Potted Potter

This week we decided to take in another show.  Chizz had heard of a play involving the works of Harry Potter.  When we were in London we saw a show called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.  The company (2 actors) performed the entire works of William Shakespeare in 2 hours.  As you might imagine, it is not a serious endeavor.  It was very funny and both Kiki & Snake enjoyed it quite a bit (especially once they realized that it was a farce).  So this Harry Potter thing Chizz had heard about was pretty much the same thing.  All 7 Harry Potter Books in 70 minutes.  As I am all about checking out different kinds of entertainment in preparation to make recommendations to our friends and family when they come visit (that and the tickets were not that expensive),  we decided to go.

Potted Potter is an off Broadway production.  You may be interested to know that the term "off Broadway" is not connected with the location of the theatre.  In fact there are some "off Broadway" shows that are in the Broadway area (ie Times Square).  Actually the term refers to the size of the theatre, not its location.  Theatres with a seating capacity ranging 100-499 are considered "off Broadway" no matter where they are located.  If it is "off-off-Broadway, the seating capacity is less than 100.  If the seating capacity is 6 or less, it is your living room and you need to get out more.  Just a little New York knowledge I am laying down on you!  You're welcome.

So we arrived at the theatre and there were quite a few kids, which wasn't really surprising upon reflection.  Although lots of adults read these books, they were really marketed toward kids.  So you could kind of feel the buzz in the audience. It is not like a lot of shows I have seen, there is some crowd participation and it isn't very quiet.  It is something the kids would definitely enjoy.  Along with the Playbill, each audience member gets a pair of paper Harry Potter glasses.    I saw quite a few adults  wearing them. 

It was interesting getting a look at the audience.  As expected quite a few young people.  But there were some other folks there that I am guessing were Harry Potter aficionados of some kind.    I am fairly certainly the men sitting next to us had no idea what they wandered into.  I really think they were teamsters and they thought this might be some kind of plumbing repair demonstration.  Both in their late 60s, a bit overweight, wearing shorts, tennis shoes and black socks.  You can visualize that can't you?  One was extremely angry someone sat in front of him.  In his seat.  Where he had every right to be.  But this guy spouted off something about people (the term he used was "fathead) coming in late (he wasn't) and sitting down in front of someone blocking their view (again, in the seat the person paid for).  And he wasn't saying this quietly.  He kind of sputtered it, his face got really red and he was outraged.  He also got fairly animated during the Quidditch demonstration.  He was upset people weren't taking it seriously.  Seriously, the game wizards play flying on brooms at a fictional wizard school.  He was angry no one tried to score.   Pretty strange.  I really wonder what show he thought he was coming to see. 

If you have kids and have read the books, it is fun and cute.  If  you don't have kid or haven't read the books,  I don't know that I would recommend this over another show in town at the time.  3 thumbs up from Wendy & Chizz.

Museum Mile Festival

There is a stretch of Fifth Avenue in New York called "Museum Mile".  It is actually a bit longer than a mile but let's not be sticklers about the details.  It is called that  because there are 10 different museums in that particular area.  On the second Tuesday of June, the city closes 5th Avenue to traffic between 82nd and 105th streets and people can walk through the streets between 6-9 p.m. and all of the museums are free.  I heard about it a few weeks ago and put it on my list of things to do.  Since Chizz was still on his "excellent adventure" with TR, I thought it was a good opportunity to check it out.

It  was raining like crazy that afternoon, and I almost considered skipping it.  I decided though I would regret it if I didn't go, so I talked myself back into it.  I was right (of course!) but after seeing the size of these rain puddles I was glad I wore my rain boots!  I left a little late and decided that I would try and hit the first museum closest to where I exited the park at 5:45, 15 minutes before the event was to start.  That museum was the Solomon R. Guggenheim.  I hadn't been there yet and I thought it was a good choice because I wasn't sure that Chizz would go to this museum because I (and he) was under the impression that it housed mostly modern art.  As I have mentioned time and time before, we are not necessarily the biggest modern art fans.  I thought minimally I would go and then kind of check this box so when people said "Guggenheim", I could say "oh yes, been there". 

I wasn't prepared for the line.  I thought the rain might "dampen" the enthusiasm for the event.  (Pun intended - hahahaha).



