These Widgets Can't Sunset

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The title of my post is a sentence I heard the head of marketing use in a meeting today. I thought it said it all. About what I do not know, but maybe about how far from reality it is possible to go yet find yourself in a new reality that is increasingly acceptable. It has nothing to do with trees or family or love or any of that, but of money and keeping on and the emperor's new personal communication device, and... I think I was shocked, but in love it at the same time.

Let's just do celebrity tidbits today. You know celebrities always come in threes. Not gonna touch that one, huh?

1. Robert Redford said hello to me today in the hallway at work. How MANY times does this keep happening to all of us??!! It is epidemic.

2. Went to see "August: Osage County" at the Imperial Theatre in NY tonight. Saw 80's icon Andrew McCarthy heading to his seat. Play had TWO great acts and then just went all soap opera and "your cousin is your BRUTHAAHHH" in the third act. I was so sad about that.

3. Saw Aaron Sorkin, genius writer of "The West Wing," alone outside the Music Box Theatre where his new play "The Farnsworth Invention" is in previews. Broadway does not get any greater to me than seeing the playwright alone outside the theatre during previews of HIS play - smoking a cigarette and pacing. V. cool siting.

These widgets may not be able to sunset, but I must. A long day of work and more Broadway glamour tomorrow.

MY Travels to the Far East

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I went to 68th and Lex tonight to Hunter College for a BAFTA East Coast event. It was an evening with Andrew Davies who wrote loads of the BBC Jane Austen, Dickens, etc./PBS dramas. (Including "Bleak House" which I just LOVED! If you have not seen it, rent it.) There was a drinks reception beforehand. I recognized it from the west coast events: cheese cubes, some fruit. But I was just off a call with BAFTA Los Angeles that day that went really well and I was enthused to go there and meet new people.

I know how to get up and down Manhattan no problem, but this event was "across the park." Funnily enough I had no real idea how to do that. In fact I asked someone at work. I left my office in Times Square and walked from Broadway to 7th to 6th to 5th and so on until I got to Lexington. Then the #6 up to 68th. Not really that hard. It was a whole new world. I passed Radio City, and Rockefeller Center where people were ice skating. I went by St. Pat's and Bloomingdale's and on past swanky Park Avenue and the Waldorf Astoria. It was an AMAZING walk. I could feel the city just bursting to break out for the holidays and the energy enthused me. If life were a movie musical, so many numbers would have taken place on my walk to catch the #6 uptown. I even spoke to a guy with dog. If I were Gene Kelly I would have tipped the boy in crutches selling the paper. I was at that level of enthrallitude.

The event was good and I met two woman, Sarah Ball and Lorelei King, at the cocktail party which made it even better. Sarah is in BAFTA with me and Lorelei was visiting from London. Sarah is a writer/producer in animation which was my life for many years and we knew some people in common. My nephew would go nuts because she wrote/directed and produced "Bob the Builder." That is HUGE points with any kid. And Lorelei was the voice of Wendy in the show! MORE huge points. How amazing is it to have randomly spoken to them?! So nice to meet them both and I hope I see Sarah at events and Lorelei in London!!!

Two ex-pats and a Pat (Sarah, Patrick, Lorelei)

I left there and walked up to 79th Street to take the cross town bus to a world that made sense to me - the West. The walk was great as the eastside seems so different and I loved all the shop windows. I have to say I liked it over there. (But when I was on the #6 I thought people looked different. This, of course, was entirely in my head, but they just did! ) My love of life for this evening continued when I got to Pastrami Queen. I ordered some pea soup and a 1/4 pound of turkey pastrami to go. I was saved from swinging on lamposts by the arrival the the cross town bus. On the ride home some women were talking about Weight Watchers and I felt like blurting out "It's TURKEY pastrami!! Leave me alone. And I am Lifetime!!!" But I didn't and continued to read my so so mystery novel that takes place in Venice. (3/4 of the way and he is still sipping espresso and interviewing people. Arggggh. I want another death at least! Get a clue already, Guido!) They should have called it the "A Domani Murder Mystery Series. "

Home to a Fed Ex packet from my most excellent friend John of TWO TICKETS TO SEE "YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN" ON BROADWAY FOR WEDNESDAY!

Life IS a musical after all.

Buona Sera.

November 4th.

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Today was the New York City Marathon, the largest marathon race in the world. I was there with my friend Sean and we burned major calories cheering on the runners from all over the world.

