Cross-Posting: Song of Myself (Linda Norton)

CROSS-POSTED FROM FIELD RESEARCH STUDY GROUP A BLOG

Below is a reply that author, blogger and educator Linda Norton sent back in January 2018 via the FRSGA Yahoo account, in response to one of the vouchers I posted in December, which Karen Cantrell had previously responded to. The card read:

Here is her full response (note the references to an array of artists):

Song of Myself

Filmmaker, star, a doctor examining the culture—me on a walk. On the pavement, I notice an electric-blue Post-It from that batch I stole when I quit my job: “taylor * negritude * milk and you” – My dirty to-do list. I must have walked this way last week and dropped it.

In December sun, I hurry past the cathedral like it might get me. Then I saunter, Thoreau-like, sans-terre in California, and again I’m everything—the spinsters Thoreau disparaged, the turtles he saw copulating and tried to separate, the mother who saves him from civilization. Open to alms. My loneliness is like a poem by Fanny.

By this time my parka is off. In the co-op bakery when I get to the counter, the cashier is dazzled for a minute. “You look like Elizabeth Taylor.” But then he wonders if he’s right not to offer me the senior discount yet. “That’s right. Not yet.”

--Linda Norton; a response to a prompt on John Keene’s “Emotional Outreach” blog, 12/2017

Many thanks to Linda for her collaboration, and I will post most responses as they come in. Any readers of this blog should feel free to respond to the instructions above, and write a response along the lines of Linda's and forward it directly to fieldresearchgroup[AT]yahoo.com, or center your QR reader app and utilize the QR code below.

"Song of Myself," Copyright © Linda Norton, shared by permission with the Emotional Outreach/FRSGA blog, 2018.

Emotional Outreach Project: Life As a Work of Art (Karen Cantrell)

This is a cross-posting, with a few revisions, from my other blog, the site for Field Research Study Group A, where I've shared information for the last few years about various versions of the durational Emotional Outreach Project I've engaged in for over a decade now (since 2003).

Please do visit that blog, and feel free to check out this post and this one, both from 2016, if you would like to participate. Also, at the end of this post, please note the correct email address to which you can send your responses if you elect to write one or several.

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It has been a while since I last posted here at Field Research Study Group A--over a year!--but I wanted to share a new response from the most recent version of the Emotional Outreach Project.

Below is a reply that Karen Cantrell sent back in May (2017) via the FRSGA Yahoo account, in response to one of the vouchers I passed out earlier this year (I believe.) Based on her reply, I imagine her card's emotional exercise read as follows:

If I may quote her email directly, she writes: "The card with the assignment fell out of my bag, and I took its appearance as a sign. A paragraph, however, is hard. I have summarized my day as a work of art to one sentence and included the paragraphs that describe what I saw."

Here is her full response:

Sentence: 

I liked picturing myself as a better person, more attractive, stronger, a person who knows the right thing to do and has the courage to perform accordingly.

Paragraphs: 

I first conjured a series of statues – me doing perfect poses, no wobbles even during chaturanga, not though the full moon increased the gravity. Sculptures of smooth, hard stone, all extra padding shaved away, no greasy fingerprints disturbing the gloss, a yogic serenity smoothing my features. 

Second, an animation to capture the papers and toys and books and used dishes returning like autonomous agents to my mother’s living room, days after I cleared the clutter and wiped the dusty cobwebs from behind framed needlepoints. 

A photo of a lonely dog jumping on the little old ladies who deigned to drink tea on the patio, chewed remnants littering the backyard beyond them. A sentence to describe the Rottweiler my sister-in-law brought into the house, a week before she left, a puppy bigger than the little boy he was supposedly meant for. 

In the screenplay, over a shared taco salad, the red shell split in half, the sour cream pushed to the side, I tell Mom what I’ve learned about my half-brother, his reluctance to take the DNA test, his fear of abandonment, his sadness. Then I segue into the question I scribbled in my journal weeks before, the question that inspired me to give her a book: “Do we have to be freed from a secret to really love and thus to live?” 

