The Ajnabee's Guide to Life

Lesson One: Your soulmate could turn out to be that performer on the street corner, the one you pass each day on your way to work

In Lee Kirk’s wonderfully romantic upcoming Tribeca Film release, The Giant Mechanical Man, Tim (played by Chris Messina) is a devoted street performer, whose unique talents include painting his face with metallic pigment, donning a grey suit and stilts and standing perfectly still in front of street audiences for money — hardly the kind of high art that pays the bills. But one day, he meets Janice (Jenna Fischer), and their shared inability to grow up to what society considers proper adulthood sparks a connection. Kirk got the inspiration for his film when he was living in Chicago, where, he explains “there’s a lot of really great avant-garde theater in Chicago and I was always a fan of those performers, those artists. They’d do shows in the theater where there’d be ten people but they were so passionate about it and kept doing it. I admired that.”

The best word to describe the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival, taking over New York City from April 18th through the 29th, is “accessible.” Spread out all over downtown Manhattan, including films from all over the world, chockfull of red carpets and galas, the festival is truly an event organized by the people for the people. First started in the gloomy aftermath of 9/11 to bring vitality back to the city neighborhood hardest hit, 10 years later Tribeca has outshined all expectations and has endeared itself to film lovers as the spring festival to attend.

At the very start of our conversation, Moretti firmly establishes “you see, this is an important thing about my work, I like to do, not explain. I love making a film but then explaining my choices afterward bothers me. The world of cinema is full of people who talk, talk, talk, complain, complain, presume, are overly ambitious, make plans, but instead, I like to produce, to do.” It’s wonderfully refreshing to be in the company of someone who tells it exactly like it is, doesn’t manipulate or create a need to speculate on what he’s feeling and thinking. And in the world of entertainment, it’s downright unequaled.

A bombolone, to a child, feels a lot like a little doughy pillow of heaven, filled with cream or apricot marmalade and dusted with crunchy white sugar on top.

Cinema is undeniably the most far-reaching vehicle we have at our disposal, to truly change the world. Beyond written words, television, visual art and music, it is through the multisensory, overwhelming medium of film that we can better understand our fellow humans, while also enriching our own culture and broadening our mind. Transformers and Die Hard franchises need not apply.

I deeply believe that Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation has done more to encourage our current diplomatic dance with Tehran than any UN council or “peacekeeping” mission could ever dream of achieving. And it’s because the future of our relationship with Iran (and the Middle East, North Africa region as a whole) lies not in our judgment of it, but our understanding of the country, and all its human contradictions…

(READ IT ALL ON THE HUFFINGTON POST)

Italian researchers recently announced that two-thirds of all humans now live under skies polluted by artificial lights. As a New Yorker, I know I haven’t seen more than a handful of stars on any given night and the sad thing is, I didn’t remember what I was missing until I watched The City Dark.

I’m enamored with the Gianduja Hot Chocolate from Eataly, you know the big guy’s place in Chelsea, half marketplace, half eatery, WHOLE deliciousness… Anyway, I knew I had to concoct something similar, but also super easy, at home. I found a recipe for a Nutella Hot Chocolate online and added my own twist — dark chocolate shavings to give it more texture. Check it out, try it out and give me your thoughts.