One of the few absolutes about life, is that you never know what small event will change the rest your life forever.  This happened when the Tom Birchard, owner of the Ukrainian restaurant, Veselka, in the East Village met a girl forty years ago at a college fraternity party.  How does a young man from New Jersey, end up owning one of the most famous and authentic Ukrainian restaurants in New York?  By learning the recipes from the Ukrainian girl he met at the Rutgers University party so many years ago.

Veselka began as a combination newsstand, community center and a canteen in 1954, and was run by the girl’s father.  When her father died, Birchard took over the business and through the years it has gradually become a restaurant and a performance art space all in one.  Now Birchard has become, much to his surprise, and Honorary member of the Ukrainian-American society, a leader for his community and a patron of the world of performance art.  There are many incredible restaurants in Manhattan, and for many years Veselka has been serving not only wonderful dishes such as thick porridge called kutya, pierogies or potato dumplings, and various delectable dishes of root vegetables and pork…but has been serving up some of the finest and cutting edge performance art shows and poetry readings in the city.

This has become a counterculture hub, and many of the performers and patrons have been loyal to Birchard and his business for many, many years.  You may find yourself enjoying a production of “King Lear”, or you may find yourself experiencing a performance of “Honey Dance”, or a vaudeville show performed in Yiddish.  This is an eclectic meeting place for the multi-racial, and multi-cultural neighborhood that is the East Village. Food and fine entertainment, some of the best of the best New York has to offer is found in this little corner bistro.

As one of the world’s truly great metropolises, Beijing is a glorious place to visit.  Travelers are stunned by the incredible richness of the city, the vast size, the old buildings and temples, and the veritable sea of humanity that lives and works here.  As the cultural capital of China, there is an incredible energy here, and artists and poets are drawn to the city year after year, to make new work and put their stamp on the artistic history of the world.  A splendid way to see it is with accommodations at one of the five star Beijing hotels.  These offer a rich combination of tradition and innovation, offering the height of hospitality, with a contemporary sensibility.

Guests here will find a splendid sense of luxury, where delightful touches of beautiful detail are everywhere.  Waking up in the sumptuous and spacious rooms is a perfect way to begin a day in Beijing.  You might want to linger over your fabulous breakfast, enjoying the culinary offerings from some of the finest chefs in the world, before setting off to have a city adventure.  If you’re looking for innovative and challenging art, then you’re in the right place, because Beijing has an awful lot to offer.   One of the most forceful new waves of activity came from the East Village in Beijing in the early 1990s, and this was considered by some to be the epicenter of the new art in China.

It’s hard to start looking into it without coming across Zhu Ming‘s work somewhere along the way, and if you’re fortunate enough to be where he’s performing, by all means go.  It will be an important detail for someone close to you, if not now, in the next generation.  His work is some of the most interesting in Beijing, surely, and probably in the world as well.  His most iconic performances are in a large bubble, where he immerses himself in the bubble, in air or water, and performs various actions.  There is an elusive quality to the work, where meaning floats in multiple directions, but it always carries the suggestion of the vulnerability of the human being, along with the very thin membrane that separates our identities in various manifestations.