View of skylight in lobby

 I have to say, I was impressed by the Guggenheim.  It isn't too big.  I like a museum that you can do in a few hours and not feel you might have missed something important.  One of the highlights for me was actually the architecture of the Guggenheim.  .  The only photographs allowed were at the lobby level.    And it is an impressive lobby. 



Lobby



After wandering  through the museum it occurred to me that "modern art" is as a broad a category of art as the time frame it covers, roughly 1860 - 1970.   That is a huge span.  Think about it.  Can you think of anything else that remained the same during that time frame, methods of transportation, food, fashion, politics, farming?  So I found lots of art that I enjoyed and quite frankly a few things I didn't really enjoy.  I enjoyed looking at the Manets, Picassos, Pollocks.  As a side note, it  was surprising to learn how many "modern" artists died young (Manet 51, Pollock 44, Toulouse-Lautrec 36, Seurat 32).  Is there something about Modern art that contributes to the early demise of so many of its artists?  Do they burn bright and out early?  Are they all troubled?  There was a photography exhibit by Francesca Woodman. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1978.   Most of the photographs in this exhibit were nudes of young women, mostly of her.  Some were blurry on purpose, some in dilapidated rooms or buildings.  One especially disturbing photo was of Woodman, nude with wooden clothespins attached all over her body including her breasts.  It was incredibly dark.  Sadly she committed suicide at age 22 by jumping out of a building.  Somehow it doesn't surprise me. 

No line?

After the Guggenheim, I thought I would head up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the grande dame of museums in New York.  It probably would have a line down the block and I would go home but I thought it was worth a try.  On the way, I passed the Neue Galerie.  The Neue Galerie is a museum dedicated to German and Austrian art and I have heard many good things about it.  But there was a huge line there.  I think for the smaller spaces, this event can be overwhelming.  Too many people, not enough space.  When I got to the Met, I was surprised to see no line.  This was during the heart of the event.  I was able to go in and see several rooms and galleries in the time frame.  There are so many beautiful pieces, it is hard to see it all in one sitting.  Which I didn't!   One of the most interesting exhibits was the one involving the designs of Prada & Schiaperelli, called "Impossible Conversations".   It was an exhibit of examples of each designers work and in the background they played a video of the two talking about their style, inspiration, work ethic.  What makes it so interesting is that these women designed at different time frames and couldn't have possibly have had this conversation.  An actress plays Elsa Schiaperelli, who designed in the 30s-50s.  Miuccia Prada designs today and plays herself.  Schiaperelli's words are taken from her autobiography and Prada responds with her own thoughts and observations about her work.  It looks like two colleagues sitting in a very fancy dining room having a conversation.  Then they pair selections from each woman's work and these combinations look as if they were made for each other.  A Schiaperelli top with a Prada skirt, designed 40 years apart.  There are also historic photos of some of Schiaperelli's work being worn by Wallis Simpson and others.  I found it fascinating but I am thinking Chizz would not.  Good thing he wasn't there!

All in all a great event.   I was able to get into two different museums in the 3 hour time frame.  I think the key is choosing museums that are large enough to handle crowds.  Smaller venues have to really regulate how many people come in at a time and therefore quite a bit of time can be spent waiting without seeing anything.   My advice:  "Choose wisely."  (I like quoting from Princess Bride as often as I can in a day.) 

Cherry on Top

It was supposed to be kind of a low key weekend.   Chizz is off on a trip with a friend, ferrying a car across country.  It is a guy thing, stopping at baseball fields, breweries and the spam museum without any chicks around (thank goodness).  I was going to hang out in NYC on my own, had a few things I thought I might do but no real plans.   But then Snake called and he was wondering if it would be okay for him to come and hang out for the weekend?  Uh, yes.  Of course.  So up he came.  After sleeping in until about noon on Saturday, we decided to head out to the 9/11 memorial.  Snake hadn't been there before.  Afterward I took him to one of our favorite little bistros not far from the house. 

The next morning we decided to check out the Puerto Rico Day parade.  I had heard of the parade originally from Seinfeld, (remember when Kramer got chased by a mob after destroying the Puerto Rican flag?).  I have seen a few parades since we have moved here.  This city loves a parade and will pretty much let just about anyone celebrate their heritage.  However, the Puerto Rico Day parade has to be one of the largest, next to the St. Patrick's Day parade.  People lined up and down the street with their red white and blue. 

