Getting on my soapbox...

I try to keep this a New York experience-related blog, but something has been bothering me lately and I really just needed to get it off my chest. I was at a conference this week in Orlando with my mother-in-law, for this really amazing company called Nikken (which is a whole other blog all together...I have a whole new appreciation for the healing power of magnets!) and I got into this conversation with this older canadian lady (who was really quite adorable) about her son. She started talking about how he and his wife were getting to be in their late thirties and trying to decide about kids because they felt like they were "running out of time" to have them, and then she tells me that they PLANNED on (in the event she even gets pregnant) aborting the baby if they do testing and it has down syndrome. I was floored. Obviously people are not usually that candid about this kind of thing, and I may be opening up a really taboo subject here, and I will also say I'm not here to judge anyone or make any decisions for anyone. But having worked with kids with down syndrome for about six years, I have to tell anyone out there who hasn't had experience with these kids what a gift they are. God made all of us no matter what differences we may have, and I just find it incredibly sad and depressing to think about these special people not having a chance in the world based on people's misunderstandings of who they are. I wonder if many people who make the decision to abort have spent any time around anyone with down syndrome. I guess I think about all the things your child could have to deal with in life that are just as hard or harder than dealing with a down syndrome label--including all the parents out there dealing with kids with autism. I think about all the kids I have known with down syndrome who are loving and so playful and full of great joy and sometimes a bit stubborn. Having come from a special ed./research background, I have to tell you how far we've come with kids with special needs and how much the quality of their lives have improved even from 30 years ago. I have also known some incredibly high functioning people with down syndrome who have pretty broad vocabularies and social skills and ability to live on their own. The numbers are simply shocking these days. Up to 80% of these babies are being aborted by potential parents, which I just find unfathomable. The emphasis on the Palin family and their baby Trig has been portrayed interestingly in the media. At times the media seems to emphasize what a sacrifice they have made by choosing to have these special babies, like they are heroes. I can tell you how many parents of these special kids have told me that they (the parents) are the ones who have been blessed, to have these amazing people in their lives to be examples of love to them, and that it is their children who are the heroes. Obviously looking at the numbers there are a lot of people who don't get that, and I wish the Canadian lady's son had been there so I could talk to him about that.

5 Ways to Lose Money Fast in NYC

I have a pretty modest budget these days, but there are a few things in the city that I can't seem to get around paying for. Expenses that you don't think about but that tend to sneak up on you when you least expect it. Or, something you are expecting to be able to resist, but you find you have a certain weakness for. Dagnabbit!

One thing is LAST MINUTE CAR FEES. As much as I try to plan and a lot enough time to get from place to place, the train generally takes about twice as long as travelling above ground, and if I don't have enough time to get to an audition or anything of that realm, I have on a couple of occasions broken down and called a car service. While there are plenty of yellow taxis waiting to whisk you away to the destination of your choosing in Manhattan, in Brooklyn it's harder to find them and/or get them to stop, so most of the time you end up calling your local car service. Every neighborhood has its own group of car services, like the ones you call in Williamsburg are different than the ones you call in Park Slope or Crown Heights. Then they charge you, basically whatever they feel like. In my limited experience, the total either seems way under or way over the distance travelled, and additionally, I have this weakness for leaving sizable tips for all these jokers. It probably has something to do with currently doing work that involves tips and wanting to pay it forward, if you will.

Another weakness I have is for SUBWAY MUSICIANS. It's supposed to be illegal for people to get on the subway and beg for money, and a lot of times these people seem awfully well dressed to be needing my help, but come on with your accordion or your travelling puppet show, and it's like my kryptonite. I think it's because I identify with trying to be a paid artist in this crazy world. I know, I know. But you should see their faces light up when I give them all my spare change. I try to resist, but oh. If you saw the puppet show you wouldn't be able to either.

CONVENIENT SNACKS, and the like. You know how sometimes you're driving home and you think, man I'm hungry. Good thing I'll have my choice of food in a few minutes when I pull into my driveway. And you think about maybe pulling in to the grocery store on the way, but it's too much trouble to park and all that jazz so you just hold off. Well in this town they have little carts of nuts and delicacies around every corner, and you don't know how long you have to wait for your train that takes you back to your apartment, and the nuts are right there, yours for a few dollars. People here are opportunists. It's starts raining and all of the sudden there's a man on every corner selling umbrellas. And if you didn't bring your umbrella, and you're tired of getting wet, well, let's just say we've ended up with a few umbrellas that way.

