Month: January 2012

My friend Jackie, who designs my blogs, got a new home theatre system so she gave me the one she had!! This isn’t the greatest picture of it because I haven’t really set it up yet. I have to figure out where all the speakers will go. There are two more in the rear that you’re not seeing, and a sub-woofer on the floor.

I also have to buy an optical cable in order to get true surround sound. And figure out why the Time Warner remote won’t work with the DVD player (I found the code that worked, but it still won’t let me adjust the volume via the home theatre system). I wish I was more handy and could build a shelf for all this.

Thank you so much Jackie, I am THRILLED to have such great sound!

New York Diaries is the book I helped to fact check! It’s laid out according to the calendar year, but spanning 1609 to 2009. So for any day of the year you might see entries from 1871 or 1935, etc. This is especially poignant on days like September 11, where you’ll see what 9/11 was like for New Yorkers throughout the years.

The entries come from the well-known to the completely unknown and I wanted to post some of my favorites, but I had so much trouble picking one I might post entries more than once over the next few weeks.

I’m starting with Eugenia Hughes, an artist who came to live in New York in 1930’s. Teresa Carpenter (the editor, and a best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author) found her unpublished diary in the Manuscripts and Archives Division of the New York Public Library. Eugenia doesn’t write anything earth-shattering, but I love the snapshot feel of life for a single girl in NYC. Her entries are also poignant in context with all the other entries. They’re surrounded by entries about Dylan Thomas’s funeral, early descriptions of the AID’s crisis, the capture of Ft. Washington and so on. The whole book works marvelously in this way. Any day of the year in the book manages to capture this sweep of time and experience.

One of Eugenia’s entries:

November 14, 1935

Bad cold—can’t breathe properly-pain-pulse rapid—could hardly eat breakfast—felt nauseated. Julius phoned. Arranged to meet at 1.30. Did so—he was very well-dressed—skin sallow but clear—took him to Roma—I ate lunch. minestrone & spumoni. To “Berkeley Square” on 8th Street. Darkest theatre I’ve ever been in—he sat with his arm around me—his hand through the neck of my dress on my breast—very comforting—bit my ear lobe—we had a marvelous time. Hope the patrons weren’t disturbed by our breathing—he’ll be gentle I think. Won’t have him if he isn’t.

Eugenia Hughes in 1929, when she was 20 years old. I was sad to learn that Eugenia died when she was only 55! (1909-1964) She lived in the Village, where I live now, but I have to find out exactly where.

One of Eugenia’s drawings. This is how I imagine Eugenia!

The pictures of Eugenia and her work came from a website of Greenwich Village History.

One of my favorite shows, So You Think You Can Dance, has been scaled down from two shows a week to one. They’re canceling the results show that normally airs on Thursdays.

To be brutally honest, I fast forwarded through most of the results shows. I loved the group dance in the beginning and that’s pretty much it. I rarely enjoyed the guest artists, except when they were other dancers. Stringing out who was in the bottom three throughout the show was not entertaining. It only got interesting again at the very end, when sometimes you’d get an explanation as to why one person was going home over another.

That said, I’m afraid that by combining the shows the number of minutes devoted to dance routines will be cut. I don’t want to lose even one second of dancing. Therefore I hope that the process of elimination is done extremely quickly, although I just realized they’re in a no-win situation here. If they do the elimination at the beginning it starts the show off on a sad note. If they do it at the end, people will be wondering all throughout the show which dancers are going home. I think they have to do it at the beginning and get it out of the way, and do it as graciously and positively as possible, which they can manage. They’re good at that.

But what about the group number at the beginning of the results shows?? I’m going through the show in my mind, thinking about what they can cut to accommodate both the elimination and the group number.

Oh God, I can’t think of anything! The show with the routines is very tight. It’s dancing and critiques, none of which I want cut. Wait, is this when they give background on the dancers? Except that’s needed too, although that is one area that could use serious improvement. Sometimes we get meaningful information, but most of the time it’s goofy things the dancers say about each other and it’s almost never witty, smart or funny.

I don’t see anything that can be cut in order to incorporate the results and a group dance. I don’t suppose Fox would consider a compromise, giving them an hour and a half?? Please!!

I browsed this wonderful thrift store in Brooklyn yesterday. Some things made me sad though, like this pile of snapshots for sale. Upstairs, I pulled out a painting of what looked like a WWI pilot. On the back it said “To Grandpa, Love John,” and a date. Grandpa must have died, and all of his things were dumped, including the lovingly executed painting I held in my hands.

I never make resolutions because I’m always already doing everything possible to be the best person I can be, and live the best life I can. Which is not to say there isn’t more I could do, but if I had it in me I’d be doing whatever it was already.

The best thing I did this year was start swimming. Of all the various forms of exercise I’ve tried in the past five years, swimming tops them all. I love that rush when you kick off from each side to start a lap, and then the wonderful, almost liberating feeling of flying through the water. There’s also the meditative sense of peace and happiness, which must be from the endorphins, but I’ve never gotten this from any other exercise. It’s the strongest when I’m doing the breast stroke.

Also, of all the things I’ve tried it gives the most complete full-body workout. You just feel like you’re working every muscle in your body, and it’s a great cardio workout. So thank you New York City for providing a pool I can afford!

I hope you all found something or someone to love in 2011, but if you didn’t, here’s to 2012. As I say to myself when I’ve had a disappointment (and I’ve had plenty in 2011) better luck next year!

I took this on Hudson Street last night in the early evening. It was so warm people could sit outside, as you can see.