Stacy Horn

This Post Contains Spoilers

I don’t know why Once Upon a Time is getting the better reviews. I just watched the Grimm pilot and I prefer their premise. I’m still enjoying Once Upon a Time, but only because the actresses playing Snow and Emma are so good. I’m liking it less because the Evil Queen/Regina, who is such a big part of it, doesn’t feel real. She is a tired stereotype of evil, and not at all scary.

The thing with killing her dad would have worked better if they had held off on that for a while and allowed us to to get to know the two of them better. A few seconds of sweetness from him and a few seconds of tears welling up from her were not enough. We weren’t attached yet. It was a missed opportunity.

Grimm just seems a whole lot smarter and fun, and like it’s going to be full of surprises. The set-up gives them more freedom to be inventive, and to have fun. The main character, a homicide detective named Grimm, learns he’s descended from a line of Grimms who can see all these fantastic, supernatural creatures that others can’t. The creatures are drawn from the Grimm fairytales, except they’re modernized, which isn’t happening in Once Upon a Time. It’s Buffy meets Supernatural. Lots of possibilities here, but who knows which will emerge as best in the end. It’s too soon to tell, but I already prefer Grimm.

Poor Buddy. You can feel his pain in this shot. All that tension and longing. I’m sorry Buddy. You can’t have him.

I’ve been following Eric Whitacre’s tweets to prepare for our interview in a couple of weeks. I just learned that he’s writing something called Songs of Immortality. So yeah, my kind of songs. Can’t wait. He also posted a link to one of the pieces he’s listening to for research. It’s this moving and not a little spooky composition by Bartok. I can see why he’s listening to it.

A picture I took one night on the way down to Zuccotti Park.

Remember how I was agonizing about whether or not to drum in the Halloween Parade this year? Well, I found a post I made on Echo in 1997, before drumming in the parade for the second time.

“I’m drumming in the Halloween parade. I probably won’t be able to get any work done, I’m so excited about doing this. I drummed last year for the first time but I was such a beginner I didn’t really get to enjoy it. I had to pay such intense attention to what I was doing I was oblivious to my surroundings. Plus my arms were in agony because I wasn’t used to playing for hours at a time yet.”

“This year I’ll be able to look up at the crowd, be aware that I’m marching on 6th Avenue, notice the other people in the parade with me!”

I remember that first time so well. I’d only been drumming for a couple of months and I wasn’t very good. I kept my head down the entire time, staring furiously at my drum, as if that would make me drum any better. I basically missed the whole thing. I could have been anywhere. This year was the total opposite. I walked down 6th Avenue with my head up, taking in my surroundings while drumming away, la-dee-da. It was my 15th year!

A left-over sign on 6th Avenue, telling people if you march in this parade you might be on tv, because NY1 is filming the whole thing.

This was the first picture I took on Halloween. The wig caught my attention.

I went. I drummed. I took pictures. First up, ME. From left to right, David Schwartz, Ellen Cooper, dancer whose name I do not know, me. We’re bundled up because it was freezing. I don’t know how those brave, hardy dancers do it. They were all pretty much naked.

At various times I tried to get a picture of the crowds lining the streets, but we were moving at such a fast clip none of my shots came out. Their faces, thousands and thousands of them, were smiling, exhilarated, and cheering. I cut out at 14th Street and for a moment, while I was not in the parade, but watching it, I got to feel the energy, all these people glad to be in this one spot at this time. People in stilts came by and I was afraid they’d fall on me or I’d trip them but it was exciting and all was okay.

Giant eyeballs were kind of the theme this year. The parade was started by a bunch of artists and theatre people who lived at Westbeth mostly (I think) and there was always a theme which was represented by giant puppets interspersed throughout the parade. (And it used to wind through the smaller streets of the Village and there would be various theatrical tableaus along the way). The puppets are less and less present every year. But this year it was eyeballs.

This was after the parade, at 11th Street and 7th Avenue, when I was almost home, when I saw the best thing of all …

None of my shots last night came out well, but I grabbed this shot this morning. I have close-ups, but I think this long view gives you a better idea of just how cool what these people did is. If you’re not a Doctor Who fan it would probably take too long to explain what has been done here, but it is GREAT. That’s the Tardis, Doctor Who’s time traveling machine, crashed into a building on Perry Street.

Thank you, whoever did this, I love it. Oh Hell, I’m including one of my shots of it from last night, because you miss how it was lit from within in this daytime shot …

Update: A view of the Tardis on Perry Street in 2012.

It’s Mona Simpson’s eulogy for her brother, Steve Jobs. You might be thinking, enough already with Steve Jobs, I’m sick of Steve Jobs, or even, I hate Steve Jobs. But this is different. It’s incredibly moving. It’s moving not only because of the life observed, but because of the observer. It reminds me how even fictional characters can be so affecting they change lives. So it doesn’t matter what you think of Steve Jobs. Just read it. And thank you, Mona Simpson.

Holiday cleaning progress report: DONE. My apartment is so clean I can throw a freshly laundered white comforter on the floor, have a cat immediately jump into it, and not care.