Shooting begins today

10/5

Zeljko (right) ready to begin his project

This is the day shooting begins....

But first, Marsha, Mim, Hope. Ted, Danielle, Jamie and I meet with Minner from the Presbyterian Foundation to learn of their work and talk about ways to establish a trust to protect our money should one of our deals ultimately succeed. I remember her from the days long ago in the early ’80’s when we both worked at what was then the Presbyterian Church national offices at 475 Riverside Drive. While the church’s offices are now in Louisville, (yes, Louisville) the Foundation is across the river in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Kind of like New Jersey. We end the meeting feeling encouraged.

Andre arrives with Tsion to take care of some business and then head to the chapel for his interview with Zeljko. 

The Trilingual School people are back again and seem interested. 

Late in  the day, the man who  can never understand comes in  seeking a week long Metrocard but settles for $5. Two rides at least.

I stop in to see how Zeljko’s doing and he’s quite happy with his first day of shooting. We’ve worked hard to come up with our list of dreamers, characters, as Zeljko would say. I wish I could just set everything aside and enjoy the project, it’s the kind if creativity that feeds me. Not possible. 

Hugo, Teddy and Leila at the Opening

It’s been a day without stopping but I stay for Berik’s opening. Hugo arrives with two trays of food, some rich stew and frijoles. And the artist crowd seems to enjoy the Latin food. Hugo stays and he and I review the week, and Hugo’s ideas to create something like the nuyorican cafe. Some music with Berik’s art would just about get us there. 

As the opening is winding down, RL emerges from his studio. He’s been rehearsing. Preparing for his shoot with Zeljko. Invites me to join him at his office. Together we head down Amsterdam.

It’s a big sand box, we all need to play well with each other

10/3

Deacon James wife has passed out on Long Island. He had to help his son work through letting her go when the doctors said nothing more to be done....He’s trying intensely to locate his daughter who has dropped out of sight. No idea where to begin....

As we’re talking, Karen is in the sanctuary, filling the empty space with her music.

10/4

Kimberley is in for our weekly supervisory session. Continuing to chart her spiritual and theological reflection skills even as she hopes us get done what we need to get done. We speak of her vocational discernment and other upcoming challenges. 

Teddy is up to sorting out various complications with overlapping scheduling issues. It’s a big sand box, we all need to play well with each other.... The challenges of working with people with difficult personalities. Of which there are many. And Marty across the street, who seems back in an OK place. 

Cheryl and Dan (the DJ, the Occupier) are back in town for a court date. She brings cups she has crafted herself, her own pottery to replace what had been accidentally broken. The fact that she made them,  that they remind me of her, and of Dan’s time with us, makes them perfect for communion. Dan is working full time as a chef now in a Portuguese restaurant in Massachusetts. He seems calm, and peaceful. Hair grown out to normal. I’m seeing the person I knew was always there, even in his most difficult times. He and Teddy see each other on the steps. Each remembering their confrontation. Teddy says, Hey bro’, how’s it goin? 

The St. Agnes boys, Brendan and Solomon,  are back for another go round of community service. Teddy takes them to the chapel to get to work on getting it ready for Zeljko’s shooting to start tomorrow. Zeljko and Steve are working on the pr side of things. 

RL has been working hard on his studio. Appears in bowler and sleeveless undershirt. We talk about his upcoming interview with Zeljko.

Cheryl and Dan on their way back to Massachusetts.

And Danielle gets word that one more unexpected board has come unnailed, one more thing we sought secure falling through, feeling our backs pressed ever tighter against the wall. No way to end a day. 

But not having faith guarantees you won't

10/1

My friend Mark from the Presbyterian UN Office comes by for lunch, to catch up on what’s going on with West-Park, our social witness council at Presbytery, work with Stony Point, the Peace Fellowship, it’s a long agenda. The UN ministry continues to be a touchstone for us in the development of global discipleship. I share with him the details of Zeljko’s upcoming screening, his new documentary project on New York, dreams and dreamers. 

Underlying the discussion is the ongoing question of developing new ways of being church. Moving away from staff driven models to grassroots ministries, movements, networks. We continue to wrestle with that question at every level of church life. And the emerging paradigm is clear. Make real ministry happen at the local level, the rest will follow. I look forward to his next visit wit the congregation.

Zeljko comes in to check on progress on his projects. He meets with Steven and Kimberley to lay out strategies for building an audience for his screening. 

Bible Study resumes and its back to the Transfiguration. I explain that as opposed to the other Mark readings that have appeared in our services this season, the Transfiguration does not. It comes at the end of Epiphany, a doorway into Lent, one final burst f light in the season of Light before the shadows of Lent. 

