Month: December 2012

As I said the other day, I only just heard that they’re making a movie of one of my favorite books, A Winter’s Tale, by Mark Helprin. They were even filming nearby a day or two ago and I missed it. (Damnit to the infinity power. Proof that I live in an indifferent universe.) I was considering using a quote from A Winter’s Tale in my book about unsolved murders. It basically summons up my mission in life, certainly my mission whenever I write:

“Remember, what we are trying to do in this life is to shatter time and bring back the dead.”

My only fear is that they will make the movie too comic book-like, which even the book itself veers into from time to time. But in the end the book was magnificent regardless, and I can’t help hoping the movie will be as well. In any case, I highly recommend the book. It has a shaky start. At the time I thought it was just too over-the-top flowery and poetic, way over-written. But I made myself hang in there because the person who recommended it to me was so adamant and convincing. And then, at a certain point, it just works. It starts to soar and it never stops.

If you love New York City you must read it. All the history and Helprin’s descriptions of what New York looked like in the 19th century, the culture and so on, are factually correct. For instance, there’s a gang called the Dead Rabbits in the book and there really was a gang called the Dead Rabbits at the time. A Winter’s Tale is packed with details like this. It’s just this wonderful banging, clanking, steam and machine-filled world, with this epic tale of the struggle and balance between love and good and evil going on over centuries and well, terrible sentence, I know, I better stop it now, but great book.

An alley off Hudson Street where a restaurant always sets up tables and chairs. And now they’ve decorated it for Christmas.

Yesterday there were a bunch of helicopters hovering around downtown. My first thought was ‘Occupy Wall Street,’ but I found out later that the helicopters were buzzing about because the first piece of what will become the spire was added to the top of One World Trade Center. When it’s done, the spire is what will make One World Trade Center New York’s tallest building. I don’t know, that’s kinda cheating, isn’t it?

But here’s how One World Trade Center looked in January, 2012, from my living room window.

The view this morning. Nice light. A perfect morning to sip coffee and stare out the window.

This is a view from the roof, taken in May, 2012. The light is still nicer this morning, but will you look at those clouds! I almost wish I had waited for another day, but I had this energy this morning, so I struck while the iron was hot, as they say. God, blacksmiths had scary jobs. Striking red hot burning iron for a living. That reminds me!! One of my favorite books of all time is being made into a move, A Winter’s Tale, by Mark Helprin. I’ll post about that tomorrow.

The sky looks so empty and dismal in comparison.

I was out and about, Christmas shopping, and I came upon yet another photo-shoot. It’s fun. I love models, I love photo-shoots. I’m lucky to live here. But now I want a sparkly dress! I need a few solid holiday looks. I have nothing I tell you, nothing!

This model is pretty perfect though. Gorgeous, great shape, great hair. I wonder if she’s happy, and what else she does. What are her interests? Do models still make a decent living, by the way? I know super models do, but how about the average model? There are fewer magazines, so fewer shoots, and often movie and tv stars are used for covers and fashions spreads. Maybe the average models struggles. Like writers.

There was almost nothing on TV last night. So many shows are on hiatus or about to go on hiatus, and I just didn’t feel like reading and that got me thinking. TV programmers could be a lot more creative about how they use this airtime. They could air pilots that weren’t bad, but that no one picked up for one reason or another, like they didn’t think enough men 18-30 would watch them or something.

Actually, why don’t they air the best of all the pilots they’ve seen but didn’t pick up and let the audience vote to include one! They could give it a limited run, just to see, maybe four to six episodes. Other things they could air during this period: experimental tv (search YouTube and find the emerging artists), student tv, they could ask filmmakers or television producers for their favorite failures, something they tried but didn’t quite hit the mark for them, and then they could talk about why and what they’d do or did differently.

They could air better nostalgia tv. I say “better nostalgia tv” because I know there are channels airing old tv, but I mean something more curated, like the best episodes of the most forgotten shows, or the best Ed Sullivan or Johnny Carson shows, etc. Oh god, I just had a daydream where I was paid to go to the The Paley Center for Media (formerly the much better named Museum of Television & Radio) to unearth forgotten treasures. They could even do something like my previous post, the best Christmas episodes.

A weird model shoot on the corner of Hudson and Canal. I say weird because it was raining a little, and everyone but the model was huddled under individual plastic sheets like some sort of stealth film crew. It also wasn’t obvious just what the model is supposed to be selling. Nice light though.

According to the wonderful site Brain Pickings, Teresa Carpenter’s New York Diaries “is easily the most dynamic and important depiction of the city since E. B. White’s timeless Here Is New York.” Oh. My. God. They have proclaimed it the best history book in 2012. Congratulations Teresa and I couldn’t agree more. It really is a wonderful and important book, and Brain Pickings did a great job of showing why. Thank you, Brain Pickings!!

This is Teresa Carpenter (on the far left) and the editors and fact checkers for the book during the holidays last year. The gentlemen in the picture is Stephen Pascal, and to Stephen’s right is the fabulous and meticulous editor, Victoria Wright, and to his left, me.

Here’s another shot from the party. I’m including it because it’s Christmas-y and because it was taken when I still had a decent smile (which I hope to have again some day).