Who writes Nash?

Here's a great pic of Neil Nash from a couple weeks ago when we had lunch together. But lay off, Mayor Bloomby: he did not take the tag above his head! Although I love the fact that Neil's kids, as Neil pointed out, would not believe this. Looming above his head ever so slightly is the new Cooper Union building, which is almost finished, and which I'll post about at a later date, I promise.

Ah, Wilderness!

Photographer Bob Arihood has a blog called Neither More Nor Less that I started reading a while ago for his great updates about local protests and various goings on in the East Village. He catches an awful lot of action on his camera (some of it quite louche, I warn ya.). Case in point: check out his post of a red-tailed hawk catching a rat in Tomkins Square Park! And this one, which shows how a pair of mating squirrels narrowly escapes the same fate. My goodness!

Documentary showdown

I saw two documentaries this past weekend. The first was MAN ON WIRE, which I realize has been a big hit with everyone, but sadly I didn't really dig it. I've just had it with Phillip Petit, I think. Yes, it's amazing that he crossed the towers and anywhere else he threw a wire. But lord. What a narcissist! And I say this sadly, because before this, I always had a fondness for him. The Chelsea apartment he lived in when he crossed the Towers was on 22nd Street, where I grew up. I remember him and his crew stretching out the wires on the street on what must have been the day before the event, and I remember seeing the noticeable carrot-topped (i.e., fathead) Petit on the block and walking around the neighborhood.



There was just something about watching Petit tell the story with such blind gusto, as if he'd learned nothing, while his friends told it with such thought and feeling, that struck me as unnerving. And the film itself seemed thin, as there were a bunch of unanswered questions I had about things like how Petit supported himself while he obsessed over his projects and what exactly happened with his friendship fall outs.



On the other hand, DEEP WATER was a revelation! I can't say much about it, because one of the pleasures of watching it is not knowing what happens. But it's only fair to say it's not a gentle ride...so beware.

Here's a non-spoiler-y synopsis from Netflix: In 1969, Donald Crowhurst, a former engineer whose bravado outweighed his sailing expertise, entered a London Times-sponsored yacht race around the world. This thrilling documentary incorporates actual footage of the race to depict the harrowing conditions Crowhurst faced. Refusing to turn back even as his homemade boat took on water, he depended on his ingenuity to survive the dangers of the sea and the threat of insanity.

It was weird how DEEP WATER seemed to be exactly the opposite of what I meant when I was complaining about the paucity of this or that in MAN ON WIRE. DEEP WATER is an immensely satisfying, character-rich, dizzyingly fascinating and gripping tale that's very well told. But I can easily see how DEEP WATER wouldn't be every one's cup of tea...O.K., that's TWO warnings! Watch at your own risk! And if you do watch it, make sure to check out the cool extras on the DVD.

Stripes Friday

Hey, hey, it's stripe-ay Friday. Actually, it's Stripes/Plaid day, but my stripes and plaids weren't getting along, so I had to separate them. Tut tut tut. I really must thank you, Leya: you are so cool to have inspired this go 'round of kinetic pic snapping and color noticing 'round the so-called blogosphere. I've had tons of fun making these silly arrangements on my desk and even more fun clicking around and seeing what others snapped. Hooray for color! Hooray for stripes! May the Lawd bless cotton-striped socks, stockings, and dishtowels! And the cat scrap of fabric is exactly that, an amazing scrap I'm not sure I'll ever do anything with other than marvel over it. Have a great weekend, everyone. Until the next color challenge, I salute you!

Pink Thursday

Part four of color week: PINK. Ye gods. I think it's fairly obvious to those who know me that I ain't no girlie girl. And I certainly did have to poke around in quite a few cigar boxes and old toffee tins to come up with the items pictured above. And I must say, I could easily blame the whole mess of it on the existence of this kid (every pink button, ribbon, zipper, and thread I plan to festoon on none other than her and no one else!) — but then, that wouldn't exactly explain all the tarty lip products and the blusher. Whatever. This is pink day. Enjoy!

Yellow Wednesday

Today's color is yellow, and I was happy to realize that I have an awful lot of sunny stuff on my desk, too. I especially love the speakers P found on the street and rehabilitated. And the box of tea-tree oil toothpicks couldn't be closer to my heart, as without them, I could never have bid adieu to my old smokey smoke cigarettes. Yes, this arrangement is very sunny, indeed.

Purple Tuesday

For Color Week, part two: Here we have some lavender soap and some lay-it-on heavy cream with an old pair of violet-handled scissors, along with a self-explanatory vintage book and a local take-out menu from one of my favorite joints. It's all just so damn purpley. If only I had some grapes.

Blue Monday

I'm joining in a fun blog-gy thing this week, created by Leya over at Curious Bird. It's a week of color, a sort of color challenge...what? Well, each day this week, I'll post one to three photos of the colors Leya chose for this particular week of color. Today is BLUE! And this is my blue photo. It's funny, I intended to venture outside and take pictures of things like the ubiquitous blue scaffolding that's everywhere in my neighborhood these days, but it ended up being more fun to focus on a few things within arm's length on my desk.

Another great gift

I had to post about this stroke of gift-giving brilliance on P.'s part. I love my cats but strangely, I do not love cleaning out their cat box. We even use the new-ish cat litter that allows for even longer stretches between the toilsome task, and P. and I take turns we track with a Google calendar but alas! when the time comes around I still beg, plead, and plot to get out of doing it. This works probably less than one percent of the time. The rest of the time, I wear a bandanna over half my face for obvious reasons.

Well, now I have a new bandanna, and it lets me choose whether to be a LION or a TIGER. (It's one bandanna with a design on each half.)



And no, P. won't tell me where he got it, only that he bought it "from the woman who made it."



ROWRRR!

Goodbye, trees

Isn't it so sad and bittersweet to see all the Xmas trees in the garbage, in the gutter, with bags on their heads, etc., these days? Picture courtesy of Last Night's Garbage.

What a perfect answer it would be, then, don't you think, if the city were overrun by small hungry elephants to perform the clean up? Yes, the NYC sanitation department has a whole tree-recycling program already in place, and that's great, but come on...little elephants.

Perfect present

Check out my sister Erica's present to me for Xmas...a beeyootifully done quilt-y pillow with my first initial on one side, and my other initial on the other. Yes, she made it herself, patching all those colors together so well, I am totally impressed. Nice job, sis!



I love it.



So does Beatrix.

1 to 100

If you haven't seen this already, lookee lookee. "By Lenka Clayton and James Price as part of www.portablefilmfestival.com. People in Order's Age is part of a series of short films that assembles the people of Britain in a given order."

Uh...not that I'm fixated on anything that reminds me about getting OLDER these days. Oh, no, not I!

Enjoy!