Jesus’ companions on the mountain are significant. Moses, the Law, Elijah, the prophets. The two worlds of Jewish scripture. As Jesus said of the Great Commandment, (...and to love others as you love yourself....), ..on these two hang all the law and prophets. Every Jewish service has a reading from each. 

       * As Moses went to the mountain, Jesus goes to the mountain.

• As Moses got to see the Promised Land, but never got to  in, so too would Jesus see the kingdom/kindom that will come. 
• As Elijah was taken up into heaven and Moses’ grave hidden, so too would Jesus’ life end in an exceptional way.
• As the Law and prophets are lifted up,  so now the Cross is lifted up as the way. The law and prophets coming together in a new revelation. 

And once again, the disciples don’t get it. Peter no longer calls him Christ, but Rabbi. As Judas will name him at the moment of betrayal. Peter wants to prolong the mountaintop experience by building booths. And Jesus cautions them to tell no one. Only after his death will the meaning of this event be clear. Until then, he rejects the spectacular. The way of the cross must be walked, must be lived through. Immediately thereafter, he heals one who seems to have epilepsy. One who cannot speak and is deaf. For the first time, there is no confrontation with demons. The issue here is faith. The disciples can do no healing because they do not believe. But the one who cannot hear or speak understands. Gets it. 

It’s like this: having faith is no guarantee you’ll get what you ask for, want. But not having faith guarantees you won’t.

10/2

Today Zeljko meets with Marc to square away all the technical details of the screening. Marc has all well in hand and the run through goes well. Marc even gets back up plans in hand. He’s also turned out good recordings of last Sunday’s sermon...(coming soon to this blog....)

Ted’s son Jon has come with a representative of Bread and Puppet Theatre, famous for their decades of giant, timeless feeling puppets for street theatre with a cutting political edge. I remember them well all the way back to (did I really say that?) the anti-Vietnam War peace marches. (http://breadandpuppet.org/) If we can work out the logistics, we want to bring them in for a major event early next year.

On a cold wet night, Steve and I meet Steven to catch the next to last baseball game between the Yankees and Red Sox.  

The streets are filled with lulav and etrog carrying Jewish neighbors celebrating Sukkot. Street cafes and back and side patios throughout the neighborhood filled with the temporary booths, simple thatched roofs that you must be able to see a star through. Booths. Just like Peter wanted to build.

Can you ever intervene in another's life?

9/30

Two friends of Glen’s have come to worship today:  a woman, Kory and her son, Jeremiah. After worship they will share their special project, Christmas Child,involving filling shoe boxes with small items like school supplies or flip flops for children all around the world. Simple enough. The session decides to do it. 

Good to see Don back between trips to China. We share a good discussion as to how this is the season of moon cakes in China. 

Today’s passages include Esther 7: 1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22, James 5: 13-20 and Mark 9: 38-50.

It seems strange...out of sync...even annoying...to read this Esther passage in the midst of the fall Jewish holy days. This passage is for the Jewish festival of Purim, a late winter festival...kind of like Mardi Gras, Carnival..Like every culture needs one of these.....This is the only book in the Bible without mention of GOD by name, but God is there anyways...

In part, this is a story about passing. Esther was passing, her husband the King had no idea she was Jewish.  When the king’s right hand man, Haman, wanted to kill all the Jews because  her brother Mordecai, would not bow down and pay obeisance to him, the king agreed. Mordecai challenged her to   stand up for her people...to be willing to expose herself, as a Jew, with no guarantee what would happen. If you want them, then you have to take me too because that’s what I am. And in the end it’s Haman who dies, not the Jews.  Another angle on this is that it’s being willing to use what you have where you have it...not walking away from the power that you do have. 

The Gospel is a head scratcher....For sure it’s an antidote for taking the Bible literally...otherwise, there’d be a lot of maimed folks around here. Sure its Jesus using hyperbole...cut off your hand, foot, eye, etc...But it’s something more. It’s a continuation of the message about not causing children to stumble......and I believe that it’s ultimately about how  how what we do affects others....Especially hurting children is the worst.

The James passage is like it’s directed to us...like I  could just go through this list, right here:

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. .... My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Let me say what I’ve said before...to heal, is not necessarily the same as to cure....This is about community again, about sharing...It also speaks of what I find to be the single most difficult thing in this life, IE, intervening in another’s life..I find it hard because so easily we can be wrong, or misled by our own prejudices....BUT...if someone is truly hurting themselves or someone else, we must speak. It seems to me that the only way we can do that is from a place of humility. From a place of been there. To come from our own place of woundedness to meet the other. That’s a place to begin.

We hear about the Christmas Child project. Decide to give it a go. Glen will take the lead. We also review our meeting with Presbytery and what we’re facing ahead. Planning for Zeljko’s screening, the Open House next Saturday...and Berik’s next opening.

