menagerie: books sold, my new yorkerness, sonny
the influx of visitors to my fine town is finally wearing on me. yes, i'm glad all the foreigners can come here and use money like it's water because the dollar is worth like 1/10th a euro. but lately, and this is due in large part to my times square office locale, i have found myself full on yelling at total strangers.
people who crowd at corners just staring at the white guy glaring at us from the crosswalk signal. i'll yell, "walk!" or people who just stand in the middle of the sidewalk, on the subway stairs, anywhere else that they're in my way i'll blurt a, "figure your shit out!" i'm not even sure what that means, but it's what comes out. but i'm a nice midwestern girl. i'm not supposed to be this angry all the time. then i read alex balk's story and how being nice got him bit in the ass and i don't feel so bad. niceness is overrated.
still working out the greece/turkey trip logistics. we're thinking of heading straight to santorini and doing istanbul on our last two nights. bought a new camera (leica d-lux 3) and very excited to take it on a spin.
a friend (one of the couple with whom we stayed in paris) just sold his first novel! he shares his editor with junot diaz. you know, that guy who wrote that book that won the pulitzer? if you haven't, read oscar wao. NOW! cheers to rosecrans. and his wife will sell her screenplay any minute and it all couldn't happen to a lovelier couple. i've had goosebumps all morning. I'M FRIENDS WITH A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! is what i've been dying to yell across my office.
i just finished last weeks new yorker and thought it was delightful. first, a nice long article by ben mcgrath who is slowly becoming one of my favorite writers for the mag. i don't usually take note of a byline unless i find myself admiring certain lines profusely, or just being stuck by the way it is authored. every time i read something that is quirky yet touching and thoughtful, it has mcgrath's name on it. it makes me want to buy him a drink and maybe run my fingers through his hair. this one was a profile of alan rogers, one of the finer men in our military, who recently passed away (IED) and who also happened to be gay. some people aren't happy with his sexuality being broadcast post mortem as he was fairly discreet about it in real life. "nowhere in those phone calls home did he say, 'let everyone know that i died a proud gay officer.'" mcgrath quotes an officemate of rogers. ben's response: "of course, being a proud gay officer is tantamount, under current military policy, to being a retired gay officer with no pension." touche.
also, this edition treated me to one of the few annual profiles from david remnick. on lang lang, the famous chinese pianist: "lang wears so much product in his hair that when he swas in rapture to his playing his head looks like a porcupine in a typhoon." "when he is handed flowers, the first thing he does after smiling and saying thanks, is look around, eyes darting, for somewhere to ditch the flowers. for nine days, i felt like a maid of honor." ah, i heart that guy...
saw sonny rollins at central park. That dude can still play. It's intense. Also, he played st thomas, which is all that mattered to me. Is fun to see a living legend. After him and al green, I have some 20 left on my list I guess
people who crowd at corners just staring at the white guy glaring at us from the crosswalk signal. i'll yell, "walk!" or people who just stand in the middle of the sidewalk, on the subway stairs, anywhere else that they're in my way i'll blurt a, "figure your shit out!" i'm not even sure what that means, but it's what comes out. but i'm a nice midwestern girl. i'm not supposed to be this angry all the time. then i read alex balk's story and how being nice got him bit in the ass and i don't feel so bad. niceness is overrated.
still working out the greece/turkey trip logistics. we're thinking of heading straight to santorini and doing istanbul on our last two nights. bought a new camera (leica d-lux 3) and very excited to take it on a spin.
a friend (one of the couple with whom we stayed in paris) just sold his first novel! he shares his editor with junot diaz. you know, that guy who wrote that book that won the pulitzer? if you haven't, read oscar wao. NOW! cheers to rosecrans. and his wife will sell her screenplay any minute and it all couldn't happen to a lovelier couple. i've had goosebumps all morning. I'M FRIENDS WITH A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! is what i've been dying to yell across my office.
i just finished last weeks new yorker and thought it was delightful. first, a nice long article by ben mcgrath who is slowly becoming one of my favorite writers for the mag. i don't usually take note of a byline unless i find myself admiring certain lines profusely, or just being stuck by the way it is authored. every time i read something that is quirky yet touching and thoughtful, it has mcgrath's name on it. it makes me want to buy him a drink and maybe run my fingers through his hair. this one was a profile of alan rogers, one of the finer men in our military, who recently passed away (IED) and who also happened to be gay. some people aren't happy with his sexuality being broadcast post mortem as he was fairly discreet about it in real life. "nowhere in those phone calls home did he say, 'let everyone know that i died a proud gay officer.'" mcgrath quotes an officemate of rogers. ben's response: "of course, being a proud gay officer is tantamount, under current military policy, to being a retired gay officer with no pension." touche.
also, this edition treated me to one of the few annual profiles from david remnick. on lang lang, the famous chinese pianist: "lang wears so much product in his hair that when he swas in rapture to his playing his head looks like a porcupine in a typhoon." "when he is handed flowers, the first thing he does after smiling and saying thanks, is look around, eyes darting, for somewhere to ditch the flowers. for nine days, i felt like a maid of honor." ah, i heart that guy...
saw sonny rollins at central park. That dude can still play. It's intense. Also, he played st thomas, which is all that mattered to me. Is fun to see a living legend. After him and al green, I have some 20 left on my list I guess
posted by jazz @ 9:39 PM
1 people who played with me:
My dad is retired and the only "extracuricular" activity he has other than puttering around the house is an extended-campus course from a local college where they do nothing but discuss the current issue of the New Yorker. Poysonally I think they run way too many stories by the same authors (I'm looking at you William Trevor) but they also published the greatest short story of this century (ZZ Packer's "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere") in their second "debut authors" issue, so I shouldn't carp...
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