Month: January 2011

Not sure when, but I’m going to be doing some work at the Houghton Library at Harvard. I can’t wait. I love Boston. And although I lived in Cambridge and worked at Harvard, I’m not sure I’ve ever been in their libraries. How can that be? Which libraries did I use?

In any case, this trip will involve so many of my favorite things: researching, libraries, Boston, Cambridge, nostalgia, seeing friends and maybe relatives. Maybe even a blizzard if I go soon!

The weather was miserable here yesterday. I got completely soaked during my miserable walk to my miserable day of dentistry that in the end, didn’t turn out to be so bad. It was so not-bad I walked back home smiling.

My agent Betsy Lerner had a reading and a Q&A last night with Glenn Kurtz at the McNally Jackson bookstore in Soho. She killed! Smart, funny, lot of laughs and a lot of heart.

That’s all I have time to say because I have to leave soon for all day dentist appointments. And somehow I have to make it to choir practice anyway because we’re working on one of the hardest movements in the piece and this is when we take it slowly and carefully to really learn it. If I miss this I’ll always be trying to catch up.

Standing room only!

I’ve been reading some of the commentary about Ricky Gervais and the backlash from the presenters that started almost immediately at the Golden Globes last night (Robert Downey Jr, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, etc.).

Gervais did conduct the whole thing like a Hollywood roast and a few times I too said, “whoa,” although I laughed more.  But I was made a thousand times more uncomfortable by the public critique from the presenters.  When Steve Carrell refused to hug it out, it was a horrible moment. (I was also confused, like are they doing a bit? I hope they were doing a bit.) The comments from Hanks and others had the appearance of being at least partly political, and even if they were also sticking up for their fellow actors, I wish they had handled it another way. Like, “Hey, maybe this is crass, and maybe this wasn’t the best way to go with this, but this is what he does and I hope you’re not taking this seriously Hollywood Foreign Press (and Cher and Angelina Jolie), but if you are we’re sorry and hey Ricky, we love you too, but tone it down dude.”

I just didn’t like the school-marmish, sanctimonious way some of them piled on. They were more off-putting in the end, for me. Oh, and Downey criticizes Gervais and then launches into the most awkward, weird, protracted bit about sleeping with all the female nominees for the category award he was presenting. Gervais was funnier.

Anyway. This shot is looking up Minetta Lane.  There used to be a Minetta Brook which was submerged in the 1800’s, but I have this vague memory of being told that it still flowed up into a fountain in a building on this street (or maybe it was on Minetta Street).  Now I’m thinking that story probably isn’t true.  This guy who seems to know a lot about waterways, researched it and his findings seem to be inconclusive.

5:30-ish: My couch really is red too, we just happen to be currently lazing about on top of a nice big, fluffy white comforter. Buddy, who used to be so camera-shy, is now completely at ease with the camera. He’s so photogenic, too.

Finney isn’t here at the moment because the spot he chose was on top of the keyboard, and that wasn’t working for me, hello, typing here.

I’ve got the E! pre-show turned on, but it’s still way too early. For the past half an hour they’ve been talking about what people wore last year. No stars have arrived yet, apparently.

I’ve got a bunch of reading to do, so I’ll be back when something actually happens.

7:00-ish: I’ve been remiss, I know.  Cliff notes:  All the Glee girls own the red carpet, each of them looks just beautiful, I love all their dresses, and January Jones, va-va-va-voom.  That’s it so far, haven’t really been watching.  Oh! Scarlet Johansson’s hair looks like the Bride of Frankenstein.

When their representatives want to do something like repeal healthcare? Please don’t do this. “The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that repealing the reform law would drive up the deficit by $230 billion over the first decade and much more in later years.”

“For all his claims of fiscal rectitude, John Boehner, the House speaker, immediately dismissed the budget experts’ report as ‘their opinion.'” Imagine what their response would have been had the Budget Office found differently. The author brings up that whole thing on Jon Stewart the other night, about how the republicans “have exempted the repeal bill [and everything else they want] from their own rule that any increase in spending be offset by cuts in other programs.”

The Golden Globes are on tonight. I am so in the mood to lay on the couch, checking out outfits and hairdos and jewelry, and who looks great and who isn’t aging so well. All while eating some Cheeto-like substance.

FYI: They are marshaling their forces. Close all windows and flues.

What do they want??