As I’m leaving, a woman approaches. Says that she’s an Iranian Muslim. Has been thinking about Jesus. She asks me for a Bible.  A friend told her she had to go to an Assemblies of God Church. Well, not necessarily, I say. And she has to have a New International Version of the Bible. Well, not necessarily that, either, I say. And  I give her a New Revised Standard Version from our pews. Jesus is bigger than any denomination, I say, or any version of the Bible. 

This week our Iranian friends from two Sundays ago marched across from the UN in protest of Ahmenidjab. But also to celebrate the fact that after three years, the State Department had lifted their terrorist designation. They’re now free to organize, fund raise, protest, just like any other political group. 

What the New York Times said about Noche....

By ALASTAIR MACAULAY

It’s easy to overlook the many thrilling features of purely formal beauty in Soledad Barrio’s dancing. Though wrist-circlings abound in flamenco, she can accentuate them so that they become spirals of smoke. Raising both arms with elbows sharply bent, she creates a geometry that’s very satisfying. She can also soften those elbows so that the raised arms become a single compelling crescent, facing up to the sky or down to the earth. As she stands with legs apart, the lines of her arms and legs answer each other like the bowl and base of a grand goblet. Her walk seems not a succession of steps but a single flowing movement.

It’s easy to forget the beauty of such moments because her dancing is invariably charged with intense drama — remarkably so, even by the standards of flamenco, itself an inherently dramatic form. In her stance, her rhythm, the way she addresses the light and the way she opposes head to shoulders, she goes straight for the expressive tension that seems to be at flamenco’s very heart. Mistress of suspense, she demonstrates that tension at the very start of a dance and never lets it slacken, while changing its nature again and again. She particularly excels in bringing a solo to a climax, only to show — as applause erupts — that this is a transition to some new and further drama.

Ms. Barrio, a New York favorite and one of today’s great dancers of any genre, is the star of the company Noche Flamenca, which was founded 18 years ago. This week the troupe is at the Joyce Theater. It’s good to watch it in one of New York’s best-known dance homes (though those of us familiar with the company miss the monthlong seasons, which allowed audiences to see how a production matured after two weeks or more).

The program at the Joyce presents several faces of flamenco. It features two guitarists, three singers and three dancers; on Tuesday, Ms. Barrio was the only woman. Eugenio Iglesias’s guitar solo offers us flamenco at its most lightly charming and trouble-free; later, Salva de María’s playing, often gentle, establishes a more ruminative, brooding mood. The three singers — Emilio Florido, Manuel Gago and (replacing Carmina Cortes) Miguel Rosendo — make a marvelous ensemble, not least in the rhythm with which their clapping and foot-tapping accompanies both guitar and dance. Mr. Gago has the kind of small, high voice that’s sometimes called a tenorino, but there’s nothing diminutive about the cascading fluency of his coloratura or the expressive vitality of his utterance.

In “Oda al Amor,” Ms. Barrio and Antonio Jiménez dance about love and death -- literally, since a hooded Death figure stalks the stage. Ms. Barrio ends it by accepting Death’s fond embrace: her face resting tenderly on his shoulder while his black cloak hides the rest of her body is a superbly eloquent image. Alejandro Granados prances rapidly onstage for a solo called “El Patuka” in high good humor: he delivers the solo like a series of rough sketches, often tipping over into absurdity, but with no end of panache. Mr. Jiménez, who is dancing with more crispness and upper-body elegance than seen in recent Noche Flamenca New York seasons, delivers a compelling “Caminando” solo in which he seems haunted, as much trying to escape something as to express it.

Ms. Barrio’s solo bears her own name: “Soledad,” which also means “solitude,” “loneliness,” “grief” and “remoteness.” It’s an existential drama, beginning with a circular pool of light on the floor. She, dressed in black, enters, casting a single shadow sideways as she claims attention with the meter of her feet; then she holds a long pose. Only now do the musicians enter and approach the edge of the light. She opens her arms to them, but remains in this separate zone, cut off from the others. As the dance develops, the light and mood change: it’s as if the music were no longer outside her but part of her spiritual isolation.

The many kinds of rhythmic footwork, all glorious, that occur during the solo — cascades, crescendos, accelerations and decelerations — are all part of one concentrated stream of consciousness. She is often still, but her stillness is always a preparation, a display of brimming intensity. Effects that have been electrifying in the past — sudden off-balance pivots on the spot where she then returns to a point of focus as if to a psychological fixation or freezes in powerfully back-bent positions — still occur brilliantly, but like passing moments amid a larger and consuming thought.

That thought continually moves on. While framing her face gorgeously with hands and arms like a wreath, she’s never saying “Look at me” but always “Where next?” Holding one arm flexed, she waits as if deciding; then she brings her raised hand softly over her face as if ruefully; and then pow! She’s off, her whole body driving her forth into the next adventure of her soul.