And I got to see my 4th famous person sighting.  For those of you keeping count:  Brian Williams - St. Patrick's Day Parade; Marcus Samuelsson (chef) Red Rooster - Harlem;  Angelo Sosa (chef - Top Chef) 9th Street Fair.  Does it say something about me that most of the people I recognize are chefs?   And here is number 4:

Governor Andrew Cuomo, marching in the Parade, holding the flag of his heritage.  Wait a minute. . . . I think this might be a polictically scripted moment.  Ya' think?

So after this, Snake wanted to go back and catch a little of the European Champions League matches on tv.  (soccer, you can take the boy out of London, can't take the London out of the boy).  So we watched for a little while, then Snake and I got an early dinner and put him on the subway to catch his bus back to DC.  It was nice having a little mother son bonding time.  He is a good kid and I appreciate more and more the young man he is becoming.  I could not be more proud.

So it was still pretty early in the evening and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but knew I didn't want to go back to the apartment.  Originally I thought that I would kind of stalk the Tony Awards which were being held that night at the Beacon Theatre, in my very own neighborhood.  But I thought it might be too late.  I decided to head over anyway and see what I could see.  At the front of the theatre there were all kinds of people milling about in tuxedos and gowns but it really didn't look like I expected it to.  Where was the red carpet, where were the paparazzi, where were the stars of the stage?  Where was the hoopla? Then I remembered last week, when I was walking behind the theatre and saw them setting up what I thought was the electrical support for the evening. So I decided to check it out.  Voila!!!!!   


Hoopla! 

Back of Red Carpet

Now we are talking, crowds, cameras, limos. It was great.  The worst part for me is that I wasn't really prepared.  I didn't have the right camera and the one I had, the battery died about 20 minutes into my photo taking.  I was kind of far away so it was hard to get photos at all since I didn't really have a zoom.  After the camera died, I took photos with my crappy Iphone 3 camera.  You just have to trust me that the photos are who I say they are.  After all, you weren't there!

The crowd was great.  Everyone was in a good mood.  There were a few girls there who knew every single person that stepped out of a limo.  That is quite a feat, considering that quite a few of these people have done just theatre and are not necessarily household names (although they should be!).  So it was quite helpful that sometimes the girls clued us in on who just got out of a car.  John Stamos was there and he looks both suspiciously young and suspiciously tan.  He was very friendly and crossed the crowd to talk with people.  If you measure the squeal of the fans in a numeric scale from 0 being silence to 20 being a deafening roar, I would say he got a respectible 15 on the scale.  Which is kind of surprising.  Has he done much since Uncle Jesse?  Hugh Jackman was standing right in front of me for quite a bit of time giving an interview and the women kept screaming his name and trying to get his attention.  A little girl about 10 years old or so asked her dad who he was, she didn't know.  He paused for a minute and said "He's like Justin Bieber for older women".  Yep.  That pretty much sums it up.  One of the best surprises of the night was Matthew Morrison from Glee.  He got out of his limo started for the red carpet when all of the sudden he turned around came over to the crowd and just started running down the line up across the street, giving the entire front row high fives. 

Here he is going up the street:

And now coming back: 

Nice photograpy, huh?  Sigh.  I am officially definitely in the market for a new point-n-shoot camera that I can carry around in my purse that has a better response time than this!  But I digress.  It was more difficult to get photos of the women because they tended to get out of the car closest to the red carpet area and walk right in.  But we saw Amanda Seyfried, Audra McDonald, Kelli O'Hara, Jessica Chastain, Phylicia Rashad and others.   It was kind of sad when Candice Bergen arrived, not one blip on the squeal scale.  One woman and I were the only ones that recognized her in our group.  Sad.  Overall, this was a blast and I will be back next year.  It was just fun to hang out and see all the actors.  For the most part the actors seemed pretty excited to be there and did respond to the crowd by waiving and yelling back.   I spent quite a bit of time talking with a woman on her first trip to NYC.  She was visiting her son and daughter and was just thrilled to do this.  She kept saying over and over again to her daughter "this is the kind of stuf you can do because you live in New York, you are so lucky".  My sentiments exactly.   

