Month: June 2016

People gathered to mourn and respond to what happened in Orlando. There was a large crowd, and they were organizing a march as I was leaving. I couldn’t see or hear the speakers so I can’t really tell you much.

This essay exactly sums up all my objections to the latest version one of my favorite shows, So You Think You Can Dance.

The new version features children. As I tweeted, it’s watchable, but the show has lost its depth and artistry. It’s not that the children aren’t really good dancers, it’s just … bland. They haven’t lived yet, there’s no there there. It’s charming without power. It’s cute when I want great art. I’m remembering all the mind-blowing routines from this show’s past. There will be no more of that. That’s over. Children can’t dance my favorite routines. Maybe they can, but it would be an empty performance, almost obscene in some cases, and I’m not talking about the sexy, romantic routines.

But I’m hanging in there. There’s a possibility there will be great moments. Growing up is a major undertaking, with many powerfully hellish and wonderful aspects. Maybe there will be choreographers who address them brilliantly and little dancers up to those routines.

A shot from the Loser’s Lounge recent Pet Sounds show.

I’m trying to decide whether or not to enter this year’s lap swim contest.

Backstory: Every summer the NYC Parks & Recreation Department sponsors a summer lap swim contest. Anyone who swims 25 miles by September 2nd gets a tshirt and is invited to a celebration and dinner at the end of the summer! There’s also a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophy for the man and the woman who swim the most miles in their division at their pool between July 5th and August 5th. The divisions are Early Bird or Night Owl and only the laps you swim during the times for your division count.

Here’s the thing. It’s all based on the honor system, mostly. You count your laps as you swim and report them at the end. But some people cheat. I really don’t get it, the prizes aren’t worth cheating for and the real pleasure, in my opinion, is actually swimming the miles and winning. I don’t see how it would feel good if you cheated. Last year they had employees randomly count you. (When I was counted what I reported either matched or I was off by no more than two, which is plausible. I could miscount.)

This year I noticed a procedure section. Maybe they always had this and I never noticed or maybe they got more complaints than usual about cheating. Someone told me that they issued lap count watches before and they didn’t work well.

Procedure

1. Sign in and choose a slow, intermediate, or fast lane according to your ability.

2. If you would like to keep track of the distance you swim a lap count watch will be issued to you. If a lap count watch is not available, laps may be counted by a staff member or each swimmer.

3. When leaving the pool, you should inform the on-site aquatic specialist of the number of lengths logged for the day as well as your Administration Number.

4. To ensure fairness in the competition for trophies and t-shirts, we will sometimes count Swimmers’ laps throughout the summer.

I always swim in the Night Owl division because I can’t consistently get up and out every morning. You have to swim every day (laps on the weekend aren’t counted) and for the whole time, an hour and a half, in order to win. You miss a night or leave early and someone else racks up miles that you have now lost.

It’s a lot of work and every year I say I’m not going to do it, and then I end up doing it. If I do it, this year will be my fourth year. Here are my trophies from the previous years. I went from 19 miles, to 39, to 32.8 (that’s just for the one month, I swim more over the whole period). As usual, I really don’t feel like doing it. Maybe I should switch to the Early Bird division.

Among all the wonderful gifts I got (and I’m not saying I have favorites, this is just the most photographable) is a reproduction of an Edouard Marcel Sandoz sculpture given to me by Huntington branch of the Horn family.

Isn’t this the sweetest rabbit? I’m including a shot with Finney so you can get a sense of scale. Oh! I just found a picture of Sandoz with a bunch of fennec foxes sculptures! Too cute! (Scroll down …) All his work is irresistible.

I was freaking myself out last night looking at pictures of myself from this blog on the day I turned fifty. That reminds me, I can do posts like “Ten Years Ago on this Blog.” Could be fun occasionally. Anyway, I was mostly happy turning fifty because I mostly looked as good as I ever did.

It’s simply not true anymore. I look absolutely fine for sixty, even great for sixty, so I’m still mostly okay, but if I posted a side by side, which I’m not going to do, you’d see why I was freaking out last night.

I am not Helen Mirren. My goal now is to become a person who doesn’t give a fuck. I think that, more than anything else, will make me look as attractive as I’m capable of being.

Some kids at what looks like a graffiti party. I forget where!