so there I was.....

first at the BAN meeting and then at my niece's performance at Studio (I know that is not the right name for it) 54. Quite a strange juxtaposition. The BAN meeting consolidated some issues around the march. I made a few statements that I feel helped. Lots of serious good people there. When I am at these meetings I feel very centered, very focused on adding what insight I can to the group. This, I feel is where I belong at this point in my life---dealing head on (as much as possible) with these issues. But  I had to leave a little early to get to the performance---will be there next week for the full time.
   On to Studio 54---I was amazed at the atmosphere of this place when I got there. An all white audience that seemed comfortable ordering the heavy prices---while the wait staff moved quickly and efficiently--but at least 7 out of the 10 servers in the room were black. They were all dressed in black, austere outfits, and while they did their job cleanly, they were so blatantly separated from the customers, I really felt like this was a scene from South Africa before Apartheid ended.  Servers as servants. This appears to me as being openly racist---and if you feel that is too strong, at least you could call it "classist". Coming from the BAN meeting, lead by several very perceptive black and hispanic leaders, I was really shocked and put off by what I saw. Nobody in the room seemed particularly disturbed by it.
  Then the show, the 10th anniversary of "The Search for Elle" the reality show. This is the one my niece Natalie participated in, and eight of the 12 original girls did a number with some patter in between. Natalie was terrific in her number; most of the other women were also profoundly good. While I was watching it, I was a little put off by the show's blatant self-congradulation, but there was much to be enjoyed. Amazingly enough, I could not identify any of the musical numbers that were sung---most were from current or ten years away musicals. Cityboy, you have really lost touch with the current musical theater; well who could blame me when there are so many other aspects of my life and theater to deal with. The original producer of the show Legally Blonde sat at my table, he was of course,ecstatic about the whole thing. Then the show ended and we "hung out".
  And so began the third part of the evening, hanging out at Characters, the Irish bar across the street. This was the best part---a lot of my ill feelings about the performance or the complacent vision of the spectators at the show,  vanished during this time. Natalie was there, her husband Jarett, and three or four of the other "Elles" Had some really nice and friendly conversations, my first time talking to Jarett in a while---he seems very friendly. Natalie is really terrific---she is terribly giving and always in a friendly place. A sweet natured warmth seems to radiate out of her. She copes with her life as an entertainer and its frustrations very easily. Just the walk with Natalie and Jarett as they waited to get a taxi back to the hotel they were staying in for the night, left me in a very positive place. It was about 1:00, but I walked back to the apartment from 54th and 8th to where I live.
  So there you have it. A strange set of events. I wonder how others feel about the atmosphere at Studio 54. Can I challenge what I feel is other people's complacency? Is the venue an ugly mirror of the very "diversity" that Broadway likes to praise itself for?  Once you challenge people who cut off whole ideas about race, what do you do then? More discussion is needed---let's see what happens.