What was supposed to be a low-key weekend turned out to be pretty cool.  I hung out with my son and got to do a few things on my bucket list.  Pretty lucky, indeed. 

Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow!

We haven't found a gym yet here in New York.  That wouldn't be so surprising for me as I pretty much hate to exercise.  I only do it because of the not wanting to die early thing, otherwise I would probably skip it all together.  But Chizz loves to exercise.  It is a stress reliever for him.  He enjoys working out and has done it pretty regularly since. . . . forever.   But ever since we have moved here, we haven't yet found a gym for a few reasons. 

First, the gym has to be in close proximity.  For Chizz that would be within 20 or 30 blocks, he will walk pretty far - truth be told.  For me, our living room.  Well, okay, the lobby of my building would be nice but I could settle for 10 blocks or so.  It is really a matter of what I would be willing to walk in the rain or -15 degrees.  I would most likely work out in the morning or afternoon.  Chizz likes to work out in the evening after work.  So there is our second requirement, the gym can't be too crowded after 7:30 p.m.  There is nothing worse than trying to get a quick work out in and have to wait for every machine.  And I am counting it as 3 but it really could be requirement 2B since it is a timing thing but we would like it to be open past 10:00 p.m., ideally 11:00 p.m. or so.  That is mainly for Chizz.  He often doesn't get home until 7:00 p.m. or may have an early work dinner and he would still like to get a workout in.  It doesn't leave much time if you get home at 7:00, eat dinner, digest, walk 30 blocks and still get your work out in before 10:00 p.m.

Lastly, the monthly charge cannot be more than our rent.  I jest but only a little. It is surprising how expensive gyms are here on the east coast.  In California we each paid $29.99 per month for 24 Hour Fitness.   Here the two closest gyms to us are $90 and $153 each per month!!!  And really nothing special, just normal work out places.  So we go from paying $60 for the gym to either $180 or $306 per month.  Because Chizz has been travelling so much and has had so many after work obligations, we just haven't motivated to making a commitment.  I don't mind paying $180 a month (but I really do) if we are using the facilities regularly.  But if Chizz can only go 1 time or so per week, it doesn't really seem worth the cost.  I am hoping that his schedule will calm down or they will build a 24 Hour Fitness closer to us.

So for exercise I have been walking around the reservoir pretty regularly.  I like it, it is pretty, I usually see something interesting and I can easily do two laps or 3 miles in about 45 minutes or so.  But lately I have been realizing that this is not challenging enough cardiovascularly for me.  In order to the prolong the dying early thing, your heart rate needs to race a bit on a regular basis.  So I have been trying to figure out what I can do to accomplish this goal.  Yesterday, it dawned on me.  I used to enjoy the various stair climbing machines at our old gym.  I have stairs in our apartment building.  Perhaps I could use those some how to pump it up a bit.  So yesterday, I put on my tennis shoes and walked down the 24 floors to the lobby.  Since I have one surgical knee, I thought I should take it easy my first day and see how it went.  I went down pretty fast, my heart was going, my knees seemed to hang in there and it went pretty well.  The stairs led right out the back door of the building and I went on to run my errands.

Since it went so well yesterday, this morning I decided to add on.  I went down, up, then down again.  The equivalent of 78 floors.  Again, it went pretty well.  I worked up a sweat pretty well, got the heart pumping and think I provided some entertainment for the doorman as I think the stairwells all have surveillance camers in them.  That is a bit comforting in case I have cardiac arrest, I am hoping it won't be too long until someone gets to me. 

I was feeling pretty good.  Until about 3 hours ago.  I was sitting on the subway coming home and realized when I got up, my legs hurt.  Then when I climbed up the stairs from the subway my legs hurt, a lot.  Now they are pretty much hurting all the time, moving or sitting.  I find it helps to moan or exclaim, "ow" everytime I move my legs and feel the pain.  I think Chizz finds it endearing.  Not.  But it reminds me of the running gag on Spongebob.  Whenever there is some kind of catastrophe scene, someone screams out "my leg" whether it applies or not.  A few weeks ago, Snake posted it on Auntie K's wall.  I found it too and I am putting it in below.  Each time you hear it, just imagine me saying "my legs".  I am sure you will find it endearing too.

Clybourne Park

This week Chizz and I decided to take in a show.  I just cut out a list from New York Magazine about 5 must-see plays.  Because we "must", we did.  We chose the first play on the list, Clybourne Park.