As a work of art, I am not the self who waits until she spies The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri on the floorboard of her mother’s car, then assumes a pedantic tone as she steps her mother through the questions like a reluctant undergrad. Still the truth is that Mom liked the book enough to want to pass onto a friend, and the story Mom tells, a time her father took his cane to her mother’s zinnias, is the best she can do. Just as I park the car outside Departures and turn back into a sculpture, smooth and hard, no greasy fingerprints disturbing my glossy serenity as I stride through the airport.

Text written and submitted by Karen Cantrell.

Many thanks to Karen for her collaboration, and I will post most responses as they come in. Any readers of this blog should feel free to respond to the instructions above, and write a response along the lines of Karen's and forward it directly to fieldresearchgroup[AT]yahoo.com, or center your QR reader app and utilize the QR code below.

HAPPY 2016!

Happy New Year!

Feliz año nuevo

Feliz Ano Novo

Bonne année

Buon Anno e tanti auguri

Kull 'aam wa-antum bikhayr

Aliheli'sdi Itse Udetiyvasadisv

Na MwakaMweru wi Gikeno

Feliĉan novan jaron

聖誕快樂 新年快樂 [圣诞快乐 新年快乐]

Bliain úr faoi shéan is faoi mise duit

Nava Varsh Ki Haardik Shubh Kaamnaayen

Ein gesundes neues Jahr

Mwaka Mwena

Pudhu Varusha Vaazhthukkal

Afe nhyia pa

Ufaaveri aa ahareh

Er sala we pîroz be

سال نو

С наступающим Новым Годом

šťastný nový rok

Manigong Bagong Taon sa inyong lahat

Feliç Any Nou

Yeni yılınızı kutlar, sağlık ve başarılar dileriz

نايا سال مبارک هو

Emnandi Nonyaka Omtsha Ozele Iintsikelelo

Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa

Chronia polla

Szczesliwego Nowego Roku

Kia pai te Tau Hou e heke mai nei

Shinnen omedeto goziamasu (クリスマスと新年おめでとうございます)

IHozhi Naghai

a manuia le Tausaga Fou

Paglaun Ukiutchiaq

Naya Saal Mubarak Ho

(International greetings courtesy of Omniglot and Jennifer's Polyglot Links; please note a few of the phrases may also contain Christmas greetings)

Poem: Emily Dickinson

Have I ever posted a poem by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), a poet I mention in the post prior to this one, and one of the best and most original to ever have been born on US soil? Of course I have, how could I not? I did so back in 2007, for Earth Day, and again in 2009, when blogging about "snow" poems. Dickinson's oeuvre contains poems about so many different topics, written in such an inventive, allusive manner, that you could (someone probably has) designate each day for several years to a given theme, and then find a poem of hers to illuminate--since illustrate doesn't begin to capture what her poetry does--it.

Among her several poems specifically mentioning poetry, there is this gem, that I recommend reading aloud to get its full savor.  It's meaning is self-explanatory, and anyone who loves reading (and anyone who, as some of my recent posts have shown, who's studying the neuroscientific effects of imaginative writing) knows what's the Belle of Amherst is saying deep in her or his heart: there really are few vehicles out there capable of carrying us away, as well as deep inside ourselves, as poems and other forms of literature can and often do.

XCIX: THERE IS NO FRIGATE LIKE A BOOK

THERE is no frigate like a book 
  To take us lands away, 
Nor any coursers like a page 
  Of prancing poetry. 
  
This traverse may the poorest take         5
  Without oppress of toll; 
How frugal is the chariot 
  That bears a human soul!

Copyright © Emily Dickinson, "There is no frigate like a book," from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, with an introduction by her niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1924, published by Bartleby.com, 2000.

