LA in NY and the City

Main Street - Mamaroneck, NY

Went to visit sister Lori and Pete at their new home in Mamaroneck, NY. They moved up a few months ago for Pete's work at Hitachi Metals. They bought a "butt ugly" home in this little harbor town and we were all kind of scratching our heads at their descriptions of how awful the house was.
The Butt Ugly House.... and look at their nasty expressions.
They are working on making it not so butt ugly and making good progress with some big bumps though - gas leaks and such....but once you are there and see the location and quality of life it becomes very clear why they made this choice. They've fixed up several rooms and made it a very comfortable, cool and cozy home. Course they haven't been through a winter yet!

Pete works in a beautiful building in White Plains and has a mack daddy office!
Lori just got a killer job at Sotheby's Institute of Art with an office right smack in the middle of midtown Manhattan. She works with great people and for a stellar organization.
The original RCA building is herald as one of the most beautiful art deco buildings in the city.

More on the Building

Lori's attitude about life has changed greatly as you can imagine...(notice the smile on her face)
She commutes each morning by taking a short walk to the train station and then a 30 minute very pleasant ride into Grand Central where she walks a few blocks to her office.
The park with the train station just ahead.
Mamaroneck is quintessential Americana with a lively Main Street complete with a fresh Italian pasta store, meat market, cookie bakery, restaurants, barber and other ethnic specialty stores.



It is topped off by the most lovely harbor and park. All within about a 15 minute walk from their butt ugly house.


On our first walk to the house from the train station I was a little worried that we appeared to be in the hood with the ethnicity looking entirely Hispanic and several gatherings of young men wearing hoodys....
but then it quickly felt like just another neighborhood with families and elders, churches and markets with their doors open, people shopping, smiling and living.
On our walk into town we ran into their next door neighbors, a sweet Italian couple.


One of the highlights was going into the city Saturday night to see the Broadway show Fela!,
a musical about Nigerian, Fela Kuti. It won several Tony awards and is a very hot show these days. Blew me away. West African meets pop meets Jazz meets funk! LOVED IT! The drumming and dancing felt authentic and it caught me up for sure.


Just before we left to go to the show Lori and I were looking at the cast info and I saw the name Ismeal Kouyate which is a common West African name and the name of my dance teacher that I took lessons from in Conakry, Guinea as well as a featured artist in my doc
Boloba. He is the one singing in the open of this excerpt.
We called him Bonfise when I was in Africa.
Sure enough his picture was in there and I was very excited to see that he had a pretty major dance role in the show!
The show was awesome and even though we were up in the mezzanine I could spot him right away. Loved the show, the drumming, music and dancing - the visuals of scenes being projected. I was determined to say hello to Bonfise after the show not knowing if he'd remember me.
I asked an usher what was the best way to say hello to a cast member and she told me where the stage door exit was and that I should tell the doorman there and he would tell him. Went to the stage door - nobody was there then a guy came out and I told him I wanted to say hello to Ismeal and he said "What's your name?" and I told him "Fanta Dumbiya", my African name. When you go to Africa - the Africans will usually give you an African name. He said to wait there and he would go see. After a couple of minutes two men walked in the stage door and I thought - what the hell and just followed them in and climbed a few stairs where some cast members with chatting. I asked about Ismeal and they said he was probably on the 6th floor. They did not share my enthusiasm of the moment and looked annoyed that I was there.
I was an intruder.
I was about to climb the stairs and the door manager along with a security guard came through the door and said "mam, you are not suppose to be here you need to come with me!" and the door manager said "I told you to wait outside" they were pissed. I said "I'm really sorry - so sorry - of course - I'm leaving" and he escorted me out and said "now you are gonna have to wait behind the barricade." So I slink out and Lori, Peter, Ted and Deborah are standing there laughing at me and I'm telling em what happened and I'm feeling pretty stupid then somebody said " Is that him?" I turned and saw his smiling face and ran up and gave him a big hug and said "Bonfise! How are you! do you remember me?" He said "Yes! Fanta! Fanta Dumbiya!" and we chatted about old times and friends, exchanged numbers...It was sweet. He's called me a couple of times and wants to come to SC - do some dance classes.
I knew when I met him in 2002ish that he was phenomenal and could really go places with the right opportunities. He left Guinea at the right time I guess. So glad to see he is working and in one of the hottest shows on Broadway!