In short, it was great!   As I have admitted before, I LOVE live performances of almost anything. I tried to remember the last time I saw a play that wasn't a musical.  Other than Sleep No More, it has been quite a while.  Years.   I was surprised at how refreshing it was, not waiting for the characters to break out in song to sing their main point.

The play takes place in a house, two acts - each act a different year 1959 and 2009.  In a way, the central character is the house.  Two different, but very remotely connected families live or lived in the house.  The play centers around the racial mindsets of each time period and how people felt really depended on which side of the issue you were on.  Surprisingly the sides switched over the years.  The first story featured issues surrounding the first black family moving into the neighborhood and the second story involves a white family moving into the house.  The plays discusses how the communities react in each time frame and how each community is not so comfortable with the change about to happen. 

It has been nominated for 4 Tonys.  The same actors play characters in both time frames and I think the juxtaposition of their different roles is interesting.  In one era, an actor plays a neighbor "concerned" where his community going.  In the next act ,he plays a new-comer wanting to make his own mark on a neighborhood.  Almost opposite roles. 

Sounds pretty deep, huh?  Would you be surprised to find out it was a comedy of sorts?  Really kind of a farce.  Forcing people to laugh, sometimes uncomfortably, at either how ridiculous some long ago widely-held beliefs were or in awkward recognition.  Funny but powerful.  I like plays that make me think about the premise long after the show.  Entertained and engaged.  Definitely four thumbs up from Wendy & Chizz!!

Why

does my neighbor have this on his patio? 

Is he a wizard, ala Harry Potter, and he just received a mail delivery from Hogwarts?  Is it some kind of night light to keep low, low flying aircraft away from our building (if so, thank you!)?   Perhaps an early bear warning system?  (I know bears can climb to dizzying heights.  I haven't seen any yet but I haven't seen all of Central Park, there could be some there.)  

Chizz says it is to keep the pigeons away.

I like my ideas better.

The Emperor is Buck Naked Here

A few weeks ago, my friend Trophywife (her choice!) came to visit me.  She lives in Massachusetts and was in NYC for the weekend with some of her friends for pre-wedding celebrations for the daughter of one of her friends.  This is the stage we are at in our lives, too old to be going to our own friends weddings, too young to be going to our kids but getting closer year by year.  The girls had a whole bunch of different activities planned and they were kind enough to include me in several events.  It was a total blast! 

One of the things they wanted to do was to see a Broadway show of some kind.  They had a few discussions and someone came up with the idea of seeing Sleep No More, which is based on MacBeth.  I hadn't really heard about it before but since I love seeing live performances and I love hanging out with Trophywife and Trophywife's friends, I was game.  Trophy and I decided to do some research beforehand to help us get an idea of what we would be seeing.  We discovered that the entire performance is done silently (although that is not entirely accurate) and that the audience sort of wanders through this warehouse that has been converted into a hotel which acts as the stage where all the action takes place.  The idea is that as an audience member you walk through the hotel, going into various rooms and see if you can find any action going on.  We still weren't sure what it was all about but it sounded intriguing.  All of the reviews online mentioned it was incredible and people go back 3 or 4 times to see it all because it is almost impossible to see everything in one visit.  Sounded good!

Our group numbered 7, including the mother and grandmother of the bride.  We had all worn comfortable shoes - a tip we picked up in our research.  When we gave our name to the bouncer at the front, they asked us to wait off to the side and then they brought us into the venue - our group by ourselves, no one else that was waiting in line.  At first I was impressed, obviously we were getting some special treatment.  They made us check our coats and purses (you aren't allowed to carry anything inside, except of course your credit card to use at the bar).  Then the guide gave us each a playing card (the same card, the Ace) and took us to a curtained area, told us to go through the dark hall and eventually we would find the bar.  Now when I say this was dark, I mean it was pitch black, could not see your hand unless it was on your face dark.  We all held hands, walked along the hallway, feeling the walls, turning this corner, or that corner until we finally found the bar.  I wasn't quite sure why they did it this way other than to set the scene a bit, kind of disorient us.  When we got to the bar, although we were the first "customers" there were other people in the bar, characters  sitting at tables having conversations and waiters/waitresses serving us drinks.  We all got a drink and sat at a table waiting to see what would happen next.