On the Road to Vegetarianism 3 + Homemade Marinara Sauce

In 2010, I blogged twice (first in March and then again in May) about my adoption of a mostly vegetarian--vegetarianish is probably the correct term--diet. In those posts I described how I'd moved away from eating almost all meat except for the occasional seafood--and had also decided to forgo almost all processed foods with a few exceptions. I noted that I had not, however, become a vegan. Cutting out meat was a huge step; while I'd cut back on beef years before for a variety of reasons, until that January I regularly ate chicken, lamb, turkey, and, to a lesser extent, pork and duck. It was a rare meal that did not include meat of some sort.  Other changes included more baking, daily cooking, and meals based more on seasonal and local options. I started eating vegetables I had infrequently eaten (eggplant, cauliflower) or infrequently since childhood (turnips, beets), and devising all kinds of dishes that combined them, often drawn from South Asian and Mediterranean cuisines in particular.

In my initial post I remarked on my amazement at being to go a week without meat; in my second, I said that I had gone weeks without it. I have now passed the year and a half mark (August 15 is about a year and 8 months to be exact), and I am happy to say that I've been able to maintain doing without meat (and processed foods in general), both in Chicago and Jersey City, and during travels here and there, with only a few exceptions (holidays like Thanksgiving; a meal at the home of a poet friend in Los Angeles, where only hamburgers--and lettuce--were available; etc.).  I still don't miss meat, and I still have not gotten into tofu, seitan or meat-like substitutes, but I do like eggs, some dairy (mostly cheese), and fish and shellfish on occasion that have not decided to become a vegan.  Not going the vegan route has also meant less disruption for C, though he eats less meat than he once did, even when I'm halfway across the country.

From the beginning, my shift to vegetarianism included recognizing the ethical dimensions of doing so, as a range of philosophers, critics, food writers, and others have articulated over the centuries, but those initially were less crucial than my personal desire, for health and economic reasons, to make the shift.  Over the last year and a half, I've watched, as I used to with horror, the ongoing massive recalls of US meat products and produce, the increasing epidemic of obesity in this country and in rich and developing nations, and the exploding price of food in general, and feel that moving towards a vegetarian diet was the way to go.  Countless revelations, in print, film and video, about the horrors of industrial meat production in the US and the West have underlined my conviction. Yet I've striven to maintain my stance of not proselytizing for or pushing my shift on anyone else, though as I mentioned, several people close to me have moved more towards this way of eating. I've kept myself in check because I realize full well that traditions and cultures of meat-eating are deeply ingrained in this society--I once bought into them--and across the West, and all the appeals anyone makes to anything beyond sheer economics, or in specialized cases to spiritual and religious traditions, will have little impact on most people's eating habits.

I also realize that we live in a time where in the US at least, many of the least nutritional foods are cheaper than basic staples, because of the structure of government subsidies of various crops and processed foods, and it continues to be the case that those with the least resources can economize, to the extent possible, by eating fast and processed foods, rather than healthier options, including a diet mostly comprising of fruits and vegetables.  Such a diet also requires the added efforts of planning and cooking--with improvisation thrown in--which our society had for decades come to deprioritize, though the vogue over the last decade of food TV, foodieism and culinary education in general has reversed this to some extent. Alongside all the reality shows like Top Chef, Iron Chef, and the glut of Gordon Ramsey-related programming remystifying cooking, there have been more than enough shows guiding attentive viewers through simple, delicious meals.

I am glad I learned to cook as a child, having watched my mother and grandparents do so (my father could cook only the simplest meals, though he could barbecue anything) and having done so for most of my adulthood after college, but I have come across a large portion of people who never grew up learning how to cook and, even with the culinary vogue over the last decade, have not learned to do much beyond prepare already prepared meals. One thing that cooking vegetarian meals has done is to make me a more skillful cook in some ways, and a confident cook overall.  Knowing that I'll have to whip something up that tastes good without revolving around meat means that I've had to learn new ways of cooking,  combining types of foods, trying things I hadn't thought of, because I could always default to: meat + starch + vegetable or even just meat + vegetable + bread.  Over the years I can attest to having assimilated many recipes and techniques, by the likes of Julia Child, Martha Stewart, Jacques Pépin, Lidia Bastianich, Rachael Ray, Paul Dean, G. Garvin and others, and then there is my Lonely Planet of cooking, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, which has yet to fail me in any regard (it sits alongside cookbooks like The Joy of Cooking and by figures like Patti Labelle and institutions like Cupcake Café), but aside from a vegetarian cookbook Reggie H. provided, most vegetarian cookbooks I've seen have tended towards an older way of thinking about vegetarianism that leaves out a range of possibilities.  Thus learning new techniques and improvising have proved the way to go so far. And I hope to keep going forward along these lines.

