Went to see the "Mini Midsummer Night's Dream" directed by Morna Martell and presented by Drama Tune Inc. yesterday at the West Side Community Garden for its final Sunday performance. (The Garden is located on 89th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenue, and is open daily for those who wish to stop by and look at the flowers) Last Sunday the performance was canceled due to a 3 hour downpour. This week the weather held, and there was a good turnout- about 120 people attended. The acoustics were perfect in the Garden amphitheater, and the actors experienced in projecting Shakspearian diction. The audience of all ages and backgrounds followed the story with attention and frequent laughter at the right spots. The most delightful piece of foolery was Puck, played by Jenne Vath, who expertly herded her pack of fairies (played by fifteen neighborhood youngsters) through the machinations of the plot enchantments. Titiana ( Christina Malina)was the beautiful long golden haired fairy queen, and lovingly stroked Bottome's( David Lutzer) hairy donkey ears to the delight of our local pack of fairies hiding in the wings behind the tall Asters growing in Mary Lou Briggs Flower plot. The lover's mixup was an amusing trifle, and the last piece, a "play within a play" for the Athenian king was followed with great amusement by the audience. The cast forswore the timeless Mendelsohnn songs to sing pleasant unaccompanied songs by Ralph Martell. There is a special raindate performance Thursday, Septmeber 4,at 6 pm. It's a wonderful piece, enhanced by a lush Garden setting. I think I'll bring refreshments for the end of the run.

My Third Blackout in the City... New York was finally all the way back last night at about 11 pm, and the subways started up this morning. We were out in the country when it happened. I had just gassed up and we were up at Roger's Book Barn. My brake light started going on and off after we left the book store, so I headed for a repair shop. Just as i was going to pay the guy $20 just to look at the brakes, everything went down. The lady there said "oh no, not again", and said it had happened an hour earlier that afternoon but went right back on again. I got the impression it was something local or to do with their fuse box. They went off somewhere to try and get their computer up, and a guy waiting in line with us said $20 was too much "just to look" and that they got a good mechanic down the road at the gas station. When we left the repair shop, I noticed the traffic signals were out. When we got to the gas station the pumps were already closed with cones, but the mechanic immediately told me that the red light meant that my brake fluid was low. He charged 2 dollars to put it in. We couldn't get any radio stations so we thought the power glitch was a local thing, and decided to head back to the City. Along the way we looked with wonderment on scenes of people trying to get gas, closed stores, people sitting by the roads, and local Firemen, boyscouts, Police, and State troopers directing traffic at the intersections. In Fishkill Plains, people were emerging from a pizza place with pizzas so we went in to see about dinner. It was the only place we saw open in three counties. He had the old manual cash register and terrific pizza with real mozzarella cheese. The pizzas were being put together in the darkened kitchen in back of the bar by lantern light for the crowds of people and cooked in old gas ovens. We found out while we were waiting that the blackout extended throughout New York, and over to Cleveland. After we grabbed the pizza I headed back on the Taconic/Sawmill and West side highway to W 95 St and riverside drive ( no signals the whole way) and managed to miss traffic jams of epic porportions on every other approach to the City. The Bronx/Manhattan Hudson bridge was open into Manhattan, and there was practically no inbound traffic anywhere, including the West Side highway. The other side was jammed solid with traffic and throngs of people people walking home on the highways. There were no speedcops anywhere up in the country- they were all deployed at intersections, so I went about as fast as the car would go 85-90 the whole way back so we would get in before sunset.Once back, we parked on 110th and climbed six floors into the apartment to quickly find candles, matches and flashlights before it got dark. It was real hot, about 90, even with all the windows open,so we went back out to the car with the flashlight and sat in the car intermittently running the airconditioning and watched the crowds on Broadway and traffic jams. An event like this really gives you a fair idea of how many people are in or come into Manhattan everyday. The Police had set up red flares at the 110th Street intersection and were trying to control traffic, but it was impossible because there were so many pedestrians - people in business clothes with brief cases walking uptown from work and other throngs dressed up or in shorts walking down towards Times Square. It was weird, cause just one block over on Riverside Drive there were not many cars and practically no foot traffic, even on the wide sidewalks under the trees. We walked around some, to see if lights were on in Queens and over to the River to look for lights in Jersey. Some of the bars were open and letting people run tabs or taking cash. The V & T Pizza Sidewalk cafe part was open and serving pizzas, but surprisingly the Hungarian Pastry Shop cafe at 111th and Amsterdam was closed. The other stores were all closed and locked. Places like the West Side market with substantial outside merchandise had the help sit out in front in case you might want to take a watermelon or something. The guy in front of the Famous Deli had a baseball bat. WNCY was back on the air so we could listen to the radio and read some in the air conditioned car. About 1am it got cooler so we went back upstairs. I read for a while by the light of the big Pascal candle (decommisioned from Church after Easter) and went to bed. We got up early, and I was sitting in the living room when the light went on. Barry went down at 9 am and came back with a quart of fresh milk and the papers.