new york gems

Posted: April 17th, 2024 | Tags: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

just got back from the most perfect trip to new york. it was honestly perfect. though i was feeling a lot of feelings about life and death and sorrow and the futility of life and finding peace with losing people. but what else is new. highlights:

• seeing SIX g-d plays (oh mary!; uncle vanya; staff meal; an enemy of the people; sally & tom; and stereophonic) (see ranking below)
• staying in a beautiful four-bedroom apartment in tribeca (EXCUSE)
• reading john and uncle vanya on the plane and finally getting over my spook street hump (gary would be proud)
• rob liking to end the night by watching tv, my dream
• getting to be on autopilot, since rob had planned every day [happy weeping emoji]
• eating so many pastries and drinking so many lattes
• getting my nails done
• scarfing down a slice of pizza before oh, mary!
• sleeping in on saturday on that heavenly bed in that cozy room
• trying the commerce inn (not quite as good as via carota but still so charming)
• my favorite night was saturday night, when i literally raced to greg’s play, staff meal, and met my sister and andrew and his friend luke, and i laughed and laughed at the play and even though it had weak spots, it sent me to another planet, which was so enlivening (especially after uncle vanya, which felt a bit stuffy). and then we went to superiority burger and greg and susannah joined us, it was just so convivial and hilarious and i LOVE going to vegetarian restaurants because i can eat anything and remember how long i’ve been dreaming of going there? (six years)
• laughing so much about wallace shawn hating staff meal
• eating pancakes with eric and dani and lee
• meeting greg and danielle’s kiddos at the park and sharing pastries (of course)
• just overall spending time with all those wonderful friends
• not seeing any visual art was not exactly a highlight, BUT it was cool to prioritize friends, which made me happy and honestly i needed that juice
• going into that diamond store in the diamond district and everything being SO ugly and it feeling like what i THINK uncut gems felt like
• going to junior’s after stereophonic
• eating too much junior’s cheesecake (in a GOOD and bad way)
• sitting on that great comfy couch and watching SNL and rachel maddow
• having genuinely lovely times with rob and susannah
• my red pants

my play ranking for no one:

1. staff meal (it really made me feel alive even though it was bananas and i didn’t love some of the actors or even fully understand parts of it) (was it just knowing greg and being willing to go on that ride with him? i don’t think so but maybe i guess)
2. an enemy of the people (SO tight, so expertly acted and staged, kinda perfect)
3. stereophonic (maybe tied for #2?)
4. sally & tom (from the new york times review: “but lumpiness and bagginess are often part of Parks’s aesthetic” — which is kind of a dis, but also it was true, it was just so stuffed, so baggy, with no real resolution, but the story was complex and thoughtful and had lots of juice)
5. uncle vanya (weird casting; needed tightening)
6. oh, mary! (just not my humor exactly, strange sensitivity about lincoln)

(didn’t take enough photos but these are still kinda good — though heavy/almost exclusively susannah)

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