None of this is new to some of you, I know. So please indulge me. I welcome any thoughts J's Theater readers have about vegetarianism and veganism, vegetarian and vegan diets, and anything else related to this topic.  I also have included a recipe for intrepid home cooks who've never made their own tomato sauce. I tried this last year, after we got a great harvest of tomatoes, and then again recently, and it was better the second time around. You can make your own marinara sauce at any time, though, using canned tomatoes, and it will taste better--and less sweet and salty--than almost any brand you buy in a jar.

HOMEMADE VEGETARIAN MARINARA SAUCE
Based on several online recipes, including author John Mariani's, and a bit of experimentation

1/2 cup olive oil
1 large white or yellow onion
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed or diced
2 Tbsp fresh or dried herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, etc.)
1/2 cup red wine
12 cups peeled and seeded tomatoes (or 2 (28 oz.) cans of crushed or chopped Italian-style tomatoes, with sauce)
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 1/2-2 cups white mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon of sugar (you can skip, but add if using canned tomatoes to counteract their acidity)
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onions and cook slowly, till they sweat. Do not burn them, as this will affect the taste of the sauce. When the onions are translucent and soft (if yellow, they'll be golden brown), add the garlic and dried or fresh herbs (fresh herbs retain their flavor if added later, but it's okay to add them at this point), carrots, celery (and any other vegetables, like yellow squash or zucchini) and cook for 5-7 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of red wine, to deglaze the pan, and let this mixture cook for 2 minutes. Add the peeled and seeded tomatoes or canned tomatoes and their juice, and the mushrooms, and stir to combine all the ingredients. [Again, for simple marinara, you can skip the mushrooms.] Bring to a simmer, and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally for 2 hours. As the sauce is cooking, add 1 tsp. of sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with freshly cooked whole wheat pasta!

[Note that if you are making simple marinara, you can start with onions and garlic alone, skip the rest of the vegetables and the red wine, keep or remove the onions and garlic before adding the tomatoes and sauce, and just cook the vegetable-less tomatoes for 20-25 minutes. This version goes well with linguine, spaghetti or any other pasta.]

How to Peel and Seed Tomatoes
First core all the tomatoes, and gently score their bottoms with a +. This will help to pull the skin the tomatoes. When you have done this with all the tomatoes, use a slotted spoon or laden to lower them into boiling water and let them cook for 15-30 seconds. (If you drop them in you could get boiling backsplash. Not good!) Do not overcook them. Add 3-4 tomatoes at a time. After they've boiled immediately transfer them to a bowl of icewater. Do with the next set until you have blanched all the tomatoes. You should be able to peel off the skins with ease. Next, using a strainer over a bowl, split the tomatoes apart with your fingers, and gently rub them against the inside of the strainer to remove as many of the seeds as you can. The juice will run into the bowl, and you can place the seeded tomato right into the bowl as well. After you've collected the seeds, dump them on a paper towl or bowl (you can save them if you want to plant tomatoes for next year!), and proceed until you have completely seeded all the tomatoes. You should have a bowl of tomato sauce and pulp, with no skin and no seeds when you're done.

Photos

Tomatoes from the backyard garden
Lightly scoring the tomatoes' bottoms
The tomatoes cored

Blanching the tomatoes, part 1 (a brief boil)

Blanching the tomatoes, part 2 (cooling in icewater)

Peeling the tomatoes

A peeled tomato

Gently seeding a tomato

Seeding a tomato and collecting its juice
The tomatoes after being peeled and seeded
Sprig of oregano from the backyard garden

Sprig of thyme from the backyard garden 
Diced vegetables (basically a mirepoix), before the tomato paste has been added

After the tomato sauce is added

The tomato sauce cooking Homemade sauce with homemade baked bread

Update + Recent Drawings

The steamrolling weeks continue, but there have been some highpoints. (I also want to acknowledge the passing of pioneers Lena Horne and Dorothy Height, two strong, smart, beautiful, visionary black women whose courage, determination and grace have made so very much possible for all who follow in their footsteps.)