Today is also November 4th. This was Sean's birthday. And my brother Sean's birthday. And my mum's birthday. And my friend Larry's birthday. Wow. A bonanza of birthdays of some really great people. Happy Birthday to all of you.

I got to speak with my brother and Larry on the phone. That was a gift to me to talk to them.

My brother Sean and me.

Remember when long distance phone calls were this thing where you got a quick second on the phone to say hello and how is the weather there and I miss you and then you had to hand the receiver back to one of your parents because this call is costing a fortune and nothing of any substance got said due to the pressure to be brief? What a gift cell phones are in that way that we can blether on about whatever to whomever for forever. And though this can allow for some on and on calls, it can also afford us the opportunity to check in with those far away and really have a talk. I had some good ones today. That was cool.

In not related news I have had a headache all day (even though I seemed to have masked it pretty well!) and I think I may have a bit of a cold. Going to hit the hay early tonight and try and get some sleep before starting the week.

And they told two Friends and so on and so on...

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Ahhhh! Saturday! A day off. A day of rest. It was GREAT. I got up and cleaned my apartment all the while wishing someone else was doing it. But it is done and SO nice.

Then I met Lisa and Josie at Sarabeth's on Amsterdam and 80th. (Sadly Lisa did not get her tomato soup fix here because there was too long of a wait, so three Californians went out for New York Mexican! ) Here is one of the ways modern technology can be used for good and not for evil. When I was moving to New York I sent out an e-mail to a lot of my friends asking if they knew of someone looking to rent to someone, and like the old Faberge shampoo commercial they told two friends and so on. Well Lisa and Josie are my new relations because of this search. I know Cheline who knows Jacquie who knows Josie who knows Lisa. And here we are 3rd and 4th cousins meeting up in Manhattan for brunch all because I wrote to Cheline. Excellent. We had about a 4 hour lunch. It was fantastic. Both great girls and it was a pleasure to meet them. I had a great time and felt so instantly comfortable with them. Lisa lives here and Josie is going to hopefully. And we all hover in around the same business so hopefully we can help each other as well.

Those girls tired me out and I went home and tried to nap all the while thinking I should be walking through a museum and feeling guilty about this. There are so many shrinks on the UWS, I should find one!

I am terrified as Lisa and Josie talked me into joining Facebook. This blog has made me feel a little exposed, but in a way I like, and then there is the world of Facebook. Wow. Not sure how to handle yet. I wish I could start off with Elbowbook or Shinbook.

Last night I called my friend Brad's friend Bo. He lives walking distance from me. And as happens in all the 30's -40's radio plays of Manhattan, I am invited over to their new penthouse apartment by Lincoln Center and walking distance from my house. This is the life I want and I am having it. I went over and met Bo and his partner Andy. We had a really nice visit and I hope to borrow sugar and eggs and a cuppa flour from them soon.

Le Scaphandre et le Papillon

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This should translate to "Horrible True Confessions" for the purposes of this blog entry, but it translates to THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY - a film I saw last night at the Broadway Screening Room in Times Square right by my work. This is the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby the editor-in-chief of French Elle who suffers a stroke at 43 and is paralyzed fully except for his left eye. He goes on to write a book through blinking out the letters to a translator. Amazing film by blustering American artist/director Julian Schnabel. I know some critics and those cheaper and even more thoughtless than yours truly will cheekily refer to this as "My Life Eye" (remember you heard it here first!), but it is such a lovely, lovely film. Go see it when it opens wide for you peons.

The reason I said "Horrible True Confessions" is because as much as I was engrossed in this film and was moved so deeply by it, here are a selection of devil/shoulder thoughts I had whilst viewing:

"He was editor-in-chief of French Elle at 43? What have I done with my life?"
"What a nice car and nice clothes."
"What a nice house in the country and he has a place in Paris as well. He is 43!"
"He's taken a lover and he has a wife? Have I taken enough lovers? How do I do that?"
"He wrote a book?!, I want to write a book."
"He called his father's apartment in Paris "small"? I would KILL for that apartment."
"He still has his father at 43."

This man was 43 and could only move his left eye. God help me turn my thinking to how fortunate I am as temp Director of Scheduling and Programming at 45. No living parents, yet all my working parts today. Grazie Dio.

