I am behind on a handful of Middle Notes and countless quick dip writes. I could blame it on grief. In eight months I’ve mourned my father, an aunt, and in this past week my beloved grandmother. Planning funerals and wrapping up the details of a life are exhausting and no fun. But it doesn’t change the fact I’m in debt to myself. I made a vow to moi, a commitment to post something at Read more
Psalms 78.41, The Bible 8 min in bed @ Aunty’s, Queens NY, 1.24.13 It was a stupid plan. It wasn’t even a plan, hence the stupidity. “There’s a big difference between spontaneous and stupid, Arlene.” Georgie had only said that a million times. But she’d said just as many times that her dream was to get on American Idol. The judges were so close! There’s no way they’d be this close on another season, this Read more
Interview Magazine, Dec/Jan 2013 8 min @ Happy Bones NYC, 1.22.13 Water and light. That is it. That is all the baby needs. They only had one baby. Zoe had picked up the fledgling money tree in Chinatown when they moved into the Parkdale storefront. Garrett didn’t think they’d keep it alive for an entire rent cycle. But Zoe said they just had to make a commitment every day to keep it green for one Read more
Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea. by Chelsea Handler 8 min on the F train into Manhattan The visits with Genevieve and the baby were getting awkward. Brenda knew her friend thought she was a prude; Genevieve thought all Americans were uptight about their naked bodies. But Brenda had no issues with bare breasts or breast feeding. Her issue was with Genevieve’s unabashed indulgence in her semi-nudity while on her holy mission of nourishing Read more
All That Glitters by Pearl Lowe 8 min on the set of “Rookie Blue”, 1.18.13 Every night you told me a different fairy tale. You said they were true stories and I should never give up on my dreams. Everyone gets a happy ending. I remember my tenth birthday when we both wore tiaras and danced until our legs felt like noodles. You put the New Order cassette on continuous play and glitter from our hair Read more
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf 8 min @ Mercury Espresso, 1.17.13 My mother refused to marry my father even though that was the thing to do. It was hard to be a single, unwed mother in the forties. But she always said why marry the dog that did her wrong? She’d never rise above her mistake. That was the abiding theme in our little house, ‘learn from your mistakes’. She rented rooms to the new Read more
I went to see the film Holy Motors last night. Wow. I hadn’t read any reviews because I didn’t want other people’s impressions to color my experience. I do know that it made a ton of top ten lists and is lauded all over the globe. But “Wow” is my most succinct response to the crazy beautiful ride of Holy Motors. It’s a stunning love letter to cinema and Paris. And it’s a curious commentary Read more
Hope on a Tightrope by Cornel West 8 min on the bed, 1.15.13 It’s not her fault. She had to share everything until she could provide it for herself. There wasn’t one thing she ever had new before the age of nine. There were eight of them and she was the oops. She ingested her mother’s resentment in utero and her father’s absence for the first three years told her everything she could expect Read more