On Wednesday, Nathalie Stephens/Nathanael, whom I'd seen read last Saturday at Las Manos Gallery's Uncalled-For Reading Series (photos coming!), with Kareem Khubchandani (a grad student at the university, working with the brilliant E. Patrick Johnson), and Trish Bendix, came to speak to my class about her remarkable recent book, Absence Where As: Claude Cahun and the Unopened Book (Nightboat Books, 2009), which was revelatory in so many ways. Then, right after class concluded, I went to M. Nourbese Philip's reading, which was sponsored by the university's Poetry and Poetics Working Group and the Humanities Center. She read/performed--quite extraordinarily, I testify--from her recent work, Zong! (as told to her by Setaey Adamu Boateng) (UPNE, 2008), which I believe the UniVerse of Poetry and Chicago Public Radio audiotaped, meaning that it will be available very soon, I hope. On Thursday afternoon, she participated in a conversation sponsored and attended by members (students, faculty) of the Poetry and Poetics Working Group and scholars from outside the university.  It was as Barbara Tucker sang: I got lifted.

Amidst everything else, I've been trying to funnel my artistic yearnings into something productive, which has meant a bit of sketching whenever I can. Below are some very recent drawings. A certain developer I know very well (Mr. C-thank you!) passed on a first generation iPad, so I've been trying that out too, though I haven't figured out if the iPhone drawing app I like, Sketchbook, is fully functional, especially with layers. I'll post some of those soon.  Miriam asked in a previous comment whether I completed these all at once, and I'd say that I usually finish the monochrome ones fairly quickly, but with the full-color ones I tend to get as much done as I can the first pass through, then I return to work with them a bit more. I also tried a few different styles this time through, as will be evident. The fastest drawing of this group is the one of Gerard Cadava (a colleague in history), at his father's talk. I was taking notes assiduously, so as soon as I found a lull of sorts, I sketched him, then returned to my note-taking. The base pen tool color was blue, so that's what I went with. The two black-and-white drawings are the first I've ever done in one pass, while standing (I was waiting in line at a restaurant, so I drew people standing right near me). And then there are the drawings of the artists: Cristina (I haven't shown this to her yet), Chris Ware, and Anders Nilsen. If I can get the latter two figures email addresses, I think I'll forward them directly.


Drawing from today

Drawing from today

Gerardo Cadava

Cristina Henríquez

Chris Ware (did you ever wonder what he looked like?)

Anders Nilsen

My Recent Webwhereabouts, or Twitter

It's been eons since I last posted. I do have some unfinished stubs to complete, but I've found--naturally enough--that since I mentioned Twitter some posts ago, that's become one of my mainstays for offering up my thoughts to the Net.

Twitter's 140-word limit doesn't encourage deep or exhaustive thinking or posting, but then again, it does seem to provoke Wit-tering, and it's a great way to direct people to links, sites and other tweets you find of interest. (Which is probably why so many corporations have jumped in its flatbed.)

It also, I must say, has proved to be a quick way to reach certain institutions, like the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. For every fawning or semi-informative Tweet they post, someone comes right back to let them know about service problems, the wind-tunnel quality of certain stations, and so on. And they do respond. Quickly. (On the other hand, an old-fashioned letter I sent to the director of the Incinerator Authority, my City Councilperson, and the not-yet-indicted mayor did spark very quick action in the neighborhood. So sometimes the old methods are as or even more effective. Email, I think, is a wash.)

Since I've been too lazy--though not idle; I have completed at least one project so far and have finished reading several books for a change--to post my Twitter feed (it's jstheater) address, here's some of what has appeared there if not here. Or, "Aspects of my recent life in 60 tweets."