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of the schedule information with this review misstated the length of the run. It continues through Sunday, not Tuesday.

Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca appear through Sundayat the Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea; (212) 242-0800, joyce.org.

This article has been revised to reflect the following co

At least the day will end with flamenco

9/28

Coming up to the 86th street church door, I see a man stepping into the doorway. Somehow I know what’s going to happen. As he starts relieving himself, I yell, What....are...you...doing? He turns and looks at me. You’re pissing on a church!, I say.

It’s an abandoned building....

No it’s not, it’s open every day...there’s a restroom right down stairs for God’s sake...

(All the while keeping a steady stream going...) The door’s locked....

Look at the sign...

During regular business hours please use the Amsterdam Avenue entrance...yeah, well, but...

Does the sign say, step on up and pee on me? Would you do that anywhere else on this street? What’s up with that? Who’s going to clean this? People go in and out of here all day long...

I didn’t know...

I don’t care...you can’t do that, open closed, doesn’t matter...it’s a church...Jesus...

He finishes. Starts to walk away...Seriously, I say...He’s got decent shorts, a polo shirt, shoes....I don’t get it....

Inside, Steven is waiting for me with an update on the prep work for Zeljko’s screening, but I’m seething. Will take me a little time to calm down. I tell Steven the story. OK, he says, I’ll get Jay to get some bleach. 

Zeljko and family are arriving tonight. Still haven’t found theme an appropriate place to stay. One more stressing reality.

BUT....tonight we’ve got a group going to see Soledad and Noche in performance at John Jay. Got to root for the home team. Be there for our housemates.  It will be good to see what was created at West-Park brought to life on stage.  

Soledad

It's in the Book now

9/26

My friend Jon, former bass player with the New York Philharmonic comes in to talk about his ongoing Very Young Composers’ project working with young people, now in 8 countries. The work in Finland with it’s strong civic commitment to music education is going extremely well. But most of our talk is about El Sistema in Venezuela. A program where music is a door to social change,transformation,  producing musicians like Gustavo Dudamel, now music director  of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Founded by Jose Antonio Abreu, known as el viejo....the old man, it's a somewhat awkward combination of Freirian educational theory and a rigorous classics driven discipline. Jon has worked with them on the  idea of opening to their own culture’s music, not in a folkloric way, but as material, inspiration, for new creation. When I tell Jon about Zeljko’s dream project, he smiles and says I’ve had three of them: to be a good musician, to be a composer myself, and now to help others write the music that is inside them. 

Jon is excited by what he sees happening here.

My meeting with my intern Kimberley this week focuses, as it has to, on the upcoming advance screening of Zeljko’s movie. Steven joins us as we divide up assignments, plot out a strategy to get the word out. Karen comes in, sees we are meeting, and goes to the chapel to play instead. I hear her music coming from there. 

The rest of this day will go to my efforts to prepare a report for our meeting with Presbytery people tomorrow.  It still feels like trying to play poker with an empty hand. But Jamie is keeping the conversation going with Space Works and helps me think the whole report through. I find a way to start with the positive and build from there.  

Still, it takes until early evening to finish. Danielle hanging in until we’re done. As I head  to the copy shop, Boxer Mike waves from a street corner. The prophet is there with his woven basket as I leave. I’ve got copies, covers. Ready.

Today is Yom Kippur. Holiest day of the Jewish year. The Day of Atonement.  Neighbors are fasting. The book is closing. If I only knew what fate was sealed for another year.

9/27

Hope is there when I get to the church with coffee and is preparing the table. Teddy looks in to see if we’ve got everything we need. And we need a few more lights on. Next door, Gary Greengrass is happy to contribute a dozen mixed bagels to the cause.

Soon our friends from Presbytery arrive. And this iteration, they do feel like friends. They ask hard questions, for sure. Make us focus on what is needed. But always while seeking  to be supportive and wanting our vision of ministry  to succeed. Talking about our disappointments is hard, but necessary. It does show how close we were, the cause for the delays. And that we immediately jumped back in. That it’s the timing that’s off. And that Jamie is on board to handle the real estate part of this and also keep the money reality in front of us.Her involvement seriously adds to our credibility. The meeting takes most of the morning. 

Martin comes in as we’re breaking up and I introduce him. I had explained that their presence has added to our life. We need to meet, but he’s got to get to the theatre. 

Trying to wrap things up with Danielle. Marc wants me to check something out related to recording my sermons. I go down to his workshop. Tell him I’ve got to hustle because I’d won tickets to the opening gala for the Philharmonic. Who am I going with? Didn’t have time to ask anyone. So I invite Marc to meet me there. Itzahk Perlman on the program. Got to run.