Lawrence Tarpey's "Pinocchio"

An old boyfriend once told me that I was the worst liar he ever knew.  He told me he could hear that distinct quiver in my voice and see the slight shift in my eyes every time I told a lie.  What he sadly never learned in our short-lived relationship was that these were calculated moments concocted to conceal my true dishonest self.  I had lulled him into believing I was a terrible liar in order to conceal the fact that I was actually great at it.

Before you go analyzing the verity of every past conversation you have ever had with me, please know that I’m given more crap for being too honest than lying too often.  I am that person in your life that tells you your latest script bored me to death and that your new girlfriend’s voice is the source of my migraines.  Though I choose not to engage it in often, lying is a necessary part of life.  Imagine if I had been completely honest with my old boyfriend? Or if he had been completely honest with me? The upside is that we probably would have wasted less time together but we also would have left the relationship with less of our dignity intact.  But forget all that – Lit Drift isn’t a dating column (at least not until Cosmo starts linking our articles) – I’m here today to hopefully find the correlation between great liars and great writers.  Read more »

I should've known what I was in for with this poster...

I’ve just returned from an incredibly enjoyable breakfast at The Smith with a good friend that I haven’t seen in some time.  We caught up a bit and discussed our lives in the city a couple years post-film school.  In our catching up, I told her about a screening I went to yesterday for the much anticipated film New York, I Love You. I felt that after a solid 15 hours after my viewing of this film, I’d be calm enough to discuss it rationally and gently encourage her to wait until it comes out on DVD before seeing it.  Instead, a certain rage and fury came flying out of my mouth along with flecks of my ham, Gruyère and egg brioche (okay, that last part was a lie – I just really wanted to relive my breakfast in any way possible). Riding on the success of Paris, Je T’aime, this collection of somewhat cohesive short films was expected to be vignettes of people’s lives accented by the essence and nuances of the city.  In some cases, it turned out to be a complete mockery of what Hollywood thinks this city is and in others, it may as well have been Random City in Middle America, I Love You.

May I also point out that there was no storyline featuring a black character? Or a gay character? Asian characters were only the most overused stereotypes – cab driver, hooker, laundromat owner.  The movie was shameless in its portrayal of New York.  Did a tourist make this film? At one point someone actually says, “This is why I love New York – moments like these.”  Unlike most feature length situations, this project has multiple directors and multiple writers to blame.  Brett Ratner (who was at the screening for a Q&A afterwards) was one of them.  His short was probably one of the most enjoyable – based on his real life high school prom night.  Though Ratner is an alumnus of NYU, he did his growing up in Miami so the original story is Floridian… other than the story taking place in New York and a rather unnecessary voiceover discussing how many drug stores there are in New York, there was nothing very New York about it.

Well, then what was I looking for, you might ask? If I’m going to complain so much, how would I have fixed it? Read more »

True or False: New York City has a full-time paid storyteller.

Answer: True!  So exciting and unbelievable.  Apparently there’s this woman, Diane Wolkstein who was a teacher and a pantomime in the U.S. and France in the 60s.  She dreamed of being a storyteller when she got out of school, but didn’t think this wasn’t a real or viable career. Later she was hired by NYC’s Parks Department to run a summer program for kids and became renowned in the neighborhood for her stories. Her first public storytelling session got a ton of press and led to her getting hired by the Department as the city’s first and only official storyteller.

She’s been telling stories now for 42 years.  Here’s Wolkstein herself from a recent article:

“I read a lot,” Wolkstein said. “I have to read 100 stories to find one I can use. You have to find a story that moves you, because if it doesn’t move you it won’t move anyone else. That’s what stories are about, sharing your heart,” she added. “You cloak it with words, but what you’re really doing is exchanging love.”

You can check out Diane’s personal website here for more information on her upcoming appearances.