Wooden handrails. Red carpet. Wooden door. Heavy. Big steps. Wet pavement. Trees. Lined. Big old stone museum. Stone wall. Park. Old street lamps. Black with glass. Apartment buidlings. Swanky. Doormen. Statue of Columbus.
I have squinted my way from my front door to 59th and Broadway. No reason, just wanted to see what I could see.
Voted this morning. At PS 87 on W. 78th Street. I hadn't realized it before, but this was my first time voting in any other state but California. They have these levers here and no hole punching. You crank this giant red lever like you are on a game show or want to ring the bell way high up at a State Fair and then you switch a tiny lever to actually vote and then crank the big red lever back. I had no idea that anything I did was recorded. Probably wasn't.
Went to a screening of "In Bruges" on 34th Street. It is the Martin McDonagh film that opened the Sundance Film Festival this year. Stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two killers holed up in the sleepy town of Bruges in Belgium. I can't say I really liked it. Disppointed more like. McDonagh is a hugely successful playwright with an Irish voice so I was really interested in seeing this, his first feature. Colin Ferrall and Martin McDonagh were there for the Q & A afterwards. Not too enlightening. Overall, I thought he visually captured Bruges beautiully. Funnily enough I was there in 1986. Really beautiful place. I think my brother or sister was there before me and told me about it. I want to go back now.
Hopefully this time I will remember a bit more about myself. I wonder. After walking home tonight from the screening I was thinking about me in 1986. I landed in Brussels on a $99 flight from San Francisco. I had a backback and a set of bagpipes and was on my own. I have no clue who I was or what I was thinking back then. I think I planned to seek my fortune and my fame, but I do not think I had a plan. I remember swans in Bruges and the Michelangelo sculpture. I remember the backpack. I do not remember anything about me or what I thought. It was January and I think I was shut for winter. In fact I think I saw Bruges squinting.
I have squinted my way from my front door to 59th and Broadway. No reason, just wanted to see what I could see.
Voted this morning. At PS 87 on W. 78th Street. I hadn't realized it before, but this was my first time voting in any other state but California. They have these levers here and no hole punching. You crank this giant red lever like you are on a game show or want to ring the bell way high up at a State Fair and then you switch a tiny lever to actually vote and then crank the big red lever back. I had no idea that anything I did was recorded. Probably wasn't.
Went to a screening of "In Bruges" on 34th Street. It is the Martin McDonagh film that opened the Sundance Film Festival this year. Stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two killers holed up in the sleepy town of Bruges in Belgium. I can't say I really liked it. Disppointed more like. McDonagh is a hugely successful playwright with an Irish voice so I was really interested in seeing this, his first feature. Colin Ferrall and Martin McDonagh were there for the Q & A afterwards. Not too enlightening. Overall, I thought he visually captured Bruges beautiully. Funnily enough I was there in 1986. Really beautiful place. I think my brother or sister was there before me and told me about it. I want to go back now.
Hopefully this time I will remember a bit more about myself. I wonder. After walking home tonight from the screening I was thinking about me in 1986. I landed in Brussels on a $99 flight from San Francisco. I had a backback and a set of bagpipes and was on my own. I have no clue who I was or what I was thinking back then. I think I planned to seek my fortune and my fame, but I do not think I had a plan. I remember swans in Bruges and the Michelangelo sculpture. I remember the backpack. I do not remember anything about me or what I thought. It was January and I think I was shut for winter. In fact I think I saw Bruges squinting.
1 comment:
To answer your question, your sister Eileen went to Bruges first. I remember Bruges. In 1985, I spent my 20th birthday there. My friend Donna and I were traveling together: Paris, Bruges, Amsterdam - then she went on to London and I went to Germany. On my 20th birthday in Bruges, we went on a bike ride along the water to another town Damm. There was a fantastic bakery and we bought bread and cheese for a picnic beside an old barn or something. That night, the town was transformed from quiet lovers' and old ladies' spot to hopping, pub crawl spot. We had a few pints and met some locals. Very memorable.
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