highline tour, nyer fest, dentist visits

had my teeth cleaned today. is there something wrong with me if i really enjoy dentist visits? i mean, is there any better feeling than having your teeth all clean and slippery? my last dentist said, "you have 4 cavities. and you have two creases in the sides of your teeth that are decaying and they need to be filled. immediately!" the bill for all that was some $1700. i balked. also, i didn't have dental and there was just no way i was paying that when i had no pain to speak of. i've recently acquired dental insurance and my new dentist (who is a lot older/experienced than my first one. also, he's the busiest one at the office which means his clients stick with him) looked at me today. declared i had no cavities. that the creases he'd fix when i got my braces off in a couple months but they were nothing to worry about and that there was one little discolored spot on a tooth that wasn't decaying but could decay so he'd fill it. so at this point, i'm not sure who to believe. he did, however, show me through my x-rays and all the teeth my former dentist told me had cavities looked just like the rest of my non-cavitied teeth. also, my former dentist told me over a year ago about the 4 cavities and i still have zero pain or sensitivity. i'm thinking i'll stick with the recommendation of my new, insurance-covered dentist, thank you.

i went to the nyer festival town hall panel discussion. i tried to take notes. they were mostly illegible. mostly do to the fact that cornel west talks a mile a minute and he's just all over the place and using lots of big words and basically, it made me feel stupid and slow. dude's brain is about 4 steps ahead of mine at all times. i guess that's why he teaches at princeton and i don't. but for those who care, i'll just type out my scattered notes in order to avoid having to do any substantive writeup that i don't really have time for this week. my absolute favorite part was listening to thomas frank. not only did he make sense, and everything he said was so smart but he was hilarious. he had me laughing harder than i laughed at the halfway-decent comedy show i went to recently. guy is awesome. so highlights:

• "easy credit worked as a substitute for proper wages" so true!
• david remnick reading an exerpt from this article. that means we had to listen to remnick say the words "clitoris" and "throbbing." and it was just as uncomfortable as you might imagine it to be.
• "republicans like deficits because deficits de-fund the left." also so true!
• there was a token republican, pretty but kind of shallow...remind us of anyone? coughpalincough. her contribution added up to talking about palin's fashion and wiglettes.
• "de-regulation is the dogma of free marketeering"
• frank went off on this show that used to feature a "CEO wealth meter" and about how people had their favorite CEOs and how a business could have been made off trading cards featuring said CEO's. "now, all that adulating has evaporated like ice in the saharah"
• "brother dave, you're a truth teller!" cornel west, to david remnick.
• "MLK has been deoderized since he got his own holiday!" on why obama shouldn't be afraid to drop more mlk references.
  
• at one point tom answered a question with, "no. but lets talk about taxes!" in a cutesy little palin imitation. also worth noting, he lived near obama in hyde park. and grew arugula! elitists!!!
• "education has ceased to be a way out of poverty. we're producing more college grads than there are jobs available" true! i'd throw lawyers in with that lot too.
• at one point, cornel west said, "it's not greed. it's structure" and frank answered, "true dat!" heh.
  

i had a tour of the highline. was really fucking cool. we were led through in small groups, had plenty of time to wander and take pictures. it was just surreal to be up on this grassy abandoned train track and to look around and be surrounded by high rises. such a strange feeling. feeling like you're close to nature but so far away from it at the same time. but it's a quiet, peaceful space and i'm looking forward to when the project is completed and open to the public. for those in new york who may have some extra change to throw around, please donate. there's a stretch of the highline from 30th to 34th that isn't part of the city's property and they need to raise enough money to buy it back. it's the tail end of the highline. the tracks run to a halt in a berry bush. an apple tree hangs overhead. all above ground. it's a sacred, stunning place. throw them some cash.

i also had the pleasure of seeing august osage county this weekend. it was every bit as good as i'd heard, though quite a bit darker. it was funny, and the 3 hours 20 minute running time virtually flew by.

sunday was capped off with dinner and homemade apple by with em, her brother john, em's fiance and his sister in from finland. oh, and port! super good port. port that made me sleepy in my car ride home but which i enjoyed nonetheless.