THE SCARY PEOPLE TRYING TO SELL YOU PACKAGE HAIR SALON DEALS AT UNION SQUARE. The problem is they're not exactly scary. They're usually very charming. You try to shake your head and walk away like you do with all the other street merchants and street urchins, but these folks seem to have gone to a special school for persuading you to buy something you don't need. After a few minutes you think, man, this sounds great! $60 and I get all of these things from this hair salon I know nothing about! But they seem to have other jobs besides hocking hair packages on the street and this is just their after-my-day-job, job. And man, even though it seems ridiculous, it starts to seem like a good idea. And I have to tell you, the first two times I wriggled away (I'm meeting a friend! I'm really bald! Look over there!) but the third time this "actor" started talking to me and turning on the ole charm and well, I have two hair packages that need redeeming. I'll let you know if they turn out to be legit.

Lastly, ONLINE GROCERY SHOPPING AND FOOD DELIVERY. Beware of their charms. Something about ordering food from an online grocery store that delivers right to your apartment makes you feel like you'll pay anything, because who wants to lug 40 pounds of dog food up three flights of stairs? And when you're watching it add up on your computer it's almost like it's monopoly money, 'cause this isn't like any grocery store you've ever been to. (that's probably part of their whole scheme!) (shaking fists at the heavens). I have a similar weakness when ordering food from restaurants that deliver. It seems like everyone delivers here! And when you're ordering things off the menu over the phone, you start to think, well hey, they're bringing a main course, might as well bring me an appetizer and dessert too! And then before you know it, you hate yourself. So watch out for that.

An Entertainment Conundrum

Is it odd to anyone else that Beverly Hills Chihuahua was the number one movie in America a couple of weeks ago? I don't know if that's a sign of people being desperate for entertainment in these dark days or possibly just a sign that our time as a species is rapidly coming to a close. That movie pulled in $30 million in its opening weekend. I guess the folks out in Hollywood are desperate for family entertainment. I'm desperate to keep me, my wife and my unborn children from seeing movies like that for fear that we'll all claw our own eyes out and become some kind of sideshow act called "The Blind Williamsons".

Really what I'm concerned about lately is all the fuss over Zack and Miri Make a Porno. For anyone who doesn't know, this is the new Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy, Dogma) movie about two twenty something roommates who don't have the money to pay their bills so they decide to make an amateur porn flick. It stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks and is coming out on Halloween. There has been a pretty significant backlash against against this movie that isn't even out yet just because of the title and the content. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but it has some nudity. GASP!

Listen folks, we live in a world where kids line up around the block to go see the Saw movies. Because of this fact, Hollywood is pumping out one per Halloween. Thanks Hollywood. Where they didn't just make one Hostel movie, they made two! Where video games like Grand Theft Auto and Halo and Saints Row out sell feature films. What do all these things have in common Samwise? Well my friends, they are violent. Whether it's machine guns blazing, machete wielding or a power drill to the skull, these things are readily accessible to anyone who wants them. Now I'm not advocating pulling all this stuff out of the theaters and off the shelves but I see and hear a bunch of hypocrites out there hoisting their digital picket signs about a movie that is gonna have some footage of some male and female naughty bits.

Now anyone who knows better is free to correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't see a huge uproar over the Grindhouse films or the new GTA. Sure people whine and complain about these things for a while but rarely does anyone do enough to actually get them taken off the shelves or pull the tickets out of the hands of the teeny-boppers who mob the theaters to get in. You know what I think? I don't think people should do anything about it. You choose to go to the movies or buy video games.

Look if you don't want your kid playing this game or going to see that movie then don't let them. Perhaps you should do a little more research when Billy asks for Halo 3 for his 7th birthday and you walk in on him mowing down the Covenant with a pulse rifle and you poop your collective pants. Perhaps your kid shouldn't be playing so many video games. Perhaps you shouldn't take them to see Saw 5 because 12 year olds shouldn't see people getting fed to kitchen-aid mixers (thanks wedding gifts!) or dueling with nail guns and what not.

And why is violence okay but a couple seconds of schlong isn't? Spattering brains? Sure! Jiggling boobs? Hell no! We got bigger problems in the world people than Zack and Miri people. How about a failing economy, a healthcare crisis, and people losing their houses because they can't afford their mortgage payments? Turn off the tv, take your kids to somewhere green and serene and find a solution for some real problems. Or just stick to movies like Beverly Hills Chihuahua, I hear it's great.

PS - The new Ray LaMontagne album "Gossip in the Grain" just came out. Go buy it.