial as some of the other Film Society Tributes I’ve attended in years past at Lincoln Center. One nice touch, however, was a short film clip of filmmaker Woody Allen congratulating Blanchett on the evening’s ceremonies; he joked it up in the way only he could, saying that he was not there because he couldn’t stand an entire evening of listening to compliments about someone other than himself, adding thanks for her kind words to the press regarding her experience working with him, “at least until I had the chance to actually look up the meaning of the word ‘execrable’”.

Here’s a collection of clips from Blanchett’s many motion pictures, assembled by The Film Society Of Lincoln Center:  

 

“Strip Strip Hooray” In New York City

 

 

Last year, it was with great anticipation that I looked forward to seeing the latest Dita Von Teese show, “Strip Strip Hooray” as it toured around the country.   Unfortunately, last autumn’s scheduled shows were forced to be cancelled due to a most unwanted New York City visitor that coincided with the arrival of Ms. Von Teese’s performance troupe – Hurricane Sandy.  Due to this “superstorm”, as it was called, the shows had to be re-scheduled for late winter 2013; this misfortune quickly turned to a new opportunity for me as this time, I was able to purchase a VIP ticket which offered a swag bag in addition to the chance to meet Ms. Von Teese and have a photo taken with her following the show. 

With four sold-out performances at Manhattan’s Gramercy Theater, I attended the closing night of this series of shows, which included Dirty Martini, Catherine D’Lish, Selene Luna, Perle Noire, Lada Nikolska and Monsieur Romeo among the other performers who danced on the T-shaped stage featuring the traditional runway. 

The evening featured four performances by its star:  The Martini Glass, The Rhinestone Cowgirl, The Powder Puff Pin-Up Show and The Opium Den.

The show opened with Ms. Von Teese performing The Martini Glass number, where she started dressed Marlene Dietrich-style in a man’s tuxedo with tails and a top hat.  Dancing to the song “A Guy Who Takes His Time”, she eventually stripped down and climbed into the water-filled martini glass, swirling around as if she was the world’s sexiest swizzle stick.   

Later, she appeared as The Rhinestone Cowgirl, an aptly titled western-based routine where Ms. Von Teese wore a rhinestone covered outfit with various other rhinestone bedazzled accoutrements, including pistols and a holster.  During this number, she danced to the tunes “Hey Good Lookin’” and “Walkin’ After Midnight”, ultimately winding up sensuously riding a mechanical bull.  

 

Following an intermission, Ms. Von Teese’s first number of the second act was The Powder Puff Pin-Up Show.  This number features the star emerging from a powder compact and dancing about in a skirt that resembles a cross between a powder puff and a ballerina’s tutu – appropriately so, because she wore ballet shoes and danced en pointe.  Without a doubt, this was my favorite performance of the night by Ms. Von Teese for a couple of reasons.  First, because she displayed her perfect self to her sexiest and most seductively feminine best.  Second, this act gave her the opportunity to show off her talents as a dancer; judging from the reactions by some of the other audience members around me, I was clearly not the only one who was both surprised and delighted to observe Ms. Von Teese’s highly skilled toe-dancing. 

The show concluded with the star performing the Asian-based routine called The Opium Den.  This act features Ms. Von Teese starting out dressed in a Dragon Lady style outfit, after which she performs something akin to a Sally Rand reminiscent fan dance behind an immense Chinese folding fan. 

Thanks to my VIP pass, I had the opportunity to meet Dita Von Teese following the show and have a photograph taken with her.  If you accused me of being star-struck, I wouldn’t deny it for a second – and if you ever met this gorgeous woman, you would not blame me a single bit.  A gracious and friendly Ms. Von Teese went out of her way to make a nervous admirer feel comfortable during the quick photo shoot.  Granted, I was near the front of the line of nearly 40 some people who would have a similar moment with her, so I have no idea how well she was able to hold up by the time the last person in line reached her – yet she came across as so charming and personable, I don’t doubt she made every one of her fans feel as welcomed as this one. 

 

The Rhinestone Follies Burlesque Show

 

 

After a disappointing evening spent at last year’s New York City Burlesque Festival (reviewed here), I decided to skip the show for 2011. That said, however, I still felt a need for my enjoyment of old-time burlesque shows to be sated – thankfully here in New York, I can turn to the delightful gals who make up The Rhinestone Follies. In fact, you might almost title this post, “How I Spent My Summer Stay-cation” because I wound up spending quite a few Friday evenings this past summer attending their show in downtown Manhattan.

I first learned of their shows at the outset of summer by seeing one of their advertisements in The Village Voice; sounding like a cool idea at a reasonable price, I headed down to The R Bar on The Bowery at my first opportunity.

The performances by the entertainers of The Rhinestone Follies can range from fun to infuriating.  Unfortunately, individual acts can sometimes be a little inconsistent, but at these prices, they are definitely worth trying; even if you don't like parts of the show you saw on a given evening, you’ll still find enough worthy of sincerely enthusiastic applause.  As an example of this inconsistency, one night, in the midst of an otherwise sexy and exciting show, there was a gay couple that performed the most ponderous routine of the entire evening and one which we probably all could’ve done without. Given that the performers seem to vary from show to show, it can then turn into a bit of a pot luck of hodgepodge acts – so you may need to be a bit patient at times. 

To give the performers a bit of a break, there are contests interspersed, hosted by the goofball Master of Ceremonies.  Audience members can win prizes -- occasionally of questionable value – but the contests themselves can at least be fun, even if your only participation is as an audience member rather than a contestant.