1. http://tinyurl.com/nnhnxn http://tinyurl.com/mqyym5 One word: projection!9 minutes ago from web
2. now that MEN & women & children r being raped in the Congo will the world take notice?about 1 hour ago from web
3. Can I say SCOTUS Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor yet?about 1 hour ago from web
4. Reading Sontag's journals is like visiting France for the first; it is both similar 2 & more amazing than you imagined.about 1 hour ago from web
5. If only the new Lispector bio weren't as big as a boulder, I'd carry it w me everywhere.about 1 hour ago from web
6. Twitter's back, ttg! Can't do without folks' bursts of whatever comes 2 mind or fingertip...about 2 hours ago from web
7. Agua frescas @ Doma are still the bomb!about 21 hours ago from web
8. Do the Mets regret firing Willie Randolph yet?1:16 PM Aug 5th from web
9. Why won't someone pay me to go act a fool on behalf of single-payer universal health care?1:15 PM Aug 5th from web
10. Why are former Democratic presidents addressing humanitarian needs & crises while GOP ex-prezes just play golf?1:13 PM Aug 5th from web
11. Happy Barack Obama Day!1:44 PM Aug 4th from web
12. Why do I always expect books I want 2 be in the bookstore (cf new Lispector bio)?6:08 PM Aug 3rd from web
13. @PATHtweet Was just on 33rd-Jsq 604 / a huge sardine can was that car / riders cd barely get in the door / glad we didn't run out of air!6:04 PM Aug 3rd from web
14. @Blabbeando Not at all surprising. He's such a lowlife.5:59 PM Aug 3rd from web
15. King Lear is far stranger, more gory and more complex than I recall. I cd easily see an African filmic version.2:01 PM Aug 3rd from web
16. Having cut the backyard lawn this morning, I'll pick some more blackberries this evening. What to do with them, tho?1:58 PM Aug 3rd from web
17. this morning felt like September, but now it feels like August.4:15 PM Aug 2nd from web
18. @tayari I http://twurl.nl/fssqh3 This book is getting a LOT of play...why?4:25 PM Aug 1st from web
19. @Atrios And yet I still read it every day!1:18 PM Jul 31st from web
20. It's a steambath out here. Rain would be great.1:16 PM Jul 31st from web

21. Was so into what I was writing 2day I forgot what time it was. Back 2 the world...5:54 PM Jul 30th from web
22. Humid 2day but so sunny, so I love it.2:10 PM Jul 30th from web
23. @Blabbeando where is nn?2:05 PM Jul 30th from web
24. @zeenakoda yes works 2 jsq but not 2 nwk it's a mess @ jsq upstairs6:48 PM Jul 29th from web
25. @PATHtweet no jsq 2 nwk trains! of course conflicting info; loudspeaker says take jersey trans, conductor says buses @ jsq--????6:40 PM Jul 29th from web
26. New Jersey's news these days is very wild wild West or NYC circa 1980!1:30 PM Jul 29th from web
27. http://twurl.nl/kviati@tayari Horrendous! Bloomberg should be ousted for this act alone. BTW where's the churches' outcry?1:26 PM Jul 29th from web
28. @tayari mendi o has the perfect ending-the-chain-letter letter.6:06 PM Jul 28th from web
29. http://tinyurl.com/l59qog@r... a fine tribute1:32 PM Jul 28th from web
30. @tayari it's atrocious but not surprising. all my students have read her work & she's often a fave.1:29 PM Jul 28th from web
31. Sometimes I think 3GS = 3 good sentences b4 AT&T's network craps out.5:47 PM Jul 27th from web
32. @blackgriot It does @ the holiday inn Viking in St. Louis1:58 PM Jul 27th from web
33. I thought Merce Cunningham was immortal.1:57 PM Jul 27th from web
34. I had a mifi but gave it up. Why oh why did I ever do that?4:15 PM Jul 24th from web
35. @glenngreenwald It's disgraceful, really.2:37 PM Jul 24th from web
36. So very sorry to learn about E Lynn Harris's death!2:36 PM Jul 24th from web
37. Thinking about Sara Ahmed's ideas as a way to consider blackness and queerness2:35 PM Jul 24th from web
38. @AllenGallery all of em except Corzine Corey B & Randall P lol5:21 PM Jul 23rd from web
39. Go new jersey down & dirty run by crooked & the crazy!5:18 PM Jul 23rd from web
40. @PATHtweet 3rd car in my Hob-33rd St car has no AC, like a grill inside. Come on, PATH!9:44 AM Jul 23rd from web

