Showing posts with label Katrina Longworth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Katrina Longworth. Show all posts

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Everybody Wants Some?

Today may be the first truly glorious day of the season.  The sun is so bright, and the temperature seems much warmer than the 59 degrees my weather gadget is telling me it is. I pulled out my retro sunglasses, and strolled on over to the Gossip Coffee Shop where I am now sipping coffee and ruminating, as it hasn't gotten too crowded yet for it to be unbearable.  Yes, I could have stayed home and written.  Sat down in the sun room, scooted up to my desk and worked.  But there's something about getting out amongst the people, away from distractions, forced to follow through with my intention, that feels like I'm "filling the well".  So, it's not a luxury I'm ready to give up as of yet.

Today is a day free of obligation, and when these days come along, I'm doing my best to make the most of them.  Last week I took a walking tour of Washington Square Park, as led by New York's history podcasters The Bowery Boys.  To be more specific, this one was guided by Greg Young of The Bowery Boys, and it's available for purchase by going here, where you will find links to purchase it for just under $4 at CD Baby, and Google Play.  You can also purchase it at Amazon.com or on iTunes, but they are charging nearly twice the price.  I could not recommend it more, as it taught me so much about the park...  that it was a former graveyard where Yellow Fever victims were buried?  And where many still are?  That the Washington Square monument we know and love is a copy?  That famous folks like Edith Wharton, Henry James, and Edward Hopper lived just across the street? Who knew?

Also last week, inspired by my trip to Veselka, and the desire to feast on Beet Soup (I can't bring myself to call it borscht too much, that' such a gross word) I made a huge pot of it.  I proceeded to eat it for the next five days.  I can truly see that I need not have any more of this particular soup for a very long time.  And yet... it lasted for about six meals, and there's more left.  So I was thinking of making another soup today or tomorrow, since soup is both an economically wise and relatively healthy choice.  We will see if I follow through on that impulse.

So, I'm feeling of two minds today.  I'm busy tonight having drinks and dinner with a friend, but my whole day until then, is free.  Will I spend it on the Highline taking yet another walking tour from The Bowery Boys?  Or will I head over to Union Square and see Richard Linklater's new film Everybody Wants Some?  I've been wanting to see The Linklater film ever since I saw the preview, and not just because it features strapping young mustachioed men in tight shirts (which it definitely does) but because it is also a gentle tribute to a particular kind of movie that was made back in the eighties, and I'm a big fan of films that recall those that have gone before them.



As far as reading, I've been trying to get through a tome called City Of Nets, and endeavor I undertook largely because Katrina Longworth, creator and host of the podcast  You Must Remember This, credited it as a very important source for her.  And yet... I find it's format a little hard to digest, as the transitions are difficult to understand, and it doesn't seem to be going in any kind of chronological order.  I've gotten a little over a hundred pages into it, and there I sit, no longer inspired to read, but going back to it like it's the vegetable course of a meal that you're supposed to eat before you get to the potatoes, because it's low in calories, filling, and "good for you".  And as much as I have enjoyed learning about the directors and producers of such great films of the 1940's, I may need to find another way to do it.




Cursive

  Last week I returned to doing my  morning pages , a practice I was committed to for years, and then abandoned, at least partially in the d...