“If you’re at the cutting edge, then you’re going to bleed.” Nancy Andreasen in yesterday’s NYT article about the upside of depression.
Archive for February, 2010
Hiatus from Hibernation
On February - 27 - 2010
Before you non-New Yorkers (or Chicagoans) become infatuated with the snow, here’s a dose of cold, harsh, reality. (Did I mention cold?) Yes, the world blanketed in a downy cushion of white powder is beautiful. It is also slushy, wet, and inconvenient.
Exhibit A: This is a pile of trash left unattended due to the inevitable slowdown of the sanitation department. And I wonder why New York is infested by cockroaches.
Exhibit B: This is a makeshift bridge used to prevent an accidental drowning as I walked from the curb onto the bus. This plank, while useful in theory, did not withstand the weight of an adult female (that would be me). Yes, my leather boots were submerged in slush.
Exhibit C: This is rather sad, like the abandoned walkman in your basement that reminds you of making mixtapes in sixth grade. It encapsulates the stifling, burdensome nature of winter. I don’t think anybody will feel the wind in their hair on this baby anytime soon.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Immobility
Exhibit D: Snow and its aftermath necessitate manual labor. I say call it a winter and get yourself an unlimited metro card.
In all fairness, Central Park is a winter wonderland and a child’s snowy paradise. In the process of taking these photos, I nearly developed frostbite. Now please excuse me while I make some hot cocoa and curl up in bed.
Don't fall in.
Internal Monologue: Friday Morning
On February - 20 - 2010
He wears jeans, sneakers, and a tan checkered button-down shirt.
He’s probably boring. I think I should say hi. Probably, he’s boring. Law school. Maybe engineering. Today should be the day I say hello. But I bet he’s boring.
I’m writing/listening to Michael Jackson at the small cafe near my apartment, catching quick glances at my ‘cafe crush’ (the guy who comes in as frequently as I do, orders a latte, as I do, and stares intently at his laptop, as I do.)
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt. “
Isn’t it Romantic?
On February - 12 - 2010
There are those who hate Valentine’s Day so much they use it as an excuse to drink their ego out of the driver’s seat so they can hand the keys to their id. Then when the inevitable I’m-so-miserable-and-alone drunken meltdown occurs, it seems organic, and friends feel obliged to give the woe-is-me gal what she wanted all along: a pity party.
Everybody’s a Critic
On February - 10 - 2010
“Criticism – and its humble cousin, reviewing – is not a democratic activity. It is, or should be, an elite enterprise, ideally undertaken by individuals who bring something to the party beyond their hasty, instinctive opinions…It is work that requires disciplined taste, historical and theoretical knowledge and a failry deep sense of the author’s (or filmmaker’s or painters’s) entire body of work, among other qualities.” – Richard Schickel, as quoted by Robert Sietsema in CJR
I’m just sayin.’ According to this criteria, I’m not sure where I’d fall.
Settling for Half
On February - 8 - 2010
These days, according to Alfieri, we settle for half.
This weekend I had the privilege of seeing two fine theatrical productions, The Lonely Soldier Monologues and A View From the Bridge. Though one was a compilation of monologues performed on a sparse stage and the other a full-scale Broadway production, they both reminded me of the many ways we settle for less than being whole.