41. Caught Soledad's BIA 2 last night; better than first installment but so much still left out. & yes we know bourgies exist!8:53 AM Jul 23rd from web
42. Watched Prez O last night, so-so salesman. It's the baseline that must be reformed.8:51 AM Jul 23rd from web
43. @PATHtweet On a new train, finally!5:25 PM Jul 22nd from web
44. First flight can canceled 2nd 2 hrs late lord just get me home to NJ!7:29 PM Jul 21st from web
45. Very sorry to hear about Frank McCourt's passing. He was a master storyteller.8:32 PM Jul 20th from web
46. @tayari You can do it!1:00 PM Jul 19th from web
47. http://twitpic.com/arxnp Happy birthday to Nelson Mandela!12:59 PM Jul 18th from web
48. It's so mild here in st. Louis; I thought it would be hotter11:27 AM Jul 18th from web
49. my plane is snowing inside but I'm not worried. :-|5:39 PM Jul 17th from web
50. @glenngreenwald We should demand that it happen before the recess2:56 PM Jul 17th from web
51. @PATHtweet thanks it always feels like 20-25 and the trip to Newark is glacial but NJ Transit train 2 EWR did arrive!2:34 PM Jul 17th from web
52. @PATHtweet @ Newark Penn Some escalators, monitors, track board broken, station like an obstacle course2:27 PM Jul 17th from web
53. @PATHtweet Waiting as always long time for Newark train @ JSQ - why PATH???1:57 PM Jul 17th from web
54. @PATHtweet Just saw 1 of the new trains natch it was No Passengers for Newark direction 1:56 PM Jul 17th from web
55. Great work by Senate to attach Shepard Hates Crimes bill to DOD bill - will Obama sign?1:54 PM Jul 17th from web
56. @TLDEF So glad about the verdict!1:52 PM Jul 17th from web
57. @Blabbeando Buchanan was stone kkkold kleagle tonight. Rachel was good but enough is enough!11:17 PM Jul 16th from web
58. Wendy Williams's tv show is all about the audience howudoin?11:15 PM Jul 16th from web
59. Don't the chirren run "child please" every five seconds? OchoCinco...hmm....7:30 PM Jul 16th from web
60. @charlesfstephen best wishes with the writers' group!5:04 PM Jul 16th from web

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Following

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Commencement Day + Life Thus Far + Photos

Today is Commencement Day at the university, so I can now say to all of the students, mine and others', undergraduate and graduate, CONGRATULATIONS! I won't enumerate all the wonderful students I've had the opportunity to work with over the last few years who've finished up this June, but they've been terrific, and I wish them all the very best, in full confidence that they will all make their distinctive marks upon the world.

