News from Mark Mitton

The morning after the inauguration I flew to Utah at the crack of dawn to work at the New York Film Commission’s annual party, hosted by Commissioner Pat Swinney Kaufman in a snazzy villa in Park City. It was a really cool event, with delicious food and lots of talented people, including Pat’s husband Lloyd Kaufman — the independent film legend of Troma fame — and actress Melissa Leo of Frozen River, which is a great film shot in upstate New York. Melissa was nominated the next morning for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Wow! Congratulations!!!

With Matthew Wadiak, Pat Swinney Kaufman, and Lloyd Kaufman

The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States on January 20th was a magnificent event. It was truly an honor to perform at the American Legion’s ‘Salute to Heroes’ inaugural ball with twenty of my colleagues that same night. We entertained 1,200 guests, including many veterans. Vice President Joe Biden showed up to honor the recipients of the Medal of Honor.

Here are some photos (click to enlarge):

I have a busy week ahead. On Tuesday night I am performing at an inaugural ‘Salute to Heroes’ event for the American Legion in Washington, DC – commemorating the living recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, as well as honoring the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The next night I am doing a party for the New York Film Commission at the Sundance Film festival in Park City, UT. I am keeping my fingers crossed that my travels go smoothly, and will post updates and photos here.

This past week I hosted a small conference on Magic and Neuroscience. Participants included my friend Eric Edelman, and artist based in New York; his brother David Edelman, a neuroscientist from the Neurosciences Institute in la Jolla, CA; and magician Thomas Fraps from Munich. We talked about perception, consciousness, and what science can learn from magic, and had meetings with neuroscientist/olfactory expert Stuart Firestein from Columbia University, animal behavior expert Diana Reiss from Hunter College, Pulitzer-prize winning science writer Jonathan Weiner, and biologist Bonnie Bassler and mathematician John Conway from Princeton University, actor Todd Reichart, and magic consultants Charles and Regina Reynolds. We also attended a talk by Christof Koch and Apollo Robbins at the New York Academy of Sciences.

It was a very stimulating week and my mind is still spinning from all the insights. Thank you to David and Thomas – who traveled so far to be here – and to all the people who so generously spent time with us!

Here we are doing magic tricks for Bonnie Bassler’s grad students, and listening attentively to John Conway (click to enlarge):

   
[Photos by Thomas Fraps]

Susanna and I spent the holidays in beautiful South Africa, enjoying the summer sun. Our friend John had invited us to stay with him in Cape Town – an offer we could not turn down! We spent the first two nights at Boulders Beach near Simon’s Town, home of a large colony of very charming and noisy African penguins. On our first morning, while penguin-watching at the crack of dawn, we met an American doctor who is working with local physicians in Botswana. He and his wife were kind enough to drive us all around the magnificent Cape Peninsula, and we hiked down to Cape Point and saw all sorts of animals, including a herd of bonteboks. Thank you, Mike and Lynne, for a wonderful day!

From there we moved to our friend’s amazing house in trendy Camps Bay. We did a lot of sightseeing in and around Cape Town (Bo-Kaap, De Waterkant, Table Mountain, the Klein Constantia winery, Stellenbosch, Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, etc.), enjoyed great meals and conversations, and attended a star-studded New Year’s Eve party at casino magnate Sol Kerzner’s home (guests included John Cleese, Sarah Ferguson and the princesses, Mike Rutherford from Genesis, Roger Taylor from Queen, and Richard Branson; and Sol and Heather Kerzner were very gracious hosts). We were also fortunate enough to catch the traditional ‘Kaapse Klopse’ New Year’s parade.

We ended our trip at Addo Elephant National Park outside Port Elizabeth, where we saw lots and lots of exotic and dangerous animals, including lions, warthogs, kudus, red hartebeest, zebras, ostriches, a buffalo, and of course elephants. It was truly like The Lion King come alive! We spent quite a bit of time speaking with the local Xhosa guides. The language they speak contains three kinds of clicks… fascinating!

Speaking of language, Susanna was delighted to be able to read Afrikaans and had fun trying to understand the spoken language as well. I myself did not get much further than saying “Baie dankie” (sounds like “Buy a donkey”), which means “Thank you” in Afrikaans, and “Sizobonana” (sounds like “See You Banana”), which means “See you later” in Zulu. I also learned one of the Xhosa clicking sounds.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip and we are so thankful that we were able to go. Thank you, John, for all your generosity, and for giving us a reason to explore this remarkable country!

Below are a few photos (click to enlarge), and you can see a longer slideshow here.

   
   
(1) Cape of Good Hope, (2) The house in Camps Bay, (3) New Year’s Party at Sol Kerzner’s home, (4) New Year’s celebration in Bo-Kaap, (5) African penguins at Boulders Beach, (6) Addo Elephant National Park

This is documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark. Over the holidays she hosted a Christmas party for dogs and their owners in the Soho loft she shares with her filmmaker husband Martin Bell. Being a big dog lover, of course she had to photograph her furry 4-legged guests! It was so much fun: there were dogs everywhere, bowls of water on the floor, snacks for everyone, and even doggie Christmas presents.

Mary Ellen has just completed a beautiful book of documentary photographs taken on movie sets, called Seen Behind the Scene. If you are into movies, you should definitely check it out. You can also see her pictures at the Staley-Wise Gallery through February 14th, and listen to an interview Leonard Lopate did with her on WNYC.

Click to enlarge: