Good-bye

The SAD side of the coin:

After several months of lackadaisical blogging on my party for thefifthdayofmay, I've decided to put a firm hold on my commitment here.

Despite it being a small outlet for my thoughts with a small, but generously loving audience, I am finding myself over-committed in all of my endeavors and struggling to post here. To top it off, I am harboring personal guilt for not writing here. Between the cafe project in L.A., personal assisting in NY, scene study class & my acting career, Meryl & Marina, I am already struggling to carve out room for other pleasures - theater, cooking, adventures, movies, reading. It's a catch 22--when I'm not out experiencing the world, I have little to write about, and when I am, I have no time to write about it. So, for now--a hold. I'm largely sad to give up maintaining this online history of my endeavors over the last three and a half years. I think I'm going to still keep it up, so I can refresh my memory as often as I want.

the BRIGHT side of the coin:

I'm going to be blogging regularly at www.MerylandMarina.com. It's going to be much easier for me to focus my energy into one project. The content will not change - I promise to post just as many old family photos, cooking demos, and nonsense. At least until Meryl learns to post and forcibly stops me. It's going to be a good thing. I'll be blogging way more than I am now. I hope we're all OK with this. I hope that I'm OK with this.

I'll occasionally guest blog at paperorplastikcafe.tumblr.com, so check it out.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll do some secret sneak attacks here. I just can't stay good-bye.

Vollmond

I'm not interested in how people move but in what moves them." - Pina Bausch

Watch the Vollmond (Full Moon) trailer on BAM's website.

For my birthday, I was clever enough to ask for a gift membership to BAM. This would allow me the opportunity to immerse myself in New York's creative offerings and persuade me to go commit to attending them.

This idea was ripe with possibility and has proved itself endlessly valuable. I am reaping the benefits of New York in the autumn, with new seasons abound at nearly every creative institution in the city.

When I caught an invite to the opening night of the Next Wave Festival at BAM, which was a performance of the late Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal doing Vollmond (Full Moon), along with an invite to the after reception, I couldn't resist.

I invited my friend Meryl (of Meryl & Marina) and on the eve of our largest artistic endeavor yet, that being the premiere of our first short film "Secret Garden", we soaked up the multidisciplinary and celebratory revelry that was "Vollmond". Followed by some wine and Germanic-themed braised cabbage & spaetzle, we had the loveliest of times. Even better, we spotted Juliette Binoche, a.k.a. my favorite actress of all time, standing in line, looking around for an entrance as frantically as we were.

The fun continues tomorrow! I'm seeing The Deer House!

why i love new york

via unworn blog

tangier photos

this is my favorite photograph from my trip. we're in tangier here, possibly walking to cafe hafa, the most beautiful, sprawling coffee house looking over the mediterranean sea. it captures the spirit of the trip for me - feeling careless and adventurous, wanting to wander and roam, warm and content and thrilled all at once. i dream of traveling because of photos like this, ones that unearth memories of endless alleyways and new pleasures behind every corner, like little restaurants or souks that become the crowning jewels of how you remember a place, of the thrill of getting lost and the relief of being found, of there being light at the end of every road.

my nostalgia makes me feel at once pleased that i was there and disheartened that i am no longer.

funny how the NY Times travel section story about Tangier, the one i would scan the paper for every sunday, finally came out, exactly a month after i had left the country. funnier still is how similar their photos were to mine:









glad to know i did just fine in tangier without their guidance.

family

i'm back in new york and i'm alone in my apartment and i never thought i'd say it, but here i go: i miss my family. i do. i was spoiled by not only getting to see my parents and brothers and darling nephew for 5 weeks straight every day, but i got to travel around the world to see the rest of my family - grandfathers, cousins, aunts, uncles, more nephews, whom i see so rarely for distance's sake.

it's yom kippur, the holiest day in the jewish calendar. my uncle sent over these scanned photos to my dad and i, wishing us a good fast. i wasn't quite sure why he had sent them, why this day of all days, one of repentance and suffering, garnered some dug up family photos.

it took a bit of silent, unconscious meditating to feel the link to this day and the photos of my relatives. and it hits home even harder when i'm so far away from all of the people that connect me to these roots.

the bearded man is my great-great grandfather, a michelson. my grandpa is recognizable in the second photo as the standing kid to the left. don't know who the rest of those folks are but their blood is coursing through my veins.

Where in the World is Marina?

So you know, I haven't given up here. I've been away, figuratively and literally. At first way away on vacation for 2 weeks and for the following 5 weeks I was enmeshed in one of the most time-consuming/rewarding ventures of my life. I'm flying back home today, getting back into my New York state of mind. I have a lot of adventures to tell about and I will. Soon.

My family's cafe is throwing a party...