Month: May 2011

I watched a TED talk about happiness yesterday. I’ve already forgotten the guy’s name but here are the things he suggests doing every day for 21 days in order to be happy.

– Note three new things that made you happy. I already do this. Here is my list from yesterday: Feeding the cats treats, John making the same points I did, not getting caught in the rain. I have a document on my desktop and it just takes a few seconds to update it every day.
– Write about one of them. I do this, but not daily. I guess I could do this here, on my blog.
– Exercise. I do this every other day, but I have been meaning to up the ante.
– Meditate. I already do this.
– One random act of kindness per day, if only a nice email. I’m sorry to say that of all the things on the list, this is the one I do the most sporadically.

The guy said to do it for 21 days and I started yesterday. I will report back on June 5th and let you know how it worked.

Happy thing: For the past year I’ve had this ongoing Q&A with the director of my choir, and he made some points in his last set of answers that were the same as some points I had already made. It wasn’t that they were earth-shattering or brilliant points, it just feels good to notice the same things as another human being. It’s that—”Ohmygod, did you see that??” “Oh yeah. I saw that.”—feeling.

Pretty flowers on 11th Street. What are these?

Do you make promises to yourself every week, ie, this is the week when I’m going to write every day? Eat healthier and less? Monday mornings start out so hopeful for me. It’s like every week I get a second chance to do better. And then it’s always the same! Ha. Sorry. It is! I never change. Do you?

Actually, that’s not completely true. I introduced exercise into my life a few years ago and I stuck to that. I’ve been eliminating sugar from my diet, which, by the way, I’m blaming for feeling miserable and oppressed for the past week. I’m sure there are other examples, but still. Mostly every week I am still the same person.

I took this picture at the Perry Street fair this weekend. Because of all the hoarder shows, I walk through these street fairs with a different point of view. How many of these buyers and sellers have to climb through their apartments?

Yesterday I’m reading this book Choral Music in the Twentieth Century, and the author predicts that out of the crop of young American composers, the possible break-out star is Eric Whitacre. Boy, did he ever call that one right, (and over ten years ago). If there’s a God handing out gifts, he had a pile of them in his hands when he tripped and fell and they all went to Eric.

So my choir is having its Annual Spring Benefit Cocktail Party – Thursday, June 9, at the lovely home of Kevin Roon and Simon Yates in Tribeca. From our director’s email: Simon and Kevin’s apartment is becoming one of the premier musical salons in NYC, and to add to that trend, our special guest, baritone Robert Gardner, will be sharing some vocal gems with us at the event. (Choral Society aficionados will remember Robert as our “Elijah” from a few years back.)

Tickets are $100 if you buy them from me or $125 otherwise. It’s a lot of money I know, but it’s for our choir which yeah, benefits ME, but also a lot of great people and our audiences. I’ve spent the past year reading hundreds and hundred and hundreds of articles and studies about singing and I can say with authority that singing like this makes the world a better place. Watch that video I linked to in the first paragraph!!

To buy tickets, go here and click on June 9th party (there will be an option to buy the lower price tickets because you know me). A shot from last year’s benefit:

My friend Marisa and I went to the Met yesterday to see an exhibit of night photography. My three favorites were Robert Adams, Stephen Tourlentes, and Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Their work was on a wall together, three in a row, and those three photographs were the ones that grabbed me. Before heading up there I was transcribing my interview with composer Morten Lauridsen, the part where he was talking about trying to make music that takes you to a place where there are no words, and that’s how I would describe the work of these three photographers.

The Hiroshi Sugimoto photograph of the sea I had to get up close and spend some time with, but it was like being hypnotized. The work of the other two (I’ve also been browsing their websites) was so expressive they’re almost painful, I think I have to say Robert Adams especially. If I was going to go for a life of crime I’d steal his pictures first, definitely evocative of something that I’d like to have around always. Update: I’ve been browsing some more and now Adams and Tourlentes are tied for which photographs I’d steal first. I’m going to need a partner.

The Alexander McQueen exhibit was INSANE. We decided we’d come back during the day when everyone else is at work.

A bike accident that I passed by on my way to the museum.

A friend just told me about this great, very affordable weekend conference about social media—it’s just $150 for the whole weekend. You can go for the whole weekend or a day or just part of a day. It was organized by Columbia’s Journalism School Continuing Ed division.

More information here, and tickets can be purchased here.