I get all ready to lay down, and while I get myself some water, look who steals my spot. It's not like he was willing to share, either. Evil. As per usual.
Today I'm going out to look at the cherry blossoms in Brooklyn with a friend, except I think they might have fallen by now. Maybe I'll suggest going to the garden at the top of Central Park and then walking back downtown through the park. Except it's chilly right now.
Either way. I feel like lipstick shopping though. Maybe I can talk her into that.
In other news: Getting all excited about all the commercials for my favorite reality TV show, So You Think You Can Dance. Warning, I plan to start a campaign to get everyone to watch it.
I was looking at videos on a website for the Hubble space telescope and the videos just looked too beautiful to be real. I even wondered if perhaps they were animations. I know that sounds insane but you have to see them.
I mean, look at that picture. Can you believe how amazingly gorgeous it is? And the colors. Is there really anything that stunning and perfect just ... out there? (And I don't get to see it except in pictures? No fair.)
Kinda makes me feel like we're wasting our time. Like everyone who isn't involved in eradicating disease and suffering and making the world a better place in some way should be involved in space exploration. Okay, there are other worthy pursuits, other areas of knowledge worth exploring, but still.
Come on. Look at that. (I just watched Finney do some pretty amazing contortions in order to lick his foot to clean it and that was pretty good, though.)
- The rug gets picked up for cleaning today.
- The window cleaners come on May 7th.
- I'm arranging for someone to paint the bathroom. (I really should do this myself, it's insane. The room is so tiny.)
- I had the couch recently cleaned because I spilled something (or did the cat throw up on it?) so I'm going to see if I can stretch that out and not get it done until next Spring, I'll save a little $$$.
- The 8th and the 9th will be my major stay home and clean all day and night days.
- As usual, along with cleaning, my goal will be to get rid of things. I'm the opposite of the Collyer Brothers. I hate accumulating and yet it keeps happening.
- Then I will treat myself to some personal sprucing up things, like a pedicure, etc.
- Then, a couple of weeks later I will have a birthday, and hopefully in my freshly spruced-up apartment, my freshly spruced up self who has a new book coming out next year won't feel so bad about being another FREAKING year older.
I forget what block this is (BECAUSE I'M OLD) but it's either 11th Street or 10th. I think. I'm pretty sure.
No disrespect to Madonna, who I like and admire and is gorgeous, (and obviously is better looking than me) and I'm only talking about this shot, but this is the kind of grim, determined, joyless, goes-to-the-gym-too-much look that I hope never to acquire.
I'll bet she looks great underneath this hardened, over-processed exterior. I'd love to see a picture of her in jeans and a tshirt, just a little bit of make-up, a softer more carefree haircut, laughing with her kids and her husband.
And me, I should go to the gym more. I only go twice a week. But I think I'll stay in and read. It's a rainy Sunday, isn't that what rainy Sundays are for? I just finished my friend Jonathan's book, Precious Blood, and that was FUN! Maybe I'll move onto Founding Brothers which I've been meaning to read for a while. After watching John Adams on HBO I'm back in my American history kick.
After I go to the gym I will be curling up with him on the couch today, getting caught up on my TV watching. I am on vacation until May 1st and plan to do nothing much beyond reading and catching up on all shows I've recorded. No thinking.
I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall with Jonathan yesterday. It was incredibly sweet. And Jonathan pointed out that the star of the movie, Jason Segel, wrote it -- very talented guy. Good lord he's only 27. I'm afraid I have to hate him. And his parents. (Kidding.) Good job Jason and everyone in it and the crew.
Carly is voted off and whiney Brooke, and Jason, who isn't even trying, stay? Really?? Oh America, America, America. What are we going to do with you? First you vote Bush into office. TWICE. (Still haven't recovered from the shock of that.) And now this.
This is Hector's Diner. Me and my friend Tim have started a monthly diner-crawl, and this is where we began. It's at 12th Street and Washington. It's right under the highline, (the old elevated train tracks) in what was once a completely dank and unpleasant (but interesting) neighborhood that is now quite fashionable. But Hectors has that old New York feel. I should have taken a picture of the outside, because it has just about the most unassuming storefront ever.
I bought this blouse from Anthropologie as a present to myself. I was dying for a few other things, but I stopped at the blouse. It was a hard. I'm in a frenzy of want, want, want, apparently. Wanted this pair of linen pants, a new pair of jeans, a Spring cardigan. (The males have stopped reading by now. Oh! Now we can talk about them!)
- I want people to be more courteous on the street.
