Stacy Horn

But lets start with the Supreme Court. From the New York Times: “In a pair of major victories for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that married same-sex couples were entitled to federal benefits and, by declining to decide a case from California, effectively allowed same-sex marriages there.”

I was in a meeting and didn’t learn until I got off the subway, and walked past the Stonewall Inn on my way home. News trucks and news people were lined up across the street …

This tells you how out of it I am (there is only my new book) — I stopped and asked them why they were there. They very kindly didn’t look at me and ask, “What hole did you crawl out of,” and instead they told me the news. Woohoo!!

I just keep forgetting to post about it. But how are you all doing? Please check in and let us know that you’re okay.

I thought I had a picture of the flooded area of the West Village where I live but I couldn’t find it. Here are some downed trees instead.

My book Imperfect Harmony: Finding Happiness Singing With Others comes in exactly one week! July 2nd is my pub date!! I am so excited and hopeful I’m barely sleeping anymore, and I can’t do anything except everything I can think of to get the word out about this book. Pretty much all the advance reviews, both from professional reviewers and from regular readers, have been so positive and glowing. I am, as they say, walking on air.

I went around the city this weekend taking pictures for a presentation about the book. Thank God I did this before the heat wave hit. One of the places I wanted to take a picture of was a wall of a local prison, but the guards wouldn’t let me near it. I’m not easily daunted, however. I walked around until I found a spot where I could shoot it from a distance, which, ironically, turned out to be from a overhang in front of One Police Plaza. Ha.

This shot of the inside of the magnificent Grace Church, where I sing, was a much easier picture to get. The caretaker working at the time couldn’t have been nicer. One week!! ONE MORE WEEK!

See it. I was expecting it to be awful, after reading not only the mixed reviews from critics, but equally mixed reviews from the regular audience. It’s not a great movie or even a great zombie movie, but it delivered. I was on the edge of my seat most of the time. It’s nothing like the book, but I already knew that was going to be the case and I understand why they couldn’t follow the structure of the book. The book told the story through a collection of oral histories. You get different characters every chapter, it’s quite complex, and that would have been nearly impossible to pull off in a two hour movie. I knew they had to do something else.

That said, there are a million interesting details in the book which made it enormously interesting and entertaining and those could have been exploited in the movie. The author, Max Brooks, clearly has given zombies a lot of thought. Just what would happen in a zombie apocalypse? What practical problems would occur? What are some things they can do in their undead state that we can’t? He thinks of things no one has ever though of before, things that make sense, and then uses them to dramatic advantage. (I don’t want to give anything away. Read the book, it’s a perfect summer read.)

The movie makers could have sprinkled these bits all through the movie and made a picture that was a lot more terrifying, a lot more engrossing, and unlike any zombie movie that has come before. I do not understand. Actually, they did use one bit, but not as well as it was used in the book. Still, it was good. And sad.

There is absolutely no character development. 28 Days Later made you care more about a bicycle messenger in the first five minutes than this movie did about Brad Pitt’s UN … [something] in the entire film. Pitt makes it work through the sheer power of his presence. Anyway, after I wrote all that I have to say it’s still well worth seeing. You’ll feel like you got your money’s worth and had fun. I felt better about this than any other movie I’ve seen so far (like Iron Man and … what else have I seen? I can’t even remember they were so forgettable).

I took these shots cutting through Washington Square Park on my way to the movies. First this dancer, who had the right idea, it was so hot out, and …

There was this piano player. It’s part of some art project that I’ve posted before. Someone puts pianos all around the city.

From time to time I come across a picture of Buddy (my cat who died last year) in some tucked away corner of my computer. Man, I miss that cat. It’s insane.

I’m going to go see World War Z today, I’ve decided. The reviews are so mixed, it looks like I’m sure to be disappointed. But I can’t resist the lure of a zombie movie. I will report back.