postcard from new york
Just a quick note to say that I am in New York and done with 86 of my 87 meetings. Coney Island was rained out and AK almost didn't make it in, but that made it even sweeter when she did. While I met and met and met, she toured the city and brought me back little treasures from her travels, most awesomely And Tango Makes Three, a true, illustrated story of gay penguins and their adopted baby at the Central Park Zoo.
I came up for air long enough to join AK at Spring Awakening, a musical about horny German school kids in a repressive turn-of-the-century town that delivered a jolt of live-theater energy I haven't felt since Rent. There was kink and boys kissing and one genuine naked butt, all of which could be objected to by current repressor types, giving the show more edge than it might have had otherwise. But as much as I'm for kink and boys kissing and naked butts, I was most impressed by the songs, the talented cast members (most of whom were younger than the kids I grew up babysitting) and the way the stage shook whenever one of them jumped from ladder to wooden chair to suspended platform.
I'm still slowly reading The Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Lethem's meticulously written book about gentrification, cultural appropriation and superheroes, which is largely set in Brooklyn and the Village. My slothfulness paid off because it's fun to read the book on-site. A small part is also set in LA (I think Lethem's new novel, which I haven't read, is too). From this small part, he doesn't seem to like LA very much, or at least not Hollywood. But I like LA, and it will be nice to be home in a few days.
I came up for air long enough to join AK at Spring Awakening, a musical about horny German school kids in a repressive turn-of-the-century town that delivered a jolt of live-theater energy I haven't felt since Rent. There was kink and boys kissing and one genuine naked butt, all of which could be objected to by current repressor types, giving the show more edge than it might have had otherwise. But as much as I'm for kink and boys kissing and naked butts, I was most impressed by the songs, the talented cast members (most of whom were younger than the kids I grew up babysitting) and the way the stage shook whenever one of them jumped from ladder to wooden chair to suspended platform.
I'm still slowly reading The Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Lethem's meticulously written book about gentrification, cultural appropriation and superheroes, which is largely set in Brooklyn and the Village. My slothfulness paid off because it's fun to read the book on-site. A small part is also set in LA (I think Lethem's new novel, which I haven't read, is too). From this small part, he doesn't seem to like LA very much, or at least not Hollywood. But I like LA, and it will be nice to be home in a few days.
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