- I want cars to stop going through red lights.
- I want people to stop treating elections like baseball games and hating the fans of the other team.
- I want a flatter stomach.
- A chihuahua.
- I want my book to be a best seller, of course. Had to throw that in there.
- A great new take-out restaurant to open within blocks of my apartment.
- I want the perfect haircut (this doesn't exist, does it?).
- I want Joss Whedon back making TV shows.
- As long as I'm on the subject, I want Buffy the Vampire Slayer back. (Sob.)
That reminds me, I was trying to think of how to phrase something like "world peace" and I remembered Howard trying to cheer me up when I was bemoaning all the hate in the world. He was saying how slowly, over the centuries, as much hate and war as there is, there is actually less, and we're slowly slowly slowly improving. He brought up a lot of convincing examples to prove it (slavery, women's rights, etc.) and I was once again wondering if perhaps it's true.
I'm doing a bunch of these today and then I'm done with "then and now" for a while. First up is my block in 1937. So much is unchanged in my neighborhood. The biggest different between then and now seems to be trees.
The trees are blocking the view of the buildings that are virtually unchanged.
I am pointing out the ones that stood out for me.
This is St. Luke's on Hudson Street. I didn't write down the dates, it's either the late 20's or early 30's.
The interesting thing here is, the church was mostly destroyed in a fire in 1981. This is the rebuilt church. But look how unchanged this section of the block is.
Another shot of St. Luke's.
St. Luke's today.
Update Added two more of this building! Please scroll down.
This is 385 and 387 Bleecker Street in 1928.
Here it is today. #385 has a Marc Jacobs store. I wish I could remember what it was when I first moved in, but I can't.
Here is #385 Bleecker shot in 1937, from the side.
Here it is now.
I got this picture from the Museum of the City of New York website. It was taken by Bernice Abbott on June 18, 1936. From the description:
"One of Greenwich Village's oldest buildings, this corner store was built as a grocery in 1802. Its top floor was reputedly the office of the commission that laid out the 1811 grid plan for the development of Manhattan Island. The structure was itself a victim of urban planning; in 1828, when a bend in Bleecker Street was eliminated to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic across Christopher Street, the store lost 20 feet of its width. Abbott's photograph clearly shows the brick wall, extending beyond and above the old clapboard structure, which marks the building's 1828 truncation.
Although clapboard has given way to stucco, the Bleecker Street Grocery remains remarkably unchanged. The current owner, who has a copy of Abbott's photograph behind the counter, acquired the store 25 years ago."
I don't know when that was written because here it is now. It stayed a grocery until recently, and I'm not sure when it closed to tell you the truth, even though I must pass it close to every day. And it's completely changed. It's a three story brick building. I love that it remained a grocery for so long though. 200 years at least. Sigh. I wish there were more "clapboard" buildings. I found a pretty yellow one a block away that I took a picture of that I will post another time.
My neighbor Beth found pictures of Perry Street and Hudson that I'm going through now. I love doing these "then and nows". I've got a shot of St. Luke's on Hudson that I want to do a then and now on.
I've got a pub date for my book now! It's March '09. That may seem like far away, but for me it feels like tomorrow practically. I have to start planning what I can do to publicize it and that actually takes a long time to do and then act on. Lots of things have like a three to six months lead time, so I have to think of things and start putting them into place in September.
But other than that my "to-do" list is remarkably short. I have a terrible memory so I have to write everything down. I have a small spiral notebook always, where I have a running list of things I must do. I put a "1" next to the things that are most important and I always do those first whether I want to or not. Here is my current list and which are marked with "1's".
- Password email. (I have to email people on Echo who have easily crackable passwords.)
- Call to get windows cleaned.
- Call Tommy Wray (he's a retired cold case detective).
- Call Kaplan (another cold case detective, not retired).
- 1 Sources section (this comes at the end of the book, where I list where I got the information in each chapter).
- 1 Doug passes (for choir seats.).
- 1 Author questionnaire (for publisher).
Here's another shot of the Bleecker Grocery so you can see the full extent of the change in the building. I tried to match the perspective in the other shot but here I step back and point my camera up:
I had a picture of Buddy up on my screen when Buddy himself came over and I was about to get a picture of Buddy looking at a picture of Buddy when he moved. So this is me trying to lure him back.
Jury duty is OVER. I quite enjoyed it, but I'm happy to have a few days where nothing is expected of me. The book is handed in and accepted, my audio forensics piece has been pushed back to June, and so I thought I might take a mini-vacation. I wouldn't actually go anywhere, but I thought for the next few days I would just do fun things. Movies, presents, flowers, nice lunches, etc.