A few minutes later, a man instructed all those with an Ace card to go into the next room. We were handed white masks (imagine part Phantom of the Opera and part Mardi Gras) and told  us once we put them on, we weren't allowed to speak or whisper or make a sound from that point on.  It was then we figured out that we were actually in an elevator decorated like a room (ala Disneyland Haunted Mansion).  We felt the elevator descend. Or did it rise?  The character in the room was giving instructions but I really don't remember what he said.  At one point, he pulled me into the room more.  I thought I might have been too close to the elevator door.  When it opened, we all turned around.  Trophywife walked out and I was following her.  The elevator operator quickly grabbed my arm and he pulled me back into the room and the door closed.  She was on her own!!!  I felt kind of bad.  The next time the door opened he left a few more walk out, and apparently did this several times.  I am suspecting this was done so not all of the audience was on the same floor at the same time. 

We wandered around, room to room to try and figure out exactly what was happening.  We wandered into an infirmary hospital type room. There was a nurse making beds.  I watched her for a few minutes.  Not that interesting.  I wandered to another room.  Found a forest, sort of.  "Trees", branches stuck in the floor and coming down from the ceiling with statues in the middle.  I found what looked like a Chinese pharmacy with big bottles of herbs.  Another room seemed to be a hotel lobby, with a register and notes.  Audience members are allowed and encourage to read and pick up things to a certain extent.  So we read the hotel register, we read the notes on the bulletin board.  We picked up pieces of paper.  We finally found two characters engaged in a strange "battle/dance" in a bedroom with a bathtub.  It was a woman and a man and I couldn't tell if they were dancing or fighting. They were moving around the room violently, grunting, looking pretty upset with each other.  Jumping on boxes, the bed.  Then the male actor left the room.  I tried to follow him but got caught up in the group in the stairwell and lost him.  Then I found myself in a bar/library room with several men playing cards.  Nothing happened there for a while.   So I left.  I found myself back in the bathroom/bedroom.  The man had just walked in and took his clothes off.  Yes! Nudity!  Now we are talking.  The male character got into the tub and then you discovered that his hands were bloody and he was washing off the blood.    The female character helped wash him and then he got out of the tub and fell on to the bed.  Then he got up put his clothes on and ran out of the room.  Yeah, I am not doing that again.  So I wandered off to another floor and found a table with a whole bunch of characters, toasting each other.   I think there was a ghost walking behind them that only a few characters could see, then all of the characters' motions seemed to be in slow motion.  Then they all got up and left again.  Crap, more running after characters.  I ran after one, who collapsed on a feather bed.  It seems quite a bit of this acting includes falling on beds.  It is no wonder with all of the running that everyone has to do. I almost plopped down on the bed next to the character. 

I could go on and on describing some of the other "scenes" but I am not sure what I saw.  As it turns out,  each "scene" is acted out 3 times.  You have to put all of the scenes together to get the entire play and figure out the order.  That didn't happen for me.  I spent most of my time in a hot, plastic mask (imagine those Halloween masks from the 60s and 70s), sweating, running, trying to figure it all out.  All in all about 2 1/2 hours.

Now I don't want you to think I had a bad time, I didn't and I think I lost weight during the performance - always a plus.  But my good time had more to do with the company than the "play" itself.   This is another example of modern art that I don't get.  Like the art exhibits of fluorescent light tubes we saw at the Tate Modern when we lived in London.   I like some modern art but displays that I believe intentionally try to make the viewer feel inadequate or stupid or uneducated are bothersome to me.  Only the "cool" get it.  The rest of us are out of it.  And maybe that is true.  I don't regret going, I had a good time with my friends.  But really good art in whatever form, should make you want to see it again and again and again even if you don't understand it.   I have checked the box on this one and I can't say that I would recommend it to someone.   What I don't get is that almost all of the reviews I read about this before I went raved about it.  There wasn't one dissenting opinion.  I did notice however, that a few weeks after we went some less than enthusiastic reviews went up.  But this play has been here for quite some time.  I just think sometimes people go along with these reviews because they don't want other people to think they weren't cool enough or smart enough to get it.  Just like the villagers did in "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Anderson.  If you aren't sure what you just saw, praise it.    I guess that is the point.