a goodie

meadows–not my favorite thing

have had the blues but this interview with hero fran lebowitz cheered me up greatly:

How have you been spending your time in self-isolation?
It depends how much you count the time you spend sulking. Let me put it this way: when they compile a list of the heroes of this era, I will not be on it.

What does urban life mean without our ability to go to public spaces? Does it even feel like a city anymore to you?
No. After September 11th, I was on the street twenty-four hours a day, and I was riveted by the things I saw. I’m not talking about being down by the World Trade Center; all over town there was stuff you never would have imagined seeing. But now it’s just sad. On the one hand, you’re happy you don’t have a million people slamming into you while they’re looking at their phones. On the other hand, it’s like a meadow without the good features of a meadow. Meadows—not my favorite thing. There are no restaurants in a meadow. But there are flowers, there are trees. This is like a meadow with no trees.

I want to go back to Cuomo, because he’s getting such adulation for his role in this, and I’m curious if you think that it’s deserved.
He’s being compared to Trump, so naturally he looks like Abraham Lincoln. First of all, Trump is very lazy. I can tell you, the same way basketball players say “game recognizes game,” sloth recognizes sloth. This is a lazy guy. I actually know this. And Andrew Cuomo is an incredibly industrious person, and I do think he’s doing a good job. He’s doing a job, which Trump is not.

A NATIONAL TREASURE

watch out!!!

why did this make me cry?

just four short things

• more nightmares…thought it was too much LOST but realized there’s no such thing (as too much LOST)
• this was cute
• listening to the original broadway cast recording of west side story — straight masterpiece
• i loved this walking tour of NYC’s east river with the architect deborah berke. highly recommend, it’s strangely fortifying and hopeful. asphalt green — what a place!

and at the end of my block is a basketball court.

ross gay, “sorrow is not my name” (2011), via laura olin’s newsletter and the poetry foundation

it was worth all the dexamyl

postcard to leonard bernstein from lauren (“betty”) bacall, on the opening night of west side story, september 1957.

from the library of congress exhibition, west side story: birth of a classic

just bill

something i saw

great new art newsletter from kimberly drew, something i saw. today’s was about maurice berger, the critic, historian, and champion of diversity, who recently passed away. highly recommend.

good things, bad things

good things:

• actually doing my school work (this week)
• friendship!!!!!!!!
• re-committing to LOST (i know, a real turnaround from yesterday, but we watched it right before bed and there’s a LOT of yelling and gun waving and unstraightforward communication and sometimes it’s just too much)
• joseph corella’s youtube channel (musical theater cardio, YES) (tomorrow i’m doing flashdance)

bad things:

• nightmares about corona virus