Month: November 2010

I went to a tribute to Leonard Bernstein at Lincoln Center this afternoon. I noticed that Bernstein repeated a few riffs in some very different pieces of music. Without hearing them all back to back like that I’m not sure I would have picked up on it. But I heard the beginning from the Chichester Psalms and then I kept hearing it all over the place.

And I noticed that one of his characters in On the Town has the same name as Haydn’s patron (Esterhazy). That had to have been on purpose, right?

Here is the audience!

And the performers! Among them was Cheyenne Jackson from Glee, he plays the guy who is the head of Vocal Adrenaline, and Michael Cerveris, he’s in Fringe occasionally, and this incredible soprano, Kelli O’Hara. I’m sorry I didn’t name them all, but everyone did a great job.

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. I should go to documentaries more often. I went to a screening of To Be Heard last night, a documentary about a writing program at a high school in the Bronx. When I walked over it felt a little like a homework assignment, but the filmmakers were better than that. It’s like some nonfiction books are a chore, but you read them anyway because you want to learn about the subject. But others are page turners, because the writers managed to make it a story instead of a lesson. This was a page turner.

I took this before the screening began, and that’s actually a still from a different movie. There’s a documentary film festival going on. In fact, they very nicely asked us to leave quickly after the Q&A so they could get ready for the next film.

I live in a very wealthy neighborhood without being wealthy myself, and I love these glimpses I get into some very charmed lives. Chandeliers and libraries and grand pianos!!

And while I would love to have all three of those things, I don’t long for them, so I can be happy here. (More than happy.) And this is a very simple, understated, unpretentious chandelier.

My meeting with my new editor yesterday went well, although admittedly, part of me freaks whenever an editor says anything other than “It’s PERFECT! Wouldn’t change a word! Here, have a cookie.” Which never ever happens. But then I calm down. It inspired me in fact. I wrote most of the day.

I’m leaving in a little while to see a screening of a new independent film. Actually the one I posted about here, and maybe some of you helped them out!

It’s that time of year. Next week I’m going to wash down every inch of this apartment. Soon this place will be sparkling!

I’m meeting with my new editor today. It’s our first meeting since I got the contract. Nervous! But I think it will be okay. She already said the book is going in the right direction, so hopefully this will be a fine-tuning sort of meeting. More of this, less of this.

I took this right on the corner of Perry and Bleecker, this is a Ralph Lauren store. I think! My mind just did one of those, “Wait, is it a Ralph Lauren store?” second-guess kind of things.

Halloween is over and holiday decorations are going up.

It’s like he’s saying, “Go away. I’m not speaking to you yet.” I’m sorry little (VERY BIG) guy. Would a little catnip make it all better?

Outcome/Finney: No weight lost.
Outcome/Me: Not wet. Turns out I can carry a cat and an umbrella at the same time.