Just When I'm Leaving

A fourth Apple Store opened in Manhattan and this one on the Upper West Side at Broadway and 67th. It would have been my "local," but I'm leaving. It was seemingly wrapped in a big box and then one day - it is there, here.

My question is: "Manhattan, you have 4 Apple Stores and only ONE Trader Joes?!"

(500) Days of Summer

Went to a screening of this film at MOMA tonight with Peter. Zooey Deschanel and Joseph-Gordon Levitt were there as well as the director and the writers. Amy Heckerling, director of "Clueless" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" was the moderator.

The film is about a guy who falls for a girl who won't entirely fall for him and then marries another. He is PAINED. His life is RUINED. He WILL NOT ever find another.

While watching, I loved it then I hated it then I hated her and then I liked it.

There is a really great spilt screen moment where they show the same scene from the perspective of the way he wanted it to be and they way it was. OW-Cha!!! OUCH! I am SO that guy! I direct every moment of my scant romantic life and it is never that way.

And then there were the flashbacks on "the signs" - the moments that were clear that she was so not that into you, and you saw them, but you refused to see them.

I guess I really liked where this film went as hard as it was to follow it in that direction. Only because there was hope and it is going to be ALWAYS TRUE: You don't want to be with someone who doesn't want to be with you.

But if ONLY they would come around....

YOU are Precious

Ellie and I went to see "Precious" at an Upper East Side matinee. Wow. It was really well done. Pretty disturbing, but well-acted and oddly hopeful. Again if someone cares and another is open the world can open up and one can move forward.

Grand Jury Reunion

I am going to write about an event I was not even at because my back went out.

Basically I didn't go out because it did.

The reason I want to write about it is because I wanted to be there. And I wanted to be there more than I realized initially because, in thinking about it, I realized I went through a very intense month with these strangers on a Grand Jury and when it was over there was no closure. Almost like we were trapped in an elevator together for a month and then the doors opened and we dispersed. Forever.

I know there isn't enough to maintain close ties, but we sent many people to trial. There were drugs and attempted murders and rapes and domestic violence and robbery and then not so much as a coffee and a danish together afterwards to come down from what we had all been through.

So basically "we" went to La Bella Ferrara Café at 110 Mulberry Street. Once we had all arrived we made our way to Positano’s for 7:30pm and after dinner we returned to the Café for coffee and pastries.

What fun! What closure! I wish I was there.

Happy Birthday, Bill

My friend Ellie's husband Bill's birthday was today. I never got to meet him as he passed away 3 years ago. But Ellie invited me to come with her and our friend Phil out to the cemetery in Brooklyn for a birthday visit. I was so pleased to be there with them.

Ellie's family has two mausoleums out there. One on her dad's side and one on her mom's. Her family goes way back in New York and I got to be meet all her relations! Frankly, it was very fun.

Ellie read Bill a poem that she reads to him every year. It was kind of perfect and lovely I thought. It is called Colours by Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko.

Ellie reads the poem. Phil stands by.

Colours - by Yevgeny Yevtushenko

When your face
appeared over my crumpled life
at first I understood
only the poverty of what I have.
Then its particular light
on woods, on rivers, on the sea,
became my beginning in the coloured world
in which I had not yet had my beginning.
I am so frightened, I am so frightened,
of the unexpected sunrise finishing,
of revelations
and tears and the excitement finishing.
I don't fight it, my love is this fear,
I nourish it who can nourish nothing,
love's slipshod watchman.
Fear hems me in.
I am conscious that these minutes are short
and that the colours in my eyes will vanish
when your face sets.

Translation from Russian © Robin Milner-Gulland and Peter Levi


Ellie's dad's "house."


The stained glass inside the mausoleum on Ellie's mother's side. Beautiful.

Ellie's mom's "house."
Fallen red leaves all over the cemetery. It was a very lovely and moving day to be here.

David Lloyd RIP

David Lloyd died today. He wrote the famous "Chuckles Bites the Dust" episode on the Mary Tyler Moore show. I have great respect for good comedy writers. Oh and envy.

The Tortoise

I walked to the pharmacy to buy Motrin. It was a blustery day out and the elderly were passing me on the left as I ambled ever so slowly as to not cause myself extreme pain. It was clear to me that my plans for tonight would have to be cancelled. But then I would be able to see Ellie back from the England! Always a half full silver lining with me. Ha!