OH! I forgot. I know everyone is going to be absolutely shocked and depressed (NOT) but my song was not chosen as a finalist for the American Idol songwriters contest. DAMNIT. Now what?? I actually have to continue to work for a living?? Honestly.
The guy singing, Mike Fornatale, is one of the most amazing singers to ever sing at Loser's Lounge. This was at the Loser's Lounge Tribute to Paul McCartney. Fornatale started by singing the song, You Gave Me the Answer, and that was really sweet and lovely in and of itself, but then it turned into something else that just blew me away. I didn't see it coming and it was just so so so great.
Okay, except for copy editing, but that's not hard. That's when they go through and fix the grammar and so on. Also, the legal department has to make sure I have done anything that's going to cause us all a lot of grief down the road. But my publisher has accepted my book and it's off we go! Now the fun part: covers, page layout, etc. I bought myself these lilacs to celebrate. (Finney, the picture slut, insisted on getting in the shot.)
The thing is, you would think this was an invitation to pet his belly, but this one does not allow that. He will scratch the hell out of you if you try it. Finney, on the other hand, is a belly slut. Here Buddy is essentially saying: Look at this! Worship what you cannot possess!
Jury duty today, Loser's Lounge tonight.
We're talking on Echo about whether or not we look like our mothers. The women are, I should say. This is my mother (and my step-father Jim). Everyone says we look alike, but aside from the coloring, I don't see it so much. But I have to say, as I age, I'm starting to look like she did when she was older. I'm not sure how old she was in this picture, somewhere in her 40's, I'm guessing. Anyway, she was pretty, I think! (She died when she was 66.)
I love this picture of Grace Church that they're using on this concert flyer! It's a lovely program. The Song for Athene was sung at the funeral for Princess Diana. It's singularly beautiful, haunting and ethereal piece.
Last weekend, at this meditation retreat, the woman leading it said, "I don't pray for anything anymore." I was just astounded at the simple beauty of this. She was basically saying, there's no way of knowing if what you pray for is going to end up being a good thing or a bad thing. She didn't mean don't strive for things, but don't pin all your hopes on getting them, because maybe you will and it won't be pretty. So live your life, try to get what you want, but focus on playing the cards you're dealt, rather than getting the cards you think you want. I so instantly loved this I called out, "I'M NOT PRAYING FOR ANYTHING ANYMORE EITHER."
Then the other night, I'm watching the TV show Criminal Minds and one of the characters quotes Arthur Rubinstein. "There is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings."
It's like the universe is trying to tell me I'm made the right call.
I can't believe I was selected. I might be just an alternate, they didn't say, but still. I'm on a jury! I have to say, I'm looking forward to it.
Meanwhile, everyone has probably already seen this, but here's a really cool robot called Big Dog that was designed by Boston Dynamics. It makes me feel like I picked the wrong thing to do for a living.
So as you can see, I'm in a good mood. I feel pretty again and ready for Spring! Jury duty starts today. You're asked to call this number the night before, and the recording told me they have wi-fi, and you can bring cellphones, but you can't take pictures (hmmm).
I'm debating just bringing a book and leaving the computer at home. Maybe I'll bring it this time, just to see. Or not. Oh, I don't know. I never get picked for a case. From what I can tell, if you show any capacity for thought they don't want you. Of course I have to out myself as the author of a book about the NYPD, which doesn't get me out of having to sit there every day, but it also means no defense lawyer is ever going to let me sit on a jury.
But I worked very hard to get enough things done so that if a miracle occurs, and I do get picked, I won't feel anxious about all the work I should be doing.
Today is the pub date for the book written by my friend Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman! It's called How Not to Write a Novel and you can see an hilarious animation that our friend Marianne Petit made for it on the book blog here. The book is just hysterical. A sample post from their blog:
Advance praise for How Not to Write a Novel
“…good…”
– The New York Times
“…for some reason[able]…[pass]ages…in the book.”
– Washington Post Book World
“…one of the most [amaz]…ing books of the year.”
– Philadelphia Inquirer
“Among the… books I have reviewed in 20 years.”
– Austin-American Statesman
Howard has actually helped me on every one of my books except for the first, that was the book that made him start stalking me (kidding). I happen to know that he has provided invaluable assistance to a lot of authors, but I'm not allowed to name names (they are very BIG names). You can get your copy from Amazon here!