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The end of the school year means my return home, and my unshakeable belief, despite years of contrary evidence, that I'll finally have some (more) time to devote to my creative work. This week, however, has proved that life always has its own plans for us, and this is especially the case when you own a home (or condo, or any other costly piece of real estate for which you're responsible for the upkeep). As I've noted on here before, a great deal--perhaps half--of my time spent at home in New Jersey has coincided with the presence of contractors. This has included the initial renovators and subsequent repairers--the painters, one of whom moved to Hollywood to direct films, another of whom coughed so badly that I thought his lungs would fly out of his mouth as he hovered on a ladder high above the backyard; the electricians, a gaggle that included one who set off sparks as he was installing a light and wondered why I looked ready to call the fire department; the plumbers; the succession of roofers, one of whom went mad and another of whom had the brilliant idea of covering our then-unlined chimney in chicken wire and stucco (we passed on that); a porch builder who promptly vanished from the tri-state area after some of the wood cracked within a week of his installing it; the doormaker-carpenter, the only sane and economic of all the doormaker-carpenters we've dealt with, who'd gone to MIT and produced work worthy of a prize; innumerable hucksters whose mercurial behavior made us wonder how they managed to stay in business at all; and so on--and others unforeseen, like the representatives from the private water contracting company our municipal water company, now privatized, employs. These skillful people not only cracked a 100-year-old water pipe once while deinstalling our water meter, but recracked it while putting it back in! And so now this pipe, which was dripping, is now seeping water, which a series of towels are sopping up. Every day this week, the water company contractor has assured me--promised me--he will show up "after 8 am," though that has meant 11:30 or not at all, if he "forgets." So today, after both C and I called first thing in the morning, I waited, he showed up, we chatted about the state of the pipe, he denounced Jersey City's placement of trees on the sidewalk and galvanized lead, we inspected the curb and learned that 100 years ago, the developers had thought through infrastructure placement quite well, and so now rather than shutting off the entire neighborhood's water supply, they may be able to target their efforts and fix this pipe (replacing it would be the best option). I am sincerely hoping they complete this sooner rather than later (and that, though I had to broach the subject, no lawyers have to get involved), since in adulthood no season ever feels more fleeting than the summer.

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When we were packing up things in Chicago, C asked if we could spend a little time having lunch at the nearby beach. For all of my time in that city I've always lived in walking distance of one and, as past photos on here will attest, I've walked and snapped shots of them. My favorite time to visit them is when a heavy fog is blanketing both them and the Lake. We went and sat on a (not so comfortable but convenient) bench on the concrete walkway and observed people lying out on the sand, walking their dogs, dipping into the water, and basically enjoying a break from the drear of weeks of cold mornings and rain, and this got me thinking about how this essential feature of Chicago life is almost never portrayed on film or TV. When movies and TV shows depict contemporary Chicago, we see the skyscrapers, the immense suburban homes and the bungalows, the El, sometimes the (remaining) projects, some of the city's unforgettable cultural and architectural highlights (the Art Institute, Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, etc.), the baseball stadia (especially Wrigley Field), various restaurants (i.e., anything having to do with food), and the Lake.

But interestingly enough, rarely do they show the city's beaches that line the Lake for miles, from Rogers Park (Howard and Jarvis Parks) all the way south to the Indiana border (Rainbow Park and Beach). As a result, I imagine that many people, like C., are probably unaware that Chicago, like Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, San Diego, and Miami, just to name some of the more obvious US examples, has pleasant, sandy beaches, real beaches, at its doorstep. (In noting this I'm not suggesting that Lake Michigan is the same as either the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, or that the sand or beach quality is the same.) Yet I have not met a single native Chicagoan, or anyone who's lived in the city for a while, even those resident far inland to the south, north, or west, who doesn't know about the city's beaches. I also didn't know how extensive or pretty the the beaches were for a good while.

This leads me to ask J's Theater readers, when you think of the cities and towns where they you or have lived, what are some notable aspects or features that everyone who's a native or a longtime resident knows about, but that are never depicted in films or TV shows? What are some of those major hidden elements of the city that might transform how people think about it? Please post a few of these in the comments, and append your name (or a name) in case screenwriters happen upon this blog page (not likely, but you never know).

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And to conclude today's entry, a few photos from the last few months.


A late-night snapshot of artist in his studio in Rogers Park

Morse Avenue El (towards Lake Michigan)

Harris Sockel, the literature honors student I supervised, holding the students' cake at the lit honors celebration (part of his thesis topic is highlighted in the lighter frosting to the left: J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. (He also was co-winner of the Best Senior Literature Major award: congratulations, Harris!)

Marvelous poet and scholar Evie Shockley, reading at the university

Election day a few months ago, Jersey City

The ubiquitous signs (in NYC and Chicago)

One of my favorite NYC statues, Gertrude Stein, in Bryant Park

Gray's Papaya in the West Village, recession special (and they were already a great deal)