Friday, April 25, 2014

#31 I'm Fine...The Muse Is Back

After many pleading e-mails, my blog continues, not because of the requests & inquiries as to my well being, but because I feel the need to write. I miss putting my thoughts down and real life will just have to slow down for 1 day, so I can do so.
I have been busy: trudging through the drifts of snow and slush for months, finding ways to keep the cold out of my adorable tiny tenement studio, reconnecting with friends from my last stay here, figuring out the Off & OffOff Broadway Theaters, seeing almost all of the Spring "shows" (except Hedwig - I WILL win that lottery!) and tooling around town with visitors from the other side of the Hudson River.
Yes, busy!
Yesterday was the PERFECT example of why I love this city. 5 days ago, I was planning my week. I am a good planner. I was a City Planner for the Real Mayor Daley, after all. There was an event I wanted to go to: Meryl Streep, Julianna Margulies, Kevin Kline, Patrick Stewart, Parker Posey, Rosie Perez Billy Crudup, Tina Fey and other artsy fartsy people, reading their selected poems on National Poetry Day at Lincoln Center. Tickets were $75. Pooh, I decided, too expensive, even for La Streep! So what happens at 10AM yesterday? I get an e-mail offering tix for $25. Bought one in 2 nano seconds!
The event lived up to everything I had hoped for. All the "celebs" were present, as advertised, and were outstanding. The crowd was elegant. The Hall was resplendent with "posh", but there were 3 people who were clueless dolts. When Julianna M. was reading a perfect poem about loss, her face was wet with tears (and mine, too, because my brother had passed away 2 weeks before), someone's phone went off. She paused, waited for the damn thing to stop, and then beautifully continued. Next Meryl steps to the podium. She is speaking. Another phone rings. She smiles wryly, then continues. She begins her second reading and ANOTHER phone blares. She stops, waits and when silence returns, repeats the poem from where she was interrupted. Well done Meryl. As she starts her next poem, she says so sweetly, but with all her acting chops blaring down on the offenders, "This will be the final poem. Please silence your phones, NOW." Of course, there was pandemonium in the audience. Patti LuPone would have handled it differently, but no less dramatically. It was "live theater" heaven.
I was so energized, that I walked all the way home from 68th to 5th Street and over 9 Avenues East. Took about an hour. I was really pumped.
That's all...more sooner, rather than later.