This of course makes me go to last year's excellent Oscar winner, the German film about a couple's lives RUINED by spying from the East German police, the Stassi - THE LIVES OF OTHERS and my thoughts with this intense film about loss of personal freedoms:

"Wow, he is a successful playwright and lives in Berlin with all those books and he gets to be that good looking and he's my age and successful with a beautiful girlfriend and drinks wine and smokes cigarettes? That's it. After I get out of this cinema in Los Angeles I am going to move to Berlin and drink wine and smoke and write plays."

The lives of others is exactly what I need to stay out of.

SOOOOO... I got to go to this screening care of my excellent friend Robin who took me. As I was waiting for Robin this woman gets off the elevator with shopping bags and a knitted wool scarf and gives the "name on the list" woman a whole story about how she is just in from LA and was supposed to meet a friend here but he couldn't make it and she is eligible herself to be on the list but doesn't have her card but she SO wants to see this film and if it is at all...." I thought to myself "Do I believe her? She seems nice and not jaded. Yes, I believe her." Then I thought "This is so bad that I am listening to this and I wonder who she is and I need to just not talk to her as is my wont." Then I thought "Will I tell her I just moved here from LA and then talk about that?" And then I thought that is just so eye rolling I will leave the poor woman alone. I never thought "Later on you will be hugging this woman on 50th and Broadway and having a stranger take your photo with her." Life is truly grand that way.

Deux Belles et un Papillon

So Robin shows up and Marina is a friend of hers and we all sit together. It was great. Robin is a fantastic new friend in my life and I do not write this SOLELY because she is reading this, but also because she told me so. NOOO, because it happens to be true. So Robin Palmer moved from LA a month before me and is a writer and her book "Cindy Ella" is on Amazon so click on her name and buy it. (In my quest to NEVER be misunderstood, I can't figure out how to underline on Blogger so I had to use quotes around the title so don't think for a minute I don't know...) And Marina Zenovich is an accomplished filmmaker who has just completed a new film "Roman Polanksi: Wanted and Desired" that I hope will be screening at Sundance this year. Look out for it.

This moment I can walk, blink with both eyes, live in a lovely brownstone in Manhattan, work at a great company and have a Friday night out with a writer and a filmmaker, and more importantly, two engaging women.

"My Left Brain" is the title of where I need to be and stay out of everyone else's.

Sleepy Dogs Lie

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Met my friend Sean in the Village for dinner after work. I say this like it is thing I do often. He mentioned going to this Chinese place for dinner and I actually said "You want to go there again?" like I have been doing this for years. I am not jaded; it is quite the opposite. I am a clumsy, gangly, largescale puppy dog that wants to lap it all up. A large puppy dog with an ailing paw, mind you. I don't think it is time to repeat restaurants is all. So I went to this restaurant for the second whole time in my life and it was really good. Perfect in fact. We walked around Bleecker Street and had banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery. Fun night. All the restaurants were full and people were everywhere.

But it became 10ish and I wanted to roll up in my sidewalk and sleep.

It is odd to be working at an office again where I feel the thrill of FRIDAYS. Work is going well, but I am so excited to have 2 days off. And it is filling up already. I have to make time to clean my apartment until I figure out that people here have people to do that for them because they need to be at brunch.

My new attainable goals: podiatrist appointment, Weight Watchers. I am really dragging ass on these and if I don't deal with the latter, there will be more to drag and it I don't deal with the former, it will be really painful to boot! Can't I send out for these as well?

Happy Birhtday, Dad.

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Halloween. My dad would have celebrated his 75th birthday today as my brother reminded me. Wow. It isn't that odd to be alive at 75. But at 62 he did not renew. I miss him more frequently the older I get because I get him more. And I think of so many more things we could talk about and enjoy doing together. And so often I thought, "if only he would come around." This makes me laugh as I was SO convinced I had come around when I was so closed. SO closed. I think he would have gotten me more now. We were headed that way, thank God. It is all pretty classic Cats in the Cradle stuff. When he was me he had 4 kids, a mortgage and 3 practices. He was paying 3 high school tuitions and I thought he sucked, quite often. I was 15 and probably a mess on the inside. Talk about masks!

This Irish New Yorker went to most of my basketball games, all my piping competitions, took me to amazing theatre and restaurants and even brought me to NYC to look at dance schools when I know that was not his vision. Hah. When I think of that, I know he loved me. Cannot believe I am blogging this stuff, but it is late and he is on my mind. I say no more, but that this is his birthday and I think of him often and fondly now. And I am his son living in his home town. I am proud of that. Pretty cool.