it's (finally) sunny in new york city

we've been experiencing some major june gloom here in our fair city. rainy forecasts for days on end, with a peek at some sun, and then back to rain again. wash, rinse, repeat. it's hard to get motivated to leave the house when it's raining all the time. i think all of new york is feeling a bit down--people have been going about their business easily enough, but the city really comes alive in the summertime, and we've needed some sun to shake us out of some winter doldrums that were particularly bad this year.

one of the best things about summer is eating outside, so i've been especially missing sidewalk dining. last night, we ate dinner at the totally delicious pacifico, and sat outside on the patio. the weather had been threatening a storm all night, but we lucked out, and without rain, it was the perfect temperature for al fresco dining. i like pacifico for the range of non-red-meat choices beyond just rice and beans (i've had everything seafood on the menu, and think the grilled salmon is best), and s gets the same fajitas every time--the man can't get enough of their pineapple salsa! i do think the service isn't great, but the margaritas more than make up for it, so no complaints from us.

today, finally, it's gorgeous. we've got the back door thrown open, and i can see clouds hovering over governor's island. s and i are nesting, still putting everything together in the new place, but the plan today is to run our errands in the sunshine.

stone cold (silver) fox

as i was walking to a performance from work the other day, doing the new yorker mental-map thing (this street, or that? if i go here i hit this, if i go this way, i get to here), when my thoughts were interrupted by the very attractive mr. anderson cooper walking towards me. he was on some sort of pda, and was shorter than i pictured (you know, all the times i pictured anderson cooper walking towards me), and was extremely hot. like, involuntarily smile to yourself hot.

mk had meant to walk with me (we were headed to a work event), but had been held up in the office. when we met back up later, i told her she was going to wish she had been with me. of course, then she could not think of who anderson cooper is (thus somewhat dampening my brag), but i plan to remedy that problem soon.

so sorry.

i'm sorry, magical new york. i've totally failed you. one whole month without posts...

i have a few excuses. we've been out of town (family things), and we moved again, and have been trying to save money, and blah blah blah. the truth is, things haven't been magical enough recently to make me want to write anything down. so i have a june resolution: find one thing each week (bonus points for more!) to write about. bear with me, and we'll get through this together. if you're even still there.

on loving new york

…quite simply, i was in love with new york. i do not mean “love” in any colloquial way, i mean that i was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and you never love anyone quite that way again. i remember walking across sixty-second street one twilight that first spring, or the second spring, they were all alike for a while. i was late to meet someone but i stopped at lexington avenue and bought a peach and stood on the corner eating it and knew that i had come out out of the west and reached the mirage. i could taste the peach and feel the soft air blowing from a subway grating on my legs and i could smell lilac and garbage and expensive perfume and i knew that it would cost something sooner or later—because i did not belong there, did not come from there—but when you are twenty-two or twenty-three, you figure that later you will have a high emotional balance, and be able to pay whatever it costs. i still believed in possibilities then, still had the sense, so peculiar to new york, that something extraordinary would happen any minute, any day, any month.
--joan didion

i grew up loving a new york that i had created out of movies and photographs and my grandparents’ stories about dancing at fordham parties, and when i finally moved here at 17 (a baby age!) it was too different from what i had needed it to be. so i came back older, maybe wiser, at 22 (still a baby age! such babies we were, we are), and grew to love a new new york, both better and harder than the one i had created, but so much more satisfying for it.

but my new york, the one i invented and the one i inhabit, is filled with this sense of possibility. it’s what keeps me here, on my toes, looking around the corner for the next magical opportunity.

sorry.

i took a bit of a hiatus. not for any good reason. just because i've been busy with life and stuff. (you know, life and stuff.)

here are the things i should have written about:

my parents came to visit. we went to museums and the ucb theater to see some improv and theater for a new audience to see some othello. we ate delicious food at otto and mexican radio and it was great to show them around town again.

our dear friend t came to visit. he and i walked over the brooklyn bridge and ate vegan cupcakes and went out for a friend's birthday on the lower east side. we took him to the city reliquary and the ucb theater to see some better improv, and it was grand.

a high school friend of mine came to visit new york, and we saw each other for the first time in a few years. we walked her and her boyf around park slope and took them to a record release party and out in williamsburg and she feel in love with bk.

we decided to move so we've been looking at apartments again (it's the most wonderful time of the year!)

it keeps pretending to be spring


and then it decides to be winter.


i promise to have more to say in the coming weeks.

modern art like whoa

my parents were in town this past weekend for work (my mom for a conference, my dad for a meeting) and to hang out with me. we had a great time (enough for multiple entries, lucky you), and spent much of the weekend in museums.

i like to say that i was raised in museums. my father worked at the virgina museum when i was born, and they used to sell a post card of our little family: mama, papa and baby me looking at artwork. my parents taught me to look at art with a critical eye, to appreciate the beauty and power of a work, to consider the context of time and tastes, to form my own opinions of what is worthwhile. going to MOMA with my father is different than going with anyone else; he has a love, a reverence for the works of modern masters that is inspiring. he will pause to consider a piece for minutes at a time, letting the colors and forms move through him, sharing his new perspectives. i don't race through the galleries, but i think i often move too fast to experience the pieces in the way that he does. it was so much fun to explore the MOMA's permanent collection with him, to take each piece at a time and truly consider it fully.

on sunday we savored the fair weather (come back, sunshine!) as we walked up to the whitney. i am embarrassed to admit that we hadn't yet been to the whitney, especially considering it is on the us map (not for lack of trying! when we went last summer it was packed, with a line down the block and then some.) somehow i missed the eggleston and calder shows, which i regret completely. but i am glad that we were able to go this weekend. the whitney is sort of a bite-size museum, enough to fill a few hours, but not so large that you miss out on anything if you've got less than a day. (or a week--i'm looking at you, met museum.) we started from the top and worked our way down, first through the permanent collection which is heavy on the edward hopper, though still enjoyable--i do love me some claes oldenburg. their two major exhibits were "synthetic", which explored both synthetic materials and subject matter, and "site", devoted to the impact of place and process on works of art. there was an excellent video installation called "electric earth" in the site-specific exhibit which tracked a protagonist in-tune with the world and its sounds as he moved (and danced) through a desolate urban landscape. the artist had arranged multiple video screens through the space, so that the viewer progressed with the character through the world, always able to hear (and often able to see) what had come before and what was yet to come. we spent the most time in that installation, overwhelmed with images and sounds.

they were finishing the new jenny holzer exhibit, and i hope to make it back to see her installation. "protect protect" runs march 12 through may 31, and is billed as her most comprehensive exhibit in 15 years. as a fan of both art and words, i am always interested in jenny holzer's works, for their cryptic, insightful quality and modern-age presentation. i think the whitney is definitely worth a visit, and i hope to get back soon.

a "marquis" name

it's been too long, i know. but i'm starting march off right!

tonight mk and i were walking to the train after work talking about our day, when i had to interrupt. "mk!" i hissed. "it's geoffrey rush!"(i sincerely hope he didn't hear--i'm usually not a gawker.) and there he was, walking down broadway right next to us.

he was a bit of a power walker too, and we ended up about half a block behind him all the way to columbus circle, which was actually pretty cool--in his wake, he left people turning to their companions going "that was geoffrey rush! the actor! the oscar nominee!" it was so great to watch everyone's faces as they walked past him and turned in recognition and awed respect. not a bad way to end the day.