These shows are generally populated with a spirited, playful crowd ready for a party and proud to celebrate the qualities of feminine beauty -- all in all, not a bad way to spend a Friday night.   The three core girls of The Rhinestone Follies -- Hazel Honeysuckle, Beelzebabe and Kita St. Cyr -- are luscious and each has an absolutely delicious body, extremely shapely and fit, adding to their desirability.  In short, with an extensive menu of pulchritude on display, there’s plenty for all tastes to enjoy and appreciate and admire. 

A little something about the venue, just because it could influence your decision on going: The R Bar is located at 218 Bowery in lower Manhattan, not far from Spring Street. This place has "Dive" written all over it -- which is not to say that it's a bad thing.  As a matter of fact, the environment even kinda fits in with the old-style burlesque atmosphere.  Just be aware that you will not be seeing this show in a theater or nightclub – rather, it’s a somewhat seedy bar located in a somewhat seedy part of town; R Bar has a stage in the back with a separate bar where, I’m given to understand, bands sometimes play when the ecdysiasts aren’t performing.

The price of the show is quite reasonable – under $20 – although it appears to vary; there were some nights when I got in for only $10 and others where I was required to pay $15. There are no tickets, they just mark up the back of your hand as proof of payment. Before 10PM, most drinks are sold at something of a discount; the show usually ends prior to that time though, leaving you a few minutes for a last round before the prices increase.

In addition to their Web site (see link above), The Rhinestone Follies may be followed on both Twitter and Facebook. 

This video is an excerpt from the show – their standard finale, a fan dance performed to Billy May’s “Charmaine”.

 

The 8th Annual NYC Burlesque Festival

 

 

This past weekend, I attended The 8th Annual New York City Burlesque Festival.  While the festival itself occurs over a four – night period, I only attended the event on Saturday Night, October 2, 2010.  The first two nights took place in Brooklyn, but I was unable to attend either one of them (despite the fact that opening night was actually just a few blocks away from my very own neighborhood) and the last two nights were in Manhattan.  Saturday night was the big event, a three-hour show of ecdysiasts working their craft for a sold-out crowd at BB King’s night club in the heart of Times Square; Sunday, the festival wound down with several afternoon classes in the art of the striptease being offered by many of the professionals who performed the previous night, culminating with The Golden Pasty Awards being handed out that night. 

 

The show was scheduled to start at 7:30PM and the doors to open about an hour before; I didn’t show up until 6:45PM, and when I took a look at the long line snaking outside the club and down 42nd street, I wondered if I’d even get a seat, since I purchased a General Admission ticket online only a couple of nights prior.  While standing on line, I managed to strike up a conversation with the two young ladies in front of me; neither of them had ever attended this event before and they hadn’t already bought a ticket because they heard you could purchase them at the box office on the night of the show.  Unfortunately, they soon discovered that this evening’s show was completely sold out and as a result, the only tickets to be had at the box office were of the Will Call variety. 

 

Behind me was an unescorted woman who was clearly quite pumped-up about the evening – having attended last year’s festivities, she knew full well what to expect and wasn’t at all shy about sharing her experience with anyone willing to listen.  She grabbed my arm and waxed enthusiastically and fondly about what she witnessed the previous year, telling me exactly what to expect this evening.  “The show was very long, but well worth it because the acts got increasingly erotic as the night wore on … “, she reminisced, her eyes rolling up.  “Put it this way”, she concluded, squeezing my arm even tighter, “By the end of the evening, I’m going to be jumping your bones!”  With that for an entree to the night’s excitement, I was ready for a fun Saturday. 

 

Once we found our way inside the theater, I was soon separated from this woman who would be my night’s “date” and the ushers had no problem finding me a seat for the evening – lucky for me, it was a booth with three women who were in a cocktail kinda mood for a Girls Night Out.  We began by listening to a jazz trio performing the best of The Great American Songbook, as Tony Bennett once called these tunes.  Shortly thereafter, the show began, more or less on time, with host (hostess?) Murray Hill, the famed (in NYC, anyway) drag king comedian (comedienne?) who is the annual Master (Mistress?) Of Ceremonies for this event.   Although I had heard of Murray Hill for some years now, this was the first time I had the pleasure of experiencing his (her?) act in person; he (she?) was quite funny – perhaps the only downside of the performance was Murray’s attempt at singing (twice!).  Stick to the jokes, babe …

 

Despite the advice I had gotten while queued up for the event, I found that the show was quite the opposite of what had been described to me – instead of the acts getting increasingly better as the night wore on, they seemed to me to be getting worse.  For the most part, the best acts were presented early on and the later the hour, the worse the performers.  In fact, the group of three ladies with whom I shared a booth were so bored that before the two hour mark, they had paid their check and left for more promising ventures in The Big Apple (my only regret being that they did not ask me to join them).  How to describe the majority of the evening’s strippers?  Too old, too fat, too ugly and too bad.  Were these women truly The Modern Queens Of Burlesque or were they merely The Women Of Walmart?  I report, you decide. 

 

Finally, a comment about the venue – BB King’s Blues Club in the Times Square section of Manhattan.  Depending on why you are there and which event you’re there to see, this could either appear to be a very small club or a rather extensive, comfortably-sized place with Lucille’s Bar & Grill conveniently adjacent downstairs.  Was this a good place for this particular event?  Well, I guess it depends on your perspective.  From what I’ve been given to understand, the event has been held here for as many years as it has been held in NYC.  However, from what I’ve heard from others who are veterans of this event, The Burlesque Festival has greatly outgrown BB King’s – the proof being the speed in which the festival sold out for this evening.  Also, the spotty service accentuated by the $5 “service charge” tacked on to the check for the night suggest that maybe a better location might be in the offing for next year or beyond.